Day 17 - Reykjavik, Iceland

Hey, y'all! Sunny and chilly here in Iceland, as expected. We did the Hop on/Hop off bus again, which is a good, inexpensive way to see a city. Most of the apartment buildings are ‘60ish vintage (translation: not very exciting), with a few modern office buildings thrown in here and there. We passed their airport, which is a rather busy one, with lots of small aircraft doing training flights, which is always interesting to us as pilots. The large church downtown is undergoing restoration of some sort, even though it isn’t old, so we didn’t get to go inside. This is not a port to be revisited, in our humble opinion, given that there are so many other places we want to see!

Blogger Evil Crew Judy...how nice to get a comment from you! Yes, I do remember you and hate that our paths will almost cross in NYC. We will definitely be gone by the time y’all come onboard that day, since we have a noon flight home. We’ll leave the Eurodam in your capable hands to explore and enjoy. We have three consecutive sea days beginning tomorrow, so I’ll be posting some ship pictures that you can check out...and leave me a comment. BTW, take the digital workshop and bring a laptop with Windows Live Photo Gallery uploaded onto it (it is a free program from Microsoft). The class uses that program and you can learn and upload pictures for FREE using their satellite. Check out my cruise photos at www.ivylog2.spaces.live.com and Dick’s at www.ivylog1.spaces.live.com . We try to upload pictures every day, now that we sorta know what we are doing! Leave me a comment, OK? All of you!!!

Lots of rumors flying about the ship on the missing Mr. X from yesterday. He is apparently traveling with his sister, so there isn’t a Mrs. X who will be making him walk the plank for being found in a room not his own, and not alone! And yes, Brian, Dad would be an ‘ex’ if he had been that now infamous Mr. X...and he would be a high tenor and useless, guaranteed, bless his heart! But he would never be in that situation just on morals alone. He was raised right. And it was certainly a humanitarian gesture to turn around and go looking for this inconsiderate clod, just in case he had fallen overboard...then the family couldn't say that the Eurodam captain didn't at least TRY to find him in the water!

It is so good reading all your comments. I do miss reading my daily fave blogs, so please keep telling me what is going with each of you. Later, y’all! Life is good...go cruising!!!

Day 16 - At sea - Check out a Stateroom

Little did I know when I set up this picture before we left home how true this message would be!
It was definitely NOT a good morning beginning early today on our sea day, but all is now well. We were awakened at 6:15 by the captain announcing that he was looking for Mr. X in room xxxx. This was followed by yet another announcement 15 minutes later, and yet another 30 minutes later, stating that we had turned around and the crew was conducting a room-by-room search. Apparently this idiot went missing at 4a, and has now just been found. The ship is in the process of doing another 180 to get us in the correct direction toward Iceland, recalculating time/distance/speed to meet our docking time. Certainly not a good way to begin any day, but this will hopefully be a good drill for crew training. At least there is better visibility now than we had yesterday, but it would be doubtful anyone could survive long in this cold water, had he actually fallen overboard. Mrs. X may make Mr. X wish he had gone swimming! Bugger...he’s got lots of ‘splaining to do!!!
Hello from the Crow’s Nest...we’ve been awake long enough now that it is time to go eat breakfast and begin to enjoy our sea day. Sarge, the magician was definitely a funny guy, and I’ll bet MagicMatt can learn his rope tricks, if he doesn’t know how to already. He popped the rope and tied knots in it; cut it, tied it back together, moved the knot, and wound up with a whole rope again. We entertain easily, you can see. Tonight is formal night (yippy skippy); there is a variety show, with each of the previous entertainers doing a mini-routine. In the meantime, we’ll be reading, eating, going to digital class, and did I mention reading? Hope everyone has a fun day. Y’all leave me a comment and tell me what’s going on...I love hearing from you, even you lurkers. Come on, leave me a comment.......it’s easy.....! By the way, this does look like our stateroom, however ours is actually reversed. Nice, huh?

Day 15 - Torshavn, Faroe Islands, DK

Situated roughly halfway between Scotland and Iceland in the Northeast Atlantic, the Faroe Islands are an archipelago of 18 mountainous islands, with a population of just over 47,000. The language of the Islands, Faroese, is a west Nordic language, which derives form the language of the Norsemen who settled the islands 1,200 years ago. Their economy is overwhelmingly dependent on the fishing and aqua-culture industries.

Hello! Our day began with sun on the sea for a short while, but overcast skies greeted us as we docked at noon here in Thorshavn, then the fog moved in. Big time. A local ferry boat was leaving port when we arrived, so of course that captain and our captain had to say ‘howdy’ to each other...with their massive horns! This was no small ferry, as it is a long way between islands/countries out here, with the North Sea being on the E side of this island group, and the big Atlantic on the other side. Ferries need to be large enough to accommodate vehicles, as well as have cabins for overnight sleeping. We sailed 18 hours from Bergen to get here, passing many North Sea oil platforms enroute, so that gives you an idea of how much distance we’ve covered!

The fog hardly lifted after lunch, but this was our only chance to go ashore and have a look, so we did. We snapped a few pics, then it was back to the ship, grab our books, and head to the Crow’s Nest for some serious reading. Tonight’s entertainer is Jeff Moche, billed as a ‘comedy magician.’ We’ll see if he can entertain us as well as Sarge Charlie does. Tomorrow is a sea day. Life is good, but we miss our familyand friends!

Day 14 - Bergen, Norway

Hello from Bergen...and a very happy birthday today to JT! We’ll see if he reads the blog and maybe leaves a comment:-)
We are again docked within walking distance of town, so that is what we did after breakfast, coming upon a cute tram that did a 50 minute tour up the hillside, complete with a photo op at the top. Some of the old houses alongside the pier look as if they are holding each other up, but they have been doing this for a number of years and are not likely to fall down just yet. There was an unfortunate fire in one old building on the square that happened during the course of our tram ride. We were greeted with fire trucks watering down the top floor when we arrived back at the pier. Pics will be posted later on at www.ivylog2.spaces.live.com if you want to see them. We enjoyed our walkabout. Jeff said Bergen is a neat city, and he was correct on that. Bergen is worth seeing.
Haley asked if we liked Scandinavia, and is it worth visiting. The answer is yes...it is worth visiting. It is a beautiful area for both months of summer! It is incredibly expensive, especially now with our dollar worth half of what it was two-three years ago. Russia won’t see us ever again, and probably none of the other Baltic countries either...with the exception of CPH because of Jeff/Bjarne, of course! Not because we didn’t like the area, but because there are several more places on our ‘bucket list’ that we want to visit before we would consider a return trip here. Traveling by cruise ship is definitely a PLUS for this location.
Bee, we have new tablemates of course, and this one couple from Las Vegas both have iPhones and love them! Sorry to hear you still haven’t been able to get one...do you have one ordered?
We move our clocks back an hour tonight as we begin cruising toward the west. Our next port is another part of Denmark (Faroe Island), followed by a sea day and a definite westerly heading toward home. There is still lots of adventure ahead of us, onboard and off ship in the coming days. I’m happy to read the comments that y’all are enjoying the cruise along with us. Please let me know what you think! These are 'canned' photos...I think you'll like mine better.......Dick and I are in class playing right now!!!!!!!

Day 13 - Stavanger, Norway

We got off the ship, which is docked downtown, and walked about...cute town, but we don't need to come back here. We stayed up late last night listening to the HAL Cats, so a nap felt pretty good. Will have a few pics to upload later on tonight. Leave me a comment!!! Tomorrow is Bergen, which Jeff recommends...........Bee, have fun in Rome, but behave:-)

Day 12 - Oslo

Pretty downtown Oslo... Vigeland Sculpture Park........
Oslo boasts lots of museums......

Hi as we leave Oslo...

First of all, I want to say THANKS to Jeff and Bjarne for being super hosts in CPE yesterday! Jeff picked us up from the ship in their VW Lupo, then we headed N to pick up Bjarne from the school where he teaches and promptly headed to Vejby (no, they do NOT pronounce it ‘veg be,’ but that is how it looks to us!) where we inspected a few changes they’ve made to the summer house, took several photos (check out the ivlog2 blog) and then traveled to Gilleleje for a nice seafood lunch by water (there is a pattern here folks!). Our travels then continued south along the coast to view Kronborg Castle, Shakespear’s setting for "Hamlet," in Helsingor and a stop at a lovely beach. This is apparently the same route that Brian took on his bike from the summer house back to CPH last summer. Whew, that was a lot of peddling!

Today, we got on an Oslo Vision hop on/hop off bus that took us on a tour of the city for a good overview. After lunch, we got back on the bus and got off at Vigeland Sculpture Park where we saw all the beautiful sculptures before hopping back on the bus for a stop at the Norsk Sjofartmuseum, which is the Norwejian Maritime Museum.

We enjoyed a walk from City Hall back to the ship...and plan to upload today’s pics at the workshop tonight. Check them out if you want to at http://www.ivylog2.spaces.live.com/ later on tonight...or whenever! The photo albums will be continually changing as we learn and do more in class. And Dick’s photos can be reached using the same address, only use a "1" in place of the "2". Simple.

Miss Bee, I am happy to hear of the wedding on the 23rd! I’ll definitely lift a toast to Lala and Aero on that date!!! Sure hope he is feeling better. Life is GOOD!

Day 11 - Copenhagen for the day!

We are only back in Copenhagen from 7 till 5p today, so Jeff picked us up this morning...we then picked up Bjarne at his school, and then headed up to their summer home in Vejby. We then went to a fishing village N of there for lunch, followed by a drive south along the coastline. It was soooo good spending time with them...we hated to say goodbye, but we had to...our ship sailed at 5, so we had to be back onboard, go to the safety drill...then grab a glass of wine to toast leaving a beaufiful city and family behind. Now begins an exciting 15 day cruise. What will happen next???

Docking aid...or for fish watching???

Come along for the next adventure. Hugs from Copenhagen! Thanks Jeff and Bjarne for a great day!!!