Today, the first of two sea days on our way towards our final port, Lerwick, in the Shetland Isles, the ship acquired a hitchhiker. The Brown Booby above landed on the deck below our balcony in some quite rough weather, and seemed to be a little worst for wear. More curious, however, is how it came to be where it ..read more

Today, we arrived at our final Icelandic port, the capital city of Iceland, Reykjarvik. After a bit of a lie-in and a leisurely breakfast, we headed for the gangway on Deck 5 and went ashore. The port is about a 10-minute coach drive from the town centre, and there was a free shuttle bus at our disposal. We decided, however ..read more

Today we arrived at our second Icelandic port, Isafjordur. The ship was supposed to tie up alongside the quay, but due to some issue with ongoing dredging operations – as reported by the Captain the night before – we had to drop anchor in the bay and be shipped ashore by tender boat. The captain did point out that he ..read more

Today, we arrived at our first Icelandic port-of-call, Akureyri. We have been here before, on ‘Voyager’ in 2015 (on the ‘Eclipse’ cruise). On our previous visit, we opted for a simple, short, local walk. Today, we were booked on an excursion to see Godafoss Waterfall. It’s a 45-minute coach journey there, and the same again to come back, with roughly ..read more

Today we arrived at Honningsvag. We have been here before, but on previous visits we’ve always arrived in the dark and left in the dark. This time around, however, it was most definitely daytime for the whole of our visit, and the weather has remained clear, warm and sunny, against everyone’s expectations (and nobody is complaining…). We had an early ..read more

Today we arrived in Tromso, to the sound of tap tap tapping. The crew were doing some necessary maintenance work on the balconies down our side of the ship (starboard), which was not entirely unexpected, as we’d received a letter advising us that the work would be taking place. It’s been a bit cooler, and I’ve been back in long ..read more

Today, we dropped anchor off the Lofoten Islands, in Norway. It brought back memories of running aground in the Marco Polo and the shenanigans that followed. Today, from 8am, tender boats were ferrying passengers ashore, although by time we were ready to go ashore (about 10.45am), armed with fleeces, waterproofs, bananas and Maps.Me, there was only the two of us ..read more

Today we were back at sea and my painting classes resumed. We were running a little late when we turned up at The Grill for lunch (it was almost 12.40pm). As a result, we found ourselves joining a very long queue to get in. It looked like we might be there some time, and we even contemplated the possibility of ..read more

Today, we arrived in Trondheim, our second port-of-call, so that would be another ‘day off’ and a lie-in; we were up at 9am, in time to enjoy a leisurely breakfast (breakfast ends at 10am). Once again, it was hot outside, not at all what we’d expected. There wasn’t much of a view from the balcony, mostly due to there being ..read more

There’s not a great deal to report today. It is our second day at sea, which means more painting classes (the second class is a tonal study). I’m pleased to say that things were slightly less manic, although there were about a dozen folks waiting for us when we went down to the Amalfi, making the task of setting-up a bit awkward. Everyone wants to help, which is nice, but I must admit I prefer setting things up when there aren’t people already sitting at the tables. Once again, the sea has been calm and the weather sunny and warm – not at all what we had expected, but very welcome. Tonight was ..read more