Silver Wind Cruise to London Iceland 31/7- 3/8

Wednesday, July 17, 2019
Reykjavík, Iceland
We boarded the Silver Wind early afternoon for a 7pm departure.   Most of the cabins are the same. Balcony, good sitting area and bedroom area. Unfortunately the shower was over the bath which suited Leith as she likes a bath, I could mange but one of our fellow passengers who paralysed down on side had to use a shower in the Gym. 
I understand that the ship is going to be refurbished soon  so perhaps this will change.

Everything is free on board like wine at meals and wine and spirits in your cabin fridge. There is one speciality restaurant (french) which charges an extra US$60pp. This is fine providing you are not a teetotaller. 
Next day we had a few hours  in Isafjotdur ( which is on the west side of the north coast) which is as you can imagine at the end of a fjord.
Owen had organised a trip out to a nearby island, where we saw our first puffins. The group went for a walk along the foreshore and were given a short stick. This was to beat off the terns as they walked past their rookeries. We took it easy and admired the puffins/
Dinner was at the French Restaurant and worth the extra money.
The following day was a few hours at Akureyri (in the middle of the north coast)
We had stayed here on the bus trip a few days earlier.  
Today was a lovely day so we got a taxi up to the Botanical Gardens. A slight delay since I asked the taxi to come to the Silver Sea ship not knowing that there were two Silver Sea ships in port and of course he had gone to the wrong one. Actually there were three ships in port the other was the Cunard Queen Victoria.
Botanical Gardens excellent  slow walk back to the ship, a good deal further than we thought since our ship was the furthest away. At one stage we could not see the ship due to buildings but then the Captain and his officers walked past so we knew we were going in the right direction.
Our last port of call in Iceland was Seydisfjordur (also at the end of a fjord - east side of north coast) very small but has a weekly ferry service to Denmark in the summer months.
We could walk into the main street from the boat, very picturesque church with a lovely decorated lane way leading to it.
A day at sea before a few hours in Torshavn the capital of the Faroe Islands
To keep us occupied during our day at sea the ship screened "Whiskey Galore" since we would be in Scotland in a few days time.
Torshavn was cold (12c) and not actually raining but quite foggy, short walk around the old part of town (turf roofed houses) then a drive out to Kirkjubøur. where we saw a ruined church plus the oldest church St Olav's which is still in use.
Afternoon tea in a farm house.
Next day was our entry to the UK Lewick capital of the Shetlands. As it was our first port of call we needed to get our passports checked. Owen organised a bus tour which took us around the main island
Our final port before Edinburgh was Kirkwall the main town of the Orkney Islands.  Here we did ship bus tour of the ancient sites.which included the Skara Brae and the Ring of Brodgar. I didn't realise that these Islands were settled over 5000 years ago.
The ship had two nights in the Port of Leith so that the passengers had the chance of going to the Royal Tattoo. We had lovely day and night, the afternoon was spent driving around the city which was full of people since the Fringe activities were also in full swing.
Evening was clear with quite a wind which didn't affect the performances since the area was surrounded by grandstands.
A great night
Our final day at sea before arriving in London was marred by Force 9 gale and 4 metre waves. We did manage to see a wind farm and the Maunsell forts through the spray. The upshot was that we never made it under the Tower Bridge to the Millennium Docks. Our ship was forced to dock at Tilbury  an hours drive from the Tower Bridge, much to everyone's disappointment.
We had five days in London staying at the Lansdowne Club in Mayfair before flying back to Australia.
As I don't have any photos of our activities all I will say is that we caught up with old friends not too mention visited the Tate Britain and Royal Academy and even saw a  feature length documentary about Luchino Pavarotti which happened to being previewed in the Curzon Cinema nearby.
We had a good flight back as usual I caught up with the films 'Red Joan' which I found mediocre  and ' Erin Brockovich which I could not remember seeing before - excellent
Another great SJR trip Thank you Owen and Takako

Comments

Trish
2019-09-10

Great trip news Leith & David , we too have had a great trip , flying home tonight . All gone well including experience of a typhoon in Tokyo.

2025-02-09

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