The Adventures of A & D

We then had a coffee to warm up at a local cafe.

Next, we went for a stroll and came across the Wee Whisky Shop. Well of course we had to stop in and Darren found something to take back with him!

Here is the fountain in the main square.

We then headed back to the ship for a restful afternoon where we hit the Nordic Spa again (it sure has been lovely having that on the ship!). Then we went up to the Explorer's Lounge for our last sail out of a port. :(. Of course we had to have Scotch! We had very good whiskey sours made with Glenlivet.

We got to see our ship do a 180 to get turned around and a sail past Edinburgh. Sea day tomorrow! I hope the North Sea treats us better than the Norwegian Sea!

Thursday, August 7, 2025

The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow!

We arrived in Kirkwall, Orkney and it was sunny! We were tendered again which meant a lot of extra coordination. We got geared up for our first tour and tendered to the town. We went through the countryside and ended up in Stromness, a lovely little town. We had a nice little walk and Darren got a treat at Argo's bakery.

And of course since I'm a teacher I had to make a video to teach grade 5s!

We then went to the Ring of Brodgar standing stones. It was pretty impressive. Then it was back to the ship for a quick lunch and out again for another excursion. We were able to walk out to the pier and got a picture of our ship anchored in the harbour.

This one started at the Ring of Brodgar so we got to see it again.

Then we went to the Stones of Stenness. And no, Darren and I are not time travellers! We touched the stones (yes we ignored my sister's warning to stay clear!) and nothing happened.

We then went back to Kirkwall and got to go to St. Magnus Cathedral. It was pretty amazing. The red and yellow brick was very unique.

We then had time to explore the town and we went to the local cafe, that all the locals were lined up for. The Daily Scoop was very good. Darren had a latte and I had a scoop of banoffee pie ice cream. It was very good!

Then it was back to the ship on the last tender of the day...it was eventful! But we made it back in time for happy hour!

Wednesday, August 6, 2025

Not The Warmest Welcome

Ahh Scotland, land of my kin, also with weather that will chill you to the bone and winds that will try and kill you! We had an extremely bumpy day yesterday and it only got worse as we got closer to the Shetland Islands. At last we heard from our Captain, we were at a 9 on the Beaufort Scale. That's high and it did get worse after he said that. We survived and we actually did not get too nauseous. We heard last night that our morning excursion was cancelled. We were supposed to head to an adjacent island for a nature walk. So we slept in and had breakfast and then cleared passport control on the ship. We had a quick dip in the hot pools and then settled in at the Explorer's lounge to enjoy the view. The weather changed frequently; sunny, foggy, rainy, but always windy.

We were anchored in port so we had to tender to get into Lewrick. We went on a short bus tour around the island and saw some Shetland ponys.

In the evening we took in another of Michael Kushner's lectures. This one on U-Boats and the battle of the Atlantic. We had dinner at the Chef's Table again, this time the tasting menu was Xiang.

Tuesday, August 5, 2025

The Rough Norwegian Sea

It was a bumpy day my friends. It started out rocky and got really bad as we got closer to Scotland. I got up and worked out and then went to the Nordic Spa. Then we had a relaxing day (minus the bumps) around the boat. We found a great place to curl up in the library with a bkanket! One of the waiters diwn there is super friendly and when we hadn't been to that bar in a while he said he was wndering where we were. The service on this Viking Cruise has been exceptional. Every staff member we encounter is amazing and many remember our names. Here is a quick photo and a couple videos we took from inside our stateroom (they lock all the balconies when its this bad).

Monday, August 4, 2025

Sea Day Number 2

Today we sailed the Norweigan Sea. It started out very calm bu got bumpier as the day went on. The fog started rolling in just after lunch. We started the day with breakfast at the restaurant for something different. We enjoyed the quiet atmosphere as compared to the buffet. Then we took in a lecture from Michael Kushner about Alan Turing. It was very interesting.

Then it was time to hit the gym to burn off some of these calories. We had a quick lunch at the buffet and then found a quiet spot in the Winter Garden to read and relax. They have tea time at the Winter Garden each day and we have been too busy to enjoy it so far. We do like our tea time on this side of the world.

We then went to the Nordic Spa to rest in the hot tub. After that it was time for dinner. The days do go by fast here! We had reservations at the Chef's Table. The serve tasting menus that change every 3 days. Tonight was Calfornian inspired. It was very tasty.

We are obviously in for rough seas as there are vomit bags placed are over the ship! We had a good laugh at this! Hopefully we won't need them.

Sunday, August 3, 2025

71 Degrees

We are 71 degrees north. To give perspective, Canada's northern most city is Iqaluit and it sits at 63 degrees north. We arrived in Honningsvag, which is a small town. The weather was definitly colder than Tromso and it was time to pull out the layers.

We didn't have an excursion in the morning so we hit the gym and had some down time and did some laundry. It was nice to relax and the boat was very quiet. In the afternoon, we took a bus out to Nordkap (North Cape). Nordkap is the northern most spot of continental Europe. We dressed for the weather as we had read that it is very windy there and they were not wrong. We didn't get to see much as it was totally fogged in and very windy. The first picture is a Google map of where we were.

I figure the weather is because of the trolls....

Then it was back to the ship where the sun came out!

As we sailed away from Norway, we went past Nordkap. It was still foggy but it did clear up there ever so briefly.

Now it's off to the old country...Scotland!

The Northern Most City

Yesterday we docked in Tromso, which is the city that is the farthest north in the world. The core city is on an island and it is connected by bridges to the mainland where the suburbs are. We were docked right at the city center which was convenient. In the morning we went on an excursion that took us first to a cable car up to the Storsteinen mountain ledge. It had amazing views of the city below. We were able to hike up a bit as we had an hour up there.

In Norway, there are many legends about trolls. You need to protect yourself from them. You do this by building stacks of stones. The bigger the stack, the better the protection.

I decided I'd better be safe.

We hiked up a bit more and we found an even bigger stack.

We then went down the cable car and on headed to see a couple of museums. The first was the Tromso museum. Our tour guide took us through a section to learn about the Sami people. They are the Indigenous people of Norway. It was very interesting and their story has many similarities to the stories of the Indigenous peoples of Canada. Norway seems to be further down the road to reconciliation than we are. We then had time to explore the section about the geological history of Norway which was facinating.

Then we went to the Polar museum where we learned about how people hunted for food here as well as learning about Roald Amundsen and all his explorations.

After some lunch, we went on a walking tour of Tromso.

Well, I guess my little stone stack was not enough to keep the trolls awyay!

The weather was very warm in the morning, 25 degrees! It did start to turn in the afternoon and we think it will be cold from here on out. Then it was back on board to continue sailing north!