Cruising with the National Trust for Scotland

After a few weeks back at work recovering from HK and Dubai, my next 'jaunt' was to Iceland as part of the entertainment team on the cruise. I've been really lax at writing my blog (due to laziness, and rubbish internet connection while away!) but here we go in a couple of installments......

We left a pretty sunny Greenock on Thursday afternoon – sitting out on the deck having dinner in the sunshine was a rather unexpected pleasure!
First stop on the cruise was Iona – one of those places that I’ve always wanted to go so I was delighted. Never having been on a cruise before, getting the tender boat (ie small lifeboat) to dry land was a new experience. We had to get helped into the boat and climb down some narrow steps. Not so bad with my long legs, but for some of the ‘older’ members of the trip, it was fairly precarious and I had to try not to look!
Oceans 2 (Dan and Steve) and I had a lovely wander about – the weather was sunny but windy – and we checked out the famous Abbey, and the various Celtic crosses in a few locations.

After an almost spew-inducing tender trip back across the bay to the ship (we were the last boat allowed over before they stopped them cause of the wind!) – we left later that afternoon to circumnavigate Staffa, seeing Fingal’s Cave. The Captain had the idea of playing Mendelssohn’s Hebridean Overture as we were approaching, and as I was the only person on board with it on my Ipod, I was invited up to the bridge to get it all plugged in. I was then allowed to stay for the rest of the afternoon and watch all the goings on – how exciting! The views of Staffa were amazing.

A rather rough night followed, and we woke up the next morning beside St Kilda. It was too rough to land the tender boats (as it often is apparently) and so we did the circumnavigation in the morning instead. Big wow. More dramatic and spectacular scenery. It didn’t look like we were going to be able to land at all as the weather was still bad, but hurrah - later in the afternoon the wind dropped, and then the Captain managed to get us close enough to get the tender boats going. We were allowed half an hour to wander around which was really special. There was a 93 yr-old lady on the boat whose lifetime ambition had been to visit St Kilda – so she was delighted and emotional. It’s hard to believe that it was only in 1930 that the last people left the island – and how they lived in the little stone cottages.

After a day ‘at sea’ – it was very bizarre seeing nothing but......sea.....all round – but we had a lovely trip and amazing sunsets at midnight!

First stop in Iceland was Djupivogur. I was lucky enough to go on the glacier lagoon cruise at Jokulsarlon. We travelled by bus for a couple of hours to get there through the most dramatic and beautiful countryside. The lagoon itself was spectacular – I’ve never seen anything like it. The guide explained that the glaciers were moving all the time so the vista changed on a daily basis. Two James Bond films have been filmed here as well – but again, Daniel Craig managed to elude me.......