More (belated!) cruising stories....

Next stop was an island called Heimaey. In 1973, the volcano on the island erupted meaning that most of the islanders were evacuated to the mainland as Heimaey was covered in ash and lava. We went to see a film presentation about the story of the island being rebuilt - despite it seeming impossible. The strength and courage of the folk working together, and their refusal to give up - was pretty inspiring. As we walked around and climbed up some of the volcano (hoping it would remain intact) it was bizarre to survey the scene and realise that much of what we were looking at would have been covered in black ash and debris at the time.

We went on from there to Reyjkavik. Highlight of the stop there was a trip to the Blue Lagoon. It's a thermal spring kind of place where the water is warm (roasting in places) but the outside air temperature is cold - it was about 4C when we were there. Weird to be in your swimmer in the cold, then plunging into a hot outside bath! Dan, Steve and I tried out the special mud stuff on our faces - soft as a baby's bum afterwards. What a laugh.

The scenery in Iceland is pretty spectacular, although fairly typical wherever you go. Most of the little towns we stopped at looked similar - the town itself was at sea level, then behind it, or surrounding it were huge snowcapped mountains. One thing about being on a cruise that I hadn't thought about before was the fact that you approach everywhere you go from the sea which gives a completely different perspective compared to approaching it by road.

The 'Herring Experience' was brilliant - although we weren't sure what to expect, but basically the whole town had turned out to entertain us with reenacted herring filleting and salting techniques, dressed in old fashioned gear and swearing like troupers (or at least that's what the tone of voice inferred!). I found myself enjoying the pickled herring much more than I expected, and also managed to force down a few small glasses of schnapps at 10am - funny that!

Another first for me was going birdwatching - although I mocked the whole thing a bit to begin with, you may yet see me turning into a semi-twitcher as I loved it. By the end of the outing, I was getting very excited about recognising some of the birds..who would have thought it?!



Although I wasn't sure how I was going to cope with two weeks on a ship, I did actually manage to find the sea legs that have always eluded me enroute to Orkney. The whole experience was fantastic and I have again been so blessed to have had the opportunity. (thanks Cam x)