Last post from Iceland

 July 12: Reykjavik 

This morning we docked in Reykjavik and disembarked. Much of the day was spent on a bus tour of the Reykanes peninsula, famous for its thermal activity (mudpots, hot springs, etc) and lava fields from historic eruptions. In the 12th and 13th centuries there were a series of well documented eruptions, and then the area entered a dormant period. Starting in 2021 there was a new small eruption, another in 2022 and of course another just two days ago, all in the same region of the peninsula. We are lucky to have been here at this time, and also lucky that (so far)the new  eruption is far from populated areas and is not causing any disruption to air travel. 

The roads to the area around the new eruption have been closed; on our drive today we saw at least 39 cars parked along the main road, belonging to people prepared to hike 15-20 km round trip to get to the volcano site.  Similar to the Heimaey eruption in 1973, this is a long fissure that is beginning to develop a crater at one end. Kevin was able to get good pictures of the eruption from the ship last night (about 00:24 hours) as we cruised past, and again today from the bus as we drove the perimeter of the peninsula. 

We visited a number of thermal features and learned various tidbits from our local guide. She told us about walking up to the 2021 site, and in a peculiarly Icelandic saying “ it is lovely to see an eruption where everything goes well”. She meant that the lava flow did not damage any infrastructure but it is a funny notion. 

We also learned about Reykjavik, which means “smoking bay” because King Magnus in 874 mistook the steam from the local hot springs for smoke. Reykjavik was still a small town (although the seat of the government) at the beginning of World War II (just 38,000 inhabitants) and really only began to grow as a consequence of the UK, US and later NATO bases. It now has 120,000 residents and another 120,000 in the suburbs, so the majority of buildings date from the 1950s or later. Only the center city has older buildings. There is construction everywhere. 

We spent the late afternoon exploring the center city and the “Central Park”, established near the turn the 20th century. It is a beautiful park with a large central lake, home to many species of ducks. The park also has a lot of sculpture installations. We ate dinner at a Icelandic smorgasbord.  The food was very good and the sampled desserts were very good as well. Tomorrow we fly back to the land of heat and humidity— but it will be nice to leave the wind behind!

Pictured: 2023 volcano, sculpture in the park, lava men and a lava field 

Heimaey and Surtsey

 July 11: Heimaey

This morning we navigated into the narrow harbor of Heimay, a large island in the West... archipelago. Heimay has been a prosperous fishing town for hundreds of years. In January 1973 there were 5000 people living in Heimaey, when, in the middle of the night, a 2km rift opened up across the island (not near any known volcano and preceded by only two minor earthquakes that were assumed to be associated with an off shore active volcano). Gas and ash started to spew out, threatening the town. The seas had been so rough the previous few days that all the fishing boats were in port— nearly everyone in town was packed onto them for a harrowing but successful evacuation. 5000 refugees in a country of 200,000 was quite a challenge; this was the first ever eruption within a town in Iceland’s recorded history. Those that stayed behind began efforts to control the flow of lava from the cone rapidly forming from one section of the rift. The US Navy supplied pumps and personnel to help spray seawater onto the lava, building up walls to contain the ongoing flow. They originally tried to save the town, then they had to shift to saving the harbor (since it was the livelihood of the town residents).  This meant the center of the town had to be sacrificed. 

The eruption officially ended in July 1973, and residents started returning shortly after. 400 families lost their homes to lava slides, collapse or fire. It took years of daily work to excavate and begin to rebuild the town, which now (50 years later) numbers about 4300 residents. We walked around town with a young man whose grandfather was one of the firemen in 1973. We stood on 40 feet of ash and lava above what had been the town swimming pool, and looked down on houses that previously had an ocean view but now look onto a lava cliff. We hiked up to the top of the volcano and could see both where the lava engulfed much of the town, and the new land formed on the north and east edges. The town museum was built around a collapsed house, and contained amazing photographs of the destruction. One of the young diving staff on the ship told family stories as her father was 10 years old in Heimaey in 1973. 

This afternoon was spent cruising at slow speed around the islands south of Heimaey in search of whales; we saw three Minke Whales, and an amazing display of diving Gannets. The Gannets ( a large sleek seabird) would fly along, then suddenly fold their wings in and plummet into the ocean.  The adults would go straight in and generate very little splash.  Immature Gannets were not so graceful - clearly getting a much lower score in the diving competition.  We learned that the leading cause of death for Gannets is a broken neck from not diving properly. 

Just before the final dinner on the ship, we cruised around Surtsey, the youngest island in the world and the southernmost island in Iceland. It was formed by an underwater eruption in 1963-1967. Originally the island (at the end of all the eruptions) was 2 square kilometers but it is now smaller as sea erosion has reduced its size. It provides a rare opportunity to see how vegetation grows on a brand new island; it is a protected zone and only specific research scientists are permitted to go ashore. The island has beautiful and peculiar patterns to the basalt. 

As a final note, the times of sunrise and sunset have change dramatically over the course of the trip. Tonight sunset will be 00:30 and sunrise is not until 4:31... a big change from a week ago. This makes sense as by the equinox the whole world has to have 12 hours of daylight and here in the north they start at 24 hours of daylight at solstice, so the change 3very day must be larger than in New York. It still feels weird. 

Pictured: minke, surtsey, Heimaey 

Fog and sunshine

 July 10: 

Having stayed up well past midnight to see the sunset, we awoke at 5:30 in hopes of viewing a famous waterfall (Dynjandi, or thundering falls) but there was such thick fog that we couldn’t even see the sides of the fjord. We could hear the waterfall, which made it a bit of a strange experience. Shortly after we arrived the sun began to break through the fog.  Optimism began to spread, the ledge at the top of the right side of the fjord became visible.  Optimism grew. The fog suddenly thickened. So much for optimism.

Later in the morning, and many miles to the south, the fog cleared in time for us to see the Latrabjarg bird cliffs. This is a protected area, so the ship had to stay a mile off shore, which somewhat obscured appreciation that these cliffs are twice as high as the Cliffs of Moher and over a kilometer long... the largest bird cliffs in Europe. The sound of the nesting birds was near deafening. 

In the afternoon we went ashore at Flatey Island, a community with 12 residents in winter but larger in summer with vacationers. We observed another puffin colony, got dive bombed by terns, and enjoyed the well-preserved early 19th century buildings. Flatey has been used as a movie set because it is so lovely. The church ceiling is painted with a beautiful mural about the history of the town, including the establishment of a tiny library (still standing and preserved) in 1864. Flatey was the original home of one of the most important medieval manuscripts of Icelandic sagas.

Pictured: Flatey Island houses, church, mural, library 

Western Fjords

 July 9:

Another morning at sea en route to Isafjordur, the largest city in the west of Iceland... but with an iceberg! Seeing an iceberg off the north shore of Iceland is incredibly rare— none of the ship’s staff had ever seen one, and even the internet doesn’t have much to say about it. The ship diverted to be able to sail all the way around it. The ship’s captain estimated it to be 300 meters long by 150 meters wide and at least 10 meters high ( plus another 90 meters below the surface). It was extremely rectangular, with little evidence of calving or melting.  Based on the shape of the iceberg, currents, and current ice pack images, our glacier expert was able to determine that it came from a glacier in northeastern Greenland, and drifted south with the East Greenland Current.  We spotted a few whale blows, but they were at least a mile away from the ship.

This afternoon we took a stroll at the end of a small fjord to a waterfall. Along the way we saw any of the wildflowers that have graced earlier hikes, including orchids, mountain avens, wild thyme, blueberries, forget-me-nots, and many kinds of heather. And yes, it was another warm and sunny day!

After dinner, we sailed to the tiny island of Vigur, which is a bird sanctuary and an eider(down) farm. Learning more about eiderdown gathering, cleaning and processing for sale was fascinating. We were able to hold a soccer ball size mass of the cleaned down— with your eyes closed you couldn’t tell you were holding it — it is so light and fluffy. Vigur is also home to a small group of harbor seals, several hundred thousand (yes really) puffins, and the largest colony of black guillemots (a slim seabird related to puffins) in Iceland. It is also home to many nesting Arctic Terns, so once again we had to carry sticks over our heads to avoid being skewered from above.  It was truly a special evening. 

When we returned to the ship, we went out on the bow to watch the sunset. There were beautiful reflections of the sun in the water and the water patterns created by sea birds tang iff. 

Pictured: iceberg, sunset, puffin, female eider with chicks

Craters, Trolls and Waterfalls

 July 8

Today we took a bus tour to many of the famous natural highlights in northern Iceland. The sites were quite crowded, which felt particularly odd given our last week of mostly isolated destinations. We began in Husevik with a visit to the Whaling Museum. It would have been nice to spend more time there, as it had a great collection of skeletons and natural history content. The room devoted to the changes (and predicted changes) to sea ice coverage, and the discussion of whales as an important carbon sink were fascinating. 

Next we drove to the Black Crater, a 1km-wide black sand crater formed by steam eruptions from a fissure. We hiked up to the rim, which gave a great view of the surrounding countryside and Lake Myvatn (“midgewater”).  Next we walked through Dimmuborgem, a valley with lava pillars in shapes evocative of trolls.  We stopped at a lava cave next to one of many fissures in this region that represent the meeting of the European and American tectonic plates. The plates are moving apart by 2-2.5 cm each year. Iceland is of course very active with volcanos and associated thermal features. We visited an area of mud pots and fulmeroles that reminded us of Yellowstone. 

We ate lunch along Lake Myvatn, including a stop at a farm-based ice cream ship with flavors like strawberry-rhubarb and salted licorice. The last stop of the day was a well-known horseshoe waterfall called Godafoss or “falls of the gods”.  A word about the weather— bright sun, blue skies, puffy clouds and 70 degrees! 

Tonight after dinner, a local winger-songwriter-storyteller entertained us. This is the third musical performance we have had in the trip and the best. He was so humorous with his stories— for example, he said that he loved early mornings as a chance to sleep and a chance to get up — in his words “a Schroedinger concept”.  His songs were beautiful and his voice lovely. He had the audience in stitches. 

Pictured:  mud pots, “rock troll”, Godafoss waterfall. 

Dolphins and puffins and whales, oh my!

 July 7

What a day. This morning was spent at sea, en route to Grimsey, one of the most northern islands of Iceland. Some mornings at sea are quiet — but this morning we saw several sets of White-beaked Dolphins, and one group “fish smacked” repeatedly (meaning they leapt out of the water, turned, and side-flopped back into the water).  They smacked for at least five minutes - it sounded like fireworks going off.  A couple of small groups did a small amount of bow running; however the ship was not going fast enough so they got bored and left. We had glimpses of a Fin Whale and a Minke Whale. Then, just as we were getting ready to toast crossing the Arctic Circle, three Humpbacks made an appearance off the port bow. Our navigator slowed the ship to maximize our ability to watch, and for easily 15 minutes a mother and calf slapped their front flippers, wiggled their flukes, and rolled in the sunny surf for us. Amazing! Once they departed, we did celebrate crossing the Arctic Circle with a champagne toast.

After lunch we went ashore. Grimsey is a very small community, but as we learned yesterday, it is expected that every town has a swimming pool as part of community sports facilities. In the south and west of Iceland these are often thermal spring fed and heated, but in the east and north, the pools need to be indoors and mechanically heated, as in Grimsey. Grimsey is also well served by ferries and air flights to the mainland, and offers five bars of cellular service. 

Our hike today had two objectives: to see the Arctic Circle monument, and to see puffins on the cliffs. The Arctic Circle monument is a huge sphere, enabling it to be rolled to a new position as continental drift changes the geographic location of the Arctic Circle on the island. As for puffins, they were everywhere! In flight, hovering, roosting, fishing, squabbling — there must have been thousands of them. The island also hosts other sea birds, particularly Arctic Terns, which can be quite aggressive if you stray near their nests. We were all instructed to take along a hiking pole to hold over our heads, creating something higher than our heads for the terns to dive-bomb. 

In the end, a busy day.. and with sunset at 1:52am and sunrise at 2:24am, these are long days even with blackout curtains!

Pictured: Atlantic Puffins, White-beaked Dolphins, Humpbacks, Arctic Circle monument

Djupivogur, Iceland

 July 6

We headed up to the bridge about 6:00 this morning.  We saw the west coast of Iceland slowly emerge from the heavy mist.  We stayed up on the bridge as the ship sailed into the dock at Djupivogur, a small fishing village (400 inhabitants) on the southeast corner of Iceland. The village has worked hard over the past 15 years to diversify their economy, including installing signature modern art pieces by Sigurdur Gudmundsson and restoring the historic buildings in the center of town. One of the best known art installations is a series of 33 stone eggs (not life size but authentic in shape) of local and migratory birds. The eggs are installed on top of the abandoned concrete footings that formerly supported the giant tube that took fish from the holds of trawlers into the now defunct fish processing factory.  The factory closing was a great hardship to the town, so this art installation represents the town’s new trajectory.

We spent most of the morning and much of the afternoon walking in a bird sanctuary and on the black sand beaches at the ocean’s edge. One of the most prevalent bird species is the Eider (Duck), as in eiderdown comforters. The down that is used is a specific hydrophobic, soft set of feathers that a female duck grows on her breast to provide nest lining material. Eiders are now a protected species, so this down is collected by “eider farmers” who don’t raise the ducks but do provide some support to them.  Since eiders return to the same nesting area year after year, the “farmers” develop enough relationship with individual ducks to be able to reach in and remove a portion of the down from the nest. 

One of the major challenges in Iceland is erosion. Much of the shoreline is covered in fine black volcanic sand, which is easily blown by the wind, exposing lower layers to be scoured. In order to maintain sand dunes and retain land, Alaskan Lupines have been widely planted. Lupines have a robust horizontal root system, can survive the harsh weather, and provide organic matter when they die back in the winter, gradually creating and fixing topsoil atop the sand. Inevitably they have also become an invasive species away from the shoreline, so they are a lovely local discussion topic!

We saw beautiful wildflowers as well as shorebirds today. It seemed to be the day for Red-named birds: Redwing, Redshank, Red-throated Loon, Red-necked Phalarope... but we did see some other colors too! We again saw a puffin, but almost none of our shipmates have seen one yet, a consequence of our spending our time staring out windows, binoculars in hand. So we have stopped mentioning them lest we create animosity. 

Our tour guide William was a fountain of information about the village as well as Iceland history. He was also knowledgeable about the local plants and birds. He mentioned that he and his wife started a small business making Iceland’s first hot sauces, so at the end of our day hiking and birding we headed back into town to the local market to buy some of his hot sauces.

Pictured: Red-throated Loon and chick, Red-necked Phalarope chick, Red-necked Phalarope, Egg Art

Elduvik Faroe Islands

 July 5

The beautiful weather returned today, although swells and wind made the transfer from the ship to land via Zodiacs a little exciting.  The rule when boarding a Zodiac is to step onto the pontoon as the Zodiac rises with a wave - stepping when the Zodiac is falling away often leads to a head long dive into the Zodiac.  

Our morning was spent visiting the village of Elduvik on the far northern Faroe island of Eysturoy. While in the summer the village has some additional visitors, in the winter the population is 12. We were the first of only three tourist ships that will visit them this summer - hosting the visits were two years in the planning. The villagers (with help from neighboring villagers) made us feel so welcome: there were hikes through a beautiful valley along the steam that bisects the village, tours through the village (it might be small, but every village has has some interesting historical tidbits), and homemade soup and cakes.  Several of the villagers were dressed in the beautiful traditional costumes of the Faroe Islands. The villagers spent the time during the planning stage to create wonderful hand knit items. We opted for the hike up a long valley through the sheep meadows that were owned by our guide. The soup was delicious and many asked for the recipe only to be told by the hostess “it’s in my head”... so a lively discussion ensued amongst the guests to try to guess what was in it!

This afternoon we embarked on the 230 mile journey to the southeast coast of Iceland. 

Pictured: soup hostess in traditional dress, stream, common snipe, the valley

Faroe Islands 2

 July 4th:  

Well, the Faroes weather found us today, particularly on an afternoon hike through slippery grass and foggy, wet views. It was one of those times where the enjoyment comes from commiserating that you did it! 

We spent the morning at the National Museum, which contained wonderful exhibits of women’s 19th century photography, fishing history, archaeological artifacts, and the carved pew-ends from St. Olaf’s Church in Kirkjubour. We visited Kirkjubour also, which had three interesting historic buildings. The current St. Olaf’s Church was built about 150 years ago but rests on a site that has had a Church on it for over 800 years. The Faroe Islands were converted (at sword point) in the late 10th century and Kirkjubour became the bishop’s seat. The second historic building is the ruined/never completed St. Magnus Cathedral, begun in 1200 and abandoned as a project in about 1250. The forced labor and taxes to build the Cathedral caused a Civil War between the southern island and the northern ones. The South won, the Cathedral was abandoned and the Bishop captured and executed. The third building is the oldest still-I ha tied wooden structure in the Faroes and perhaps beyond them. It was originally a clan chiefs house in Norway. When he fled rather than submit to the King of the newly formed country, he disassembled his house and brought it with him. It is over 1000 years old and has been in the same family for 13 generations. 

The Faroe Islands have an interesting and convoluted history, which is reflected in their language. Faroese is closest to Icelandic, and both come from Old Norse. During the Reformation (1537), the new Bishop (who came from Denmark) decided that the official Church language would be Danish. This carried over to the establishment of schools, and until 1940 it was illegal to teach (or speak ) Faroese in the schools although everyone spoke it at home.  In the late 1880s two grammarians worked on creating an official version of Faroese. This resulted in a somewhat formal written grammar similar to German, with a simpler spoken version. Our local guide admitted this makes learning Faroese particularly challenging for non-natives. 

Both yesterday and today we noticed that many houses, and even public buildings, have grass roofs. This is a 1000-year-Old tradition, originally because of a lack of trees (or wood other than driftwood). So the first houses were stone, with driftwood rafters, topped by peat in which grass naturally grows. The method is a little more sophisticated now, and most house are wooden; the turf roofs are lovely and complement the primary/ traditional house color of black. They last longer and are excellent insulation. 

Pictured: turf roofs in Torshavn, European Golden Plover, pew carving 

Faroe Islands 1

 July 3

We sailed overnight from the Shetland Islands to the southernmost of the Faroe Islands (Sudaroy), a distance of about 200 nautical miles. Both the seas and the winds intensified overnight, and by breakfast time we were in 10-foot swells abeam, so the crew rigged ropes to provide additional handrails to traverse the dining room— which was much less busy than on prior mornings! The weather delayed our arrival in Vagur, which in turn forced some changes to the day’s itinerary. Kudos to the expedition staff for making a new plan on the fly.

The Faroes (a territory of Denmark)is an archipelago of 18 islands of which 16 are inhabited. Ten are now connected by roads or tunnels with ferry service for the rest. Traditionally the Faroes were agricultural, and there are still a lot of sheep. The sheep are double coated like Icelandic ones and self-shed the heavy outer layer. More recently, fishing and fish farming has become the primary industry. We saw many in water enclosures with large fish splashing. 

This afternoon we went on a 4-plus mile hike around Lake Leitisvatn and to a summit. While most of the terrain was gentle up and down, the destination was the top of dramatic cliffs 800 feet above the sea. The Faroe Islands are entirely volcanic, but these cliffs were so reminiscent of the limestone cliffs of western Ireland. The group had made such good time on the hike that we had time for an extension to see the waterfall where the lake drains into the ocean. 

Then it was back to the ship for a quick dinner and out again, this time for a cruise out into the fjord and nearby ocean, passing sea cliffs full of nesting birds and amazing rock formations. The shapes, the striating, the colors and textures of the rocks (despite being basically all granite) were stunning. We sailed to a beautiful waterfall, and thought that the captain was returning to port. But no! He took the boat into caves and through narrow passageways between sea stacks, and under arches filled with birds. We felt like Odysseus passing the Sirens.  We also got caught up in a frenzy of late-evening bird movements. Huge flicks of small birds swirled and swooped and hurried back to their nests for the night, including to our delight a huge number of puffins. A wonderful evening... and ironically the sea was calmer tonight than we’d seen it for the previous 24 hours, an added bonus. 

Despite the tag line “Wet, Wild, Windy, Wonderful Faroes” we have had lovely partly sunny weather so far. It is hard to go to bed on time when the days are so full of activities and the sky is still bright at 10pm. Then again, why sleep on vacation, you can do that at home! 

Shetland

 Sunday July 2

We woke early today to take advantage of the ship’s passing Noss Head, a set of cliffs famous as a sea bird nursery. We saw hundreds (if not more) Northern Gannets, Northern Fulmar, and Common Murre, as well as European Shags and the predatory Great Skua.  There are two bird biology researchers on board the ship, collecting samples for a study on the spread of bird flu. This is a terrific resource for us! We learned that sea birds take several years to mature, unlike most land based birds, and that seabirds live much longer — over twenty years. In the case of gannets, it takes five years before they reach maturity.  During this time they are learning to effectively support themselves.  Once they mate they must be able to support themselves and a chick.  Sea birds, in general, mate for life (or for many years) and  return to the same nesting location year after year, while going their separate ways after mating season.

The  ship docked at Lerwick ( the capital of the Shetland Islands) as we had breakfast. We spent the remainder of the morning and early afternoon on a trip to Sumburgh Head and the Jarlshof historical site. On the bus ride south, we learned about the history and geology of the Shetland Islands, a collection of 100 islands of which 16 are inhabited. There are lighthouses on most of the islands, many of which were built by the grandfather of Robert Louis Stevenson. We also saw some Shetland ponies, including one pulling a small cart with a young woman aboard, down the Main Street of a village. 

At Sumburgh Head, we dawdled a bit by the cliffs and were rewarded with some spectacular bird viewing, including 5 puffins at quite close range. We walked along the cliffs for about two miles (seeing more new birds) to reach Jarlshof. Prior to 1890, only the ruins of an Elizabethan manor house were visible on the grounds of a large Victorian farm. The ruins were named “Jarlshof” or “Earl’s House” by Sir Walter Scott on a visit in 1814. Then in 1890 a storm causes the sea bank to collapse, exposing much older ruins, which the landowner arranged to have excavated. On one relatively small site there are ruins of Stone Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age, Pict, and Viking settlements. It was fascinating to see them in such close proximity, and to marvel at how long dry stone walls can survive. 

After a late lunch we strolled around the shoreline of Lerwick and through the town center. We amused ourselves looking for locations from the Shetland TV series. We found Jimmy Perez’s house as well as the police station.  We will need to rewatch the first couple of episodes so we can compare our photos with the aspects of the town depicted on the show.

Pictured: Atlantic Puffins, Jarlshof Iron Age settlement, Shetland pony with cart, Seacliffs at Noss Head 

Orkney Islands

 

July 1

This morning was spent at sea en route to the Orkney Islands.  Our luck continued with seeing seabirds from our little balcony (including our first view of an Atlantic Puffin). After lunch we toured several of the prehistoric sites near Kirkwell. The prehistoric village at Skara Brae dates from 3100 BC, and consists of the underground remnants of 10 stone built round houses. Each house had a long curving entrance passage with a very short (3 feet or so) doorway to reduce the effect of the relentless Orkney winds. Each had a single room with a central hearth and two rectangular stone boxes for sit-up sleeping. Not all of the ten houses were built simultaneously, and the (slightly) more recent ones had additional features like stone display shelves, sunken refrigeration boxes, or storage chambers in the walls. Today the village sits at the edge of a rapidly eroding sea cliff over a bay with headland at the mouth, and it seems an odd location. But at the time the village was active, it sat at some distance from a fresh water lake separated by a continuous headland from the sea. 

Next we visited the standing stones at Brodgar, of a similar age. Originally built of 60 standing stones (27 remain) each about 10 feet above ground and buried 3 feet into the ground. The perfect circle is 310 feet in diameter and surrounded by a deep ditch. As with other “henge” monuments, how Stone Age people quarried, moved and erected such stones is a marvel. It has been estimated that to dig the ditch itself would have taken 80,000 hours. The ring is in a beautiful setting with lakes on either side and a ring of low hills all around.  In addition, we saw both skylarks and a curlew there; skylarks are invisible and silent in the grass, and then shoot up to 30 feet in the air, hovering and trilling a strangely metallic song. Near the ring are a second smaller diameter but taller ring, a chambered passage tomb aligned to the winter solstice, and four Bronze Age burial mounds. 

Tonight after dinner, a local musical group, Saltfish Forty, came aboard the ship. The duo has been making music together for 25 years, playing a mix of fiddle, guitar and mandolin. Many of the tunes reminded us of “trad” sessions in the west of Ireland. Some songs were distinctly from the Orkney Islands, including a ballad about a local tradition of kidnapping a bride and groom about two weeks before their wedding, dousing them with molasses, coating them in flour, feathers and breakfast cereal, parading them through town in the back of a pickup truck and then tying them with cling wrap to the market cross in front of St. Magnus’ Cathedral.  Kevin asked if there is a high elopement rate here. Seriously, they were wonderful musicians and it was a lovely evening. 

Pictured: Skara Brae, Brodgar, and flying skylark and curlew (too bad I can’t post their songs!)

Off into the North Atlantic

 June 30

Yesterday as we walked around the town of Bergen, Kevin looked longingly at the forested hills on the northern edge — so today we walked up into them on a mix of small roads and trails. We finished at the upper end of the funicular railroad, roughly 1000 feet above the town. The area around the top of the funicular also has playgrounds, coffee shops, and a “troll garden” to amuse children of all ages. We had wonderful views of the harbor and the town. We also enjoyed comparing our 140-passenger expedition ship to a huge cruise ship ( which even dwarfed the surrounding buildings) in a larger harbor that was hidden from view when we were lower down.

While we saw very little bird life on the way up, the trip down was quite a different story. We spotted several different species, most new for us.  Many were beautiful, uncooperative songbirds, flitting about and having the nasty habit of staying behind leaves and branches. It was particularly satisfying to see a few species that we heard frequently. An example would be the European Wren. All wrens, all over the world, sing very loudly for the size of the bird, and we had heard several European Wrens on our hike up as well as the trip down. Finally one decided to sit in a branch near the trail and sing his (or her) little heart out. Our round trip explore was about  5 miles, just the level of exercise we wanted since we knew the rest of the day would be sedentary.

After lunch,  we went on a bus tour through several sections of Bergen. Norway has a huge amount of hydroelectric power generation and a commitment to the environment despite being a major oil and gas producer. We heard about two examples on this afternoon’s tour. They have “shore power” that enables cruise ships to plug in when they dock, and thus not run the ship’s engines (fuel) while in port. And they have a city wide system of collection bins that use an underground vacuum system to take trash and recyclables (at up to 70 km/h!) to a processing center, where much of it is used for co-generation.

We boarded the ship in the late afternoon and headed off toward the Orkney Islands. We are traveling on the same ship as our 2019 trip to the Falkland Islands and South Georgia. One of our favorite activities on that trip was looking for seabirds far from land. This time we splurged on a cabin with a small balcony with the idea of doing such searching from our own room rather than on deck or on the bridge. 

 Just as we were ready to post the blog we looked out our window and there were seabirds flying! Three new species and the thrill of watching them soar and skim the surface of the ocean.

Pictures will be added at a later time.