Smithy's Cruise Blog

We were waiting at the pick up point at 10.30am as arranged but no sign of the vehicle or guide. He showed up at 10.50am. He tried to explain why he was late, but as he spoke in Icelandic, we didn’t understand. It became clear almost immediately that he spoke no English. He was the driver/guide due to take us on a 4 hour tour!

He kept saying Blue Lagoon. I tried to make him understand that that was to be the final highlight of the tour. He realised there was a problem and rang (presumably) the office. He was still driving while speaking to a lady on his mobile and he would from time to time pass the phone to me. She could speak some English and was clearly aware that they had made a major mistake.

What was frustrating was that we appeared to be driving aimless,y about on the outskirts of Reykjavík without any idea about what was to happen for the rest of the day.

Eventually the lady in the office indicated that a replacement guide/driver had been found who spoke English and that the two vehicles would meet up somewhere shortly. After a time we drove into a car park that appeared to be in the middle of nowhere  and a familiar vehicle drove in. It was Hamet from yesterday!

He apologised. He had finished the activities that had been lined for him that day so we set off on a tour which took us to various areas that been devastated by volcanos and earthquakes. One town was almost desolate. People had lost everything. Houses were split in half. All were cut off from water and drainage . Some were still occupied with owners trying to patch up the only asset that they had.

We then drove to an area covered in cooled down volcanic ash. Miles and miles of heavy dried up mud. And in the middle of it was a vast tarmac covered car park with hundreds of cars, buses and coaches parked there. The Blue Lagoon. A long path through the volcanic gunge piled high on either side took you to an open area with thousands of people.

There, in the middle of acres and acres of heavy duty mud was an oasis with a modern hotel,  eating establishments and bluish coloured water. And there were thousands of people swimming in it amongst the rocks.

Someone had created a major tourist attraction out of nothing. And apparently, once the Blue Lagoon had established itself, the government agreed to build a massive wall of mud (I guess it is 20 or 30 metres high) around it in an attempt to protect it against volcanic ash flowing over it in the future.

We had lunch there on a terrace and watched the swimmers before returning to the ship.

Hreyfill taxis have refused to compensate us for supplying a guide who could not speak English and for endeavouring to take us on a tour that we had not ordered. A taxi ride from the ship to the Blue Lagoon and back again would have cost a quarter of the amount we paid! Beware!

Smithy is not a happy bunny so far as Hreyfill Taxis are concerned but if you come across Hamet ( I’m not sure how you spell his name) grab him. He’s a lovely, warm enthusiastic guide.

 

 

 

 

 

Who spotted the deliberate mistake in the last episode? A prize for the winner.

On my birthday recently I had a message from the ship wishing me well and inviting me to come to collect a present. A few day later I mentioned this at the Pursers desk and was sent to one of the jewellers on the ship. Without checking who I was the very nice lady wished me a happy birthday, went to a cupboard and pulled out a necklace for me. Just what I’ve always wanted! But it could be the prize!

I’m struggling to download  photos to the blog. They may have to come later. The whole format has changed and I imagine I will have to find a totally new format in the future.

Hamet, our guide, took us first to the beautiful all steel Viking longboat sitting at the edge of the water

Wow! It’s there. Its called the Sun Voyager Sculpture by Jon Amason. I’ve managed to download the photo!

We then moved on to Harpe Conference Hall.  Hamet knew the history and background to every building we passed or visited

At the beginning of the tour he poinked out a beautiful house that was apparently first built in Norway and later dismantled, transported to Iceland and rebuilt there. Why would you do that?!

We often hear of people doing that. He then drove us past a short row of beautiful large houses. He knew who owned them. They overlooked a large lake.

Eventually Hamet took us to the magnificent Lutheran Church . I have some great photos of it which I hope to have downloaded before you have finished reading about Day 2 in Reykjavik.

We said goodbye to Hamet and rewarded him appropriately. He told us he had not been assigned to our tour the following day. He had been a great guide and excellent company.

PS I have managed to download this mound built to commemorate and advertise a breast cancer charity.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We arrived on Sunday. I had booked tours for each of the two days we were to be in the capital of Reykjavik.

We were off the ship and through formalities just as Hamet arrived. I had been assured by  Hreyfill, the Reykjavík taxi company, that our drivers would be good English speaking guides. Hamet proved to be exactly that.

He explained what the tour would involve and what we would see during the 3 hour tour. During the morning it became clear that Hamet had had a varied career. His parents wanted him to carry on in education at 16 but he went to go sea, initially on fishing vessels and then on repair ships maintaining fishing vessels in ports around the Atlantic.

I was amazed when he told me that one of the English ports they regularly visited was Grimsby. I was able to tell him that was where I was born (I keep it a secret but actually it was Cleethorpes – the butt of jokes I had to put up with as a kid)

We guessed that Hamet was in his mid to late 60’s. His wife had sadly died as had one of his 3 children. Despite that he loved life and was startlingly knowledgeable about the museums, theatres and other buildings and properties we visited.

On Saturday evening I noticed a tender from another cruise ship heading into port

Kim had heard an announcement from the Captain to the effect that we would have to reverse up the channel from our berth before turning the ship by 180 degrees so that we were pointing in the right direction.  Presumably that was because the water close to the dock was not deep enough for us to turn there.

Seeing the tender indicated that there must be a ship at anchor up the channel. Leaning over our cabin balcony I could see a ship anchored ahead us.

The cruise ship looked to be very much ahead of us, and  in our way! Our cabin is on deck 5 and I knew that at the stern there was an open deck. I rushed down the corridor to find that we had started our 180 degree just short of Oceana Cruises vessel Insignia.

Why we had to execute the turn so close to Insignia I have no idea. If I get the opportunity to speak to the Captain I will let you know!

 

 

On the schedule issued when I booked this cruise it said these 2 ports were tender ports, meaning that the ship would not tie up against a dock but would moor at anchor nearby and passengers would travel from the ship to shore in tenders (life boats built for the purpose).

It occurs when ports do not the facilities that enable large ships to dock or where there are too many ships in port that day.

When the port is a tender port Jane is not able to go ashore, so we plan it that one of Kim and I goes ashore in the morning and comes back to ship at lunchtime to look after Jane while the other goes ashore for the afternoon.

I must have missed an announcement at some point since booking the cruise, because the day before we arrived in Akureyri I found out that we were docking at both ports! They were not going to be tender ports and we would all be able to go ashore together.

The down side was that I had not bought any tours in advance with taxis adapted for Jane’s wheelchair, but I have done so for each of the two days we are in the capital, Reykjavik, where we are on Saturday and Sunday.

In the event we all walked into the small town on Friday for a few hours and on Saturday Jane and Kim walked into town while I remained on the ship and enjoyed a coffee with Mike and Joanna Harrison, longstanding friends of my sister Liz.

We were having lunch yesterday in the Britannia Restaurant when suddenly I found a man and a woman standing alongside me. He said “You don’t know me but I know you and I read your blog “. I stood up and said hello to him and his wife. Still mystified, he explained that he and his wife had met my sister Liz and her late husband Tim on a previous cruise and had spent some time with them. He was a Leicester Tigers supporter and he knew that Tim had played for the Wasps. Liz had told him that I wrote a cruise blog and he had apparently been reading it ever since.

He said he had read in the blog that we were on this cruise and decided to try and find us. How he found us in the restaurant I don’t know because at lunch you sit anywhere and not at designated tables, as happens in the evenings for dinner.

They revealed that they were Roger and Sandra Laycock and when Liz reads this from her hospital bed no doubt she will remember them.

Later in the evening we met up again with the Laycocks – a charming couple – at the drinks party in the Pavilion for long standing Cunarders. I had my photo taken with the Captain but he didn’t seem to want to listen to my Cunard heritage. My guess is that he was nervous about giving a major speech to the large gathering. I will pursue him later in the voyage!

We have been eating well and reminding ourselves of the ships layout. Kim is an expert in pointing us in the right direction.

On Wednesday Michel Roux did a cooking demonstration in the packed theatre. He came across as a lovely man. What I did not realise was that his Le Gavroche restaurant closed some 3 years ago.

It was announced that he would be taking part in a question and answer session today and we found seats near the front for that. We learned a great deal about his life and afterwards he carried out a book signing. Jane decided that as my cooking at home is so poor and unoriginal I should buy his book which I did and Michel signed it. While he was doing so I asked him why he had closed La Gavroche and he said that the lease had come to an end. From what he had said to the audience earlier I suspect he was fed up with the long hours that he worked to ensure that the restaurant remained at the top. And he had made it clear that top end restaurants were finding it harder and harder to survive financially.

Last night the singers and dancers were performing. In the good old days on Cunard ships they would perform nearly every night. Now it’s rare and we have to put up with ridiculous plays on many nights. Anyway we found seats near the front and the singers and dancers were fantastic. I hope we see them again soon.

Tuesday 28 July and we arrived in Belfast Docks on time at 6.00am. Kim was at the door at 7.30 am as arranged and we were soon off the breakfast .

We tend to use the Artisan eatery on Deck 9. There is a massive choice of food. I get plenty of fruit and wonderful omelettes made as you watch. We prefer breakfast that way rather than in the more formal dining rooms where we have lunch and dinner.

To get us into Belfast I had booked Sean on line., He had a large adapted vehicle with a ramp and was waiting for us when we left the ship at 10.00.am.

The plan was that he would take us to the Titanic Museum and exhibition and then collect us from there to return us to the ship later.

The Titanic Museum was vast and there were literally thousands of visitors. I am not sure if I enjoyed the experience. The early part of the tour round the exhibition was devoted to the construction of Titanic. As she was built in Belfast I can understand that that was important but it did seem to take up a large part of the tour.

In the main, the walk around the various floors of the exhibition, was in the dark so the photography was not brilliant.

I have struggled to put this together and have not yet mastered the art, in this new format, of getting the photos onto the blog but I will do.

A bit of excitement. Suddenly about 30 minutes ago there was an announcement throughout the ship directing the Rapid ? Team to go urgently to a section at the stern of the ship. I got the impression that something bad was happening – a husband /wife fight perhaps?! The Captain later announced that an individual had managed to get aboard the ship, had been apprehended and handed over to the local police. Not that exciting!

It reminds me of something similar in Southampton nearly 60 years ago. The QE2 was setting off on her Maiden voyage. I was amongst the thousands shouting and waving from the dockside. My father Captain George E Smith was on the bridge and somewhere down in the crew  quarters there were four stowaways.

At the time I was in the middle of a solicitors training contract with a Southampton law firm Bell Pope and Bridgwater. One of their Partners, Tom Evans, carried out prosecutions for the Docks Authority and was instructed to prosecute the four stowaways. I had told him about the massive excitement and noise at the time of QE2’s departure and when he heard that the stowaways were pleading not guilty on the basis that they were sleeping on board at the time of departure, Tom decided to call me as a witness. I told the magistrates about the noise and excitement and the men were duly convicted.
That was  the only time that I appeared as a witness, but in my early years as a solicitor I spent nearly every morning in the Magistrate’s Courts in Southampton or Romsey or Eastleigh representing individuals  charged with a wide variety offences.

 

So we are up and running. Sam has found me an alternative way of making the blog work. It seemed to me that this cruise would be packed with scenic views and that it was vital that photos could be downloaded.

We left home yesterday, Sunday 26 July at 11.30am and were on the ship, Queen Anne by 1.20pm. That must be a record for us. The team was the usual one led by Kim Jones. Kim has calculated that she has come with us, to look after Jane, on 22 cruises. She is a star. We could not cruise without her.

My sister Liz Cracknell was due to join us on Sunday. Her husband Tim, sadly died in November, and about 6 weeks ago Liz asked if she could join us, if she could find a suitable cabin. Of course we loved the idea. She found a cabin near to ours and booked it.

About 3 weeks ago Liz rang me to say that she had been to see a cardiologist and that he wanted to monitor her heart. Wow that was a shock. If the results were not good she would have a pacemaker fitted and would not be able to join us. In the middle of last week he said she did need a pacemaker and could not put off its fitting until after the cruise. It had to be done straight away. It is being fitted tomorrow when we will be in Belfast. Good luck Liz. We will be thinking of you as we explore the Titanic Museum and Exhibition..