Sea Day - So Good So Good

 Today was overcast and gray, we gained an hour and will tonight too!  This was an easy way auto avoid jet lag that’s for sure!  We had a quiet day, well sort of.  We went to breakfasts and Claire got the short end of the stick.  I had banana pancakes ( I was wishing for some coconut syrup!) and Claire ordered eggs and sausage, the eggs were overcooked and the sausage had barely met the bottom of a pan!  She is not a fussed, but seriously?  I did.  I do not think I accomplished much, but still…..We decided to paint and went to the Colony Club where we like to sit at the bar and paint.  The view is from the back of the ship and the lighting overflow the bar is good.  It is not open yet anyway.  But after a couple of hours we got kicked out for an invitation only art sale.  The stuff they are selling is rather lame, I think.  We grabbed some lunch but the Buffett was another day of chaos.  I had some cheese, salami, egg salsa and focaccia.  They did have a chocolate chip cookie I dipped in Ice-cream that was yummy. Shortly we did a champagne tasting, but agreed that we liked the regular wine tasting better,

we had fun women at our table though so that was nice.  Dinner was Italian and Enrique our server brought me a Spanish Menu, that was so cute.  Arancini, Lasagna and a cute little lemon pie.  

The entertainment was a magician, but I have to admit that,  I drifted in and out.  

  After we went to the Schooner bar and listened to two women play Piano and Violin, which was lovely.  After the left this guy showed up and someone requested this song. 

Older Than Ice

 Today we got up early to do a fjord exploration.  By early I mean 0500!  Breakfast was a quickie in the dining room, and then off to queue up soon after.  We were ushered onto a small boat that had 12 Seats.   A lovely Greenlander was our guide/export but honestly we were not sure what her role was. 

Regardless she had on the coolest coat and headband and neck warmer.  The knitted items were made from the soft inner wool of the Arctic Musk Ox.  The coat she said had been her mothers.  I really wanted to know more about her story but was afraid to ask.  She mentioned foster care and that can be a stickey wicket.  

The boat ride took up into one of the fjords here.  A Fjord by definition is a long narrow body of water that reaches far inland.  Claire has been most excited about the Iceland and Greenland parts of the trip, but my interest was Scotland and NovaScotia.  Let me tell you, this was absolutely beautiful.  

Firstly I was blown away at the blue of the icebergs that we sat randomly scattered in the water. 

 I kept thinking I never saw this in Alaska, and how would I paint this color?  It was amazing.  

Secondly the clouds, mountains and snow cover were lovely.  

We arrived at our destination and the guide had some native Greenlander food for us to try, dried reindeer ( I know eating Rudolph is just not right!), dried sardines (?), dried whitefish, blubber whale, shrimp (a la Francaise- meaning shell and head attached) and thankfully some orange and apple slices.  The shrimp were just a no go under the circumstances, and the sardines, too still had their tiny little eyes looking at me.  I tried the Whale and it was like trying to chew a fishy piece of cut up car tire with a but of fat attached.  The guide did advise some soy sauce, which I obediently  dipped my blubber whale bite into, but I could not even begin to chew it.  The reindeer, and other fish were o.k. I didn’t even wish I could purchase some to bring home though.  

The food was set up on a couple of 2x4s balanced on the jawbone of a whale. 

The place we were is is a summer weekend getaway for folks from Nuuk. The green building is a restaurant that is also in Nuuk, it closes in the winter and is open in Nuuk and then in the summer it is open in this Fjord. 

The water here was crystal clear!

There was a fellow who performed a native Drum song for us, and one of them was a war song, the premise is you battle it out on the drums and then when you are done drumming you will be friends.  I am thinking these folks have much to teach us.

On the way back the guide and drummer stayed behind and the boat pilot was a bit more daring with us,

he got up close to a waterfall so we cold take photos, close to an iceberg, it was so amazing you could actually see the ice below the water too!

And lastly he got up close to a really old piece of (Black) ice floating in the water, 

And knocked a piece of it off, It made me kind of sad as this ice is extremely old. The guy with the pilot got it on the back of the boat and the girl behind me said she touched it, and I just had to when we got out of the boat.  I was holding something that was thousands and thousands of years old!

After this adventure and it was a good one! We had to come back on board and get tickets for the shuttle to go into town and knock around.  These two cities ( If you can call them that) remind me of Native American places I have been in the west, somehow and I can not lay a finger on it. Regardless we stopped for a bite of lunch and I had a hamburger that reminded me of a sophisticated White Castle.  

We had a look around and I am still thinking about the Musk Ox knitted sweaters, at around $1,250.00 We looked and looked for some yarn, but everyone was all out, except for a few pieces of remnants, I shall have to see what I can do with that, as of course I did purchase it!

We came back to the ship and had dinner shortly after followed by the entertainment which was pretty good tonight, some show tunes ending up with some ABBA!

Sea Day Sunday

 Today was another sea day.  We got up went to Mass and then for some rather shoddy breakfast, but still breakfast.  I really don’t care to go to the Windjammer (the Buffett) as there are never seats available and one of us has to go scout a seat while the other one gets her food.  It is pure chaos and Americans seem to LOVE a buffett.  Claire found us a seat with another couple but it was grudging and when I said “hi“ to the lady she didn’t even speak.  Regardless after we got our painting stuff and i took myself to the ships Starbucks.  It was actually as reasonable as buying it at one of the stores.  AND it was good coffee.  We painted through lunch so about 2ish we cane back to the room and pidddled, Claire napped and we started seeing Icebergs. 

 After dinner

we went to the Show what was a person doing  Cover for Celine Dion, but I didn’t really enjoy her as it almost felt like she was mocking her.   Claire and I both really like Dion and were disappointed.  She ended her show with the song from Titanic, which WAS rather funny.  YOu can tell these folks are children of the 70’s as in lieu of a lighter they were all waving their cameras. 

 Back to the Schooner and it was Baileys and Butterscotch for a nightcap.  Not sure weather to laugh of cry but ( I did a non scientific study ) 40% of the people in the bar were on their phones, that table of 4 bedside us all 4 were sitting there on their phones.

Coloredland, not Greenland

 Greenland

 Got up this morning to clouds, and it was hard to differentiate the land from the clouds, but as the sun came out and the haze burned off the landscape was easier to see.

  Claire sent me up to deck 12 to see an iceberg, but it was a embryonic one.  Breakfast was (Eggs Benedict) poached eggs which I had to send back, I hated that but the eggs were not even remotely runny.  I would have never gotten that choked down.  Regardless they were good once I had a new batch. 

We tendered into the village today Qaqortog. We chose not to do any sort of excursion here as the village is so small and there really was not much to do.  We wandered ( I was terribly surprised later that we actually put on. 8,000 steps) around, looked in a few souvenir stores/ stalls, but everything is terribly expensive.  

I really loved the rock carving that is an effort to beautify the village.  

The houses are all colored and originally they signified the profession of the person living in the house.  Yellow house/building indicated Medical , Blue indicates fisherman, (I guess my family house wold have to be blue) and churches and schools are red.  It is not a requirement any longer, so we say cranberry, peach, orange, and purple today.  Also I learned today the the government owns all the land and folks have a “right “ to live on it.  They can and do on their homes, but just not the property underneath.  We thought we were going to get a coffee but it when it finally opened only sold liquor. 

 So no contributing to the economy.  The weather was lovely, I started out with long sleeved tee, a sweater, and both parts of my coat and ended up with the coat totally off.    

We came back and water colored for a while.  

Dinner was good and we are resting up for a late night to hopefully see the Northern Lights which have eluded us so far.  

Hot Water

We got up early this morning after putting in an order for breakfast that never showed.   We left at 7 AM on a bus to a fissure and beautiful waterfall, this area was were the Icelanders first became united with a leader, and they celebrate every year at this site.  It was rainy but lovely.

Then we went to another spa, this one was not as nice.The drill was the same and the water not quite as hot.  Nor did it have the 7 Steps, though there were saunas and steam rooms. It was on the edge of a lake too and some folks were getting in.  

The unique thing about this spa  was the little spinner for your suit that you stuck it in, and it spun the excess water out fo the suit.  That was nice.

  Also I had to laugh at the shoe rack on the way out,  all women’s shoes and boy was that a stinky hallway!

I finally had some hot chocolate as we waited for everyone to get back together.  They bearded us back on the bus and we went for lunch.  WE sat at tablés with rolls and butter and a bowl with a plate under it.  Before we knew it they had brought big bowls of tomato soup,and then they brought out salmon with rice and mixed veggies, accompanied by a mango curry sauce that MADE the meal!  We then walked to a waterfalls which was lovely.

Next were geysers, a big one and lots of small ones.  It reminded me of being in Yellowstone.  

It flet that everywhere you looked there were little vapors or bubble pots with hot water.  Last but not least, Crater Lake,  it has the bluest water!

We got back on the boat in time for the boat to depart and went to dinner.   

The show tonight was a pianist with an interesting story for each song he played.  IT was nice.  Down to one of the bars for music and a Snickers drink,  Peanut butter whiskey and baileys.