September 8 – Conclusion

Highlights

Brian

Best Meal:

Le Petit Chef. An amazing four course meal that easily exceeded any theme restaurant, I’ve ever visited.

Most Scenic:

Golden Circle Tour of southwest Iceland with memorable geological locations.

Favourite Location:

Prinz Christian Sund. Four hours of nature at its most spectacular.

Favourite Memory:

The life size whale exhibits in the Whales of Iceland museum.

Marg

Best Meal:

Lobster at the captain’s dinner aboard the Eclipse

Most Scenic:

Iceland with its diverse scenery ranging from mountains and volcanic craters to beautiful ocean inlets

Favourite Location:

Reykjavik with its many attractions and its beautiful harbour

Favourite Memory:

Whale watching in Provincetown with the family

 

By the numbers

Approximate distance travelled by cruise liner (km)      5,900

Approximate distance travelled by airplane (km)            5,170

Approximate distance travelled by automobile (km)     600

Total                                                                                                      11.670

Number of days                               25

Number of days at sea                 12

Number of countries                    4

Number of cities/towns              11

Pictures Taken                                 588

 

 

Random Thoughts

Iceland is the most English foreign country I’ve ever visited. I doubt I’ve overheard the Icelandic language more than a couple of times a day.

Iceland is easily the most advanced cashless society. During our stay, I only used cash a couple of times, and that was because I want to get rid of the krónas that I had bought in Canada.

Iceland is totally dependent on thermal energy. It drives heating and electrical power. It even is a necessary component of their social and recreational activities.

Gas in Reykjavik was over $4 a litre

Greenland is great if you like to stay in small, isolated communities with the bare necessities. I’m sure that for some that sounds like heaven, but it is not for me.

Qaqortoq, might be the only place that has a polar bear warning system, which is tested each week.

In Qaqortoq the major crime story was a man accused of stealing two bottles of wine. He pleaded innocent because he had stolen three bottles.

I don’t know why, but it surprised me that the native population of Greenland is Inuit. This is the same community that settled in the Canadian Artic.

We only saw one whale, a Minke whale, during our cruise. This was a major disappointment that was corrected when we got to Provincetown in the USA.

While in Halifax we saw a sign that the Liberal Party is in big trouble. Trudeau and his cabinet were in Halifax and all we heard were complaints about the traffic being disrupted by his motorcade.

I don’t think city planners in Yarmouth MA have ever heard of the grid system for roads. The layout of their town was so confusing that even Google Maps gave up and admitted it was lost.

Kari’s children’s books are huge items in the Cape Cod libraries.

The passengers on the Eclipse were mainly Americans. I was pleasantly surprised that I didn’t hear very much talk about the upcoming election. I guess they are as feed up with politicians as I am.

Boston is justifiably proud of their revolutionary past, but they oversell it. Once you’ve seen the important sights and listened to their heroic tales, you’ve got no reason to return here.

I now know that I should read those messages from Air Canada. I missed the notice that our flight time had changed from 8:00am to 7:00am.  Luckly for us we caught an early hotel shuttle and made it on time, but it could have been disastrous. 


Videos

Below are some links to some short clips I took on the trip.  I've also included an excellent video from our granddaughter Mckenna from the whale watching excursion.

Geyser in Iceland  

Southern coast of Greenland

Prinz Christian Sund

Elevator ride up Celebrity Eclipse

Mckenna's whale watching video


Photos

Below are links to photographs taken on the vacation. I used Google Photos to create the albums. Unfortunately I had to rely of Google Photos AI module to identify people in the pictures and the results are very inconsistent. Turning off the (i) when selecting a photo will give you just the description without the technical information. If you want the names of the people in the photo turn (i) back on.

Celebrity Eclipse

Reykjavik Iceland

Golden Circle Tour

Isafjordur Icenland

Akureyri Iceland

Prinz Christian Sund - Greenland

Qaqortoq Greenland

Halifax Canada

Cape Cod (Yarmouth) USA

Whale Watching - Provincetown USA

Chatham USA

Plymouth USA

Boston

Harvard University USA











 


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