August 2, 2023 Ísafjördur, Iceland

Today is an earlier start. At 7 a.m. we climbed the eight flights of stairs to Deck 9’s Lido Market for breakfast. The ship was maneuvering into place at Ísafjördur, Iceland’s newer pier that is still under construction. Passengers were happy that tendering was not needed today. Zuiderdam had turned to starboard from the Greenland Sea into Ísafjarddjup then another turn to starboard again entering Skutulsfjödur to the berth at Ísafjördur. Ísafjördur is located on a peninsula. The ship’s position is North 66° 3’ 50” (just below the Arctic Circle) and West 23° 7’ 20”.

For the past two days the elevator banks at the front of the ship have been mostly out of service due to a software problem that they had hoped could be fixed by a technician flying to Akureyri where we will be in two days, but that is still uncertain. Decks 2 and 3 have access to the World Stage from these elevators plus the gym and spa on Deck 9 and the Crow’s Nest on Deck 10, not to mention the forward staterooms on decks 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 10. Two staff members are acting as elevator operators on two of the six elevators. The nearby staircase is not really busy because people are just walking to the midship’s six elevators for accessing decks 1 to 9.

We saw Ellen and David looking at the eggs station when we were leaving the Lido Market. The Viking Star waited until our ship was moored before backing into their spot. It had about 800 passengers.

The morning fog hung about 200 meters overhead hiding the tops of the mountains. The temperature was 9° C and a light breeze NNW 6 km/hr. We wore long pants, long sleeve shirts, windbreakers and gloves for the walking tour of the old town and main street of Ísafjördur. Our group had gathered in the World Stage with our stickers by 8:15 a.m., but the tour time was based on tendering to the pier. We waited another 20 minutes before called to join the guide, Stefan on the pier. It was a five minute walk to the security gate on a crushed rock surface since the area was not yet paved.

There were 19 passengers to start. Along the 3.5 km route four people left for various reasons. Stefan had a nice pace and stopped every five minutes to tell us about the place where we were standing. Zuiderdam is moored near the former small harbour where there is a marina. The large harbour is on the other side of the kilometre wide peninsula. The houses until the late 1800s were made from drift wood that had made its way from Siberia. The drift wood was well cured by the salt water and was an excellent building material. Today most of these houses are clad in colourful corrugated iron including their roofs. This protects them from the stormy conditions all year around. The first houses we saw used to face the water but after World War 2 the shore was extended and a rock retaining wall was built to prevent flooding from storms. We passed several buildings that were fish processing factories until 50 years ago. Now there is only one were fish processing factory which occupies the main floor of its building. There are other businesses on the two upper floors. Over by the large harbour an old fish factory building has been converted into the University Center of the Westfjords campus affiliated with the University of Iceland. There is an indoor swimming pool, which our guide says is a kind of social gathering place. We passed one of two small public gardens. Then continued toward the main shopping street, cutting through the Lutheran Church cemetery where Stefan explained about Icelandic surnames. The son’s surname is created from his father’s first name. So if Thor had a son Jon, the boy would be known as Jon Thorson. The daughter’s surname is created from her mother’s first name. So if Elin had a daughter Ingrid, the girl would be known as Ingrid Elinsdottir.

The old hospital, built in 1924, is across a street from the cemetery and is now the Culture House. The new hospital is across the main street, overlooking the large harbour and was constructed in the late 1980s. Stefan pointed out a slope above the town that is an avalanche dam to reduce the damage of snow or mudslides to the neighbourhoods. We returned to the main street and stopped in Silver Square, so named since it was once the place where fish fillets were dried (silver skins). The town’s bakery is located across the street, which Cee Kaye said had a line outside of it early this afternoon. Storms can cut the power supply, but Ísafjördur has a diesel power plant that restores power within 30 seconds of a power failure.

The final stop, which was within sight of the ship, was the Westfjord Maritime Museum. It gave the history of the area. This was the end of the walking tour. Inside on the main level was a sample table of Icelandic delicacies for our group. There were shark meat, diced into small pieces, dried fish and a 15 ml shot of Icelandic schnapps called Brennivin, which is a potent liquor made from fermented potato pulp that is flavoured with caraway seeds. The museum was one of the old 18^th century warehouses of a Danish trading company, one of four buildings. On one side of it was the manager’s house and the other was the store which sold everything that the small community needed and there was another warehouse. The store and the manager’s house are currently private residences and the other warehouse is a seafood restaurant. Across the large yard was a new building that housed the information centre. Larry asked there where we could find a Wi-Fi hotspot and were told that the closest, just 400 meters away was the Dokkan Brugghus (brewery).

We returned to the ship to add another layer of sweaters and get our laptops so that Larry could update the blog at the modern Dokkan Brugghus. You could order a flight of four 100 ml glasses from their selection of 12 different styles of beer. There were also larger flights of eight or twelve. We shared a small flight and a soft pretzel which we consumed during the 2 ½ hours it took to load a week’s worth of daily text entries, photos and their explanations plus a quick check of emails and Facebook.

Then we decided to walk the some of the morning route and detour as we wished. In the large harbour there were several fishing trawlers. By the hospital is a Fishermen’s Memorial to the many men who have lost their lives while fishing. Also in the grounds was a large boulder cut in quarters with some organ pipes in the middle of it. It was not on the tour so we do not know the significance of it. We stopped into a grocery store and recognized Kellogg’s cereals and Cheerios in the cereal aisle. The average grocery item was higher priced than in Canada. We wound our way back to the ship. We only had to show our key card to enter the pier area. We had taken our drivers licenses as government issued ID but no one asked to see them.

During the afternoon the fog lifted, but still hung to the mountain sides. The temperature rose to 12° C when the sun shone. We changed for dinner and joined Cee Kaye and Brad at our table. They told us about the bus tour through the mountain tunnel into the Westfjord region. They were highly complimentary of the guide and the tour. After dinner we went to the Crow’s Nest for cappuccinos and watched a small Iceland Airlines plane takeoff on the other side of the fjord where the airport is located.

Tonight at 9 p.m. the Ballroom Dance Hour was happening in thee Rolling Stone Lounge. We enjoyed it much better than the last time. We talked to other dancers from Hawaii and Vermont. There were people there just to watch the dancers. We received applause for a Tango where we were the only couple dancing.

Zuiderdam stayed until 10:45 p.m. before departing 15 minutes early. The Captain’s 6 p.m. announcement mentioned that it will be a leisurely trip to Akureyri averaging about seven knots to cover the 206 nautical miles. The ship will stay in the Greenland Sea, within sight of the Iceland coast. Some passengers hope to see some whales. Just before Akureyri, he plans to turn north and guide the ship to a latitude point just above the Arctic Circle. There will probably be an announcement for the event.

Total steps today 20,266 which includes 7.2 kilometers of walking around Ísafjördur.