Route through Prince Christian Sound - We transited it from W to E on the way to Europe and from E to W on the return |
Entrance to Prince Christian Sound
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Entrance to Prince Christian Sound
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Rugged mountains |
Peaks silhouetted by photographing into the morning sun
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Really interesting shapes and reflections
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A nearly perfect reflection |
Reflection of a waterfall
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Glacier high among the peaks
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One seal basking in the sun |
Nice example of how the glacier plucks the rock away as it melts forming a bowl or basin
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Like a snow cone
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Some green amongst the rock and ice
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Our ship idled around the village of Aappilattoq, a very isolated Inuit village of 110 people. The houses were as colorful as they were in Nanortalik and they have a school, a market, and a mechanical workshop. We stayed off shore long enough for maybe 20 people to come out on the rocks and wave or hop into their motor boats to come out and around our ship. HAL did give them some provisions. Our passengers certainly took lots of pictures of them and their town.
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Aappilattoq, Greenland
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Aappilattoq |
Friendly people
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Coming out to get a closer look
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Cute kids |
Marge and I stayed out on the 4th deck bow to admire and photograph the land and ice growlers and brash. We spent quite a while in the fjord in front of a mile wide tidal glacier, Kangerdluk. The second glacier, Kujalleg, was a half mile wide. The third glacier was Sermeq Kajatleq and the wind was such that we could not get close.
The crew served delicious, thick Dutch pea soup with a slice of bacon on the bow at lunch. It was not cold and the sun felt wonderful. We saw three seals - one in the water and two on floating ice. I think I saw two whales just as we entered the sound.
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Kangerdluk Glacier
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Lots of waterfalls |
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Iceberg ahead |
Up close to the iceberg
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Hanging glacier and waterfall
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Kujalleg Glacier |
Kujalleg Glacier |
Seal on the ice in the middle of the photo
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Seabourn - Too small for the seas we encountered in the North Atlantic
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I have photos of four glaciers and names for only three. The one on the right is not named at this point. However, it was kind enough to do some calving for my camera, as the following three photos show.
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Calving glacier
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Calving glacier |
Calving glacier
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Sermeq Kajatleq
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Sermeq Kajatleq
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Fri., 8/9 - At Sea
The sea was surprisingly calm all the way from Greenland north and east to Iceland. There is a two-hour time difference from Greenland to Iceland. The sea day was spent in the usual routine of going to lectures about the Vikings and the next ports of call and Gale going to craft class.
Sat., 8/10 - Isafjordur, Iceland (population 2,600)
Two hours were spent ashore in Isafjordur, Iceland. The wind in the fjord was fairly strong and the tenders were bouncing around at the ship. That part was exciting! On our last visit to Iceland we docked at Isafjordur and visited the Maritime/Heritage Museum (7/13/10) so this time we just walked around. We joined the crowd outside of a cafe and got WiFi to get our emails and up-date the currency exchange rates on my phone. One Icelandic krona equals $.008 US! or $1 US = 123 IK. It is not an easy conversion. A T-shirt cost 3999 krona or $32.50 US! A donut at the cafe was 430 IK or $3.50 US. We are well aware that Iceland ranks with Norway and Switzerland as most expensive in Europe.
The mist and light rain eventually stopped but the sun did not appear. A Supermarket was along our path so we stopped in to see what they had. It was very well stocked. They even had Tuc crackers and peanut butter. A small jar of “Peter Pan” was $4.85 US. I will bring a jar of PB with me in November.
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Flag of Iceland
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License Plate |
Town of Isafjordur |
Statue dedicated to the local fishermen
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Church and cemetery |
Gas "ain't" cheap!
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Another impossible language - thank heaven for signs
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Fish and Mussel farming |
Fish and Mussel farming
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Sun., 8/11 - Akureyri, Iceland
Today it rained all day in Akureyri and it was 41° with a strong wind. Marge and I dressed in layers under our rain suits and walked in and around the town. We had been here before (8/1/10) but took pictures with the two ugly trolls again and of the church at the top of the 122 steps. It was so windy up there we did not go on to the botanical gardens.
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Gale and a friendly troll
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Waterside sculpture |
Love the sign on this truck which was emptying sewage tanks
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The captain cut short our time in this port because a “gale” was blowing in from the northeast. The storm arrived at the Iceland coast at 5 PM which was when we headed out the long fjord into the storm. Until midnight we “pitched and rolled” in 20+-foot waves.
As dinner time neared, the storm worsened so we went to the Lido and ate some lasagna and bread and returned to the horizontal position with sea bands on. Marge had Bonine and I put on a 3-day Transderm patch for sea sickness. We watched a movie, “The Shipping News,” (because it stars Judi Dench) from our beds. It got very rough and the next day our captain said we had winds to 48 MPH and 22-24—foot waves. Neither of us got sick. Yay! Being on the 8th deck is not an advantage - we feel more movement than lower on the ship.
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