MV FRAM EXPEDITION BLOG: FriedaPhoto

Showing posts with label FriedaPhoto. Show all posts

Friday, 2 May 2014

A misty day in the Scilly Isles

What a surprise! When we got up this morning we knew we were close to land – but it was completely obscured by heavy mist. Indeed the authorities, who clearly had experienced this before, told us that under such conditions their regulations were that we could not use our PolarCircleBoats to ferry people ashore. They wanted to have a minimum of traffic. Instead we had to use their tender boats – the largest of which took 90 passengers.

Steffi Wiegand

Gradually the mist lifted, and we could see that we were anchored in quiet water with low-lying islands of various sizes all around us. Most of us went ashore either on Tresco Island with its remarkable botanical gardens or took the Garrison walking tour on St. Mary’s Island. Both islands were very charming, and we realized from the number of places to sleep that tourism is the major source of income. The number of persons staying overnight is many times larger than the permanent population of around 2000 persons.

FriedaPhoto

Tresco Island is owned by a single family, who decided to establish the gardens many decades ago, by importing plants and trees from all over the world. It now took seven gardeners working full time to look after this enormous number of exotic plants. But it was not only the flora that was colourful; we were surprised to meet quite tame-appearing Golden Pheasants, originally imported from China.

FriedaPhoto

Whether returning from this island or from St. Mary’s, we were surprised to see intense rowing in boats manned by eight oarsmen. These relatively wide boats are called “gigs”, and they were warming up for the world Gig rowing championship, held annually always at the Scilly Islands. Competitors came from all over the world, this year there were more than 100 participants. Unfortunately the racing did not start until earnest the next day, so we had to leave without experiencing that particular event.

Steffi Wiegand

Thursday, 1 May 2014

A welcome by dolphins and a farewell by a tenor and a town’s band

We spent our last day in Ireland in Cobh and its wonderful surroundings. On our way to the city we have been accompanied by a huge group of dolphins.

Steffie Wiegand

Cobh is after Sydney the second largest natural harbour of the world. The harbour was first named Cove, what means bay.

FriedaPhoto

From 1850 to 1920 it was renamed in Queenstown, after Queen Victoria had visit the city. After the foundation of the republic of Ireland it was renamed again into Cobh, that’s nothing else than a Gaelicisation of the English name Cove. Today Cobh is well-known as the harbour of Cork.

Steffi Wiegand

Cobh gained notoriety between 1848 and 1950 when 2.5 million persons of only 6million Irish people left Ireland to emigrate to North America as there was a huge famine in Ireland, especially on the countryside. Some monuments in Cobh are built to memories this terrible time.

Steffi Wiegand

At the 11^th of April 1912 Cobh, at this time still called Queenstown, has been the last port of call for the RMS Titanic.

Steffi Wiegand

An 8 hour excursion drove passengers through the wonderful surroundings of the county of Munster. The first stop has been in Blarney Castle, a medieval stronghold near Cork at the river Martin. Here passengers had the time to enjoy the castle and the nice garden around it.

FriedaPhoto

After a nice homemade Irish lunch in Blarney city passengers left for Kinsale, a little picturesque harbour city nearby Cork. In former times Kinsale has been an important harbour town. Today the economy of the city is based on tourism.

FriedaPhoto

Another excursion went to Cork city and a whiskey distillery. What would be Ireland without its famous and tasty whiskey?

The city of Cobh offered us a special musical treat before we left. The tenor Ryan Morgan gave us an impressive performance in the Observation Lounge and the Cobh Brass and Reed Band was playing at the pier when we had to leave Cobh and Ireland. That has been a magnificent farewell.

Steffi Wiegand

The day ended with MV FRAM’s famous crew show.

Steffi Wiegand

Tuesday, 29 April 2014

Wild Donegal under a mild sun

Around 8:00 we reached Killybegs, the largest and most important fishing port in Ireland. Killybegs is located next to Donegal town in the County Donegal. The weather was more than perfect again to start with our excursions to Killybegs and its surroundings.

FriedaPhoto

One excursion started directly after our arrival and was called “Wild Donegal and Glencolmcille”. It was an impressive bus drive along the coastal road and we have been impressed how our bus driver could manage this more than small and twisting road.

FriedaPhoto

We reached the open air museum “Glencolmcille Folk Village” after some spectacular photo stops next to the steep cliffs of the “wild” Donegal. The museum itself gave us a good impression of the live in Ireland in the 18^th and 19^th century.

FriedaPhoto

After the historical part of our visit we could have a nice rest with scones and Irish tea and the typical Irish live music.

FriedaPhoto

Before we stepped in our bus again we went for shopping in the very small but extraordinary good museums shop. Nearly everything has been handmade from people and products out of the region nearby. Here we could get the typical souvenirs from the “Green Island”.

The other excursion stayed in the bay of Donegal. They explored the region by water bus and have been even able to watch some seals enjoying themselves on the sunny sandy beach.

Tomasz Zadrozny

Killybegs is a very nice and small city. On our way from the pier to the city we had to pass the fish factories and the fishing fleet of this nice harbour town.

FriedaPhoto

During the afternoon we have been invited into the “Harbour Bar” where we were greeted with Irish Live Music and where we had the opportunity to taste the Irish Beer and Whiskeys.

FriedaPhoto

The day ended on board with a Scottish evening – even we have been in Ireland now – with our Scottish couple Bernie and Beasty. We had another whisky tasting, this time without the “e”, and Scottish folk songs which are very similar to the Irish ones.

Sunday, 27 April 2014

Staffa and Iona – Places, where we were nearer to heaven!

We reached Staffa in the early morning. Those guests getting up early could enjoy a nice sun rise already. When we started our landing operation, the first time on this cruise with our little red PolarCircelBoats, the sun was shining out of a clear blue sky – not very typical for the Hebrides in Scotland.

Staffa is very well known for its natural beauty of basalt columns and the huge and very impressive sea cavern “Fingal’s Cave”. The basalt columns belong to a geological volcanic stone belt out of the Tertiary that spreads under the sea-level to the northern coast of Ireland. Here we will be able to see these columns on our excursion to the “Giant Causeway” again.

As the weather was unbelievable nice nearly all passengers tried to stay as long as possible on the island. Blue jackets could be seen all over the island’s plateau. Everybody had enough time to enjoy an incredible spring day with temperatures around 18 – 20 degrees Celsius.

All over the island flowers, like Violets, started to open their blossoms. Small willows showed their little cats already. We could see many passengers only sitting in the grass, watching the nature, and listen to the marvelous songs of the singing birds. It has been a very special and peaceful morning for everybody.

It was hard to leave the island but there was only short time for a fast lunch as we reached our next destination, the Island of Iona, around 14:00pm already.

Iona is a small island that belongs like Staffa to the Inner Hebrides. It has been the center of Irish monasticism for hundreds of years.

Saint Columba founded a first monastery on the island in 563. During the Middle Ages the Hiberno Scottish mission spread Christianity in Great Britain and the continental Europe.

After a guided tour over the island passengers had time enough to learn the island by themselves or to enjoy the very nice weather with a five o’clock tea in the garden of one of the nice hotels.

People on the island told us that they have still the feeling that the distance between heaven and earth is smaller on Iona than on other places on the world. And yes, we could understand Iona’s inhabitants when we had to leave this very special and peaceful place on earth. There has been something everybody could feel, and we took this impression with us back on board.

Friday, 25 April 2014

A good mixture of history and wildlife

An exceptionally quiet North Sea meant that sea sicknesses was not a large problem on the crossing from Bergen to Lerwick, the capital of the Shetland Islands. The islands have a strong historical connection with Norway from Viking times, but even in modern times the link is strong. During the Second World War more than 200 sailings were made by mostly small fishing vessels transporting people escaping from Norway, and taking military equipment and personnel from the Shetlands. The most famous of the captains on this activity was nick-named Shetland-Larsen and he was one of the most decorated people of the whole allied marine forces.

The Shetland Islands are an archipelago of more than 100 islands. The islands – most are unsettled – have app. 22.000 inhabitants and they are famous for an abundance of wildlife - especially at this time of the year for sea birds.

FriedaPhoto

Most of our passengers choose the opportunity to examine the older history of the islands. They went to the Jarlshof, a remarkable archaeological site, with Neolithic remains and settlements from the Bronze and Iron Ages and remains of an old Viking settlement.

Others left for a visit to the little island of Mousa. Mousa is very famous for its Iron Age Broch, a stone-built house that looks a bit like a round tower. These brochs can be found all over on the Shetland Islands and the rest of the Scottish country. They are at least 2000 years old, historians are still not sure about the real age. For us it was nice to climb up the inside stairs of this 43feet high building to have a good view over Mousa Island. But Mousa is not only famous for the Broch, it is especially well known for its amazing wildlife that we also could enjoy on our walk around the island.