Iona

The day today we spend on the beautiful islands of Iona and Staffa.
Again a superp day. Perfect weather condions for landings with our Polar Circle Boats.
The outdoor acitivies started around 8 o`clock on the island of island which is one of the oldest and most important religios centres in Western Europe. Christianity was spread throughout Scotland and marks the foundation of a monastic community by St. Columba.

The book of Kells, a famous manuscript, is believed to have been written by the monks of Iona around
800 AD. Vikings "visited" the monastery on the island several times.
Some of our guests went for an early service in the church, others walked around for personal education in the rich historic area of the Abbey and the surroundings. Two groups were shown around of professional guides.
All of us were very embrassed of beeing on the isle of Iona.
In the afternoon the ship sailed 14 nm northeast to the tiny island of Staffa. The name is from Old Norse and
means stave or pillar island. The island is well known for its basaltic rocks specially in the south end.
Nobody lives there. The island became to prominence after a visit by Felix Mendelsson. His Hebrides Overture brought fame to the island.

 

Again a superp landing with our Polar Cirkle Boats. The guests enjoyed to walk a longside the high cliffs and had a look into the majestic Fingal`s cave.



Oban

We reached Oban, a resort town within Argyll and Bute council area of Scotland.

Oban has a population of about 8,100 inhabitants.

The town is an important ferry port for the connection to the Hebrides.

A modern town which grew up around the Oban Distillery which was founded as early as in 1794.

Up on the hill there is the McCaigs Tower a prominent local landmark.

Outside of the town stands Dunollie Castle.

The weather again was fantastic with temperatures up to 18 degrees.
Two excursions were offered: "Majestic Scotland" and "Seil Island and Easdale".



Stornoway

The Outer Hebrides were on our programm for today. The galic word for for thease islands is "Na h-Eileanan Siar" or "Innse Gall".
The islands became part of the Norse kingdom  for over 400 years in the viking time until 1266 and they were called "Sudureyjar", the Southern Islands. Still 80 % of the population on the countryside speaks scotish galic today. There are some newspapers in galic, a TV station in galic, books are printed in galic and in the schools they teach in galic language. It looks like scotish galic language on the Outer Hebrides has a future.

The weather was calm and for us who now came down with the MS Fram from the northern countries nearly exotic temperatures of around 15 degrees. We docked at the port of Stornoway, the main but small and lovely city on the Outer Hebrides. Excursions were  offered to the Callanish Stones which are the finest example of a stone circle in Scotland dating from about 2900 BC, the traditional black houses and an rebuilt village from the iron age.

The Outer Hebrides are the famous area of the manufacture of Harris tweed which was the main souvenir bought on the island today!



Shetlands

In the morning around 8 o`clock our ship docked at the smal pier in Leirwick the capital of the Shetland Islands.

The small central city was only a few 100 meters away from the Fram.The weatherforcast for the day was not very good: rain the whole day! But that changed very qiuckly during the morning to a dry and warm day with temperatures of about 12 degrees. Our norwegian guests felt nearly at home.

The Shetland Islands had a great influence by norwegian invaders. The Norwegian language, "the norn" was spoken until the 19th century.

The excursions to the "Jarlshof" and the island of "Mousa" where booth very informativ and well joined by our travellers.

The Faroese

View of the inside of the cathedral in Torshavn

Today we reached the Faroe Islands. 18 still green islands of which 17 are inhabited.
The islands belongs to Danmark but they a kind of independence. A lot of exciting culture is to be discover there.
The Faroese viking language is most related to icelandic but has its roots in Norway.
The old Faroes chain dance is still alive but the time for us was too short to get closer in to it. We had an dance performance with the guest some days ago in our observation lounge.
The boat trip to the famous Vestmanna bird cliffs was cancelled due to the strong wind from southwest. Instead of a trip to the northern part of the island of Eysturoy was offered. That trip with beautiful views over lots of waterfalls and nice tiny villages was fantastic.

                                    

We had a bus tour to Kirkjubour the old religios center. The Olav church, the oldest stone church still in use from the 12th century, the ruins of the gothic St. Magnus cathedral and the 900 years old kings farm house the oldest wooden house in Europe were visited.



Reykjavik

A new trip starts today from the pier close to the heart of Icelands biggest city Reykjavik. Not far from here the viking Ingolvur Arnarson settled down around 874 B.C. and called the place a Smokey Bay (Reykjavik).

The wind had calmed down and the sun shined the whole day, but it was cold in the city on 65 degrees north. The new guests arrived on time and we could leave Reykjavik just before 8 pm.

Portugal Oporto Port

This morning we arrived around 8 o 'clock in the harbour of Lexious, which is part of the town Matosinhos. Matosinhos lies around 10 km's from the city Oporto. When entering the harbour we could enjoy a beautiful sunrise. It is always exiting to stand on deck when entering a new harbour, today we were passing several fishing boats surrounded with numerous birds. From the pier two excursions were leaving strait away. One whole day excursion with destination Douro valley and one shorter excursion to the city Oporto. Both excursions had as central themes the river Douro and Port wine. Port wine is produced exclusively in the Douro valley in the Northern provinces of Portugal. The scenery is spectacular in this region. Part of the excursion was a wonderful lunch in the winery of Quinta da Pacheca. During the city tour of Oporto we got to know a lot of facts about the people living there. Did you know that the Portugees eat twice the amount of fish then the average European! They catch a lot of fish also! After Japan and Iceland Portugal is the biggest fishing nation. In the centre of town we visited the cathedral and the Sao Bento Railway Station. After that we had a nice cruise on the river Douro with a Rabelo boat, once used to transport the barrels of wine from the Douro region down to the wine cellars in Gaia. We sailed under the numerous bridges crossing this river, and we had fantastic views on both sides. We ended our tour with a visit to a port wine cellar. Here we tasted two different kinds of port wine. First we tried the white port wine, made from white grapes and then we tried a glass of ruby port wine, made from red grapes. Both very tasty! Unfortunately we didn't get the opportunity to try the tawny port which is also made from red grapes and are aged in wooden barrels. At 16 o'clock we left Oporto and we are sailing South towards the capital of Portugal, Lissabon!

Cruising the Seine River

An overnight stay in Rouen, the historic buildings beautifully lit, and a morning stay that enabled passengers to get to Giverney and to the Abbey's of Jumieges and St. George de Boscherville.  The distinctive towers of Notre Dame de Jumieges made this the tallest church of 11th Century Normandy.

Claude Monet painted Rouen from St. Catherine's viewpoint as well executing a well known series of the Cathedral facade demonstrating the effects of changing light. The gardens of his home at nearby Giverney also inspired many of his Impressionist works.

Cruising the Seine River, on the way back out to sea, the sunshine, albeit briefly, bounced off the chalk cliffs and the dramatic bridges near the mouth of the river. 

Pearl and Oyster

The protagonists in "Les Amants de Pont Neuf" in Paris would certainly not think about the river Seine the way we get to see it here at the Normandy mouth of the stream as we make berth in Le Hare: It is wide and lazy and not meandering at all. And it sits in a very, very useful spot if it comes to infrastructural requirements. So it is no wonder that over the last 50 years the area has been converted into one vast industrial zone with refineries and shipyards and silos and everything that looks all but romantic. However, Le Havre is not without charme, in fact it is a UNESCO world heritage site for its fully untouched 20th century architecture.

Those who are more in for the beauty of the really old days will instead jump onto the shuttle bus and be driven to Honfleur, just on the other bank of the river. After a 20 minutes ride, industry and harbour cranes are left behind and the utterly pittoresque buildings of Honfleur are waiting to be discovered. On foot, of course, the narrow alleyways literally ask for it. It is a little hard to comprehend why this superb little gem is not yet a dedicated car-free zone. Apart from that, time seems to have stood still: old timber-framework houses are leaning towards the cobblestone streets, old masonery does the rest. It was a pirate nest, a fisherman's central, all from the medieval times on, it was a spritual hub for artists like Eugen Boudin and Monet later on, and the city still lives it: 

On every corner we find galleries, art shops, or at least allusions to the pirate era. A wonderful old-fashioned atmosphere lies on the place, the natural speed is the stroll, the natural expression is that of sheer awe and curiosity. And who can withstand all these temptations that come in form of Normandy bread, Normandy cake, spices, Calvados and Crêpes? No mistake, this is a hidden pearl, in the embrace of that concrete-and-steel world of today's industry. Good to know it is there.

And now - it is time to say good-bye: Captain's Farewell Cocktail is held in the Observation Lounge, because tomorrow morning we will dock in Dover and - sorry to say that - this trip is over. But as it seems, all had a really, really good time and leave unwillingly, but happy. Have a safe journey home!

Portsmouth

Today we have been in Portsmouth. We had sunny weather and that means that we had the best conditions for our planned excursions. Our experiences have been so wonderful, that we would like to share these with you. And here you can see, that picuteres can say somtimes more than words!

Exbury Gardens & New Forest   

Historical Winchester & Cathedral

Stonehenge & Salisbury