Tag Archives: Regent Splendor

adventure, Champagne Bucket trips, Iceland, Nordic

Our first Icelandic adventure: How did we end up there? (part one)

Bill and I just got home from Iceland yesterday afternoon. I’ve been itching to write about our visit to the mysterious island nation for days now, but have held off on starting the series until we got home. Although I sometimes start writing before trips end, this time, this time I decided I needed to wait. I wanted to be near my desktop computer, where I have more tools to edit photos and make videos. I also find writing on the desktop much easier than writing on the laptop; that’s important, because I have a lot of ground to cover.

But, really, the main reason I waited was because we have been VERY busy. Seriously… it seems like we’ve been gone a month, even though our trip was only for about ten days. One of our drivers estimated we saw about 30 percent of Iceland on our trip. My guess is that we saw less than that, mainly because Bill and I are older and less willing to traipse through the wilderness. There’s a lot of wild country in Iceland, and the weather can be brutal, especially if you’re not adequately prepared.

I’m sorry to report, I was not quite ready for Iceland’s hostile climate. Bill had, at least, done some shopping on Bergfreunde.de for new shoes and a hat. Luckily, there are businesspeople in Iceland who anticipate tourists like me, and there are quite a few Icewear stores scattered about the more populated areas. When we stopped by Icewear, we saw many other people who were in the same situation we were… buying raincoats, shoes, beanies… and the smarter ones probably invested in waterproof pants. I sure wish I had!

Nevertheless, in spite of being somewhat underprepared, Bill and I managed to enjoy our visit unscathed. Neither of us got sick or injured. And… according to the pedometer app on my iPhone, we covered about 17 miles walking… which may not seem like a lot to younger, fitter people, but for a fatass housewife like me, it’s a pretty good deal. Especially when one considers the weather! It wasn’t super cold, but the rain and wind were incredible; I had never experienced anything like it before. I wasn’t prepared for that on this visit, but if we manage to go to Iceland again, I will definitely be more ready for it.

So how did we end up going to Iceland in the first place?

Bill and I have a ritual of choosing our vacations by luck. We used to be fans of Eurowings’ “blind booking” program, in which you book a flight somewhere, but don’t know where you’re going until after you’ve paid. We did that a few times when Eurowings was still called Germanwings. But then we later had more money, and less desire to fly places on the cheap. I’m sure my expanding ass had a lot to do with that. 😉

We also have two dogs who have to be accommodated by the local Hundpension, which makes it harder for us to be too spontaneous. When we still had our comparatively small beagles, Zane and Arran, it was sometimes easier to just take them with us when we went places. But now we have Noyzi, who takes up all the cargo space in the back of the Volvo. And we have Charlie, who is still kind of afraid of riding in the car. It’s better to board them when we go places.

We started planning trips with the same “surprise” idea of blind bookings, only instead of letting the airline decide, we let the champagne bucket choose. We put scraps of paper in the bucket and Bill picks one. If the selection is feasible for when we want to travel, we book it. At some point in the spring, he picked Iceland. We were delighted with that result, because Iceland was a place we both really wanted to visit before we shove off the mortal coil. Iceland isn’t cheap, so it’s good to go there when the cash flow is good… and it’s also potentially physically challenging, so it’s best to visit when one has the stamina and ability to get around somewhat easily.

I did have some worries about the weather, even though we were technically visiting in the summer… but then I saw memes like the one below…

Don’t let that “green land” fool you… Bring a jacket!

I got fooled into thinking Iceland is more temperate than it is. I mean, it is temperate, considering where it’s located, but it’s certainly not temperate like Germany is. When we left Germany, it was hot as the dickens! The funny thing is, when Bill went to Reykjavik in 2009, it was around the time of my June birthday. He brought me a wool scarf and a CD of Icelandic folk tunes sung acapella by people with very ordinary voices. I was confused by the wool scarf in June… until now. 😉

Finding Iceland Luxury Tours…

So anyway, Bill picked Iceland out of the bucket, and the responsibility came down to me to plan the trip. I don’t know why I was inspired to hire a guide for our visit to Iceland. We’ve never done a private tour before, although we have done at least one group tour together (which I’m not very good at). I guess, somewhere in my brain, I realized that visiting rugged Iceland, with its unpredictable weather and rough roads, might go better if we had a local doing the driving. I wasn’t as wise about the weather in terms of dressing, but I did at least have enough common sense to look into finding us a guide/driver. Somehow, in the process of planning, I came across Iceland Luxury Tours.

I’m a big believer in reading reviews, although I do realize that a lot of people tend to write them when they’re either pissed off or very happy. I found many positive reviews of Iceland Luxury Tours on multiple sources, including Trip Advisor, which in my experience, often turns out to be the most accurate source of all. I review most of our travel experiences, and I try to be as honest as possible, even if I’ve had a mediocre time. I was impressed that Iceland Luxury Tours had many five star reviews and glowing comments, and only three four star ratings. It had not been rated lower by anyone. On Google, there were far fewer reviews, but the ones they had were all raving. So I asked Bill to contact them to see what they could do for us.

Bill sent an inquiry to Iceland Luxury Tours, and the owner, Sveinn Sigurður Kjartansson, was quick to respond. After Bill offered a budget, Sveinn proposed some itineraries. Then we tweaked the trip to suit our interests. For example, I am a big time horse lover. Iceland is famous for its Icelandic horses (and they are horses– not ponies). Sveinn added a visit to a horse farm to our trip. We like spas, so he added a visit to the Sky Lagoon. We’re not super fit or thrill seeking, so those kinds of activities were omitted. Later, when I realized that flying home on Friday, as we’d planned, would be significantly more expensive, we added a day. Sveinn added activities for that extra day.

How much did it cost?

Well, folks… I’ll be honest. This was a very expensive trip. Iceland Luxury Tours planned everything for us, to include our luxury hotels, breakfasts, private tours/tickets to several attractions, transfers to and from the airport, transportation to the Sky Lagoon, and five full days with our guide, Ivar, and a very capable Toyota Land Cruiser. I think Bill said it all came to about $17,300 or so… And then I booked round trip Saga Class (business) tickets on Icelandair, which was well worth doing, but not a cheap endeavor. I think the tickets were about $2500 for the two of us, give or take $100. Fortunately, we had the money to cover it, and a new travel credit card from PenFed that offers generous travel benefits.

Now, I do realize we could have done this trip much more cheaply, even with a guide. We could have scaled down the budget significantly and still had a memorable experience. But these days, I like to travel in comfort. I’ve had my fill of traveling cheaply… and believe me, I’ve done plenty of that in my lifetime! Luckily, Bill doesn’t mind being more comfortable, and we currently have the means to travel that way.

Although we don’t usually spend that much on our trips, it did occur to me that last year, we spent a couple of weeks in Scandinavia and spent well over $20,000. That trip included about a week on our own in Norway, a week on the Regent Splendor, and then a couple of nights in Denmark. So, this trip to Iceland, which is probably going to be our one big vacation this year, isn’t that far out of line for us. But I do want to reiterate– you don’t have to spend that much yourself. You can do fewer days with a guide, concentrate in a smaller area, do group tours instead of private ones, eat cheaper food… and avoid drinking alcohol. 😉

I do recommend hiring a guide, though, especially if you want to go to any rugged parts of the country. There will be more on that in the coming posts. When I start sharing photos and videos, you’ll certainly see why!

So… now it’s time to write the story of our first trip to Iceland. I hope you’ll join me on this very bumpy but exhilarating ride!

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Champagne Bucket trips, Regent Seven Seas Cruise Lines

Visiting God in Gotland… Visby, Sweden!

On Tuesday, June 27th, Regent Splendor called on Visby, Sweden. Visby is a place I’d never heard of when I booked this cruise, but it’s actually a pretty cool place to visit. Located on Gotland Island, off the eastern coast of the Swedish mainland, Visby is a well-preserved walled medieval town, with beautiful gardens, historic homes, and a huge, majestic church.

It looks like there were only two tours offered during our Visby stop. We ended up taking the Medieval Visby tour, which appears to be very much like the other tour, Visby Walk & Historical Museum, except the tour we were on did not include a visit to the museum.

I kind of liked our tour guide, an older lady who was a native of Visby. She was very knowledgeable about Visby, and enthusiastic about her job. I heard her say that she taught classes in a university. I could believe it. She really knew her stuff, and she was entertaining, too. We were all given headsets that made it easier to hear her. The one I had didn’t seem to work very well and with every step, it bounced against my boobs, so I just listened to her live.

Although Visby has a walled in old town, most people no longer live in the town proper, as the historic museum has a lot of rules about what people can do to the historic homes there. There are rules about construction, painting, and even what kinds of windows people can install. Our guide showed us the smallest house in Visby, which she said sold about ten years ago for about $200,000. It’s so small that one can’t even stand up straight in it. The guide, who appeared to be short like me and said she couldn’t stand up in the house, explained that the buyer was actually the next door neighbor, as buying the tiny house was the only way to have more space at his house!

We learned that Visby used to have a train, but it was stopped in 1960. People are apparently still kind of bitter about losing the train, but the guide explained that it wasn’t really practical to have it. Using buses is more efficient. The old train station still exists, and is now used for a different purpose.

We also learned that there are homes in Visby that are built entirely of wood, including the nails holding them together. And when Visby was conquered, residents were encouraged to build stone houses. They were given excellent tax incentives to use stone, rather than wood, as the wood was a valuable commodity for sales abroad. Some residents tricked the tax authorities by covering up their wooden homes with stone facades. To this day, it’s possible to spot homes that are actually wooden, covered up by stone to fool the taxmen.

As interesting as Visby is, I think some people on our tour were a bit frustrated, as the guide moved at a slow pace. I heard one woman loudly complaining to her husband that the guide only went a few yards at a time before she would stop to tell a story or explain something. Also, I know some of us really needed to pee. At one point, I followed a fellow passenger to a restaurant, which kindly allowed us to use their facilities. The toilets were pretty nasty, though, especially the one the other lady used. It reeked of something very foul! She looked horrified when she came out. I held my breath and was spared much of the olfactory torture.

We were only able to visit the chapel in Visby Cathedral, as the main part was not open. I understand there are toilets at the cathedral, too, but they weren’t open, either. I think people who didn’t go when I did used another restroom at a restaurant.

My favorite part of the tour was probably the botanical garden, which was very beautiful and well-tended, with many different trees and smaller plants. We also visited Gallows Hill, and our guide explained how condemned people were treated back in the day. The hill is located well outside of the walled city’s gates, which our guide told us were closed every night, and made it impossible for people to go in or out. For many years, no one lived outside of the walls of the old city, so much of the island was “wild”. Obviously, that’s no longer the case today.

Below are some photos from Visby!

Of all the places we visited, Visby’s port was the most bombed by seagulls!
An Oceania ship was also in port. I believe it was Marina.
Gallows Hill
Part of the wall
In the chapel
A very tiny street
Wooden house
Wooden nails
Visby Cathedral
The tiniest house in Visby!

The photos are actually a little bit misleading. Visby was pretty crowded when we visited. I couldn’t help but think that as charming as the town is, I would think all the tourists and tour groups would get very old for the locals. But I guess they do provide some valuable economy for the island. Below are some more photos I took… and as I look at them now, I’m amazed by how pretty they are. Visby is very interesting and charming, but like I said, quite populated with people like us– tourists! However, everywhere we went, except for that one bathroom, smelled heavily of fragrant flowers. The roses and linden trees were especially intoxicating.

After our tour, we went back to Splendor and prepared for our 6:30 PM dinner reservation at Chartreuse, the ship’s French specialty restaurant. I got the feeling that of the three specialty restaurants, Chartreuse might be the least popular. I enjoyed it, although I felt the food was a very Americanized version of French cuisine. I was especially delighted, though, to get somewhat early reservations. Bill and I are not night owls. I probably would be more of one, if not for Bill, but he’s very much an early bird. His brain goes down with the sun. 😀

Here are some photos from Chartreuse…

The champagne glasses were a little “sweaty” when we got them.
Pilot helping us out of the port.
Smoked salmon appetizer. Excellent!
Steak tartare for Bill.
Lobster bisque.
Mushroom soup for Bill.
I had lobster tail with scallop mousse. It was good, but the presentation was a little odd.
Bill had halibut.
And French style “waffle fries” called gaufrettes.
Mashed potatoes for me.
And green beans that were a little mushy.
Chocolates
Bill had the cheese course.
I had Bavarian lemon cream.
Sunset

As we were leaving, the waiter presented me with a little box. Inside were two fresh pistachio macarons. Very nice, but since we live next door to France, it probably wasn’t as exciting for me as it is for other passengers. But they had no way of knowing that! 😉

After dinner, we had a nightcap in the Observation Lounge. I had some of my favorite Armagnac. Bill had a gin and tonic. We rushed back to the stateroom so I could get shots of the incredible sunset. That was when we noticed the “mail” in the slot by the door… an “invitation” to the following night’s dinner in the other speciality restaurant, Pacific Rim. We also got one for Chartreuse, and I’m sure we had one for Prime 7, too. I just neglected to take photos.

The sunset really was incredible…

We decided to try breakfast in the room on Wednesday, so we made our selections of what we wanted and hung the sign on the door. More on that in the next post!

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