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Earlier this summer a group of us from St George's took a holiday together on board the P&O cruise ship Oriana. Bill and Mary Hutchings, Norman and Audrey Linney, and John and Janet Johnson. It was really nice being in a group together and able to enjoy each others company. We hired a minibus for the journey to Southampton, and Andicars had us down at the Mayflower Cruise Terminal around lunch time. As our luggage came out of the taxi it was taken away by a porter, to be seen again hopefully a few hours later outside our cabins. We then queued up by the check-in desks and soon had exchanged our tickets for cruise ID cards and boarding passes and were waiting in the lounge area of the cruise terminal. From here there is a viewing gallery right alongside the ship, where the full scale of this massive structure, towering over the terminal building, can be appreciated. Early afternoon our boarding numbers were called and we proceeded on to the ship intent upon finding deck A and being fairly familiar with the layout having cruised on Oriana previously, we were soon in our cabins, with luggage waiting outside, and able to start settling in. After a visit from our cabin steward to introduce himself, we proceeded to the Conservatory Restaurant on the top deck where with panoramic views overlooking Southampton Water we enjoyed afternoon tea with sandwiches, cream scones and cakes. At around 4.30.pm everyone attended the safety drill, where there is the opportunity to test out the lifejacket and ensure you know how to use it. The captain, having thus welcomed us on board and explained the safety rules, then announced that all his pre-departure checks had been completed and we would be sailing at 5.pm for Amsterdam. We settled ourselves in the Crows Nest, a lounge at the very top and front of the ship as the brass band played on the quayside, streamers were thrown down from the top decks by excited passengers and Oriana gently slipped her ropes to set off down Southampton Water, passing familiar sights such as Hythe Pier and the Hamble as we gradually approached the Isle of Wight and then the open sea. The approach to Amsterdam is via the Ijmuiden Traffic Scheme and lock in to the North Sea Canal. The lock complex consists of four locks the largest of which, the Northern Lock, is 400 metres long and when built in 1929 was the largest lock in the world. Oriana seemed to just fit in. Massive electrically driven metal gates slide across to contain the water as the ship is lowered down below sea level to the canal. We then continued on towards the city, passing QE2 berthed some distance outside and arrived just after lunchtime at the new cruise terminal situated about ten minutes walk from the city centre, although a courtesy bus was also provided. We spent the afternoon exploring Amsterdam. The traffic here was really dangerous, but not because of all the cars, buses and trams. It was a case of beware the bicycle! There were thousands and thousands of them, even car parks that were actually multi-storey bicycle parks, bicycle lanes everywhere and the problem was that bicycles did not seem to have to obey the traffic signals. So you could be crossing the road on a "green" pedestrian light almost safely at the pavement the other side only to find a bicycle flash past your eyes in the cycle lane apparently appearing from no-where. We had several close encounters until we got used to this phenomena. We explored Amsterdam's canals by canal boat. First of all the boat went out to the cruise terminal to admire our cruise ship! But then we entered the canal system and had a pleasant ride viewing the lovely tall buildings and many houseboats, some smart and others quite dilapidated but all very pretty and interesting. The next day was one at sea, we attended various lectures about forthcoming ports of call, and in the evening the captain held a welcome onboard reception, followed by a formal gala dinner. The next morning we arrived at Invergordon, one of the deepest water anchorages in the world, and an important centre for the repair and maintenance of the oil exploration rigs. The main place to visit from here is Inverness, but as we had been there before we opted for a trip to Dunrobin Castle, Scotland's largest Highland House, and one of Britain's oldest inhabited houses, dating from the early 1300's. We toured around the various impressive rooms open to the public, and then enjoyed a falconry display in the castle grounds before returning to our ship for lunch.
Later that afternoon local singers and dancers presented a performance of Scottish music in the showlounge, and then as we set sail the sound of bagpipes echoed out as a group of Scottish pipers and dancers from the town bade us farewell from the quayside, and Oriana headed further north towards the Faroe Islands. The Faroes consist of eighteen islands, all but one of which is inhabited, the main island being Streymoy on which is situated the tiny capital of Torshavn. An interesting feature of many buildings here is the turfed grass on the roof. We spent the morning walking around the narrow cobblestone streets, admiring the quaint buildings and peering into the window of the Lutheran Cathedral which unfortunately was closed. The various islands are connected either by long road tunnels or ferry, and in the afternoon we took a tour visiting another of the islands, Vagar, travelling through a five kilometre long tunnel to the village of Sandavagur and its picturesque Lutheran village church.
All too soon it was time to depart the Faroes on our journey continuing northward towards Iceland. The next day was spent at sea, but still of interest as late afternoon the ship passed by Surtsey Island. Surtsey is a classic example of the growth of a new volcanic island. Episodic eruptions began on November 8, 1963 and ended on June 5, 1967. The volcano grew from the sea floor, at a depth of 130 metres, to a height of 169 metres above sea level and to an area of 2.5km². This island was named Surtsey after Surtur, the fire possessing giant of Norse mythology who would set fire to the earth at the Last Judgment. Long before the eruption stopped, the island was proclaimed a nature preserve and all travel there was restricted to scientists that used this unique opportunity to study the gradual development of life on a sterile landmass. The first living creatures were found in the ash deposits close to shore. The first plant to flower along the shore was the sea rocket, observed in 1965. By 1987, twenty-five species of higher plants had been observed, transported there by seed in the sea currents, some from nearby islands, others from the southern Icelandic coast 40 kilometres off. Other species of plants have been carried there by the winds or birds from Europe. Surtsey is a favourite resting place for migratory birds during seasonal flights to and from Iceland and Europe. They visit there yearly by the thousands. Seals also visit the island and relax on its beaches. Today five species of birds nest on Surtsey: the Herring Gull, the Black Backed Gull, the Black Guillemot, the Kittiwake and Fulmar which was the first species to nest there and hatch its young on the warm lava in 1970. The following morning we arrived at the capital of Iceland, Rekjavik, the most northerly capital of the world. Here we were to anchor out at sea and reach the city harbour by tender, i.e using the lifeboats. Having completed this short boat ride ashore, we explored the Icelandic capital, which claims to be one of the cleanest cities in the world, heated entirely from geothermal springs, hot water being pumped to every house. The people of Rekjavik also have one of the highest standards of living in the world with prices to match. Iceland is the second largest island in Europe, next to Britain and is about four-fifths the size of England. Yet there are only 57 settlements of any consequence, of which Reykjavik is by far the largest.
Reykjavik is spread over a wide area, but for a capital city it is really quite small; its population of around 90,000 is not much more than Waterlooville. We headed into the suburbs on foot to find the new Lutheran Cathedral, Hallgrimskirkja, a building of striking modern appearance and impressive both inside and out. We also wanted to visit "The Pearl", the location of the geothermal hot water storage tanks, where there is an exhibition, revolving restaurant and fine views across the city; however this looked a bit too far to walk, it was starting to rain and getting a little windy, so we decided to head back to the ship for lunch. When we got to the shoreside, all did not seem well. The usual queue for the tender boats was not in evidence, and the boats themselves were moored up on the other side of the harbour doing nothing. When we got to the place from where the boats should be running we were told that the tender operation had been temporarily suspended owing to adverse weather conditions. Indeed, the water showed quite a swell as the wind had started whipping up. A tender boat then arrived and the shoreside crew had considerable difficulty as the boat bounced up and down violently whilst the passengers on board were carefully helped off safely to land. It seems this had been the last tender to depart for the ship but had been unable to get alongside and had been sent back. We were advised to find a café for a coffee and come back after an hour or so. However, examining our finances, we had not taken much Iclandic currency, it not being a place we expected to visit very often, and most of our currency had already been spent on postcards, somewhat rashly with the benefit of hindsight. With coffee costing around £2.50 a cup and our finances looking unlikely to accommodate such an outlay, and being unsure that the coffee shops would appreciate credit cards, we decided to have another wander round, but when we returned a little later there was little change other than several coaches ready for trips that were not now going to take place as many of their intended passengers were presumably stranded on the ship. The shoreside crew then announced that the captain had decided that conditions where he was anchored were unsafe, and he was going to set sail. Shortly thereafter the ship steamed away into the distance leaving us and over a thousand other passengers behind; a somewhat surreal experience. We were directed onto an awaiting coach and taken to the Raddison Hotel for coffee and cake. Here, one lady passenger with more confidence than most of us demanded of the hotel restaurant staff that it would be appropriate for P&O also to provide us with sandwiches, and soon trays of sandwiches appeared making an acceptable lunch in the circumstances. We remained here for most of the afternoon, nobody having any idea whether or not we would be able to return to the ship. One of the ship's crew said that the winds at sea were now at storm force and recounted that a similar situation had occurred at the Falkland Islands on the world cruise, and it had taken three days before they had successfully got everyone back on board. By around 4.pm, probably the hotel was fed up with its restaurant and reception area crammed full of Oriana passengers so we were ushered out on to the coaches for a free tour of the city. This gave us the opportunity to visit "The Pearl" and appreciate the fine views from the top, albeit somewhat windy. Still no-one knew what would be happening, there seemed some doubt that the city would actually have enough hotel rooms to accommodate such a large number of people especially at such short notice. Then there was an announcement that the captain had managed to find a berth in the container port on the outskirts of the city, and the coach set off in the appropriate direction. When we arrived it looked like every coach in Reykjavik was there as well unloading passengers on to the ship. The ship had not been able to tie up and was staying alongside using its thrusters, having had the assistance of a couple of tugs to get it in. We departed about an hour late for our next port of call, the most northerly point of our journey, the town of Akureyri on the northern coast of Iceland and only forty kilometres or so from the Arctic Circle. John Johnson to be continued. |
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