Home again, naturally

The garden was waiting

The sun shone to the extent we had to wear our sunnies when we went to The Grill on our last night. Oh yeah, it was packed out as it wasn’t blowing a hooley and temperatures were in the sweltering high teens. No blankets needed for that dining experience. We didn’t feel quite ready to order and wanted to savour the beautiful evening, so rather naughtily, ordered another glass of fizz to round off the holiday…erm, sorry, expedition. 

Prawns for me. Well, a day isn’t right if there hasn’t been a prawn involved. Salad for Nick. What? But that’s got leaves in it. I fear he’s lost it. The fish of the day was turbot and utterly gorgeous it was too. No puds, we had wine as our pudding. Nick had a different wine menu from me for some reason and so we chose a smooth Pinotage. 

I’m not sure if this is something to be proud of, but I had managed to retain my antisocial reputation and we had all our meals to ourselves over the two week period. And in my defence, Silversea were good and not “encouraging” mixing if you didn’t want to. 

This Iceland trip has been a pretty much non-stop adventure, so much so, I’m still reading the book I started on the plane on the way out. There just hasn’t been the opportunity to read. 

We appreciated our final breakfast in our room, brought to us by the delightful Santosh and then out of our cabin. We have never experienced such a simple baggage collection as this one. I don’t know if that was down to Silversea or Dublin port authorities. We were directed to our cases which were in a group of 8 others, collected them and got on the waiting bus to whisk us to Dublin airport. Our previous experience on cruises with baggage collection, is a complete bunfight with your cases in with 200 others. Perhaps this is why we no longer have black suitcases - have something identifiable.

My summation of this adventure has been largely positive. The total number of nautical miles we’ve travelled is 2589. It felt twice that at times, not just due to the travelling, but to the volume of experiences we had. 

The good - the food was mixed, but generally was good. The service was excellent, our cabin cleaner although we met him a couple of times, just appeared like an elf and all of a sudden our cabin was perfect again. Our butler was endlessly cheerful especially when he brought our breakfast at stupid o’ clock in the morning. The staff were all happy to share a joke or a conversation. We experienced a genuinely party atmosphere on the ship and after two weeks we tended to re-see the same people as we were such a small ship. Bed linen was sumptuous. Being all-inclusive, including all trips was a huge bonus. Having the opportunity to dine at the posh restaurant, even if it had a surcharge. The camaraderie from the expedition team and their endless energy, plus their infinite knowledge on a variety of subjects. The seamless departure from the ship. The places we’ve been to have mostly felt very special and secluded, giving us the opportunity to see the real Iceland. And we mustn’t forget the way that the expedition team constantly looked after our safety as we bounced from ship to shore and back on the terrifyingly exciting Zodiacs!

The bad - we often came across chipped crockery. The bathroom sink design meant that water splashed everywhere even when we were really careful and the shower splashed out of the cabinet all the time, however careful we were. 

The indifferent - the bland decor throughout the ship. In our room there were “cheery” pictures of icebergs and grimy men working in the fish industry. The place would have benefited from some good artwork rather than the gloomy “expedition” photography, relevant though it may have been.

However, the whole experience has been a positive and enjoyable one, if tiring. It was lovely getting back to an abundant garden (thank you Nick and Sue for watering), our bed and an environment that doesn’t move. Are we planning to do it again? No future plans, just time to enjoy the delights of home.