Prince Christian Sound – A Surprise bonus

Before we start I would like to apologise for the tardiness of this blog..... but that's life for you.. this post in particular, as I just had so many photos to go through and cull... many passes had to be made...

 Many are the first to start jumping up and down when for some unforeseen circumstance we miss a port.  People ranting and raving on social media about how they feel they have been robbed and are entitled to a refund.  But there never seems to be as much hoo-haa when something good happens.

With the missed port of Lerwick still fresh in our minds and Captain Pears wanting to make sure that we got our money's worth from our Danish pilots onboard,  he informed us that as long as the conditions permit,  we were going to make a slight detour on our way to Nanortalik, he would take us through the breathtakingly beautiful passage of Prince Christian Sound.

And beautiful it was! Memories of our wonderful cruise to Antarctica came flooding back as transited through the fjord, passing glaciers and amazingly large bergy bits….  Well actually, chunks not bits. 

 Seeing these large bergs was amazing, but a reminder that as the globe warms these particularly large sheets of ice are breaking off increasingly as each year passes.

Now I know there will be too many photos but it is just too hard to choose....

The entrance was clear, so in we went....  

We spent the entire day out in the cold, but it was well worth it.... No blue skies, but the clouds, fog and mist made everything hauntingly beautiful. 

Captain Pears let his 2 IC steer the ship while he had a warm birds eye view of the fjord.

But alas we endured the cold

Unlike Antarctica this was the only wild life we saw all day

Mother Natures beautiful Sculptures

The only village along the sound, Aappilattoq

The drag marks you see along the berg are formed when the compressed air within the iceberg escapes below the waterline, creating these bubble tracks as they rise in straight lines to the surface.

Reykjavik Iceland….

 This is our 3^rd visit to Reykjavik, so we decided to do something different.  Instead of venturing out into the countryside, we booked “The Reykjavik Food Walk”. 

We didn’t arrive at Reykjavik until around lunchtime, which always means that debarking will be slow especially as we had a shuttle to head into town.  To ensure that there were no large queues on the wharf,  Princess used a ticketing system to debark…  This made it a very slow process, especially as the shuttles were far and few between.

 As our tour was not starting until 3pm we decided to wander around town until we had to make our way to the meeting place.  We were pleasantly surprised by just how pretty the town is.

 

From where the shuttle drops you off you can look back towards the ship.

Some of the more modern architecture

Ok, so not so big on the OH & S

The Harpa Concert Hall was the meeting point for our tour, which is right where the shuttle drops you off

Some of the great street art around the city....

shopping mall that leads up to the Church

Once we started our food tour, we were pleased that we started heading in the opposite direction to where we had already been. 

Our first stop was at a Pub Style restaurant called Fjallkonan.  This is where you might say we started with our entrée.  

Today the Camera always ate first

Beautifully presented, they served us a lightly cured Artic Char on chickpea bread ( think of smoked salmon ) and the second delicacy was lamb on flatbread served with carrot Puree.

 

From there we walk around to a restaurant called Messinn passing some lovely buildings.  

There is always an Irish pub no matter which port we go to...

Here we ate these delicious traditional fish pan dishes.

Once again as soon as the pans hit the table you could not wait to tuck into each dish.

 Plokkfiskur, a very traditional dish of boiled cod mashed with potatoes, onion, garlic, celery, line, white wine, cream, and butter.

1.       Artic Char baked in honey, butter and lemon with Cherry tomatoes and almonds

2.      The food was so delicious, that I would return if we ever found ourselves in Reykjavik again.

 Moving along we then visited a food truck where we had the iconic Icelandic hot dog.  Topped with mustard, ketchup and what made it just that little yummier, was the deep-fried onion. 

You know it must be good if there is queue

Feeling a little full we still persevered to carry on with this culinary extravaganza.  Next was Islenski Barinn, another pub where we enjoyed a Traditional Icelandic meat soup…. For those that were game, we also tasted a small piece of Fermented shark…. Luckily washed down with a glass of Einstok White Ale…..

This was lightly fermented ... only about a month old... it is the 12-month one you have to weary of!!

We were now retracing our steps from this morning and headed up to the amazing Church with sits high above the city.

Ready for dessert we visited Café Loki, where we were served the traditional Kleina Pastry partnered with a rye bread ice cream with a caramelised rhubarb syrup.

Our wonderful husbands waited patiently while we called into each shop on the way back to the shuttle...  This was probably where they gave up and went on ahead of us...

We girls decided to cap off our day with a  Princess cocktail....  far too expensive to have one shoreside!!

 We really enjoyed our day today and are so pleased that we did this tour.  We would never have tried everything we had eaten today if we had not done this tour.

 I would be more than happy to recommend this to others.

Reykjavik Food Walk | #1 Rated Food Tour in Iceland (thereykjavikfoodwalk.com)