Well, as we decided that 40 years together was a milestone worth celebrating, we treated ourselves to our first overseas trip since the pandemic!
We joined the Celebrity Silhouette at Southampton for a 12 day cruise, stopping at Guernsey, Cobh and Dunmore East (Ireland), Akureyri and Reykjavik (Iceland) and Greenock before returning to Southampton. That was the plan but sadly we were unable to visit Guernsey (a tendering port) due to bad weather so we ended up in Portland instead – ironic really as we first met in Weymouth many years ago!!
We took the opportunity to visit Nothe Fort whilst there as we’d not done that before – well worth a visit, it’s been well restored with interesting exhibits ranging from Victorian times through to the Cold War.
Our next stop was our first in Ireland, Cobh (pronounced Cove) which is the port for Cork (you can get a train to Cork from here). We explored this lovely colourful town (including the famous deck of cards – a street of houses that the locals say if the bottom one goes the rest will tumble like a pack of cards!), visited the Titanic memorial garden (the last sighting of the Titanic as she left Cobh in 1912), the glorious St Colman’s Cathedral (had to leave due to a funeral) and learnt about the history at the very informative Cobh Heritage Centre (potato famine, emigration, sinking of the Lusitania, last journey of the Titanic and the plight of the convicts on Spike Island before being transported to Australia). Oh and of course we had to have a Guinness at Kelly’s bar.
We had an interesting meal experience at Le Petit Chef on board which is an animated meal! And finally we were entertained by the fabulous Celtic Nights and Irish dancers.
Our second port of call in Ireland was Dunmore East – the port for Waterford. We got the tender into the harbour, had a chat with the local RNLI coxswain, was met by a guide from the local information office and picked up some tips. You can get a bus into Waterford (famous for the Waterford Crystal) but feeling the need to walk off all the great food we’ve been eating we decided to walk the Dunmore East Coast path to Portally Cove and back. We met a few locals on the way, all wanting to chat and one asked if we’d just got off the ferry (not sure Captain Jorge would appreciate his ship being called a ferry)!!!!! Then we wandered back into town for locally caught fish and chips and of course found a pub for another Irish Guinness before returning.
After a rather grey and wet day at sea, passing St Kilda along the way, we arrived in the port of Akureyri, Iceland’s second largest city in Northern Iceland bathed in glorious sunshine and blue skies. We could see steam rising from waterfalls in the distance (signs of the geothermal heat of this amazing island). We took an excursion from the ship around the city (all the red traffic lights are heart shaped – to cheer people up after the financial crash a few years ago), visited the botanical gardens and were surprised to see many of the plants we grow at home, then went up over the mountains to vist the stunning Gadofoss Falls.
We were lucky enough to spot 2 whales as we were leaving the fjord to continue our trip to Reykjavik.
The night we sailed around Iceland to Reykjavik was clear and cold but if we’d stayed up till about 2am we’d have seen the Northern Lights – we were sound asleep by then but had seen a slight hint of them earlier in the evening! We spent 24 hours in Reykjavik over two days which allowed us to explore on the Hop On Hop Off bus on our own the first afternoon. We had a pint in the Hard Rock Cafe and bought the obligatory keyring before heading off to visit the stunning Hallsgrimskirkja cathedral. The next day was an early start (but caught a stunning sunrise) to do the Golden Circle tour, taking in the Geyser area, Gullfoss Falls and the National Park where the American and European tectonic plates are pulling apart (so Iceland is growing). It has formed a huge wall and canyon that was used in the Game of Thrones as the North Wall.
We enjoyed our small taste of Iceland very much and Celebrity had invited Orly Orlyson to be the guest speaker – he gave 3 very different entertaining talks on board about his homeland – ranging from how astronauts were trained in Iceland to how his home town nearly won an Oscar!
Our final stop before returning to Southampton was Greenock, Scotland. You can visit Glasgow by train from here but once again we opted to explore the port ourselves. We did the town trail and learnt about the history of ship building, sugar refining and James Watt. We also visited the largest cemetery in Scotland.
Our thanks go to all the amazing staff of Celebrity Silhouette for making our trip so amazing and to Andy Sharples of Cruise Holidays for trying to keep it all a big secret from me!!
