And we're off again!
We weren't planning a trip this summer, until one day Lars said "You know what? I've kind of always wanted to go to Greenland!" And so after a bit of searching online, we found Lindblad Expeditions, which is partnered with National Geographic! We'll be on the ship National Geographic Resolution, which you can read all about here:
https://www.expeditions.com/ships/national-geographic-resolution
The ads make it look like a typical cruise ship, but it's much more than than. Only 138 passengers and 116 crew make for more interaction with the staff, many of whom are photographers and naturalists. Most trips ashore require boarding Zodiac boats, debarking into the water and splashing ashore in the rubber boots we've ordered delivered to the ship. There are multiple excursions every day, at varying activity levels to suit everyone. At the end of the day, right before dinner, the leader of each group does a presentation, so that you get to see what the other groups were up to. They have an open bridge, meaning passengers are welcome to come in and watch the bridge staff at work, as well as looking out the panoramic windows. There are several observation lounges, a library, and a photographic studio where you can get tips from professional photographers.
We'll be going here:
This part of the trip will be 18 days, from July 20-Aug. 5. But, being us, we're going over 10 days early, and have booked a self-drive adventure around northern Iceland. We've driven all the way around (see the original Nomads i Norden blog nomadsinorden.blogspot.com for that), and spent some days exploring Reykjanes, but this time we want to spend more time in the north. We'll fly up to Akureyri, spend a couple of nights getting over the rest of the jet lag and exploring the city, which we haven't been to. We'll have a Suzuki Jimny 4WD vehicle, and with the help of the lovely folks at Hey, Iceland!, we're booked into 3 guesthouses out in the country.
We are looking forward to some whale-watching in Hólmavík, and visiting Stóri Karl, with its large nesting colony of Northern Gannets:

If you need a good guesthouse near the knitting place, let me know. We stayed at a wonderful horse farm about 45min. west of there.
ReplyDeleteGood to know, although our housing is already booked through the self-drive company Hey, Iceland! They've been very good to work with....now we'll see how we like the tour they've mapped out for us.
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