Expected weather: Hi 41F / Low 30F, Showers, light snow

Seas: Calm – Moderate

Population: 676 / 352,721

This is my favorite town name to pronounce – and here we go again… under 1000 population is a “village”, perhaps? If all the passengers and crew of Viking Saturn were to disembark here, we’d triple the population! So, back to the pronunciation – say “see this fjord here” real fast and you got it!

For such a small population, Seyðisfjörður has been a very strategic location over the years hosting the first modern whaling station and welcoming the first telegraph cable linking Iceland to Europe in 1906. It also built a dam on the nearby river a few years later providing the first electricity on the island.

This was originally scheduled as a tender port, so we booked two Viking excursions – “VALLANES FARM” and “SKÁLANES NATURE & HERITAGE CENTER”. It ended up that we were able to dock, no tender required. Unfortunately, although we arrived on schedule, snow and ice overnight closed the mountain pass we were required to traverse for both of these tours. Indeed, all the Viking optional tours were cancelled as were all similar tours provided by third parties. That left only the Viking included walking tour of the town available and we decided to go ahead and get off when we arrived (as we were already waiting to disembark for the Vallanes Farm excursion) and walk the town ourselves. Of course, Viking had applied the refunds to our account before we got back to ship!

There was a light rain, so we zipped up and I added my rain jacket over my puffer coat, plus my rain hat. I had already determined to wear my heated vest today as it was near freezing when we disembarked. I don’t think the temperature got anywhere close to 41F today! We walked turned right when leaving the information center outside the ship and walked across the bridge towards the iconic blue church of Seyðisfjörður’s and the rainbow road in front of it. All the red Viking umbrellas added an additional splash of color to this colorful town on a dreary day. We found a small restaurant in the center of town called the El Grillo Bar named after the British oil ship which was bombed and sunk here by German airplanes in WWII. The ship still lies at the bottom of the fjord and is a famous landmark for divers. After taking a break from the rain for apple pie, chocolate cake, coffee and hot chocolate here, we continued our circle through town and back to the ship.

With no further tours, nor desire to be outside in the rain and cold, I finished yesterday’s blog. Dave ordered room service for a lunch of fried chicken and jalapeño cheddar chili fries. I ate a few bites of the fries and was a bit disappointed as there was hardly any jalapeno nor chili to speak of. Dave said the fried chicken was good. In the late afternoon, Keith, Paula, Dave, and I headed to the 2^nd floor game tables for more 313. Paula won again and we played a second game which Dave won handily. In the meantime, we got to listen to Sasha’s early evening set.

We then went back to our staterooms to change for dinner at The Restaurant. As we saw a lot of people leaving the theater whom we suspected were headed to the restaurant, we decided to give them 30 minutes, then go. So, we ate much later than normal and it had pretty much cleared out by the time we finally left after 9. The sliced roast beef, tiger prawns, and crab cakes were hits for our appetizers tonight; Greek eggplant moussaka timbale, roast free range poulet de bresse, and Angus NY strip steak were our mains, which we followed up with the Viking Cherries Jubilee and Old Fashioned Date Cake options for dessert. It was all very good, as expected.

Of course, you may guess by now that we finished the evening listening to the end of Sasha’s late evening set in the Atrium / Living Room along with some coffee and Bailey’s to warm us up. It was quite chilly because the exit to go ashore was still open just around the corner, so we utilized the blankets Viking has available around the ship to get cozy as we listened to Sasha’s melodic interpretations of George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Elton John, and more.  

This evening’s entertainment in the Star Theater was the ventriloquist Don Bryan with Noseworthy. We met several people on the elevator when it was over who said that they enjoyed it very much and appreciated being able to laugh at good, clean jokes. There was also the movie “Tolkien” being shown tonight “Under the Stars” on the pool deck (covered of course!). And there were a couple of guest lectures again today about various aspects of Iceland. There really isn’t enough time to do it all, but there is always something to do.  

Every time we looked at the weather today, it said it was 29-31F and snowing. You could see the accumulations on the tops of the mountains around us, but it was melted by the time it reached the lower elevations. Tomorrow is looking warmer – I hope!