Happy Saturday,

At present we are sailing in the Denmark straights, half way between Greenland and Iceland, we've traveled 640 miles since leaving Qaqortoq with 360 miles till our 1st. Port of call in Iceland which is Isafjordur in the north west corner. We awoke to find the fog had lifted, some blue sky and sunshine. The wind is quite cool and we needed jackets to walk around the Promenade deck. 4 laps = 1 mile and it blew the cobwebs from our heads. I am still having trouble adjusting to the time changes even after a great nights sleep, also with using the stairs most of the time, my knees are feeling the strain, my head doesn't feel old but parts of me feel ancient:)

1621h

Had my nap after our walk around the deck, I still feel Zombie like, I honestly believe that when we fly to Europe the 7 to 9 hour time change is easier to adapt to after a day or so. We've crossed the Atlantic by ship 7 times this is our 2nd. East bound sailing. The first was in 1994 from Recife in Brazil to Dakar Senegal or the bump of Brazil to the bump of Africa a four day crossing with not as many time changes. Either because I was younger then or, perhaps it's my memory, I just don't recall it taking it's toll like this crossing. Knowing that we'll be refunded those lost hours on the return leg is helping me to "suck it up"….Yes I hear those teeny weeny violins playing and would I do an East bound crossing again?

Absolutely, so I'll stop banging on about it and never mention it again:)

There is a young Polish musician named Kuba, he plays many instrument but I've not heard the xylophone played like he plays, ever. He is able to make it sound like almost any instruments and even a complete orchestra, he uses 4 erm, sticks with knobs on :( the proper name eludes me at the moment, anyway he played a matinee show this afternoon and it was excellent.

It's nice to see the horizon again and as I stood at the rail, as I oft times do, and seeing the 180 degree line of sight and nothing but ocean and sky, I could see why mariners of old believed that the world was flat.

1940h..

We had a delicious dinner, lobster bisque, luscious lamb chops and crème brulee for me, Dorothy had beef tenderloin and fruit plate. I've been cajoled into seeing the show tonight and agreed before I discovered that we donate another hour.

The show was very good, Live Wire performed again a mixture of modern and Celtic music, Marty Brill was the opening act, his brand of humor tickled my funny bone with lines like.

" Did you know that Chelsea Clinton is engaged?" Well Hillary sat her down and said, "are you having sex with this young man?" Chelsea thinks for a while and says, "Not according to dad!"…

Sunday July 24th.

Meanwhile back in our cabin, I am setting all the clocks forward an hour, will this ever end??? Oh sorry, I swore I'd not mention it again. I read till my eyes were droopy, switched off the lights at midnight and as soon as my head hit the pillow, "snap" my eyes were wide open, thinking of the lost 60 minutes and knowing I must rise early to see the scenery promised for those who didn't dance the night away. Switched the light on, read….switched the light off….Switched it on again, I'm now half way through my book and I only started reading it yesterday. It's 0300h and still light out.

I have no idea what time I finally fell to sleep, all I know is that we were soon rudely awoken by a rapping on the door, It was our coffee/wake up call. Drawing the curtains back I was greeted with thick fog, no photos of the beautiful entry into Isafjordur today but looking forward to our tour this afternoon. Had brekky on the lido deck with Buddy & Lynn our group leaders, they were on the Prinsendam with us last November, and they are fun to be with.

Strolled ashore in this small fishing community, It seems to be at the end of a fjord, we were greeted by a group dressed in traditional clothing who were very obliging when it came to photo taking. It has a small hotel and shopping district with tiny houses and apartment buildings dotted about, and roses planted along the sidewalk.

This afternoon we took a bus tour of the area, it originated as a fishing village, cod and halibut being the main catch. The fishing industry collapsed when the ban came into effect due to over fishing back in the 80's I believe, they now have a thriving fish farming industry. Because of the gulf stream it tends to be warmer than other parts of the country, -10 is the average low in winter and +20 is the maximum high but vicious winds can bury the village with snow.

At this time of year the sun barely drops below the horizon and the winter months it's the opposite and staying dark all day. Our tour ended close to our ship at the fishing history museum, we tried salt dried cod and salt shark, the cod was okay but shark is just a wee bit above the bane of my taste buds, tripe…. I shall not try it again. They handed out shots schnapps to take the taste away, I couldn't have that and even after dinner, and cleaning my teeth, I do believe I can still taste it, yuk!

Much of the populous still believe in elves and trolls, but more surprising to me was the fact that not only did the Danes and Norwegians populate these islands, but Scots and Irish too. Most of the Celtic genes come from the females and it's believed that when the Vikings raped and pillaged Briton, they took women to Iceland with them.

A tiring day after a l o n g night, no show for Toe or Mrs. Toe, we must rise early for our tour in Akureyri, so with that I bid you all a good night/day depending on where in the world you are.