I woke up early (as usual) and was greeted by beautiful views from my aft cabin. I quickly put on my clothes and headed up to Deck 12 for a better look. Here are the new touch-screen displays installed on the Adventure of the Seas, after her dry-dock earlier in the year. 4th June, 6:08am.
Looking at the map, the town of Akureyri lay at the end of a rather long fjord. And the sail in was breath-taking.
The sun was up and this looked to be a much brighter day, compared to the weather we had in Iceland. Hope the weather stays good.
Here are some sailing in videos. Here is the first video, sailing into Akureyri.
Sailing in, part 2.
Sailing in part 3.
These pictures were taken indoors, from the Blue Moon.
From the Diamond Lounge.
Some brochures for the Spa.
Salon Specials. We have never used the Salon, so no comments.
It was now 6:48AM.
Beautiful views from our aft balcony.
Yay, the sun is out.
Yet, there were low-hanging clouds, giving it a mystical feel. That was Akureyri.
Video as we are nearing the port.
We would be docking shortly.
Captain brought us in as per schedule, 8:30am.
The plan
Similar to Reykjavik, we had pre-booked a car from Enterprise car rental. Similar to the Reykjavik, the chaps in Akureyri told us that the office was just a very short drive away, not more than 5 minutes. With the experience from Reykjavik, we were now mentally prepared that the rental office may be some distance away.
Passengers disembarking.
A map of the region.
It was a short walk to the Town Center.
The Adventure of the Seas - front of the ship
Cruise ship passengers heading to the coaches - ship organized tours.
Fairly busy.
The good news was that the Enterprise car rental was much, much nearer. First, the chap was waiting for us at the port gate and we could move off once we arrive. We didn't have to wait for other renters (not sure why). Second, the office was indeed less than 5 minutes. I reckon a short 3-min drive and the route was very easy, so I could back-track very easily.
There was big nice car showroom. Given how small the town was, I was rather surprised to find a street of such showrooms as well as different car rental companies.
This was the GPS we rented. A Garmin nuvi 40.
Similar to Reykjavík, we hired a MPV or mini-van (in American terms), that could seat at least 6. On the website, it was touted as a Ford Galaxy or equivalent. In Reykjavik, we were given a Volvo XC90, which was fun to drive.
What would the vehicle be this time around? Answer - a gigantic Ford Explorer. This vehicle was simply huge. (Remember, I come from Singapore and we are used to smaller cars and I personally drive a Toyota Corolla)
That is the signboard on the street. The street's name was TRYGGVABRAUT 5. Important to know this because I needed this for the GPS co-ordinates to get back to the car rental company. DO NOT ASSUME that the GPS set you get comes pre-loaded with the car rental office co-ordinates. Sort this out before you depart.
Some pictures of the interior.
The wire to charge the GPS.
After collecting the car, we drove back to the port. Only my wife and I went to collect the car. My parents and kids stayed on the ship till the car was collected. The plan was to sort out the car collection first, then drive back to the port to pick them up. How did we communicate?
We had 2 layers of communication. First layer of communication would be our wireless handheld walkie-talkies. As a backup, it would be our mobile phones - this would cost some money since they were roaming, but a short call shouldn't be too expensive. It turned that we could reach our folks on the ship even while we were at the car rental office. Shows you that the car rental office wasn't far away, and also there weren't tall buildings around to block the signal.
We quickly drove back to the port to pick up the parents and kids, who were eagerly waiting when we arrived.
View of the car.
It sure looks very muscular.
Alright, move on to Part 2 as we head out to Godafoss!
Nice Car.
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