We booked most of our shore excursions for the cruise before we left home. Here\u2019s a list of what we decided for each stop along the Viking Passage cruise.<\/p>\n
Since we have visited most\u00a0of the ports of call before, often we just got off the ship and explored on our own two feet. But there were a couple of\u00a0destinations where we thought we would see more of the local scenery if we indulged in shore excursion packages from Holland America.<\/p>\n
No shore excursions necessary here. Rotterdam is Arjan\u2019s home town.<\/p>\n
Since the weather in Bergen is some of the worst in Europe (although we visited Bergen<\/a> during a sunny heat wave in 2014), we decided to wait and see how the day turned out. We ended up taking the funicular up Mount Fl\u00f8ien and heading back to the ship early because of the rain.<\/p>\n Arjan hiked among the seabirds and wildlife on Mousa Island, while P.J. took the Jarlshof bus tour to learn about the history and culture of the Shetland Islands.<\/p>\n We visited Akureyri<\/a> and Lake M\u00fdvatn last time, so this time we stuck around town and explored by walking around. The highlight was Akureyri\u2019s beautiful botanical garden.<\/p>\n Last time, we walked around \u00cdsafj\u00f6r\u00f0ur<\/a> on our own while other passengers paid to do the same thing, so this time we decided to book\u00a0a 70-minute boat ride to the isolated village of Hesteyri, where the remaining residents voted to leave in the late 1940s. Because P.J. got sick, Arjan took the tour by himself.<\/p>\n We have been to Reykjav\u00edk<\/a> several times now (a great place to fly through on the way to or from Europe), so we decided that rather than spending the money on an excursion we would\u00a0rent\u00a0a car and find something new. On July 9, we discovered a geopark at Lake Kleifarvatn and a thermal area called Selt\u00fan\u00a0south of\u00a0Reykjav\u00edk. \u00a0Arjan climbed a mountain, and P.J. photographed Icelandic horses. \u00a0On our way back to the ship, we drove past \u00deingvellir National Park where we have been before. On July 10, we walked around\u00a0Reykjav\u00edk and visited the Saga Museum, a retelling of Viking myths with life-size figures.<\/p>\n Although not technically a shore excursion, cruising the Prins Christian Sund, a series of passages through the islands at the tip of Greenland, turned out to be the highlight of the entire cruise. \u00a0We both walked endlessly, several miles around the decks during the course of the day to get the best vantage points.<\/p>\n There are no shore excursions offered in either port in Greenland. Last time, they gave us an impromptu tour of Nanortalik<\/a>, and there is a great local outdoor museum there. We had never been to Qaqortog before, so this was\u00a0a new adventure for us. We spent our days separately, walking around each small\u00a0town on our own.<\/p>\n Although we have been to the west coast of Newfoundland before on our own, we have never been to the capital in St. John\u2019s. We thought we would see the most by taking\u00a0a panoramic tour of St. John\u2019s and a trip to the Cape Spear lighthouse\u2014rain or shine. At Signal Hill, we got off the tour and took a fabulous coastal hike back to the ship by ourselves.<\/p>\n P.J. wanted to take a quick trolley tour of the city so she can imagine living there after the U.S. elections, but again, having been there before, we decided to look for something new on our own. We ended up strolling\u00a0most of the Halifax Harbourwalk and then visiting the Citadel for the firing of the noon gun.<\/p>\n No shore excursions necessary here. Boston is our home town!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We booked most of our shore excursions for the cruise before we left home. Here\u2019s a list of what we decided for each stop along the Viking Passage cruise. Since we have visited most\u00a0of the ports of call before, often we just got off the ship and explored on our own two feet. But there … Continue reading “Our Shore Excursions”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":400,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-20","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pjgardner.com\/travel3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/20","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pjgardner.com\/travel3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pjgardner.com\/travel3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pjgardner.com\/travel3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pjgardner.com\/travel3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.pjgardner.com\/travel3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/20\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":572,"href":"https:\/\/www.pjgardner.com\/travel3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/20\/revisions\/572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pjgardner.com\/travel3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}July 5: Lerwick, Shetland Islands, United Kingdom \u2013 Mousa Island Discovery<\/strong> \/ Jarlshof & Scenic Mainland Drive<\/strong><\/h2>\n
July 7: Akureyri, Iceland<\/h2>\n
July 8: \u00cdsafj\u00f6r\u00f0ur, Iceland \u2013 A Visit to an Abandoned Village<\/strong><\/h2>\n
July 9 & 10: Reykjav\u00edk, Iceland<\/h2>\n
July 12: Cruising Prins Christian Sund, Greenland<\/h2>\n
July 13 & 14: Qaqortog & Nanortalik, Greenland<\/h2>\n
July 16: St. John\u2019s, Newfoundland, Canada – Old St. John\u2019s & Cape Spear<\/strong><\/h2>\n
July 18: Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada<\/h2>\n
July 20: Boston, Massachusetts, US<\/h2>\n