Boarding the Ship and Exploring Grundarfjordur

The next morning we have an early breakfast then return to our room to clean up and finish packing away any last-minute items.

House across from port

Bag pickup is for 1030 followed by a midday bus ride that will take us to the port for embarkation. At the port we go through immigration again clearing the security checks that put us on board our ship. Our first stop is at customer relations to file our complaint about the airfare screwup. After hearing our story, the receptionist advises us that our best bet is to return tomorrow morning and speak with the executive concierge who would be in more of a position to help us.

All sorts of goodies!

Furthermore, it was Sunday and most of the offices that would need to be contacted are closed. We have no problem with this and will return tomorrow to get things rolling for a refund. We then head to the Lido deck to have some lunch. Going to our room, we find an array of goodies; meats, cheeses, olives, crackers, and a tray of chocolate truffles along with a bottle of wine provided by our travel agent. We also have a bottle of champagne icing down complements of the ship.

Coastal village

We are reunited with our luggage and unpack and organize our things for our 17-day voyage.

We are all set to go to dinner in the grand dining room, when the cruise director makes an announcement that the terrace grill is featuring shrimp and lobster tonight. We had experienced this before on a previous Oceania cruise which basically means “all-you-can-eat.” Jane didn’t hesitate and said, “let’s go there.”

Grundarfjordur

We finished a delicious meal and returned to our room just as the ship was leaving the dock on a late departure at 2100 hrs. Figuring we had had enough excitement for one day, we turned in for the night.

Capt. Larry awoke early to find our ship cruising along the northern coast of the Snæfellsnes Peninsula in Western Iceland.

Grundarfjordur church

We are headed to dock at the town of Grundarfjordur (Grun DAR fort dur) for the day. Along the way we pass some beautiful coastal villages wedged between the sea and a mountainous backdrop. After our ship is docked at the town’s pier, we are immediately cleared to go ashore and visit the town. This port was one of the ones that we are unable to purchase a shore excursion online, so we will see it on our own.

Inside the church

But before we go ashore, we have some business to take care of. We first visit the executive concierge to file a request for an airfare refund. She listens to our story and says, that while she doesn’t handle air travel matters, she will email our information to Oceania headquarters and start the refund process. We will just have to give this time to play out. Next we head over to the dinner reservation desk. Our package included two nights each in two of the ships specialty restaurants, but when we made reservations the only available times for all four nights was 2100.

Residences and street scene

The receptionist re-books all of our reservations for much earlier times and we are happy. Finally, we head to the shore excursion desk to see if we can get shore excursions for the two remaining stops that were fully booked online. Sure enough, we are able to get bookings on the next Iceland port and the first port in Greenland.

View of town and harbor

So the upshot to all of this is that we will never try and book any reservations online prior to boarding again, and we will go and do the bookings on the ship.

With all that taken care of, we get off the ship and head for town. Grundarfjordur is a charming fishing village sitting on a small peninsula formed by the nearby mountain Kirkjufell. With a current population of nearly 900, the town’s economy is primarily dependent on fishing, fish processing, and tourism. Leaving the pier and entering the town, we decide to head for the church steeple that is prominently displayed and visible throughout the town. We finally get to the church that sits atop a hill overlooking the entire community.

Grundarfjordur "mall"

There are no markings outside that indicate the name of the church or the denomination, but peering inside we are pretty sure that it is some Protestant denomination, probably Lutheran. At one point in history, Iceland was predominantly Catholic but when the country came under Danish rule in 1523, the Danish king and decreed that all of Iceland would convert to Lutheranism. Today, 80% of Icelanders register with the Church of Iceland, a Lutheran body.

Inside the supermarket

We walked around the church and took some pictures of the town from this high vantage point.

Next, we started heading back toward the ship. We came upon what we labeled the “Grundarfjordur mall.” Housed in a single building was a supermarket, gas station, ATM, pharmacy, and liquor store. We went inside and perused the supermarket to get a feeling for what grocery shopping in small town Iceland was like.

Icelandic shopping cart

Leaving the “mall,” we passed several local businesses which pretty much summed up everything there was to see in this town. Back on the pier, Jane stopped at a street vendor’s set up, wanting to buy a dishtowel that she had seen earlier. The towel was gone, but that didn’t stop her from making a purchase. She came away with a puffin T-shirt and Iceland shot glass to add to our shot glass collection.

Obviously says "Main Street"!

Back aboard we had a delightful dinner with a couple from Arizona followed by the ship’s evening entertainment—an acoustic version of rock ‘n’ roll oldies with the ship’s show band and string quartet. Pooped from all the walking we did, we turned in and looked forward to sleeping in late tomorrow as we have a sea day plus a one hour time change decrease.