Day 5 in Seydisfjördur - Waterfalls, mudslides, sweets, and pizza

Day 5 - Seydisfjördur

 Today's story starts last night.  We opted to dine at the buffet last night as the menu on the main restaurant didn't excite up. Viking's buffet, the World Cafe, is somewhat different than other cruise lines in that it offers much higher quality food offerings than you would expect in a cruise buffet.

After we ate, we went to the dessert section, as the online menu had a chocolate cake listed that sounded particularly good.  We were surprised when that wasn't on the buffet.  I asked and the pastry chefs seemed confused.  I showed them the online menu.  They then escalated to the restaurant manager - not my intent.  I was just asking.  Anyway, the manager turned it into somewhat of a federal case - not that anyone got in trouble, but more of a recognition of the failings in Viking's online tool.  It was all friendly and we all got a laugh out of it.  Well, until this morning...

We returned to our room after breakfast. Shortly after that, the doorbell rang and a waiter brought in a tray containing this:

The top item was what was missing last night.  The bottom item was thrown in for good measure.  We got another laugh this morning, and are enjoying some in-room treats.

Here's the view from our balcony this morning.

Seydisfjördur is on the northeast coast of Iceland in the eastern fjords.

After breakfast, we walked around the deck and used a couple of the sports deck facilities.  While it was mostly sunny when we got up, a low fog rolled in obscuring the mountains.  As the morning wore on, the sun was doing its best to burn off the cover.  We were able to sit outside for about an hour, enjoying some of the northern sunlight and the sounds of water rushing down the hills.

After lunch, we headed out for our walking tour of Seydisfjördur.  It is interesting to note that even with the ship's limited capacity of only 600 out of a possible 930 guests, we doubled the population of Seydisfjördur today. With only 600 residents, this is a very small village.

At the end of Viking's gangway, they have a pair of these really cool bentwood chairs.  Arlona tested them for comfort and approved them.

Our walking tour took us past several quaint homes.  Many homes here are built with corrugated aluminum walls as that offers stability and durability.

Some of the homes were decorated.

We visited a local church, called the Blue Church.  The road leading up to it was painted with a rainbow and was fun and funky.

In the middle of town, they have a compass landmark.

We have seen similar ones in other Icelandic towns.

Walking through town provided exceptional views of waterfalls coming down the mountain.

 

If you look at the area around this largest waterfall, you can see where a mudslide traveled down the mountain a few months ago.  This mudslide wiped out several homes, including sweeping at least one into the sea.

At the far point in our tour, our guide pointed out a buoy in the water to mark the spot where an American warship sunk a German warship during WWII.  This canon was taken from the German warship and is fired every year in June to commemorate the event.

On the way back to the ship, we caught a glimpse of the Viking Sky along with several local fishing vessels.

After dinner, we met our new friends, Maggie & David to defend our trivia title.  Unfortunately, we came up one correct answer short and came in second.  We got burned on which country is credited for creating swiss cheese.  We over-thought it.  It was Switzerland!  We also failed on how many James Bond movies stared Sean Connery.  It was seven.  And, how many eyes does a bee have?  That's five. And, we missed the most obvious one - what word comes from the Latin for when three roads come together?  The answer is..."trivia".

We will file those away for the next time.

Oh yeah - the pizza reference in the title.  As I was looking earlier to check the path of hurricane/tropical storm Elsa, this is what I saw.

Yes, that is an advertisement for Dominos - in Icelandic. 

Time to sail for Djúpivogur.