Author: Mike Bruce

An engineer by trade, a husband in training and a trying to learn how to be the best PaPa
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Trump International Aberdeen

The Kilmarnock Inn did have a great breakfast as they were trying to dry Chuck and Kelley’s clothes as their luggage was flying back and forth from Edinburgh and London for some unknown reason. We packed up and headed to Trump Aberdeen for one of the best golf courses in the country. The best, according to The Donald.

A 7000 yard course with another 1000 yards getting from green to tee box on the path below. Interesting design with nice views overlooking the ocean. Binoculars would have been for me to see where we were hitting and the helicopters heading into the North Sea.

Lunch at the club, artifacts for friends and on to St Andrews.

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Cullen to Cruden Bay

We packed up at the Arms and headed to check in at Cullen Golf Club prior to driving to Cruden. At 10 past 8 as they told us, the club was closed and no one was at the desk, so we found a few carts and tee’d off into the cliffs. Another great course with fabulous views.  We had  a stop at Pennan on the Aberdeenshire coast where “Local Hero” was filmed then continued on to the Country Park Inn in Peterhead for lunch and on to Cruden Bay.

After settling on the rooms and propping the windows open, we took a walk to the coast, checked out the course and headed down to the local pub where we were the only guest where Leah entertained us with life in Cruden Bay. She had just turned 18 and was able to move form the kitchen to the bar. Back to the Kilmarnock for dinner, no luggage delivered and had to leave the windows open to try to stay cool. Although the best price, there were some good reasons to upgrade rooms for our next visit.

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Golf at Spey Bay

Cullen was a quiet little village. Chuck could not find a light on in town at sunset. Morning omelets at the Seafield Arms by nurse ratchet. She would not serve us coffee at the table until all guest were present. Nice rooms, good food with a local pub like feel then we were on to our club..

Everyone was excited to arrive at Spey Bay. It was exciting to see our names on the board as “Founding Members” and to walk out on the course. Bert and Louie were helpful before arrival and glad to see us. We enjoyed a tough round on the links course with beautiful views of the ocean. Moguls from the ski slope came to mind as we navigated the links. Clearly the mass removal of the brush last fall saved us a dozen balls. We still managed to deposit several balls from the US, had a great lunch, picked up some bling and headed to check out the Cullen Club.

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Oban to Cullen

After the traditional Scottish breakfast at the Inn, we headed to Tesco, or a Target, to buy clothes for everyone in the rain. We drove on 90 minutes to Fort William to buy foul weather gear and try the Cod and Haddock at Fishy Fish for lunch.  Continued the drive thru the Highlands found a distillery to stop at for a few minutes. It was easy as they were every few miles. A long drive of about 5 hours on narrow roads with more traffic than expected. 

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Iceland to Glasgow

We boarded an IcelandAir flight to be surprised at the quality of the snacks only to be wowed with smoked salmon and sliced beef for lunch on a 2 hour flight. As we arrived to meet our friends, we learned they were late with British Airways leaving “some” of their luggage in London.

We had a Volvo XC90 waiting for us in Glasgow but the steering wheel was on the wrong side. They had nothing else but a van with a manual transmission. We took a chance and decided to make the drive dealing only with “look right – stay left” as the bracelet said the agent provided me. After all, how hard could it be? Somehow we managed to get thru town to the 4 lane road to Edinburgh to pick up Chuck and Kelly. We had to take a breath a couple of times but made the trip with out a scratch.

We settled in the Oban Bay Hotel and tried Coasters on the Esplanade for dinner.  A night cap and to bed with the windows open over looking the sea.

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Sky Lagoon

We were packed up and took part in our final meal on Mars.  Tino and team had our bags delivered for us on the dock and we boarded the bus for the airport to rent a car to see another hot spring. As the bus let us off, BB drug our bags as close as she could to car rental as I hustled on foot to the car center avoiding the rental bus. With the car, I found BB hiding behind the building to block the wind, we loaded up and headed off to the Sky Lagoon.

A fabulous experience in the largest hot tub in the world as far as I was concerned. Iceland has thousands of geothermal hot springs around the country providing no shortness of heat or water. The Sky Lagoon is a huge hot pool with an infinity edge over the ocean. We participated in the seven step process of large sauna, rubbing on salts, steams, etc. The swim up bar was a little pricy but very convenient. After a couple of hours of soaking, we were spent.

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Heimaey, Westman Islands

Mars anchored offshore of the small harbor so we headed out on the tender with the hope to see puffins and ended up making it to the top of Eldfell Valcano. Each of the villages had maybe a thousand locals either in the fishing business and derived some benefit from the tourism of the ships stopping daily. Everyone was casual and receptive to our visit.  

After another great dinner, we found ourselves having a glass of wine watching the horizon from the ship and realizing we were moving again for another port but this time was our last one. 

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Djuplvogur

Another waffle and we set off to take the walk to the black sand beach. The morning sun did not burn off the fog so it had a chill in the air. We reached the local airport and the trail map instructed us to follow the runway to the end for the beach. There were others who had hired locals getting out of vans so we walked around the chain and headed down the runway. It was a mile long or so and 200 feet wide with no where to hide if the occasional plane approached. Visibility was about 50 feet so it was hard to imagine one landing.

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Seydisfjordur

As sunrise was before 5am and sunset was not until 10pm, the early morning coffee views were fabulous. We decided the night prior to load the AllTrails app and find our own hike to a waterfall. We set off for a 4 mile loop into the hillside with the sheep. We returned thru the town, another meal, enjoyed an afternoon video call with our most favorite grand children. We then set out again for another waterfall we could see from the cabin. We were not missing the big tour bus driving people to see similar sights.

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Akureyri – Fossholl waterfall

We decided to the night before to signup for a local small bus tour of a local waterfall. We planned our escape after having the Norwegian waffle which had become a staple of our new diet.

From the explorer lounge, we met 4 ladies traveling together from South Carolina. We found our 4 ladies from Lake Hartwell from the lounge on the same small bus. One had already had her daughter from HHI check to see if she knew BB.

A drive into the country with views ranging from grassy fields to snow capped mountains. We saw hundreds of waterfalls and one huge one up close. Our tour guide dropped us off at the botanical garden and we walked thru the village trying to figure out who was decorating al the trash cans. We returned to the ship for more food, nordic bathing and enjoying the view as the Mars headed out to the next destination.