Finally, the time has come to reveal and travel to our next destination!
The month we spent in Valle Libera and the week in Piedmont served to understand what we want and don’t want to do in the near future. It was useful to discover what we feel most comfortable with. This kind of travel far from home brings its obvious difficulties. It was not by chance that we decided to start this sabbatical in Italy. Being a country in the center of Europe that we had already visited and loved, it was a choice that avoided putting us in a situation too far from our control and comfort zone. However, our fears began to disappear with the latest experiences, and we realized that we were ready to get a bit more adventurous.
The truth is that there won’t be many moments in life like these. We have the possibility to travel to the places we have always dreamed of and get to know them. All this without the inherent urgency of the limited vacation days that we usually have in our work. We came to this conclusion still in Umbria and asked ourselves, “why not Iceland?”. It is a country that has been on our radar for years but that we never had the opportunity to consider for our vacations. The question was easy to answer, but along with it, many others arose related to the logistics necessary for the trip.
When we found out about the ferry departing from Denmark, we got the answer to many of our questions. We paid about 1000€ for the round trip for the two of us (and a heavily loaded Portuguese car). Yes, when we decided to go to such an expensive country as Iceland, we loaded the car with groceries. We may have pasta, canned food, snacks, and drinks for almost a year of travel! We believe that anyone who has planned or tried to plan a trip to this incredible country will agree that this price is fairly good.
After a successful video call with an Icelandic host couple, our eyes sparkled with the confirmation that we were going to one of our dream destinations. The broken wrist almost ended this possibility. Fortunately, our future hosts did not raise any issues!
Our ferry would be the first of the year to make the route from Hirtshals (north of Denmark) to Seyðisfjörður (east of Iceland), with a brief stop in Tórshavn (capital of the Faroe Islands). The nearly 3-day journey was scheduled for March 16th. However, we still had to drive for 13 hours from Stuttgart to the departure port. Once again, Mar would be driving a long distance while Ricardo reprise his role as a “passenger prince”. The vast majority of the journey (10 hours) was made on the first day. We (or should we say Mar?) managed to complete almost the entire Bundesautobahn 7. This is, no more, no less, the largest national highway in Europe (963 km) that bisects all of Germany from south to north.
We spent the night in Denmark, in a town closer to the highway called Haderslev. This was where we had booked an Airbnb – a small annex for 50€. We couldn’t have been more pleased with this choice. It was a super comfortable space, and we were left with a bottle of wine, chocolates, snacks, and a fridge full of food! There are people who really take pleasure in managing this type of business…
The next day, we still had to cover the distance to the north of Denmark, which would take about 3 hours. At noon, we arrived at the port of Hirtshals, 3 hours before the ferry departure. Given the bad weather, we spent that time in the car queuing for check-in.
Those who follow the blog know that this is the second ferry we catch on this journey. If the facilities of the first one had already surprised us, the MS Norröna left us speechless. Being a 165-meter vessel with a capacity for 1500 passengers, 800 cars, and 120 crew members, its size alone is impressive. The interior is also spectacular. Spread over 10 floors, there are several restaurants, outdoor jacuzzis, a cinema, a gym, a swimming pool, a library, a helipad, a duty-free shop, and many other facilities. All of them with such a clean and modern appearance that it is hard to believe that the ship is over 20 years old (it was built in 2003).
We had all the commodities to make a very comfortable journey. Even our cabin, which was the cheapest of all (not counting the shared dormitories), was better than many hotel rooms where we have slept. The only downside of the trip was the turbulence we encountered… For those who suffer from seasickness, it was a nightmare that we minimized with some pills and simply sleeping. When it was calmer, we distracted ourselves by playing board games or writing for the blog, for example. However, most of the time was spent watching TV in our cabin, even though there weren’t many English channels. One of them was National Geographic, which was our best entertainment. The other was Sky News, which, for example, informed us that we would arrive in Iceland with a volcano in full activity. It’s funny how we got this news in the middle of the ocean.
You must also be curious about how we saved money on food… Since each meal on board would cost no less than 30€ per person, we had to find an alternative. The solution was to buy a portable electric kettle that allowed us to feed on instant pasta. In the end, neither our stomachs nor our wallets regretted this decision.
The highlight of the trip turned out to be the 4 hours we spent exploring the capital of the Faroe Islands – Tórshavn. This is a country that shares some similarities with Iceland, particularly the fact that it is a remote part of Europe and possesses incredible nature. In fact, visiting this archipelago was also an old wish from ourselves. We wanted to have planned a longer stay here, but it was not possible… We had to be happy with these few hours in this tiny town. The morning started rainy but quickly changed to a clear sky day that allowed us to walk around and feel a bit of Tórshavn’s daily life. You can be sure that we want to come back and explore the other islands!
Back on the boat, we prepared to sleep our last night on board before arriving in Iceland.
Until then!
Ricardo and Mar