北歐之旅 Norway and Iceland cruise

Four years ago I went on my first cruise holiday to Norway and Iceland.  Cruising is not my cup of tea but that time was an exception as it was a big family holiday with 15 close family members.

 

I have five siblings and apart from one who works in Hong Kong and myself who used to live in London, everybody else lives in the West of England.  It is quite tricky for all of us to get together so to be able to spend 10 fantastic days together with our partners and 4 of the kids made it even more special for everyone.

Norway and Iceland have been on my hit list for quite some time, both are absolutely beautiful countries and the trip did not disappoint me.  The dramatic Fjords and glaciers in Norway completely took my breath away; whilst I was immensely impressed by Iceland’s sustainability and its geological landscape created from volcano activities in the past. In Iceland we did a private tour where we found out a lot about the local culture and history, as well as some interesting facts.   Did you know that in Iceland you cannot pass on your surname to your children?  If a man’s name is Sturla, then his son’s surname will be Sturluson and his daughter’s Sturludottir ie the son and daughter of Sturla respectively!

Although the scenery was mesmerizing, my most cherished moments from the holiday was the valuable time I spent with my family.  We all are very blessed and old enough to get on very well with one another and not waste time squabbling over silly things like we used to do when we were young.  So although I’m not keen on cruising, the 10 days flashed by really quick.  Now that I have moved to Taiwan, I see even less of my family in UK.  Fortunately, distance doesn’t matter anymore in this modern world when we have Skype, social media and photographs.  More importantly, I have so much great memories of this holiday that are non erasable.

四年前我第一次坐郵輪到挪威和冰島旅遊。其實坐郵輪度假並不是我那杯茶，但那次是例外因為我和十五位家庭成員一起去。我家有六兄弟姐妹，弟弟在香港工作，我當時住在倫敦，而其他人都住在英國西部。我們可以聚在一起的機會並不多，所以那次大家能夠同時間拋開手上工作，帶同伴侶及其中四個孩子參加這十天郵輪假期實在是非常難得。

我一直很想去挪威和冰島這兩個美麗國家，這次旅行絕對沒有令我失望。挪威出名的峽灣和源自冰河時期的冰川令人嘆為觀止，果然不是浪得虛名。而冰島由火山爆發出的獨特地質和生態環境，加上他們利用天然地熱發電盡量做到自給自足，同樣讓我留下極深刻印象。在冰島導遊講解下我們認識很多有當地的文化和歷史，以及一些有趣小知識。你知道在冰島父母是不能把他們的姓氏傳給孩子嗎？如果一個人的名字是Sturla，他兒子的姓氏將是Sturluson而他的女兒是Sturludottir，意思分別是Sturla的兒子 son和Sturla的女兒dottir！

其實這次假期最令我難忘並不是美麗的風景，而是在這十天和我家人度過的珍貴時刻。我們都非常幸運，大家都一把年紀還可以相處得極度愉快，不會像在孩提時常常爭吵，把時間浪費在一些無聊的事情上。所以，雖然我對郵輪度假並沒有太大興趣，但十天很快便過去了。現在，我已旅居到台灣，可以跟英國家人相處的機會更加少。幸好在這個現代世界，我們有Skype，社交媒體和照片，所以距離已不是太大問題。最重要的是，我已經擁有很多這次假期的美好回憶。