August 15 - 16. Still at the Radisson Blu!

It’s our last day here across from Heathrow Airport.  Our routine is the same every day - get up, get dressed, go to McDonald’s for breakfast, come back to our patio seats watching the world go by, decide what to do for lunch, back to the room or the patio to check for email and comments on the blog as North America wakes up, go to dinner, watch a bit of terrible TV, lights out! Repeat! LOL

We’ve seen a passing parade of people.  I guess I would say McDonald’s is a cross section of life in the UK!  Business men in suits, the helmet guys, young people, older people, families, average Joes, tourists (the ones wearing masks!), and everything in between!  

It’s been interesting to watch the system at the Golden Arches. The people behind the counter seem to be trained to do every job as yesterday’s cashier is handing out orders the next day or pouring the drinks, and the people preparing the meals are at different stations each day.  I guess it’s good to train everyone to do all the tasks so if an employee is off sick or has a day off, someone else can easily step in.

TV has been very limited!  We have mainly watched the European Games and Sky News, an independent news channel.  The channel is simply reporting the stories with no apparent bias!  We have watched a bit of BBC and it’s been interesting to see how much they report on Africa.  We’ve hardly heard the ‘T word’ since we arrived here last Friday; he’s not top of mind in Britain! LOL

We’ve had great dinners at Carluccio’s (and thus the decision to return there every night).  The food was always excellent and it gave us a bit of a walk after so much sitting during the day.  Tonight we will try the fare at our own Hotel.

Sorry that the blogs are getting more and more boring every day!  But really, what do we have to tell?  We talked before we left home that this could be a possibility and we were as prepared as we could be - and we have survived!  We are grateful that neither of us had severe symptoms, in fact, we didn’t really feel ill at all.  Too bad it was so hot and we didn’t feel like trying to get into London, but the temps were sweltering and we didn’t really want to risk being on a public bus or in a crowd.

So it’s off to Gatwick tomorrow.  We’ve ordered a car to come for us at noon and we’ll enjoy the hour long trip taking in the scenery.  The next time you hear from us we will likely be in Alliston!

Ciao for now!

The Adventurers!

 August 13 - 14  At the Radisson Blu Hotel

Day 1 at our Heathrow Hotel turned out to be a good day!  We were able to be outdoors, enjoying the lovely weather.  It got hotter as the day went on, but we found a shady spot to sit with a light breeze as we watched the world go by!  The scene was lots of traffic whizzing by and of course, we saw London’s famous double decker busses.  Because our hotel is across the road from Heathrow airport, we are amazed at how frequently the planes take off!  The larger jets seemed to head off to the Northeast, while the smaller planes tended to veer off to the Southeast.  

We had a rather dysfunctional family to keep us entertained as well!  Grandma, Mom, Dad, and 4 children. Clearly the 6 year old was used to having her own way and getting attention!  The older boy, who obviously had been given a responsible role, seemed to be trying to ‘manage’ her, but it was a challenge!  Grandma was attempting to get the youngest one to go to sleep.  The bratty 6 year old moved chairs from other tables, and at one point lay down on the deck and had a mini tantrum!  Her final act was to take two glasses from their table over to the next table and slam them down with such force that she broke them off at the stems - broken glass everywhere!!  The Mom whisked her off and next thing we knew, as Grandma had succeeded in getting the 2 year old to fall asleep, she and the rest of the family packed up and left!  We felt sorry for Grandma and for the boy!  And for the wait staff who appeared to clean up the broken glass!  

We had a very nice dinner at the Marriott hotel next door, Carluccio’s.   The wine was fine, the meal was the real deal, and the sweets were a treat!  LOL

Day 2 was much like Day 1!  The family returned without much to see, except today the bratty 6 year old  came out of the restaurant holding two stemmed water glasses over her ears as if she was testing the sound waves! No breakage this time and then they went to check out!

Another source of entertainment was the people watching at the Golden Arches next door. it is a very busy place, but it is extremely clean, with staff constantly wiping surfaces, sanitizing the trays before returning them for reuse, and even doing the high dusting of the ceiling vents!

Then there were the helmet guys!  These were guys who work for the various food delivery services like Deliveroo!!  They park their motorcycles, come into the store still clad in their helmets and carrying an insulated bag.  As their orders come up, they pack the food into the bag and off they go!  

There are several types of service at McDonald’s we discovered - drive thru, walk up to the counter and order, or order from one of four touch screens!  We were amazed at how many people order from the touch screens - even when there is no one ordering at the counter.  All I could think of is how many people touch those screens!!!  YUCK!

Tonight we’ve decided to go back to Carluccio’s for dinner…. There’s still so many choices on that menu worth exploring!  It’s a short walk and the atmosphere is like being in Tuscany!

I think there is rain in the forecast in the next couple of days, so we’ll see what we do.  The outdoor seating area here at the Radisson is covered, so we must just snag a table and plant ourselves there!!!

Stay tuned!

The Happy Heathrow Hotelers

🍷🍷

Disembarkation in Southampton, UK

 August 12 - Disembarkation in Southampton, UK

It’s always a letdown to reach the final day of a cruise, but this time it was bittersweet!  We loved the ports we visited and, of course, we were happy to be back on a ship,  but the last few days were not a whole lot of fun!  We arrived back in Southampton and docked around 6:00 AM on a sunny, warm, Friday morning! 

It is a busy port with ferries constantly coming and going.

And with other ships already berthed.

A tanker has already moved in to start the refuelling process!

Breakfast was delivered at 7:30 and then we had to wait to be ‘escorted’ through the disembarkation process!

Each stateroom had it’s own escort and elevator and we were taken to the luggage hall to claim our bags.  We, along with 10 others, were then loaded onto a 50 seater coach for the trip to our Heathrow hotel.  While waiting for everyone to board, people got chatting about their infection and it seems we all tested positive within a few days of each other, and several have been doing rapid tests themselves, and no one is yet negative.  Some had one person of a couple test positive, but not the other until a few days later. So I am glad we have postponed our return until the 10 day mark!  Hopefully by then we will have a chance for a negative result.

We left the cruise terminal about 10:15 and we were at the Radisson Blu a couple of hours later.  Two ‘greeters’ came onto the coach to welcome us, give us an information package, hand out our keys and tell us about local eateries, etc.

The hotel is rated 4 stars with a luxurious lobby; our twin room is small, but comfortable ( probably about the same size as our cabin, minus the balcony).  When we looked out our window, we got a surprise!  We had  a very sunburned friend to greet us! It is so hot here in London - around 35°C! No wonder Big Red looks like that!  LOL

There are no rules!  No one is wearing a mask!  We are free to come and go!  The contradiction is that the package of information we received about the hotel contained instructions about how to bag up our towels, how to order from room service and how to call them to pick up the dishes as we cannot put them out in the hall. And no one will be coming into our room to clean during our stay!  We will continue to wear our masks in public spaces,

It is so hot!  I doubt we will be doing much sightseeing if it stays like this.  We did venture out in the late afternoon to look for a meal!  It was a very long walk in blazing sun, but we did enjoy the meal at another hotel.  And then - we had to face the long walk back!  We have walked 4938 steps today!  

So we have settled in for the night and tuned in to the BBC news! I think it will be ‘lights out’ early!  

We are doing well, and are one step closer to getting on our homebound flight! We may not have much to report for the next few days, so if you don’t see a post, don’t worry about us!

Portland, UK

 August 11 - Portland, UK

We docked in Portland around 7:00 AM.  We haven’t got a spectacular view, but it’s nice to be able to open the balcony door and step out from time to time.  It’s a hot day, but the bright sunshine is nice.  

We will miss our tour scheduled to go to see Stonehenge and Salisbury Cathedral.  Luckily we had already seen some Neolithic sites at the Ring of Brodgar in the Orkneys and Clava Cairns in Invergordon, although it would have been interesting to go to the famous site at Stonehenge.

I was interested in seeing Salisbury Cathedral as The Pillars of the Earth is one of my favourite books. It’s a Ken Follett novel about the construction of a cathedral in the fictitious English town of Kingsbridge in the 1100s. Salisbury is the inspiration for the town.

Oh well, maybe another trip to Great Britain is in our future!  LOL

The days roll by!  It seems we just move from one meal to another!  They have a great exercise program, however.   Drink a bottle of water, then run, skip, or dance to the washroom and repeat!  For a bit of a change we can step in and out of the balcony.  What fun!  😂

Today is packing day!  Time to get ready for the next stage of our homecoming!  We have rebooked our flight for Aug 18.  In the meantime, Princess has prepaid for 5 rooms at a hotel at Heathrow!  Yup!  We are flying from Gatwick, but the room is at Heathrow! Princess will transfer the Covidites ( guess we aren’t the only ones!) to Heathrow but we have to book a service to drive us to Gatwick where we will get our Antigen test on Aug 17th.  We must have a negative result to be allowed to board the aircraft, so please keep your fingers crossed for us!

I guess that’s the most exciting news for today!  We’ll write again from our new digs at Heathrow!  Hopefully it’s a suite with a view!  haha!

The Princess Prisoners

Dover, UK

 August 10 - Dover, UK

Greetings from the White Cliffs of Dover!

We were out on the balcony in our nighties before 6:00 AM with cameras!  (No photos of that!). We could see the cliffs in the distance from miles out and it was quite a sight to see them as we approached.  

I think he saw an ant crawling up the cliff through his gigantic lens!  LOL

Dover looks like a pretty busy port; we passed ferries waiting to leave port as the captain took us into our berth.  There is one other passenger ship in port today - one of Viking’s Ocean ships.

                                      Almost docked…

We had one tour today - a trip to the balcony!!  😂  We managed to waddle out there to enjoy breakfast en plein air! We had barely finished breakfast when we heard a tap at the door and the menu appeared for us to choose what we wanted for lunch and dinner!  Oh boy!

                                  Mary is making her selections!

Time seems to be passing by as we are kept busy trying to make alternative arrangements for getting home.  So many things to think of!  We have decided to accept Princess’ offer of 5 nights hotel which means changing our flights, cancelling the hotel we had ready booked for one night, making arrangements with our driver to get us to Alliston, etc.

In addition to that we were entertained by FOX News with the latest developments in the US.  It is astounding what they report!!!  Poor Donald!

We were so disappointed to miss formal night last night!  And to top it all off, Mary refused to get all fancy for dinner in our cabin!  Sheesh!  LOL

It’s almost time here in the UK for an afternoon nap!  Hope everyone is well!

Stay tuned!

The Princess

Edinburgh Scotland and at sea

 August 9 - Edinburgh, Scotland and at sea

Good news!  Bad news!

The good news is that I have a beautiful new great grandson!  His name is Rhys, and he weighed in at 8 lbs!  Everyone is doing well!

Now for the bad news…. Mary and I both tested positive for Covid 19! So we are in isolation until the end of the cruise, and may have to delay our return until we get a negative antigen test.  We are both OK and well looked after!  Unfortunately, yesterday we missed the tour with an ancestry guide to visit places in Scotland where our grand parents walked!  But at least this is near the end of the cruise and the remaining ports were not high on our ‘must see’ list.

The phone keeps ringing…  checking to see how we are doing, getting our meal orders, and trying to help with our arrangements for disembarkation.  This is complicated because we don’t get our antigen test until the day of our scheduled return flight, so it is unlikely that we could make that.  Princess will arrange our hotel where the testing will be done.  So don’t expect us home until at least Aug 14!

There are constant taps on the door!  First we got a tray full of bottled water!  Each day our meals are delivered, even wine!  Someone taps on the door and when we open it, there is a tray with the meal, sitting on a little table!  Then we take our tray with the dirty dishes to the table and they disappear! Magic!

 

                         We need to drink lots of water!

We have to put our garbage out in a special red bag marked ‘danger’LOL.  Our towels go into a clear bag, and I presume new ones will be left on our little table!

At least we have TV ( not that the viewing choices are great!) and internet.   We also each have a book to read, and I brought my Globe and Mail Cryptic Crosswords!!

Please keep your fingers crossed for us that we test negative on the 13th! 

Until next time,

The Princess Prisoners!

  

  

Invergordon, Scotland

 August 7 - Invergordon

We had a perfect day in a beautiful port!  Off to the Highlands!

Rob, our guide dressed in his kilt, met us just outside the port gate and we set out with 7 other passengers from the ship, heading for Cawdor Castle.  This is a Scottish Castle built over 600 years ago by the Cawdor family, who are part of the Campbell Clan, perhaps distantly related to some of the other Campbell’s who are owners of Inverary Castle  which we visited a few days ago.  The rooms were lavish, and the gardens were magnificent. (Remember to tap any photo to enlarge)

From there we went to the Clava Cairns, the prehistoric standing stones and burial chambers from about 4000 years ago.  These people lived in a community and this was their ceremonial burial site.

On we went to the Culloden Battlefield.  Rob gave us a quick history lesson of the history of Scotland  from James I to 1745 when the Jacobites made one final attempt to reclaim the throne but were defeated by the British.

A farmhouse at the Culloden site

Loch Ness was the next stop.  No one saw the Loch Ness monster, not even after a wee dram of whiskey served by our guide!

Our last stop was in Inverness, the largest city in the Scottish Highlands.  It is situated on the River Ness and has maintained many of its old 19th Century buildings and churches.  The old town is very walkable and it was teeming with tourists on a Sunday afternoon!

Episcopalian  Church

 

Church of Scotland

We had a scenic drive through the countryside, enjoying the fertile valley, all the barley fields, trees, and lakes.  The temperature was perfect - 15° - 20° with bright sunshine all day!  Inverness was indeed a pleasant surprise! We are sorry to see the days passing by so quickly!

Stay tuned!

Love,

The Scottish Lassies

We 

Orkney Islands, Scotland

 August 6 - Orkney Islands, Scotland

🍷🎉Happy Birthday, Mary!🎉🍷

Shetland Islands, Scotland

 August 5 - Shetland Islands, Scotland

Today we are off on a wildlife cruise around Noss National Nature Reserve and Bressay and are joined by an English couple from the UK, Pam & Harvey.   Hopefully ‘the photographer’ will have opportunities to capture the natural beauty and fauna of this area - and maybe I will get lucky with a few good shots too! Our skipper and guide are a husband and wife team who operate ‘Seabirds and Seals’.

Lerwick is a pretty harbour town, and a very busy commercial port. We are anchored out in the bay and use tender boats (water shuttles) to go back and forth.  In the photo below you can see our three modes of transportation today… in the foreground, the catamaran for our tour…. in the background, our ship anchored in the bay… and on the left just off the pier you can see one of the tender boats coming into view.

The first thing of interest after we left the harbour was an interesting rock formation called the Giant’s Leg. 

 

Moving along the coast we begin to see dozens of seabirds.  Brian took us into Orkney-man’s  Cave where we saw Black Guillemots perched on the ledges in the cave.

The scenery around Bressay Island was beautiful and reminded us of a similar excursion we took in Tasmania with the rocky cliffs.  The birds we saw here were gannets, guillemots, puffins, kittiwakes, skuas, shags and cormorants. This will be like ‘Where’s Waldo?’ as you look at the photos! You can tap the photos to enlarge them!

Our next viewing was a colony of gannets….. like an apartment building on a cliff!

There were many shags and cormorants as well.  Shags are the ones with the long necks.

Marie and Brian gave us a great opportunity to see the gannets diving for fish! as Brian tossed the fish overboard, the birds swooped in and dove for them, swallowing the whole fish! It was a frenzy, but only the quick ones were rewarded!

We were lucky to see some puffins as many of them have left for the Faroe Islands.  Can you spot them?

We stopped in a protected cove for some refreshments - tea and coffee with biscuits!  Scotch shortbread!  Yum!  For you tea lovers - look at the cute tea cosy!

Erin - I thought of you when I saw the milk container from Tesco!

And of course our day would not have been complete without a lighthouse or two, right,  Cathy!

It was a great excursion  - a real change from driving the countryside in a bus. Our luck held out with the weather as the forecast had predicted rain from about the time our tour was to start!  Instead, it just began to sprinkle as we got off the boat to head for the tender back to our ship!

Off to the Orkney Islands tonight! We will be crossing our fingers for a decent day tomorrow!

Love from the Wildlife Watchers!