Day at sea

 August 4 - Day at sea

After a busy first five days we are having a day to relax and build up some energy for the next few days!  

We slept in and then went for breakfast; a lot of people must have had the same idea as it was pretty quiet in the buffet dining area!  We came back to the cabin and I thought Mary was going to do a walk so I thought I would just close my eyes for a few minutes…

LOL A couple of hours later… we talked about going to the future cruise office to make a deposit or two for 2024!  So we started looking at possibilities based on 2023 itineraries - and first thing you know, it’s lunch time!  

We chatted with a couple at the next table from Victoria BC who have cruised a lot.  We are always looking for ideas!

We haven’t said much about the ship so far.  First of all it is only about 3/4 full; this has meant most things have been relatively line free - getting into the dining venues, getting on and off the ship, etc. which has been nice. The crew is very diligent about cleaning especially in the dining areas.  There are hand washing stations (with real soap and water) at the entrances to the buffet - and a greeter (read that ‘supervisor’) to ask everyone to use them!  There are sanitizers everywhere. All of the servers, cabin attendants and other staff are wearing masks.  The people looking after us say they are happy to be back at work! 

Passengers are ‘requested’ to wear masks indoors except when eating or drinking, and most people comply.  We just look at the people who don’t, but say nothing!  Sometimes people will walk ‘naked’ in the halls LOL, but before they get into the elevators, they put on their masks!  On the tour buses probably a lot of people don’t wear masks, which is disappointing. Of course outside hardly anyone does. We wear ours most of the time and we feel ‘safe’.

The meals have been good.  Because we have been on excursions that included lunch for three days in a row, we have not been as hungry at dinner time!  The ‘lunch’ for all three was a chicken breast with potatoes and veggies plus a dessert, and two of them included soup or salad as a starter!  🐷🐷🐷

We haven’t been to any of the entertainment venues.  It seems the theatre is pretty full so we don’t feel comfortable there.  The casino is of little interest, and also the bars.  Besides, we are so tired in the evening, it is all we can do to waddle back to our room after full days, and satisfying dinners!

We are going to the Future Cruise Office shortly, and then we need to come back and get ready for another ‘formal night’!  That could take a bit of work!  LOL  We haven’t been turned away yet for looking inappropriate so hopefully we will be OK! 😂

We continue our journey Northward overnight and will be in Lerwick, Shetland Islands tomorrow.  The weather forecast is not great, but it’s all an adventure!

Stay tuned!

The Relaxed and Well-rested Travellers!

🚢

Glasgow, Scotland

 August 3 - Glasgow, Scotland

                                                                    Loch Lomond

As we had been to Glasgow on a previous cruise, we chose to get out into the countryside on a ship tour, the Best of the Scottish Highlands.  We set out on a drive through the scenic and lush Scottish Highlands to the bonny, bonny banks of Loch Lomond The second largest freshwater lake in Scotland, this loch's southern end is dotted with islands and its northern end resembles a fjord.  Our views were from Luss, a pretty village on the west shore of Loch Lomond. This was the first time we actually had rain!  Light showers - but still enough to have us wearing rain gear!

We went on for a brief stop at Rest and Be Thankful, a scenic overlook of Highland Glens and Mountains, so named for the words inscribed on a nearby stone by soldiers who built the military road in 1753.

From there we went to Inverary a very small town, where we had a delicious lunch at ‘The Brambles’ restaurant.

Then came a tour of the magnificent Inverary Castle, one of the earliest examples of Gothic Revival and Scots Baronial architecture.   The castle, which dates from 1770, is the seat of the Duke of Argyll, head of the Campbell clan and currently the 13th Duke. The highlights included the collection of family portraits, tapestries, and the Armory Hall.  The appointed rooms showcase a collection of French 18th-century furniture, English china, family artifacts and objects d'art.

On the scenic return journey we travelled along Loch Eck and Holy Loch to the village of Hunters Quay where the coach drove onto a ferry for the short trip across the Firth of Clyde.

We had another great day but we both agree it will be nice not to be getting on a bus tomorrow morning!  The pace has been busy, and with the time adjustment we are both tired!  But every day has been enjoyable!

The Happy Travellers

❤️❤️❤️

Belfast, Northern Ireland

 August 2 - Belfast, Northern Ireland

The capital of Northern Ireland - part of the United Kingdom - Belfast has experienced a renaissance since the Good Friday Agreement of 1998 that promised an end to the decades-old "Troubles" between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Stretching along both sides of the River Lagan, this graceful city of Victorian and Edwardian buildings has become a cosmopolitan tourist destination.

We had a great guide today for our tour of Belfast.  It was informative with a few anecdotes thrown in!  Some of the sites included Grand Opera House, a host of Victorian and Edwardian buildings with elaborate sculptures, the Albert Memorial Clock Tower, the Queen's University, City Hall, and the Titanic Memorial. 

         Queen’s University - specializing in Engineering and Languages

                             City Hall - Statue of Queen Victoria

The guide gave a short synopsis of the conflicts between 1969 and 1998 as we drove to the Peace Wall Murals. He described the troubles between the Nationalists and the Loyalists more as a political conflict between two extremist groups, rather than a religious conflict as there are both Catholics and Protestants in both groups. He said the attacks by both sides were random and retaliatory and most of the victims were innocent people ‘in the wrong place at the wrong time’.  On the Nationalist side, only flags of the Republic of Ireland are displayed, and the Loyalists only fly the Union Jack.  He described the situation since peace was negotiated in 1998 as ‘an uneasy peace’.

Next stop - the Crumlin Road Gaol
The Victorian-era Crumlin Road Gaol first opened its gates to prisoners in 1846 and was a fully operational prison for 150 years. Mary did the walk- through and took her usual amount of photos which I am sure she will post on Facebook!

Lunch was served in the restaurant called ‘Cuffs’.  LOL  on the menu was vegetable soup, chicken breast with mashed potatoes and green beans, and apple crumble with vanilla ice cream for dessert!  ANOTHER huge meal at noon!  

Our last stop was at the Titanic Belfast® Exhibit.
The tale of the ill-fated Titanic unfolds at the former shipyard of Harland and Wolff, which has been converted into a striking, ultra-modern exhibit space for Titanic Belfast®. The tour (with audio guides) was a fascinating look into the construction and launch of the 'unsinkable' ship and the history of the city that proudly built her. The Titanic set sail on April 2, 1912, amidst fanfare and excitement. Most of Belfast came out to watch it sail into the horizon, never imagining that just days later, the 882-foot-long ship would collide with an iceberg.

There were nine galleries, extremely well presented.  We only had about an hour and a half, but could have easily spent twice that amount of time!  

This was another full day with lots of walking and standing!  We are wearing down!  Tomorrow will be a full day, but with a lot of driving and sight seeing, hopefully giving our bodies a bit of a rest!  

Off to bed early tonight!

The  Very Weary Travellers!

Holyhead, Wales

August 1 - Holyhead, Wales

Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, the town with the second longest name in the world!

Today’s tour was a train ride on an old Welsh Steam Train, the Rheilffordd Festiniog Railway.  I have cheated a little by copying parts of the description of the day from the Princess website!

Discover North Wales, home of Snowdonia National Park, by both rail and motorcoach. Begin in Holyhead with a scenic motorcoach drive that takes in Britannia Bridge and Anglesey, 

Ffestiniog Railway Rheilffordd Ffestiniog

Carving its way through the glorious landscape of Snowdonia National Park, the Rheilffordd Ffestiniog is the oldest railway company in the world. Celebrating almost 200 years of history, this classic company still uses the 150-year-old original locomotives and antique carriages. This was a real steam train; we had to make a couple of stops to take on water!

Wind through fields and forests, past waterfalls and lakes while journeying from sea level to the Blaenau Ffestiniog depot. Your 90-minute Rheilffordd Ffestiniog train journey takes you up steep grades and around tight horseshoe bends and includes the Dduallt spiral and the New Moelwyn Tunnel.

We journeyed through beautiful countryside and rural villages with houses made mainly of stone and slate.  Even the fences were slate!

We stopped for lunch in Betws-y-Coed, North Wales's most popular inland resort. Betws-y-Coed, located in lovely Snowdonia National Park. The alpine atmosphere at this Victorian-style village charms guests with ancient bridges and plunging waterfalls and is the perfect setting for a bountiful lunch at a typical Welsh hotel.

It was a lovely day and we managed to get back to the ship before the rain.

We haven’t been to any of the entertainment offerings yet! We’ve had very busy days and are ready to relax in the evenings in our cabin! And we are falling seriously behind in reaching our drinks quota for the day!!! We’ll need to pick up the pace! 

On to Belfast tomorrow!

Night! Night!

The Weary Travellers

Cobh (Cork) Ireland

 July 31 - Cobh (Cork) Ireland 

As we sailed towards Cork, we passed through some fairly heavy rain around 5AM.  Hopefully the weather will clear before our arrival at 9AM.  Our tour today is with MunsterBus and we are sharing with Sandy & Ron from Southern California and Evelyn from Washington State.

…. By the time we were docking the weather had improved and our driver told us it should be a nice day - which in Ireland, apparently, is a rarity! He said sometimes they get the four seasons on the same day!

We took a brief Cork City Tour; Cork was the last port of the Titanic before it’s fateful Atlantic crossing!  It is a city of about 400,000 and was bustling with city traffic on the Sunday of a long weekend!

We headed to Blarney Castle and climbed the steps to kiss the Blarney Stone!  ( I took a pass on this, but intrepid Mary went on up and looked around the castle and some of the gardens)

From there we set out for Kinsale, a busy little town set on a pretty harbour across from Charles Fort.  

Kinsale Harbour

Charles Fort

We had lunch at Jim Edwards’ Pub, a popular local spot in town and then started back to the ship.

Despite the beautiful day, and the pastoral countryside, it was not one of our  best tours!  The driver was pleasant enough, but he didn’t offer much commentary; we had to keep asking questions to learn anything about Ireland’s culture, history and way of life.

Hopefully tomorrow we will have a wonderful experience in Holyhead, Wales!

Stay tuned!

The Travellers

Guernsey (Channel Islands), UK

 July 30 - Guernsey ( Channel Islands), UK

 We arrived at Guernsey, one of the Channel Islands, this morning where we are anchored off the harbour.  Today we are sharing our excursion with Deb & Glenn, and Dana & Michael and we had a very interesting and informative tour with Amanda Johns, whose family has lived here for several generations.

Our tour began with a drive out of town, passing by Victor Hugo’s house where he completed Les Miserables, and from there on to the top of a bunker overlooking the harbour and the other Channel Islands. At one spot we could see the coast of France. 

Our next stop was The Little Chapel, possibly the smallest chapel in the world. It was built to create a miniature version of the famous grotto and basilica at Lourdes in France. The Little Chapel, measuring about 16 ft x 9 ft, is beautifully decorated with seashells, pebbles and colourful pieces of broken china.

The rest of the tour was an account of the German occupation of Guernsey between 1940 and 1945.

First to the German Occupation Museum - 

Because some of Amanda’s family had lived through the German occupation she described some of their personal experiences; she told of how theGermans bombed the harbour and then Churchill made the decision to offer the choice to evacuate or stay and families had one day to decide and pack up! About half the population left.  She shared actual letters that her Grandfather had sent to his sister where he was only allowed to write 25 words!  In one letter he had to tell her of the death of their father.  

The museum gives glimpses into the daily life of civilians under German occupation, equipment used, newspaper clippings, the Red Cross Ship with food parcels for families which saved them from starving.

From there we went to the German Underground Hospital and Ammunition Store. The maze of tunnels comprised about 75,000 square feet and is built into the side of a hill and therefore not visible from the surface. Using ‘slave labourers’ from various European countries it took about 3 1/2 years to build, but was only in use for about 9 months!  It was an incredible structure and the conditions would have been deplorable.

It was a fascinating tour made all the more interesting by Amanda, whose passion about this part of her family history made it come alive for us.

 Back to the ship for the first ‘formal’ night!  Oh joy!  LOL  We are not really keen to get all gussied up, but we do our best!  We’ve decided to go to Sabatini’s, one of the specialty restaurants, for an Italian feast!  

Mangia!  Mangia!

Oh boy!  Started with Prosciutto and a pufffy pastry of some sort, then antipasti- lamb skewers for Mary, roasted peppers for Dorothy, then Pasta- lamb ravioli for Mary, seafood fettuccine for Dorothy, and for the main course - Veal Marsala for both of us.

But the dessert….. a small selection….

Tiramisu,  Zabaglione, Panna Cotta, and a chocolate extravaganza!

We asked for wheelchairs to get us back to the cabin!  Oh my!  Thank God for elastic waistbands and hopefully all the walking today will cancel out the calories!

Next stop, Cork, Ireland!

Love, 

The Stuffed Travellers!

 

 

 

Embarkation - Southampton, UK

 July 29 - Embarkation in Southampton,th UK 

July 28 - Arrival.  After a perfect flight - on time, great seats, tasty and well presented meals on real dishes with real cutlery, delicious Cabernet Merlot in a tumbler! and well looked after by Stefan, a flight attendant who called us by name after introducing himself! - we had a very long wait for special services to come with our transport.    

The ride through the airport was interesting; it reminded us of the CNE and the Haunted House ride ( minus the ghosts!) - winding through many rather poorly lit corridors and into elevators that were just the right size!  Even with the wait we were grateful to have this service as it was a long way to passport control, customs, and the baggage claim area.  To make a long, boring story short, the driver of the transport vehicle was extremely helpful in locating our transfer guy who had actually had to go back to the parking lot because he had exceeded his time waiting.  The driver then took the scenic route  to Southampton where we stayed at the Leonardo Royal Harbour Hotel.

After a tasty Caesar Salad with Chicken for late lunch, we walked around the old city and wall looking at the stone structures and buildings in the old medieval city that once protected the town and welcomed seafarers and pilgrims.

 

They have built new accommodation and repurposed many of the old buildings.  After that, we were really tired after the flight, little sleep and a lot of walking so called it a day!  

July 29 - After a good night’s sleep we were ready to head to the Island Princess to begin our long awaited cruise!   Check in was so easy and efficient as much of the registration and documentation about vaccines and Covid tests had been done online before we left home. We heard there are only 1500 passengers on the ship ( capacity is about 2200) which makes it feel roomy and passengers are requested to wear masks indoors which we are thankful for.

Once onboard we went straight to the Lido deck for lunch - and a celebratory glass of wine!  We spent the afternoon watching traffic in the harbour and enjoying a perfect day on the Promenade deck.

After dinner we returned to our cabin to enjoy the sunset on our balcony!  We’ll have an early night in preparation for our excursion in Guernsey tomorrow.  We are so happy to be sailing again!

Until next time….

The Happy Travellers