To Southampton and Home...

Friday, October 4. Sunny and mild. 15 C.

   We had a great Last Dinner in the steakhouse last night, we packed our cases for the staff to pick up after the 10:00 pm deadline and waited for the Sandman to come.

Next thing I knew was Fellette was up and dressed and we were docking in Southampton. We nipped up for a light breakfast and soon vacated the cabin and off to a lounge. There we awaited until we were called to go. We marched off the ship, claimed our two bags, and went to our assigned Coach.

We were soon on our way to London Heathrow. An hour or so in a comfortable lounge before boarding.

The End!

And to home!

Falmouth, Cornwall...

Thursday, October 3. Sunny, milder, no wind. 12 C.

A strange yellow object was spotted in the sky in the morning at Falmouth, in Cornwall today! It was the SUN, last seen by passengers eons ago. Sadly, this is the last day of touring for these people as tomorrow morning they start the long journey home to equally similar climate and lack of sun.

   We had booked a Tour to 'The Eden Project.' It was never on our Bucket List but when you are this close, why not. The coach ride took about 1.25 hours with the coach about 1/3 full. Great ride in a clear blue-sky-day through the Cornish Countryside.

   Once again the trip turned into a Trip Down Memory lane. In 1960 I hitch-hiked through this part of the world including the quaint towns of Truro and St. Austell which amazingly we drove through. Hiking around the winding and intermingling twisting hilly streets streets was a challenge indeed.

   At The Eden Project it was an interesting today, but not terribly stimulating. If you are a tree hugger and and believe in ALL things green, super! It was nice to see the sun and countryside more than anything.

   One thing that I found interesting was the obvious affect that this place would have on young children, whose parents themselves are very young. 'Get Them Young' and you can change the world I suppose. Lord knows us older generations did not do too good a job on looking after this world in so many ways did we? 

A Good Day. 

This is two of several structures. Note the size of the two workers on the right dome.

In the Rain Forest Bio Dome.

Same.

Just like in West Africa.

There is no 'rain' in the Dome, just very high humidity. That water is recirculated and pumped up there.

This four year old was having a blast at this machine puffing out steam rings. 

The Packing Wizard goes to work right after we got back from the visit.

Bags out after dinner tonight and off the ship by 8:15 tomorrow morning and then straight onto the coach to London Heathrow Airport.Maybe a four hour drive. Flight leaves around 3:00 and home around 4:00. [A nine hour flight with an eight hour time difference!]

Cork, Ireland...

Wednesday, October 2. Gray sky, cool. 11 C.

We are at the Port of Cork, arriving here at 7:00 am. We were here just 16 months ago with Jim and Gail. This was the last port in Europe before starting our journey to the Azores and home. Unfortunately I woke up with an upset tummy this morning. So, we cancelled the bus tour and took the day off. It is rather a strange feeling to be on a ship when most people are ashore. Strangely quiet. So, we took a Sea Day, in port.

   We received our luggage tags and all the information about the flight home on Friday afternoon. That means that the next thing is to pack up all our stuff and get it out after bedtime tomorrow. 

   This cruise seems to be over almost as soon as it started, however it proved its purpose, I have doubts that we will be back in this neck of the woods in this lifetime.

Lazy Day.

The 'Port' of Cork is different than the city of Cork, above and a 'proper' city. 

A bit chilly out and about

Sun Beds optimistically with fresh sheets on them.

The coaches for morning tours just by the gangway and the Railroad Station right behind them. Very compact.

This was the last piece of land that The Titanic saw as it sailed off from here and sunk shortly after.

We ate at This Restaurant last night. Canadian Lobster for the main course. [Could he be the reason for my Rumbly Tummy?]

Dinner.

Baggage tags and info for Friday.

Wales, Holyhead...

 Tuesday, October 1. A decent day. 15 C.

Behold, the Blog is working again!

Today we went on a Coach Tour to Caernarfon Castle some 25 minutes from the port at Holyhead. These coaches are never rear full at all and are quite luxurious indeed. 

   This Castle was built between 1283 and 1330 AD, [47 years]. The native Welsh population was not too happy about having their land now governed by French speaking people but after all, William the Conqueror was head Honcho now, and he was French. The dispute went on for hundreds of years and there is to this day, some issues.

   We did an in depth visit of the Castle that dominates this tiny town that still has the original wall surrounding it. It was not a terribly touristy town, like so many towns and villages in the UK that are just interesting to see. Some, like this Town/Village/City, appear to be stuck in time where the folks just live out their whole life much like their ancestors have done for hundreds of years, but much improved facilities and services.

   We were back on the ship in time for a late lunch and a rest before going to a Specialty Restaurant. We are certainly getting our share of rest nowadays. Three more sleeps!  

 A Good Day.

There, you can now say you have seen an Irish Ferry!

On the way to the Castle, pleasant countryside. Not terribly exciting.

Mid river fish catching facility, quaint but low impact.

The spelling is obviously Welsh.

It dominates the countryside.

Guns again, time for Doug to be in the picture.

A rock-splitting exhibit, tough work indeed.

A Chess board with life-size Pieces, here a King.

Here a Knight.

One of 1400 chairs used for the invited dignitaries when Charles was made The Prince of Wales by Queen Elizabeth. They could buy the chair for a modest sum and keep it as a souvenir.

Just a picture of my much younger wife.

Street scene.

The entry to the city through  one of many gates.

The sign...

...the Bar

Dublin Was a No-Go Today...

Monday, September 30. Foggy, light rain, choppy 11 C.

The captain announced early this morning that the ship was unable to anchor because the pilot could not board the ship  because of bad weather. My gosh, what a bunch of Whoosies we must have ashore. Unless they are not telling us the truth? 

It doesn’t really matter as Fellette and I were thinking of not going ashore. We have been here before and were unimpressed then. We are not a fan of big cities, we call them ABC’s. [Another Big City.] This is not Sour Grapes, but the truth. We had a shore excursion booked: to a Castle and a Walk in Some Gardens.

It is not a day for being outside.

Just a plain old Fall rainy and blustery day.

Craig is doing the Blog for me today as this ship seems to have difficulty working with the Blog Website, so I write him and email this text, he then goes into blogger and edits it etc., and posts it at his convenience. He has helped me out for 25 years or so, but usually in some isolated parts of the word, not when we are basically close to the centre of the Western World! Oh, Woe is me!!!

Well folks, I am sorry that our little Vacation at Sea turned into bit of a bust for you. However, in spite of a few misadventures due to weather, we have had a very restful couple of weeks bobbing around and going down some Memory Lanes. No commitments, no dinners to cook, beds to make nor groceries to go shopping for. Just bumming around into forced relaxation. 

A Lazy Day in The Irish Sea.

Belfast, Ireland...

Sunday, September 29. Rain,  10 C.

It's a long way from Kirkwall to Dublin, so much so that it takes a full 24 hours of running at near top speed to get here. We appreciated the time to have a lazy sleep in this morning. We were at the top end of the Irish Sea when we awoke this morning. Another five hours before we get to Belfast.

Believe it or not we have only five more sleeps and then the great Silver Bird flies us home. We arrive back in Southampton in the morning, get on the coach and shuttle up to Heathrow where we leave  at 2:10 in the afternoon and arrive in Vancouver at 3:55, in the afternoon. All Lord willing of course.

About this cruise: We have only five more sleeps before we return home this coming Friday. Wow, about the shortest cruse for us in 30 years. And, to a non-exotic place like Britain! It is exactly what Fellette and I wanted. The last World Cruise we were on in the spring of 2023 was a bit of a disaster for us in many ways. I said that I had  'Hung up my cruising shoes' after that one. There were many reasons for that that I will not mention. This was a 'Test Cruise' to see how we liked cruising or if our 'Cruise Days' were truly over. At this point I can say that we still enjoy the life aboard. But, on a smaller and more sedate pace, like this one.

An Informative Afternoon.

On a Tour called The Titanic Trail, after lunch.

This is the Dry Dock that the Titanic was sailed into after it was launched. There, the hull could be painted and the propellors installed.

In the bottom of the dry dock. After floating the ship in, the water would be pumped out and the keel would rest on the massive cast iron  and wooden blocks running the length of the keel. The ship was propped up sideways by timbers from the sides of the concrete walls to the ship. The workers can then get to work on installing propellors and I suppose, the ridder mechanism.

A profile of the prow of the ship. It does not look to the right scale as the ship was massive in every way.

No expense was spared here. The whole dockyard area, acres and acres of it has been converted to a Shrine to 'Everything Titanic'. Almost to a Disneyland proportion, but this is history and not make believe. The building and displays that houses 'Titanic Belfast' is a very comprehensive and hands on on experience. It is amazing at how many adults can linger at the displays and stories inside this massive building. It was designed  and built to specifically be a World Class attraction to draw people to Belfast to stimulate the Belfast economy. I would say it has succeeded.

If you try hard, you can see the word TITANIC made from a plate of steel like the ship was made from.

Self explanatory.

All things Trans Atlantic.

Just a very pleasant booster for Belfast on display.

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I apologize in advance for the number of typographical errors in the blogs. The internet coverage up in northern UK is sparse as we were shown yesterday by our Romanian friend in the office for passengers  assistance for all things to do with internet at sea! I cannot proof-read my work because I risk the chance of loosing it completely, as I have done a few times this trip

Kirkwall, in The Orkney's

 Saturday, September 28. Cold as Hell, Windy. 9 C.

Today we went on an early 'Orkney's Archaeological Wonders' tour. We have run out of Cold Weather Clothing, we were wearing it all. The sun was out and the sky was Azure Blue. But, it was bitterly Cold!

Our guide was a Welshman but also an Archaeologist and has worked on the Digs up the the area we went to. So we had the best possible guide we could get. The ship got in at 7:00 am and sailed at 1:00 pm as we have a long run down south to Belfast, Ireland tomorrow.

Apologies for a Lumpy Blog, the internet is worse here than in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and we are a few miles off the coast of Great Britain, make one wonder???

A Cold and Windy Day, But Interesting!

There, now we know where we are!

This is known as 'A Standing Stone' for obvious reasons. They are in several ares around here. Much is unknown about them, who, and why they were placed here. 

At least I know the name of the Stones.

Somebody lived up here until  about 1995.

The crops are in up here as  they are further down south.

Spooky and mysterious looking things.

This dwelling was covered in sand for a few thousand years and on a very stormy night in 1850 was uncovered. The Lord used it as a play area for the children until it was excavated properly much, much later. Fascinating to walk where the ancients lived! 

Doug cannot resist posing with big guns! Windy and cold or not.

Now here it was actually not windy but warm! A walled Garden.

Speaks for itself. We had a hot coffee in the cafe and Gift Shop.

My lunch on Board. That and a milk shake.