June 22

I will add photos to all this once I get home.

June 20/21/22

June 20, at sea in the morning and at Gibraltar for the afternoon and evening.

I've never given any thought to what's at Gibraltar besides The Rock and its apes, other than I once saw a tv show about how difficult the airport is for pilots due to crosswinds and a major road that crosses the middle of the runway. Now I've seen that runway, and seen planes land and take off, and I plan to never fly into Gibraltar. Past the runway is what appears to be an isthmus connecting the area around the rock to the Spanish mainland. The coastline curves around in a huge bay. There's a lot of ship and boat traffic in the bay, and there's about to be more. A ship docked next to us carrying at least a dozen gleaming new pleasure boats. They were in the cabin cruiser to small yacht size range. By afternoon, it had off-loaded its cargo and sailed away. I didn't see where the pleasure boats went.

I didn't go ashore because to get off the dock area is about a mile hike, and there weren't any excursions that would accommodate my wheels. Even to get to the buses was over a quarter mile, and I really didn't want to try that without the walker. But the weather was really lovely, so I enjoyed the view and the sunshine on the open deck. I talked to one woman who came back from a tour most disappointed, so I figure I didn't miss much except a look at the famous Barbary Apes (actually tailless monkeys) about 60 of which still live there and, by legend, keep it a British territory. Mark took a tour that went to some WWII tunnels.

I did win at trivia this afternoon, but only because just 6 of us showed up, so we played as a single team. We had fun with some fiendish questions like "How many flowers are on one side of an Oreo cookie?" (no fair peeking).and "What is the second-most widely spoken language in the world?" I then decided to splurge at the spa with a pedicure today and a manicure tomorrow.

Since Mark's tour was a late  one, we had a nice quiet dinner without the rest of the group. However, after dinner, we went up on the Sports Deck to get a good spot to watch the big, loud, Latin-themed Sail Away Party that began about 10:30 p.m. and met the group there. There was supposed to be a big fountain and light show on the Lido Deck. The previous night it didn't happen because of some problem with a pump. Last night it happened, but was somewhat less than spectacular. After that, I went back to the cabin and watched us actually sail through the Straits of Gibraltar. As we turned eastward, I could see lights on the coast of Africa, and sea gulls swooping past the ship's lights made white shadows in the night against the faint silhouette of The Rock. It was really neat.

June 21, Malaga, Spain. I had originally planned to go ashore here, but when I found out that the process would involve at least two and maybe three shuttle buses just to get from the ship off the pier area and to town, I decided to give that experience a miss. After a late breakfast, Mark and I spent the morning at the back of Lido Deck with the best view of the city. Mark wrote postcards, and I chatted with a couple from the Hill Country of Texas. The weather was pleasant, temperature-wise, but there was a heavy mist, almost a fog, that obscured much of the view from our port side.

This afternoon Mark and I were invited to tour the Bridge! Mark has been on bridge tours before, but I hadn't, and this _is_ a maiden voyage, after all, so we were reasonably excited about the prospect. It was a great tour with only 8 of us passengers. This ship, brand new as she is, is totally state of the art, and the tiniest joy-stick on the bridge is the one that steers the ship when the computer isn't doing it. There is redundancy upon redundancy upon back-up upon back-up for every system. Every zone of the ship has all services needed in an emergency like a galley, water, vacuum system for toilets, etc. No Carnival debacles for this ship! They had the bell from the original Royal Princess which was christened by Princess Diana in 1984, and which my mother and I sailed on in the mid-1990s. That will eventually be displayed in a case downstairs in the public area. It was a really neat tour.

Right after that I went off to get a manicure before formal night. While I was gone, Mark received a lovely arrangement of roses and other flowers in honor of this being his 50th cruise on Princess. We figure that is why we've been getting a number of extra little perks all along. It certainly wasn't because we have so many days on Princess, as the winners in that category are a couple with over 2,000 days, and together Marl and I have about 600. Formal night began with the Captain's Circle cocktail party where we met up with Janet, Roy, Mike and Jeff. Next came dinner, followed by a very high energy show by a group reprising the Beatles and their music ... just the right thing for the demographic on board. A fun end to a good day.

June 22, at sea. It's the last day of the last cruise. A quiet day getting organized and packing. Mark and I had a nice lunch in the dining room with the couple I met yesterday morning and two men from Toronto. Lots of lively conversation.  I plan to go to Trivia with our group one last time, then, of course, our final dinner.

It's been an excellent trip, even though I had various health problems. But this time I am looking forward to being home again. See y'all next cruise!

(The answers to the above trivia items are 12 and French.)

June 18/19

June 18, Vigo, Spain. I am again released upon an unsuspecting world. The "HazMat" team came by one last time. Mark was impressed because he'd never seen that aspect of shipboard life in operation before. 

Vigo is the port from which most tourists go to visit the shrine/cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. That, however, is a long day's tour, so I didn't sign ip for one. I mostly wandered around the ship and took a few photos. In the evening we met up with Jeff, Mike, Roy and Janet plus an assortment of other interesting characters for drinks before dinner. After dinner most called it an early night as they had all partied hearty the night before when I was in isolation. 

June  19, Lisbon, Portugal. Up early to watch as we sail up the Tagus River under the spectacular 25th of April bridge which is reminiscent of the Golden Gate bridge. Mark had a tour out of the city to two villages, one in the mountains and the other near the coast. I had wanted to do that one, but was convinced by the Shore Excursion guy not to, so I did a short city drive around and take photos thing instead. It was a pleasant tour with some sunny spots and some overcast. We saw the main monuments and city squares, going past some of them several times. On return, 

After the tour, I grabbed a bit of lunch then had a nice nap before meeting the rest of our group for. afternoon trivia. We didn't win. Dinner with the usual crew of Mark, Janet, Roy, Mike and Jeff, was quite a manic experience this evening with a great deal of confusion about limoncello, shot glasses, blue cheese and port wine. Fortunately, I was rather at the periphery of things so didn't feel I really had to keep it all straight.

Changing time yet again tonight for the third night in a row. It turns out that Portugal doesn't do daylight savings time. 

June 16/17

June 16, Southampton. The beginning of cruise #4 aboard the brand new Royal Princess. I wasn't the first person on board, but was certainly in the first hundred or so, maybe even the first fifty. My walker and main suitcase were at my cabin before I got there, but my carry-on was a no-show. One of Mark's suitcases showed up about an hour later, and he arrived about half an hour after that.

Our cabin is one of the ADA fully-accessible ones, and is hugely spacious. Instead of a closet and dressing area like most cabins, we have a large bathroom with roll-in shower and grab bars everywhere, and in the main part of the room, a triple wardrobe with tons of hanging space and a set of shelves. For each twin bed, there is a nightstand with 4 big drawers and a shelf. There's a desk area with a fridge and 4 more drawers. Mark and I are so used to making do with small amounts of storage space that we are positively rattling around in here. 

Oh, I forgot to mention the balcony which has an ingenious ramp arrangement so you could get a wheelchair out there along with the 2 comfortable chairs and a little table. The whole cabin is wider than usual to allow space for a wheelchair to maneuver. And, instead of a small sofa/sitting area, there are two chairs and a little table (which we immediately shoved under one end of the desk area). There is a gigantic flat-screen tv with the most minimalist remote I've ever seen. It will take us all week to figure that one out.

We did some slow exploring and had lunch at the Horizon Cafe on Lido Deck. The pool area is lovely and has a nice variety of seating options from lounge chairs to tables and chairs, to big round booths to couch and easy chaIr groupings. We walked past the SeaView area which sticks out beyond the side of the ship and has a glass floor so you can look down to the water. There's not enough money in the world to get me out there!

The buffet area at Horizon is just as crazy as the one I've already ranted about on the other ships. It does have multiple lines, but at least they don't go in circles. However, at the very aft end of the Horizon, there is a nice outside area with variety seating again and its own set of coffee/tea machines. When/if the temperature warms up some, that should be a nice spot.

About mid-afternoon, we connected with Jeff and Mike and their friends Roy and Janet, at Crooners which is one of the bars at the Atrium. Mark and I invited them to our cabin after the Emergency Drill to share our balcony and bubbly while we sailed down the Solent. We were a bit disappointed that there weren't more people quayside to watch her go for the first time.

The evening began back at Crooners Bar on the top level (Deck 7) of the Atrium which is a truly spectacular space. I cannot begin to do it justice in a description. I would recommend that you go to www.princess.com and view the videos of the Royal Princess. The decor of this ship is several steps up the ladder of sophistication from other Princess ships that I've been on.

June 17 at sea. Well, I'm back in isolation in my cabin again after another flare up last night after dinner. Medical reports at three ships in a row! Someone at CDC is going to have fun tracking my peregrinations over the past several weeks from the forms I've had to fill out. At least here I have a window with real daylight and passing ocean to look at. I certainly wouldn't have been spending time out on the balcony today as it is very chilly and windy out there. In the morning it was solid grey overcast, but in the afternoon it got sunny, but still chilly. Also this time I have Mark to talk some of the time and to run errands for me if necessary. Supposedly I will be free again tomorrow morning, although I will be missing the first formal night's dinner in favor of lasagna from Room Service.

I forgot to update about our missing suitcases. Mark's second bag turned up just before the Drill, but my carry-on was still missing. So I started a complaint to Passenger Services. I got the expected answer of "we are still delivering bags, madam." By the time we had sailed, I was moving into harassment mode. Fortunately, I got a lovely young lady named Annabel from the Philippines at Passenger Services to work on my dilemma. She certainly went above and beyond for me harassing the Security Department, the manager for our floor's cabin staff, etc. and going after them multiple times that evening and reporting back to me. Eventually the silly thing turned up, tag less, sitting in a hallway somewhere. My name was in several places inside, and they had been pretty well sensitized by Annabel to look for my name, so it got to me okay.

June 14 again & June 15

June 14, again. Right after I posted the previous entry, the afternoon went from pleasant to totally frustrating. I got all the way back to my cabin and found that I had the wrong key card. So all the way aft and up to Metropolis. After some confusion there, it was back down to Reception, where it appeared that the cards had been switched in one of the shops where I had bought a small souvenir. Whoever wound up with my card had been having a good time at the shops and Bingo. Those charges did finally get cleared from my account. Meanwhile, they made me a new card. Number 4! By this time, I was totally exhausted from hiking around the ship, but I got downstairs to my cabin and Number 4 didn't work in my door. After trying it multiple times, I went back to Reception and had a nice fit of hysterics for their benefit and edification. The clerk looked at me as though I was crazy while maintaining that there was nothing wrong with the card and went away with it. After a long enough period for a new card to be made, he came back swearing that Number 4 was a good card. So I insisted he accompany me and prove it, which he did (damn it, I still think I'm now on card #5). I am not leaving this cabin again until time to get off the ship. I'll just order room service again. Pfui.

June 15, Southampton, England, also again. We disembarked at the same pier where the Royal Princess will sail tomorrow. There were already huge bouquets in place in preparation. I can't wait to see it all tomorrow!

Meanwhile I got back to the Novotel about 9:00 a.m. but my room wasn't ready until about 1:00 p.m. But now I'm in a room with a bathroom bigger than a phone booth! Lovely! And now that I've thoroughly enjoyed that, I'm watching the horse races on BBC4. Hmmm ... on to the weather forecast. It's odd to realize what a small area they're talking about and showing on the map as compared to our US weather maps. The UK map shows probably less area than just the South on our Weather Channel maps. The same sort of applies to news reports, like a missing teenager. The reports felt more like a state-wide alert back home. It really brings home the difference in the scale of life. I've noticed some of this in my travels to Norway in recent years. Many of the things I admire about the way their society operates in Norway would never be possible in the US because Norway is only dealing with a population of 4.5 million people. 

June 14

June 14, at sea. This is the last day of cruise #3. The good news is that I don't have much packing to do because I didn't unpack much this week. So far there is no bad news ... at least not in my immediate world. I can hardly speak for that mess beyond the horizon. 

Last evening on telly, I watched Kate Middleton, Duchess of Cambridge, christen the Royal Princess. Both the Duchess and the ship looked very fine. It's amazing how popular animal prints are over here, especially the spotted ones, although I'm just old-fashioned enough to think that might not have been the most flattering choice for her short, flippy dress at this late stage of pregnancy. Yet she carried it off better than many non-pregnant females aboard this ship. 

They mentioned that the previous Royal Princess had been christened 30 years ago by Princess Diana. That brought back fond, if chilly, memories of the time my mother and I sailed in her from Montreal to New York. Mother wanted to do a "fall leaf color" cruise, I think it was in the mid-90s. There were several excursions, particularly one at Bar Harbor, ME, where I have never, before or since, been so cold. Of course, by the time we got home to Virginia, our own trees were turning the exact same colors we had spent so much money to go see up north! Sill, that Royal Princess was a lovely ship, and one of the earliest ones I ever saw to have any kind of "interactive tv system" in the cabins. 

Had a nice, quiet time up in the Metropolis lounge again. It's as high as you can get at the aft end of the ship. It's Deck 18, so you have an excellent view of where we've been. On the other hand, I rather prefer the view at the front of where we're going. On this ship, my wheels won't go there. Ah well. Time to get something to eat then go back and chuck the suitcase out into the hallway.

June 12/13

June 12, Olden, Norway. Pretty much the same as yesterday. FYI, sunset last night at this latitude was at 11:35 p.m. and sunrise this morning was at 3:47 a.m. Makes me glad I have an inside cabin. When I got up about 8:00 a.m., sunrise was just creeping down the mountainside toward the town.

By the way, the info about flat, non-diet Coke having all the electrolytes you need comes from a perky blond British nurse named Stephanie. I just figured it was too useful not to pass it along. But I will say that it will be a long cold day somewhere before I drink another dozen 150 ml teeny tiny toy cans of flat Coca Cola in about 36 hours. It works, but bletch!

Yea! I am free! No more isolation (probably a politer term than quarantine). No more Niky and the HazMat boys (the real name for them is Hit Squad, but I like HazMat better). The first thing I did was to take a nice long nap. Go figure.

Olden is a really lovely little place, and I think I see a few shops right at the end of the dock, so I'm going to head that direction if my strength holds out. (I am rather wobbly after the better part of a week of being ill and no activity to speak of.). Yes, I wobbled over (after my card didn't want to let me off the ship), looked around, and wobbled back. My card not only didn't want to let me back on, it refused to rulet me into my cabin. So, up to the main desk for card #2.

After another rest and some rehydration, about the time we were to sail,  I headed out to explore the ship for the first time and find a good place to watch our departure. The Captain announced that the strings were being removed, the engines' rubber bands were fully wound up, and he was going to pirouette around the other ship in the harbor. Sure enough, it all happened as he said, and he did the pirouette going backwards! with less than 100 feet to spare in any direction! Progress back down the fjord was slow and gorgeous!

Card #2 may have opened my cabin door, but it would not work correctly at any of the shops or bars, so back again for card #3. So far, so good.

Ventura is essentially the same plan as Caribbean Princess with a few differences in pool structure on the Lido and other upper decks (no flying Skywalker's equivalent although Metropolis comes close),, and a very different decor through the public spaces. Ventura is heavily urban-techno-modern (which probably isn't the right name for it). It has more character, and I actually like it a lot better, than Caribbean Princess, but that's a matter of personal taste. I can't say much for the public areas' background music which is too loud, hard driving, repetitive, mostly tuneless, and senseless, but that's true of most cruise lines and just about everywhere else these days.

June 13, Stavanger, Norway. It is raining today, but since I've been here and done the main tour of Lysfjord and Pulpit Rock here, I don't count this against the weather magic ... or at least not by a full point. 

A fair number of people stayed aboard what with the weather being uncooperative, but I grabbed a good spot in the Metropolis with a great view of the harbor and the MSC Poesia next to us. Poesia left first, sailing straight out.at a good clip. We had to wait for some late passengers ... one pair of which were the same as yesterday's. Then the captain "let off the last strings," and did another backwards pirouette to get us going. Pretty quickly we got into a thick fog, so with nothing to see, I opted to go back for a nap. 

For dinner, it was a formal night, and I had no interest in unpacking the suitcase down to the sparklies, so I nipped up to the Italian dinner buffet on Lido Deck for a quick bite. P&O's version of penne carbonara is definitely NOT my idea of the dish ...iIt was almost inedible. However, yesterday evening, their room service folks produced a truly superior bowl of spaghetti Bolognese. The sauce wasn't quite as good as Tom's home made version, but it was close ... very close!

June 11

June 11 Andalsnes, Norway.  The weather outside appears lovely judging by the tv feed from the camera up front. I am sorry to miss my tour here where the spectacular Romsdal Alps meet the north end of the Romsdalfjord. In 2010 the Hurtigruten Ferry came into Romsdalfjord as far as Molde, but not all the way up to the end. At least I have a fine camera view on the tv even if I can't take photos myself. I'm also sorry that I'm missing activities on board, especially some of the movies that I haven't seen, although some of the other stuff sounds like fun also. Oh well ... better that I be fit for cruise number 4.

The "HazMat" guys are a trip. One dons protective gear and comes into the cabin while the other waIts in the hall. The "inside" guy has a disposable apron, shoe covers, rubber gloves and a mask plus a big spray bottle of disinfectant, a couple of wipes of some sort, and perhaps scariest of all, a big red trash bag marked BIOHAZARD.  All hard surfaces that you might have touched get cleaned, and any trash, including the pressed paper trays, paper plates, cups, napkins, etc. from room service go into the red bag. The outside guy runs errands like clean glassware, ice, etc. and hands stuff in. When he's done, the inside guy stands on the threshold to the room and strips his gear into the red bag before stepping back into the hall. They take this stuff seriously, as well they should. I'm sending some stuff to the laundry. It goes out in a "special" pink laundry bag, and I was warned that it will be washed in VERY HOT water. I said that if it doesn't survive, that's okay, and got only a solemn look in reply. It probably goes straight into an autoclave. 

Oh goodie. Today I get a ham sandwich instead of a boiled chicken sandwich for lunch. Still drinking flat Coke from the little toy cans for the electrolytes. Ah HA! Potato chips! Oh joy, oh rapture!

And more good news! According to Dr. Farouk Parker, I may get sprung from this durance vile tomorrow! He and his staff of duty nurses, especially Stephanie, have been great. Now, if I can just kick the cough...

To celebrate, I ordered a "Pizza American" for dinner. Major Mistake. P&O's version of pepperoni pizza is not for the faint of heart or any other organ. Fortunately, my friends of the "HazMat" team arrived a short time later for their evening visit and put the pizza and its aroma into a red BIOHAZARD bag which solved that problem!

June 6 - 10

June 6, Southampton. Since I'm mostly unable to go do what I wanted to do here, I spent the greater part of the day reading "Space Viking" by H. Beam Piper, and a fine old space opera shoot 'em up it was. 

The Novotel hotel here in Southampton is newly renovated with lots of ultra-modern furniture that is a little lower than I prefer, but manageable. The tub, sink and shower are all higher than optimum for me. Go figure. It is very close to Mayflower Quay, but not so close to the Carnival-owned Ocean Terminal.  If you are sailing from Southampton, it would behoove you to find out, before you make hotel reservations, which pier your ship will be at. On Caribbean Princess, we sailed from the former and returned to the latter. Also, there seems to be a certain amount of noise in the area: sirens, horns, whistles, and the occasional deep reverberating boom as well as occasional odd noises inside the hotel. It's not constant noise, just occasionally startling ... especially the boom which I have yet to identify. Then there were the "rabid robo-termites" chewing holes in the hotel's walls as part of the final stages of the renovation, although I'm told that is done now. It's okay ... the place is clean and nice, and the staff are very helpful.

June 7, still at Southampton. As before, I spent the day sleeping, reading and watching BBC2, plus a bit of a chat with Jeff. Not feeling too great this past day or so, but should perk up in a while. I do admit that thoughts of my own bed, bath, etc. have begun occasionally crossing my consciousness.. 

June 8. On to cruise #3 on P&O's Ventura up to Norway. Ably assisted by taxi driver Paul and Assistance Agent John I left the hotel about noon and whizzed through check-in to be deposited on Lidoe  Deck to await cabin availability. By the time I got to my cabin, I realized I had a sore throat, cough and a fever which turned out to be 102. So off to Medical to be perforated by the doc on board. Will spend a day or two in my cabin til that goes away. Didn't have anything scheduled for 2 days anyway ... a day at sea and a day at Bergen. Remembering the old days sailing on Sitmar when the doc on board was a retired Italian grandpa, and you just prayed that you could understand each other.

June 9 the less said, the better ...note to self:  round two of stomach bug does not go well with heavy cough.

June 10 the rest of the ship is visiting Bergen. I'm still in quarantine in my cabin with twice daily visits by the nursing staff and the HazMat boys who come to "sanitize" the place. The only good news today is that I can get electrolytes from flat non-diet Coke instead of little "flavored" packets of powder mixed with water ... all the flavors were bad, but the banana was really really ugly. So now I have a lot of little toy cans (150 ml) of Coke sitting open on the dresser going flat.

June 5

June 5 end of cruise number 2, Southampton, England.

There was the usual sort of pseudo-chaos getting off the ship, but I got through it and grabbed a taxi to the Novotel. It's a very modern decor hotel fairly near the docks. First I napped through lunch, then I went downstairs to the hot spot in the lobby and unsuccessfully tried to do several things. First was to try to load photos into my recent posts - nope, no luck.

Second was to try to arrange some activities for while I'm here in Southampton - also no go. This is a somewhat bare bones hotel with no concierge desk, but the front desk people have tried their best. I especially wanted to visit Down House, Charles Darwin's home in Downe, Kent. Which is part of the "English Heritage" group along with Stonehenge et al. The quote I got before I left home was for over $1,100 for a car and driver for the day. The quote the hotel got from a local taxi company was £500 or about $625. While I really want to see Down House, I don't really want to see it that much.

I can probably get to Stonehenge via public bus, if I can get to the central bus station, but I did see it years ago when you could still walk up among the stones. I may wind up just vegging at this hotel for three days of non-excitement. If the weather is nice, maybe I'll go to the local zoo. I'll let you know, but don't expect too much.

June 3/4

Am finally at hotel with wi-fi in Southampton, but still can't seem to get photos into blog posts. Sorry.

 June 3 at sea again. The seas have been really calm, almost glassy, including the Atlantic, the North Sea and the English Channel. Come to think of it, all the cruises I've taken in the past 5 years (6 except for a hurricane in Drake's Passage) have been quite calm. Gotta keep that weather magic powered up and working!

 First I slept really late, getting up only briefly to let room service deliver breakfast which I did eventually have for lunch. I then "planned" a day of not doing much of anything and achieved it. I sat in the Library for a while and partially listened to the excitement of the Egg Drop Contest out in the Atrium. Evidently contestants get some time to try to devise a container for an egg to keep it from breaking when dropped. It appears that most break, and only a few survive, but I'm not sure how high the drop is...3 feet or 3 floors. It's just another variety of shipboard silliness. I generally avoid such activities even as a spectator, and if I rarely do go to watch, I sit in the back row and never volunteer for anything.

 I had a nice chat with a lady from Brisbane. She and her husband had been driving around England for a month. They got tired of that and happened to see an ad for this cruise in a travel agency window. It was the right timing and a heavily discounted price, so they hopped on to see Ireland and Scotland. That's something about cruises...people aren't afraid to strike up a conversation with a perfect stranger. I like that.

As it was a formal night, I finally made it up to Skywalker's for the Captain's Cocktail Party. To get
there, you hike to the aft elevators and go to the top which is Deck 18. Then you walk up a long slope to get to Skywalker's on Deck 19. There you get a great view of the ship's wake, a free glass of champagne and an hors d'oeuvre or two. Then you reverse the process to get to dinner down on Deck 6.

June 4 is our last stop at Le Havre, France. I'm not sure why this is on the itinerary instead of one of the east coast British ports. It's probably so that the Americans can do all-day tours to Paris or Normandy and say they've been to France.. I, personally, am doing everyone in Paris a big favor by not going there. Each time I've been to Paris in the past, either the bus drivers or the Metro workers or both have gone on strike resulting in traffic jams so colossal that the entire city was grid-locked and you couldn't get anywhere at all.

 In fact, I didn't even set foot on Le Havre. And have no photos worth posting. There is a huge
passenger terminal which supposedly has free wi-fi, but this can wait for a more comfortable venue. The city center is a very long walk away, mostly through the docks, although there is a shuttle over there for a few euros. There are several other cruise ships in port including the Celebrity Infinity and another whose name I can't see and whose logo and paint job I don't recognize.

So I decided to just take it easy, pack up slowly, and enjoy the ship with most of the passengers gone. However, there were a fair number of people sunning themselves up on Lido Deck, and even a few in swimming. Brrr.

June 1/2

June 1 at Invergordon, Scotland which is as far as we can get up Cromarty Firth towards Inverness. If I had known how far the hike was to the tour buses, I'd have left the ship sooner so I wouldn't have to hustle so fast. Ah well, I made it eventually.

My tour guide this afternoon was one James Monroe in kilt of his clan tartan and a tweed jacket in a nice soft green. His accent was perfectly understandable, but Andy, our driver, had an accent so thick that even James missed it occasionally, and to me it was like a foreign language with a sprinkling of English words. 

I think they have a different kind of grass over here that they use for silage as it is a whole lot greener than our grass at home. That may be why Ireland is called the "Emerald Isle," but the same stuff is in the fields of the Orkneys and Scotland too. Anyway it contrasts beautifully with the bright yellow of fields of rape seed in bloom. (That's the plant that canola oil comes from.) Then there's the darker yellow of either gorse or broome along the roadside. James said the way to tell the difference between gorse and broome is to put on a kilt and sit on it...if it's comfortable, it's broome, if it's prickly, it's gorse. The bright green also makes the sheep and cattle show up well, especially the bright white lambs.

We did a pretty comprehensive drive-by tour of Inverness which looks like a really lovely city. This is a photo of Inverness Castle from across the Ness River. We then headed up the Ness River and along the Caledonian Canal which I hadn't heard of before this trip. It connects the Atlantic Ocean with the North Sea diagonally across the middle of Scotland through the Grand Cleft. It's a geologic fault zone that created a series of lakes/lochs that were connected by pieces of canals with locks. Unfortunately, by the time it was completed, most cargo ships were too big to use it, and now it's mostly used by fishing and pleasure boats.

We eventually got to Loch Ness through alternating periods of sun and showers. Our main destination for the tour was Urquhart Castle. It's a rather magnificent ruin of a really old castle at one end and a much newer part at the other end, all with a fantastic view of Loch Ness. There is a fine Visitors Centre with a film, a cafe and, of course, a gift shop. While I did manage to get downslope from the bus park to the center (and back up again later), I did not actually go on downhill to the castle itself. Instead, I bought a very large chocolate muffin, sat on the patio of the cafe and shared it with a duck. I didn't get a photo of the duck due to my fingers being sticky and covered in muffin crumbs.

We came back to the ship over the hills and through the heath-covered moors, then back down to the green arable lands again. As has happened on several of my afternoon tours, I was almost the last one back on board. I am still amazed at how fast the crew can "break camp" and stow all the equipment they use for gangways and security checks, including the big machines that screen your bags.

June 2 Edinburgh. Well, not actually at Edinburgh. We're out in the Firth of Forth about a 20 minute tender ride from South Queensferry where we get our tour bus to Edinburgh. Caribbean Princess is too tall to get under several bridges particularly the antique Forth Rail Bridge in its bright red coat of paint. At least we're not out in the North Sea trying to tender into some place, although this has been an exceptionally smooth trip so far. My weather magic is still working except for a few brief showers. 

The tour I had was excellent, especially for one of the "drive-by photo shoot" kind. Our main stop was two hours at the Royal Scottish Museum which was brilliant! In fact, I could have easily spent a whole day there. It's an amalgamation of two museums, one was archaeology, anthropology and Scottish history, and the other was technology and engineering with a Scottish focus.  The building is a combination of Victorian and modern styles and was recently renovated to be fully accessible. The photo (that will eventually be) here is of the Museum's Grand Gallery. I ditched the guided part of the museum visit and had a fine time wandering about. I even got up to the roof terrace with its fabulous view of all of Edinburgh and this shot of the Castle.

May 30/31

Still no photos.

May 30, at sea sailing up the west coast of Scotland and eventually across the top toward the Orkney Islands. The weather was okay until awe encountered fog in the early afternoon. The fog horn continued to sound at least until I went to bed. Here's hoping it clears for our visit to Kirkwall tomorrow,

As a sea day, it was essentially a day of rest. I didn't sleep in too late, but took my time getting out and about. I spent an inordinate amount of time trying to get the May 28/29 blog post and photos uploaded.  I've about had it with the whole process. It doesn't work well for me at all, especially with the slow connection at sea. Pfui. 

I had lunch today at the International Cafe in the lower level of the ship's atrium called the Piazza. It was quite pleasant listening to the fine string quartet playing there. They play quite a variety of musical genres which makes their performances very popular. Later there was a performance by a duo doing a balancing act. She handed things to him, and he balanced them on his forehead in various combinations. I didn't see all of that, but I imagine it gets more exciting in higher seas than we have had on this trip.

This evening was the first of two formal nights. Ray and Irene and I all looked pretty spiffy. Ray ordered a bottle of wine and we had a very good dinner, although not the usual formal night fare of lobster or "surf and turf." 

May 31 at Kirkwall, Orkney Islands. This was originally listed as a tender port, but there is a brand new pier built especially long enough for cruise ships about 2 miles from town. The most outstanding thing about the Orkney Islands is their almost total lack of trees. Every place there was a small copse of trees in a sheltered fold of the hills, our guide made a point of mentioning them. The second most outstanding thing is the huge harbor among the islands called Scapa Flow. 

Despite being at the same latitude as the tip of Greenland, the climate of the Orkneys is greatly mitigated by the Gulf Stream, except for today which was by turns cloudy, misty, cold. and very windy. Just before I went out for my tour, the temperature was about 46F, and I doubt it went up any. There is some wind power on the island, most of it smaller versions of windmills put up by farmers and other residents. Much of their electric power comes via cable from mainland Scotland 10 miles away. We did see a tidal power apparatus which had been pulled out up on the do k for repairs. It looked like a windmill built for Jupiter, very blocky and sturdy-looking.

I took a brief tour here, sort of a scenic drive around the island referred to as Mainland. We went through Kirkwall which is the capitol of the islands, then to see the Italian Chapel. This was built between 1942 and 1944 by Italian prisoners of war captured in North Africa and sent here to work on what's called "Churchill barriers" between some of the islands to keep the Germans out of the huge natural harbor called Scapa Flow where most of the British fleet was based. The Italians asked for a place to worship and were allotted two Quonset nuts which they joined together to make the chapel. They then created a facade for it and one man painted the inside in beautiful trompe d'oeil style. This photo is not the altar area which is beautiful, but neither is it tile and plaster work...it's only paint. Now most visitors to the Orkneys visit it. That's over 200,000 visitors a year to a group of some 67 islands, 20 of which are inhabited by a human population of around 21,000.

I don't know how many sheep or cattle there are per resident, but it's bound to be a lot. All the hillsides were neatly divided into fields by either wire fences or dry stone walls. Most fields were growing sheep or cattle, or bright green grass to feed sheep or cattle. It being late Spring, the calves and lambs had recently been turned out into the fields with their mothers, and many were actively gamboling as we went by. Very picturesque, but not very photogenic from a bus.

After the Italian Chapel, we went mostly around the island to reach the most famous area.of Neolithic remains where we saw the World Heritage Site called the  Ring of Brodgar Stone Circle and Henge, and the Standing Stones of Stennes shown here in a sheep pasture where you can walk right up to them (stones or sheep). We went past the newly discovered "Neolithic temple" at the Ness of Brodgar which was basically an excavation site covered in black plastic awaiting the arrival of another dig season. Then en route back to the ship, we passed the Maes Howe Chambered Tomb which mostly looks like a hump out in a field, but I understand has astronomical properties. These Neolithic sites are over 5,000 years old.

Have I mentioned often enough how huge this ship is? Here it is dwarfing the town of Kirkwall.

 

May 28/29

I'm posting without photos which will be added when I can solve whatever problem exists.

May 28 on to Belfast where we should arrive about 10:30 a.m. I probably shouldn't mention this, but on the first cruise, and so far on this one, the seas have been very calm. Another day or two and we should be out of the shelter of Ireland into the North Atlantic and/or North Sea. Not that I'm wishing for bad weather, you understand, just commenting on good luck to date.

I spent a quiet morning on board then went for a driving tour of Belfast in the afternoon. We covered the sights of the city pretty thoroughly. Our first stop was Belfast Castle with its lovely gardens and picnic areas (it's now a city park but was the home of the Chichester family who more or less founded Belfast).

Then we drove through a number of neighborhoods, both rich and poor, Royalist and Republican, lovely detatched homes with gardens in one area and row houses with little greenery but walls covered with murals and graffiti in another area. 95% of children still go to all-Catholic or all-Protestant schools, but the percenntage of integrated schools is slowly growing as parents don't want their children to grow up as they themselves did during the Troubles. This photo shows the Shankill Road side of the wall that still divides the Catholic and Protestant areas. The other side is the Falls Roads area. The wall wasn't high enough, so they added to it. Now the big colorful graffiti are totally covered by handwritten notes expressing hope for peace and mutual respect signed by people from all over the world. But walls like this and murals of sometimes violent scenes of the Troubles are what the children in these working class neighborhoods have to look at every day. No wonder they are still separate.

We visited two other gardens: the ones at Stormont which is Northern Ireland's capitol building, and the Botanic Gardens at Queen's University. Our guide, Chris, is a naturalist who normally leads birding tours, so several birders among us were quite happy. Mostly I stayed on the bus and chatted with the young driver, Mark. We also saw the rather exotic-looking Titanic Museum at what was the shipyard of Harland and Wolff where it was built, but didn't go in. We saw the restored ship Nomadic which was built expressly as a tender to ferry first and second class passengers out to Titanic from Cherbourg where the Titanic was too big to go in. It served its purpose only once.

May 29 and we are at Greenock, Scotland which is located where the River Clyde exxpands to become the Firth of Clyde. A firth in Scotland is pretty much like a fjord in Norway. Greenock is the port for Scotland's largest city, Glasgow which is about 45 minutes' drive up river.

 

For once I was up in time to go to the dining room for breakfast. Then, as my tour wasn't until this afternoon, I wandered the ship a bit and found the spa where I intended to make an appointment for a pedicure. As it turned out, I got it right then as most people had gone ashore already. A nice young Jamaican woman named Tonya did a great job for me, and in plenty of time for me to veg out a bit before lunch.

 

There are tons of things to visit here from castles to cathedrals, not to mention the Scottish Wool Centre in Glasgow, but having seen three medium to large city centers in a row, I opted for an afternoon drive in the countryside up to the village of Luss on the banks of Loch Lomond. Loch Lomond is the second largest freshwater lake in Scotland behind Loch Ness which I plan to see on another tour. It was a beautiful drive out through the highlands and along a series of lochs, both salt and fresh water. I wished for a decent map to see where we were since the twisty mountain road completely confused my sense of direction for a while.

First we went through the small town of Greenock which is unusual in that its center area still has managed to support a wide range of traditional shops like a butcher, baker, news vendor, cafe, coffee shop, etc. which in most villages have succumbed to competition from big grocery stores at the outskirts of the towns. If I could walk better, I would have enjoyed "doing" its main street. Here's a photo of one I know some of my friends will enjoy.

After crossing the Firth of Clyde on a ferry, we went past Holy Loch where the US Navy based nuclear subs with Polaris missiles for many years during the Cold War. After the US Navy left, the area was cleaned up and decontaminated and the base housing was sold off to locals. 

We got a little lesson in Gaelic place names. Loch = lake. Ben = mountain. Dun or dum = fort or castle. Mor = big. So when we went past Benmor, we were passing Big Mountain. Our guide tried to teach us a simple phrase or two, but anything over four letters long is not pronounced in any way that looks familiar to me. The letters could just as well be replaced by hieroglyphics and make as much sense. The children are taught Gaelic in school, but relatively few adults remain fluent in it beyond a few phrases.

Next we went along Loch Eck. While our guide commented about its remoteness and there weren't many villages, there were occasional houses, small hotels and caravan parks along the way. Past Benmor, another loch or two, and up over a pass, we eventually arrived at the seriously picturesque village of Luss on the bonnie bonnie banks of Loch Lomond where we had a break for drinks, snacks and a bit of walking about. Of all the photos I took of lochs, due to trees and bushes along the roadside, this is the only one I got of Loch Lomond. Fortunately, it also shows Scottish bluebells which were in bloom everywhere on mountainsides and roadsides reminding me somewhat of the bluebonnets in Texas. We came back down out of the highlands at the lower end of Loch Lomond to the town of Dumbarton which is known for its whiskey distilleries and crossed the River Clyde on a bridge to get back to Greenock and the ship.