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.

May 31

I am having major problems getting things posted. I'm not sure when I will be able to catch up. Hopefully in the next day or two. However, in the meantime all is going well.

May 26/27

May 26 at Cobh (which is pronounced "cove"), Ireland which is the port on River Lee for Cork. The weather was lightly overcast and the temperature at 10:15 a.m. was about 54F. Everyone comments on how unseasonably cold it is for late May. I can only agree with them.

I had a half-day tour this afternoon to Cork and Blarney. No, I did not go up to Blarney Castle to kiss the rock. Didn't feel I needed it, and wasn't thrilled by either the back-killer position required to reach the thing, or the thought of all the germs that stone probably harbors. I was supposed to tour on a bus, but wound up in a handicapped accessible van with just two other people plus the guide and the driver. This was fine as we were small enough to take the  back country roads which were lined with furze, aka gorse, in full bloom as you see here. Our guide was most informative about the history, language and differences between Ireland and England, i.e. a truly dedicated Celt of the Irish persuasion.

The main stop was a tourist shopping center called Woollen Mills. There were several stores, pubs, a restaurant, etc. The three of us passengers passed on the free Irish Coffee at a pub. The older lady wanted to shop, so her son was obliged to go with her. Most readers of these accounts know by now that I am not into coffee-flavored anything, so we three went with a whole 90 minutes to do our separate things.

The main store was three floors of everything Irish. Gorgeous woven wools. More gorgeous Irish knit sweaters of every style, gloves, scarves, hats, you name it. For Megan who asked me to look, and all my other knitting friends, there was plenty of great wool in skeins. Yes, they do ship, and I'm pretty sure they have a website. Then there was a wide selection of Celtic jewelry, and every shape and kind of Waterford crystal (a local product), etc. I was restrained and only bought a pair of Fair Isle socks (which I will probably need if the weather doesn't get seasonal soon), a few postcards, and a dish of superior soft-serve ice cream. I had a sequence of conversations with 3 ladies from Denver, then a couple from Cornwall all on land tours, and finally a couple from British Columbia who are on our ship, all of whom needed a seat while they ate as the restaurant was very crowded.

On the way back, my fancy Polish-made Canon camera that is less than a year old died with its lens partially extended and a message that it would fix itself, but it didn't. I took it to the Photo Shop on board, and they say all I can do is send it back to Canon to be fixed. What to do for the almost five weeks of cruising that remain? So now I have a new Nikon CoolPix L28 as being the cheapest of the models available on board. Pfui! 

To round out the day, I again rammed one of my toes into the back of my walker hard enough to draw blood for about the hundredth time on this trip. It happens when I get tired and stop paying attention, and especially when traversing cobblestones. I still think I probably at least chipped a toe bone back on Mykonos. Must buy more Band-aids.

Our Turkish table-mates haven't been seen since the first night. This evening we learned that they
moved to a table for four. We guess that they didn't feel comfortable with the language difference. So Ray, Irene and I continue in splendor at our table for seven. After dinner I actually trekked to the far other end of the ship to watch a show in the main theater. It was a British comedian named Kevin Devane who was quite good although I think some of his jokes were lost on most of the Americans in the audience.

May 27. Today we are at Dublin. The weather is somewhat warmer which is appreciated. 

I'm just back from the most hysterically fun tour I think I've ever had! Our tour guide, Renee, should give up her day job and do stand-up in the clubs! She was as staunchly Irish as the guide yesterday, but with a wicked sense of humor and a lightning fast wit. She had the whole bus load laughing from start to finish, except when we were actually in St. Patrick's Cathedral, and even there I thought I heard a titter or two. Every monument or statue we went past had its formal name, e.g. "Molly Malone," and it's other name, e.g. "Tart with a Cart." Or the newest, a tall needle-shaped thing which is formally "The Spire," but she referred to it as "The Stiletto in the Ghetto." That's The Spire in the background with a statue of Daniel O'Connell in the foreground. 

The tour guide companies here in Europe are beginning to use electronics. Judging by several guides' reactions to them, I think they are relatively new.  I don't mean taped lectures, but low power radio where each tourist hangs a little receiver round their neck with a disposable ear bud, and the guide has the transmitter, so she can talk to the whole group in a museum or church or other crowded place without having to shout. 

Dublin architecture is mostly Georgian, and several of the squares are very well preserved. Dublin, at 1.4 million people, has traffic problems like any other city and lots of pedestrians who make a serious hobby out of jaywalking. Renee recommended that we NOT try it. During our "free time" (read "help the Irish economy by shopping") I stayed on the bus and helped Willie, our driver, defend it from hordes of Princess passengers who mistook us for the shuttle bus back to the ship.

May 24 - 25

May 24, cruise two begins. After a night and morning luxuriating, and a lovely room service breakfast splurge at the St. Ermin's Hotel, at 12:15, a bus-load of us are finally headed through the rain and London traffic, albeit slowly, toward Southampton. No photos as it's raining and I'm too far back in the bus for a good shot.

We've just passed where the Horse Guards are usually stationed, but each horse and rider were standing guard in a separate, fancy, little stone shelter, still looking resplendent in their red and gold get-ups. Next was a very wet statue of Lord Nelson presiding over the traffic at Trafalgar Square. There seem to be an unusually large number of red buses clogging the streets. Our driver says that there are always more buses about when it rains. A brief glimpse of St. James Palace, but no Royals living there at the moment. 

Even stopped in traffic (as we are stopped more than moving ahead) the shop windows are so very interesting, and the more up-scale, the more stylish. Of course Harrod's is still there...I haven't been in there in decades, but our driver says you can still get almost anything at all at Harrod's.

Part of the reason for all the extra traffic is the Chelsea Flower Show. We went by it yesterday, and are evidently going by or near it again today. There was a program about it on tv last might. I certainly wouldn't want to go there in this weather! Another factor for bad traffic was the start of the Bank Holiday weekend. Our driver says he's never had it be that bad all the way out of the city. 

Finally, after more than an hour, we got out of London, and reached one of the Motorways which are the equivalent of our Interstate highways. We whizzed along for a while, then made an unscheduled (at least for us passengers) stop at a service plaza because our driver was going to run out of drive time before we get to the dock. There are strict rules about drivers taking breaks, so we had to stop for at least 45 minutes. So at 3:15 we got moving again with, hopefully, only about an hour left to go.

We got to the pier about 4:20. After checking in, we had to wait another 45 minutes in a very drafty, yea, even windy, building at about 48F because the gangway had shifted somehow. Finally we were allowed to move to an unheated but not actually windy space with chairs for another good wait. I got to my cabin about 6:20. Evidently others were even later as we were supposed to sail at 5:00 and didn't get away until after 8:15. Probably the emergency landing at Heathrow this morning that closed one runway for most of the morning delayed flights all day, then add in the weather and the bad traffic on the roads. During dinner we finally slipped away down Southampton Water toward the Isle of Wight.

My table companions this cruise include Ray and Irene who live just outside Southampton and rode the train just two stops to get to the ship. The others are a party of four from Istanbul, but I don't know their names. I would guess they are a couple plus the wife's sister and niece, but am not sure. They do speak some English, but my Turkish is non-existent so I don't how much we'll be able to converse. There do seem to be a lot of Americans on board. Enough for now.

May 25 at St. Peter's Port. Guernsey, Channel Islands. Another photo-less day. Although the sun has been out, the temperature is still in the low 50s, but as one lady on the tender said, "One step at a time."

I had a brief, late morning tour scheduled. I say brief because we were only at Guernsey for a bit over half a day. As it turned out (and I should have remembered), St. Peter's Port is too small for a ship our size, so we were anchored off at a spot that looked to be almost halfway to Sark, and tendered in. I managed to board the tender without too much drama, and got back off it at the dock as well. Then I looked up. This area has very high and low tides, and it was low tide at this point. There was a concrete stairway of between 20 and 30 high, narrow, wet steps with one spindly-looking handrail on the INSIDE rather than between you and the water.  I tried it, but only got about six steps up (with help from some of the shop's crew) when I decided to back out and return to the ship. They told me that in the early morning when we arrived, there were only about 6 or 8 steps showing up to the pier. 

When I visited here in 2000 with Mark, Jeff and Simon, not only was the weather warmer in March, but I saw much more of the island than this tour covered, so I don't feel too bad about missing the tour. I came back, had a sandwich and a couple of hot chocolates, and met some folks from Houston before taking a nice nap (an inside cabin is really great for naps!). It's been a good while since I gained weight on a cruise. If I do gain on this trip, it will be the hot chocolates to blame!

May 22/23

May 22 nearing the dock in Venice about 1:30 p.m. I got great photos of the main part of the city right from my cabin as we sailed in. Interestingly, St. Mark's Square is supposed to flood at high tide tonight. It does that rather regularly these days, so they put out wooden walkways so you won't have to wade. Our guide today said that these occasions are accurately predicted and announced so that the locals can plan accordingly. Climate change anyone? This certainly wasn't happening when I was here 50 years ago!

Hah! The Guest Services people, in the person of one Bruno Dentone billed as Access Officer, have decided to let me use a wheelchair for my tour free of charge. That's fine, and I'm sure it will work okay, but that does not erase the garbage they put me through yesterday.

As it turned out, I had an entourage of about nine people on the tour who all said they wanted the opportunity to "push me around," and I'm not sure they meant in the wheelchair! The main roster of the entourage included George and Chris, Debbie, Megan, Lynne and Dave, plus there were several others of our group on that tour including Carolyn, Rita and Pat.

It was a fine tour by water tour bus. I especially like tours that are different from the usual center-city churches and museums.Our first stop was the island of Murano and its glass factory. We had an interesting presentation about glass working and watched one of their remaining 16 master artists (and no apprentices these days) make a vase and then make a horse statue. Megan got a good video of the horse-making, but I don't know whether or where she will post it. Then we went upstairs to their showrooms and drooled over the spectacular items there like vases, wine glasses and carafes, bowls, statues of all sorts of things, jewelry of glass beads, and chandeliers. There was one of a rainbow of colored long glass teardrops that several of us wished we a) had a place to put it and b) had the money to afford it.

Next our water tour bus took us to the island of Burano with its tradition of lace-making. We went into one place where a woman
demonstrated how they make lace. Each piece begins as a drawing on paper that is stitched to the fabric. Then there are seven separate steps to creating the piece in fine cotton thread, each step done by a different woman. There were shops all along the street with exquisite lace items, as well as shops with less expensive lace items. Several of us settled at a nearby trattoria for beers and sodas before heading back to the water tour bus and the ship. The houses on Burano are all painted really bright colors as you see here.

May 23 was quite a transition! Disembarkation and getting to the Marco Polo Airport was the usual
kind of chaos that ends a cruise. With a wheelchair assist, I was whisked through everything and soon deposited near my departure gate with about two hours to wait. As the area filled up. There appeared a good number of people from NCL Spirit, including Debbie. My British Airways flight was on time, and although parts of it were bouncy, we landed fine at Gatwick. 

It took me a while to find the Princess agent, but once we connected, Robert gave me a nice ride to my hotel in an elegant Mercedes. I am in absolute LOVE with the St. Ermin's Hotel! It is elegance personified! I was given a room on the first floor with a view of the courtyard. The decor and furnishings are right out of "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous." The bathroom is larger than some bedrooms I've seen, and the whole place is totally handicapped accessible!! What a switch from the cramped bathroom in our cabin on NCL Spirit! I plan to spend my one evening here luxuriating! 

May 20/21

May 20 and we are at Piraeus, Greece which is the port for Athens and is one of the largest passenger ports in Europe. There were at least 4 or 5 ships in today. I had always thought that there was a distance between Piraeus and Athens, but there's not. Together they make a metropolitan area of 4.5 million people with roads and traffic just as crazy as any other large European city plus more motorcycles and overhead trolley wires.

Debbie and I were on the same tour this afternoon. It was essentially another drive-by photo shoot. There was a long stop at the National Archeology Museum, but with one look at the number of steps with no handrail to get into the building, I opted to stay on the bus. Debbie reported that the part the inside she saw was mostly statues with missing arms and/or legs. I did get a glimpse of the Acropolis and one of the Temple of Zeus, and a nice view of the 1896 Olympic Stadium. We finally were let out for free time at a pedestrian mall where most of the people set off to walk to a view of the Acropolis, but Debbie and I landed at the first sidewalk cafe for a cool drink. We sat in the shade (it was 95 F) and chatted with various members of our travel group who happened by and the handsome young man from Kansas City who had shared his table with us. That was much more pleasant than hiking to see a sight that I can find pictures of everywhere. In fact, here is a photo that I did take this afternoon of the Parthenon at night! (It was part of an advertisement on the bus in front of ours.)

After what may well be the best dinner of the cruise (except for the Teppanyaki the other night), a bunch of us took over several tables in the Game Room up on Lido Deck to play games that were totally new to me and/or just sit around to talk, and swap stories of the day's adventures. Several among us actually climbed the Acropolis, slippery marble steps with no handrails notwithstanding. One couple's bus headed out along the coast to Poseidon's Temple had a flat tire which delayed their tour somewhat. One couple went to see the Corinth Canal which the wife had always wanted to visit. We also watched the sun set into the haze comprised of sand blown in from Africa.

May 21 is our second and last day at sea and next to last day of this cruise.

I had another round of discussions with the Shore Excursion people about the tour of the Murano glass factory in Venice. I specifically wanted to know more details about walking distances. I also wanted them to make some arrangement so that five of my friends and I can all get on the same bus/water taxi/tour group/whatever together because some of them have offered to help me with steps, etc. 

I cannot even express how angry I am with this cruise line in general, their home office Shore Excursions staff who write the close-to-fictional tour descriptions, the on board Shore Excursion staff who have proved ineffectual, the Shore Excursions Manager who has an attitude problem. The Guest Services Dept told George that I could rent a wheelchair for my half day tour in Venice by paying $95 for a minimum three days' rental, and the on board Guest Services Dept. which has no connection or cooperation with Shore Excursions, and lastly the twit on the desk at Guest Services who, when I had decided to pay the ridiculous amount of $95 (above the original tour cost) to be able to tour with my friends, told me that I must actually pay $340 to rent the wheelchair for the entire cruise despite there only being one day of it left.

All this doesn't include the myriad other ways that this cruise has irritated me and many of the others in our group. Incredibly slow service at dinner even though we get there well before any kind of evening rush...2.5 hours for dinner? The food is adequate most nights, but only twice was my meal good enough to comment positively on. There is virtually no place other than your cabin to sit in the evening and read or have a conversation away from the excruciatingly loud "entertainment" going on at all venues, and some members of our group can hear that noise in their cabins on a lower deck! In fact, all announcements are physically painfully loud. Poor service in our cabin...and we have yet to lay eyes on our steward, and only once have I seen his assistant. While they seem to work at keeping the ship clean, it is in need of maintenance in various areas, e.g. portions of the promenade deck are blocked off for repairs which should probably have been done during her last refit less than two years ago. All these things and others are relatively minor individually, but they did add up to dissatisfaction even before this business today about the tour and the wheelchair.

The best thing about today was watching George's gelatin dessert at lunch jiggle. It was a molded, round, opaque white (vanilla) thing in the middle of a plate surrounded by a ring of raspberry sauce and with one big drop of sauce in the center of the gelatin. It was pretty suggestive even before it jiggled! Megan had her camera and made a video of it, but I don't know where she may post it online.

In the late afternoon most of us got somewhat gussied up to pose on the grand staircase in the atrium for a group photo by the ship's photographer. I think that, as a group, we are each supposed to get a copy. Heaven only knows how that will turn out.