Author: Karen

We joined one of the tender boats to get to the port of Dun Laoghaire, where we took a tour which visited two spots in the Irish countryside. We had visited the beautiful city of Dublin before and had a hankering to get out into the countryside. Our first stop was Ballyknocken House and Gardens, home of the cookery school, and Glendalough, the site of a 6 th century monastery.

We enjoyed our tea and scones and loved wandering the grounds of both house and gardens.

We headed out to our next stop through more beautiful countryside.

It was explained to us that there is a yearly competition for the best “ tidy town” and many villages take this competition very seriously. . The community works very hard to maintain the areas.

Our second visit was to the site of the first Irish saint, Saint Kevin, in the Wicklow mountains’ village of Glendalough. He went there for solitude and lived as a hermit in a cave in the natural beauty and wilderness and formed a monastic order there in the 6th century. . This settlement eventually became one of the great spiritual centers of Christianity in Ireland, flourishing for a thousand years after St Kevin’s death. His story is often referred to as a journey from solitude to community. The feast day of St Kevin is June 3, and he is one of the patron saints of the Archdiocese of Dublin. The monastic center includes the Round Tower, the remains of St Peter and Paul’s Cathedral, the Priests’ house and a huge graveyard, where the devoted have been laid to rest.

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Our guide Andrea gave us much historical information along the tour, as she is here explaining the evolution of the various celtic crosses.

Glendalough is the third most visited site in Ireland, and it was quite crowded on this beautiful day.

We head back to the ship to get ready for our 5:30 reservation at the Tamarind, the ship’s Pan Asian restaurant.

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We started with shared appetizers, then I had my delicious lamb chops with bok choy. My dessert was the lighter, tapioca type, while my sister went full out for a chocolate and strawberry concoction. Early dinner was perfect for us, because the Orange Party started at 9:30.

What is an Orange Party? The Holland America Lines celebrates its Dutch heritage by asking its passengers to wear something orange and join in the merriment of themed drinks and crazy entertainment. It started with a competition between the crew and passengers to guess the song not only by naming the title and artist, but dancing to it. The cruise director Brandon started off the fun. It just kept going from there. We had an overhead view of the craziness from the second floor.

The ship picked up passengers in Dover at the beginning of the cruise, then picked up Dutch passengers in Rotterdam. About 1/3 of the passengers were Dutch. Most spoke English but some of the older passengers did not. The Dutch absolutely loved the Orange party, and so did we. My sister even danced the Chicken Dance, party animal that she is, and I have a video to prove it!

Tomorrow’s visit to Cork is in the afternoon, so we have some time to sleep in!

When most people think of Liverpool, they think of the Beatles, and there are certainly lots of shops that sell Beatles memorabilia; however, Liverpool is also a very prosperous port city with amazing traditional as well as modern architecture throughout. There is a branch of the Tate museum next to the cruise port as well.

Liverpool had the first wet dock, built in 1715, which revolutionized global shipping by letting ships stay afloat regardless of the tide. By the late 19th century roughly 40% of the world’s trade passed through the city. It has Europe’s oldest Chinese community, the UK’s oldest Black African community and a massive Irish population. The two cathedrals are the massive Anglican cathedral and the very modern Catholic Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King, which we visited on our afternoon tour.

We spent some time in residential areas, eventually ending up in the neighborhood seeing the street called “Penny Lane” , where some of us had our pictures taken.

Another example of art in the city involves the Christmas truce during World War I. Two fiberglass figures, one German and one English are shaking hands as they stopped fighting and played football on Christmas Day.

As you can imagine, there were lots of Beatles related events on the ship, such as Beatles music trivia and tributes paid by our dueling pianists.

It’s time to say goodbye for tonight. More coming tomorrow.

When we signed up for excursions, we did not know how well we would be able to manage them , since I was still recovering from total knee replacement surgery and Beatrice had gone through two serious surgeries last year. We opted for the easy bus tours. We did a tour of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland several years ago and had already seen many of the tourist attractions, so we were content to sit on the bus, take pictures (some blurry—sorry!) Since I used a cane on the tours, we sometimes sat in the front of the bus. I don’t use a cane at home but found it helpful with uneven sidewalks and cobblestone roads. We were amazed by thenumber of disabled passengers , who managed to go on the tours in spite of their various handicaps.

On our last visit to Belfast, we saw the various walls of remembrance to both sides that were prevalent during “the troubles,” and there are still progressive as well as royalist murals throughout the various neighborhoods of the city. Our guide mentioned that Belfast is now a multicultural city and the murals for peace hold more importance than struggles from Belfast’s troubled past. The young people of Belfast have moved beyond that era.

We could have spent all day here. The floor covering the history of the troubles was extensive and addictive. There was literally something for everyone here.

I believe that I mentioned that we spent the evening dining at the Pinnacle Grill restaurant but neglected to show a picture of my sister’s dessert. Pure indulgence!

This photo was taken at the end of one of the first days on board by my sister and it serves as a fitting goodbye for now. Tomorrow we will have sun in Liverpool!

We landed in Cohb this morning and you can see passengers scurrying to get to the buses for their morning tours to Cork. I am a few days behind because of technical difficulties with synching photos to the site. We have an afternoon tour here. Yesterday we were in the Dublin area and we opted to take a tour to see a working farm—think an Irish Martha Stewart set up—with a scones making demonstration. The wait was worth it. The scones were delicious. Later we visited Glendalough National Monument.

Monday was Liverpool. More on that later

Sunday was a sea day. Tomorrow —Thursday September 3– will be a sea day. Then we land in Dover and we go to Windsor Castle on a tour . We stay overnight at Heathrow and fly home Friday September 5.

this is just an overview.

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Details to come. This has been a wonderful adventure and we continue to have a great time! Sorry it has to come to an end.

Belfast is Mother’s birthplace and the place where she lived until she came to the United States as a young adult.

Belfast is the name of a film starring Kenneth Branaugh, who came from this city.

Belfast is synonymous with The Troubles, the fight between religions. The protestants and the Catholics. Violence and killings. Families torn apart.

We have been here before and have seen many of the tourist sights in the area, like the Giant’s Causeway and the Titanic museum. The murals in the city show the troubles, the heros on one side and terrorists to the other side.

Today’s Belfast is a very lively multicultural city thanks to the mix of immigrants who have come here from around the world. Current murals encourage peace, not division. It’s a very good sign.

We spent time in the Ulster museum, with four floors of art, history and nature . Fans of “ The Derry Girls” may appreciate the following photos:

Back on the ship, we prepared ourselves for a special dinner at the Pinnacle Grill, a steakhouse. We both had filet mignon with baked potato and vegetables; Beatrice had the wedge salad. She had Baked Alaska for dessert and I had Key Lime pie.

We had an early evening reservation and we spent the evening strolling the decks to digest our food. The show was a good one: Irish entertainer Rebecca Harkness and her Australian husband and accompanist Kurt Russell. It was ane ening of Irish music! Our piano playing duo had the night off but we enjoyed the soft strings of old country songs played by a talented guitarist.

Now it’s Saturday so it must be Glasgow. We have an afternoon tour planned

We are not traditionally morning people, and it takes a bit of time to get us moving, so we try to book afternoon excursions to see some sites.

We had a nice breakfast and wandered around the ship, then ventured outside to visit a local shop where we found some very nice gifts to take home.

We got ready and exited the ship, lined up outside and were directed to line up again for our tour. We were given a badge to wear with our bus number on it. Soon we were driving through the gorgeous countryside. The weather was perfect. Most of the pictures were taken inside the bus, so unfortunately they’re not so clear. I wish I had been able to capture the mounds of thistle that dotted the countryside. They were beautiful, but our guide told us they were a nuisance in her garden because they take over and are difficult to get rid of.

Our tour was called Royal Dornock & cathedral. The village reminded me of the quintessential English village found on TV shows like “Father Brown,” or it could be Miss Marple’s St Mary’s Mead. Charming? Yes. We visited the cathedral and museum and had some time to explore the High Street and indulge in retail therapy or a drink. The hot chocolate shop was highly recommended.

The cathedral is unusual in many ways. It’s made of the local sandstone, and it’s been configured as a Presbyterian cathedral over the years. It’s had a bloody history but today has been “ discovered “ by celebries: Elon Musk had one of his weddings here and Madonna’s son Rocco was baptized here. In the wall are memory plaques, commemorating an event. I especially liked the plaque with the initials KM with hearts. Perhaps a KM was also married here? Our tour guide gave us a full tour.

The museum showed us the history of the town. We saw the Royal Charter signed by Charles I in 1628, declaring Dormoch a Royal Burgh. Examples of clothing and activities were shown.

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This village was well documented and the locals were very proud of the hard work they put into it. We had a little extra time before browsing the shops, having a “ world famous” hot chocolate and heading back to the ship.

After dinner, Beatrice managed to get this fantastic shot before heading off to bed.

Yesterday, Thursday August 27th was a sea day.

We sleptin. We dressed in casual attaire. I pedaled on one of the stationary bikes at the fitness center, we visited people, we read and went to our piano shows.

We explored decks we hadn’t seen before, got lost and found this lady knitting. I have seen a few other knitters since then.

We had our picture taken with this Scottish guard.

We had delicious Split pea soup at the Royal Dutch Cafe.

The assistant cruise director runs the music trivia contest and he gyrates and lip synchs along. He’s sooo cute. Girls of all ages hoot and holler. It’s so much fun!

At the end of the evening I was mentioning that there must have been cutbacks because there were no towel anim or chocolates so far. Then I opened the door.

Today we were in Belfast. Our afternoon tour was changed to a morning tour. We had been there before so we had a general tour and a visit to the Ulster Museum. Tonight we dine at the Pinnacle Grill. Tomorrow we visit Glasgow. Time is going much too quickly

We had two days anchored at South Queensferry and while others are still investigating Edinburgh—been there, done that—we decided to take the tender into town to see what was there. Since it was a beautiful day, we enjoyed the opportunity to take pictures. I slept late and we missed the buffet breakfast so we decided to go to the Grand Dutch Cafe for a bite.

With the Firth of Forth in the background, Beatrice poses for the camera, ready for a new adventure!

We are still getting the lay of the land — or in this case the lay of the ship—but we found ourselves easily at the cafe, which is across from guest services.

Mini pancakes, the specialty of the house

In South Queensferry.

Retail therapy

After a good walk, we returned to the tender to make our way back to the ship, and we prepared ourselves for dinner in the main dining room. We decided to watch the main act on the World Stage, a husband and wife singer/ accompanist after dinner , then spent a bit of time with our piano playing pals before heading off to bed.

We were surprised to find steak and lobster on the menu, and feared that our eyes were bigger than our stomachs, but the portions were small so we were able to digest our food easily. No waste here. Our dinner companions were delightful: a couple from Virginia ( wife was originally from NOLA), and two sisters from Toronto. The conversation flowed effortlessly and we were the last to leave the dining room! It was great fun.

We caught the end of the classical music concert earlier in the evening. We shall return for more.

it’s 8:28 AM and we are docked at Invergordon, in the heart of the highlands. Weather is cool but there’s no sign of rain.

We will be doing a tour in the afternoon. Time for breakfast now!
Reporting live from the Nieuw Statendam, Wednesday August 26!

We will be back. Stay tuned in for more fun and adventures from the sailing sisters!

We didn’t have to be anywhere until 6:00 pm Saturday when we attended the play “1 King, 2 Princes, and Shakespeare’s Lie” so we decided to explore our neighborhood. Our hotel is called Leonardo Hotel Haymarket, and we had always turned right at the corner to get to the center of the city. Now we went straight and turned left, and we found a neoghborhood, filled with pubs, restaurants and other services! No one mentioned it was here. We could have easily mossed it, but we needed to go to the pharmacy!

After a bit of shopping and fortifying ourselves with light refreshments, we wandered on, finding some cute buildings, St John’s Scottish Episcopal Church and the Weat End Crafts fair.

The church had a lovely neighborhood feel about it and the ceilings intrigued me. Aren’t they beautiful? Very unique. Reminded me of the work of MacIntosh which we saw in the museum earlier in the week.

We had to return to the hotel to prepare ourselves for our last performance, which was called “1 King, 2 Princes, and Shakespeare’s Lies.” It was a one man show which was an attempt to exonerate Richard III from being the bad guy that Shakespeare proclaimed him to be. It was very moving. After the show some of returned to the Haymarket neighborhood for dinner. It was a busy Saturday night and many places were filled but we found an exceptional Thai restaurant with amazing food.

Sunday morning involved packing and getting organized for the second part of our journey. We had to meet the others for The Whisky Tasting experience and our farewell dinner and we also managed to get tickets for “ Endometriosis the musical “ which was on from 4:00 to 5:00. It was a short walk from the musical to the whisky.

The venue itself was very cute and sparkly, as was the event itself. How can anyone make a funny musical about a disease? This company managed to do it. It’s an American production which skewers our medical system as well as the victim’s unfortunate experiences with family and friends not understanding the severity of the illness. One in seven women have this condition. The musical was written by those who have suffered with it. It is hilariously funny as well as poignant. It was first performed by the fringe in Minnesota several years ago and has received rave reviews ever since. It has also performed at the Edinburgh fringe before, where it won the “best audience “ award. We were lucky to get tickets for it. It was the best thing we saw. Others saw “ Bliss” and also loved it. Wish we had seen more musicals. I can see now why the fringe festival is so addictive. The more you see, the more you want to see. We ended up in the wrong line for a jazz concert next door which also sounded great. So many shows, so little time!

We had about a half hour before meeting the group for the whisky event. Turned out it was a multi media program highlighting the making of scotch whisky. It was very informative and the scenes of the Scottish countryside were breathtaking, but we only got a thimbleful of scotch and the glass to take home with us. As we left, we noticed a group who were sitting down for a real tasting. We got the cheapie tour. It was sort of a disappointment.

We dined afterwards at Dine, a beautiful restaurant nearby. It was our last meeting. We are all going our separate ways. Bruce and Silvia are doing a small group tour of the Highlands, and Cindy and Judy are both going to visit family, Judy in York and Cindy in Manchester. Ann and Eliza left early so they missed the dinner. Cecile returns to Paris. She will be leading a group to Scandinavia in the fall. This was her first experience as a group leader. We are all beginning the next phase of our travels.

There was a group photo of all of us but none turned out so I decided to show you these candid shots instead.

I neglected to tell you our next chapter. Monday morning we were driven to South Queensferry, to Hawes pier, where we joined the Nieuw Statendam, a Holland American ship, which is doing a two week cruise called Wild Britain.

We are tendered until tomorrow at the Firth of Forth. I was concerned but the transfer went very smoothly and we didn’t have to lift our bags once! We have a lovely balcony room.

The weather has been perfect the last few days. We unpacked and Beatrice went for a swim and I spent time in the hot tub, bubbling away. We had a dive in hot dog on the Lido deck and I went to the salon for much needed hair wash and blow dry. We finished up the evening at the dueling piano bar venue with two talented pianists.

I thought of my friend Jane as I ordered a mojito—it’s her favorite drink— and it was delicious. I will be now reporting live from the Nieuw Statendam. There is still much to explore and discover, both off and on the ship.

Cheers!

As it was Ann’s last day, we wanted to do something special, and Ann had arranged tour tickets for us to see the decommissioned royal yacht Britannia, where Queen Elizabeth, her family and friends spent many happy years sailing the seas.

it was a long bus ride but we saw some local color en route.

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Once inside the terminal, we were given an introduction with many photographs before boarding the ship.

As we entered the ship we were welcomed by one of the many corgis who make this ship their home. They were everywhere throughout the ship.

The Queen’s bedroom

Prince Phillip’s bedroom

This is the guest room, AKA “The Honeymoon Suite “ after the wedding of Charles and Diana. He had to request that a double bed be placed here.

We took a break for coffee, which ended up being a delicious cream tea, with a bit of the bubbly to boot! The tea room is gorgeous and the whole experience was suchan indulgence. We loved it!

Back on the tour, we went through the dining room, the ante room and other common spaces that were enjoyed by passengers on the yacht. We also saw the Queen’s study and Prince Phillip’s working spaces. They had a telephone line to connect them to each other while they were working.

Below decks we saw the crew area and entertainment spaces. There were lounges and bars for the officers and similar spaces for the crew. Everyone seemed well cared for. There was also a sick bay, with an operating room and infirmary. The laundry room was huge and, it was told, hot. All the washing and ironing was done there.

Our tour was over and it was time to get Ann back to the hotel to pick up her bag and get to the train station to continue her journey to London. We were very lucky. A taxi pulled up shortly after we got to the street. Even with heavy traffic during the festival season, we managed to get to the hotel, and the same driver waited for her to get her bag and he took her to the station.

The weather has been warming up and our visit to the yacht was perfect. It was a very long day so we crashed for some time afterwards.

We are winding down as the tour ends Monday morning. Stay tuned tuned for more. We will be seeing two more shows, and we will be having the Whiskey Experience and farewell dinner Sunday evening.

The three of us began our day with a 45 minute walk to the National Museum of Scotland. It is in the same neighborhood as our favorite dog Bobby in the Greyfriers Kirkyard Cemetery . Ann was not here when we had our city tour so we dropped by on the way to the museum, which was across the street and around the corner. National museums in the UK are free, which is a great thing. We met a few others from our group at the cafe at 11:15 AM. Ann is a great navigator; Beatrice and I followed along. We spent a few hours with the highlights

We started at the top floor terrace to get a slightly soggy view of the city.

Can’t forget Edinburgh Castle!

We left the museum and strolled down King George IV bridge ( which is actually a street!). On our left we saw Victoria Street which was the inspiration behind the shopping street where Harry Potter got his school supplies. It’s very busy there.

Our destination was St Giles Cathedral, an unusually warm and friendly edifice. Unlike most cathedrals, it seemed ancient and modern at the same time, with local artists showing their creativity and giving the viewer a strong sense of community.

The altar was in the center, but in the round, which helped emphasize the importance of the equality of the parishioners. It softened the hard angles.

Queen Elizabeth II stayed here en route to her final resting place. She passed away in Balmoral, her favorite residence. She had a great fondness for the Scots and enjoyed waking up to bagpipes in the morning.

Time for a late lunch/ early dinner before our fringe show. We had walked by Deacon Brodie’s Tavern and it looked appealing. The downstairs was very busy but the upstairs dining room was quiet and we were able to snag a table after a few minutes’ wait. The ladies had the specialty of the house , the traditional British steak and Nicholsom’s pale ale pies, which won the Gold Award at the British Pie Awards and I had basil, pesto, cheese and spinach gnocci with bread crumbs. Everything was delicious and filling. Even with all that, did we have dessert? You betcha!

Beatrice had a special dessert: Cranachan, whipped cream, sweet honey, a dash of whiskey, raspberries and golden toadted oats! Wow!

Ann had the lemon tart with Lady Grey tea and i had the crumble with peppermint tea.

We made our way to the venue to see a comedian named Jason Byrne. He has been around a while and has been in several films, and was extremely popular with the audience, which was young. Many of his jokes hit a sour note with me. Beatrice enjoyed him but Ann and I were turned off by the language. Can’t win them all! The program ended early and some of us shared a taxi. I forget to take pictures of the venue. I will try to do better.

Today was Ann’s last day and it was also a free day. Before the trip, she had the idea of going to see the Royal Yacht Brittania and gotour tickets. . It took most of the day. What a way to endher visit! More tomorrow.

Time is winding down. We get on our own ship on Monday.