British Isles: Farewell to Bergen, Jupiter and Good Friends
The alarm goes off too early, the bags outside our door are gone and we quickly dress and head to the lounge for departure. It is raining! This is the only real rain we saw the entire trip, and our guide says “Welcome to the REAL Bergen!” We had the special-day sunny Bergen for our previous day, and were doubly thankful for it.
Our route back takes us to Copenhagen, then Atlanta, then Pensacola, and all flights departed and arrived as scheduled. The flight out of Bergen, however, was hilarious. There were 32 rows on the flight. The first 18 rows were Business Class. The last 14 rows were economy. They were labeled. They looked exactly the same. Business class boarded and debarked through the front. Economy boarded and debarked through the rear of the plane. I’ve never seen this before!
I would have liked more time in Copenhagen, but it was a rush through the facial recognition machines, a rush to customs and baggage searches, and a walk to our gate, where we were soon boarded.
The SAS flight into Atlanta was delightful. Good movies, a little off the beaten track, and good meals. We had cheerful, polite service with a genuine feeling of goodwill.
It’s good to be home, to have our family and sweet kitties all together. And our brains are scrambled. There are so many cities, my brain can’t always keep it straight. I keep confusing the Orkney Island experiences with the Shetland experiences, and confuse the capitals as well. I am thankful I kept the journal, but even the journal is confused from time to time. And the missing photos jarred my thinking, and my confidence.
Thank you to my life long partner, AdventureMan, in adventure and marriage, for sharing these great times, for reading and correcting my mistakes and for contributing so many great photos of Scara Brae to fill in where I had deleted my photos. And thank you, readers, for going along on this great long cruise with us and being patient with my endless photos.
British Isles: Great Fun in Edinburgh
Early rising today as we are in Group 2 and meeting up at 7:45 am in the Star theatre to tender in to port to catch our bus. Whew! We had a quick breakfast – I am back to oatmeal now that the novelty of so much variety has worn off. We pack up our quiet boxes (it looks like hearing aids, but it allows the guide to speak to us as we are walking along without broadcasting to the world), our windbreakers, our phones, cameras and make sure we have everything we need.
They call our group quickly after group one (Group one is going to play golf at Saint Andrew’s; we are going on the panoramic tour of Edinburgh which is riding around in the bus about one hour looking at important things, then walking up the King’s Mile to the Edinburgh Castle. It is August, the month of the Tattoo, and the Castle has huge grandstands set up for people to come and watch this historical ceremony.
It is also the month of several festivals, so we are glad our bus is first out and full of people who are on time and board quickly. We have the streets to ourselves, shared only with the children and their backpacks headed to school. But look at the skies – so grimy! I try not to think about particulates and to breathe shallowly.
The tour shows us all kinds of buildings – housing for rich and poor, schools, different architectural styles, different kinds of stone and decorations, statues of important men and homes of some of Edinburgh’s famous men. Edinburgh, and Saint Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin, give of thick Game of Thrones vibes to me. We park and hike up the hill to the castle, and the King’s Mile, where we are on our own for an hour and the crowds begin arriving.
Below are the grandstands built to seat audiences for the Grand Tattoo. It gives me shivers and chills just to imagine sitting there.
You can see the same grandstands behind us.
We make a quick stop at the Castle Arms Pub, where they very kindly allow us to use their facilities, then we hike up to the castle, and down the King’s Mile. Then back up the King’s Mile, and we still have 15 minutes to spare so we head back to the Castle Arms Pub to have a coffee and an IRN-BRU (special Scottish soft drink) to thank them for allowing us to stop earlier. Our guide picks us up on the way back down the hill, and everyone going back to the boat is on time, again. We love traveling with Viking people.
When we get back to the port, we decide to explore a little before heading back to the ship, so we look for the grocery store the guide has told us about to see a little of how the real Scots live, or at least where they shop. It is an Asda grocery, but once inside, it sure has the feel of a Walmart, with signs about price rollbacks and arrows, clothing racks and foods – its a supermarket, not unlike you would find in France or Spain or Pensacola. The goods are goods like we would buy in Pensacola. We just see one thing we know is genuinely Scottish:
When we get back to port, we board the tender and are back on the ship very shortly. It’s been another great day on this trip, bright sunshine, warm but temperate weather, zero complaints.
We both chose lunch from the noodle shop, broccoli and stir fried shrimp and mushrooms for both. And dessert, of course. Blueberry sorbet, and it is wonderful.
We need a trip to the Nordic Spa, the bubbly hot wave pool down on the first deck, with a snow room, a steam room and lovely serene changing rooms with saunas. Sheer bliss.
We have unruly neighbors. This afternoon we hears thumps and screams amidst the shouting and arguing and finally AdventureMan called security and asked them to make a call to check on their well-being. It stopped for a while. It’s started up again.
We see the name Lothian on buses and small stores. AdventureMan tells me Lothian is the name of the lowland region that includes Edinburgh, lying between the southern shore of the Firth of Forth and the Lammermuir Hills and the Moorfoot Hills. So you take the high road and I’ll take the low road . . . . Firth is a cognate of fjord, a Norse word meaning a narrow inlet. Thank you, AdventureMan. Now we are leaving Edinburgh.
We would come back to Edinburgh again. There is so much history here we just skimmed over. The Romans. Hadrian’s Wall. We need to come back.
We’ve finished dinner, but we haven’t finished chatting, and there is a big block of something (?) floating off starboard side and people start rushing over to take a picture of the “iceberg.”
I have no idea what it really was, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t an iceburg.
Sunset en route to Aberdeen
I haven’t said much about shopping. It’s because I haven’t shopped much. Our great quest on arrival in London was to find good cheese and good wine to have in our cabin. It thrills us to sit out on our balcony with good cheese and a nice glass of wine as we sail away.
Most of the trips we take are busy. These cruises are what you make of them. Some people are really laid back and mostly are on the trip for the cruise experience; they love the shows and on-board games and entertainment (there are better cruise lines for that.) One group on this trip is about golf, and another group is about visiting gardens, and they meet up at night and have great conversations, regaling one another with discoveries and anecdotes. Some love visiting wineries and distilleries at every port. My husband and I are mostly into history, early history for me, military history for my husband. We have lists of what we want to see and scurry to hit our priorities. It can be exhausting – and exhilarating. Shopping, however, gets tucked in where it can.
I found some cool Christmas gifts at the Canturbury Cathedral. I bought chocolate with Irish whiskey and a Celtic coffee mug in Dublin, more chocolate in Wales, and a tin of tea with a dragon on it! That’s about it so far. Some people came back from Edinburgh laden with shopping bags. Most of their shopping was gorgeous woolens, but I have woolens, and I live in Pensacola, Florida, where woolens are mostly irrelevant (and too itchy for me.) So we’re really not spending much. We ARE having a terrific time.
I wish we had another day at sea before Aberdeen; I need time to integrate all these new sights and ideas. No such luck! On one cruise, with several sea days, a friend of the ship’s captain told us that days-at-sea were a hardship for the ship’s crew, that the one thing that can cause big trouble is bored passengers. I can imagine! And I am a woman who needs time to ponder and to integrate!
British Isles: Kirkwall, Scara Brae – The Best Day of Our Trip?
We think this day was the best day of our trip. We think every day of this trip has been stellar, above expectations, because we expected both heat and rain, and have had neither. We have had glorious days and breathtaking experiences, and today was the best of the best.
Thank you, AdventureMan, for helping me out with photos. I wish I had more.
We wanted to see two major geographical locations coming to Kirkwall, and we got to see them, and more.
One was Scapa Flow, a huge inland harbor, one of the largest inland harbors in the world. Vikings used it as a natural harbor for centuries. The British kept a fleet there in WWI, and the Germans scuttled their ships there after WWI rather than surrender the ships to the British.
A German U-boat came in after 1939 and sunk the Royal Oak, a British battleship, and over 800 people perished. Among them were 16 year old boys working on the ships with the Navy, causing such outrage in Britain that they no longer recruited 16 year olds.
For the British, the Scapa Flow is a memorial on the level of Pearl Harbor for the Americans. It’s a protected area.
Continuing on, we were able to see the Stone Circles of Brodgar and Stromness, These huge circles of stone pre-date Stonehenge by centuries.
And then we reach our goal, Scara Brae.
Scara Brae was discovered by accident when a huge storm uncovered stone dwellings buried by sand and soil, which were beginning to erode away. The dwellings are over 5,000 years old, created to shelter from wind and cold, to store goods, and to house families. There are areas created for food preparation, food storage and cooking, areas for sleeping, and a special area for crafting items like pottery and tools to make life easier.
Many people today think we are smarter than earlier man, but when I look at the smart things these people created to make their lives livable, I believe they were every bit as smart as we are, and in some ways, smarter.
Look how closely these stones fit together to keep the earth out of their houses, fitted without mortar. Our archaeologist guide tells us there is no way to date a stone wall like this, that the inhabitants of the Orkneys build their walls the same way to this day, only now they also use mortar. Traditionally, they will put pointy flat stones on top, vertically, to discourage sheep and cattle from trying to get in (or out). In the museum there are artifacts – combs, needles, tools – which help date the findings.
It is a beautiful location, by the sea. It was a thrilling visit.
”Graham Watt, the 7th Laird of Breckness, who unearthed the world famous neolithic of Skara Brae in 1850 put in a seawall to forestall further erosion and archaeological experts have excavated several of the houses, although more exist still underground.” (I believe this quote came from a Scara Brae booklet, but I am not sure. 🤔)
On the way back, our bus drives slowly by a series of Neolithic marvels, the Stones of Stenness, the Ring of Brodgar and the tomb at Maeshowe. The bus isn’t allowed to stop because separate bus tours go to those sites (bureaucracy is international!)
(For a lot of fun, read Ann Cleeves newest book in the Shetland/Orkneys Inspector Perez series, The Killing Stones. It is better if you read all the Ann Cleeves Shetland series first, but I read this as a standalone and then started reading the Shetland series, and it worked just fine. )
“The Stones of Stenness are part of one of Europe’s richest archeological landscapes—the legacy of a Neolithic society that flourished between 3800 and 2200 B.C., after the introduction of agriculture but before the advent of metal tools. A mile to the northwest, on higher ground, is another mesmerizing assemblage of megaliths in open space: the Ring of Brodgar, a stone circle some three hundred and forty feet in diameter. To the east is the tomb at Maeshowe, where, beneath a grass-covered mound, Stenness-size slabs anchor a thirteen-foot-high chamber with a corbelled roof. Like Stonehenge and other Late Stone Age sites, Maeshowe has a solar alignment: on the midwinter solstice, the setting sun shines down the entrance passage. Together, these monuments, which are part of a UNESCO World Heritage complex called the Heart of Neolithic Orkney, seem to constitute a minimalist holy land.” (Another regrettably unsourced quote.)
Back in Kirkwall, we decided to have lunch and return to the boat later. We found an Italian restaurant and feasted on Caprese Salad; AdventureMan had a specialty Seafood pasta and I had Spaghetti Aglio Oglio. After lunch, we visited St. Magnus Cathedral, one of the oldest churches in the British Isles. There was a community flower show/competition – the sort of event I love. Groups and individuals created lavish floral displays around the church and won prizes for the best in several categories. It was magnificent and the cathedral was full of people! Then, to celebrate, we had ice cream at the famous Daily Scoop.
Kirkwall is a place to which we would happily return. There is so much more to see and learn.
If you think I am amazing because I remember all these details, you will be happy to know that I have forgotten much, but that I kept a daily journal that reminds me of the details of our daily life on board the ship and at our destinations. Honestly, now we have trouble remembering which day we were in which city.
We tendered back to the ship and enjoyed a deeply satisfying nap before meeting up with our friends for dinner.
The food on board Viking Jupiter is fantastic. It’s a great life, being a grown-up, having options. One night we can focus on salads and seafood, another night on soups or Chinese specialties, another night on roasted salmon and sides – we can choose what we want to eat, and we can choose how much. Viking makes little tiny desserts, maybe a quarter cup of chocolate mousse with a meringue star on top, or one small scoop of ice cream – or two very large scoops with toppings, whatever is your pleasure.
When we get back to our room, it is newly cleaned, every night, with fresh towels and clean sheets, all set up for a good night’s sleep.
It’s not like we live like this at home. We cook, we clean, we keep up the yard, we repair the house, we handle our grown-up responsibilities. For just this short time, it is so wonderful to be taken care of.
I have to give full credit to my husband for most of the Scara Brae photos. I also take full responsibility for the fact that there is a jumble of Scara Brae photos in the middle of this post in no order. Somehow they all got grouped and I can’t figure out how to ungroup them. I used to laugh at my elders who struggled with technology, and now karma is biting me in the butt, and once again I am humbled.
British Isles: Ullapool and What Day is This?
Our day started slowly, thank goodness. We are still sailing from Belfast to Ullapool, and we don’t expect to land until 1:00. Later we figure it out – at this time of year, there can be huge morning fogs. Most of the time it starts burning off around late morning. You can’t see much through the thick fog.
Some people are sleeping in, some are doing laundry. We have breakfast with our friends, then we hit the spa. We are ready to kick back. We are having a lot of fun, enjoying all the activity, and the truth is also – we are aging. We need to rest. I need time to process and integrate all the new sights I am seeing and cultural differences I am experiencing.
We are excited about our tour today, The Scenic Assynt. We tendered in, and boarded our bus. It got off to a surprising start. We were all aboard and the bus started. Two minutes into the trip, the air conditioning went off and the bus became stuffy very quickly. Formerly civil Viking tourists became rude, and shouted that we needed AC, but I think the driver needed the extra power to attack the hill heading out of the port. The bus rumbled and shuddered, and the guide was doing her best to soothe the savage beasts but was also on her phone to headquarters trying to get a back up bus and there wasn’t any.
It got better. The AC came back on, and we stopped at a geological reserve.
Here is where I have to make a sad confession. This reserve was wonderful. It had special stations to demonstrate how very old rock had extruded and somehow become above the much younger rock.
When I uploaded my photos, of this trip into the Assynt, and the next trip, in the Orkneys, I somehow didn’t save them to the desktop, and carefully deleted them from my camera and card.
Fortunately AdventureMan took some photos, and I had some on my phone, but sadly, the trips were both wonderful and I can’t show you how greatly wonderful they were. I am so sorry.
We also stopped by the ruins of an old castle en route to the small fishing village of Lochinver, very beautiful, very small, and I took a walk in the opposite direction of the others, and it was so QUIET.
One thing you don’t get on a cruise ship is a lot of quiet. Viking ships are quieter than most, but you get 900 people together, there’s going to be some noise. For the first time ever, we have a loudly quarreling, quarrelsome couple on one side of us. Fortunately, it is sporadic, not all the time.
With the fog rolling in to this small fishing village of Lochinver, it was so silent. It wasn’t even muffled, it was silent. My ears were ringing with the silence! I loved it!
I rely on my photos to tell the story, and without them, I can’t remember all that I saw. What I do remember is the warmth with which we were greeted at Ullapool, in the Scottish Highlands, that they truly made us feel appreciated. I remember thinking I would love to come back to Ullapool, so small, so isolated, with so few tourists. There were families, and hikers and people from many nations, but not the thousands that come in on the ships. We were the only ship in port this day.
Much of the time is foggy in Ullapool, in August, and then there are times when the fog burns off. Then the fog comes back again, and then, just as the sun is setting, it might break through.
We have reservations this night at Manfredi’s, the ship’s Italian specialty restaurant, and are shown to a quiet table by the window in the back of the restaurant. We love it. Our waiters are kind and funny, and help us make great choices for dinner.
British Isles: Belfast and the Days Run Together
I am laughing as I look at these photos, because I remember every day as being sunny. I don’t remember the early morning clouds. It almost always cleared off by noon. I don’t remember any rain, either, but I can see here in Belfast we did get a little rain. I think it happens more often than I would like to think. I would be willing to swear my memory is correct, and – it is not always.
We had anticipated and studied Chester. Belfast caught us by surprise. It looked so drab in all our looks at YouTube videos and trip reports, but it has become a vibrant, future-oriented city and one I could see living in.
I apologize for the quality of these photos, taken as best I can from a bus with rain-drop smeared windows. Below is a square in homage to the author C.S. Lewis. Under that is a statue of his lion from the Narnia series.
Our guide is Sean, and he is full of jokes, but also full of history, some old history, but most of it about the “troubles” and how the peace is working out. As it turns out, peace is very difficult. People have trouble learning to trust one another after all the years of shooting at one another, but groups are finding ways to work together on projects, and rubbing shoulders with one another helps reduce fears and prejudices, and helps contain small problems from becoming big problems.
Belfast Castle below:
We start looking for the nine cats hidden in the gardens:
Sean tells us that most of the flags and nationalist art is created by the working class, who are still living with some resentment of the ruling, more liberal class in power. Most building flying Palestinian flags are those of the soldiers and those protesting the status quo.
The art of those in power is mostly about sacrifice, and history of service. This art increases feelings of positivity and acceptance of the status quo. All of this was imparted to us without any indication of which Sean’s position.
We had not anticipated liking Belfast as much as we did. I spite of the divisions, there is a vibrance in having the devisions out in the open, and a commitment to working out the differences. Belfast is now one of the safest cities in the world. We visited a large university, very impressive, and I found myself thinking how wonderful it might be for one of our grandchildren to attend a university where people openly debate the significant political positions. It lends life and energy to upper-level studies when new and challenging ideas can be confronted and evaluated.
We met up with our friends back on the ship and shared our impressions. Our backgrounds are similar in some ways, very different in others, so we always have lively and entertaining discussions when we meet up. They have a substantial collection of Starbucks cups, and strive for one from each city. I like cups, too, but sometimes I want something locally made. I always love seeing what they find.
And Belfast reminds us of why we travel. We see a country perpetually at war over religion, culture, customs, and willing to try to kill each other. Now, they are putting in the hard work of reconciliation, trying to find common ground. It isn’t easy. I like that all voices are allowed to express themselves, and that it is a situation where compromises are emerging. No one gets everything they want, peace is not taken for granted, and they persist through the discomfort. Maybe we can learn something.
Sun setting as we leave Belfast.
British Isles: Wales and Carnaefon Castle
We don’t have any activities until we leave for Castle Carnaefon. I woke early, dressed, went up to Explorer Lounge for sunrise and to catch up on e-mails. AdventureMan caught up with me, we went to breakfast, then to the spa. I filled out a Viking request for assessment and delivered it to guest services on my way to the spa.
I’m the only one in the pool for the first half hour, and feel great about exercising without feeling watched. The water is cooler than the first day and more comfortable. AdventureMan joins me, we visit and recover on the lounge chairs, then I return to the room and AdventureMan follows later. We take it easy, read up on Carnaefon Castle, and eat lunch early, then meet up with our group at one. Actually, there are three groups going.
This photo above haunts me. The house is so vulnerable, so low to the water, it would look as if it would flood with a bare rise in the water. In the right lower corner is a small boat with people in it approaching the island. You can see there is an inlet on the riverside of the island where a small boat might be moored and protected somewhat from the vagaries of the river. The house looks sturdily built, but so isolated! So vulnerable!
It is a lovely drive. We have a great guide, who gives us a brief history of Wales, and a lot of history about the castle, which is one of the earliest castles in the British Isles, huge, and is the castle of the Prince of Wales. We start in the kitchen, which had some system of running water, huge fire pits, separate rooms for a variety of functions; the speculation is that the kitchen fed around 600 people daily.
Below is the old kitchen area – inside and outside. It is hard for me to imagine feeding 600 people at least one meal a day every day of the year from this kitchen area.
The walls are huge; high and thick, with arrow slits. We are told that there was little crime within the walls because those caught committing theft or assault were simply thrown out or executed.
AventureMan found a comrade-in-arms in the Castle Museum and they had a long talk, then his new friend called his friend at the Fusiliers Museum and sent AdventureMan there, where he had another really good war-fighting related conversation, while I explored the castle walls and functional areas. I tried to get up the stairs, but there were groups blocking the way, so I had a coffee and hit the gift shop, then sat on a quiet bench in the old kitchen area, waiting to meet up with AdventureMan and the group.
Back on board, we had some of our Greenwich wine and our Herrod’s cheese and sat out on our sunny balcony reviewing our experiences until time to meet up with our friends for dinner. After dinner, we walked the upper decks, chatted with some of the other guests and then returned to the room to prepare for tomorrow’s visit to the ancient Roman city of Chester.
Here is what bothers me. I can say I’ve visited Wales; that might sound impressive. The truth is that today we spent about eight hours in Wales, mostly in the harbor, on the bus, in a historic castle, and then on the bus coming back. There is something in me that does not think this really counts as “visiting” Wales. I have a Welsh friend. I would have loved to have seen more of the country with her; I would have loved to walk the country, speak with the people, eat the food, live through a winter in a small Welsh town. I think the expat in me goes deep. An eight-hour span of time barely begins to touch the surface of a country with a history and culture like Wales. It almost feels disrespectful.
British Isles: Dublin Uses Euros
We are already docked in Dublin when our alarm goes off. We had thought we would be caught up after a sea day, but no, we are not caught up and we have to meet early this morning for our excursion.
We are the first group off the boat, but it is more complicated because the boat is anchored, not docked. That means we will have the added adventure of being tendered, i.e. one of the smaller boats on board will ferry us to the docks where we will catch a bus which will take us into Dublin.
We are greeted by Sean, who is a great jokester. He looks at my ticket and my very Irish name and says “I should just hand the mike over to you!” ha ha. He had a lot of jokes, and kept us laughing all the way into Dublin where our first stop was the Cathedral of St. Patrick’s. He took us around, showing us tombs and chapels and restorations, and where the Knights of Saint Patrick were all seated, separately from other people, with their flags and helmets.
Below is a replica of the ships that took the Irish to the New World during the famine. Below you will also see statues representing the emaciated immigrants seeking shelter in our country. It is a chilling exhibit. It reminds me of the words on the base of the Statue of Liberty – “give me your tired, your poor.”
Back on the bus for a short drive around, then out to the American Ambassador’s house (just a drive by) and a toilet stop – we’re that demographic. Back in Dublin, we pass great shopping stops and Trinity College to be let off at the National Gallery.
We could go back to the ship, but we’re in Dublin. We have tickets to tour the Dublin Castle, so we ask Google to help us get there – only a 19 minute walk.
We tour the castle, an inner city castle, more of an event venue. It’s full of paintings, most on the theme of Sheherezad and the beheading of John the Baptist – dark, gruesome paintings.
The sun is out, and it is a lovely day with a nice breeze. We limp over to the Cecil Beaton museum, where I have heard there is a lovely cafe/restaurant, and indeed, there is, The Silk Road. The restaurant is popular, full, but not crowded, there are tables inside and outside. You go through a line and choose a main course, then you have a choice of three sides.
AdventureMan was holding a table, I chose a lamb moussaka, and then a beet salad, a green salad and stuffed grape leaves. The plate was heaping. I took it to the table and AdventureMan liked the look of it and I invited him to share it with me (Please, AdventureMan!) as it was way more than I could to eat so he got a knife and fork and glass of water and it dish was plenty for both of us.
As a bonus, just across from The Silk Road was a gorgeous gift shop, with truly lovely offerings, unique and artistic and yes, a little expensive but this was not the junk of the gift shops we’ve been seeing, so we found some things we liked, and for gifts, and felt very happy.
AdventureMan got us back to the Viking Shuttle pick up point, and a bus showed up right away, with double decks so they could take a lot of us, and we drove back to the docks, where we tendered back to the ship.
AdventureMan pulled out our wine and cheese, cut off some pieces and we had a few quiet minutes out on the balcony with our feet up, before I had to go to the port talk for our upcoming visit to Holyhead.
I am ashamed to tell you that not long into the port talk, I started falling asleep.
We’ve been walking well over our 10,000 steps daily. One day it was almost 18K, most days are 14K-15K. In Dublin, it was 14K by mid-afternoon. I was truly tired. Fortunately when I told our old friends how tired I was, one said “I slept through half of the presentation.” I suspect a lot of us had problems staying awake; we are all in a demographic that may nap regularly back home.
I did take a short nap back in the cabin, waking when AdventureMan tapped me and said “Honey, I don’t want you to have problems sleeping tonight.” We got to the restaurant around the same time as our friends, and our conversation and laughter revived me.
This is our first cruise where we are traveling with friends. Not as a group, but we’ve met up. Sometimes we are on the same tour, sometimes not. Sometimes we attend the same lectures, sometimes not. We tend to meet up most nights for dinner, and occasionally for lunch. It has worked out well. We have lively discussions, interrupted by trips to the salad bar or soup or ice cream, we disuss what we’ve seen and how we feel about it. We discuss our feelings about how we are changing as aging adults, how our families are growing and changing. We never seem to run out of great topics. It has become a good part of why every day of this trip is one of our best days.
British Isles: We Become THOSE People 😳
This was one of those days full of the unexpected. Our plan was to have breakfast and grab an early cruise shuttle to Greenwich. AdventureMan has done his homework; we like to have a little wine and cheese of our own choice in our cabin, and we want to try some more English cheeses, so he has found a specialty shop, and we know how to get there.
We go out at 9:00, as the schedule says, to catch the shuttle boat, and no one seems to know anything about it. We look around, but all we find is a bridge to the pier with a gate across it, locked and impenetrable. As we start back, a Viking tour person is running towards us and tells us that the boat will arrive at 10, so we wait, and others who want to take advantage of the shuttle arrive and wait with us.
We had an odd experience – before the others arrived, we met a British man who looked healthy and happy and we started talking. He told us he was in rehab, and recovering from years of alcoholism. We learned a lot about his former life – he was successful, and somehow managed his alcoholism, but it was ruining his marriage and his health, and his doctor told him that rehab was his only choice for living a full life. It took a while for him to make that decision, but he is so full of joy telling his story. A deeply cynical part of me was thinking he was going to hit us up for some money, but as it turned out, he was immensely wealthy, and now he was becoming healthy and had clarity for the first time in years. He was a new man. It way an inspirational conversation, waiting for that shuttle to arrive.
The shuttle arrived, we said goodbye to our new friend, a uniformed security person unlocked the gate and we boarded the chartered Uber boat. And then we sat there; something had happened to the groups going to Greenwich for their walking tours and we had to wait for them. It was nearly an hour before they arrived, and we were wondering if we could do this and still make our 2:00 tour to the Tower of London. We decided it would be tight, but we could do it.
Below; the Cutty Sark
Arriving in Greenwich, we rushed off the boat, and walked as fast as we could to the Cheeseboard, where AdventureMan had a great conversation with the young man who did their website (how we learned about this shop) and was very helpful, providing us with four cheeses and descriptions printed on the label so we would know what we were eating. He also provided two very good bottles of wine from Bleye, one red, one white, and we were on our way to catch the shuttle back. We were able to get on, and thought we were home free, but the ship slowed several times, maybe fighting the tide, and stopped one time to pick up supplies for their on-board snack shop, so we began to accept we would not get back in time for our tour.
We docked at two oh two. Just two minutes too late. But our tickets for the tour were in our stateroom, and we were supposed to meet at 1:45 so we were just too late, and figured we would console ourselves in the spa.
A Viking tours person was at the gate as we came it. “Have the tour buses for the Tower of London left?” we asked, and she said yes, the last just left. We headed to the boat, but were interrupted by another Viking tour person, standing by a bus who asked if we were the people supposed to be on the London Tower Tour, and we said yes, we were – and asked if this was the bus? She said yes, we told her we didn’t have our tickets and she said it was all right, Viking would manage it. A miracle! We were last on the bus and sat in the way back, happy just to be on board.
Oh wait. Not so fast. The guide tells us we are too late, we are not going on this bus. Like the bus is already late, WE are the problem, and we are standing there. I said meekly “I think we are on this bus. You need to talk to the Viking rep who just directed us here.” And he made us exit the bus while he and the Viking rep had a spirited discussion. We get it. We don’t even have our tickets with us! We are the problem, and we hate to miss the tour but we get it.
The Viking rep convinces him to take us, so we straggle onto the bus, again, and make our way to the rear, not looking anyone in the eye. We have become THOSE people, people so inconsiderate that their lateness has made the whole bus wait. Oh the agony!
We are so glad it worked out this way. During the ride back into London, the skies suddenly cleared, we had blue skies, the crowds at the Tower were less than two days ago when we had lunch there, and we had a superb Blue Badge tour guide who really knew his history, and even better, knew how to make it interesting. We had time on our own – most went to see the jewels. I’d seen them other trips, I wanted to see the White Tower, which I climbed all the way to the top. I loved the interior spaces. Built in 1070 by William the Conqueror, it had an unexpected graciousness even though its purpose was defensive. AdventureMan spent his equally happy time in the Fusiliers Museum, and we met up with happy hearts for a time well spent in areas we love. It was a very long day. We got back late, and happy. As it turned out, people were not so angry with us, we all got along, and we made friends with the guide, who really was terrific.
Inside The White Tower – military equipment and beautiful spaces!
(detail on a painting in White Tower: “Detail of the earliest known image of the White Tower showing the building’s exterior. The view includes a cutaway to reveal people in an invented interior. From a late 15th century collection of poems by Charles, Duke of Orleans, British Library) Royal MS 16F11:173” (?)
Just look at this glorious day!
I love the juxtaposition of it all, sometimes.
You just never know how a day is going to turn out. Sometimes the things you have the greatest excitement about go bust – something just isn’t right. And some days which seem designed from the beginning to disappoint turn out just the opposite – and this was one of those. Yes, we were late; we were those horrible late people. And despite it, we had a great time in Greenwich, met a great young man who loves his wares and knows how to make a sale, and we had a bonus – we got to take the Tower of London tour with a great guide on a gorgeous sunny afternoon. Yeh. We suffered some embarrassment. It was humbling. We survived.
When we got back we had a message from our friends that they were at dinner in the place where we meet up, and we exchanged news of our day – they were at the Churchill War Room and War Museum, deeply meaningful day for them. Dinner was all the better for great conversation, and we split up early for sail-away, knowing we had early departures for our tour reaching Dover.
British Isles: We Transfer to the Viking Jupiter
Morning came too early, the bag handlers must have started with our room! Promptly at six, the bell rang and AdventureMan had to struggle out of bed to let them in. Fortunately we were able to get back to sleep, and slept until our alarm went off. We headed down to breakfast – no room for us! We had to wait for a table, about twenty minutes, and we had not factored that in. By the time we finished, we barely had time to rush back to our room, gather our carry-ons, and head down to the hotel lobby where we were just in time. As AdventureMan checked out, our group was called. I was one of the first to board the bus and headed to a seat halfway back where we like to sit for the unimpeded view. Just behind me another couple, who as they sat behind us said a little sourly “you got our favorite seat.” Oooh kay. AdventureMan found me, and we had an hour long ride to Tilbury, not Greenwich, where the fun began.
First, we have great admiration for and understanding of the logistics involved in last minute changes, so the awkwardness of the explanations and arrangements were not surprising, but the London Cruise Port was not ready to board a few hundred people. Our buses were stacked up, and after the one hour drive, we sat another hour on the bus. Some of the passengers got testy and argumentative, and finally they let a lucky few off to find the toilets, with the understanding that they must come right back.
Our group was called, not to line up but to sit in the terminal. Maybe fifteen minutes later (we learned there was another couple from Pensacola on board) our area was called to process in – or embark, as they call it. That process was quick, with one surprise, we had to surrender our passports, which we never do, for British immigration and customs.
And then we boarded another bus which took us to a dismal part of the port, surrounded by piles of stones and dirt and cranes and bulldozers and roll on roll off containers and thousands of Hyundai cars awaiting delivery to dealerships.
We were disappointed. We had made plans for Greenwich. We unpacked, put everything away – it’s easy on Viking, we ask for the same stateroom every trip and we know where everything goes already, so unpacking is quick. We decided to go to the pool grill, where a better me would have ordered the seared ahi tuna, but the spoiled baby disappointed me ordered comfort food, the Viking hamburger. With fries!
To further soothe ourselves, when we got back to our room we went down to the gorgeous Viking spa, the only people there, and let the hot bubbling wave pool soothe our disappointment, then we napped.
We have old friends on board! We met up for dinner; these are the kind of friends that, even though we haven’t seen one another for three years, the conversation picks right up where we left off and just keeps going. We ate in the World Cafe, picking and choosing from a fabulous welcome buffet, lots of seafood, crab and shrimp and mussels! There was also a sweet potato soup with ginger that was out of this world, and of course, a choice of ten different ice creams. It’s one of the most popular places on the ship, casual with a luxury of choices.
Bernie, who, with Augustina, below, took good care of us and were a joy to know on the Viking Jupiter.
After dinner, the ship repositions to the main terminal, grand entertainment as we turned in tight quarters, then slid through a tiny canal to the locks leading to the River Thames. It took a couple of hours to complete the process. Out on our balconies, we met our neighbors on both sides, Will and Kate on one side. We dock with our cabin facing the terminal, an old-timey building with a clock tower on top.
Look how close the ship is to the canal edge!
Here is the truth. We were disappointed. We had been told we would be docked in Greenwich; Tillbury is a ways down the road from Greenwich, and more distant from London. We were prepared for Greenwich. We were both a little disgruntled, and aware of how very spoiled we are. Another truth is, until I re-read the journal I kept, and saw the photos, I had forgotten about this altogether, it was such a small disappointment in proportion to the great adventures we had in London and the greater adventures to come. We forgot about it!
British Isles: Arrival and First Day in London
Arrival in London was both chaotic and orderly. As we arrived, early in the morning, several other large flights arrived, mostly from Africa, and we moved in a large crowd towards customs. At customs, we were separated into two lines, one countries associated with the British Empire, even the United States. All you had to do was to put your passport in the machine and it gave you the green light and you were done, so easy, so painless. It took seconds!
Pick up bags, walk out, the Viking people are waiting for us and pop us into a van with another couple to take us to our hotel.
At the hotel, it isn’t even nine a.m. but they have a room for us, and we love it. Spacious, for London, with a large bathroom with both a bathtub and separate shower room. Last time we were in London, we were in a room like a closet, climbing over each other to get to the bathroom which was like a toilet room in a boat, maybe 2.5 feet by 4 feet, and the shower got the toilet all wet. This feels so luxurious, and it is quiet.
Even better, the Big Bus, a hop on hop off line, stops just around the corner from our hotel, and we are close enough to many places to just walk. We spend some time cleaning up – having a bath after a long flight is just sheer luxury, and we are celebrating having a room, not having to leave our bags in a storage room and go out into the city in clothes we spent the night in. We’ve done it – and so we really appreciate not doing it.
Once we’ve cleaned up, we are ready to hit the town – and it’s not yet nine on a quiet August Saturday morning. We decide to take the Hop on Hop off and then change our minds and walk to the British Museum.
It isn’t our scheduled time, but the guard checks our bags, lets us in, and we go to the great court for a little coffee and cake, just to give us energy. We have museum guides and AdventureMan is eager to hit the Egyptian displays, and I have my own agenda so we separate with plans to meet in 2 hours.
I head straight for the Sutton Hoo warrior. I think early man is fascinating and smart. We think we are so smart now, with all our technology, and it concerns me how little practical knowledge we have. In all cultures, the early cultures were about survival. How to nourish our bodies, how to protect our bodies, how to heal our bodies, only slowly developing more complex behaviors like farming, cloth making, cooking, making containers to store things – so I love exhibits on early civilizations, early communications (petroglyphs and pictographs) and early war fighting. Second, the Lindisfarne chess set, and then the Rosetta Stone. At first, my quests were easy, but quickly the museum filled and getting close to the Rosetta Stone was nearly impossible.
Finally I texted AdventureMan “my feet hurt! I found a bench in the great court by the questions booth, you will find me there” and within minutes AdventureMan showed up saying “My feet hurt!” It had also become, as you can see, very crowded. Individuals, groups, entire bus-loads, families – it’s a Saturday morning and we are glad we got there early and saw what we wanted to see and now, we are glad to escape the hoards.
AdventureMan had done his homework and had found a restaurant in Chinatown with duck, and we walked there. They sent us upstairs, where we were crowded in with about a hundred Chinese families, mostly at large round tables, with a few tables for two wedged around the room. Hardly space to exit or enter. We loved it. We got the food we wanted, duck with pancakes and sliced onions and cucumber and sauce, and a bowl of spinach and garlic.
With all that good food, our feet stopped hurting and with some searching, we found the Big Bus Tour stop, had our paperwork verified and climbed on the bus for a two hour overview of London up high on the top of the bus.
It dropped us off at our hotel and we staggered in, bathed again, and tumbled into bed. In about an hour we woke up, but decided to sleep another hour, then made ourselves get up, get dressed and go out walking some more to find a place to eat.
We walked to the Thames, to Westminster Abbey and discovered the clouds were disappearing, and a rich glow was lighting up the gilding on the Parliament buildings and Churches. It was glorious, and revived us.
As it got late, we needed to eat to get our bodies on local time, but couldn’t find anything right. Then we came across the Blue Boar pub, liked the look of the menu and went in, only to figure out that we were in our own hotel again, just a part we hadn’t found before. I had a beetroot salad and mussels, and AdventureMan had a goat cheese quiche (we split the mussels) and we stumbled up to our room and fell into bed. We had walked almost 18K steps.
It was a great day. We had intended to take it easy, but all the exercise and staying up really helped us to get on local time. The nap helped; even so we decided to ditch our already-paid-for sunset whirl on the London Eye. Once we saw it, saw all the people enclosed in a tiny capsule that goes very very slowly around, it didn’t interest us. So much to do, so little time!
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