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Post by Robert on Jul 24, 2023 10:17:30 GMT -5
Hi George,
Well, this WILL be a travel log if you make "log entries" once in a while.
So, put down that glass of wine, avert your gaze from the vast oceanic vistas, and let us know how y'all are doing.
P.S. Say hey to Linda for me.
R
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Post by George on Jul 25, 2023 8:35:44 GMT -5
Robert: I guess this is a T-log then, for travel. So while sitting here champagne glass in hand and my faithful partner by my side ...
Day 1: Flew to London, and stayed overnight. Day 2: Bussed down to Southampton, and boarded the ship (Silver Shadow) Day 3: Arrived in Fowey, Cornwall (Pronounced Foy), cutest little fishing village. Day 4: Arrived in Cobh, Ireland (Pronounced Cove) Took a tour, visited another cute village, Kinsale. Day 5: Arrived in Holyhead, Wales. Stayed aboard, Sunday, nothing open, and very long walks to get anywhere. Day 6: Arrived in Londonderry, N. Ireland. No tour, just walk-about, which was short since the main street was so steep. A bit of shopping in a craft 'village' and then back the ship. Day 7: Oban, Scotland, Took a tour of the Scottish highlands, stunning scenery. Also did a bit of walkabout and shopping in Oban. Day 8 Stornoway, Isle of Lewis, Scotland. Took a tour, the island is basically an enormous peat bog, with fishing villages around the coast. Day 9: Inverggordon, Scotland. After beautiful weather yesterday, we're back to chilly, overcast drizzle. So we cancelled our tour today, we'll veg out on the ship Day 10: Edinburgh, Scotland. Scheduled for a visit to the Royal yacht Britania today. Didn't make it, too long a walk from the ship. ;-(( Day 11: Edinburgh, Scotland, Free day, stayed on the ship, been to Edinburgh several times. Day 12: Newcastle, UK. Took a tour of the Northern Penines, beautiful scenery. Day 13: Sea day, on the wat to Southampton Day 14: Southampton UK. This is an embarcation / disembarcation day. i.e. end of cruise for majority of passengers. We're doing a back-to-back, so we stay on for the next leg. Day 15: Supposed to be a sea day on the way to Liverpool, but we've been told that there's bad weather in the Irish sea so we're skipping Liverpool and going direct to Belfast. We're leaving 2:00 pm today instead of 6:pm yesterday. Day 16 Belfast Northern Ireland. Toured the Game of Thrones studio where most of the indoor shooting was done. Fascinating! Day 17: Londonderry, Northern Ireland. It's the "Emerald Isle" because of the rain - again. Didn't go ashore, we visited here just last week. Day 18: Killybegs, Southern Ireland (even though it's in the north). Visited an old heritage village showing living conditions over the centuries. God, they must have been tough people back in the 1700's. Days 19-20: On our 2nd sea day, had the last 'formal' night last night. Yea! No more monkey suit.
Remainder Days: Well, the weather struck again. It was so foggy/misty/etc. that the visit was blown off. You can't tender in when the shore can't even be seen.
So the remainder of the trip will be sea days, Today is Sunday, we disembark tomorrow AM and fly home
George
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Post by Robert on Jul 25, 2023 9:40:13 GMT -5
If I knew you were going to be in Wales, you could have said Hi to my friend there, Simon Ager, who lives in Bangor. He's a language expert I chat with at times. Wales is really picturesque, and has a LOT of historical sites, if you know where to look.
Let me know how that "coping" is going for you.
R
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Post by George on Jul 25, 2023 15:23:36 GMT -5
Robert: Being on a cruise and visiting a port basically provides no access to do anything 'personal'. You're either on an excursion where you go and do whatever the tour itinerary says, or you are dumped off 'downtown' and are standing on a street corner left to do whatever you choose. Making private meeting arrangements is tough for all parties.
George
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Post by Robert on Aug 1, 2023 7:49:15 GMT -5
Hey George, you're a few days behind on your log entries. Are you about to fly home, or maybe are you already there?
R
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Post by Robert on Aug 2, 2023 12:11:13 GMT -5
"Tomorrow will then be a sea day as well. ;-("
I thought you WANTED to travel the seas. No? You sound disappointed.
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Post by George on Aug 3, 2023 3:31:00 GMT -5
Scheduled sea days are one thing, having a port visit cancelled and a sea day substituted is another thing. Also, we are not particularly happy with Silversea. Granted, this one was weather related, but this is now the third change to the itinerary since we booked. Along with some other items, we will not go on Silversea again.
George
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Post by Robert on Aug 3, 2023 13:27:37 GMT -5
I thought you said before that this was going to be your last trip of this kind. Did you change your mind? Are your "sea legs" in better shape than you thought?
R
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Post by George on Aug 4, 2023 8:14:26 GMT -5
Never really the last, not till I simply can't enjoy it. All I know is that point is coming very close.
George
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Post by Robert on Aug 5, 2023 10:14:34 GMT -5
Looking at the weather map for Ireland and the Atlantic, it doesn't look like you'll run into much more rain.
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Post by George on Aug 6, 2023 9:16:28 GMT -5
Agreed. Everyone here says this has been the wettest July they can remember. we didn't exactly win out on the weather with this trip. Still, it has been OK most of our port days. Today we were in Killeybegs, started out drizzly early, before we left on our tour, but turned out to be pretty nice overall, sunny and fluffy clouds right now, a bit cool though.
George
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Post by Robert on Aug 9, 2023 16:03:08 GMT -5
George, I don't know how much 'news' you get on a trip like this, but wow, are there fires all over the world. Never seen anything like it, and at 80, you've seen more than my wee 70. Any fires or smoke show up during your journeys?
R
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Post by George on Aug 10, 2023 7:15:36 GMT -5
Robert: Nope, no fires here. The UK was mostly damp and soggy. Least sun of any cruise we've ever taken.
George
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Post by Robert on Aug 10, 2023 11:32:51 GMT -5
Glad to hear it. The news out of Maui is just awful. Me and Violet went there for our tenth anniversary around 1990 and it was a blast. I remember we went to this tourist town called Lahaina, real fun place and so beautiful. Well, now Lahaina is a smoldering ruin. They say there may be nothing left of the whole town once it's all over. The expression was, "Lahaina will be burned to the ground".
Be glad you are far away from reality right now. P.S. reality sucks.
R
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Post by Robert on Aug 12, 2023 15:07:39 GMT -5
Any news? You've been AWOL for a while ...
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