September 13, 2019 Dublin

We were on tour, from 11:45 until 10:00pm, what a day! It was fun but arduous. Any way on to the details.

We were to meet in wheel House bar at 1145.  Please have Adam and I after we checked in waite along the side so they could take us down in the elevator as he is using his shillelagh to walk around as it makes him feel more balanced, out on the cobblestones. And walking down 6 floors of steps is not a good thing. When we finally got called and was a zoo down there as there were many people exiting the ship to go home.  We finally found our bus and found a seat for the two of us as we knew the day was going to be long.  

First stop was Saint Patty’s cathedral. I for one was not that impressed it was small in comparison to many other cathedrals that we’ve seen but it was nice. Then we went to see Orson Welles statue in my opinion that was a waste of time but maybe that’s because I’m not at Not an Orson Wells fan ha ha.

Traffic in Dublin is worse than traffic in Washington DC there doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason as to how the cars go or when they stop whole lot so it took us a long time to get out of Dublin and onto the highway to go out to Glendalough. 

Our tour guid was named Annie and would you believe our bus driver was Declan?  They were both great, but Declan was fabulous. We didn’t realize until later that did yesterday was Friday the 13th but it proved to be that kind of a day for Declan as he had to get us out of some of the tightest places you would believe. And it seemed like just when we thought things were going to go easily they went more difficult than ever they missed the turn to Glendalough and we went over the countryside over and the mountains which we didn’t even realize they had in this part of Ireland, but they do, it almost look like we were traveling over the hills in Italy where we’ve gone to some of the nice wine vineyards.  The views on this wrong turn were spectacular. Many of us thought the same, but there are always a few who were complaining, as we were going to be late to go to Glendalough. And dinner, god forbid!

Now let me tell you about Glendalough;  Glendalough monastic site, one of Ireland's most famous tourist attractions. Positioned in a glaciated valley with two lakes, the Glendalough monastic site is a fascinating early Christian settlement in a spectacular natural location, founded by Saint Kevin in the 6th century.

The extensive ruins of Glendalough include several early churches, and an impressive 30-metre high round tower. The valley stretches for approximately 3km and contains several areas of great historical interest and beauty. The Upper Lake area was the original site of the monastic settlement and features Reefert Church, Temple-na-Skellig, Saint Kevin's Cell, Saint Kevin's Bed, the Caher and various high crosses. 

Ed and I didn’t see a lot of it as time was of the essence, and by the time we got there they were ready to close, but they stayed open so we could see some, and those people younger and fitter then we, could run and see more. On a goo day, it would have been a two hour drive out here, today it was over three!  It was a beautiful setting that is for sure. 

We left to go to the Avoca, weavers in a small town, with very, very, narrow roads, you wouldn’t believe what Declan our driver had to do, as people in there cars didn’t want to give way. I wish I had tacken a picture of this one car........ oh my, I wasn’t sure we were going to get out of that one. Like Annie said later, everything that could go wrong did, so the Mill was closed by the time we got there, but the shop wasn’t!! I bought a beautiful Irish wool sweater and scarf. 

Then it was on to dinner, and that was in the Wodenbridge Hotel and Lodge. It was a wonderful dinner, but again we were rushed, oh well it is what it is as they say. We arrived back at the ship at 9:30, pm sailing was nine pm. Came to the room exhausted, but happy. 

St Patrick’s Cathedral floor and Sanctuary 

                                                                                                         The hills of Dublin. 

One of the pillars of Glendalough with Ed. 

Our bus driver Declan 

 

September 12,2019, Cobb (cork) Ireland

The morning came very fast this morning,,,,, we had to sleep fast, and needless to say Cindy did not want to get up, but up I got, and sweet Ed got coffee, and rolls for us. So I had time to dress and I am really glad we went. We had great guides and even though it rained in the begging, would you believe it was leftover from Dorian, it cleared by afternoon, and we saw pretty much everything we had on the schedule. 

Cork was founded in the 7th century St Fin Barre. Cork is your gateway to romantic Ireland. This is where you would come to go to Blarney and kiss the Blarney Stone, but that was not on our list, we figured we weren’t ready to fall in there, and probably would, after walking up all the steps to get to it. 

And we decided, not to go to Waterford eaither, as we didn’t need more crystal.  So we went to Killarney and it was a reail gem of a tour. We took a bus across Ireland up through mountains to the Killarney national park. We stopped for tea and scones in the morning and then in the afternoon we had lunch in a pub. The lunch was a bit of a disappointment as it was chicke, potatoes and over cooked carrots, but the beer was great. Then we went shopping and guess what they had?

Our guides were wonderful, and I wish I cooled quote some of the stories we were told. And the scenerywas indeed spectacular. Ireland looks exactly how it does in pictures. My first time and I loved it. 

I tried to take a photo of this sign, but it didn’t come out, it said “TRAFIC CALMING” 

Ps I have been informand that the blog is NOT accepting comments, so we have great WiFi you can leave a comet on emai or iMessage, if you want. 

St. Peter Port, Guernsey

Guernsey was a real serprise to me. We arrived on time and arose slowly, as we were both tired, Ed more so then I. Mad a fast dash to the horizon Kurt as we missed breakfast in the dinning room. And breakfast was quit good, another serprise, we then went down to the Wheelhouse bar to meet for the tour.  Guernsey, insisted on using their boats, that were bigger, which was fine, but later there was a problem with that. 

 On to the island: Founded St Peter Port, likethe rest of Guernsey, became the propriety of England after the Battle of Hasting in 1066.  Population 96,513 est. 2014. Climate: it has a milder climate, islanders make the most of the outdoors. July and August are the warmest months at around 72 F and the lows are in the mid 40s during the coldest month of February. It rains 2-3 inches on a average each month. English is the language.  Currency is the guernsey pound (GGP) but there money is totally independent from England so you can’t interchange it. This place will never have a problem with homeless, because you can’t stay here without money, and if you fond yourself without money they ship you out. It is so difficult to live or buy property here, you have to be very rich. But if your family has property they are allowed to sell it to a family member for ONE Pound, with no inheritance tax. 

We took a mini bus around the island with a wonderful guide. The highlight was the little Chaple. Set in the countryside along a treelined path sits this small chapel. Made of simple materials, the chaple is beautifully decorated with pebbles, shells and pieces of colorful broken china. It was wonderful, we enjoyed it very much, even with the damp weather. 

When we returned to the dock, there was a line like you wouldn’t believe, seems the Guernsey boats couldn’t handle the waves that had churned up. So the tenders were called in and cleaned it all up. 

Today when we got back to the ship we grabbed a quick lunch, and went to the CC meet & great. Then we had to get ready for Formal night, we didn’t make it to the captains waterfall, but that’s ok, we’ve seen it before. 

And the busy day helped us not to dwel on 9/11

Goodnight all

The chaple

See the steps they were like that all the way up. We didn’t go all the way, as it was raining, and there were no hand rails. 

We are on the ship

Well I  wrote this all out and somehow lost it all. So I will try to do it again. We made it to the ship about 1:30 pm and we were in our room at 2:15. The medallions worked great, boarding and have all over the ship. It is cool that your coat reads green as you walk up, and in you go.

This will be a bet condensed as I am getting really tired, it is 11:54  as I type this. The room is nice, not as nice as the Grosvenor house but I rated that 5*s and I don’t think I have ever given that rating to anything. It was fabulous and if I EVER go back to London I would stay there. 

We are in Club Class dinning and it was great, walked in and had a table right away. Tomorrow is Formal igbt so it will be interesting to see how well it works. 

Also tomorrow is our first excursion we ANCHOR PORT at St Peters Port, better known asa tender port. Luckily the tour doesn’t leave until 11am and we’re back in about 3hours. It is just highlights of Guernsey. 

Our room and Ed 

Wear Iam writing

The living area. 

Good night

 

 

Watching hurricane Dorian

3 days and counting:

We are watching the hurricane, with trepidation, hopping we will be able to fly out on Sunday.  This is not what I was expecting to be a problem for us, as we weren’t cruising in the Caribbean. Oh well........ 

Everything is almost ready to go, a few things to tweek, and then we will be off.  We are staying in London Monday night at the Grosvenor House, then we have transfers to the ship the next day. We have ended up with 4 checked bags and a carry-on each for meds etc.  and having Princess take care of it all is a relief for us as we aren’t as young as we used to be. LOL

The Crown Princess has just been to dry doc so the word is it’s real pretty and now has implemented the medallion system, I will report what we think after we have used them, we have just received our medallions so we’ll see. 

Getting Ready for our next long cruise

Well hello again, it has been some time since i was last on this blog, and that is because we haven't cruised since we left the world cruise.. that was not because we were burned out, but maybe a bit overwhelmed at all we observed on that cruise. It was wonderful!

So now we are going again in just a few short weeks.  On the Crown Princess to Ireland, Scotland and Ed's bucket list, Normandy.  And a few other places as you can see from the map  All and all it should be an interesting 28 days.

 

So now I will continue packing bags, and organizeing the house for our departure, when you do this all the time it is easier, but right now I am experanceing a lurning curve...

 

Let me see if I can copy the lists of ports here:

 

London
	London (southampton), England View general port information Ocean Terminal #46/47 Ocean Terminal-Berth 46/47 Eastern Docks - Dock Gate 4 Southampton So14 3qn London (southampton), England Gb	– 5:30pm
	Guernsey (st. Peter Port) Water Shuttle Required wheelchair Access Limited	7:00am – 4:00pm
	Cork, Ireland (cobh - For Blarney Castle)	9:00am – 7:00pm
	Dublin, Ireland	11:45am – 10:00pm
	Liverpool, England	10:00am – 8:00pm
	Belfast, Northern Ireland	10:00am – 9:00pm
	Glasgow (greenock), Scotland	7:00am – 6:00pm
	At Sea
	Invergordon, Scotland	7:00am – 6:00pm
	Edinburgh (south Queensferry), Scotland Water Shuttle Required wheelchair Access Limited	7:00am – 7:00pm
	At Sea
	Paris/Normandy (le Havre), France	7:00am – 8:00pm
	London (southampton), England Mayflower Cruise Terminal	5:00am – 5:00pm
	Brussels/Bruges (zeebrugge), Belgium	8:00am – 6:00pm
	Portland, England	8:00am – 6:00pm
	At Sea
	Bordeaux (le Verdon), France	7:00am – 6:00pm
	Bilbao, Spain	7:00am – 7:00pm
	At Sea
	Lisbon, Portugal	7:00am – 4:00pm
	At Sea
	Azores Islands (ponta Delgada), Portugal	9:00am – 6:00pm
	At Sea
	At Sea
	At Sea
	At Sea
	At Sea
	At Sea
	Ft. Lauderdale, Florida View general port information

(Backup) Day 111, Wednesday April 25, 2018 San Juan, Puerto Rico 🇵🇷 113 + Day

It is Anzac Day today, and we will be arriving in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in about a half as I write this. We have had five sea days, and they were busy ones. 

Oh my, where did the time go? In good faith I started this post that morning, and never had time to finish it or write about the last two sea days, I spent forever packing!!!  But more on that and the parties 🎊. So back to San Juan. 

Now I have some great pictures, but this app is not acting right so I will have to try this later on. We are in a hotel in Port Richey and I am not sure what is going on with my IPad, as I got the new updat, and that always seem to mess things up. 

Day 106 Saturday April 20, 2018. AT SEA

Today, is our first sea day of five, to reach Puerto Rico  🇵🇷 and all kinds of things are happening on the ship. We both skipped our class in the morning, I skipping watercolor class, because I wanted to catch up the blog, and Ed skipped Tai Chi, because the ship was rocking and rolling so much he was worried he would fall. 

So at 10, Ed went to the lecture about the natural history of the Cape Verde islands, and learned some amazing facts. Then at 11, he attended a talk with Captain Jonathan, and he found that interesting, like a couple years ago, this ship evaded some pirates in the Yemen area speeding up to 29 knots!  So the Amsterdam can really move out when needed. 

Right after that they announced that they had copies of the itinerary for the 2020 World Cruise, it’s 128 days for the full World Cruise, and very heavy in Antarctica. Needless to say this was the talk of the day. 

Other then that not a lot going on, except we got our luggage tags for shipping our bags home, so I guess we need to start packing, and see if we are going to need to buy another bag, to get all the goodies home. LOL

quote:  “if at some point you don’t ask yourself, WHAT HAVE I GOOTEN MYSELF INTO? then your not doing it right.”   -Roland Gau 

Day 105, Thursday, April 19, 2018 Praia, Ilha De Santiago, Cape Verde

We arrived in Praia, before the eight AM arrival time, they were ready for us to go ashore, at eight, but I wasn’t ready. So we caught the shuttle about ten, and that was fine as there wasn’t a lot to see or do on this Cape Verde island. There was supposed to be a craft market, but we didn’t find it. We did find a food market that was interesting and a couple of cute stores. 

.  

 

Looking at the Amsterdam from the island, and a church by the drop off for the shuttle. 

 

The food market

Back on the ship, they were having our last complimentary sail away party, free drinks from 5 to 6:30. 

 

 

Kass, our in house computer wizard. She is from Australia, has worked on HAL for four years and what a wonderful person she is. 

Lots of fun was had by all. 

Quote: “ The most dangerous risk of all - The risk of spending your life not doing what you want on the bet you can buy yourself freedom later.”

 - unknown 

Part 2 of Dakar & the pink lake

Ok so part 2, I forgot to tell you all about that Monument, it was the Renaissance Monument it is 160 ft tall monolith weighing 190 tons, it celebrates Senegal’s 50 years of independence from France, this to me says be carful what you wish for. The only nice structures I saw were originally built by the French, and they are now deteriorating. 

Now on to the lake was not pink, and actually that was a good thing, as that only happened in the rainy season, (we were in the middle of the dry season) and then they have a real malaria problem. We traveled about 50 minutes by a new highway, very new, not sure who built this. Now we arrived and were suppose to have lunch here, at the hote, but no we are going directly to the lake, but befor that there was a big hassle over how we were to get in the 4 wheel and 6 wheel drive vehicles. Seems they had not planed this out for all the busses that came, so this took another 45 minuets. We finely get in and, now we have a guy driving that really enjoys popping the dunes, and this will get worse! 

 

This was our friends in their  4 wheel.   And this was as pink as the lake Retba, was for us, it is caused by a type alge in this shallow lake, and it is so high in salt everything floats. 

 

We get out to the lake, and they are mining the salt that forms there, which was very interesting, what looks like sand is salt. 

 

This was a visit to a stop for a brief encounter with the chief of Fulani Village, where we thought we would get more then a pitch fo money, but that was what we got. The hut is the old and the cement block is the new housing. We spent more then an hour trudging through the sand, before we coul finely climb back in our four by. Then we went out to the ocean beach, where lunch awaits us. 

 

By the time we got there it was almos over, and seeing Ed and I trying to get down and up from this seating was laughable! There was a show but we didn’t get to see it well enough to ge a picture of the dancers, and they came around for money too!

Then there was again, a big delay with getting us back to the big busses, so we all had to spend another 50 minuets with the halkers trying to sell us more stuff!  This was most unpleasant, until we started the drive back to the busses, as the guy driving this time made us airborne more then once, we almost fell off!

Finally back on the bus, now we were going to be late for sure, with traffic and when we got to the port,,,,, there were 6 big gas trucks blocking the way to the ship, I thought for a while, we would have to walk the mile in, but through some hair raising maneuvering they made it, in 30 minuets, now the tour and 4 busses were only an hour late, glad they couldn’t leave without us.  

Quote:  “No matter WHERE YOU GO, there you are.”  -Buckaroo Banzai 

(Backup) Day 103, Tuesday, April 17, 2018. Dakar, Senegal

Once again I sound like a broken record,,, but this place was not what I expected! It was not as nice as I thought it would be. It reminded us of Casablanca, and that is not a compliment. Seems that the government doesn’t care much for its people. There was trash all over, there was lots of building going on, but no one cares enough to pick up the trash, more do they care, not to throw it out on the streets, or any other place for that matter. It’s a prodomintly Muslim nation, and most men have three or more wives! As Ed says he does well keeping up with ONE!

Our day was going to be long, we had an eight and a half hour tour, I’m not sure what they were thinking when they scheduled this one, as there was no way we were going to get back in time, and sure enough we didn’t. 

First stop we drove around the town of Dakar, 

 

Not sure what this was, but it was interesting. This goat, broke away and ran down the street!

 
This is an example of the trash.  This lighthouse was why Ed wanted to do the tour, but we never got closer. 

  

Then we saw this HUGE copper statue to the uniting of Africa, built by North Korea!  Meanwhile the woman live like this. 

 

Then it was on to see the sand painting, this circle of sand turned into this. 

 

Then it was on to see the outside of a mosque and the inside of a church. 

And then they took us to a market, where we were again almost attract to try to make us buy things, these people acted desperate so you don’t show your Iphone to tak a picture.

Then it was a long ride out of town to get to the Pink Lake, which wasn’t pink.  And since that is a story in itself I will do part 2

Quote: “The eye never forgets what the heart has seen”. - African proverb 

Day 102, Monday, April 16, 2018 Banjul, Gambia 🇬🇲

Today we were in Banjul, Gambia it again was not what, I was expecting, but then I didn’t know what to expect. We didn’t have a tour here, just planned to go to the market, and that is just what we did.

Founded as Bathurst by the British, Banjul was originally a fort positioned in The Gambia River designed to stop the exportation of slaves out of Africa. It is now the capital, and is one of Africa’s smallest capitals. The country’s biggest market is here, Albert Market, it is possible to spend hours haggling with merchants over merchandise and taking in the local color. We took the shuttle provided to the market, that was an experience in itself. But we found the market not very inviting, we were dropped off, and found a nice stall right away, but when we moved on we were picked up by a guy, who it seems was a finder. He would guide you through the market and you would pay him and so would the people selling. Well we didn’t like that much, so we soon sent him away, and decided to go back to the ship. And at port side there were many venders that had set up while we were in town, and they had better prices. 

 

 

 

Street dancers. 

Then we showered and got ready to go to sail a way and met John and Marget. 

Tomorrow is a long day, we have an 8 half hour tour, with an early morning weak up. 

Quote : “I travel because LIFE IS SHORT and the world is HUGE.”  - Stephanie B.