Finally have my album from the British Isles cruise ready to go. Click Slideshow or view one at a time.
Check it out!!
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Sunday, August 7, 2011
London Picture Album
I've prepared an album with some of our London pictures. Still working on the cruise pictures.
Click "Slideshow" in the top left to see all.
Click "Slideshow" in the top left to see all.
Friday, July 29, 2011
Heading Home
We experienced several "lasts" in the past day.
So we are back in the "real world". 
Our flight back was uneventful. Caught some shut-eye on the 8 hour flight and finished the book I was reading. Had a nice dinner and a snack before landing on this thankfully uneventful flight. We left Heathrow 30 minutes late and we arrived in Detroit about 45 minutes late. Had long lines at Customs, but moved through rather quickly - maybe 35 minutes.
We were promptly picked up at the airport in 90 degree heat (we had one or two days or got over 70 on our whole vacation), got home and eventually had our traditional LIttle Ceaser's supper. We left unpacking for Friday.
As of today I'm not sure when I'll get a full picture page up, but that is on the radar and when it's ready I'll post a link here. You can follow all posts for this vacation by clicking on the "British Isles" tag. Ta-ta for now!
- Last dinner with Gail, Kathy and Judy
- Last Princess breakfast buffet
- Last view of England
- Last use of Cruise Card to pay for everything 8-)
Our flight back was uneventful. Caught some shut-eye on the 8 hour flight and finished the book I was reading. Had a nice dinner and a snack before landing on this thankfully uneventful flight. We left Heathrow 30 minutes late and we arrived in Detroit about 45 minutes late. Had long lines at Customs, but moved through rather quickly - maybe 35 minutes. We were promptly picked up at the airport in 90 degree heat (we had one or two days or got over 70 on our whole vacation), got home and eventually had our traditional LIttle Ceaser's supper. We left unpacking for Friday.
As of today I'm not sure when I'll get a full picture page up, but that is on the radar and when it's ready I'll post a link here. You can follow all posts for this vacation by clicking on the "British Isles" tag. Ta-ta for now!
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Guernsey Island
Our last port today was Guernsey Island, the only British territory occupied by the Germans in WWII. 
It's one of the Channel Islands located just a few miles off the French coast.
We did not book an excursion at this stop. Mary wanted to shop and we wanted to see The Little Chapel. We tendered to shore,
found the Visitor Center and they gave us direction for using the bus to get to The LIttle Chapel.
The chapel was amazing! It was small, but large enough to walk inside. And it was covered with broken pieces of Wexford China to give it a mosaic feel and coloration.
The interior of the chapel was similarly decorated and had a main altar and several side altars. It was build by one man - quite the amazing feat.
Now we head to Southampton and on to London Heathrow for our flight home. I'm planning a photo page with more pictures and will post again once that is ready.
It's one of the Channel Islands located just a few miles off the French coast. We did not book an excursion at this stop. Mary wanted to shop and we wanted to see The Little Chapel. We tendered to shore,
found the Visitor Center and they gave us direction for using the bus to get to The LIttle Chapel. The chapel was amazing! It was small, but large enough to walk inside. And it was covered with broken pieces of Wexford China to give it a mosaic feel and coloration.
The interior of the chapel was similarly decorated and had a main altar and several side altars. It was build by one man - quite the amazing feat.Now we head to Southampton and on to London Heathrow for our flight home. I'm planning a photo page with more pictures and will post again once that is ready.
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
The Blarney Stone
We arrived at the pretty seaport of Cobh at 7:00 this morning. 
This is the port where most Irish emigrated to America. We had an early excursion to visit the Blarney Castle. It started off not so well and that continued - guess some days are like that.
We arrived at the Princess Theater for our excursion at the very early hour of 6:45. About 7:15, they announced that the busses had been parked in the wrong order so another excursion would get their busses before us. 10 bus loads later, at 7:50 we finally got to our bus. When we arrived at Blarney Castle
we found that those 10 busses plus a few more were already there so the lines were very long. We had 1 hour 45 minutes before our bus left and the line was estimated at 1 hour long so I got in line to climb the castle while Mary toured the grounds and did some shopping. Well, 1 hour 40 minutes later I got to the top of the castle and did a quick kiss of the Blarney Stone. A 15 minute walk later I got back to the bus 10 minutes late which was thankfully! still there.
After we got back to the ship we had lunch and relaxed. I played Wii-Archery and got a medal, but came in 3rd in putt-putt golf. It was a warm sunny day so we swam, enjoyed a lobster supper
and to top it off they had Mary's favorite dessert - Floating Islands tonight.
We enjoyed the final floor show in the Princess Theater and called it a night. Guernsey Island tomorrow, then packing and preparing to head home.
This is the port where most Irish emigrated to America. We had an early excursion to visit the Blarney Castle. It started off not so well and that continued - guess some days are like that.We arrived at the Princess Theater for our excursion at the very early hour of 6:45. About 7:15, they announced that the busses had been parked in the wrong order so another excursion would get their busses before us. 10 bus loads later, at 7:50 we finally got to our bus. When we arrived at Blarney Castle
we found that those 10 busses plus a few more were already there so the lines were very long. We had 1 hour 45 minutes before our bus left and the line was estimated at 1 hour long so I got in line to climb the castle while Mary toured the grounds and did some shopping. Well, 1 hour 40 minutes later I got to the top of the castle and did a quick kiss of the Blarney Stone. A 15 minute walk later I got back to the bus 10 minutes late which was thankfully! still there. After we got back to the ship we had lunch and relaxed. I played Wii-Archery and got a medal, but came in 3rd in putt-putt golf. It was a warm sunny day so we swam, enjoyed a lobster supper
and to top it off they had Mary's favorite dessert - Floating Islands tonight.We enjoyed the final floor show in the Princess Theater and called it a night. Guernsey Island tomorrow, then packing and preparing to head home.
Monday, July 25, 2011
Dublin
Our morning was much less eventful than yesterday, but that's not saying much! The main excitement was being parked next to a Russian Destroyer. It was interesting watching their morning routine before heading to our excursion. Today's excursion was a 1/2 day tour of Dublin with stops at St Patrick's Cathedral and Trinity College. After Trinity College we had the option of staying in town and catching a shuttle later, which we did.
We had a very good tour guide today - had lot of humor and did a good job of narrating.
After driving around the city we stopped at St Patrick's Cathedral. Our guide said this is the largest cathedral in Europe, which was very surprising. As with other cathedrals, this one is filled with graves, including it's most famous Dean, Jonathan Swift, the author of Gulliver's Travels. It also had very beautiful stain glass windows
as you can see in this picture of the nave.
We then drove through a large park to a cross where Pope John Paul celebrated Mass for over 1 million catholics in 1989, then we headed to Trinity College. I'm not sure why this was a stop, as we took a couple of pictures then headed out for lunch at the Bleeding Horse pub, a favorite of Mary's favorite singer, Mack Bailey.
They have taps right at your table so you don't even have to walk to the bar. So we enjoyed a "pub grub" lunch and a pint of Guiness.
After that we headed back to the Princess shuttle bus, but Mary spotted a sweater shop. I found a nice blue pull-over on sale and could not resist. Sure hope we have enough room in our suitcases!
There are having an Irish music and dance show later this afternoon which we plan to attend.
Now to wait for the internet to come back (reportedly after we sail today) so I can post this along with yesterday's post!
We had a very good tour guide today - had lot of humor and did a good job of narrating.
After driving around the city we stopped at St Patrick's Cathedral. Our guide said this is the largest cathedral in Europe, which was very surprising. As with other cathedrals, this one is filled with graves, including it's most famous Dean, Jonathan Swift, the author of Gulliver's Travels. It also had very beautiful stain glass windows
as you can see in this picture of the nave. We then drove through a large park to a cross where Pope John Paul celebrated Mass for over 1 million catholics in 1989, then we headed to Trinity College. I'm not sure why this was a stop, as we took a couple of pictures then headed out for lunch at the Bleeding Horse pub, a favorite of Mary's favorite singer, Mack Bailey.
They have taps right at your table so you don't even have to walk to the bar. So we enjoyed a "pub grub" lunch and a pint of Guiness. After that we headed back to the Princess shuttle bus, but Mary spotted a sweater shop. I found a nice blue pull-over on sale and could not resist. Sure hope we have enough room in our suitcases!
There are having an Irish music and dance show later this afternoon which we plan to attend.
Now to wait for the internet to come back (reportedly after we sail today) so I can post this along with yesterday's post!
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Liverpool and Wales
Today we docked in Liverpool after a rather eventful morning. About 5:10 this morning, I felt the ship lean to one side a little, then some more, then more yet! I'm not quite sure how far we listed, but it sure created quite a mess on board. In our cabin, I first heard some batteries roll around on the desk, then Mary's purse slid off the table and crashed to the floor. We did not have anything damages, but I know of one other passenger whose camera fell on the floor and suffered minor damage. Also the Horizon Buffet (which was supposed to open at 6:00) was still closed at 6:30 and they would not let us even walk through to the Caribe Cafe (we later heard due to broken glass). With 2000+ people up early for excursions, the Caribe was overflowing. But, as we got in line, they opened one side of the Horizon buffet so we did get our breakfast on time. I'm sure some junior officer is not doing so well today...
After that start we did head out on our excursion.
Apparently there are no ferries operating any more so we took a tunnel under the Mersey River and headed to Wales. At our first stop there were wild sheep grazing on open range. After days of trying to get pictures of sheep
from the bus, here they were, just a few feet in front of us. Scotland has about 7.5 million sheep for 5.5 million people and the ratio is even higher in Wales - 3.5 mission sheep and about 1.5 million people. So yes, we saw a lot of sheep.
After a steam train ride, our next stop was Chirk Castle, a refurbished home that looked like a castle.
They had some people dressed up in costume and the home was very nicely decorated with a beautiful garden
surrounding it. It was very pleasant and relaxing to walk the grounds of this home.
After that start we did head out on our excursion.
Apparently there are no ferries operating any more so we took a tunnel under the Mersey River and headed to Wales. At our first stop there were wild sheep grazing on open range. After days of trying to get pictures of sheep
from the bus, here they were, just a few feet in front of us. Scotland has about 7.5 million sheep for 5.5 million people and the ratio is even higher in Wales - 3.5 mission sheep and about 1.5 million people. So yes, we saw a lot of sheep. After a steam train ride, our next stop was Chirk Castle, a refurbished home that looked like a castle.
They had some people dressed up in costume and the home was very nicely decorated with a beautiful garden
surrounding it. It was very pleasant and relaxing to walk the grounds of this home.
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