Tuesday

We are in Belfast today. The surrounding hills and countryside are green and beautiful. Cathy, Craig and I took a city bus out to Carrickfergus Castle, which was first built in 1183. It has been renovated many times over the years and was delightful to tour. Finally feel like we are in Ireland ! Came back to Belfast on the bus and the city was sooooo crowded. Kids are out of school and are milling around town. All in all, a very enjoyable day. The weather has been nice, warm and sunny. I think we have brought the good weather with us ??

Monday

We are in Liverpool today, named for the mythical liver ... NOT pronounced like the calf's liver !

We are spending longer here than any of the other ports thus far, and it seems that there is less of interest. Vickie is still not feeling well, so she stayed on board while Cathy, Craig and I walked around. The big draw here is the Beetles' connection, but we are not big Beetles' fans. Found a wonderful shopping mall, promoted as the largest in England, so we did some shopping. Prices weren't bad at all. Of course, spending pounds is like spending monopoly money ...

We were back on the ship by 2:00 PM (didn't have to be back until 6:00 PM) and started a load of laundry.

It's on the Belfast tomorrow, which should be a lot of fun.

Sunday

We are in Dublin, where it has been overcast most of the day. It hasn't been cold, though, nor has it rained, which made us happy. Vickie has been suffering from a "cold" the last couple of days, which is putting a damper on it for her. So far, the rest of us are doing well. We took a shuttle from the dock into Dublin and walked to Trinity College. Such a neat, historical place ! We really wanted to see the Book of Kells, but the line was way toooooo long, so we had to pass. Then we walked, and walked, and walked until we got to St. Patrick's Cathedral, which is a Protestant Cathedral. We couldn't go into the building as the Sunday service was in session.

Then we caught the on-and-off tour bus, which dropped us off at the Guinness Storage Building, where we took a tour, sampled their Draught which is not available in the U.S. (alcohol 7.5%, instead of 4.5% like all the other beers), bought some souvenirs. Caught the tour bus to the Jamison Distillery and had lunch at the Brazen Head Pub ... the oldest pub in Dublin. Excellent food, too. Craig had bangers and mash, Cathy had the Beef and Guinness stew, I had the Traditional Irish Stew and Vickie had the Seafood Chowder ... along with a pint of Guinness !!

After that, we walked to the Jamison Distillery and went into their gift shop. Didn't take the tour as time was getting short. Then we caught the tour bus back to the shuttle bus stop. Our only regret is that we didn't make it to the Dublin Castle. We could see it over the rooftops, but time ran out.

Tomorrow, we are on to Liverpool. Updates to follow.

Saturday

This morning, we were in Cobh (pronouced COVE, honest!), Ireland. This is the port from which the Titanic sailed on her fatal journey. We took the train for a 30 minute ride into Cork, which is the 3rd biggest city in Ireland. In Cork, we took a hop-on-hop-off bus tour that was a big disappointment. It did not go by any of the sites that we wanted to see, in spite of the advertisements. Took the train back to Cobh and explored that little town. Cobh was a lot nicer and had more beautiful scenery than did Cork. We climbed up a pretty steep hill to St. Colman Cathedral, built in 1808, which was absolutely beautiful. Looked down on the whole city and the port from up high.

Below is proof of why we always bring Craig along on our trips .... someone has to carry our stuff !!

Tonight is a formal night and then we will be in Dublin tomorrow morning. More to come ....

Tuesday Evening

We were directed to a bar that is offering complimentary "samples" of their exotic drinks ... for 3 nights only. Obviously, we didn't want to let anybody down, so took advantage of their offer. Last night we had a "Brizza Marina", which consisted of a lime liquor etc. Became our favorite until we tried the one tonight. Vickie also had to try the limoncello with a souvenir glass. What a great trip !

Tuesday

Today, we were in St. Peter Port, which is on the island of Guernsey ... but, we didn't see any cows, which are named after the island (Guernsey cows?)! Lots of cute little shops, though. We took a city bus trip around the whole island, which lasted a little over an hour. Their main industry here, according to one person we talked to, is tourists. Secondly, this is an area that has little or no taxation, so some of the businesses from England make their headquarters here.

Monday's Pictures

The Swan, the pub near our hotel, in London. And, Big Ben, of course.

Monday

We left Ontario at 6:40 AM Monday morning on Southwest Airlines. Flew to Phoenix, then on to Chicago where we changed planes. Flew from Chicago to Washington D.C., where we then changed to Virgin Atlantic. Left Washington after 11 PM, arrived in London about 11:30 AM Tuesday. We slept some on the plane but were still pretty tired. We were met at the airport by a driver with a van, who then drove us to our hotel. We were very pleased with our hotel, which was a good thing as we were too tired to do anything about it if we weren't! Walked around some, then took a nap, ended up going to dinner at The Swan, a neighborhood pub. Craig and I were on the 7th floor and our room looked out over Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park. Quite a beautiful location. Vickie and Cathy's room overlooked an apartment building, which they will never let us forget!

Then we walked down Queen's Way to look at all the souvenir shops and the local shopping center, Whiteley's. Had dinner at a wonderful Lebanese restaurant where the food was great and the people were friendly. I was quite impressed with how clean London is, and how friendly everyone is as well. Almost everyone we talked to was from another country.
All of us slept quite well Tuesday night, as you can imagine.

On Wednesday, we took the Big Bus tour, which was a hop on and hop off tour. Saw a lot of wonderful sights, Tower of London, Big Ben, St. Paul's Cathedral, the London Eye, Picadilly Circus (which just means "circle"), and even shopped at Harrod's. Stopped, not shopped! Those prices are waaaaaay out of our league. Nordstrom's doesn't even compete with them.
Went back to our room and took a nap again, even Cathy !
We then walked through Kensington Gardens and around Kensington Palace, where Princess Diana resided. We walked down "Embassy Row" and saw all the beautiful Embassies and private mansions located there. Cathy and I were looking through a wrought iron gate at one of the embassies, when a voice came over the intercom, telling us "Ladies, please do not touch the gates." Who, us????
Went to dinner for Indian food, then went back to the hotel and to bed !

Finally, today we had a driver take us to Southamptom to the cruise ship. We didn't have as much energy to do things as we thought we would !! Pictures will be forthcoming, hopefully tomorrow. We have to work out a few connection issues to download them, but hopefully that will be worked out successfully.

Preparing for our vacation

Trying not to stress out about packing and what clothes to take. Probably won't bother with shorts ?? We'll see.

Here is our Itinerary:
June 22: Cathy, Tory, Craig and I will fly from Ontario, CA to Washington D.C. We then fly Virgin Atlantic to London Heathrow. We spend 3 days in London and then board our cruise ship for 12 days.

June 25: Depart Southampton, England and go to Guernsey (England), Cork (Cobh), Dublin (Ireland), Liverpool (England), Belfast (No Ireland), Glasgow (Scotland), Inverness/Loch Ness (Scotland), Endinburgh (Scotland), Paris/Normandy (France), and then back to Southampton.

Stay tuned for pictures and notes.