Vacation - The Final Two Weeks!

When Jack and I first booked our Ireland and Scotland trip, we thought while we were all the way across the sea, we might as well see where else we might like to visit, so we started to look around to see what countries were nearby that we would like to visit.  While searching I discovered that Princess Cruises was offering a cruise out of Copenhagen to Boston four days after our tour ended in Scotland.  That seemed perfect for us!  We could visit Copenhagen on our own, then take the cruise with its various stops and avoid that long flight back to the US, leaving only a five hour flight home!  Perfect!

So, after Scotland, we flew to Copenhagen that evening, arriving late at night and went straight to bed!  The following morning we went for a walk to get feel for the city and check out the hop-on-hop-off buses.  Copenhagen was cold and windy (all four days!) but at least it wasn't raining.  Our hotel was right in the heart of the city as we had hoped, so that worked out really well.  We were right around the corner from Tivoli Gardens and took a peek at it, but as pretty as it is (we could see into it from the restaurant "Cocks & Cows" we are at) it is mostly rides, so decided not to actually buy the entrance tickets and enter.  There were also some fun shops nearby too, like a huge, incredible Lego one with giant displays that were more than 7' tall!  The one thing that stood out more than anything else, though was bikes!  Tons of them everywhere, people riding them (all ages!) and parked.  You had to watch them more than the cars!  

 

Talking with a travel assist person, we decided that the two day hop-on-hop-off bus ticket was the best option for us to see all the areas we were interested in, so off we went!  

First stop, Christiania, also known as Freetown. An intentional community and commune of about 900 residents and is about 19 acres.  with its self-built houses, workshops and concert stages.  To say it's unique is an understatement.  You certainly could see their artist's in all the wonderful murals painted on their buildings.  I bet at night when the lights are on and the music is playing it is truly magical. 

 

From there we continued on to the canals where the beautiful colors of Nyhavn really show!  The red building is where Hans Christian Anderson lived.  The harbor was crowded, but so beautiful, it's no wonder everyone wanted to be there!  A little further on was the "big" attraction - the Little Mermaid.  She really is small, the crowd around her is much bigger, lol

 

All in all we were glad we only planned on a short visit to Copenhagen.  After experiencing two weeks with such fun, gregarious, happy Irish and Scotsmen, it was an abrupt comedown to be around such cool, staid Danes.  A smile was rare, let alone a laugh.  The food was also not what we expected either.  There seemed to be trash everywhere, but that could have been because of the wind, which was constant.  

Then, we were off to relax for two weeks aboard our Princess Cruise!

We had one day at sea, then our first stop was at Shetland Islands, Scotland.  This was a cute little island day stop at Lerwick that we were warmly welcomed by some "vikings" and friendly shop keepers.  Some of the passengers went off to see where Shetland horses were bred, but we just stayed in town and wandered around and enjoyed the locals.  

 

The next time we got off was in Liverpool England.  That was a fun visit, very "Beatles"!  But...they also had the most incredible cathedral ever!  Everyone kept telling us that "it's not that far, you can walk to it", so we did...up hill, mostly on cobblestones, 3 miles up, then 3 miles back down again!  I thought Jack would kill me (after my tenth time of "we're almost there").  He did admit that (after he could breathe) it was worth it.  It's the largest cathedral in the UK.  It took 74 years to build.  Beautiful.  There were other lovely sights as well, like their Chinatown Arch, and the long, long "love locks" at the harbor, murals, etc. 

 

After several days at sea, with fun entertainment aboard, we stopped at Sydney Nova Scotia.  The first thing you see is a giant fiddle!  They are into music here and we were told to come back in February for annual music festival!  Once again, we enjoyed walking around their quaint town, seeing historic houses, churches with cemeteries, and ran into a fellow blacksmither who makes incredible pieces, some of which we've never seen before, like a larger than life safety pin!  Jack had a great time chatting with him.  

Our last day stop was in Halifax Nova Scotia, and our 30th Wedding Anniversary!  We celebrated with a great lobster lunch out on the edge of the harbor, just lovely.  We'd been to Halifax several years ago in our motorhome, but it was pouring down rain, and all I wanted to do was leave!  This time it was lovely, so we actually got to enjoy seeing the town.  Found the Old Burying Ground, ran into "Winston Churchill",  saw the Province House, discovered that Samual Cunard was from here and built his first cruise ship here, learned about signal masts and saw some beautiful churches.  

Our cruise was relaxing, just what we needed after two and half weeks of steady go, go, go.  This was the same exact ship we had been on when we went to Tahiti two years ago, so we were familiar with it and comfortable getting around.  That said, we found that things had slipped a bit.  Food and entertainment were not quite as high quality as they were two years ago.  Our room was great, service, super, but not as personal (like nothing said or done about our anniversary), just the things that probably they are trying to cut costs down on.  The Princess entertainers were very good, it was the ones they brought on board, that were not up to standard.  The food that they prepared was okey, they just didn't have the higher choices, like steak, escargot, or lobster etc that they used to offer.  

It was a GREAT vacation, one filled with so many wonderful sights, adventures, experiences, laughter, and fun that we will treasure forever.  Will we do this again?  Probably not, as we age, that type of travel gets harder and harder, and we find that the packing and unpacking, the hassle of flying etc. more than we want to burden ourselves with.  We really love our motorhome and the convenience of having everything we need with us as we travel.  We are already planning next year's road trip!

I took a ton of pictures, so if you're curious, help yourself and check them out on my Flickr account (it's just under my name)

Hugs,  Marie

Vacation - Part Two!

The ferry over to Scotland was lovely, and took no time at all.   Then we had a nice drive along the coast with our first stop at Glasgow!  Such a beautiful city, full of incredible architecture, great murals, cute little Scotie dogs and statues (they have a "thing" about putting traffic cones on top of them!).  As a photographer, I was in my glory!  We had two days in Glasgow and it included a visit to the Clydeside Whisky Distillery where we saw how they made their whisky that included a tasting, yum!  

The highlight of the stay was that night when we went to Stirling Castle for dinner though.  We were greeted by Kevin, with his bagpipes.  He told us about the history of the castle, then playing his bagpipes, led us down to dinner passing a cool church with its graveyard.  Once there, he "presented" the haggis (in all it's glory),  then proceeded to entertain us with a Robert Burn's poem and even pull Jack into it as he "demonstrated" (with a flourish) parts of the poem!  Afterwards, Kevin continued to play his bagpipes while we finished our meal then lead us out to our bus for pictures afterwards.  What a fun evening!

The following morning we took a boat ride on beautiful Loch Lomand  and Loch Ness (where we searched for Nessie...but no luck) and then on to a short visit to Fort William and then on to the Isle of Skye.  The next day we were off to the beautiful Highlands!  We were lucky to see some Highlands cows with their shaggy hair, then on the road again to see Eilean Donan Castle and the beautiful scenery of the Highlands.  

The following morning was a visit to Blair Castle.  This was really quite something, a very large, white castle with every room full of beautiful furniture, clothing, arms, paintings, etc dating back centuries.  We were there for hours and evidently that wasn't enough as Jack was missing at boarding time and I had to go find him!  

We then traveled on to St Andrews and saw the "world famous" golf course, then Jack and I wandered over to the ruins of the old Cathedral which was absolutely fascinating, as well as the town itself.  We ended up having lunch at a cute little cafe called "Northpoint" that their claim to fame is that it is where Kate met Prince William when they were both in college (just across the way).  

We ended our day in Edinburgh and spent all the next day there.  We toured the Edinburgh Castle, and learned it's still an operating castle with on site military housing, a chapel and even a dog graveyard.  We then took a tour to see Rosslyn Chapel, the one mentioned in the book and movie "The DeVinci Code".  It was so much larger than I pictured it to be!  We were not allowed to take pictures inside, but trust me, it was beautiful.  

We spent the whole of the day exploring Edinburgh, and there was so much to see! Memorials like Sir Walter Scott and Robert Frost; statues like David Hume (another traffic cone "thing") and Grayfriar's Bobby (about a loyal dog!), a phenomenal National Museum, fantastic architecture (including their churches!) and a fun restaurant called Frankenstein's that had all the "required sights and sounds" including the movie going on and even the buildings that inspired "Hogwarts" for the Harry Potter books! 

That evening was the 'grand finale' of our trip - the Military Tattoo!  It was one of the reasons we booked this trip.  We had checked it out and looked forward to it, so had high expectations...well, it exceeded them and beyond!  If you have never been to one, it's a little tough to explain...but I'll try.  First, imagine a parade when the military bands march, playing and doing their routines.  Now, add military bands from various countries coming in one after another, playing their country's anthems and doing their drills.  Okey,  now, once they have all gone through that, marched in from the castle walls, and out the other side, they come back again and play music and have dancers perform "fun" music from their country - ie:  USA:  sports cheerleading,  jazz, country western, and rock & roll.  Each country was different - Scotland, Ireland, New Zealand, etc.  Now, add on the castle wall images with story-telling, smoke, various colored lights, lit torches on the surrounding walls and you've got quite a show!  The grand ending was all the bands together led by the Royal Castle Band Leader and then they all marched out and down the street!  Wow, just Wow.  

What a way to end our two week bus tour.  We had a group dinner, of course, and it was hard to say goodbye.  15 days together with amazing people and amazing experiences one just doesn't easily let go nor forgets.  Most had very early flights, we were lucky, ours to Denmark was late in the day, so for once we could sleep in.

Our next adventure was on our own...off to Denmark!

Marie

Vacation!

Wow, looking back, I see why we needed one!  It's been way to long since we've been anywhere!   I don't know how that happened, but as they say, "time flies", and I guess it sure did!  Thank goodness my travel agent/friend called us and put the bug in our ear and got us up and moving!  So much so, that our "vacation" turned into a 4 country, 32 day adventure that included flights, guided bus group, days on our own and a cruise!  So...I'm going to break this into separate blogs, otherwise it would be way to long and you will all fall asleep!

So, our first country, IRELAND!  

Both Jack and I had family that came to the US from Ireland, so this is one country we were both looking forward to.  I've always had a special interest in seeing the area that the "Troubles" took place and was looking forward to that as well.  We had never done a group bus tour before, but being in the travel business myself for years, I had worked with Trafalgar and knew it was one of the very best, so I felt assured we would be in good hands.  

We landed in Dublin after a 3 connecting, long flights and were greeted with warm smiles and taken right to our wonderful hotel to rest!  The next morning we met the rest of the group, who turned out to be 42 of the nicest people you would want to tour with!  All a bit younger than us, but "mature", all, it turned out, always "on time", from as far away as South Africa and New Zealand, to Canada and various parts of the US and even one couple that lives about 5 miles from where we used to in California!  We rotated seats on the bus each day and sat with different ones each morning at breakfast which allowed us to get to know each other quickly.  It all made for a very fun group.  Our guide and driver could not have been better!

There were so very many great places, stops and visits we were taken to - but here are some of the "highlights":

A visit to the Irish National Stud and Gardens in Kildare;  House of Waterford Crystal; Blarney Castle; Celtic Steps - which was a wonderful entertaining evening; a Jaunting Car Ride - which was a horse drawn car(t) ride through the Killarney National Park; Ring of Kerry Scenic Drive; Be My Guest Dinner - An incredible evening at the home of sheep farmer (Michael) who shared with us what it was like and then gave us a fabulous catered dinner with live Irish music and stories. (I didn't want to leave!); Adare - where they are known for their thatched roof houses; Derry and the Troubles area where we had an incredible step aboard guide who was 11 or 12 when it started and lived in the gated area.  The gates were locked in at 9pm and unlocked in the morning for school.  She still lives there and they are still being locked.  Her knowledge was incredible with such insight and kindness.  We stopped and signed the peace walls as well.   From there we traveled on to the Giant's Causeway then onto Belfast and a visit to the best Titanic Museum I've been to (seen 2 others) that was almost like a Disney visit and Smithsonian rolled into one; That was all in week one!

Of course in between all this was lots of scenery with castles, beautiful churches,waterfalls, green rolling hills, great food, beer and whiskey tasting and of course wonderful pubs!  

From Ireland, we took a ferry over to SCOTLAND!

Of course I took many more picture that if you want... are on my Flickr account,

Marie