June 14 - Europe
June 14 Europe
We arrived in Southampton, England.
Today is segment day. About 200 guests left the ship, and 600 new guests are expected, including about 200 world guests who chose to leave the ship for two months rather than go around Africa. We now have a full ship.
Everyone needed to go through the onboard immigration screening, which
was pretty easy. Then we went ashore to meet my sister, Pauling, and her husband, Steve. We had prearranged for them to come on board for the day. We gave them a
full tour of the ship and had lunch in the grand dining room with our world
friends Liz & Joe and Kevina & Margret.
We had a very nice lunch and lots of conversation.
After lunch, we caught up on the family news and the latest events in England and the UK, and more touring of the ship.
At 4pm, it was time for Pauline and Steve to leave, plus my final disembarkation from the ship after five months of touring the world and being spoiled by the ship's luxuries. This was bittersweet. They dropped me off at the local bus station, and I took the National Express bus to London, ready for my flight home in Kansas, USA, the next day.
June
15
Falmouth.
Cornwall. South England
At this point, Rod arrived safely home in Kansas, USA, and Merry takes over the blog
I woke up at 7 am, and since my time to be in the theatre for my selected excursion was 9:45, I decided to get dressed and head up to Waves for an abbreviated breakfast. I decided on juice and fruit, and, to my dismay, the pineapple I picked out was sour, so I sprinkled a very small amount of sugar over it and made it disappear. I’m having oolong tea in the morning, and I enjoyed that too.
I
had to hurry as time was getting away from me… I got back to my room and
gathered all my necessary things in my bag, checked carefully (not wanting to
miss anything - usually I left this up to Rod), and left in time to get my
ticket turned in in the lounge and be ready for the first venture on my own. To my surprise, there was no one in the theatre except the ticket takers. So, I
hurried, thinking I had goofed on the time…. Not so… I had plenty of time, and as I sat, there were signs of people slowly entering. I waited a little while and
decided it was time to leave to get the front seat on the bus.
Imagine my surprise when the bus had been canceled for a boat, yes, a boat ride to another boat, and that was to our destination of Falmouth in charming Cornwall. It is a small village that hugs the coast of the beautiful edge of the world…
this is just a lovely slice of England hugging the coast and climbing gently
and slowly into the rows of closely knit housing. This is England at its best:
small, very small, with almost no traffic, just the quiet hum of English people
who apparently have way toooo much money.
The
houses are on top of one another with hotels and houses for rent, I did not
ask…….with only a smallish grocer and a few shops (no charity shop!!!!) and
peace and quiet like I have never experienced before!!! There is a castle at
one end, and it was up an even steeper hill than I had traveled, so I turned
back just short of going further up the steep road I was on, but the town was
just lovely. We had tea and cake and clotted cream jam at one of the hotels, and
it was just marvelous.
After
walking for an hour and a half, I got in line for the return boat ride. From
there, I took pictures of the castle. I decided to skip the second boat ride, preferring to walk through the ‘downtown’ of Falmouth instead. It was much larger
than the previous one and had charity shops!!! I traveled solo and was happy to
see some familiar faces as the shuttle bus came into view for the last little
bit. It was indeed a good time without the usual talk about what we were to see, and the boat ride with its long, slender steps, which were a bit slick, didn’t seem to matter at all!!!
The
pictures are of the Indian outside a cigar store. The two ladies – the woman on the right is
one I talked to. The other woman is to
be a bride in September. I love seeing
the rooftop chimneys. We have two at
home as flowerpots.
June
16
Dublin,
on the east coast of Ireland. I took the
shuttle to the center of town, where I spent a few hours viewing the sights.
June 17
Cobh. Pronounced Cave, it is where we docked at the very south end of Ireland, the last place the Titanic docked before its fateful Atlantic crossing. We got onto a comfy fully air conditioned (a little cool for me) bus and we were off a one-hour panoramic drive through lush country roads with birds singing and flying free. It seems strange to drive through ‘civilization again after so many days in Africa, and I’m not used to it, even though we didn’t see deep Africa. The lovely green countryside, even though it’s overcast, and rows of homes with care without space between, and not a corrugated roof in sight. This little Irish post seemed out of place and not really set in this scene.
We
had a brief stop at the entrance to a park, Charles Fort, but we were not
allowed to go in, just snap a photo or two, and back on the bus for more of the
same green due to extra rain this past winter.
We
arrived after an hour at little bustling Kinsale Village, complete with a
river, a farmer’s market, and lots of folk walking through the village center
filled with shops.
After walking all the shops in the village, I traipsed through the farmers' market, which was mostly food, and I wasn’t hungry. I had done the craft fair and
debated over some wooden apples because they were made from applewood!! But my
suitcase is on the full side now, and I have to think about the stops on the way
home; back to the bus for the ride home.
June
18
Belfast, Northern Ireland
The ship docked at the port of Belfast, and we took a bus for the two-hour drive to the Giant's Causeway, an area of roughly 40,000 interlocking basalt columns on the north coast of County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It is Northern Ireland's first UNESCO World Heritage Site and is globally famous for its uniquely geometric, stepping-stone rock formations.
Formed
roughly 60 million years ago during the Paleogene period, when Europe and North
America began to rip apart. Intense volcanic activity forced highly fluid
molten basalt through chalk beds, pooling into a deep valley to form a massive
lava lake.
June 19
The ship docked at Greenock, Glasgow. We left the pier on a long drive as a panoramic tour, stopping nowhere along the way. With only a slowdown to catch the picture. Our first stop was Luss, via the Erskine Bridge, on the banks of Loch Lomond. We walked to an overlook and could see up and down the water. This was a village of 500 people that gets over 20,000 visitors. Per year. We walked maybe a quarter of a mile to see it.
On the way back to the bus, I went through the only shop which
served the town as a market and visitors with many crafts along its
one-way route. Then onto the next.
This was a get-off-and-snap-a-picture-if-you-wanted-to; I did not,
because there were trucks all around us… Turned out it was for a film
shoot of a local program.
We then drove down a winding road at a pretty good clip, so the woman
behind me let out a big sigh each time we rounded a curve.
The third stop was to cross the River Clyde on a ferry towards Gourock and Hunter's Quay. This is a large
bus, almost new, we were told, on small roads in the countryside, on a
25-minute ride across the river.
June 20 seaday
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