This is 10.10 pm at Saturday night and we are at about 58°N 3°E. The sun is just setting over a cliff north and west of us (the sun here sets north west, not west). We are having a post-dinner cocktail in the Skywalker lounge on the uppermost deck aft of the ship (the colored dots are reflections in the window). The sun would come up again just 6 hours later.Here is Dunrobin castle viewed from its garden. The castle itself was built in the 1300s, but the French garden was laid out much later, in 1850. The bird in the inset is a golden eagle from the falconry, one of several birds of prey there tethered to their perches, but hopefully they are all taken good care of. They seem to be. The daisies are from the garden.(Right) Scotsman Andy Murray appeared on the cover of the Sunday Mail even before his victory this afternoon in the Wimbledon final; that is the Scottish flag on his ‘superman’ chest. (Left) This is a comic strip book I bought at a grocery store here. ‘Oor Wullie’ is as far as I can tell ‘Our Willie’ with a Scottish accent. It’s a collection of comic strips that appear in the Sunday post. In one episode he appears on TV as a prank and the heading o f the cartoon reads ‘Pa isnae pleased to see that wee mannie on TV’.
Invergordon is where we moored on Sunday morning. The sky was blue and the air was crisp: a beautiful day on the Scottish highland. We went out to Dunrobin castle near the village of Golspie, about an hour from Invergordon. We made a little detour through the village of Tain. (I would have loved to go to Loch Ness nearby to check out the ‘home’ of the Loch Ness monster, but there is only so much to fit into one day at the shore).
My cellphone picked up enough signals to show our position at sea. This is around noon on Saturday.The main picture is from the stern earlier today when we walked around the ship on the promenade deck. The wind was blowing steadily across the bow (information from our stateroom’s closed-circuit TV). The sea conditions changed from ‘slight’ most of the previous days, to ‘moderate’ today. We could feel the ship roll last night.
We’re making our way up around the northern part of the British Isles. It’s all Scotland here, and our next port- of-call is Invergordon. To get there we have to go all the way around the north and then east and south, some 500 miles from where we left Greenock port (Glasgow area) on Friday night. It’s been blustery and raining most of the day, and we’ve seen some rocky outcroppings in the sea, and some coastline on and off during the day when the rain and fogginess allowed.
The Culzean castle is south of Ayr, right on the coast.Castles feature even on British summer lollies.
We docked at Greenock port in the Glasgow area on Friday morning. After breakfast we took the bus out to Culzean Castle, about an 1 ½ hr drive to the south from Glasgow. The castle is much more recent : 19th century, and furnished inside. No pictures allowed inside, though. On the way back we stopped at the town of Ayr to check out the scenery, the shopping and the Scots. We have a day at sea on Saturday. We have to make it down and up all the way toward the northern coast of the British Isles to reach Inverness for the next stop.
Here’s Culzean Castle’s main view. Insets : Scottish shortbread cookie from the restaurant; Scottish terriers on a tea cloth, and a Scottish thistle from the garden at the castle.
We stopped in Belfast on Thu Jul 4, and are heading over to Glasgow, Scotland for Fri Jul 5.
We steamed into Belfast harbor this morning. After breakfast, we took a bus into the city for a tour, starting at the Belfast City Hall on Donegall Square. A young red-haired Irishman called Liam took us through the main lobby, the chambers and the dining hall. The city officially became the capital of Northern Ireland in 1921.
After walking around a few blocks we stopped at McHughes’s pub, established 1711 said the front sign. I had a Harp lager. The harp is one of Ireland’s national symbols, maybe more so than the (sometimes silly) three leaf clover. After that the official excursion was done, and we were left to our own devices to walk around the city. Besides the very old buildings that survived World War II and ‘The Troubles’ (the ethno-nationalist conflict that reached its bloodiest year in 1972), there is not a whole lot of eye-catching architecture to be seen, to be honest. Many of the buildings are plain, utilitarian, some downright ugly. There is not a lot of car traffic in the city; lots of buses, though. To be fair, it is not a city on a par with Dublin or Liverpool as far as size goes. Belfast’s population is only about 280,000; all of North Ireland’s population at about 1.8 million.
P.S. Happy Fourth of July to my American readers! The cruise ship seemed to roll out all its red-white-and-blue decorations that it had, and put up a display of the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia, the Statue of Liberty, and painted portraits of prominent US presidents. They blasted out Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Born in the USA’ from 1985 over the closed circuit TV in the staterooms this morning. If I can say : it’s not the best Fourth of July song. Springsteen’s point with the song was that in spite of being born in the USA, many people (and especially war veterans) are having a very tough time these days.
The Grand Opera house, downtown Belfast, is gorgeous.Main picture : Belfast City Hall. Clockwise from top left : Gerry Adams of political party Sinn Fein (‘ourselves’ or ‘we ourselves’); Belfast logo seen in the city; the inside of the city hall dome; my Harp lager from the pub; beautiful stained window from inside City Hall.
We arrived in Liverpool this morning, and set out for Conway (Welsh: Conwy) castle in north Wales out after breakfast. I was thrilled to get to see some of Wales, since I have family connections on my mom’s side that come from Wales. The castle was built by King Edward I circa 1283 (!) and gives a good impression of what a real castle looked like. The castle had many rooms, some with fireplaces, the walls covered with tapestries for additional insulation, some very deep wells, kitchen, dining room, even a retreat for the king when he tired of his rowdy guests. After Conway the bus driver took us to a village called Betws-y-Coed (that’s Welsh, English for Chapel-in-the-Woods) for lunch. Then we went a little further south across the moors of Wales with the landscape dotted with sheep, and back up to Liverpool. There was still time to walk around Albert Dock, check out its nice new Maritime Museum and the Museum of Liverpool (which of course featured The Beatles, and the two English Premier League soccer teams of Liverpool and Everton).
P.S. I made a photo collage of some of the day’s highlights so that I have to upload only one picture. I hope it gives an impression of the day. The ship’s satellite internet connection is very expensive and very temperamental !
Main Picture : the view from one of the upper walls down into Conway Castle. Inset pictures clockwise from top left : a Liverpooler welcoming us as we stepped onto Albert Dock on the waterfront; a stamp with the Welsh dragon that I bought at the post office (where I heard Welsh being spoken); The Knight Shop is by the castle and sells beautiful decorative swords for £200; the Welsh dragon on a tour bus; ‘No dogs’ look very strange written in Welsh!; a Scottish black-face sheep on a mug; my souvenir coaster saying Wales / Cymru (Welsh); look for Liverpool on the left of my picture – the blue arrow points to Conway on the coast of north Wales.
We arrived at the port of Dublin early morning. The cruise ship had to be navigated into a narrow passageway to the harbour, and then manoeuvred around by almost 180 degrees to berth it for its departure Tuesday night. Our excursion for the day took us to an estate and garden called Powerscourt in the southern outskirts of the city for the morning, and then we were brought back to downtown Dublin and left to our own devices to find a pub for lunch, take in the scenery and do some shopping. It was raining on and off, but we still managed a good amount of walking around between the rain showers. I was impressed with the mix of old and new buildings. The commercial property development on the north side of the river came to an abrupt halt with the 2008 financial crises, however. Several new buildings are sitting idle and waiting for tenants. We are sailing across the Celtic Sea to the United Kingdom for an arrival at Liverpool on Wednesday.
These cute characters are artwork at a waterfront property. There are several new commercial properties, but look in the background for the ‘Offices to Let’ sign. Several of them are empty and looking for tenants.Here’s my Dublin souvenir : a mini paperweight with a three-leaf clover. It’s actually a gift meant for Irish people that have returned to the country for ‘The 2013 Gathering’ : an effort by the authorities and tourism office to lure back emigrants to come and visit and maybe even stay permanently. After 2008’s financial crisis there has been a net loss of young people every year again for the country.This is a red brick building that still stands and has surely seen many tenants over a century or two. I did not make a note of the street, but it is in downtown Dublin.It’s raining, but we can still check out the beautiful 18th century brick buildings with their brightly painted doors and window decorations from where we sit in the bus. This is downtown Dublin.The Samuel Beckett bridge over the river Liffey that runs through the city opened in 2009 and can rotate out of the way to let ships through. It is designed to look resemble a harp, one of Ireland’s national symbols.
This is early Monday morning. We are arriving at the little port town of Cobh.We are sitting on a bench in the upper garden of the castle in the town of Lismore. The brilliant red roses behind us smelled like only roses can.
Early on Monday morning, our cruise ship made its way into the little port town of Cobh (pronounce ‘Cove’, the Gaelic name does not have a ‘v’) this morning. Cobh was the most important point of emigration for Ireland right into the 1960’s, and the last port of call for the ill-fated Titanic in 1912. Cork is not far away, but the excursion that we selected for the day took us elsewhere. A big coach bus took us via the M8 motorway (freeway) to the town of Cashel to visit the ‘Rock of Cashel’, a combination castle-cathedral. Maurín (‘Maureen’) told us all about the surroundings and some Irish history on the way. We were served us a hearty lunch of vegetable soup, boiled potato, diced carrots and chicken, and then we took a winding road back to the cruise ship with stops at the towns of Lismore, Midleton. I would say the stop at Lismore and its garden was the highlight of the day.
I had a Guinness for lunch. Dark (from the roasted barley it is made of) with a thin creamy head.This is on the way to Cashel, on the M8 motorway. Plenty of meadows with cows on the roadside. The road signs are in English and Gaelic.This is the graveyard at the back of the Rock of Cashel.A view of the castle at Lismore, from the lower garden.
We arrived into Guernsey early Sunday morning. There is no way for the enormous cruise ship to dock at St.Peter’s Port on the east side of the island, so the ship stays outside the harbor at sea, and we are ‘tendered’ to shore and back with the ship’s tender boats. We had to be back early at the ship since it’s a long way up to Cork in Ireland, and it’s going to be full steam ahead to make it there in time.
Where in the world is Willem? He is on Guernsey. It’s some 70 miles from the British coast, has been a British Crown dependency since 1204, but had to be liberated from Nazi Germany in May 1945.Cobble stone streets and shops and stores at St.Peter’s Port on Guernsey. The residents refer to Britain as ‘The Island’ even they themselves are on a much smaller one !Here is the tender boat, down at deck 5 on the water line. This one is fully loaded with passengers and about to depart. Here’s a food truck in front of a Mark & Spencer’s store. I am not sure if the truck used to be a real Citroen truck (the two chevron bars on the front grille).On the way back to the ship from Guerney. The Princess Caribbean was built in 2004. It is a ‘grand class’ cruise ship with a capacity of about 3,600 passengers.
Approaching London.On the bus to Southampton.We just stepped off the the 747-400 at Heathrow airport’s Terminal 5.Here’s the view from the top deck of the Princess Caribbean, with the port of Southampton receding behind us as we depart.Bon Voyage! My departure picture. It’s bright and sunny on the aft deck of the ship!
Our Boeing 747-400 with the Union Jack on the tail was just a little late departing Seattle at 7 pm Saturday night. Some 8 1/2 hours later, we had to circle a few times around London Heathrow airport, since a plane ran off the runway, the pilot said. Princess Cruises met us at arrivals but made us wait a bit before they put us on the bus to Southampton. Ours was actually the last bus they put on for arriving passengers, and by the time we got to the cruise ship, there was no line of embarking passengers left at all. I think our party of 6 from the Seattle flight were the very last to board! So by now it was Saturday afternoon at 5 pm in Southampton, and it was a nice sunny summery day on the south coast of England. Promptly after 5 we set sail for the first stop, at Guernsey, officially the Bailiwick of Guernsey.
My checked bag get an extra tag that shows the cruise and the cabin the bag should go to.Five pounds won’t go very far – but hopefully it’s good for a beer. (I have more British currency, and Euros and good old US dollars).
I am more or less packed for the flight to London for the British Isles cruise on the Princess Cruise line. Just a few more things and then close the suitcase. I have printed luggage tags for the ship, and these go on to the luggage checked in for the flight. That way they can handle it and put it on the bus that will take us to the Southampton port from London Heathrow airport. I even have some British pounds and Euro currency in case I need it for an emergency. Will we ever get to a cashless world? Not in a long time, at least.
I didn’t think I’d see paper tickets again, but here it is – looks like Delta still used the old mainframe system for my transfer to the new flight.The view from where I was sitting in the regional jet that took us from Pittsburgh to Cincinnati. It’s SOGGY outside. That Southwest plane at the gate has to be a Boeing 737. Southwest Airlines is the largest operator of Boeing 737s world-wide, with some 550 in service. Making a dash for the Seattle-bound Boeing 757 sitting at the gate at Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky International Airport. It’s a long name for a modestly-sized airport!Here’s my trip : a short hop west to Cincinnati from Pittsburgh, then on to Seattle in the great Pacific Northwest.
I had quite an adventure getting to the hotel last night, but the Hertz rental car’s Neverlost navigation system got me there and back to the airport. A good thing it was, that I arrived early : Delta called me and said they have a better itinerary for me, through Cincinnati instead of Minneapolis. Besides, the storm system may delay the Pittsburgh flight again, so better to get out on the earlier flight to Cincinnati, said the agent. No problem! Make the change and thank you! I said.
My Singha beer went well with my dinner at the Papya Thai restaurant near the airport.
Oy. Delta delayed my flight out of Pittsburgh to Minneapolis-St.Paul again by enough to make it impossible for me to get to Seattle. At least I found out about this before returning my rental car, and checking my bag. So I’m staying over and shipping out on Thu morning to Seattle. I have to go and pack for my trip out to London with to embark on the Princess cruise ship Friday night London time!
P.S. It is a momentous day for married gay couples in California, and those planning to marry in states that have marriage equality. The long-awaited US Supreme Court ruling of today declared Prop 8 as well as the ‘Defence Of Marriage Act’ unconstitutional (see my post Prop 8 and DOMA).
And here is the extended parking lot at Pittsburgh airport where I stopped to rebook my flight and found a hotel for the night. The Hyatt at the airport had rooms, but was too pricey. It was hard to find another hotel! I had to drive back almost all the way to the city to find a Marriott Springfield Suites. (I’m not a hotel snob, but it has to be a Marriott property, so that I know what I am getting).
I can now watch TV at 6.00 am in the Yellow Cab to Seattle airport (NOT).And here is a new Blackberry Z10 booth right by the security checkpoint, saying ‘Never Break Stride’. Yes, I thought, so much for that. Going through airport security definitely breaks one’s stride. Especially if you have to carry two notebook computers that have to come out of the bags with liquids, watches, smartphones and iPads, shoes off, belt off, empty pockets. Here I am waiting at the door to board the plane in Minneapolis-St.Paul, for Pittsburgh.
I took Delta again to Pittsburgh with the stop in Minneapolis-St.Paul this morning. The Yellow Cab company always makes my house phone ring, announcing ‘Your cab has arrived’ .. and then it’s another 3-4 minutes before the cab shows up. And there is still no Yellow Cab Seattle iPhone app .. come on people, get with the program! : )
It was raining in Seattle, but clear and warmer out east. In fact, it is high summer in Pittsburgh with the temperatures in the 90s (low 30s C).
I only had time for a quick walk around the block today since I had work to complete and packing to do for another quick trip to Pittsburgh in the morning. The streets here were wet with a little sprinkling of rain now and again, but it was very pleasant outside. I ended up at the Canterbury Ale & Eats here on 15th Ave again .. which is of course a reference to the Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, written at the end of the 14th century; it is about story-telling by a group of pilgrims. By this time next Sunday I will be on my own pilgrimage by boat around the British Isles if all goes well !
Here’s a cool trick with Delta’s app : use the phone camera to scan your copy of the bag tag. It shows if the bag made it onto your flight (and if not, which later flight it is on).Here’s our arrival at Minneapolis/St Paul airport.I love the giant moose at the Minnesota souvenir store.And here’s our Boeing 757 flying machine with Lake Washington and the SR520 bridge in the background, approaching Seattle-Tacoma airport.
I was a little worried about my checked bag that I had to leave at Pittsburgh airport last night after changing my flights to Seattle at the last minute, but I discovered that Delta’s smartphone app lets one scan the bag tag (the sticker you get when you check the bag) to determine its location : pretty neat. So the bag was pulled last night from my original Pittsburgh-Minneapolis flight and put on the one this morning. The airport at Minneapolis was crowded, with lots of families traveling. The US airlines expect the most fliers in five years for 2013 – but not quite reaching the all-time high volume of some 217 million travelers that flew in 2007, the industry’s high point.
I thought I was home free since the very large storm system here in the Midwest was moving east and I was going to fly west .. but no : too many flights in Atlanta and Chicago have been canceled or delayed. I was going to make it from Pittsburgh into Minneapolis only by midnight, with no connecting flights left to take me to Seattle. So I decided to stay put in Pittsburgh, walked over to the Hyatt hotel that’s right here and I will make an early start out in the morning when the skies are clear and friendlier.
Not too much weather activity remaining in Pittsburgh, but the storm has done enough damage to the airline schedules elsewhere to impact us here. Here’s the storm and the little blue and red airplane flies that are trying to dodge it.
Google Maps on my phone shows me howto get to the US Steel Tower.The US Steel Tower in downtown Pittsburgh has 64 stories and was constructed in 1970. jHere’s a close-up of the steps leading up to the main entrance of the US Steel Tower.Here’s one of the main entrances.The beautiful art deco-style Gulf Tower is just a block away from the US Steel Tower. It was constructed in 1932 by the Gulf Oil Company.
My firm’s Pittsburgh office is located in the US Steel Tower in downtown Pittsburgh, so off I went this morning to get my notebook fixed up. I found the building easily, but had to search for a parking garage close by. Then – miraculously- a spot on the street just big enough for a Toyota Corolla opened up. I was in luck : my rental car for the week happened to be one! So I squeezed it into the parking spot, walked just a block or so, and went up to the 52nd floor of the US Steel Tower. Jason the IT support guy snapped out the solid state hard drive out of my coffee-spilled machine, popped it into a new Lenovo T430 shell, and presto! I was back in business.
I’m out in Pittsburgh again, and I arrived via the Minneapolis/St.Paul airport on Delta Airlines.
The MSP airport is a lot nicer than Chicago’s O’Hare (sorry Chicago ..) : not as crowded, more modern inside, and with nice stores and food offerings.
Here’s what my trek across the country looked like today : Seattle to Pittsburgh with a stop in Minneapolis/St.Paul’a airport.This is the early morning view to the outside from the Seattle airport’s food court in the main concourse.
It was another very early start to the day for me with a 6.30 am flight out of Pittsburgh airport. I almost did not make it onto the flight. The check-in area was swamped with people when I got there at 5 am. I just had to drop my bag at United, but there was no bag-drop line. So by 5.45 am I was still in line and I yelled as politely as I could ‘Ma’am! I’m on the 6-30 to Chicago!’ . That got me to the front to dump my bag and I was off to the security line. Mercifully my return flight was marked ‘TSA Pre’ as well, so I could scoot through there in a few minutes and make a dash for the gate.
Here’s the obligatory picture of the colorful underpass between Terminal B and Terminal C at Chicago O’Hare airport.The dinosaur skeleton at gate B8 is peering down at the humans waiting to board the flight to Seattle. It’s a fibre-glass replica of the 40-foot-high, 75-foot-brachiosaurus that roamed around in Colorado 150 million years ago. The real bones are in the Field Museum in Chicago.Here is our Seattle-bound Boeing 737.And here is the iconic Space Needle on the display at the boarding gate. 4 1/2 hours to Seattle : a long way to go.
It was a shock to my system to roll out of bed at 3.30 am after a fitful few hours of sleep to get ready for my 6 am flight out to Chicago and then on to Pittsburgh. It helped that I was selected for ‘TSA Pre’ treatment at the airport. ‘TSA Pre’ is a program for frequent travelers that allows them entry into a special lane at the security checkpoint. The traveler gets to keep on shoes and jacket, and liquids and computers in the bag. Wow! But don’t get too spoiled! It will not happen every time even if you travel a lot.
My United Airlines boarding pass says I am ‘TSA Pre’. (Short for pre-checked. You have to opt in, and already be enrolled in a pre-check program such as Global Entry and use a participating airline. And even then, selection is random and not guaranteed every time ! ).Here’s my cranberry-colored Prius hybrid rental car that I drove up to Cranberry Township (a 30 min drive north of Pittsburgh).
The sky was blue and the air was crisp: a beautiful day on the Scottish highland. We went out to Dunrobin castle near the village of Golspie, about an hour from Invergordon. We made a little detour through the village of Tain. (I would have loved to go to Loch Ness nearby to check out the ‘home’ of the Loch Ness monster, but there is only so much to fit into one day at the shore).
