Farewell to London

What a week.....our accommodation near Hyde Park was perfect, very centrally located for shopping, the underground and sightseeing. We visited Dulwich, where I lived 40 years ago! At the Dulwich picture gallery, the first gallery in England, we found an exhibit of the Group of Seven....123 paintings. We had a great week, visited the London Zoo, Portobello Market, Tate Modern, the British Museum, and my favorite the Victoria and Albert Museum. Such a lot of wonderful sights.

For our one evening out we went to the theatre to see We Will Rock You, the musical based on the music of (who else) Queen! I really enjoyed it and Mike said he didn't hate it so a good time was had by all. For a little excitement we were evacuated from the theatre because of a problem in the booker room. It happened at the interval, and as we had preordered our wine we had a nice Merlot in hand as we stood on the street for 35 minutes. We met a nice police volunteer who had spent some time in Vancouver so we had a chat. He was wearing the traditional Bobby hat....said it was hot and uncomfortable!

Off to Stockport today.....more later.

On to London

We said farewell to the sea shore and after a long train journey, including two changes, and a confusing tube ride we arrived at our London accommodation. We are staying in Bayswater beside Hyde park, in a great budget hotel, the Royal Court Apartments. We have a studio with a great bathroom, a very firm bed and a little kitchen. We have stocked up on provisions, wine and snacks so we are happy.

Today we had breakfast in our little suite and set off for the days adventures. First up a trip on the London Eye, while the sun shone. It is so neat to see the amazing architecture of this beautiful city from so far up! Next, a wander around Trafalger square where they have a huge ship, Nelsons Victory, in a bottle on the fourth pillar. Quite amazing. Then an attempt to see everything in the National Gallery.....not possible. Favorites there are The Hay Wain, Waterlilies, all the Turners, Rembrandts, ........stunning. Lunch at the gallery tells us how they keep free admission, they charge a fortune for food. We paid £20.00 for tea, soup and salad. Ouch! A little walk through Covent Garden and a long walk from there home, through Hyde Park. Happy Hour!

Tomorrow to Kew Gardens.......

Great Yarmouth

After a day long train journey we arrived in Great Yarmouth, walked to our guest house, and found Thanksgiving dinner at a Greek restaurant. Funny to find turkey and stuffing at Othellos. It was pretty good, too! On Monday we hit the library for family tree research, where I was asked be to a witness at a wedding. This turned out to be a highlight of my week. The couple, Sue and Ian, were so happy and the ceremony was really moving. The wedding was the first one in this registry office as it just opened. Fun!

The research is going well, we found some info at the Norfolk Family History Centre in Norwich, and Michael was lucky today to find information on his great great grandfather, James Bailey....he even saw a document with his signature. I stayed in Great Yarmouth and walked along the sea shore. Did a little window shopping and and stopped at Subway for lunch.

For a fun time we are going to the cemetery tomorrow.......

Highland Explorer Tour

We arrived back in Auld Reikie tired but very happy. Our 5 day journey around Scotland was so great. We had an amazing guide, very knowledgeable about the history of the highlands, very funny and just a nice person. Highlights were the visits to heritage villages, The Drovers Arms, and Culloden battlefield. The scenery was awesome and Tony had a historical story about every glen and village. Most of the stories were bloody and often extremely tragic, the clearances were awful, the massacre at Glen Coe was particularly bad. The highland people had given hospitality to government soldiers for two weeks when the soldiers were ordered to kill them all, children included. Almost the entire population was killed, although a few soldiers warned their hosts, who escaped into the hills. Many of these stories and events....

Off to Great Yarmouth tomorrow to do the family tree research.

Scotland

We joined our Highland tour and met Tony and the other 9 people on our little bus, Monday at 0900. Interesting group from Mexico, Australia, US, and the Czech Republic. Only 2 from England. Tony is great, knows and lives Scottish history, talks so much that last week he lost his voice and they had to send a replacement guide. Highlights so far have been Doune Castle, The Drovers Arms, a pub in the highlands where Rob Roy planned his nasty deeds. It was amazing, so old, with a big peat fire and candles everywhere. By a weird coincidence there was a power failure so it seemed pretty authentic. It also hasn't been cleaned for 300years. Their t shirts say "voted pub of the year in 1705". We ended the day in Oban, a seaport town with lots of character, had a Chinese dinner and a great sleep in our B and B. Today we rode the Jacobite train featured as the Hogwarts express in Harry Potter. A beautiful trip along the coast to Mallaig where we should have taken a ferry to Skye but......the ferry was not running so we had a three hour detour to the bridge. On the way we toured Eilean Donan Castle so a good time was had by all. We are off to the pub right now for supper in the main town on Skye, called Portree. So far it has been a wonderful experience, we are learning a lot of history and having fun.....got a wee dram of Scotch for an afternoon pick me up on the bus today.

L and M

Edinburgh Excellence

After an endless flight, layovers in Chicago and Dublin, we arrived in Edinburgh. Our home for two days is a 200 year old house in "new town" where we are sleeping in the former servants quarters. Our hosts Liz and Bill are very hospitable and insist on driving us around and ensure we are comfortable and well fed. Tomorrow we join Highland Explorer Tours for our journey to the highlands and Skye. It is typical Scottish weather, rainy and foggy. Hopefully we will have some sun for sightseeing. So far we are a little jet lagged but coping. Today we wet to the best museum, the National Museum of Scotland, so well done and huge. We need a week to see it all. Then off to see the Rev Walker at the National Gallery.....all free admission!

That's all for now!

Home again!

It was a SERIOUS rock and roll time out of Bermuda. 35 foot waves. 30mph winds. The long Atlantic swells were coming in at a different angle from the wind-waves. The Captain was doing 10 knots, going in the wrong direction. Wave spray washing over the lounge on the 10th floor. Elevators all out of service--2 broken in fact. Staff getting hurt--our steward caught her finger in a porthole cover that bounced loose (7 stitches) and various waiter staff members had bandaids on various parts. Food flying off the waiter stations; pizza flying out of the pizza place. You get the picture.

We stayed as low in the ship as possible, and as near to the middle as possible. Even so, in our cabin, the roll was of the order of 5 degrees--the phone slid off the dresser and our full wine bottle fell over.

The Captain announced that we weren't going to make it to Fort Lauderdale on time--there was a period of guessing just how late we were going to be! We rebooked our flight out for the next day and booked a hotel in Ft. Lauderdale.

As it ended up, we were about 14 hours late docking. We got off the ship just after 7 PM and had a good sleep at the hotel. Caught the Air Canada flight to Montreal and had a long layover there--getting home just after 10PM. A long day.

A good cruise--excellent itinerary, but we do not want to travel on a small ship again. Quite apart from the fact that it is more wobbly (30,000 tons vs 100,000, a couple of hundred feet shorter and a bit narrower makes a difference!) there is not as much to do on the smaller ship. We were bored on sea days. So we probably won't do more small ship cruising.

We made it home for Christmas (joy) and are getting ready for our next adventure! Till then, happy trails to you!