Ten days of relaxation on our cruise home

We left Southampton on October 29th in the rain to board the NCL Norwegian Escape, the newest cruise ship in the world.

We arrived at the the passenger terminal around 11:45 AM and were onboard within an hour.  The boarding process was very smooth and well organized.

This is our inside room -- no view, but very quiet.

On our second day at sea the ship was diverted toward Spain for a medical emergency evacuation.  A Spanish Air Force helicopter flew out and landed on the deck of the cruise ship to evacuate the passenger.

This was one of our favorite places to eat during the cruise.  This is located on the pool deck near the water slides, ropes course and minature golf course.

 Here are two of the four water slides on deck.  These two were not open for our cruise.

The above two photos show me on the ropes course.  This is on the very top of the ship and at several places it extends over the side of the ship.  Cindy could not go on the course because she did not have the correct type of shoes with closed toes and heels.  She missed out on a good time.

 She did master the nine hole mini golf course.  She had the correct shoes for that. :-)

 This is the children's water play area.  Reminded us a lot of the Disney ship.

 This was outside our room.  You could light up the Do Not Disturb light or Make Up Room light, and when you put your room key in the slot to turn on the lights for the room, the At Home light lit up.

 This was part of the main lobby of the ship.  The screen was used for game shows and upcoming events on the ship.

 All the carpets in the hallways had these fish swimming on them.  If you wanted to go towards the front of the ship you just made sure that you followed the way the fish were swimming.

They have these touch screens on every deck. You can do everything from find out what is scheduled  on the ship, book a shore excursion or make dinner reservations.  The ship has 26 restaurants; 5 were included with the price of the cruise and 21 charged extra for food.

 We arrived in Miami on Sunday November 8th.  Spent the day sightseeing in the Florida Keys.  This was the go-to restaurant in Key West.  So we went, couldn't get a seat, had our picture taken and walked down the street to a local mom & pop deli for lunch.

US 1 runs from Key West Florida to the Canadian boarder.  So this is either the beginning or end, just depends on which way you are going. 

Now, here are some numbers that summarize our trip.

42: days from beginning to end

7: modes of transportation used (airplane, bus, car, foot, ship, taxi, train)

27: different beds slept in

118: miles we walked on the Cotswold Way (according to our GPS)

1,491: miles driven (on the opposite side of the road) in Ireland 

10: time zones traveled through

2: number of times we changed from Daylight Savings Time to Standard Time (Oct 25 in Ireland & Nov 1 on the ship)

Southampton isn't this where the Titanic left from?

We found our way back from Dublin to London. When we got to the airport in Dublin we were told that our 1:15 flight had been canceled and we were rescheduled to leave at 3:30. It would have been nice to recive a notice about the change but they said they didn't have an email address for me. Funny thing is I booked it online, they sent me a receipt by email, and I got an email notice that the 3:30 flight was on time after we checked in! Oh well, onward to our next adventure.

We took the bus (coach) from Heathrow to Southampton this morning. We arrived and were able to check into our room. We had dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, Wagamama. We first ate in one in Copenhagen and enjoyed the food. After dinner we took a walk through the city.

These are some of the things that remain from Southampton when it was a medieval city. Most of the destruction was done to these buildings during WWII. Since Southampton is a port city it was bombed quite a lot by the Germans during the war.

We took a walk down to the docks to see if our ship was in.

Yep, there it is. I guess we came to the right place. We are off tomorrow for a nice relaxing ten-day cruise to Miami aboard the NCL Escape.

So as the saying goes -- 'ciao for now'.

 

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Crystal & Castles

We can't believe it: today was our last full day in Ireland. The first stop we made was an area called the Viking Triangle in downtown Waterford. We learned that Waterford is the oldest city in Ireland, and that Reginald Tower, built in 940 A.D., is the oldest building in the city.

Something about Reginald looked familiar to me.

Just down the block was the Waterford Crystal Visitor Center, where we took an interesting guided tour of the factory and showroom. Most Waterford crystal pieces are now made in eastern Europe but certain items such as trophies and other special orders are made in the factory here. One of the craftsmen had just completed Santa's sleigh below.

The next photo shows a trophy awarded at the Santa Anita racetrack in southern CA.

A football like this one was made for an Alabama team, and they dropped it! Luckily it was insured so a replacement was shipped to them. We were surprised that we were allowed to handle this one.

We were impressed with a champagne glass that holds 64 liters. It's taller than me!

After leaving Waterford, we drove to the 500+ year old Kilkenny Castle which was occupied as a residence until 1935.

After touring the interior and walking the grounds, we headed to our final accommodation in Ireland, the Clontarf Castle Hotel in Dublin.

A final note: this morning, even though it's Sunday, people were everywhere. We thought they'd all be at mass since 95% of the Irish are Catholic. But then we remembered what one of our tour guides told us. Many residents only go to church when someone gets hatched, matched, or dispatched! Ha, ha.

 

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Off to the city of Kienzle oops I mean the city of Kinsale

We left our B&B in Kenmare at 9:30 a.m. on our way to Waterford with planned stops in Macroom, Kinsale and Midleton.

The reason for the stop in Macroom is to see the ruins of a castle owned by the father of William Penn (who founded Pennsylvania).

Here's the photo we got, not bad for a ruined castle! The ruins are behind this castle hotel. We couldn't get a good photo of the ruins so I thought you would enjoy this nice new castle.

Our next stop was Kinsale, a small town on the southern coast. We were trying to get there by 11:15 a.m. to do a walking tour with a guide highly recommended by Rick Steves (our guru). The GPS was telling us we were going to get there just about the time the tour would start. Well it just so happened half the farmers in county Cork were out riding around on their 10 mph tractors on every narrow road we turned on to. Well we just downshifted that VW Golf and passed them on the narrow roads like the locals do! As we flew into Kinsale 10 minutes after the tour was supposed to start we drove right by the tour guide. We found a parking lot and went back to where we saw him and asked to join the tour a mere 15 minutes after it started. We didn't miss much and he caught us up to what he had already talked about.

Here we are, two happy tourists with Barry Moloney our tour guide. Was it worth driving like a local to go on his tour, you ask? You bet it was! We not only had a great tour with him and 12 others but after the tour the three of us talked quite a bit about Rick Steves. He has been on his show several times and really enjoys his company when he visits Ireland. Barry also recommended a great lunch spot for us. He said it's not fancy but lots of the locals eat there. Well I'm driving like a local so we may as well eat with them. We did and had a fantastic, reasonably priced meal.

Photo of Barry in action talking about the city.

The sign on this place reads The Giant's Cottage. The Kinsale giant lived in the late 1700's. He was eight feet three inches tall and was the largest man known to be living at that time. When a London circus owner found out about him, the owner came to Kinsale and convinced him to join the circus. He did and lived in England and died at the age of 47, buried in Bristol and is know over there as the Bristol Giant.

The stone wall in the very back of the photo was built at the edge of the water. Everything in the for ground was under the water and part of the bay. The wall was built by the Normans in the 16th century. In the 19th century shale was quarried from the nearby mountains and used as land fill to expand the city.

These alleyways were once slipways that lead down to the ships. They are wide enough to roll down a barrel filled with provisions to waiting ships. In the 17th and 18th centuries most ships leaving from England or Europe would be provisioned in Kinsale before they left on their journeys. Alexander Selkirk (the book Robinson Crusoe is based on) left from Kinsale.

One last thing about Kinsale, it was 10 miles off the cost of Kinsale that the ocean liner Lusitania was torpedoed by a German U boat in 1915 killing almost 1,200; many were women and children. The explosion was heard in the city.

On to something lighter. Our next stop was in Midleton and a visit to the Jameson distillery. I'm thinking about signing up for the academy.

The tour was fun and informative and included a sample of their product at the end of the tour. Gave me courage to go out and deal with those tractors again.

 

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Surviving the Drive Around the Ring of Kerry

Two days in a row of driving popular sightseeing loops, and we survived! I don't know how Bill can keep his cool behind the wheel like he does.

The wet weather continued, not so much rain but more of a very heavy drizzle accompanied by low clouds in spots. This made some of the scenery more dramatic. The ruins below stood between the road and the sea, looking forlorn in the mist.

The hilltops were hidden most of the day.

The beach at O'Carroll's Cove claims to have some of Ireland's warmest water -- not that we were the least bit tempted to test it -- as well as the country's only beach bar. Unfortunately, the bar was closed today!

There were two homes along the loop that we toured, very different from each other but both worthwhile. The first was Derrynane, the home of Daniel O'Connell, a peace-loving statesman who advocated for equal rights for Catholics. He was so devout that he built a chapel onto one end of his house, seen on the right side below.

The other home was Muckross House, an elegant manor house which reminded us of Downton Abbey. We half expected to see Lady Mary sitting in the parlor or Mrs. Patmore and Daisy working in the kitchen!

One of the unique spots we passed was the western-most tip of Europe.

The most surprising sight of the day occurred when we were stopped in a line of cars. We unexpectedly picked up a little hitchhiker!

 

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