Ireland and the UK

 Anchored in Dun Laoghaire, Ireland. Doesn't that look like it should be "Dun Longhair"? It's pronounced "Dun Leary". So when you go there, you can sound really smart. Off we went to Dublin to visit St. Patricks Cathedral,

And then to Trinity College to see the hand-illuminated Book of Kells. The impressive part was the Long Room, or the library. Just imagine what these bazillions of old, old, books are worth!

The grounds are charming, as well. Gordon thought this place looked like Hogwarts. He hasn't seen the movies, okay?

We remained in Dun Laoghaire overnight, and the next evening we were to return to Dublin. Well, the wind picked up and some passengers who had gone into the little town got stuck there. You see, the tenders couldn't launch from the ship or return because the sea was so rough. We had planned to go into town ourselves at about 1 p.m. While we waited, they turned the ship. No good. They moved the tender dock. Took a while, but that worked. Finally, some very distraught folks returned to the ship. We bravely headed onto the tender, because that evening offered a special event for those of us on the Grand Cruise: dinner and entertainment at Christ Church, preceded by cocktails in the crypt. Couldn't miss that!

We moved on to Liverpool, where we chose to ride to a cute little town called Chester.

There was an M & S there. More Percy Pigs. We had a Beatles night that evening. The old folks rocked the boat, in spite of chilly temperatures.

The next place that the Seven Seas Navigator anchored was Fishguard, Wales. We climbed the hill to Strumble Head to see the interesting, and very ancient, little Stonehenge that was up there. No one really knows its purpose, but there are several more scattered around the islands and they are believed to be navigational aids.

After we climbed up there, huffing and puffing, it turned out that the bus could have driven us to within a few yards of the thing. They didn't tell us that. It was okay, it was fun. We then bussed to Porthgain, which is a small, sheltered harbor with a big past. Here, bricks were loaded onto sailing vessels for export. The bricks raced down from the top of the cliff through chutes. Looked dangerous to us, but the views from above the port were amazing.

Last stop on this leg was Waterford, Ireland, where we took a walking tour of the town. Nothing particularly noteworthy there, except for the main Waterford Crystal store.

From there, we set off for the "turnover" at Southampton. While they turned over the ship (meaning some got off and some got on), we visited Westminster Cathedral.

Jane Austen is buried at Westminster:

It's really an impressive place.

By the way, do you know how to watch a Formula 1 race on a cruise ship? Well, the answer is, you don't. Not on TV, anyway. What we've been doing is firing up the F1 website for the lap-by-lap coverage and Pati does her best imitation of David Croft. It's pitiful.

Scotland and Ireland

At Kirkwall in the Orkney Islands we set off for the northern part of the island, passing through a really quaint little village on the way,

Then continued to the Stones of Stenness. These are far fewer, but much older, than Stonehenge.

Now, Pati asked Gordon to take a picture of her looking up at the monolith...

Her instructions apparently lacked specificity. Maybe the monolith should have been in the photo?

The sheep wander freely around this area during the summer, and its being spring, lambs were everywhere. Because the sheep are free to roam, they say to be very careful when driving: if one sheep crosses in front of you, two more are coming. And if you kill the farmer's sheep, you pay. Believe me, they do know which sheep are whose.

Next stop, Brough of Birsay. There are puffins and Orca whales around, but apparently both are very elusive. We didn't see any, anyway, but it was still a neat place.

Onward to Portree (accent on the second syllable, aye?). Our tour guide's name was Seoris, pronounced "shore-us". Scottish Gaelic for "George". Never heard that name before. Anyway, Seoris took us to Dunvegan Castle where we wandered the grounds for a couple of hours, taking in the interior of the castle and the gardens. So far on this trip, we've gone to a number of botanical gardens, each more impressive than the last.

We drove through the Cuillins on the way back. The Cuillins sport seven peaks over 3,500 feet in height.

The next day brought us to Belfast, Ireland. Most of us have been led to see Belfast as a kind of a broken down place, considering its warring factions and all the movies about that time. Actually, it's a bustling city with lots and lots of history. Here, we took a swift bus ride around town with an Irish guide who could have been a stand-up comedian. Here's an interesting tidbit: when you call Citibank and get a guy on the line who sounds like he's in Mumbai...he's actually in Belfast. Citi has its entire call center there. We took only a couple of pictures, but here you go.

Our next stop was Greenock, Scotland. We took a bus ride to Glasgow and shopped. Tesco: candy and cookies. M & S: more candy and cookies (Percy Pig!!). Onward toward Ireland again, this time Dublin.

 

The Mystery Cruise

We sailed for two days, headed for Greenland. Sort of. We never got to Greenland at all and ended up on the very north end of Iceland, in a town called Akyreyri. A little ways out of town is a beautiful waterfall called Godefuss, meaning Gods Falls. Story is that when the island turned from "heathen" to "christian", the town fathers threw all the statues of the heathen gods into the falls.

 

Then, a visit to the local botanical garden. This was a place where we could have spent hours, but only had a limited time. Such a variety of plants, all imported.

On to Reykjavik! We had taken the Great Circle Tour before, but went again because it was so neat. First to the Gullfoss Falls:

Then, we went to see...guess what?

Actually, it's a whole field of geysers, hot pools, and bubbling cauldrons. One of them spouts off fairly regularly:

Next stop was Eskifjordur, Iceland. The wind the howling. Captain Aris tried very hard to get the ship on the dock, but the wind was having none of it. This being missed port stop number five (hence the term Mystery Cruise. We never know where we'll end up), we set off for the Faroe Islands, and oh boy did we get a ride. It looked like "victory at sea" outside. Huge waves, screaming winds, lots of strange bumps and bangs. It turned out that one of those bangs was a huge, thick window in the main dining room being broken in by the water. Everything and everyone got soaked. What a mess! Seawater everywhere.

We made it to Torshavn (pronounced Tor-shawn) in the Faroe Islands. They have their own government but are under the protection of Denmark for military and security purposes. Took a scenic ride, mostly through dense fog, around the island. The fog cleared on the western end of the island enough to enjoy the views.

So, now we're heading for Kirkwall in the Scottish Orkney Islands, and hoping for better weather.

Finally Floating!

 We had an early airplane out of Chicago, headed for New York. The plane was on time, which was a minor miracle in and of itself. In New York, we spent the night at the famous Plaza Hotel on Central Park. We would have loved to go for a walk in the park, but discretion was the better part of valor and given the crime situation there, we stayed in. That said, the Plaza is sumptuous:

We set sail the next afternoon for Martha's Vinyard.

The weather gods were not on our side. Martha did without us, as we couldn't get the tenders launched. Onward to Boston, with the weather following. Rain. So much for Boston, we stayed onboard. No biggie, we'd been to Boston before. So onward once again, this time bound for Bar Harbor, Maine, where the weather was lovely. We visited Acadia National Park and enjoyed the beautiful views from the top of the tallest hill.

It's not a joke, they all pronounce it "Bah Hahbah". Even the people who aren't from there.

On to Canada. Next stop, Saint John, New Brunswick. We went on a "Foodie Tour" and ate our way through the downtown area. We ate cupcakes, smoked salmon, goat cheese and pecan pizza, beaver tails (pastry, not real beaver tails), a seaweed called "dulse", and drank wine. We didn't need lunch. Here's the inside of the most popular bar in town, at 11:00 a.m. They closed at 4 a.m. Resident and visiting DJ's...and they only play vinyl.

Next stop, Halifax. Neat town. We visited the Halifax Citidel where we walked the ramparts and watched the changing of the guard:

A walking tour of Sydney took us through the oldest and most historic part of town and then back to the pier, which of course displayed its own symbol:

Corner Brook offered a hiking adventure similar to the one we enjoyed on our first visit, four years ago. We were a little disappointed that we didn't get to see the ages-old, wooden water pipe again, but the hike was still enjoyable.

Then was to come the exciting part: icebergs and the Christiansund passage through Greenland. Nope. Too many icebergs for Cappy's liking and weather of an unfriendly sort once again. Now it was a day at sea and a visit to someplace French! A little cluster of islands called St. Pierre. We were welcomed warmly and lots of people hiked into town to see...not much. We stayed on board and watched the horse, who watched us, along with every car that went by. Apparently they don't see a lot of cruise ships in St. Pierre.

By the way, June 21 was the Summer Solstice. The sun never set.

Fall Has Fell

 It's been four months since we posted anything here. We've been to Wisconsin twice for automobile races, but we've posted so many of those pictures that we just don't see the need to do it again. 

We left Wisconsin with the usual memento: Spotted Cow beer from New Glarus Brewery (sold ONLY in Wisconsin.)

We here's how the summer of spending money on the house went:

The blinds fell down in the living room. We must say that Hunter Douglas has a wonderful warranty department and a replacement part was swiftly provided.

The showerhead in the Master Bath went berserk. We can report that the Grohe people also have good warranty protection. Two amateur plumbers went to work to fix it. It's better now, and as an extra, it howls when the hot water comes up. As a matter of fact, the entire house knows when the hot water comes up. Recently, the hand-held showerhead has sprung a major leak. Hello, Grohe??

The kitchen sink's faucet is leaking. We've got the parts but ambition is lacking.

There was always the taxes and insurance to pay...

Masks came off in June. Masks went back on in August.

An inspection of our chimney has resulted in $7500 worth of repair work.

The desktop computer conked out and had to be replaced.

Yet another cruise was canceled.

The handle on the dishwasher broke for the third time. New dishwasher. We're on a first-name basis with Lowe's Home Improvement.

Gordon's tablet decided that it no longer was interested in holding a charge. New tablet. Pati's is just about there but she's hoping to hold out for the back-to-school sales. Next year.

We decided to "cut the cable" and move to streaming TV. New television. New sound bar. New modem. New router. New curse words in Pati's vocabulary as she hooked it all up. Gordon painted a low profile during the transition. Earlier in the year, we bought a smart TV for the basement so we could follow some exercise tapes we purchased. Had to swap the basement TV for the bedroom TV, since the basement one was smarter. We now know how to install flat screen TV's onto universal stands.

We did finally get out to the east coast to visit our family. It's been two years and instead of having young boys as grandchildren we now have young men. We returned with wonderful memories and two jars of Duke's mayonnaise.

Now, we wait to see if the 2022 World Cruise, completely rerouted, gets going in January. Since we are booked on a segment of that cruise, there might be hope. The good news? Wait, let me think...oh, yeah, the car's almost paid off and Pati grew lots and lots of really hot peppers over the summer.

Time Flies

It's June, for heaven's sake. Fifteen months after this all started and we're still dealing with it. Illinois has finally entered something called a "bridge" status and those of us who have been fully vaccinated can go into a store without a mask and get the stink-eye from some folks. But they're still required in altogether too many places.

Getting the vaccine became important to us, since we were certain that we would have to present proof in order to cruise in October. We went off in hot pursuit of Mr. Pfizer or Mr. Moderna. Mr. Johnson would have been okay to find, too. We ended up driving into Chicago four times, since we couldn't find back-to-back appointments at the United Center and no appointments nearby. Once, just as Gordon finished up, a friggin' blizzard came off the lake and chased us all the way home. We slipped and slid on the freeway, praying for survival, while the local idiots continued to do well over the speed limit.

A few days ago, our October cruise was cancelled. 

The new front door, due to Covid issues, took not twelve weeks as suggested by the company, but nine months to arrive. 

Before:

After:

It does close with a satisfying "thunk", it does not squeak, and it has a very secure lock. We're happy.

Since problems arise in direct proportion to available funds, the ceiling fan in the living room expired with an eye-opening BUZZ-CRACK!

The two downstairs fans match and are both visible from several angles, so it's two fans instead of one. While we're at it, we'll replace the one in the upstairs bathroom that quit on us, oh, about five years ago now.

We may actually leave the house and drive up to Road America for an IndyCar race in a couple of weeks. Film at eleven.

Oh, did I mention that we had to fix the refrigerator again?

The End of 2020

Thank heaven.  This year is finally drawing to a close.  What a nightmare!

Our September cruise was canceled, and not long after we went to all the work of booking several dozen shore excursions for the March, 2021 cruise, it too was canceled.  The election didn't turn out the way we would have liked, but at least the latest Illinois tax grab scheme failed at the polls.

We've ordered a new front door unit.  It'll be beautiful.  But the manufacturer is short-staffed due to Covid (oh, everything's due to Covid these days) so when it will arrive is anybody's guess.  The only way to know for certain would be to make a plan that can't be canceled without forfeiting a lot of money.  The door would be sure to show up, then, at the wrong time.  If it ever gets here, we'll post a picture. 

Optimistically, we have booked hotel rooms for two IMSA races next year and are still sitting on a couple of cruise bookings.  Christmas is behind us...hip, hip, hooray for Christmas Vacation!!  And here comes the New Year...auld lang syne.  The acquaintance we'd like to forget is that damn mask.

Cheers!!