Edinburgh Part 1: Streets and the Palace

We arrived at Portsmouth, England to spend a quick overnight at another boutique hotel, the Ship Leopard.  What a name...we could see that the front windows bore etchings of a ship and inside the lobby/bar there was, indeed, a statue of a leopard that was covered with bits of mirror.  Kind of a disco leopard.  Should have taken a picture of that.  Gordon said it looked more like a Jaguar, but I think he was thinking of the car and not the critter.  Anyway, after a full English breakfast we were off to the train station (right across the street) and headed for Gatwick and our EasyJet flight to Edinburgh.  What we learned:  Gatwick airport does not run on time.  Plan accordingly.

The funny thing about going to Edinburgh is that it was sort of an accident.  We were actually headed for the Goodwood Festival of Speed, outside Portsmouth, which was originally scheduled for the weekend after LeMans.  We'd already paid for the Goodwood trip, booked airfare, ferry, and the Ship Leopard when we learned that the Goodwood event had been postponed for a week due to the Formula 1 race in Baku.  So, cancel or fill in the time?  Doing what?  Ain't that much in Portsmouth.  Hey, Gordon had an idea:  Pati's always wanted to see Scotland, so how about we go to Edinburgh?  As they say in England, why not?

Arrival in Edinburgh is easy.  Just hop on the tram at the airport and you're whisked to the center of downtown.  Here, we rented a serviced apartment and had a beautiful, modern, one-bedroom place that a person could easily live in.  A company called Destiny Scotland is in the business of purchasing properties that were originally huge townhomes from the 1800's and converting them.  Pati looked out the back window at this:

The Big (car guy) Brain looked out.  A McLaren, he said.  A McLaren, worth about a cool million American.  Sitting in the rain next to the trash cans.

Edinburgh has a lot to offer, not the least of which is fish & chips or steak & ale pies, along with local Scottish brews, at the pubs.  It's mandatory to visit the big sights:  The castle, Holyrood House, the Yacht Brittania, Grayfriar's Kirk, and the High Street, so we set off (mostly in the wind and rain) to check them out.

First, a wandering around town to view the castle from below:

Then, to enjoy the local streets (with the adjacent "closes", or courtyards):

And the famous, old Scotsman Hotel.  The hotel was originally home to the Scotsman newspaper and later converted to a "hotel with character":

A stop at Grayfriar's churchyard to see the statue of the famous little Skye Terrier, Bobby.  Bobby's master, John Gray, died in 1858 and the story goes that Bobby never left his gravesite.  The gardener at the kirkyard tried unsuccesfully to evict Bobby many times, and finally the Lord Provost of Edinburgh bought Bobby a dog license and the City Council assumed responsibility for the dog.  Upon Bobby's death in 1872, he could not be buried in the cemetery (consecrated ground) but is instead buried just inside the gate of the Kirkyard, not far from John Gray's grave.

We also visited Holyrood Palace, the Queen's residence in Edinburgh.  The Palace has a long history, all the way back to 1671, and is still used for state occasions and official entertaining.  In fact, the Queen was due in for her annual summer visit and we were lucky to see the Palace on the day before it closed in preparation for the Royal arrival.  Here are a few pix:

24 Hours of LeMans 2017 and St-Malo

Off again to the 24 Heures du Mans.  This year, the race was won by the No. 2 Porsche driven by Timo Bernhard, Brendon Hartley and Earl Bamber after taking the lead of the race in the final two hours.  We spent the day wandering around the course and stuffing our faces at the hospitality tent after walking through the pits to get a close up view.

We watched the race as day turned to evening.

Geezers shouldn't spend the night at the track (although some in our party, who could fall into the category, did) so we left the track late at night and arrived back at the hotel just in time to turn on the TV and watch the gut-wrenching clutch failure of the No. 7 Toyota which had been the overall race leader.  He couldn't make it back to the pits under hybrid power and retired.  Only a few minutes later, the No. 9 Toyota collided with another car, causing a puncture.  This led to gearbox damage and out went the No. 9.  We couldn't take it anymore and around 1:00 a.m. we decided to go to bed.  When we returned in the morning, the No. 1 Porsche was leading but with four hours to go it failed and retired from the race.

We continued stuffing our faces at the hospitality tent.  After lunch, Pati emptied half a bottle of wine into a plastic water bottle, to the horror of our table mates, and stashed it in her backpack.  Later on, when we had wine and they had none, the idea seemed better to the assembled crowd...

For the first time in history, a LMP2 car led the race.  This may not mean anything to someone who doesn't follow endurance racing, but take it from us, it was a big deal.  In the end, the LMP2 car (Jackie Chan Racing, believe it or not), finished second overall with its team mate finishing third.  Again, it really was a big deal.  Especially for Jackie Chan.

Our next stop was St-Malo, France.  This is a small, walled city on the northern coast of France not far from Mont St. Michel.  It is famous for its beaches, the Barbary pirates, and seafood.  After a harrowing journey by train that included two cancellations, a run to and from the bus station, a lovely conversation with a very helpful SNCF employee, and a train with no air conditioning on a 90-degree day, we arrived at our boutique hotel, the Des Abers.  We were greeted by the watchdog, a fuzzy poodle mix with an entertaining woof woof woof routine conducted without lifting her head.  Some watchdog.

So, in St-Malo, if one doesn't sit on the beach, there's walking the walls and exploring the medieval town.

And stuffing one's face with seafood, crepes, gallettes, and the local specialty bread, Kouign-Amann.  It's a rolled-up sweet dough with plenty of butter.

Near the Kouign-Amann place, there's the local cathedral.  Beautiful inside and a dream for gargoyle hunters.

Is this a meerkat???

Of course, we found the bakery with the best coffee and croissants around for breakfast, and we enjoyed the galletes at dinner.  The town was really fabulous.  It was an incredible surprise and it far exceeded any expectations we had.  We agreed that we'd definitely go there again in a heartbeat.

For years, we've watched the RoPax's come and go out of Nice.  Don't know what a RoPax is?  It's a ferry:  there's RoRo's (roll on, roll off) and RoPax (roll on/off, with passengers).  We'd never been on one.  So we left St-Malo on the Brittany Ferry, headed for Portsmouth, England and our next stop, Edinburgh.  Maybe we were lucky, but crossing the English Channel, which is known to be a rough ride, was smooth for us that day.  We'll also say that the RoPax's are pretty neat:  restaurant, bar, reclining seats, television, internet, game room, luggage room, gift shop, and so on.  It's great transportation!

Lisbon, Funchal, and Across the Atlantic

When we docked in Lisbon, we were exactly where we expected to be.  At the Alcantara dock, which we had thought was an inconvenient location, especially since we'd heard that there was a new dock closer to downtown.  Turns out that while Alcantara is farther away, they've put in a bike/walk trail along the river.  We hopped off the boat and walked down the path to see the new dock (three other cruise ships in town) and find some Rissois do Camarao (Portuguese shrimp turnovers) and Bacalao fritters.  Success!  The cafe where we'd had them before was still there.  We grabbed a couple of Pasteis de Nata (Portuguese custard tarts) for later, and they were the best we'd ever had.

We never liked Lisbon much, but they've put a lot of time and money into improvement over the past few years.  We came away with a new opinion.  Pretty nice place now.

The last stop before crossing the Atlantic for Miami was Funchal.  The town doesn't change much, but when we opened the drapes in the morning, we weren't sure where we were.  They finished a new dock and we were on it!  On the dock, there's a new hotel, the CR7.  It contains a new museum, the CR7 museum.  Oh, didn't you know?  Funchal is home to the greatest Portuguese footballer ever...Cristiano Ronaldo, number 7!  And they mean for everyone to know it, too.

We've already posted lot of photos from there, so we just took off sans camera for a walk around town (and more Portuguese goodies).  Departing Madeira Island marked the beginning of the end, so to speak.  Five days at sea took us to St. George, Bermuda.  Other than the very skinny entrance to the bay in St. George (it's so tight that one could almost touch the trees on each side of the ship), there's not a lot of say about St. George.  We worked on packing our stuff up.

Packing, after being in a room for 4 1/2 months and accumulating things, is interesting.  The good thing is, in a suite on a ship, belongings can't get very far away from you.  And we didn't handle the luggage anyway...it went home FedEx.

Memories we take away:

Crew promotions, important ones, for Elena, Alex, Ola, Daniel, Katut and others.
Micah, the greatest singer of the Motown sound.  He'll do well.
The Sailor's Choir, composed of guests, a few of whom could actually sing.  Micah, directing the sailor's choir...
Clive, the piano man who packed 'em in at the Navigator Lounge.
Jirka, everything on guitar from Pachelbel to Prince.
Clive and Jirka, doing Simon and Garfunkel.
Jamie.  Aaaaaaannnnd...
Old Tom still couldn't figure out how you take a cruise around the world and don't go to Hong Kong.
Terry, who reminded us that we've gone all around the world and the Coca Cola tastes the same.
And all the new friends we met along the way.

When we docked in Miami, we dropped off the luggage and headed for the airport for a first class flight home.  Home...there's a concept.  After a couple of days, we began to recognize our surroundings and stopped wondering why we couldn't hear the generators running.  We found the kitchen but it took a while to remember what it was for.  Fortunately, Gordon hadn't forgotten how to make martinis!

What a trip!  From the start of the World Cruise guests consumed 1,140 pounds of link sausages, 772 bottles of Grey Goose Vodka, 3389 champagne bottles and 10,900 dozen eggs.  After over 35,000 miles, 64 ports, 13 formal nights, 12 lifeboat drills, 2,842 photos, and lord knows how many bottles of wine we can only say this:  we'd do it all again.  But not next year.

And the wiener dog count:  Gordon 9, Pati 2

Cadiz, Well, Really Seville, May 1

The next day, we were docked at Cadiz, Spain.  On offer was a transportation only trip to Seville. This meant we had all day to explore the town on our own, and we did just that.

The Reales Alcazares:

The Cathedral:

Don Juan!

A typical street:

Gorgeous architecture:

And, local history:

It was a major holiday, as the Seville April Fair was in full swing.  All around were people in their local finery, being transported by horses and buggies.

Seville exceeded our expectations.  It was a beautiful day and a beautiful city.  And if you ever go there, don't miss the Spanish Olive Oil Tortas at Ines Rosales.  You can buy a pack to go.  We'd love to go back.

Gibraltar, April 30

We were in Gibraltar before, on the cruise where Pati broke her toe.  That time, the weather wasn't very good and she wasn't much for walking around, so we stayed aboard the ship.  This time, we wanted to know what one does in Gibraltar, anyway?  Why, head for the upper rock, of course!  You knew that.  Two ways to get up to the top:  drive a car or take a cotton-pickin, scarier than shit, cable car up the side of the mountain.  Guess how we got there?  Gordon's still trying to get Pati's fingernail marks out of his arm...this was worse than the other one.

OK, at the top there's a lookout.

Then it's off to see the Barbary Apes.  These guys own the top of the rock, they are very well cared for, and they have the right of way on the handrails, which are their highways.  If the stupid tourists get in the way, the apes just push 'em out of the way and keep going.  Lots of fun!

One place that the apes don't go is into St. Michael's cave.  Why?  No food in there.  But the cave is very spacious, lit spectacularly, and it's even used for events and concerts.

Last things to see were the tunnels built into the rock by the military during the wars.  Naturally the cliff side was an excellent spot for a gunnery placement.

And a very interesting view of the airport!  See the EasyJet airplane landing?

Onward to Cadiz, Spain.

Marseille and Barcelona, April 27

There isn't that much to see in Marseille once you've hoofed it up to the church on the hill, which we've done, thank you.  We'd also been to Avignon before, but had not gone inside the Pope's Palace, so this was our chance.

The weather was lousy.  Tour guide said this is the coldest April day they've had in ages.  The wind was howling and it was in the 50's, so we were really glad to get inside that palace and out of the cold.  In fact, since we'd already seen the rest of Avignon, we sat down on a bench in the Pope's dining hall and ate a sandwich...and we stayed there until it was time to hook up with the rest of the group.

Although impressive from the outside, there's not much inside the palace, save for well-preserved statues and frescoes.  I guess they sent all the opulent stuff back to the Vatican when it was safe for old Clement and his staff to go home.  It's an interesting place, just the same.

On the way back, we stopped in a really cute little walled town called Le Baux.  If it hadn't been so cold, it would have been fun to explore the town further, but we did walk up and down the main street and check out the shops.

On to Barcelona.  It was a beautiful day and we set out for Corte Ingles (needed saffron), Desigual (needed to shop), Decathlon (more Kalenji clothes), and the market (needed dried figs and Marcona almonds).  Mission accomplished, we skipped the wait for the shuttle bus and walked back to the ship.  Most people would never walk that far, but we did pass several crew members who were shocked to see us walking the distance.

Next stop, Gibraltar!

Civitavecchia and on to Monaco, April 25

While most people took off for day-long tours of Rome, we passed on that since we've been there a couple of times already and couldn't imagine what we needed to see again.  We were intrigued by a tour to nearby Ostia Antica.  Ostia, about an hour south of the port, is one giant archelogical dig.

Once a thriving Roman city covering many acres, it seems that an earthquake during those times changed the route of the Tiber River and the town was eventually abandoned for that and other reasons and left to be covered in silt.  Many of the ruins are fairly intact and have been uncovered by hand over many years, often by volunteers from various universities, and according to satellite information, there's a lot left to go.

The city had several temples, several thermal baths, a fire department, a theater, big houses, little houses, condominiums, bakeries, and a cemetery.  Alas, no acropolis, but then again, we're talking Rome, not Greece.  Check out their website:  http://www.ostia-antica.org/

At the amphitheater:

So many ruins!

An inlaid floor:

The shopping street:

Yup.  It's the public toilets:

Next stop was Monaco.  I think we've posted enough pictures of Monaco.  We arrived close to noon and there was a front passing through, wind howling, so we had to wait for a while before we could get on to the dock (it's a narrow approach).  Finally, the intrepid Captain called for a tugboat or two and we made it in.  The wind let up, it warmed up, and we went to our usual shopping spots to stock up on toothpaste, duck pate, etc.  No trip to Monaco is complete without surprising our friend Franco at his Caves & Gourmandises shop near the port.

There was an event that night for the world cruisers.  It was listed as dinner at Cafe de Paris and a visit to the famous Monte-Carlo casino.  That turned out not to be the case...they did have dinner at Cafe de, but the casino wasn't included in the deal, plus we were told at one time that we'd be at anchor!  We decided not to board a tender wearing our best attire, so we backed out of the event.  Good thing, because as we arrived back at the ship after wandering around, it threatened rain (no surprise in Monaco).  Just as the event-goers walked off the ship, the skies opened up.  Don't know what happened after that, but we heard about rubber chicken, only one-half hour for the casino and one had to pay to get in, more rain, and the cruise director fell flat on his duff on the slippery steps.  We had a lovely dinner in Compass Rose.

OK, we were headed for Marseille.