AroundBritain2023

We arrived at Le Harve early in the morning and we awoke to find we have tied up. We had breakfast the disembarked and took the shuttle bus into town. We were bitterly disappointed as Le Harve has nothing to offer. We wandered about aimlessly and the only thing of interest, to me anyway, was the memorial. Being in France it was slightly different in that it wasn’t only for combatants but for members of the Resistance. There was also a smaller memorial to those killed in the Algerian conflict of the early sixties. We stopped for a drink at a typical French cafe/bar then decided to go back to the ship to have lunch. After lunch we all we up to the sun deck and stretched out on the Sun loungers. After we’d had enough of that we went our cabins to cool down and put the final bits away ready for collection later. It was a tremendously hot day so after a cool shower we went down for dinner. Every meal was brilliant but tonight’s was designated our “end of course dinner” We then went to the ...

Day ten 22/6/2023 We woke to discover we were in the Firth of Forth right next to the Forth Bridge. I managed to get a couple of pictures from the cabin’s balcony. Later that morning we took the tender boat to Queensferry where I managed some better pictures. On arrival at the port there was a bus waiting to take us to Edinburgh city. We chose to wear similar rig to yesterday, today we got it right, the weather was gorgeous. After our 30 minute drive we arrived in the city centre and walked down the road to where the tour buses run from. The bus came along, we climbed aboard and took good positions on the open upper deck. The took us to many of the city’s famous sites including Princes Street, The Royal Mile, Edinburgh Castle and many more. We also learned about some of the famous people associated with the city, Walter Scott, Alexander Graham Bell, J K Rowling, Sean Connery and others. It was a really interesting. With the tour over we walked around and those of you who know me know ...

Today we arrived in Invergorden. I went on the balcony looked at the sky, felt the temperature and decided that the rig of the day was shorts and polo shirt. So such attired we went ashore to the town of Invergorden which we discovered was a one horse town so opted to take the bus into Inverness. A bus came along, we boarded it and took the fifty minute drive into the city. It started to rain on this journey but when we arrived it had stopped and the sky gave the impression it was clearing up. That being the case we thought we’d do what we’d done in previous cities and take an open deck tourist bus and learn about the city. No sooner had we set off the rain fell and the wind hailed, the wind situation was exacerbated by the speed of the bus. We couldn’t hear a word of the commentary and we couldn’t see a thing through the rain. It was on parr with a Disney white knuckle ride but we laughed it off. We returned to the bus station soaking wet and wind swept. We took the next bus back to t...

Day seven Monday 19th Early start for our run ashore we are taking a trip that involves a coach trip. After breakfast we assembled in the theatre then we went to the dock yard and boarded a coach that drove us to Stirling. On arrival we had choice of either visiting the castle or the town. We chose the castle and as members of English Heritage we were admitted in free. It was a very interesting place. We learned a great deal about the history of the castle, Ranging from William Wallace and the battle of Stirling, through Mary Queen of Scots, Jacobite rebellion to its use as a barrack for National Service soldiers as recent as the 1950s It’s now under the care of Heritage Scotland ( hence our free admission) who have gone to great lengths to restore the place back to its former splendour. We had a very interesting walking tour with interesting explanations of all the eras it covered.  We left Stirling and drove to Falkirk to have a short canal trip and experience the Falkirk Wheel....

Day six 18/6/2023 Woke to discover we’d made through the fog and were now moored in Belfast. I first noticed the Harland and Wolfe cranes so I snapped them. Not the most picturesque photo scene but    totally symbolic with Belfast. We were going to be in port for some time so there was no rushing about. We had breakfast and left the ship. Shuttle buses were laid on at a cost but it proved cheaper to go by taxi. We arrived at the city centre right where the city guide buses commence their route so we bought our tickets and climbed aboard. The tour took us all around passing major sites such as City Hall, Queen Victoria’s statue and the Titanic exhibition. We then drove along the two infamous roads , Falls and Shanklin. The former predominately nationalist, the latter loyalist, though the violence has gone there is still evidence of “The Troubles “ as there are many murals, both loyalist and republican, on house ends glorifying the fighting and those who participated. We also sa...

The  In the early hours of the morning we arrivrd off the coast at a town called Dun Loughaire (Dunleary) and after breakfast were taken there on the tender boats. On arrival at the port we then took a train to downtown Dublin. We’d already purchased tickets for the open top bus tour but we had trouble locating the stop. We eventually tracked them down by calling in a Garda station (their’s are still open) and went for our tour. Dublin is a fascinating place steeped with history, we learned about the sons of the city, Jonathan Swift, Oscar Wilde, Bram Stocker, Michael Collins, Eamon de Valera and James Connolly to name but a few. We visited, amongst other places, O’Connell Street, Christ Church and St Patrick’s Cathedrals, the GPO building, Trinity College Phoenix Park, ha’penny bridge, the official residences of the President and Prime Minister and of course tyhe Guinness brewery. After the tour we found a typical Irish pub where we had lunch and of course a pint of Guinness. ( no...