Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Dublin, Ireland Sept 15 Part 1

 

You have all probably heard the song Molly Malone, about the fish monger.  Well, here in Ireland they erected a statue to her

IMG_6201 (1024x768)               

So we have arrived in Dublin and, even though it is quite a walk to get to the town center, we have decided to walk and see what there is to see. 

So off we went.

The town was full of people walking around, and even though it is Saturday, there is a lot of construction work being done.

d 9 15 (43) (1024x751)                   IMG_6063 (1024x768)

There were horse drawn carriage rides   d 9 15 (89) (1024x862)

And shops were open      IMG_6175 (1024x768)

Of course there were interesting buildings and churches to see

d 9 15 (53) (1024x890)   This is part of the old city fortifications that are still being used today as government buildings and this church.

IMG_6124 (1024x766)   IMG_6148 (1024x768)

                                                          IMG_6172 (954x1024)

Dublin Part 2

For the Dolphin House folks in Montrose, here is a picture of another Dolphin House

                   IMG_6125-771x1024_thumb2        IMG_6126-1024x765_thumb2

Church

             d-9-15-66-1024x768_thumb1                 IMG_6176-1024x768_thumb1 Beautiful !!!

There were more statues, besides Molly Malone, like these. The first are celebrating the people who left Ireland because of the famine and went to Canada and helped build their country. It was dedicated by Canada in 1999.

IMG_6085-1024x768_thumb1                 IMG_6089-1024x767_thumb1

IMG_6159-1024x768_thumb2                         IMG_6205-1024x751_thumb1

On our way out to the ship we saw this ship, really nice IMG_6080-1024x768_thumb1 We weren’t able to board her, but we went aboard another ship that has become a restaurant and bar and had our Irish beers, neither of us liked them.

We were VERY glad that the local government found it advisable to paint the crosswalks for us Yankees and other right hand side drivers. We might not have made it out alive…..

                                                                               IMG_6160-768x1024_thumb1

Sunday, September 23, 2012

Greenock, Scotland Sept 14 Part 1

 

When we docked, we found a free tour, by bus, of Greenock.  Most of the ship passengers went to Glasgow and Belfast, but not us.  You know us, we avoid cities whenever possible.

It was another cloudy, rainy day, but who would expect any different from Scotland.  I think I would be disappointed if it was any different. 

 a 9 14 (8) (1024x768)    He was our tour guide, and yes, we could understand what he said, most of the time.

This guy was his assistant, and we never understood anything he said (luckily he didn’t say much) a 9 14 (62) (554x1024)

First we went to a small church that was the first one in Greenock.  It was originally located in an area that was taken over and became a port area, so they had to move the church.  The company that created the port, moved the church to its new location brick by brick. 

a 9 14 (13) (1024x768)      This is the church.           a 9 14 (15) (1024x768)

And these are the lovely ladies who told us the stories of the church   a 9 14 (19) (1024x755)

                                                                    a 9 14 (14) (1024x768)

Then we drove to a lookout point

 

                              a 9 14 (43) (1024x768)    a 9 14 (44) (1024x768) 

                                                     a 9 14 (45) (1024x754)   What do you think this is?   Castle????

Greenock, Scotland Part 2

                                                              a 9 14 (89) (1024x763)                      This is the city hall of Greenock. The Queen of England visited here some months ago, to open a new portion of the building. She has rooms that are just for her, including her own personal toilet, that no one can use but her.

                                                             a 9 14 (82) (1024x768)This is the Queen’s throne…….can you tell how low the toilet is? She is a very short person. I really wanted to sit on the “throne” but time was short and I might have gotten shot.

Here is another church we saw    a 9 14 (53) (1024x768)

When we returned to the ship we saw a folk show. It was one of the best shows we had seen on board. Sorry to say, since we expected, since this is a very large one with over 3,000 passengers, that the entertainment would be better than on the smaller ships. It has not been.

                                                     d 9 14 again (4) (1024x768)

Scotland is lovely. You don’t get to see much of any country when you travel by ship. Here are some shots of lovely Scotland

                   a 9 14 (2) (1024x768)     d 9 14 (49) (1024x657)

                                    a 9 14 again (15) (1024x760)                  See the little island behind the yellow buoy? It is not an island but the bottom of a capsized ship. The ship was carrying sugar when it sunk, so if you catch fish from the ship you have to throw it back because they cause diabetes Winking smile

                                                                             a 9 14 again (17) (1024x754)

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Sept 12 - Not Kristiansand, Norway

 

We were supposed to stop in Kristiansand today, but last night the Captain changed our plans.  There are two storms heading in the direction of Norway, coming from the south.  We skipped Kristiansand, so we could beat the storms on our way to Scotland.

Even though we did beat the storms, the seas were rather wild.  Thank goodness for sea sick pills.  They worked.  Of course, Duane had no problems with the seas.

So our next stop is Greenock, Scotland

Oslo, Norway Sept 11

 

It doesn’t seem fair to have a port stop right after you have boarded a ship.  Most people have just flown in from somewhere and are exhausted.  But here we are in Oslo.  It is raining and blowing and cold.  I guess our luck finally ran out.  We cannot complain about the weather we have had on this trip, so a little rain is OK.

Instead of running around, we spent some of the day right next to the ship.  Everything you need to see was right there…

There is a fortress right here at the port of Oslo….a 9 11 (1) (1024x765)

The town has used some old fortifications….a 9 11 (5) (1024x765)

While we were out it started to pour.  Our luck with the weather has changed.  It hasn’t been terrible, just wet and windy.

a 9 11 (10) (1024x763)          

This poor guard has to do his duty, rain or shine a 9 11 (11) (1024x768)

So we went into a Resistance Museum here in the Fort.  Many exhibits about WW II, again.  Boy, do I hate war.

The rain subsided a little so we made our way back to the ship.

                                                                    a 9 11 (8) (1024x756)

Sunday, September 16, 2012

Copenhagen more calmly

Ok, yesterday’s post was a bit chaotic.  I was exhausted, but I wanted to get something on line while we had internet.  Today I have some time, so even though I am on the ship, I think I will recap Copenhagen a little better.

We took a bus, two trains to get to Copenhagen.  When we arrived, about noon, we asked someone if they spoke English, of course the first question, and if they knew where our hotel was.  He looked up from the paper I handed him and pointed right across the street.

Our hotel backed up to the railway tracks.  Luckily we both use cpaps, that helped cover up the train noises, which, really, were no worse than street traffic noises.  Since we had been to Copenhagen before, on our trip out to Europe, we were not going to run around this time.  First we needed to get some lunch and then dinner, so we decided to walk to the port where we would be going the next day, and see how far it was and whether we needed to take a cab or not. 

So off we go.  It was a lovely day and a Sunday.  We found a train station about 3/4 of the way to the dock, so we knew how we would get to the train, but we found no restaurants or food stores.  We walked to a different area and found an open food store.  We got excited until we asked if they took credit cards,…. only Denmark chip cards.  Same from a 7/11 type store.  We got directed to a “fast food” pizza place.  Yup, he was open, but he took no credit cards are no Euros.  He felt sorry for us and decided he would take a 10 Euro note, which here in Copenhagen only buys one sandwich, which we shared.

We never found a place to have dinner, so we ended up having an ice cream from the hotel, since they would put it on our bill, and their free coffee and shared an apple we had left over from the farm.  See, everything works out.

In the morning, since it was now Monday, we were able to find that the grocery store across from the hotel was open and did take visa.  Happy day.  All went well and we made it without incident to the ship.

Boy……is she big.

Sunday, September 9, 2012

Copenhagen, Denmark Sept 9-10

 

Yesterday was a very long day. We had to get here.  Now that we are here we leave for New York, or Brooklyn, we don’t know. 

Yesterday started in Echternach, Luxembourg, packing and getting out of our room by 10 am even though our bus didn’t leave until after 4 pm.  So we hurried and waited.  Finally we got a ride to town and across the bridge into Germany, where we waited for the bus.  We had arrived by bus from Trier 5 days earlier and we were surprised when the bus arrived in Echternach early.  It not only arrived early but it left early.  So, we were concerned that it might be early again, so we got to the stop at 3:30.

So far so good.  We checked the bus schedule on a pole and did not see a bus scheduled for 4:10, as the internet had told us.  So we stewed for more than 1/2 hour making back-up plans in our heads.  At about 4:05 a man joined us in our wait, so we felt a little more secure, until he started checking his watch.  The bus was 15 minutes late.  We were covered in sweat by then.

But it did come and it did take us to the train station in Trier, where we caught the train to Koln, or Cologne in English.  From Cologne we caught a night train to Copenhagen.  If you have never taken a night train in Europe, don’t go out of your way to do it.  We shared a cabin with 2 other people, because we splurged and went for a room with 4 rather than 6 people, and we had to find places for our luggage and stuff ourselves into sheet sleeping bags and try to sleep on rock hard surfaces.  You might have noticed I did not say mattress because we were sleeping on what became the seats in the day time. 

So we are very tired now and will go to bed early, but we must have been bad children because we have to go to bed without dinner.  We were told that all places in Copenhagen take VISA, so we spent most of our Euros before we got here.  Well, our experience has been different.  Yes it is Sunday, but so far no one has been willing to take our card and we don’t want to get local money for just one day.  One of the adventures.

Tomorrow we may have ice cream from the hotel for breakfast, because we can get all the food we want when we get on the ship. So until we talk again after we are on board…..

Friday, September 7, 2012

Echternach, Luxembourg Sept 3-8 Part 1

 

Well, we finally figured out what train station we needed to go to to get here.  We made it to Echternach, we thought, about 8 pm and waited to be picked up by the owner of this farm.  We started getting concerned when she was 20 minutes late.  We had her phone number, but no phone, so we went looking for someplace to use a phone.  The nearest place was an emergency room and they were nice enough to call for us.  We found out that we were not in Luxembourg, but we were still in Germany.  Luxembourg was across this small bridge, so our hostess was waiting for us at a different bus station, one in Luxembourg.  All’s well that ends well.

So we get settled to the sounds and smells of cows.  What do you expect when you book a place that is a farm.  How we got to stay here is sort of weird.  I found a website that was talking about a town where you could go hiking.  That sounded different and we were looking for different.  We had seen enough history, now on to nature.  So I emailed this place to find out what their rates were.  She emailed back that we had reservations for 2 nights.  I asked if she had availability for 5 nights and she emailed back that we were confirmed for 5 nights.  Sometimes communicating in different languages is difficult.  I even sent some of my emails in 3 languages, English, German and French.  Now I am not sure if any of the messages were understandable, since I used Google Translate, and it can’t be counted on.  It sure is better than nothing.

Anyway, here we are.  We wake in the morning to a view of a valley filled with cows all covered in cloudy mist.  Just gorgeous.

So we walked into Echternach about 4 miles round trip.  Past a beautiful lake on a sunny day.

a 9 4 (4) (1024x760)               a 9 4 (9) (1024x768)  the girls

Duane stealing, I mean, picking apples     a 9 4 (17) (1024x768)

This time of year is off season, but during the summer there are a lot of athletes, or would be athletes here.  One example is the adventure park, now closed, on an island in the lake.  Looks like crazy stuff to me.  Must be fun.

a 9 4 (24) (1024x567)        a 9 4 (30) (1024x768)

I love these port-a-potties      a 9 4 (46) (1024x768)     actually they are very clean and new.

The square      a 9 4 (47) Stitch (1024x587)

Isn’t this plaque on a building neat.  It shows a man killing a snake or serpent      a 9 4 (78) (793x1024)

The fun part is that it is on the police station      a 9 4 (79) (1024x768)

Another fun thing we saw was this cross walk.  Even with Duane standing there, you cannot tell that the crosswalk goes right into a wall.  There is no sidewalk or walkway on that side of the crosswalk.

                                                                             a 9 4 (80) (749x1024)

This town does not let anything go unused.  Even the old towers of the town are used today.  Either someone lives there or the rooms are rented out to tourists.  Imagine staying in the tower of a town wall…..wonder what that costs?

a 9 4 (84) (1024x768)       a 9 4 (93) (768x1024)          a 9 4 (87) (1024x768)