A Whirlwind Tour of Scotland

Long before we decided to move we had planned a trip to Scottland and Ireland in mid May, into June. As we were planning we had the mindset that if we are going to take the time to fly all the way there, we might as well stay there and explore, so we arranged for two tours. The first tour was a trip around the Scottish Isles aboard a small ship, Le Champlain by Ponant. We were so busy at home we really didn't want to go, but we could not get our deposits back. So...what choice did we have? We went through with our plans and hopped aboard the plane for Europe. Here are pictures from our Scotland journey:

Once we were there, we loved it and thought the trip was fabulous. We enjoyed amazing weather for this area and this time of year. Even the locals in both Dublin and Edinburgh were remarking about the weather. They all sported smiles on their somewhat sun burned faces! Here are some pictures of our first tour: 

Edinburgh

Welcome reception and dinner aboard the Royal Yacht Britannia

Queen Elizabeth's cabin. I was tickled to see Corgis placed in many of the ship's rooms.

The Tron Church along the Royal Mile. Many places of worship have lost so many parishioners that the buildings are now used for alternative purposes. This one is a the Hub. It is an event center. 

The site of the Edinburgh Castle has been occupied for centuries, perhaps beginning as early as the Bronze or Iron Ages when wandering peoples built small huts atop the ridge overlooking the river. It has had fortifications on it, some burnt or torn down, with each conquerer building anew, or fortifying existing structures. 

The pet cemetery at the castle of Edinburgh. 

A busker on the Royal Mile playing a Stroh violin. It has a trumpet-like bell for amplification. His dog never moved! There were many bag pipe players, adding to the ambiance of this historic city,

Rosslyn Chapel, built in the 15th century 

The National Museum of Scotland has an eclectic collection. It was thoroughly enjoyable to check out displays on technology, clothing, art, music and more. 

The Millennium Clock is a highlight of the museum. This amazing clock was built, collaboratively,  to represent the last thousand years. with many moving parts of symbols representing events, animals, and stories. Every hour it turns on and I found myself staring at the clock, trying to take in all of the action.

Greyfriar's Bobby faithfully lay on his owner's grave in Edinburgh for 14 years. The town buried Bobby next to his owner. A statue near the graveyard depicts Bobby. Visitors rub his nose for good luck, hence it is so shiny!

Aboard Le Champlain

The ship was beautiful! It has only 92 staterooms, and they are modern and bright, and all have balconies. However, it was a tad bit chilly so we rarely ventured onto our balcony, except to take a picture or two!

The Captain had an "open door" policy on the bridge most days.  It was interesting to see all of the equipment. At least one member of the crew never took eyes off of the sea while we were sailing. no matter how many people were asking questions. 

Shetland Islands - Windy & Chilly

Only a few trees on the open land

Lerwick Harbor

I've always been captivated by the narrow streets of ancient towns.

Of course I'd find a shop that not only sells wool from the Island's sheep, but one that had some quilting cotton as well!

A small harbor in Scalloway

A delightful mackerel fisherman. He explained how he catches and brings up mackerel

Cuddling a Shetland pony. I wanted to take him home with me!

We learned about Shetland sheep. They are a bit smaller than other breeds and are often crossbred with stock that produces a better quality wool. The Shetland sheep require less supervision for lambing than other breeds, so are well suited for life on the hills. We enjoyed a great demonstration of the steps in training sheepdogs.

We were treated to potato soup, seasoned with lamb at a local hotel. It was welcome after being out in the cold wind watching the demonstration. My wee little sheep admired the bread that accompanied the soup.

Orkney Islands

This is an Italian Chapel, built by Italian prisoners during WWII who were brought to the island to build "Churchill Barriers". They claimed they couldn't do work to support the Scottish war efforts, but they agreed that they could work to build causeways among the islands!

The chapel was built from quonset huts. 

All of the "tile work" was created with paint

Lewis Island - The Hebrides

An ancient Broch, or shelter structure. The buildings were tall silo-like structures that houses families and their animals on several floors. 

Stairs were built into the inside wall of the brochs.

A home in Gearranan Blackhouse village house, originally inhabited in the 1850's. The primitive homes were still being used up until 1974.  

The structures were long rectangular buildings with a sloping floor that permitted rain leaking from the roof to drain to the end of the building. Animals were housed in the lower end. Originally, peat fires were burned in fire pits in the center of the open room. 

Isle of Lewis

Our ship is under the rainbow, on the far right

The view from a croft on Isle of Skye

One of two wolf hybrids owned by Yasmin, the crofter.

A Hebridean ewe. 

Highland cattle

Isle of Mull

Stormy skies

Colorful Tobermory village

Duart Castle

We disembarked our beautiful ship and boarded a bus for Glasgow. We had a tour of the city and spent some time at the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum and the cathedral. It was raining heavily most of the day, perfectly matching my mood as our tour was coming to an end. 

 

Go? or No Go?

We Dreamers planned a trip to Europe over a year ago. Shortly after we returned from our 45th Anniversary Celebratory Trip  Our friends, Ranee & Marc contacted us, letting us know that they had such a great time doing a riverboat cruise and liked traveling with us... and would we like to do another trip?! We vacillated... should we?! or.. shouldn't we?! Finally, a few days before the cut-off for a prepaid discount, we laid out the cash.

This is a mega trip for us. The trip begins with a few days in Prague. Then we are bused to the riverboat in Nuremberg. We travel along the Danube to Budapest. We Dreamers did our first riverboat cruise from Budapest to Passau, Germany, in 2006. Holy cow! That's a long time ago! That was long before I even thought of blogging! There will be only a few stops that we have visited previously, and I am sure we will see new things and learn new things.

But.. wait! 

There's more! 

After a few days in Budapest, we will continue along the river heading toward Giurgiu, Romania. (When I return I hope to be able to pronounce the name of the city!) Once we arrive, we will be transported to Bucharest. After a few days exploring that city we will be transported to the airport, our magic fairy wings will be stripped away, and we fly back to San Francisco and our almost mundane lives! (Well... I guess I can't really say that! My life is rich and I am fortunate to be able to enjoy retirement.)

Tuesday night of this past week... just days before our long-planned departure... Mr. Dreamy discovered suddenly  that he could not walk without a great deal of pain. His foot was swollen and the pain was excruciating. He was able to see a Doctor the next morning, and then we motored on to the imaging facility for X-rays. The results determined that he had not broken a bone, and the pain was from a severely strained ankle and foot. What? How? When? Where? He could not recall anything that had happened to cause the injury. But, the swelling indicated something had happened. (To truly add insult to injury, as he was hobbling into the kitchen at our son's house he kicked "the castle". Alexis is standing in the castle in the picture below. It provides a stable platform that allows her to cook with Mom or Dad. )

Thus began the discussion:

Should we go?

Can we go?

Can he walk?

The cruise company is not ADA compliant. Wheel chairs will not work on the ship, or on their tours.
We had purchased insurance policies. We could get a voucher for another trip, and the airline would refund our money with a statement from the doctor ... which we had.

So... we moved on day by day. Not sure what to expect.  Should we stay or should we go now? The Mr. tried EVERYTHING to alleviate swelling and pain. He used ice. He used compression. He used KT Kinesiology tape. He used elevation. He even went to a Medical Marijuana Dispensary here in California (where it is legal) for some pain relieving lotion.
The swelling increased. The pain increased. Then.. by Friday... it seemed that he turned the corner. The swelling began to diminish. The pain in most areas of the foot began to subside. He believed that he could, indeed, make the trip to Europe. So, we packed our suitcases!
We have arranged for a wheel chair at each airport. We are ready to call Uber... or shall we call Lyft?! We are ready to be on our way!
Stay tuned for posts about our voyage!

Along the Seine

It happened on Sunday, May 14...

It's Mother's Day! As if to celebrate "my" day, I began the day with a nice hotel breakfast. Soon after we gathered our belongings and boarded a bus bound for the S.S. Joie de Vivre, the Uniworld ship. This is the newest ship in their fleet and it is magnificent! Did I think to take any pictures of the ship? No! Luckily, other people (including Uniworld) have posted pictures, so I now share some with you!

410 feet long. 37.5 feet wide. 64 cabins. 52 crew to take care of a maximum of 128 passengers. We only had  96 passengers, including 16 travel agents. We wondered if our most excellent service was an effort to impress the agents.

The cabin - spacious with lots of storage! The top half of the window slides all the way down.

This is "La Cave du Vin". We attended a wine tasting here and a cooking class. 

The ship has a swimming pool - the green is the far edge of it. It has a pump so that you can manage laps. The unique thing about the pool is that it can be covered by a floor at the push of a button. Then, it becomes "Claude's" (pictured below). Claude's serves dinner and drinks.  

 

The ship has another dining option in the bow. They have a café menu offered almost all day.

This is a shot of the lounge. Comfortable seating for all. We met here each evening for an overview of the next day. Drinks are served at no additional charge!

I said I didn't take any pictures of the ship... but I just found this shot. I was intrigued by this pile of boxes... all filled with wine and liquor! Uniworld provides wine, beer and liquor for free! On our last cruise in 2010 we had free wine or beer with dinner. Now even drinks in the lounge are free! Our server said that over 30 bottles of wine are consumed at dinner. I know I did my share. The scale says so, too!

After we explored the ship we were treated to our first lunch in the dining room, a fabulous buffet. I don't recall what I ate, exactly, but it was all good! Then, after eating we took a short bus ride to a Seine River Cruise company and had an informative trip along the Seine. Come along with us!

Our river tour went from left to right, and back again.
Can you match the pictures to the images?

Oh, my gosh! Here we go again. After our Paris tour, while cleaning out a closet I came across the painting pictured below that I believe belonged to my grandfather. I didn't recognize the painting, until I reviewed the pictures from our Seine River cruise. There it is!! This is the L'église de la Madeleine, a Catholic church that was finally constructed around 1825. What fun to see it in person... and then in a painting from sometime in the late 1900's. 

Mais oui! Nous sommes à Paris!!