Edinburgh, Scotland, UK – July 31






castle

Partly cloudy, 18 degrees

We have no tour booked today, so we disembark the ship at our own pace. Edinburgh is a tendered port, so we are anchored off of the coast and take a 10 minute tender into the port - South Queensferry. South Queensferry is a town or suburb of Edinburgh about ten miles to the north west of the city centre, on the shore of the Firth of Forth.



approaching shore in the tender



thick foliage, steep climb

Once ashore we must hike (yes, hike) and then take a train into Edinburgh. The hike we take to get to the train station is through a forest and straight up. The first thing that strikes me when we step foot into the forest is how beautiful it is here. The forest is incredibly lush and thick with enormous trees and ivy – I don’t really know if it’s ivy, but it looks like it and lots of the trees have their trunks entirely covered by the it. I wonder if the entire country is like this? It gives a cozy, relaxing, comfortable feeling. I could get used to this.






thick foliage

Once we accomplish the hike to the station the ride is about 15 minutes to the heart of Edinburgh. Their Fringe Festival starts in the next couple of days and the Tatoo after that, so the place is bustling with street performers and tourists. I suspect that in the touristy area where we were is bustling a lot of the time.


thick foliage

We visit Edinburgh Castle, the Royal Mile, shop a bit, eat lunch and wander around taking in the sights and sounds of the city.

We are back on the ship by about 4:30 and set sail for Inverness at about 7. It was a lovely warm day.

As I suspect is obvious I am having 'issues' with pictures.




Chris in his element



building looks like it sprouted from the tree

bridge and our ship in the distance

castle

Day at Sea, Sailing the North Sea – July 30

Partly cloudy to clear at the end of the day, and 17 degrees


plenty of room


We are spending our day at sea today sailing for Edinburgh where we will arrive tomorrow morning. However much I enjoy sighting and visiting new places, I LOVE days at sea. They are the epitome of ‘carefree-ness” My biggest decision to make today was to take a nap at the pool or in the room – life is rough.




tight squeeze

Yesterday when we arrived we asked for 2 loungers for our balcony but were told that ‘loungers were only provided in the Caribbean’. WHAT??? The entire reason we booked this specific room was so that we had an over-sized balcony that accommodate lounge chairs. After a bit of ‘negotiating’ on Chris’ part we got a couple. These were put to good use this morning. It’s incredible how hot the sun is and how cool/cold the shade is especially considering that the temperature is apparently 17 degrees.

There are many activities to participate in today from Bridge (I have no idea how to play) to wine tasting, to shuffleboard (yes, shuffleboard), but we choose to make our own entertainment consisting of reading, eating and napping - relaxing.



we are ambitious

moving in

We discover there are a few of the staff on board who we know from last year-  in fact there is one casino worker we know from a couple of years back when we were on the sister cruise line to this one.

I thought this would be a good place for some ship shots.

Southampton, England, UK - July 29

octopus appetizer

Partly cloudy, some showers and 20 degrees

Today is a travel day; we leave Winchester, and move on to Southampton to board the boat for the next 12 days. The journey is about 20 minutes by cab. Boarding is very simple, and it is only about an hour and a half after we leave Winchester that we are sipping our celebratory glass of champagne – not too bad for a travel day.


As expected our room isn’t ready until about 2:30, but that gives us time to eat lunch and take a cat-nap next to the pool.  The weather is mostly delightful – there was a brief shower in the morning before we left which shortened my last terrace session at the hotel.
 

lamb

After unpacking and the safety drill it is time for dinner. Tonight’s meal is Italian - at one of the 4 restaurants on board that require a reservation. I have an octopus appetizer which is very good – very thinly sliced octopus with a bit of olive oil. The one thing that stood out to me about the octopus was the size of each piece. Each piece must have been sliced from a tentacle 4 or 5 inches in diameter, seems pretty big to me.

Tomorrow is a sea day, so we visit the casino after dinner. I won $1.75 on video poker!!

Hotel du Vin – Winchester

sitting room

A bit on our hotel…this is a lovely place. From the moment we walked through the doors I was charmed. It is a Georgian building dating from 1715 – I’m not sure what the building’s original function was, but the complex consists of a few small buildings. There are only 24 rooms none with room numbers but all with names based on wines – ours is Freixenet. We have a lovely sitting terrace outside of our door which is along a pathway lined with huge trees, shrubberies, smaller plants and flowers – delightful! This is the perfect spot to spend a few days before the cruise.

Winchester, England, UK – July 28





Arthur's Round Table

Winchester day 4

Today is our last in Winchester and we have a few tourist spots yet to hit. The first is King Arthur’s Round Table in The Great Hall - the only remaining part of Winchester Castle. There’s not much to this, but it is an attraction of Winchester and we are in Winchester so we check it out, it dates from the 13^th century.

Another of Winchester’s attractions is its cathedral. Winchester Cathedral is Europe’s longest medieval Cathedral, here we wander around the grounds a bit as it is Sunday and services prevent us from checking out the interior.






cathedral grounds


Another of Winchester’s claims to fame is being home to the house where Jane Austin died – which of course we walk past. It is basically a plaque on a wall on a house. This is a private house now.

We some how find ourselves at a pub and tuck in to our version of Sunday lunch – fish and chips. Not before getting a bit of a drenching with a short lived downpour – NOTHING like yesterday – NOTHING, but enough to make us thankful for our umbrella. I really appreciate the pub culture here – filled with kids, dogs, old, young, and plenty of characters. We have seen more than one group of “little-old-ladies” out for a rye and ginger at their local. Of course it’s a culture of drinking, but seems more of socializing and getting out – at least that is what it seems like to me.



cathedral

We also wandered through Winchester’s farmers’ market and ate our first water buffalo burger – I’m pretty sure it was beef.




Although we put in a valiant effort, in the end our efforts were in vain to spend our last afternoon here on our patio. The rain kept coming – oh and nap time did at one point steal my attention. I did my best to get in some post nap-time blogging out there, but once again Mother Nature got the best of me. When we were able to sit out there we were able to hear the hotel’s jazz group playing in the courtyard – cool




waiting for Sunday lunch



Dinner tonight was at our hotel. The surroundings couldn’t be more attractive for dinner or a drink.




passing the time waiting for Sunday lunch

pub from  other side of the canal

Dinner at the hotel was underwhelming so we had to go out for one last pint.

Winchester, England, UK – July 27

waiting out the rain - gorgeous scenery even in the rain

Day 3 here in Winchester.

Rain with a high of 22 degrees

Stonehenge was the main attraction today although Mother Nature came in a close second! The day began with a leisurely morning on the terrace under a hot and sunny sky despite a forecast of 100% chance of rain. It was hard to believe that the day would end with us returning to the hotel as 2 drowned rats, but that was what the day had in store for us.




rain stopped for a brief moment

It was about an hour’s train ride from Winchester to get to Salisbury which is the departure point for Stonehenge. We hop on to a HOHO (hop-on-hop-off) bus for a tour of Salisbury and anther 8K on to Stonehenge. Stonehenge was pretty much exactly as we had expected – a busy site wandering around the prehistoric monoliths that make up the site. We spent

Salisbury cathedral

 about an hour there which was plenty. We hopped on the HOHO back to Salisbury for lunch and a visit to the city’s cathedral.  The Anglican cathedral dates back to the 13^th century and is the tallest church spire in the UK and the world’s largest clock.

Stonehenge



my kind of commute

We take the train back to Winchester  and walk back to the hotel in the torrential rain to get ready for dinner. By the time we are heading out for dinner the rain has weakened.

Winchester, England, UK – July 26

terrace outside our room

Hotel du Vin

 I’m pretty sure we slept for at least 10 hours last night – I don’t really know when we went to sleep…I remember sitting in bed watching a bit of TV and the next thing I knew it was the morning. We were tired by the end of the day yesterday, but I don’t think THAT tired. Jet-lag I guess or vacation. 




We take a leisurely morning reading the paper and blogging outside on our terrace. The fact that our room has a terrace and a Nespresso coffee machine makes this room priceless in my mind.



room

Our first stop after the Winchester travel info office is the Bishop on the Bridge pub that we noticed yesterday. This is a bustling place right beside the Itchen River and the town’s river-walk. Fortunately we are there early enough to get a table river-side for a couple pints and lunch. The pub culture is lovely – old and young (including children), men and women, human and animal (plenty of dogs here) chatting, drinking, eating and enjoying each other’s company. So far we have paid around 6 dollars for a pint.

We finally make it to a grocery store for sundries and back to the room for some terrace time. We are taking advantage of what looks like the tail end of England’s heat wave – rain is forecasted for tomorrow; I suspect (hope) that it isn’t a Calgary torrential, capable of flooding rain (nope I haven’t forgotten…yet), but a misty, British, romantic rain.

Winchester, England, UK – July 25

blogging

After an overnight flight from Calgary-Vancouver-London we were thrilled to find ourselves at our Winchester hotel after a LONG travel day. I thankfully slept more on this flight than I probably ever have on a plane (6 of the 9 hours) – the steak and few glasses of wine likely didn’t hurt. Winchester is about an hour south of London, so by the time we arrive it is about 3:00 and we aren’t dead tired. Hmmm…what to do?? Let’s see…we think a pub is in order. We stroll around a bit and find ourselves at the Wykeham Arms. I am thrilled to find a cider,  Stowford Press here that is delightful. This pub is what I have in my mind as a typical British pub, with the requisite cast of characters. One older man when asked how he was when entering the pub replied “fairly suicidal” – I’m pretty sure and certainly hope this was a joke everyone laughed.

After a bit more strolling, another pint and dinner we are done for the day.

Winchester will be our base for the next 4 days until our cruise begins on Monday.

Isles and Fjords cruise, London to London

Chris and I are off on vacation in a few days for 3 weeks, travelling from London to London.  We will be spending a few days in Winchester which in the South East of England before boarding the Oceania Marina for a 12 day cruise through ports in England, Scotland, Norway, and Ireland. We are ending our vacation in New York where we will spend a few days before returning to Canada.