2025 Norway and British Isles

We got up early in order to be ready to leave at our assigned time. Jan called to say they had a table for 4 in Coffee Connection, so we met up with them there and just nibbled for breakfast. One last cappucino for me and double espresso for Michael. Jeffrey and Eric (servers there) always call out "dub-lay" when they see him. Guess he's the only one who has a double espresso. We got to say a last goodbye to Cruise Director Andrew and he suggested we connect on Facebook when I said I didn't know if we'd see him again. He hinted that he may not be doing this job for a whole lot longer (think it has something to do with his recently ex-girlfriend Megan). Last hugs to Jan and Tom and we were off for our transfer to Heathrow airport with a stop for a short tour of Winchester and the Cathedral. Founded in 1097 during the Saxon times, it has undergone several remodels.  In the center with the darker stone, you can see that the windows are rounded.  Later, after t...

 As always happens, our cruise is coming to an end and it's always bittersweet.  We've had a wonderful time and made many new memories.  But as the time to go home draws near, our thoughts turn to home and all that we need to do when we get there and all of our friends and family we need to catch up with. Today we didn't do much again.  When we got back from breakfast, Gahli and I Komang had our suitcases on the bed ready to be packed.  Sigh ... We had one last Trivia game where we came in second with 13/15.  But we didn't really need the points as we had enough for our windbreakers.  They had the exchange right after Trivia and we managed to get there before they ran out of the sizes we wanted.  So now, as Michael says, we can go out and advertise for Regent with our jackets. One last photo of some of the wonderful crew here. L to R.  This is I Putu (our favorite waiter who gives Michael tomato soup that is half tomato and half tomahto), Rey...

 Ringaskiddy is just across the water (the River Lee) from Cobh (pronounced "Cove") where we've been before.  Cobh is famous for being the last place from which the Titanic sailed before heading off for that iceberg. Cork is about a 30-minute drive from its port of Ringaskiddy, where we docked.  Our tour this morning consisted of a bit of a scenic drive around Cork first.  There are lots of pharmaceutical companies in this area, including Pfizer and Lilly, as well as the big tech companies like Apple and Google. We always see these cars in the Irish crime TV shows we watch on BritBox and Acorn. And here's the Garda (Police) station. The River Lee runs through Cork There are some lovely homes in this area. Next we drove up to Middleton to visit the distillery that makes Jameson Irish Whiskey, among others. This is a terrible picture taken from a moving bus.  Back in 1847, during the Irish potato famine, the Choctaw tribe in the US heard about the difficulties the...

 As I mentioned, we had to pass on going to Dublin today due to rough sea conditions.  Apparently, a rather large low pressure system is moving across the northern UK, and strong winds are being recorded everywhere.  We didn't do much today, so I have some photos of the ocean at various stages. This was first thing this morning with very overcast skies.  It almost looks like a black and white photo. A few hours later, it was getting its color back. And here it's almost green in early afternoon.  Well, we are in the Irish Sea after all. Although we learned from our guide in Belfast that the Irish really don't celebrate St. Patrick's Day like we do in America.  They're starting to a bit more, but mostly for the American tourists.  And St. Patrick didn't wear green.  He actually wore white robes with a blue sash. And then later in the afternoon, it was back to a nice blue. You can't really tell from the pictures, but it was quite choppy, and it would...

 Once again we had the same tour as Jan and Tom, so we got on the same bus for the drive to the Grey Abbey.  There are different stories about how it got the name.  One says its from the grey garments worn by the monks.  Another says it was from the many crows that would settle on the roof making it look gray from a distance.  I forget all of the details, but it was founded in 1193 by a woman in thanks to God for delivering her safely to land after a storm at sea. The guides are all volunteers and they were good, if a bit talkative.  One of them took the part of a monk and shared information in the form of a quiz. What it looked like when it was operating. Here's the "monk" The ruins were impressive                                       The original abbey had an herb garden for medicinal purposes which has been moved now to the other side near ...