Trip of a lifetime Falmouth, England

People catching a bite to eat at a downtown coffee house.
I love the fact that there is always lots of color as you look down a row of houses.The countryside is beautiful here and once again we are blessed with a clear day.

We did not tour this castle because we will be doing a castle tour or two with Jim and Jane.

Guinness everywhere.

This was actually a personal residence in town.

Downtown Falmouth about every third shop was a bakery. It was difficult to get very far fast under those circumstances.

These two did a great imitation of the Everly Brothers.

This is a fig filled bar which was out of this world.

One of many bakeries.

We are now up to May 19th. We arrived early in the morning and instead of rushing into town we decided to catch up the washing and ironing in their laundry room. Of course, the reason for doing it that morning was because we thought everyone else would be going in town right away.
As it turns out a lot of other people had the same idea. We were able to get it all done and then we went into town. This is a port that had to Tender us in. It was about a 20 min. boat ride in and back. Another day of good weather. It's been cool but no rain. God has been good. We plan to pack when we get home late afternoon because tomorrow we go to Paris and it will be a very full day. We're assuming we won't feel much like packing by the end of the day. One more day and I'll finally get to see Jane.

Most of the ship excursions today were to Cornwall but we decided to just tour Falmouth. You really have to pick and choose your excursions because they can really add up. Lee and I have done most of our touring on our own. After all, when we get off the ship we still have a month of touring ahead.

Tonight is lobster dinner and a really good show so it will be the perfect end to another wonderful day.

Trip of a lifetime Holyhead, Wales

Holyhead was an unusual port. The road from the ship off the port was so narrow the only way out was on one of their shuttle buses. We had them drop us off in town but there was not a lot to see in the little town. After spending s short amount of time there, we decided to walk to the "Country Park" and then to the top of Holyhead mountain.

This is an old rock quarry no longer functioning.

A deserted castle on the way to the trail up the mountain.

As you can see there is not much to the town.

This was one of the highlights in town a very unusual looking church.

This cute little girl was singing lilting Celtic music as we left.

We had a wonderful hike up the mountain.The day was warm and sunny who would have expected a warm , sunny, day in
Wales. The view from the top was beautiful. The only thing that would have made the day even better is having Nicky along for the hike.

You can see the trail up in the picture above. My knee is doing great!! I have had no problem walking for long periods of time or hiking.

I had hoped to put in a video of the view from the top of the mountain but it will not upload right now. I will try again later. We probably walked about 7 miles today but what a lovely day to do it.

Trip of a lifetime Greenock, Scotland

May 17th we arrived in Greenock, Scotland at 8:00 AM. to the tune of bagpipes. This port town once hosted 8 ship building companies and 7 sugar factories. The town was heavily bombed during the war and today only one shipbuilding company remains and the sugar factories are gone. The town is trying very hard to put in place a downtown shopping area that will keep the visitors in town. They also provided a free bus tour of the city. The shore excursions through the cruise line were mostly trips to Glasgow. We decided to tour Greenock. We spent the morning walking the downtown area and looking in the shops and the afternoon taking the bus tour of the city.

Isn't this building like something your imagination comes up with when you read a Fairy Tale?

Scotland's equivalent of the dollar store.

Can't find a shop window like this at home.

Statue in downtown area. When the sun hits it really shines.

This is the James Watt free house now a public building.

We were taken on a tour of the inside of the building. It was beautiful.

When the Queen visits there is a room set aside for her visit in this building complete with her own private toilet.

A ship building company actually moved this church from it's first location. They took it apart stone by stone and rebuilt it. The process took 3 years.

This was taken at the top of a hill looking down over the port of Greenock.


We wish this little port well. We had a very pleasant day there and the people were very friendly.

Trip of a lifetime Dublin, Ireland

The port at Dublin is just a port. There is no port town to explore one must go into the city by shuttle. All my life I've read novels in which the Irish pubs were often the center of socializing. I had always said that if I ever went to Ireland I would go in one of those pubs and have a Guinness. For those of you who know me this is a big deal because I am not a drinker. Featured above is the Manchester football team having a few in the bar we chose to go in.
Lee explained to the bar tender that this was a very unusual experience for me and the bartender insisted that I come behind the bar and have a picture taken with him. He also asked us to send a picture to him when we got home.

This is the little bar we walked in and the people inside were very warm and welcoming and having a lot of fun with this woman from the USA who had never had a Guinness.

From the USA it is overwhelming to come across a church with so much history. The catacombs in this church were fascinating.

Christ Church Cathedral

This is to Dublin, Ireland what Central Park is to New York City. A beautiful little park in the heart of the city. We were in the park at noon time and many of the cities business workers were in there for lunch. The following day they were anticipating their visit from Queen Elizabeth. Streets were being closed off and their were security officers everywhere.
We have found the Irish people to be very warm and very helpful as we toured the city. We must have walked at least about 4 hours that day. Returned to the ship that night to another nice dinner and show.

Fresh flowers on every street corner.

Some really unusual bridges.

You just don't see buildings like this in America!!!

You can see we would need to do a lot of walking to cover the city in 4 hours. We looked and looked for a place to buy decaf coffee. Even the McDonald's in Dublin did not have decaf coffee. We finally went in a specialty coffee shop and asked if they had decaf coffee and they said," You mean and American coffee?"

Just look at the brick walkways.

Every corner has another beautiful view and as much as you try, your camera cannot capture it.