Normandy Beaches...

...and a surprise ending to the trip.

We awoke on Saturday morning to somewhat cloudy skies and cool temperatures, but even the disembodied clearance announcement voice was saying that the expected high temperature for the day would be about 22 degrees - and for once he wasn't calling for rain!

We had spent part of Friday afternoon getting a head start on the packing, since today's tour to the landing beaches in Normandy would be a long day and not allow much time before dinner to get it all done. And so, knowing we were prepared ahead of schedule, we set out for the last two-hour one-way bus ride of this trip. We haven't even tried to add up all the time we spent on tour buses; it would probably boggle the mind!

We had thought we'd have to travel a good way up the Seine River before we'd be able to cross to the western side and head toward the beaches. We hadn't, however, considered that the French would be one step ahead of us. Only a short distance outside of the huge port at Le Havre, we came upon le Pont Normandie, the Normandy Bridge, that crosses only about 6 miles below the mouth of the Seine, and very close to the old town of Honfleur. If you go back to the posts from our river cruise in 2009, you'll see our photos of the town - from which Samuel de Champlain departed when he sailed down the St. Lawrence River and founded Quebec.

 

The only problem we noticed with the bridge was that, although the rest is state-of-the-art, it still had manual toll collectors that tended to back things up a little. Something that we would really notice on the way back.  Once across the bridge, we set off toward the beach area.

 

When traveling through some of the small towns near the beaches, it was easy to see that the locals still show a lot of appreciation for the efforts and the losses that the Allies Forces experienced on D-Day; there are quite a few homes with British, American and Canadian flags flying along with their own. It certainly does give a person pause to look out over the rolling hillside, now covered with wheat or flax or cattle or sheep, and try to picture how it must have looked when the troops marched and rolled across the same land after having finally conquered the beachhead and the cliffs to fight for France's freedom.

 

The first memorial of sorts we passed was at Juno Beach, where there is a Canadian museum to the D-Day effort made by our forces. This is the new building:

 

Our first actual stop was in the town of Arromanche, where the Allies built the Mulberry Harbour to support the ground troops moving through France. Larry had, of course, been rereading (for the twelfth time perhaps) Stephen Ambrose's book, D-Day, so he was quite well-versed on the whole operation. Good thing, since our tour guide was great when she was reading from her prepared script about D-Day, but had lots of trouble answering off-the-cuff questions posed by our bus-mates. So although Larry only had an audience of one (guess who) when we looked over the caissons now half-submerged at high tide, whenever anyone around us had a question, he was quite ready to answer it.

 

We had some extra time around the town, and took a few more photos. Unlike many of the other towns in the beach area, Arromanche was not destroyed by the Germans or by the bombing from naval forces. It had been liberated from the land side at the same time as the Allies pretty much destroyed the German air forces, so most of the old buildings date back before the war.

 

After Arromanche, we had lunch at an absolutely gorgeous old farmhouse outside the town. It is now a small hotel, and the buildings themselves date back to the 14th century. Lunch was French cheese that is sliced and for all intents broiled to warm and soften it. Delicious! Our main course was a local staple: Poulet à la Normande, chicken breast in a mushroom cream sauce, served with boiled fingerling potatoes, veggies and a half a baked apple. The apple was really no surprise, as Normandy is known as the apple orchard capital of France, and the département we were in, Calvados, is renowned for the apple-based brandy that bears the region's name. Calvados is made from fermenting apple cider the same way as you would ferment grape juice to make brandy. Here are a few photos of the farm:

 

Another beautiful house in the country

 

After lunch, we headed off to the American Cemetery at Omaha Beach, the beach at Vierville, and Pointe d'Hoc. We had been to all these places before, but this time instead of walking down to the beach at Omaha, we spent some more time at the top, looking at the memorials and some of the gravestones. There was even one whose name Larry recognized from some of his reading on the event. Rather than rehashing the full descriptions, we'll just post a few photos:

The diarama overlooking Omaha Beach

 

The Monument to the US 'Big Red One' at Omaha

The monument on the beach at Vierville to the US National Guard unit
that lost 85% of its men on D-Day

Overlooking Pointe d'Hoc. Each of these craters was caused
by a shell fired from at sea, most from the US battleship 'Texas'.

The cliffs that the US Rangers scaled using
rope ladders and the like.

Walking back to the bus at the end of the tour, we agreed that we were officially finished, for this trip anyway, with long tours that required a lot of walking sandwiched between long bus rides. This had been quite a busy itinerary with very little downtime. Next time we're in the British Isles - and we will definitely be back - we're going to tour around our port cities. Most of them have Hop On Hop Off Bus tours that would fit the bill perfectly!

Our last evening on board was actually quite relaxed. We had put our luggage out before dinner, saving the one small suitcase to carry off with us so  we wouldn't have to try to cram our clothes and things into our carry-ons. We had met a really nice couple from Sydney, Australia when we happened to be seated at the same table two nights before. We met them again at the wine bar on Friday and all dinner together for a second night. Then, as if Fate had decreed that we hadn't spent enough time together (7:30 until 10:00, being almost the last ones out of the dining room both nights), they happened to be waiting for a table at the same time we were, and the hostess seated us together again! We're pretty sure the staff couldn't wait to see the backs of us for this cruise, since we were there until 10:00 for the third night in a row!

Bright and early at 8:00 this morning, Eddie, our driver, was waiting to drive us to the airport. We had asked if there would be enough time to make a bit of a detour. He agreed and, instead of going directly to Heathrow, we took a scenic drive through Wiltshire (another one of those areas Monica has wanted to see) to run through the town of Salisbury. The whole area, not just the city, bear a closer look, but here are some pictures of what we saw:

The gate into the Cathedral Close in Salisbury

One of the beautiful houses in rural Wiltshire

A manor house

We stopped for a few minutes outside the Bridge Inn overlooking the River Avon. Eddie was joking that the ducks have started to recognize his car, since they showed up almost as soon as we got out!

 

 

 

Swans on the river

And after that, our next stop was the highlight of the morning, and one of those places that you never think you'll actually get to see - Stonehenge.

Although the photos you always see make it look absolutely immense, in fact it is really rather small, and this was Larry's first comment. The highest stones are about 30 feet high, including the lintels at the top. But still the engineering and technology that they used 3,000 years ago when it was built are still amazing. As is the fact that its true use is still a mystery all these years later. We spent about a half hour walking around and taking photos before climbing back into the bus for the trip to the airport.

We are finally posting this from home. Although we started working on this post at the airport there wasn't enough time to finish it, and no power plug for the computer on the plane so we could finish writing before the battery ran out, and post at home.

So, once again, we hope you enjoyed our reports and pictures as much as we enjoyed writing and deciding which would be our 'blog shots'. See you next time in southern California as we do the Pacific Coast Drive and a coastal cruise with Norm and Barb.

 

Scotland the More or Less Sunny

When you think of Scotland, the mind's eye pictures low-hanging clouds over misty, rainy hills, and that is exactly what the ship's weather forecast called for. Of course, that forecast has not been correct once since we got onboard, and Monday in Glasgow was no exception. While it wasn't exactly sunny, neither was it rainy, or misty, or even particularly cool!

We had our second private tour booked for Glasgow, and promptly at 8:30 we were met by Colin, our driver/guide, in his almost brand new silver London Cab. This one was eight months new, and while still equipped with a bench seat and two jump seats, it had a bit more legroom and more comfortable jump seats than our previous London Cabs. A word on the cabs: They are not just called "London Cabs", they are actually built by the London Cab Company specifically for the cab trade in the UK, and the exterior styling has not changed significantly since before the Second World War! In some respects they are more utilitarian than stylish, but they are more comfortable than many larger North American cabs we have been in and the drivers are infinitely friendlier. Unlike in many countries, cab driving in the UK is an honourable profession, not something you do when you can't find anything else, and drivers are highly trained and individually licensed. In London, for instance, the final licensing exam is a road test that requires a driver to find an address, given to him by the examiner, by the most efficient route and without reference to a map!

 

Our tour in Glasgow was the Robbie Burns Trail, a trip down the west coast to Ayr, the birthplace of the famous Scottish poet/novelist. Our driver Colin had a pleasant Scottish brogue, and quite the sense of humour, a good thing to have when dealing with Michel and Larry! The coast drive is quite scenic with a number of quaint small towns along the way. Noticing that Troon, where one of the British Open courses is located, was on the map near Ayr, we asked if we could go for a look and Colin was happy to accommodate us. Troon is actually a picturesque small town that many Glaswegians visit for weekends out. The golf course is one of those seaside links courses that gave the pros fits last time the Open was played there. While we couldn't see much of the course, we did get a few pictures of the course itself and the club house.

As well, the course the British Open was played on this year is nearby - Turnberry. We passed right by and, although it was difficult to see through the trees, here's a glimpse of one of the fairways:

 

Continuing on our way, we arrived, after a map consultation (Colin admitting he had not been down this way in several years) in the town of Ayr, a small Scottish town on the banks of the Doon River. The town was first settled about 1000 years ago, and is what you think of when you think of an old UK town, stone houses and cottages, overhung with ivy amidst beautiful gardens. Our first stop was the cottage where Burns was born, a surprisingly large, thatched roofed/stone walled structure with a garden out front. Not sure if the garden goes back to the mid-1700's, but the cottage certainly did.

             

 

From the cottage, we followed "The Burns Path", stopping at the Auld Kirk, the ancient church, now in ruins, with the graveyard that formed the basis for more than a few Burns tales. While he is not buried there, the grave of his parents is just inside the gate.

 

From the Kirk, we proceeded to Poet's Walk, a large park in the centre of the town. Each of the light standards had its own Burns-themed weather vane on top, and along the path were monuments to Burns, including this cute little guy, the "hero" of the poem "Ode to a Mouse"!

          

One of the stones along the path reading 'Who shall be our poet
now', alluding to the fact that Robbie Burns was a poet
of the people, writing in both Scottish and English.

               

Larry and his new mouse buddy!

The walk next took us to the Burns Monument, a large stone structure surrounded by beautiful gardens, and, wait for it...................scaffolding!! Yes, as with what seems like every monument in the world we have ever seen, the Burns monument was covered in scaffolding! The structure is a  hundred years old and, according to the lady in the ticket office, in need of repair. The scaffolding had only recently gone up (surprise, surprise!) so that restorers could do a survey of the work required. Oh well, at least the gardens were beautiful, and they lead us to the subject of another Burns poem, the bridge over the Doon River, or Brig O'Doon, a beautiful old stone arched bridge.

The River Doon from the 'Brig'. We couldn't
find a good spot to get a good photo of
the bridge itself.

Our walk finally brought us to the Burns Museum, a collection of all things Robbie Burns, where we also had lunch.  The museum exhibits include originals of his poetry and manuscripts, details of his life and family, letters he wrote to various friends, and a 'Burns Jukebox' with playlist of about 30 songs Robbie Burns wrote, including the perennial favourite 'Auld Lang Syne'. Whatever song you choose to hear becomes the background music throughout the whole exhibition hall.

              

We snuck this photo of the first exhibit in the
museum - Robbie's writing desk with
pages of manuscript floating around it.

Once back in the cab, we headed back toward Glasgow and some more familiar territory for Colin. We had enough time before we needed to be back on the ship for him to give us something of a city tour. This is another city that will bear a closer look on another visit to Scotland. Among the sites we saw are the Glasgow People's Museum, which is more a history of the city and how it developed (mainly based on the slave and cotton trades in the 1800s) than a museum of art and artifacts, the Doulton Fountain, built in 1888, and which is the largest terracotta fountain in the world, and the Glasgow Cathedral.

The People's Museum and Botanic Garden. It is on the
edge of the Glasgow Green, that used to be a hunting
ground but was given to the people as a huge park.

The Doulton Fountain

Glasgow Cathedral - note the scaffolding
to the right...

Cathedral interior

University of Glasgow

One of the main buildings - and, yes, MORE scaffolding!

 

Kelvingrove Museum

By the time we left Greenock, the skies had lightened quite a bit and any slight drizzle we'd had while in Glasgow had all but disappeared.

 

 

After Glasgow, we finally had a sea day (and an opportunity to update the blog, as you can see from our previous post). It was actually quite a gorgeous day, not at all what we were expecting for a sail around the top of Scotland, where the seas would generally be rougher from the melding of the North Sea and the Atlantic Ocean and we figured it would be more likely that we'd see those dark and ominous clouds hanging over the coastline. This is what we ended up with:

For those of you who are wondering why we haven't included many photos of the food, it's just because, although the food has been very good in both the dining room and the buffets (yes, we have actually eaten buffets for dinner a couple of times) the presentation hasn't been overly inspired. Rather than making dinner an event of sorts to end the day, it seems to be just another meal - get them in, feed them, and turn the table around for the next people. Perhaps this is a function of the Anytime Dining concept, but we've found that there isn't anything special about eating in the dining room on this cruise, even on 'formal nights'.

So onward we go to our next Scottish port: Invergordon, for Inverness. Here we had booked a ship's tour that took us to Culloden Moor, Loch Ness and Urquhart Castle.

Our lone piper on the pier as we arrive.

   

Culloden Moor is the site of the last hand-to-had combat on British soil, between the English and the Scots, that took place in 1745 between the Duke of Cumberland on the English side and 'Bonnie Prince Charlie', head of the rebel Jacobites. The whole dispute was about bloodlines and who should rightfully succeed to the British throne, the Stuarts or the Hannovers. After this battle, which only lasted about an hour but resulted in 1,500 Jacobite deaths, the Stuarts were pretty much done as far as becoming the royal line. Prince Charlie ended up in exile on the Isle of Skye, having escaped the mainland by disguising himself as a lady's maid to Flora MacDonald, .

There were so many dead during the battle that
the local townsfolk who came out to the field
buried the men in mass graves according to their
clan, which they identified either by from knowing
the individuals or from their clan tartans.

A cottage on the moor, apparently used by the English forces
as a sort of field hospital for the battle. The Jacobites
had no such help.

          
 After lunch at a local hotel, we headed off to our next stop, a cruise on Loch Ness! Expecting something more along the lines of "mist and fog", what we got was yet another UK lake that looked kind of like Lake Simcoe, only long and narrow. And not a SINGLE monster sighting! At one point Larry wanted to stand up and start pointing over the rail (we were on the top deck of the tour boat) just to see if he could get some excitement going, but decided it might give some of the older folks a heart attack if he did! Some pictures;

The cruise ended at the ruins of Urquhart Castle, located about the mid-point of the Loch. There has been a "castle" of some description at this site since about 1200. As it is located at something of a narrow "waist" in the loch, back in the days before roads, whoever controlled this site also controlled "traffic" on the  loch.  As a result the castle had grown over the years from a small settlement to a heavily fortified position that changed hands numerous times in battles over the 500 years before the Act of Union between England and Scotland finally unified the kingdoms. After the late 1700's, and the advent of roads,  the importance of the location gradually declined and it fell into disuse and disrepair.   

A piper playing at Urquhart Castle. Actually very nice and
appropriate music, but he must have gotten really bored
really quickly retracing those same twenty steps between
the ruined castle walls...

The view from one of the 'kitchen' windows.

Ooh, look who was here!!

Larry trying to call Nessie up from the deep. Guess the tune to
'Hey, moosie, moosie' doesn't work when you're trying to
attract a plesiosaur.

Some of the sights on the way back to the ship:

One of the Scottish rivers (sorry, will have to look up the name later, we've seen
so many) famous for flyfishing for salmon and trout.

Seals basking on the shores of the Cromarty Firth. We had actually seen
some seals out in the water as we sailed around the top of Scotland.

  

A streetcorner mural in Invergordon. Part of the
rejuvenation of the port town.

One of the points of Cromarty Firth into the sea.

       

 Thursday we made our final Scottish stop in South Queensferry, for Edinburgh and for once the weather forecast of clouds/rain was unfortunately correct! Opening the blinds, we were greeted by the Scotland we had more or less expected, mist/fog, low clouds and a light mist in the air! Edinburgh is located in the Firth of Forth and is a tender port for a ship this size. The Firth of Forth rail bridge, the oldest steel rail bridge in the world, built in 1890, crosses just to the east of Edinburgh itself, and while most cargo ships, and smaller cruise ships can sail under it, our 110,000 behemoth cannot, so we anchored in the approaches, about a 15 minute tender ride to the pier.

Sailing down the Firth of Forth in the early morning.

 Our tour today was Glamis (pronounced Glams) Castle and St. Andrew's, so after tendering ashore, we loaded up in our buses and headed off on the two hour (everything is two hours away by bus on this itinerary!) trip to the castle. This was true Scottish countryside, made to feel even more so as we drove over and around hill and dale, in and out of fog and light rain.

Passing through many old Scottish towns, with their traditional stone homes and cottages, we arrived at Glamis Castle, the ancestral home of the Queen Mother. Unlike a few we have seen, Glamis looks like a castle, complete to the half-mile long  driveway from the ornate iron front gates to the somewhat less ornate front door. The castle is actually the ancestral home of the Earl of Strathmore, one of whom was actually the father of the Queen Mum. While the current Earl still lives on the grounds, the castle itself is more of a ceremonial home now and while it is still decorated pretty much the way it was when the Queen Mum left for the last time (she apparently hated change and insisted nothing be moved)  rooms can even be rented for private functions. Pictures were not permitted inside the castle, but we were able to take these pictures (between the raindrops) of the outside.

The second stop of the tour was the village of St. Andrews, famed as the Birthplace of Golf, the Old Course at St. Andrew's. Oh yes, and also the location of St. Andrew's University where some guy named William met some girl named Kate.

Ruins of the St. Andrew's Cathedral. Actually St. Andrews started
out as a settlement of the Norse invaders, but Queen Margaret,
who was married to King Malcolm way back when, brought
Christianity to the Scots and renamed it.

One of the St. Andrews University quadrangles, now
famous for its matchmaking.

For our purposes, we were there to see the golf course, probably the most famous in golf. And also (unknown to us at the time we picked this tour) the site of the 2013 Womens' British Open tournament, which started that day! Our guide had warned us of this when the tour started and we really didn't know until we got there whether they would even be able to enter the town, never mind park the bus! Fortunately, between the light rain, and that fact it was first round, traffic was not that heavy, so after a brief bus tour of the town, we had about two hours to wander on our own, do the required shopping for "logo wear" and get lunch.

Not the greatest photo, but you get the idea.
The haddock and chips were fantastic, and
so was Larry's burger!

We have to say that it was the weirdest feeling to sit in a pub and watch the golf on numerous TVs screens, knowing that the actual tournament was being played not more than a block away from where we were in real time!

After hitting a couple of golf shops, we had a nice pub lunch and even had time to take some pictures of the course. While much of the area  we around the 18th green was cordoned off by fences and logo banners for Ricoh (the tournament sponsor) we were able to walk down the road between the Old Course Hotel and the 18th green. We even watched one threesome putt out!

The 18th fairway and the famous Swilcan Bridge.

 

Loaded back in the buses on the road behind the 18th green, we headed back for the ship on the ONE road out of town. Our guide told us that while the Womens' Open attracts about 20,000 visitors/day on the weekend, the Mens' Open attracts 40,000 every day, including the practice rounds, and it can take as long as an hour to make the 200 yard drive from the bus pick up area to traffic circle at the main road!

The trip back through yet more traditional Scottish countryside was uneventful, and the sun even came out, making for a rather pleasant tender ride back to the ship. Of course, tendering is not the most efficient way to move people between ship and shore, and everybody (i.e. 1000 people) thinks they can get on the 'last tender' to the ship (holding about 200 people each). So there were really about 5 'last tenders' making our scheduled 6:15 departure more a general approximation than a reality. We did finally leave at 7:30 for the journey to our final port stop in Le Havre, France on Saturday morning.

This island's claim to fame is that Mary, Queen of Scots
was held prisoner in that tower for a year before her cousin
Elizabeth I sent her to England and she was eventually
executed.

The famous Forth Bridge, built in 1880.

The requisite 'ticky, tacky, tourist picture'
of the Caribbean Princess, taken while
we waited for our tender on the quayside.

So today (Friday), after a very nice In-Suite Deluxe Champagne breakfast we have spent a leisurely day at sea...working on this blog post!  But that's okay, because it was too cool and windy to sit by the pool, and none of the onboard activities sounded that interesting. And now, since our tour tomorrow is (surprise!) an all day affair returning to the ship at 6:30 PM, we must start doing some packing.