August 21st

Twelve years ago today, my mother passed away.

Six years ago today, my father passed away.

I will always miss them.

Hard to Believe

I'm finding it hard to believe that school starts tomorrow.

Probably because Scott didn't get out of school until June 24th. That means his summer vacation this year will be just short of 2 months.

I'm also finding it hard to believe that my baby will be a senior this year. A senior. Which means he will be graduating, and my years of having kids in public school will be over. Forever.

It's going to be a bittersweet sort of year.

Home Port - Southampton, England

In the early morning of July 28th, we arrived back in Southampton. Our cruise was over. Since we had to get to Heathrow Airport for late afternoon flights, we decided to take advantage of one last shore excursion - to Stonehenge.

Our tour guide showed us some interesting sights along the way. Here's just one of the herd of wild horses that roams the countryside in southeastern England.

We also saw some traditional thatched houses. So pretty to look at, but I think I prefer shingles for my own house!
We stopped in the small town of Salisbury so we could see the Salisbury Cathedral. Too bad so much of it was covered in scaffolding.
Then it was on to Stonehenge. It was as amazing as I imagined it would be.




Proof that Robert and I were there!
After leaving Stonehenge, our tour guides took a little detour so we could drive by Windsor Castle, one of the royal residences of the Queen.
It was a whirlwind morning and early afternoon, followed by a long flight back to Houston, but I'm so glad we did that last excursion. I had always wanted to see Stonehenge and I didn't know if I would ever get the chance again. It was a fitting end to a wonderful cruise around the British Isles.

Ninth Port - St. Peter Port, Guernsey Island

We arrived in St. Peter Port, Guernsey Island on July 27th. I've included a map so you can see where the island is located in relation to England and France. Although closer to France, Guernsey Island is a British Crown Dependency.

A view of the port. We began our shore excursion here. We elected to do a drive around the island, with a few stops along the way. Usually we would have a tour guide and a bus driver, but this time we had a combination tour guide/bus driver. He was great. Not only was he interesting and informative, he was great at maneuvering our bus around the narrow streets of the island.
A view looking out toward France (not that you can see it).
Guernsey was occupied by the Germans during World War II. I didn't know this until I read the excellent book "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society". It was interesting to see remnants of the occupation.
We got to visit the workshop of Bruce Russell and Son, famous gold and silversmiths. I bought a beautiful pair of earrings which will remind me of Guernsey every time I wear them.
The grounds were beautiful.
We also went and visited the Little Chapel, which may be the smallest chapel in the world. The chapel was built by Brother Deodat and is completely decorated with pebbles, shells, and pieces of broken china (donated by Wedgewood).
Another view of the chapel.
I had to take a picture of a Guernsey cow.
Guernsey Island was beautiful. I loved everything about it.

Eighth Port - Cobh, Ireland

On July 26th, we arrived in Cobh (pronounced Cove), Ireland. We decided that we needed to see Blarney Castle, so off we went on another shore excursion. On the way to Blarney Castle, we drove through the town of Cork. From the windows of a bus, it's not a very pretty place.

Blarney Castle was beautiful. Here's our first view of it.

I love round towers.
It's fascinating to see how the castle was built out of the rock.
I love this view.
The beautiful free-standing bell tower.

Many people go to Blarney Castle to kiss the Blarney Stone. Robert and I decided not to do that for two reasons. 1. We didn't want to climb the 100 narrow, slippery steps. 2. We didn't want to wait in line for two hours. We only had 2-1/2 hours at Blarney Castle, and we wanted to shop at the Irish Woolen Mill. I have my priorities! If you look at the top of this picture, you can see where people kiss the Blarney Stone - a feat which requires you to lay on your back and lean way over the edge (probably reason 3 why we skipped it).
We were intrigued by this garden on the castle grounds. It was really full of poisonous plants.
I'm glad we went to Blarney Castle, even if we didn't kiss the Blarney Stone. It was a beautiful castle to see. And the shopping at the Irish Woolen Mill was fabulous!

Seventh Port - Dublin, Ireland

On July 25th, we arrived in Dublin, Ireland. Robert and I decided to explore Dublin on our own, so we took a taxi to St. Patrick's Cathedral. Our cab driver was great. He knew his town and pointed out lots of sights along the way.

St. Patrick's Cathedral, built in 1220, is the largest cathedral in Ireland. It was a surprise to me because it wasn't a Catholic cathedral. It's actually a cathedral for the Church of Ireland. I had always assumed it was Catholic.

Here's just one of the many beautiful stained windows found inside the church.
After leaving St. Patrick's Cathedral, we wandered around Dublin for a while. We were sightseeing, but also on the lookout for the statue below. This is Molly Malone, of the famous song, "In Dublin's Fair City".
I have a lot of Irish blood in me. Every year on St. Patrick's Day, my family would sing Irish songs. My Dad loved to sing them loudly and with great feeling. I remember singing the song about Molly Malone. When I read there was a statue of her in Dublin, I knew I had to find it. For my Dad.

We spent a short day touring Dublin. We decided to relax on the cruise ship for part of the day, since we had had a number of long days before. But I'm glad we had the chance to do a little exploration.

Sixth Port - Liverpool, England

On July 24th we docked in Liverpool, England. We didn't stay there, though. This was our only opportunity to take a shore excursion into Wales, which we wanted to do.

We boarded a bus and began our drive to the town of Llangollen, Wales. We stopped along the way and I was able to take some pictures of some newly sheared (shorn?) sheep.

After arriving in Llangollen, we had the chance to do a little shopping. Then we boarded a steam driven train for a ride through the scenic wilderness.
Wales is beautiful. But I wasn't surprised by that. Every place we visited on our cruise was beautiful.

We passed by this town. Your guess at pronunciation is as good as ours! We ran across a lot of strange names like this in Wales.

After our train ride, we drove to Chirk Castle, which is a 700-year-old fortress. Parts of the castle are still occupied.

The gardens behind the castle were filled with beautiful flowers - including many roses like this.

This is a view of the back of the castle. I think I like this better than the front.

On the way out, the bus drove by past these beautiful iron gates. They used to grace the entry to the castle, but are no longer used.

I'm glad we took the opportunity to take a shore excursion into Wales. I'm not sure we'll ever make it back to the British Isles, so it was nice to travel in all four countries.

Fifth Port - Greenock, Scotland

On July 23rd we docked in Greenock, Scotland. We then took a bus to Loch Lomond, the largest lake in Great Britain. When we arrived at Loch Lomond we boarded the Astina for a cruise around the loch. As we waited to board the boat, Robert and I were approached by 3 Scottish teens who wanted to know if we knew when the boat was leaving. They were thrilled to find out that not only were they talking to Americans, but Texans no less! It was fun to talk to them, although I will admit that we had a hard time understanding them sometimes. Apparently folks from small towns in Scotland can have really heavy accents!

The cruise around the loch was wonderful. Very relaxing and full of amazing sights. I love this picture. The dark patches are actually the clouds' shadows drifting across the land.
One of the many amazing homes we saw on the loch. I think this one is now a hotel.
May I interject here to say that this weather was typical of our whole cruise. It rained on us the first day (in La Havre), but other than that, we had days like this the whole cruise. And this is not typical weather for the British Isles. Everywhere we went, the locals kept saying how fortunate we were. And we really did feel fortunate. Traveling is definitely more fun in sunny weather! Oh, and the temperatures were in the 60s and 70s every day. Ideal.
Beautiful.
This castle was actually on a little island in the middle of the loch. Can I just say how much I love castles? We need castles in Texas!
This was the tour guide for one of the other groups. Our tour guide was great, but I was disappointed he wasn't wearing a kilt like this guy.
We made a pit stop for bathrooms and shopping. And to get a picture of this guy - a fine example of a Highland bull. I love the long hair. I guess it keeps him warm in the cold Scottish winters.
We saw so many scenes like this. Scotland is a beautiful country.
We spent some time at the Scottish Wool Centre. We got to see this amazing border collie at work.
Back at the farm, he would be herding sheep. But here he was herding ducks. Very masterfully, I might add. It was a lot of fun to watch him at work.
After the border collie demonstration, we went shopping in the Scottish Wool Centre. So much to buy and not nearly enough time or money!

This shore excursion was long and jam packed. It was a great, but tiring day.

Fourth Port - Belfast, Ireland

We spent July 21st, my birthday, at sea. When we went to breakfast, I discovered that our cabin door had been decorated. I had already seen many other cabin doors decorated, so it wasn't a surprise, but it was still a nice start to the day.

We docked in Belfast, Ireland on July 22nd. We didn't hang around Belfast, though. We took a shore excursion through the beautiful Irish countryside to Giant's Causeway. Giant's Causeway is an area made up of 40,000 interlocking basalt columns. And that's as technical as I get! Kimberly had been here the previous year, and she had told me how impressive it was. While this wasn't what I was expecting, I had to agree that it was impressive.
I was not brave enough to climb up there.
This formation is known as the Organ (for obvious reasons).
Here's Robert with the Giant's Boot.
I'm really enjoying seeing the natural beauty these countries have to offer. This is definitely a trip of a lifetime.