Category Great Britain
City Racing
It was the annual London City Race which had drawn us here, along with the chance to revisit a place which has undergone massive changes in the past two decades; and to visit the East End places where Ian’s family once lived. Besides, no-one really needs an excuse to visit London, do they? The City […]
Taking Flight
Today’s excursion was to a very different part of London – the shiny new Docklands. Finally the sun appeared, and it was a glorious day. Again, the development all over this area is astonishing. We got off at North Greenwich, which is right next to the O2 stadium, which resembles a rather large pincushion, or […]
East Enders
We bid farewell to Chatham, after a stay of about 24 hours. Relieved that the long walk to the station was mostly downhill this time, we boarded a high speed train to London. Thirty minutes later we arrived at the huge Stratford International station, built for the 2012 Olympics and adjacent to the new Olympic […]
Learning the Ropes
Five am. My alarm rings. I roll over, trying to pretend that it’s not our final morning on the cruise, and that we are not about to get evicted. Our packed suitcases tell a different story, and reluctantly we dress, eat our last breakfast, and bid farewell. We turn in our cruise cards (only figuratively, […]
Bussing Around Belfast
Our day in Belfast turned out to be quite eventful. It began with a bus ride into town from the ship, which was docked some distance away. We’d decided to take the Hop On Hop Off (or HoHo) bus, which would give us a good overview with commentary, and allow us to alight at places […]
Oban
We were up and about by 6am to take advantage of having mobile data again, which meant we could catch up on the blog and email, and get them out of the way before sightseeing. Back when I was researching our ports, I didn’t find much of interest in Oban itself, so we hatched a […]
All at Sea
Two years ago we sailed on the Regal Princess, one of the largest ships in their cruise fleet. This time we are on Pacific Princess, the smallest. She is an older ship, recently refurbished. There are definite differences between the two, and pros and cons to each. Pacific definitely does not have the Wow factor […]
Shetland
Our first port of call was Lerwick, the capital of the Shetland Islands, and Britain’s most northerly town (if we’d brought DROC jackets we could have claimed the record for the DROC jackets which have been the furthest north within the British Isles). The Shetlands lie 130 miles northeast of the northern tip of Scotland. […]
It’s a Long Way to the Ship if your Suitcase Doesn’t Roll (with apologies to AC/DC)
Cruise embarkation day! While we slept, our ship, the Pacific Princess, pulled into Dover, and was awaiting our arrival. Turns out overnight she was also involved in the rescue of three fishermen, and news crews have been on board. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/aug/25/cruise-passengers-clap-as-pacific-princess-rescues-fishermen Meanwhile we were busy eating the last of our food, packing our suitcases, and mustering up […]
A Grand Day Out
The sound of Dover is the sound of seagulls (not bluebirds), and they woke us up this morning with their clamour, along with a very pleasant burst of sunshine. Our mission today was to explore the Castle; but first we had to get there. Down our steep hill, along a couple of streets, then up […]
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