Dublin Disappointment (Almost) Fixed By a Pub

Tuesday, April 4th was an At Sea day. We were sailing from Dover to Dublin. 

We spent the time walking around the deck for exercise and then played some board games with the travel buddies. 

Wednesday, April 5th

We were near Dublin for our excursion which was called Historic Dublin on Foot. We took a tender (small boat) to the dock.

Art had been looking forward to seeing the Book of Kells. 

The Book of Kells is one of the most famous artefacts in the world. An illuminated manuscript made by Scottish or Irish monks in around c. 800 E, the book illustrates the four Gospels of the Christian New Testament book in beautiful, meticulous detail. 

My brother and sister-in-law knew about it and said they'd wanted to see it when they were in Ireland, but the lines were too long.

Our son said they'd wanted to see it too when they were in Ireland, but weren't able to see it either.

Art used the Viking chat line when making excursion purchases in February to make sure we'd be able to see it on this tour. He was reassured twice that indeed, there would be a 40 minute stop at Trinity College so everyone could see it. (To be honest, I have to admit I didn't know about the Book of Kells.) I would have just chosen to go on the included free tour.

However, when we got on the tender, tour members there told us they'd gotten a letter saying we would not be seeing the book and that it was a mistake when they announced it during a Port Talk the evening before. (We'd missed seeing that note from the Viking excursions coordinator.)

What? 

What?!?

Our guide, Gus met us and said it was a shame since coming to Dublin and not seeing The Book of Kells was like going to Paris and not seeing the Mona Lisa.

Instead, we walked around Dublin, saw statues of Oscar Wilde, and Molly Malone as well as a sculpture about the Irish famine.

We went through department stores and up and down streets showing Georgian and Victorian buildings. 😕

We walked through the campus of Trinity College where there was a long line to the Book of Kells.

Sigh...

Art was feeling rather downhearted when Gus took us to Kennedy's Pub where we could all have a drink of our choice.

We shared a bottle of Schweppes sparkling lemonade (me) and a pint of Guinness (Art). We then learned what a pub was for. It's a place to socialize and talk to people and lift your spirits. And lift our spirits it did, indeed. That's a photo of Gus with us taken by George and Suzette of Arizona who we sat and laughed with that afternoon. 

It ended the disappointing tour on a happy note. 

That evening we got to see a show highlighting the music of duos like Simon and Garfunkle, Sonny and Cher, Chad and Jeremy.

It was a rather nice day.

We hoped the following day would be better.

POSTSCRIPT 1:

I did complain to Viking about the reassurance by their Chatline that we would see the Book of Kells. I showed them a copy of the chat guaranteeing it. I showed them the letter we got on the ship saying the Port Talk was a mistake. 😠

They emailed me a $250 a person voucher for a future cruise that we'd have to sign up for in 12 months. (Yes, it's nearly twice the original cost of our excursions .) 🙄 

But still....

In other words, they want us to commit to another cruise.

I think not.

POSTSCRIPT 2: 

I sent a curt reply to the voucher email they sent me saying we were ticked off for being forced to commit to another cruise. 

I got a call back right away saying they looked at it further and saw that what I was saying was true and that what we were promised was not delivered so they were doing a one time exception and sending us a check instead to cover what we paid for the excursion. 😊 

OK... I'm feeling better now. 

A Day at Dover

Our cruise ship was now docked at Dover and we could see the famous white cliffs.

We had breakfast with our travel buddies. Our meals were rather decadent. I rarely have crispy bacon and now I could have whatever I wanted. 

We then went down to the pier by 8:00 AM on our own. We were all going on different excursions.

Our first stop would be Leeds Castle and Canterbury Cathedral.

Leeds Castle has been called "the loveliest castle in the world." It was once owned by Henry VIII (of the many wives) who gave it to his first wife, Catherine of Aragon. It was owned by many royals before it went to private ownership.

The last owner of Leeds Castle was the very wealthy Lady Baillie who bought the castle in 1926 and employed French interior designers to transform her new home. Lady Baillie was the daughter of an American heiress and baron. Apparently, she invited a lot of famous people there including Hollywood actors.

To be honest, we enjoyed the outside of the castle more than the inside.

Our next stop was Canterbury where we were taken to a restaurant and had the famous English bangers (sausage) and veggies. The banger was HUGE and most of us couldn't eat the whole thing. It was delicious though.

We were at the table with people from Texas, Arizona and believe it or not, Chicago! We had a wonderful time laughing and talking with all of them. 

We would often see our Chicago people throughout the ship for the rest of the cruise sending smiles and a wave of recognition to each other. 

Oops! The dessert was called Eton Mess. I guess it's because when you broke that meringue, it would make a mess. 

Canterbury Cathedral was under renovation. We learned about Thomas Becket who was the Archbishop of Canterbury from 1162 to 1170. He was once friends with King Henry II but got into a conflict about the rights and privileges of the Catholic church. Although there is some question about whether the King actually ordered Becket's assassination, four of his knights did go to the cathedral and murder Archbishop Becket.

We were told that Henry the VIII had Becket's bones destroyed, but according to Wikipedia, his bones are below the floor of the eastern crypt of the cathedral. Whatever the case, there was this marker pointing to where he was murdered.

We also saw this tomb of Henry IV and his wife, Joan of Navarre. And yes, there were a lot of other tombs as well. 

I liked seeing the tree outside the cathedral with spring blooms.

We walked around Canterbury seeing all the very old buildings and a statue of Geoffery Chaucer who wrote The Canterbury Tales. He is sometimes called the Father of English Literature.

That house built on a slope had a most original looking door.

It was another interesting day full of history and ended with a delicious dinner at the World Cafe.

Dessert was Viking's awesome gelato. Flavors were changed every night though chocolate was always there and I always got at least one (OK, maybe 2 or 3) scoops of it.

We met a couple who had been on 17 of these Viking cruises.

Goodness!

They must love the gelato.

Traffic Trouble to the Tower of London

After five days of non-stop travel and sightseeing I was tired. Luckily, we had the morning to unpack further and organize our room before our excursion to the Tower of London in the afternoon.

We couldn't fit the Tower into the time we were on our own so had decided to do the Viking excursion.

Unfortunately, the Half-Marathon was being run in London and the streets were jammed.

Our tour bus driver was absolutely amazing or maybe had always wanted to be in the Grand Prix. He negotiated the roads like magic and got us to the Tower.

I can hardly remember what the Tower was like when we were here in 1990. We were fascinated anew with the historical place where so many people were imprisoned and executed (or murdered).

Art climbed up the White Tower to see the displays there while I waited in line with the tour group. The Yeoman Warder opened his winter cape to show us how the EIIR would be changed once King Charles III had his coronation.

We weren't allowed to take photos of the Crown Jewels.

To be honest, there weren't a lot of jewels there and many of them had been removed to be cleaned for the coronation.

Here is a photo of the Tower of London from Wikipedia.

We got back to the ship after 6:00 but our travel buddies were still at the World Cafe having dinner so we were all able to share what our day was like.

I was just hoping for a good night's sleep which was rather elusive.

The British Museum and Joining Our Travel Buddies

It was Saturday, April 1st and we'd be joining our travel buddies onboard the Viking Cruise ship in the afternoon. However, of course, Art wanted to make the most of our last day in London on our own.

Was I tired? Of course. But I think I must have had a lot of adrenalin coursing through my confused veins.

We woke at 6:00 and had our included Continental breakfast. Notice the stairs to the ground floor? This is why I'm thinking that gift of a “free upgrade” to a triple room had some negative aspects.

It's OK, we were careful and the breakfast made up for it.

At 9:17 AM we'd packed up our room so it was almost as nice as when we first entered the door, dropped off our suitcases at the front desk and headed out again to the nearby Gloucester tube stop.

Now you see why their subway line is called  the "Tube"?

We took the Piccadilly Line to the British Museum where there was a LONG queue to go in but it moved rather quickly. 

I loved these street signs because I imagine a lot of people from other countries look the wrong way before crossing the street.

Being at the British Museum reminded me of that first overseas trip  we took the kids. We’d chosen England because… well… they speak English there. 😁

And now here we (Art and me) were again. 

Like before, there was just too much to see.

When we were here in 1990, the Rosetta Stone was out in the open with no protection. I was shocked and asked the guard if you really could touch it. He laughed and said to go ahead.

This time, it was safely displayed behind a very secure case.

Everything looked very new and different from what we saw so many decades ago.

I wanted to get something special for our daughter, Tiffany. She and our son keep telling us not to worry about travel gifts (Japanese term is omiyage). However, when I asked Tif what she'd like, she mentioned English breakfast tea.

Sooo... we made a stop at Harrods and picked up their breakfast tea and some other treats for my brother and family.

At 2:30, our driver from Twelve Transfers arrived to bring us to Tilbury Dock where we were to board the Viking cruise ship. Well read and full of very interesting opinions, Vasile was from Romania and regaled us with his opinion of the world's economic and political climate.

We arrived at the port around 4:00, went to our state room and unpacked.

We met our travel buddies at 7:00 for dinner and shared all our adventures. They apparently ran into some trouble when they discovered their train back to Paris from Normandy to catch the flight to London was impacted by the protests.

Luckily, their Airbnb driver drove them the long distance from Normandy to the Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris and they were able to catch their flight to Heathrow. They left France with a lot of fun and happy memories.

And now our Viking adventure was about to begin.

LONDON!!!

We'd heard that getting the London Pass would be a good thing because it would cover the entrance fees for many of the sights in London and the Thames Uber Boat as well. Of course, to make it worth your while, you'd need to see as many of the sights as possible. And you have to know Art is good at fitting in as much as he can in one day that would wear anybody out. The kids still laugh about it to this day.

We started the day off with a really lovely included breakfast at the Montana Hotel and headed out to catch the train at the Gloucester Road Station.

We were actually there a bit early and met a friendly American family living in Germany (with the London Pass like us) on holiday with two elementary age children. They told us they were originally from Louisville, Kentucky, but would not want to move back to the US because of the gun violence and lax gun laws. They would not feel safe sending their children to American schools.

Wow!

Art decided to climb up the stairway to the top of the Tower Bridge (of course 😏). I chose to ride the lift. There is a walkway with a glass floor over the river Thames that you can walk on and see the cars passing below. That was fun.

There were a lot of displays about the building of the bridge which was very interesting.

We caught the Uber Boat which we could board using our London Pass and arrived in Greenwich. (That's the London Eye Ferris wheel in the background.)

We enjoyed seeing the museums and of course, had to stand on the Prime Meridian Line.

According to the NASA website: The Prime Meridian divides Earth into the Eastern and the Western Hemisphere. The prime meridian is at 0° (0 degrees) longitude.

And as we always do on trips, happened to meet some truly wonderful people who happily took our photo for us and asked us to do the same for them.

We spent quite a bit of time talking and laughing with them. They happened to be from Newfoundland. We told them we'd been there as well as Nova Scotia and how we loved seeing Balancing Rock. 

We also told them how we LOVE Canadians and that they are just the nicest people we meet no matter where we travel. They laughed and said, "Not Montreal though, they're not as nice as us." 😂 This must be like the rivalry between people who live north (Cubs) and south (White Sox) of Chicago.

Too funny. We've been to Montreal and they are nice there also.

We saw a lot of displays about the study of time and navigation. 

Free entrance to the Cutty Sark sailing ship was also part of our London Pass so of course, we needed to see that also since it was right on the dock.

I've only ever thought of Cutty Sark as a Scotch whisky. 

According to the Royal Museums Greenwich, "The Cutty Sark represents the pinnacle of clipper ship design and was one of the fastest ships of its day." It's about150 years old.

We caught the Uber Boat to the Westminster stop, disembarked and walked past Big Ben. 

There was a long line at Westminster Abbey but it moved quickly and we used our London Passes again at the entrance.

We saw in the evening news just before we left Hawaii that the mosaic flooring where the coronation of King Charles III was to take place had been renovated and the carpeting covering it removed so we could see what it looked like. Groups of 10 people would even be allowed to walk on it with their socks from May 15th to July 29th.

This was in the Guardian newspaper:

"The flooring is the best surviving example outside Italy of a rare type of mosaic stonework known as Cosmati, named after the Italian family that created it.

The pavement was hidden under carpet and away from public view from the 1870s until a two-year programme of conservation work was completed by the abbey in 2010."

We saw the tombs of Isaac Newton and a LOT of other very famous people. It was interesting to see that Mary Queen of Scots and Elizabeth I were entombed together (right photo). Mary was trying to assassinate her cousin, Elizabeth I. Elizabeth I was therefore forced to have her executed.

And in the Poets' Corner....  Look at all these guys getting big fancy sculptures. See Jane Austen with her teeny little plaque there? 🙄

After two lucky days of no rain, we came out to a downpour.

However, we made it to the tube station and returned to our Gloucester stop in Kensington.

We considered the alternatives for dinner and decided to go back to that Lebanese restaurant we enjoyed so much the day before.

The owner recognized us and when we told him we'd be ordering the same thing again because we liked it so much, he added a free dessert.

It was another wonderful day in London.

We would be meeting our travel buddies the following day.

Stonehenge Sunrise

We'd been following the weather reports weeks before we arrived in London. There was rain expected every single day of our stay. We even bought special rain covers for our shoes. We were also prepared with windbreakers and umbrellas.

(By the way, you can click on photos to enlarge them.)

Art woke me at 3:00 thinking it was 4:00 but it was good to have that extra time to get ready. We ate the Pop-Tarts I packed for breakfast along with hotel coffee and left at 5:00. Notice the steps right out the door? There's even a step to stumble over in the room itself. 

It was only about a 5-10 minute walk to the Millennium Hotel meeting spot. I thought we'd be there early but most of the people were already congregated on the sidewalk. The first couple we met were super friendly. It turned out that she was a teacher also... and would you believe from Palatine, Illinois? We would also meet another young fellow who was from Naperville, Illinois who was a swimmer like our son and told us he'd even been to our son's (long ago) high school. Amazing!

It was an hour and 40 minute ride to Stonehenge on the Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire. Our very friendly and knowledgeable guide was Carol.

It was fun to see all the mistletoe on the trees.

Arriving at the Visitors Center in Wiltshire, we saw a village showing what the stone age houses must have looked like and a possible way the stone pillars might have been moved.

And then we were there. The sunrise tour is the only time you're allowed close to the standing stones. 

We were enthralled. 

How did these Neolithic people using primitive tools move these 25-40 ton stones to this location from miles away? We learned that 1/3 of the standing stones are actually underground.

We saw the angle at which the sun at different times of the year would shine through the stones.

Here we are with our guide, Carol.

We saw a crow perched on one of the knobs on the stones. There is a depression under the lintel stone that would fit that knob to hold it all together. (Art says it's called the mortise-and-tenon joint.)

There are also 77 different kinds lichen that grow on these stones, many are very rare.

It was such an awesome feeling to walk among the stones and imagining the people who built them. Why did they build this? And how? It's truly intriguing.

After buying some souvenir t-shirts for our grandsons, we left Stonehenge and the bus took us to Lacock.

A restaurant was shown to us where you could order an English breakfast.

We chose to go to a bakery where Art had a Cornish pasty and I had shortbread with hot chocolate.

There were several other tour members there from Wisconsin and Florida. We all loved getting to know each other and talking about places we'd visited. And no, we did not talk politics at all. 😂

Lacock is considered one of the prettiest villages in the Cotswolds.  Scenes from Harry Potter, Pride and Prejudice and Downton Abbey had been filmed there.

The next stop was Bath. 

Bath is where much of England's upper crust used to come to "take the waters."  It was the Romans who originally built the baths after they discovered the hot springs.

We'd been here before with our children in 1990. (And yes, back then Art actually drove all over the place.) It was fun to see it again (while someone else did the driving).

After returning to our hotel, we decided to have dinner at the Baba ghanouj Lebanese restaurant a couple blocks away. It reminded us of our favorite Middle Eastern dishes we loved in Illinois.

I had a mixed shawarma plate and Art had a chicken shish. It was wonderful.

And yes, it was a wonderful day.  It wasn't just the places we'd experienced, but also the very happy, friendly people we'd spent a day with.

Travel Troubles

Last May, we flew with traveling buddies, Craig and Terry to Norway for a Scandinavian cruise. Our United flight from Hawaii to San Francisco where we were to catch our connecting flight to Bergen, Norway had some sort of malfunction and needed a part to be flown in from the mainland. They finally had to rebook us from Honolulu to Newark where there was a 12 hour layover before we could catch another flight to Bergen. (Granted, they did upgrade us to a lovely Premium Plus) However, because of this, we missed a whole day of our cruise.

This time, we decided to fly to London 3 days early so we wouldn't run into this same problem. On top of this, Art has always wanted to see Stonehenge and there was a sunrise tour on March 30th (the morning after our arrival 😵) that he booked us on. It's not offered all the time, and that was the only option open that we could take.

Soooo... it was with a lot of trepidation that I agreed to all this.

As always, I started packing well before the day of travel. I also packed 2 days of extra clothes (in our carry-on) in case they misplaced our luggage. AND I made sure we put some of our clothes in each other's luggage.

Airlines have misplaced our luggage a LOT. 

What is it about our luggage anyway? It must be cursed.

My brother, Dennis was scheduled to come and stay with mom.

Mom was thrilled to have her favorite (OK, only) son staying with her again.

Once at the airport, everything went smoothly. 

We both got pre-checked.

Our luggage went through.

The TSA screener was so cheerful and kind that I actually went back and told her how much I appreciated her friendliness.

We got to our boarding gate and waited.

We were smiling. We were happy.

And then we got the message. The United aircraft had mechanical difficulties. What? What? Again? It was supposed to take off at 8:53 AM. 

However.... yay! They found another plane at another gate. We left at 10:15 AM.

The nice thing is... because the plane was bigger or whatever, we had our row to ourselves. We wore our N95s anyway.

The pilot must have gunned the engines because we actually arrived in San Francisco an hour earlier than what was estimated.

We were able to catch our flight to Heathrow Airport in London without any problem at all. 😄

The flight from San Francisco to Heathrow took 9 hours and 41 minutes. 

We landed in London at 2:12 PM.

As usual, I could not sleep on the airplane.

Art used Twelve Transfers to take us to our hotel in Kensington. He liked using this company because you could pay for the ride online and not worry about having pounds to pay the driver.

We chose to stay at the Montana Hotel because it was situated close to the meeting point for our Stonehenge tour the following morning.

The front desk told us they'd upgraded us to a triple room (meaning a double bed and twin).

It seemed like a nice thing at first.... (more about that later).

We walked down the street to make sure we knew where we would be meeting our tour the following morning.

Happily, it really was not far at all.

There were LOTS of familiar eating areas. 

One block away was Burger King, Kentucky Fried Chicken and even Starbucks.

Soooo.... what did we do?

Yup.

We ate a Junior Whopper and went to bed. We were exhausted.

Our travel buddies, Cal, Myra, Craig and Terry were in Normandy, France a day ahead of us and exploring the WWII sites. (There was a worry about the protests that were happening in the country about raising the retirement age from 62 to 64. The Brits we talked to laughed about it since their retirement age is 66.) 

We planned to join our friends on the cruise ship. They texted us photos of their adventure.

But at that point, we just wanted to sleep.