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General comments I want to make and share with friends.

Morning at Le Havre

Early one here for our last big excursion. Heading for euro disney today. Long day, but should be very interesting to see this park.

More strange mickey mouse cartoons as we wait for clearance to go ashore. Slightly overcast at the moment, but looks like it could be,a pretty decent day.

Definitely thinking about technical stuff and home related things so probably a good time to be headed home. Going to miss the ship and the new places even so.

Last sea day…

This is the point in the vacation where the end is becoming real. This is our last at-sea day. We’ve had all of our b ritain, scotland and ireland. Looks like Lorna needs to have three desserts tonight (three very, very Lorna choices on the menu). Last night they made us a special curry that Captain Richard had gotten started…unfortunately he was not at the table as he was called away for a meeting so we asked the servers to see if some could be sent down to his cabin as a sort of special room service. We’ll see tonight whether that happened or not.

Quiet day at sea. Mixology class at 2PM (though more of a driking class than a mixing class as unlike the one of the dream, we mostly were told about the drinks and then drank them in this one). Didn’t eat lunch till after the class so I was a bit wobbly by the end.

Packed up most of the things we won’t be needing for our last two excursions. Le Havre and euro-disney land tomorrow (long day) and then Guernsey the day after.

We will be home a day earlier than planned as we won’t be staying at a hotel near the airport before flying home. On balance it works out better to just get home…and avoid juggling the luggage to some place near the airport and then back the airport on the following day.

I think having the weekend to recover will be a very good thing. Trying to get back into the stream of things at work after a long flight and jet lag would be pretty brutal.

Got our passports back today.

Currently sitting at a table on deck 9 of the magic, looking out through the glass over the open sea with no land in sight. Quiet, sunny and not too chilly at the moment. Lorna wants to see the show at 6:30 and as with all dinners on this cruise we eat at 8:30. I believe thta only one of our dining companions will be with us tonight as the other           two have a palo reservation.

It was a bit choppy last night.  Iwoke up around 4:30 and had a hard time getting back to sleep with the motion of the boat. Quieter seas now…Lorna likes the rocking, but it still makes me a bit queasy.

We saw ‘Alice Through the Looking Glass’ in 3D this morning and Lorna an I liked it a lot. Visually it was wonderful and the story got the job done.

We saw the redesigned Cinderella stage show tonight (and saw the Tangled show earlier in cruise) and both were a lot of fun.

Starting to think about the post-cruise era and things work and technical related (also making sure I’ve got things I want to read loaded on the tablet for the long flight home). Disney certainly provides a seamless and delightful experience. Had a blast last night at the animator’s palate where they have every guest draw a character before they get their menu and order. Later in the evening they animate the drawings on the screens. I’m pretty sure I could duplicate what they did and may take a shot at it for fun once I get home. Need to read through OpenGL stuff on the flight and think a bit…

Morning in Dublin

At the sock and now in group 23 waiting to head out. Saw a punch and Judy show while waiting for the train yesterday. Seeing really strange mickey cartoons while we sit here.

Raining a bit in dublin. Had to dry my camera a bit after my morning walk around shots from deck 10  very industrialized port here in dublin. Ships, cranes and containers un all directions.

Winding up the day in Liverpool

Long drive out to the lakes district today. Stopped at the craziest rest area ever with a huge disc of a building on a tall pylon. Looked like the disc up in the air was mostly abandoned but Igot some neat pics. Greeted by several crows at the stop on the way baack at another of these, so auspicious as well.

Liverpool itself seems to be a city of contrasts. Lots of older looking buildings jumbled in with very modern looking structures and a working waterfront. Huge old molasses and sugar cane sstorage structures, old warehouse buldings and a huge congtainerized shipping dockyard. Interestingly, employment plummeted when containerized transport took over thingss. Liverpool now moves huge amounts of material with only a few hundred people haqndling the work. Huge cranes.

Took a nice little train ride to a town in the lakes district where we caught a boat ride to another town. Very pretty and should have some nice shots from the boat trip. At the other end, lots of swans, ducks and geese at the waters edge. Stranger that the were acually well behaved.

We wandered into the town seeking lunch. The first place we tried had a long wait for food so we just each had a pint. I had a cider (that Lorna didn’t like) and Lorna had a pint of ‘ditzy blond lager’ that she enjoyed. She tried tried the unicorn but like the ditzy blonde better (unfortunately she says). We moved on to the ‘Pigs Fly’ and ordered sandwiches and another half pint. I tried the flying pig brew that they had on tap, not sure what Lorna went for. Neat wallpaper near our table with fun, fake book spines on the wall…makes me wish we could have bespoke wallpaper made with something similar from the popsicle stick art we have on the wall of the library at home.

After lunch and a pint and a half, we had to get rolling back to the bus. I was a bit wobbly. Lorna stopped at a Tesco’s to get bread to feed to the birds. Swans may not be viscious here, but they are messy eaters. They would grab a slice of bread and then shake their beaks hard enough to fling most of the bread in all directions. After a quick feeding we grabbed mint chocolate chip ice cream cones and hoofed it for the bus.

Mostly dozed on the ride back. Same highway as the route out and darker and rainier.

Once we got on the ship again we headed up for the ‘Liverpool Legends’ beatles show. Not often that I twist, but I did tonight. Alyssa later suggested that tango might be my dance 🙂

Now listening to the very talented violinist and having a drink while waiting for dinner time.

Seems as if the noro virus worries are continuing as they’re passing out sanitizing wipes everywhere and washing everything constantly. Hoping that we’ll dodge that bullet for the remainder of the cruise.

Liverpool today

Had a great day yesterday. A bit rainy and foggy, but that didn’t dampen things much.

Short stop at loch lomond, could have done with more time there as it was a beautiful little area and we were in and out so fast that no one got to see mych. I got down to the edge of the loch and took pics. Lorna headed over to the old church and saw that area. Pretty much run to the chosen spot, quick look and then head back.

We visited the seat of the Campbell’s (who seem to have ascended to their current position by consistently changing sides to always end up with the winners and arranging to have their rivals murdered by the government on false pretenses). Nice residential castle with v very pretty gardens. A tall hill nearby has a folly on the top that we could see from the castle parking lot. There was a wedding being set up behind t h e castle.

Had lunch arranged by disney in an inn further down the loch. Delicious and had good conversation with the couple who shared our table.

On the way back we took a car/bus ferry and saw a RN SSBN or SSN heading out…very cool. Guessing from the size an SSN.

Morning in Greenock

Another day in Scotland. Heading for loch Lomond and a castle today. Up late last night seeing a guitar playing comedy ish show. I had never before realized quite how crazy the lyrics to ‘a horse with no name’ were.

Heading out shortly.  Grey day, but then that seems to be scotland. We are number 25 not number 6 🙂

We are still far enough north that it stays light remarkably late into the evening.

Oh, and it is ‘speak like a whale’ day today…and they suggested that we practice. Not quite as goos as speak like a pirate day, but I take what I can get.

Rainy at-sea day…

A rainy day today with a few notable disappointments so far. The ship’s network connection has been down to varying degrees most of the morning. Lorna wanted badly to see the historical talks on the next two destinations but due to a cruise line app glitch, they rescheduled the sessions (into one at an earlier time)and we missed it/them. I was going to blog earlier, but persistently got a ‘no connection here’ message. Seems to be better now, I suspect that the rain has had an impact on satellite connections.

I saw a whale off to the side if the ship. Arc of back and a small dorsal fin. Not a big guy, but cool none the less. I didn’t get my camera ready in time though and aftwr that one i stood on the bow for some time but nothing else showed itself.

Had a great meal at Palo last night. I had a lobster pasta dish and Lorna had the beef. We both had the ‘order early’ souffle…Lorna had the chocolate and I tried a new option they offered with Amaretto flavoring. Both were delicious as expected.

Today should be a slow day. Rainy and grey with all day at sea. I did shove together a short set of perl scripts to clean up my backup hard drive to make sure I have space for a second copy of the photos from the remaining days of the cruise without losing anything that matters.

Probably a good thing that we’re having a down day. We manage to burn the candle at both ends even on a cruise 🙂 By this point we have both been dragging a bit for the last couple of days. I know my feet are feeling the constant use. Lorna’s arm is hurting a bit…wondering if just using it to assist on the stairs may have strained it.

Haven’t heard from Lys in a bit. Lorna’s data is expended and while I sent Lys a message to let her know that I’m the only contact point, I expect she’s busy with changing buildings to get ready to start ‘A’ school.

Just about noon, they just announced that they’ll sound noon with the ship’s tune.

Yesterday we passed a section of Orkney coastline with a large castle-like manor building and a very isolated looking light house. (There goes the noon whistle) I got some great shots as we passes and Lorna and I considered what it must be like to pass the winter in an isolated location in an already isolated set of islands.

We’re 15 miles west of Scotland. Travelled 240 nm at 13 knots.

The ship is rocking a bit today. Long low swells. The captain just mentioned that these are good conditions to look for dolphins and whales. I’ll probably head up to see if I can see anything shortly.

I saw stitch goofing with a toddler on the way up the stairs. He was clearly heading back for a rest so I didn’t go to grab Lorna. Very cute and I did get a couple of pictures along the way.

Waiting to see the tangled stage show at 2 pm

On our way again…

Left the quay to bagpipe music and Scottish dancers. Great time in the Orkneys and now headed to Palo for dinner.

Waiting to get a pic with Jiminy cricket first. Long line but we should get there.

At sea day tomorrow. Should be a quiet recharge day. Two talks by the historical lecturer tomorrow (he is at our table for dinner normally) should be interesting.