Last day at sea

Today I packed in the morning and enjoyed my last ice cream, lecture, room service sandwich etc. The weather was excellent and I spent the afternoon reading on the back deck. For some reason no one else was out there.

My luggage, which weighed slightly less than 50 lbs per bag (2 bags), now weighs 65 lbs and 63 lbs respectively. I still have a few items to go in that I am using but I think I will still be under the 70 lb weight restriction for first class.

The picture is of my last dinner on the deck (unless tomorrow is wonderful weather also).

I spent part of my day thinking about the great memories I will have of having sailed around the world and visited areas that I wasn't sure I would ever have a chance to visit. I'm amazed by how much I enjoyed the Middle East. I also thought the South Pacific was absolutely beautiful. I want to spend alot more time exploring South America so will likely do a circle South America cruise. I'm planning to come back to Italy next Nov. and now have a plan of where I'd like to stay and what I would like to do.

Tomorrow we have one last port, Le Havre.

Ireland - Lovely!

Ireland was absolutely beautiful! It started out hinting at sunshine but quickly turned overcast and rainy.

Pic. 1 is of Cobh Ireland where we pulled into port. I was on a Princess tour to Blarney Castle. The walking path to the castle was absolutely beautiful (pics. 2 and 3).

Blarney Castle

Blarney Castle was on a huge estate but you can't tell it from the pictures. It wasn't raining when I went in but was when I came out so I didn't get that many pictures of the grounds.

Interior of Blarney Castle

Blarney Castle is mostly ruins but you can walk up narrow wandering stairs to the top. On the way you can see interior rooms and interesting passages.

Blarney Castle great hall

The great hall (pics. 1 and 2) is open to the top where you can lean backwards, lower yourself down and kiss the Blarney stone. With my bad back I did not do it. Pic. 3 is of the top area where the stone is located.

Blarney House

After visiting the castle I followed along some beautiful paths to get to the Blarney House (pic. 1) where I took a tour. The house was breath taking inside but no pictures were allowed. Pic. 2 is the view of the back yard and the lake.

The walk back

I followed some more paths back to the bus. On the way I visited some cows relaxing in the field (pic. 1). Pic 2 is of Badger Cave next to the castle. Without a flashlight I couldn't go too far inside.

I could have continued exploring but it was time to get back to the bus. I'll just have to come back sometime.

Cobh Ireland

After getting back to the ship I struck out to explore Cobh. Cobh has a heritage center (pic. 1) right next to where we were docked. The display was an interesting summary of the local history.

I then went to town where I saw the memorial to the Lusitania (pic. 2) who's victims were housed in the town because the ship went down nearby. Somewhere there was a memorial to the Titanic but I couldn't find it.

I then climbed up to the Cathedral pictured in the first picture for Ireland. There was an interesting row of houses (pic. 3) across from the beautiful cathedral (pic. 4).

My last stop for the day was the town museum in an old church (pic. 5).

It was then back to the ship for the folkloric show where we were treated to Irish dancing.

The scenery on the drive to the castle was lush, green and breathtaking. It had been a wonderful day despite the rain and cold.

Back in my room I requested my suitcases be delivered so I can pack tomorrow. I also confirmed I had switched to the direct flight back to Denver. I will get in 8 hours earlier than I had anticipated!

Transfer secured and pic. of rough sea

I'm happy to say the assistant purser secured the transfer to the airport in less than a minute. I'm going to try and go standby on an earlier flight.

Were still rocking and rolling. Pic. 1 is of the view from my window. Every now and then a big wave slams into the window. There were reports from those in the front and back of the ship of chairs turning over, things falling off tables and desks etc last night.

I've started to sort things for packing. Tomorrow we are in Ireland and then there will be a sea day where I'll get everything packed up.

Rocking and rolling

We've been rocking and rolling. I'm pleased to say I have my sea legs and am not the least bit motion sick. However I've also benefited from being low and mid-ship so I can sleep well without being tossed out of my bed. Check out the bridge cam today.

Transfer trauma

Today was a day at sea. For reasons I won't go into my private transfer from Dover cruise terminal to Heathrow got canceled. I went to Princess to get their $69 transfer. I also checked on-line and earlier flights out of Heathrow than my 4:20 p.m. one were available so I decided to try and stand-by for an earlier flight. But Princess says it is too late to book their transfer. Sounds like an arbitrary rule as it is unlikely they really couldn't add me, they just don't want to since they have already communicated with their ground operator. I've been thinking about whether to escalate it with someone higher up who could likely help me out vs. booking another transfer with a tour of London. Both have pros and cons. I'm not sure which is the preferred route right now. I have another day at sea tomorrow so will continue to work on it then.

Sailing into Lisbon

Our dock time in Lisbon was 10 a.m. so there was plenty of time to watch the sail-in (pics. 1 and 2). Since the Tahitian Princess had not been to Lisbon before we got the fire boat with the squirting hose to welcome us (pic. 3). It was bright, beautiful, windy and cold.

Lisbon wanderings

I didn't have a firm plan for Lisbon. I had a list of items from Trip Advisor but was unable to find any of them on the tourist map so quickly abandoned my plan.

Upon arriving at the terminal building I boarded the shuttle bus to town for $5. I noticed on the map that the shuttle drop off point wasn't really very far from the ship. In addition there were plenty of public transport options right near the ship. When I got to town I boarded a funicular (pic. 1) to see where it went. I noticed some other passengers had a day pass so set out to find one for my future rides. I first encountered a really pretty public park with a great view (pic. 2).

I then kept wandering to another park before running across the Natural History Museum. It wasn't a great Natural History Museum but did have a very nice display on antique science instruments. Behind the museum was the Botanical Garden. I spent some time wandering through these beautiful gardens (pics. 3 and 4).

Museum of Sao Roque

I still hadn't found a day pass so bypassed the funicular on the way back and ran across the Church of Saint Rock (pic. 1). It was a beautiful church on the inside but very plain on the outside. Next door was the Museum of Sao Roque (pics. 2 and 3).

From the museum I wandered down hill to get back to the main square. There were some great restaurants on the steps on the way down.

Great building and a fountain

Back in the main square there were some beautiful buildings, statues and a fountain.

My next goal was to go up to a castle that I spotted from the first park.

Castelo De Sao Jorge

With a little investigative work, and the discovery of where to buy the transportation day pass, I found out that a mini-bus would get me to the castle.

It was a classic castle, but unfortunately mostly just ruins (pics. 1-3). One building had some displays in it (pic. 4).

Eiffel tower elevator

I rode the mini-bus back to the main square and stumbled across the elevator designed by someone who studied with the person who designed the Eiffel tower (pics. 1 - 4). Fortunately this was covered on my public transport pass so up I went.

Hidden treasure - 98th Anniv. of National Rep. Guard

At the top of the elevator I stumbled across a hidden treasure. The National Republican Guard was holding their 98th anniversary festivals and the entrance was free. The festival is April 24th to May 3rd 2009.

Pics. 1 and 2 are of military vehicles. Pics. 3 is of today's military outfits and Pic. 4 is of some tiles showing historical military outfits. This is just a sample of the displays. They were quite extensive and all had descriptions in English as well as Portuguese. I wondered why the displays were so good and read later that there will be a Museum here in the near future so they are using the future museum displays for the festival.

Interesting items in Republican National Guard

Here are a few other interesting shots from the Republican National Guard building.

Pic. 1 is of the water cisterns in the basement.

Pic. 2 is from the negotiation rooms.

Pic. 3 is of some ruins next door and visible out an upper window.

Pic. 4 is of the tile work that lines some of the hallways.