Jeff and I began our six-week adventure on August 27th when we flew to Heathrow Airport in London. After staying in the city for 11 days, we boarded a ship to cruise around England, Scotland, Ireland, France, and Norway. Afterwards, the Majestic Princess was scheduled to sail to Iceland, Nova Scotia Canada, and end in New York City.
In London, we stayed near Leister Square which was within walking distance to Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly Circus, the Houses of Parliament, Chinatown, Westminster Abbey, Covent Garden, and West End theaters.
We had tickets to tour the Palace of Westminster, also known as the Houses of Parliament. Unfortunately, photos were only permitted in the first two gigantic rooms: Westminster Hall and St. Stephens Hall. All the rooms of the historic palace were magnificent and it was fun to actually stand in the House of Lords and the House of Commons.
The famous Clock Tower was renamed Elizabeth Tower in 2012 to mark the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II. Everyone calls the tower Big Ben, but that’s actually the name of the huge bell inside the tower. Elizabeth Tower was completed in 1859.
Leadenhall Market stands on the site of a first century Roman forum making it one of the oldest markets in London. The current Victorian covered market was built in 1881. It was one of the filming locations for Diagon Alley in the Harry Potter film series.
Westminster Abbey is an Anglican church which is the location for coronations of British monarchs since 1066. The church is also the burial site for 18 English and Scottish monarchs. More than 3300 prominent British prime ministers, poets, actors, musicians, scientists, and military leaders are also buried there.
Henry III began construction of the Gothic style Abbey in 1245 to rival the magnificent French churches such as Reims Cathedral and Sainte-Chapelle in Paris. Major construction was completed in 1495.
Trafalgar Square is a large public area established to commemorate Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson’s victory at the Battle of Trafalgar.
The church of St Martin-in-the-Fields has regular concerts all year long. We were excited to attend an evening “Candlelight Concert” of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. The acoustics were excellent and the concert was unforgettable.
We used the London Tube – subway system – frequently. The signs in the stations were helpful and the trains and tunnels were clean and well lighted. We used our iPhones to “Tap” at the turnstiles for entry.
We explored the goodies at Fortnum & Mason. Established in 1707, the store supplies speciality foods and is known for its “food hampers.” Queen Elizabeth opened the Diamond Jubilee Tea Salon in 2012 to celebrate her 60-year reign.
I love riding in the bright red double-decker buses along London’s streets! It’s fun to sit upstairs in the front row seats. The only disadvantage is that London’s traffic moves so slowly that the bus crawls along and takes a long time to get anywhere.
We went to the “Official Home of Sherlock Holmes” at 221b Baker Street. It’s a fun place with memorabilia and artifacts related to Arthur Conan Doyle’s character.
One night we went to the Globe Theatre to see a production of Much Ado About Nothing. The theater is a reconstruction of Shakespeare’s Elizabethan playhouse which was first built in 1599. The original was demolished in 1642 after a devastating fire.
The new theatre was opened in June 1997. It is an open-air wooden amphitheater with a thatched roof, similar to the original building. The Globe Theatre stages open-air plays and events with a capacity of 870 wooden seats and 700 people standing.
A trip to London is not complete without a visit to The British Museum. Established in 1753, it is one of the largest museums in the world with a permanent collection of eight million artifacts.
We enjoyed afternoon tea at the British Museum and visited our favorite Egyptian and Roman galleries.
The Tube was the fastest way to get around London. Some of the trains were several stories deep under the city.
One rainy morning, we took The Tube to Sir John Soane’s Museum which was located in a nice residential neighborhood across the street from a public park called Lincoln’s Inn Fields. John Soane was an architect who lived from 1753-1837 and designed many famous British buildings.
John Soane’s home and office houses his extensive collection of paintings, sculptures, drawings, furniture, and Greek, Roman, and Egyptian antiquities. It was an impressive assortment of artifacts including the Sarcophagus of Egyptian pharaoh Seti I.
One evening we went to the theatre to see the play My Neighbor Totoro. This is a fully staged adaptation of Studio Ghibil’s 1988 animated film by Hayao Miyazaki. All the characters came to life on stage in this warm entertaining production.
We toured Buckingham Palace to see the official residence of the monarch of the United Kingdom. It is open to the public during the summer when the king is not in residence. We were led through a series of impressive rooms on the first floor. Buckingham Palace has a total of 775 rooms.
Photography was not allowed inside the palace but all the public rooms we visited can be viewed online. The tour ended in the back of the building and we walked through the beautiful gardens behind the palace.
We went to Selfridges department store which was founded by American retailer Harry Gordon Selfridge in 1909 and is the second largest retail store in the UK after Harrods. We enjoyed a NYC deli-like lunch in the Downtown Cafe.
One of my favorite museums in London is The National Gallery because of its manageable size and wonderful collection of paintings.
We also went to The National Portrait Gallery to see a wonderful exhibit on Marilyn Monroe. They had many excellent photographs and memorabilia from the American actress’ life.
The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew is a UNESCO Site. Kew Gardens was founded in 1759. The 300 acre garden is home to the largest and most diverse botanical collections in the world. We were lucky to see a special exhibit of Henry Moore’s sculptures.
One day we rode around London on a Hop-On Hop-Off bus to see some of the outlying neighborhoods. It’s a wonderful city!
Our time in London ended and we called an Uber car to take us south to the city of Southhampton. On September 7th we embarked on the Princess Cruise line’s ship the Majestic Princess.
The Majestic Princess was an old friend. We had cruised around New Zealand and Australia a few years ago on the ship. This time we were sailing around Great Britain with stops in Ireland, Northern Ireland, England, Scotland, France, Norway, then across the Atlantic Ocean to Iceland, Nova Scotia and ending in New York City on October 3rd.
Our first port-of-call was the seaside town of Falmouth, located in Cornwall, England. Founded in 1613, Falmouth features one of the largest and deepest natural harbors in the world. Our ship moored in the harbor and we took one of the ship’s tenders to the dock in town. Tenders are ship’s lifeboats and it’s interesting and fun to ride in them.
We walked along Market Street and looked in at the shops and restaurants in Falmouth. Nearby is Pendennis Castle which is a 16th century fortress built by Henry VIII. Charles Darwin arrived at Falmouth aboard his ship The Beagle in October 1836.
No trip to Cornwall is complete without eating a delicious Cornish Pasty (“pass-tee”). This is a handheld baked pastry filled with beef, potato, rutabaga, and onion, sealed with a distinctive side-crimped crust. Local miners traditionally held the thick crust with their hands to avoid arsenic poisoning from the mines and then discarded the crust after eating the filling for lunch.
Our next port was the town of Cobh, Ireland – pronounced “cove.” Cobh was the departure point for 2.5 million Irish emigrants who left for North America between 1848 and 1950, including Annie Moore who was the first immigrant registered at Ellis Island. Cobh was also the final port-of-call for the RMS Titanic in 1912.
Cobh is located in County Cork, Ireland and is the gateway to Blarney Castle. We booked an excursion to visit the famous castle and gardens. The guide on the bus was excellent and she explained the history and mythology of the famous “castle.”
Blarney Castle was a medieval fortification built in 1446 by Cormac MacCarthy, Lord of Muskerry. The Blarney Stone is a block of limestone built into the battlements of the tower. According to legend, a person who kisses the stone is endowed with great eloquence or “the gift of gab.” We did not wait in a long line of tourists for an hour to climb 125 spiral stone steps to hang upside down to kiss a cold rock covered with germs!
Instead we walked around the beautiful gardens of the estate. We learned that the castle and extensive gardens are privately owned by Sir Charles Colthurst whose family acquired the property in the 1840s. Today the facility is a huge international tourist attraction.
The next day, we visited the port city of Liverpool, England. The city which has a population of over 500,000, was founded in 1207 by King John. It is well known for the historic Royal Albert Dock and the “Three Graces” along the waterfront: the Royal Liver Building, Cunard Building, and the Port of Liverpool Building.
Liverpool is also world-renowned as the birthplace of The Beatles and the Merseybeat music scene. They are the most influential rock band in history. The city is also known for its major football (soccer) teams: Liverpool F.C. and Everton F.C.
The ship docked at Belfast, County Antrim, Northern Ireland where we took an excursion to see The Giant’s Causeway. This is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is managed by the National Trust. Tourists are led along the Coastal Trail which has sweeping views of the Atlantic Ocean.
The Giant’s Causeway is an area of over 40,000 interlocking basalt columns which were formed millions of years ago from volcanic activity in the region. According to Irish legend, the columns are the remains of a causeway built by a giant.
The next day, the Majestic Princess crossed the North Channel and docked in the Scottish port of Greenock. We took an excursion to the historic city of Stirling, Scotland. On top of the hill is the 15th century Stirling Castle which was used as a Scottish royal residence, including Mary, Queen of Scots in 1542.
The tour bus drove through miles of beautiful rich farmland. I was able to take a picture of a rainbow from the bus.
Our next stop was to see The Kelpies which are a pair of monumental steel horse-heads.” Kelpies” are dangerous, shape-shifting water spirits from Scottish folklore.
The Falkirk Wheel is a rotating boat lift which connects the Forth & Clyde Canal with the Union Canal. It was built in 2002 to reconnect the two canals for the first time since the 1930s. It was a fun experience riding in a canal boat which was lifted up by the wheel.
After a Sea Day, we arrived in Kirkwall, Orkney Islands. The Orkneys are a group of islands north of Scotland. They were originally colonized by Norway in 875 and became part of Scotland in 1472. Kirkwall is the largest city in the Orkneys with a population of about 7400 people.
Our excursion first stopped at the seaside town of Stromness (population 1,700) where we walked along its one main street and looked in at the small local shops. The historic town was the recruitment base for the Hudson’s Bay Company during the 1700s and was a hub for whaling fleets and Arctic expeditions.
We visited the Ring of Brodgar, which is a Neolithic henge and stone circle. The monument was built approximately 4,000 years ago and is comparable to Stonehenge and Avebury in England. The stone circle is 341 feet in diameter. Only 27 of the original 60 stones are standing today.
No trip to this region would be complete without Celtic bagpipe music. Bagpipes are ancient woodwind instruments that originated in Mesopotamia and Egypt. Bagpipes were brought to Scotland in the 14th century by returning Crusaders.
The Majestic Princess moored in the bay near the historic Forth Bridge. The cantilever railway bridge which crosses the Firth of Forth, was completed in 1890. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is considered a symbol Scotland.
With a population of over 500,000, Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland. The city is geologically divided into the lower New Town and the upper Old Town – they are listed together as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.
It was a bright sunny day in Edinburgh and the city was full of tourists. New Town was developed in the 18th century as a solution to severe overcrowding in the Old Town. Museums, galleries, department stores, restaurants, and hotels are found in New Town.
Old Town is the medieval heart of the city and was built on the ridge of a rocky crag with Edinburgh Castle at one end of The Royal Mile and Holyrood Palace at the other end.
A guide mentioned that young people in Scotland enjoy a running joke of putting traffic cones on top of public statues. They are funny. The bright orange cone made serious statues look less austere and silly.
Honfleur, France is located in the administrative region of Normandy, near the location where the Seine River meets the English Channel. Normandy has a long history of British and French wars and occupation.
The old port of Honfleur is a picturesque 17th century harbor which inspired many French painters including Claude Monet, Eugene Boudin, and Gustave Courbet. The town is full of half-timbered houses that date from the 16th to 18th centuries.
Saint Catherine’s church is France’s largest wooden church. It was built in the 15th century by local ship builders with a ceiling that resembles an upside-down boat hull.
After we left Honfleur, we enjoyed a peaceful and relaxing “sea day” aboard the Majestic Princess. The ship’s entertainment group plan day-long activities for passengers: lectures, dance instructions, trivia contests, competitive games, and sales events.
It was overcast when we arrived in Stavanger, Norway. We walked along the 18th & 19th century white wooden houses of the Old Town and explored the harbor full of brightly painted commercial buildings.
Stavanger became the offshore oil and energy capital of Scandinavia after oil was discovered in the North Sea.
The next day we visited Haugesund, Norway which was a historic coastal center for herring fishing. There is a pedestrian street in the center of town which has many restaurants, bakeries, shops, and tourist attractions.
A word about the Trolls of Norway: they are mythical, supernatural creatures from Nordic folklore and Norse mythology that live deep in the mountains, forests and remote wilderness of Norway. Trolls are nocturnal creatures who turn to stone or explode if they are caught outside in the light of day.
The captain of the Majestic Princess informed us of a huge low-pressure area that was swirling over Iceland. He said it had severe winds, rain, and very rough seas. We had been scheduled to cruise to Iceland but due to the extreme weather our itinerary was changed.
Captain Giuseppe Castellano made the decision to sail back to Belfast. Then we would continue south through the Irish Sea and head west toward North America. This would put the ship to the south of the pressure zone.
After a “sea day” of rain and rough seas, we arrived in Belfast Northern Ireland. We enjoyed walking around the capital city and toured a few sights on our own. It’s a walkable city with many covered shopping areas.
We eventually found a small alleyway that was brightly decorated with neon umbrellas and a large sign that said, “There’s Only Seven Types of Rain in Belfast: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday….” In the middle of the alley was the Duke of York Irish Pub.
In the evening, Majestic Princess left Belfast. We cruised south along the Irish Sea then westward toward Canada and North America. We had six “Sea Days”to cross the Atlantic Ocean. The good news is that the crossing was smooth with a moderate amount of wind and relatively calm seas.
We landed in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada on October 1st and it was wonderful to go ashore and step on land! The city of Halifax had rebuilt their waterfront and installed a long harbor walkway. There were many shops, restaurants, ice cream stores, bars, a nautical museum, chocolate shop, and a variety of boats for hire.
On our last “Sea Day” between Halifax and New York City, the crew staged a goodbye parade in the atrium which was spectacular.
On Saturday October 3rd we set our alarms to wake us up at 4:00am because the captain said we would be sailing under the Verrazano Narrows Bridge at 4:40am. We went up to the top deck. It was a clear, cool, starry night. We watched with excitement and anticipation as the ship approached the bridge and entered New York Harbor.
The lights of the city sparkled as we cruised past the magnificent Statue of Liberty.
The Majestic Princess turned toward the starboard side and the ship docked at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
We watched the sun rise over Brooklyn and we knew we were home!
