Another nice day as we slowly make our way to Ireland, at a leisurely 12kts. Surprise, surprise it is another formal night tonight. We are not bothering about the Captain's Welcome Aboard Party, electing to entertain Marilyn & Ray with our canapes on the balcony. We pass by Lands End at roughly 5.30 and just a short hop across the Irish Sea to Cobh.
Day 57 - 27 July - Cobh
Cobh (pronounced "Cove") was previously named Queenstown and it was from here that the ill fated Titanic sailed on its maiden voyage in 1912. We were here 3 years ago and the town was abuzz with "Australia Day", which they celebrate as every World Cruise passes through. Yes, traditionally New Zealand is equally recognised, so we were a little disappointed with the lack of the NZ flag - just an empty flagpole by the dock. The town however had plenty of both Aus & NZ flags on display.
Surprisingly we had a bit of a swell coming over last night, but as we entered the harbour around 5.30 it was perfectly calm, albeit cloudy. We are off to Waterford & Lismore on a Princess excursion leaving at 9.00, so relatively relaxing. Pleased to see that our 48 seater coach only has 28 passengers, so plenty of room 😁
It is a pleasant 2 hour drive up to Waterford, which I didn't realise is the 3rd or 4th largest town/county in Ireland. We went through lots and lots of farmland, with crops, hay, diary & beef cattle (7 million) & sheep (5 million) - not that we counted them, and thoroughbred horses! Of course the focus of the trip was the Waterford Crystal factory, which has had a chequered history, having more recently been purchased (along with a number of historic UK China brands) by a multi-industrial Finnish company.
So, our visit was to the visitor/sales centre, which interestingly I noted was built by the City of Waterford & the EU - not the company. Big prices on all the items did not encourage us to spend. After half an hour in the showroom it was time for our guided tour of the factory. Now I don't want to appear critical, but it reminded me a little of our visit to China last year. Yes, we saw in detail how the crystal is made and formed but was not their production facility for run-of-the-mill crystal. Our guide did refer to the coloured crystal being made in their sister factory in Slovenia and I did wonder how many other factories there may be around the world. Clearly the boutique items are made here and we saw some copies of the more famous ones, which apparently they were not supposed to keep.
After the tour we had over an hour free time for lunch etc. Our guide was recommending the cafe at the factory, but we preferred to explore the town. We had a lovely lunch at a little (well actually with the extension next door it was a big) pub, "The REG", so named as it is adjacent to "Reginald's Tower", in honour of Reginald, a Viking who established the town in 914. History lesson over, the pub is very much a traditional pub, but I was not encouraged to have a Guinness, as I've had one before and did not really like it. The atmosphere and food was great at a cost of €30 including wine.
I convinced Vivian that although the pub was good for food & drink, coffee would not be their forte, so we walked further down the quay and came across this cute little cafe "Larder", which had excellent coffee and came with a Trip Advisor recommendation. We found the town of Waterford very pleasant, particularly as it was not overrun with tourists 😁. Yes, there were heaps of tourists visiting the showroom & factory but it seems that they were just passing through and not enjoying the town - but then neither did most of our group.
Our next stop on the way back to Cobh was the little village of Lismore to see the Lismore Castle, built by Prince John of England in 1185. Unfortunately it is currently owned by Lord Devonshire and we were not able to actually visit the castle. We did however get a good view as we drove over the bridge on the way into Lismore. We stopped here for a 45 minute break and were able to walk back about 400 metres to the bridge for better photos.
Now did I mention that UK & Ireland are in the middle of a drought, with no rain for 7 or 8 weeks? Well, the drought broke just as we were approaching the bridge (on foot). I reckon that a weeks worth of rain fell in 10 minutes, causing mini-flood down the road. Yes, we got wet, but thankfully a) it didn't last long b)we had umbrella & raincoat c)we mostly dried out before the coach took off. Lismore is a pleasant town and at least one of our group stocked up at the supermarket and bought back his goodies in a shopping trundler.
It drizzled lightly all the rest of the way back to the ship, where we arrived at 5.15. We had a coffee onboard to warm up and went down to dinner around 7.00. Unfortunately we missed the folkloric show, which we heard was spectacular. As we sailed away just before 10.00, there were only a small number of locals waving us off, which was a shame, but that's ship scheduling for you.
Day 58 - 28 July - at sea
As promised the weather is looking bleak and there us quite a swell running as we head north towards the Arctic. By afternoon the sun is shining and although it is a pleasant temperature inside, it is just 12° & probably around 9° with the chill factor outside. Tomorrow is expected to be similar or cooler, so the winter gear stored under the bed is coming out and the shorts and t-shirts will have a holiday for the next fortnight.
Day 59 - 29 July - at sea
A very grey day - both sky & sea as we progress northwards. Promanade Deck is wet with rain & sea spray, so we stayed indoors. Seating in Crooners is at even more of a premium on these days. By my rough reckoning, we are at the equivalent lattitude as south of the bottom of South America. Good news now is that by mid afternoon the sea has calmed and the sun is shining through, although it is still very cold outside.
Day 60 - 30 July - Reykjavik
As expected, it was light at 5.00am but not the time to get up. When we did wake at 7.00 the sea was calm as we entered the harbour. It is a lovely morning, with sunshine & just a gentle breeze. Our trip to the Blue Lagoon is not until after lunch, so we stayed on board, as we could see no point in paying €20 each for the 5km shuttle into town, nor did we have the time to walk there and back before our excursion.
There are also 2 Holland America ships in port, so it is quite busy. The ship is once again taking on more supplies and also filling up on (cheap) fuel before we head across to America. Well, while the sun continues to shine, the wind has now reached gale force but we are so lucky to be to leeward and it really is pleasant sitting on the balcony.
Apart from reading/up dating the blog, we had a couple of trips to Passenger Services to try and knock some sense into the rep I have been dealing with regarding and incorrect laundry charge-thought I'd sorted it 4 days ago, but suddenly reappeared. Without going into any other details, by the time we got back to the cabin the 2nd time, it had been resolved. Wandered up to the Horizon (I prefer to think of it as Cafe Amuleto) for our turkey roll for lunch on our deck before heading to our assembly point.
It is roughly 45 minutes out to the Blue Lagoon, which was nowhere near where I thought it was. It is actually on the Southwestern coast, not far from the airport. The drive wss interesting but apart from a few new housing developments is mainly just old lava from the 13th century eruptions. I must however commend the government for the wonderful roading network. The Blue Lagoon is also a great asset and is relatively new, being built adjacent to one of their geothermal power stations.
The water is a mixture of seawater & mineral waters, sourced and heated by the outflow from the power station. Apparently the water is continually changed every 40 hours to keep it safe & hygienic. Speaking of which, the Icelandic custom is to shower naked before entering the pool, so obviously (😁😁😁) we are segregated and assigned electronic lockers linked to our bracelets and off to the showers. Once clean & togged it is into the large pool area to take in the soothing waters. It was pleasantly warm and the milky appearance is due to the silica & other minerals in the water.
We only spent about 15 minutes in the water as fingers etc. were becoming wrinkled, so repeat the procedure above to get dressed again. Vivian apparently had an issue with her locker location, so the procedure took some time. Eventually we escaped and had a (yuck) coffee before it was time to head back to the bus. As luck would have it, at that time a rain shower appeared and everyone got a little damp - some more than others. Fortunately we had seen it coming, so headed to the bus before the worst of the shower. Others were not so lucky. This is the thing about the weather here - nothing is predictable!
A little bit of trivia to finish off with. I *think* I made mention earlier on that Princess considers this sector to be just 20 days, even though their own itinerary shows us reaching New York on Day 21. As a 20 day cruise, Elite & Platinum passengers get just 250 internet minutes each. A 21 (& above) cruise gives us 500 each. There have been some grumbles, but according to Corey, the rules are the rules. However, George, our Internet Manager has now manually added the extra 250 minutes to all 1,500 affected passengers. Well done😀
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