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July 20

We have arrived home after getting up at 6 am eastern time.  It is great to get home.  We had a wonderful time, a tiring time and a safe trip.

So, where do you think we should go next?

So until then next blog……

Boston Architecture

July 18
Some of the old buildings are just great.  Hope you like them, too….
    This red brick line is the “Freedom Trail” which runs through Boston.
    some little boats
A typical street 
                                    some neat houses 
            
                                                                              Red-stones, a million dollars plus

                    
            
                                                              
            Couldn’t stop to find out what this statue was
 Fenway Park           
                               Great sign    

Boston, Mass.

July 18

I can’t believe I got up early enough to take this picture.  It is sunRISE, not a sunset.  That doesn’t happen often.  The reason is that sunrises are not usually this amazing.  (that’s my story and I’m sticking to it)
                                                 

It is over 90 degrees outside and humid.  We took a 2 hour trolley ride around the historical city.  It is a hop on/off trolley, but we stayed on.  The sun was scalding.  You note I said “was”.  Right now, 5pm it is drizzling and thundering and there is a bit of wind.  Right now it is great outside.  Problem is the on/off bus stopped running at 5.  We do not leave port until 10:30 tonight. 
So right now we are not sure what we are going to do.  We may go on the pool deck and watch a “movie under the stars”.  This has been available on this ship, not on the first one.  It has been too cold until today to even try to watch.  Also, the movie starts either at 5 pm, when it is very light out, or 7 pm when we are still at dinner.  So today, since most of the passengers are ashore, they have open seating for dinner.  Normally there are two seatings, one at 5:30 and one at 7:45.  So, today we can go to dinner whenever we want, so we may see the movie, if it is not raining too hard. Note: it is raining too hard, so we left the movie.
Of course there is a show.  Tonight it is a production show, meaning the 2 singers and 10 dancers put on a show.  Last night we saw 2 shows.  One was a floutist, you know someone who plays a flout, I mean a flute.  Then we saw a juggler who makes Robin Williams chatter sound like slow motion.  And, yeah, he juggled, too.  (I think we saw these two on some other cruise we were on)  We enjoyed them both.  Today's show was not good, so we left.  Sounds like we are getting ready to go home….
PS we are getting tired.  It seems we cannot go ashore for more than 2 hours without being wiped out.  That includes just riding on a trolley.
So now we have some pictures of Boston to show you.
  This is the Boston Tea Party Museum
A beautiful bridge
And of course the outside of “Cheers”.  The inside was shot in LA.
The finish line of the Boston Marathon
  The driver said these segway riders were really taking their lives in their hands.

Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada

July 16
It is exciting to be back in North America.  We are nearing the end of this journey.  After Sydney, our last port before we disembark, is Boston.  Then on to New York where we catch a plane for home.  It is both sad and awaited.  It will be nice to get back home where things are more familiar and we can stop overeating,…. hopefully.
This is a nice little town.
                               
Notice that the electric lines are above ground and the streets are lovely, tree lined.
We decided to walk around town rather than take a tour.  It was almost 90 degrees, so it was very hot in the sun.  We had been wishing for a warm day, since we had just spent the entire trip wearing jackets.  But this was too hot.  Today is a sea day and the weather is about 66 degrees and I am typing on the balcony.  Yeah, the first time we have been able to use it since, for once, it is not windy.  I mention this right now because the forcast for our port day tomorrow in Boston is 92 degrees.  Not looking forward to that.
OK back to Sydney.  One of the first things we saw here was this car.  It took the owner 5 years to complete the “design”.  He can talk about it forever.
    
                                                            
I could not resist going to a yard sale and, since it is Saturday, a craft fair.
   they all look the same
This man is making rope knots.  And she is making woven embroidery.  Two crafts I have never seen before..
                
The town is known for its huge fiddle.  ? ? ? 
Yes, there are churches.  Just a couple of pics.
        
   this one had it’s tower hit by lightning and could not afford to rebuild it, so the short tower.
I’ve got a few more pics to post,
  Always knew he was a crab, but now I know he is a lobster.
                                           
Beautiful smooth sailing today, Sunday, but no whale or dolphin sightings….boo hoo.

4 Days at Sea

 

July 11-14

We are now on our 4th day of crossing the North Atlantic.  Yes, we are passed the Titanic sinking spot, I think, since no one will talk about it.  We had a choppy day yesterday.  During the night it felt like someone kept kicking the bed.  I guess it was G-d.  We also had swells (well swell) which made us dance across the decks rather than walk.  A seasick pill, just one dose, did the trick for me and Duane just loves the feel of the movement.  This time it was too cold outside for him to stand on the deck and go “Wheeeee”. Today the weather is better.  The sea is choppy but not rolling. 

Right now we are waiting for the alarm to sound for a practice drill for the crew.  We haven’t had breakfast yet, so I wish they would hurry up.

Everything is fine and we only have 4 full days left.  Tomorrow we will be in Sydney, no not Austrailia but Nova Scotia.  More later.

Cohb Part 2

 

July 11 still

Cohb was the last port of call for the Titanic.  It is scarey to write the name of that ship while on a ship.  132 passengers boarded her by getting on tenders (smaller boats that take you from a small dock to where the larger ship is docked.  We use tenders when the ships we are on cannot dock at a small port.  Sometimes those rides are very exciting.).

This is what is left of that tender wharf.

They were transported to the deep water port about over here

 

                                                                                             Probably not right here, since the lighthouse warns about rocks, but somewhere near here.

Just wanted to point out that we are leaving Cohb, our last port of call, and going to the North Atlantic, and right now, Wednesday, the 13th, we are traveling in a heavy fog.  The horn keeps going off, but I don’t think icebergs have ears.  Did I mention that when we crossed the Norther Atlantic going east, that we had to change course during the night because of an iceberg siting?  Well we did.  The captain said so.  Don’t know if he saw it or saw it on radar.  So wish us luck.

As you know, Ireland had a terrible potato blight that caused a great famine.  Because of that the practice of sending criminals, mostly of petty crimes like stealing food, to Austrailia started.  Also, many Irish were lucky enough to be able to emigrate to America.  During this time many countries sent help and food.

                                                   

As we sailed off, we got a view of the beautiful Irish countryside.

Here are some views looking back and a beautiful sky.

  

 

                                             

Having a terrible time getting this to post.  Wish me luck.

Cobh, Ireland

 

July 11

The name of this town is pronounced Cove.  Originally that was it’s name.  Then when Queen Victoria came to visit, the town was renamed Queenstown.  But when Ireland got its independence the name reverted back to Cove, but with the Irish spelling.  There is no “v” in the Irish alphabet, but bh is pronounced that way.  Interesting,

We spent the day here.  It was cloudy, sunny and it rained.  Oh, that was in the first 5 minutes.  We did have the right clothes with us so we were OK.

Today was the 7th annual Australia Day here in Cobh.  I thought we were lucky to get here on the day they celebrate it, only to find out that they celebrate it because we are here…..

   How often do you see a kangaroo in a storefront in Ireland?

The ship we are now on is the Sea Princess.  It has about 2,000 passengers and originated in Australia in May.  It is a world cruise and most of the passengers are from either Austrailia or New Zealand. There happen to be 4 people from our first ship on this one, besides us.

A lot bigger than the Pacific Princess which held 650 passengers.    

                                                                       

As we walked up toward the town park, where celebrations were to happen all the day, we heard and saw this lovely lady playing away.

                                  Doesn’t she look typically Irish?

Guess what??? Cobh has a cathedral….what a surprise.  Today they had a carillon player give a concert of Austrailian songs.  The only one we knew was Waltzing Matilda.  The cathedral is a lot smaller than Canterbury, but most are.  We got a tour, an in depth tour.  We now know where each piece of wood and marble came from.

                      

We learned about Annie Moore who was the first emigrant to go through Ellis Isand.  She was 15 years old and it was her birthday, so they gave her the honor.  She is very famous here, and should be in the US also.               

We spent much of the day on the promenade.  There is a  bandstand and we heard a bartone. 

I guess we expected to hear Irish or Austrailian music because I was surprised to hear “My Way” and other popular tunes.  Duane and I danced to some of the songs.  Yes, we were the only ones dancing and therefore our pictures are in lots of peope’s cameras. 

This park is the John F. Kennedy Park.