Caernarfon, Wales - August 7, 2025

We arrived early morning at Holyhead cruise terminal, at the northwest tip of Anglesey, Wales. For our day's excursion we boarded a bus for Caernarfon Castle, a wonderfully preserved castle that was built by King Edward I of England to secure his power over Wales. The route took us over the Menai Strait at the Britannia Bridge which gave us a good view of the Menai Suspension Bridge to our northeast.

Our guide at the castle was very knowledgeable and led us around every nook and cranny of the whole place. Following the tour of the castle, we explored the town of Caernarfon a little and found ourselves some lunch. Then it was back on the coach, a second crossing of the Menai Strait and back onto the ship for dinner, and departure to Liverpool.

Dublin - August 6, 2025

After two days at sea riding out the storm, it was great to finally come to anchor at Dun Laoghaire, Ireland, the cruise port for Dublin. This day we had booked a private guide and driver to show us around the city.

It was a 40 minute drive from Dun Laoghaire to Dublin and our first stop at Trinity College, where we would spend most of the morning. The grounds of Trinity College are beautiful and they were thronged with happy looking students. We headed for Trinity College Library and in particular its famous Long Room, with its collection of 200,000 books and manuscripts. But first we needed to get in, and we did not have a reservation. Our guide Sean, poured on his blarney with one of the entrance people, described us as "VIPs from America" and in 10 minutes we were in. The library is quite stunning as you can see from the photos below and has many modern exhibits along with all of its history and statues.

From Trinity we went to The Vintage Kitchen, where we did have a reservation for lunch. It was a tiny place, maybe 8 tables, and the food and service were both fantastic.

After lunch Sean took us on a walking tour that took in the Oscar Wilde statue and St Patricks Cathedral, before heading back to the car.

On the way back to Dun Laoghaire we passed an arena where the Dublin Horse Show as going on. We persuaded Sean to stop and we went in for a half hour to enjoy some show jumping and a parade of young stallions.

Back at Dun Laoghaire we had an hour before we needed to reboard the ship, so we found a nice pub called MeKenna's on a side street and settled in to enjoy the local product. Its true, Guinness does taste better where it is made!

This was truly a grand day out. Dublin is another place we have marked for a return trip.

Ullapool, Scotland - August 3, 2025

Ullapool is a picturesque village and port on Loch Broom on the northwest coast of the Highlands of Scotland. We were booked to do another hike, this time up Knockan Crag, but it would be a 13 mile bus ride each way, and it was threatening heavy rain, so we decided to cancel the hike. Instead we spent a pleasant few hours exploring the village and sampling the local food and beer.

Our next two days were at sea . We were supposed to stop at Belfast and then Douglas, Isle of Man, but strong winds and high seas made it impossible to approach either port safely. So the captain had the ship run up and down the Irish sea for two days, using the land mass of Ireland to shelter the ship from the strong westerly winds. To keep us occupied they put on additional lectures, which were actually very interesting. This one was about glacial cycles and how they can be predicted.