Trip across North America and back
We had a tour today entitled “Orkney at War”. The islands were important in both World Wars, given the position in between the North Sea and the Atlantic. The Scarpa Flow is a huge saltwater port area, which has been used in both World Wars to host the British Fleet. In World War I, it Continue Reading
Today we experienced our first rides on a tender to shore. Quite an adventure! We boarded the bus once ashore and proceeded to Broomhall, the home of the Bruce family, direct descendants of Robert the Bruce, the hero of the first war of Scottish Indepence from England. He was king in the 14th century. His Continue Reading
Our first day in the Highlands was great. We went to a “Hunting Lodge” which was used in the past for the gentry from London or Edinburgh to shoot little animals. We drove for quite a while, through Inverness, the capital of this part of the Highlands, and then stopped for a rest break in Continue Reading
In the morning, after a brief misunderstanding of our reservation, we went for a walk in Lerwick. We managed to find the house of fictional detective Jimmy Perez, which was important to fans of the BBC program, Shetland (which we are). We walked around town and found a great sweater for Tom and a new Continue Reading
We started out on our first shore excursion, “Bergen at War” which covered the Nazi occupation of Norway during WWII. The first stop was to look at a statue of King Haagen, who refused to abdicate and rather ran a shadow government from England. As we drove on, we stopped near the site of the Continue Reading
While doing final shopping before leaving Air France sent a message that our plane was going to be late, although not late enough to miss our connection in Paris. Our limo could only be moved by half an hour, so we had a long time in Logan Airport. We had a lovely dinner at Legal Continue Reading
Wednesday was a lazy day around the pool for the Burns’s and walking and reading for the Boaks. In the afternoon, we decided to go down to the resort’s beach area for a bit, but the waves, undertow and grainy sand made a quiet float in the ocean impossible. In the evening, we went to Continue Reading
We went on another tour today. It featured a bus trip up a mountain to where the movie Predator was shot. Anyway, we started in the morning with our tour guide, Ernesto, who was first giving a city tour before the trip up the mountains. We changed from one dilapidated, open-air bus to one slightly Continue Reading
No major tours or anything. John & Vicki went to pool and Tom & Susan walked around the Marina area. On Sunday, we relaxed in the morning and T&S walked to the Marina to get lunch. We found a great Italian Restaurant, Porto Bello and I had the minestrone and Susan had the Zupa di Continue Reading
We relaxed in the room until 11 or so and Susan and I went on a long walk past lots of the really big hotels, past a golf course and eventually back to the Marina. We had lunch at Fajita Banana and then went back to the room. John and Vicki, in the meantime, went Continue Reading