by Jim Bellomo | Jun 20, 2024 | Uncategorized
The comments I get when I post while traveling are always interesting. Yesterday was a good example. First, you need to know that I post this blog here on my website and then the text (with no photos) on the Cruise Critic message board of the cruise line I am sailing on at the time. So when I get comments, I get them in three places—here on the blog, on Cruise Critic, and from my closest friends, who often comment via e-mail (a few post on FB where WordPress automatically sends a notification whenever I post).
So yesterday I did a mini-rant about the weather. Boy, did I get the comments. First, many people said, “That’s just the way the weather is. You need to get over it.” Others chided me about my reaction to the runes, taking photos of them in the rain and mud and dissing them for being so small.
My reply is this: I write this blog primarily to document our travels and tell other people how we traveled in case they are looking for ideas on places to go, people to meet, food to eat and more. But it has become a place where I can also showcase my photography. The deeper I get into creating photos, the more that is equally important to me. I say that because bad weather means terrible photography. Sure, I could open up my photos from yesterday and change the weather, but that’s not the photographer I want to be. For instance, here’s yesterday’s photo of downtown Kirkwall at sunset. 
Sure, that’s real ?. (Pretend this is in a sarcasm font.)
So when I complain about the weather, it just means that I am complaining that the weather is so flat that it is worthless for photos. And when I diss the runes, it’s because they just don’t make that great a photograph. Especially when you are trying to take a photo of just the stones without having a hundred other guests trying to take selfies in the shot. And I am sorry, even on a beautiful day, they hold no major significance for me. We have visited the runes in Inverness on which Diana Gabaldon based the Outlander novels, and those are much cooler.
Another complaint I have been getting from one particular person (he knows who he is ?) is about this line: “Don’t forget; if you click the first shot, you can scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping. And PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…” that I include before most of my galleries.
I do this for a number of reasons. Many people (especially those who are new to reading WordPress blogs) have no clue that they can click a photo in the gallery and see it enlarged to fill the screen and then scroll through the entire gallery. People still send me e-mails asking, “Is there someplace I can see your pictures larger than those little thumbnails?” So, I leave that line in. Then, others will view my photos on their phones. I am a pretty anti-phone guy. I use mine primarily for texting, playing solitaire while waiting to do something else or listening to audiobooks when I walk. So when people tell me I saw your pics and ask them how they liked this or that it was in one, they say, “That was in there? I missed it.” I know they looked at them on a tiny screen.
Let me give you an example. Here is the photo I consider the best one I took in 2023. We were on Oceania’s Vista sailing out of the harbor in NYC. 
A few people told me they never noticed the boat caught in the light. I knew they had only seen the shot on a phone because when you first see it on a phone, it barely gets to the water level. Thus, my reminder.
And lately, thanks to this trip and the folks at Celtic Legend (where we rented our car for the Scotland part of our trip), who have featured me on their FB page, I am getting many new people looking. They need to know this stuff ?. So, if you have been following along since I started this thing in 2018, you have my permission to skip that tiny reminder. And I will try to mention it less.
Before you comment, take every single thing I wrote with a grain of salt. I am usually just making a joke or ranting about some little thing that I really don’t care about. —Jim Bellomo
by Jim Bellomo | Jun 19, 2024 | Uncategorized
Yesterday, we were in Kirkwall in the Orkney Islands. To find us on a map, just look directly north of the mainland of Scotland, and there it is. So far, this was the worst weather on the trip. It wasn’t that it was pouring rain all day; it came and went periodically, just like we had experienced in the rest of Scotland. It was just that the skies never cleared. It was flat and ugly all day long.
This is our guide Derrick. Nice man but spoke quietly with a deep Scottish brogue. It took a lot of work to get his photo. I shot five photos of him and never smiled or looked up.
We did the Viking “included” shore excursion, which was a “panoramic” tour of the island. And you all know by now, this means a ride on a “luxury motor coach.” YEAH! At least today, we didn’t need the air at the back of the bus because the temps were low, and when we got out to take photos, we were happy to get back on to get warm. The tour around the island (done by our Kirkwall guide, Derrick-at right) was very nice, but it basically featured two stops. Both of these were to look at stones sticking out of the ground. We were told that the ancient runes were older than Stonehenge. Well, they may have been older, but not anywhere near as big or as awe-inspiring. When we visited Stonehenge a few years ago, I was amazed at how any men could have lifted those stones into position. Here on the Orkney Island, the stones were small enough for a couple of guys to have placed them.
There were two sets of them, and I got off the bus to take photos of the first ones we stopped at but then decided to skip the second because, by that time, it was really raining, they were much further from the bus, and they were out in what looked to be a very muddy field. Besides, we could see them from the bus, and they looked pretty much the same as the first group. And with the sky being totally gray, it was not a great photo-taking day. I will prove it to you and show you all my shots from that morning, and you tell me what you think. And please feel free to take a look at these on your phone. They just aren’t that good, proving my point that photography is all about light.
Sailing in, we knew it was going to be a flat day.
Stones…
…stones…
…and more stones.
The pier just before we left in the afternoon.
Orkney was pretty much a bust for me. Not their fault. The weather made the photography yucky, and the ship moored in an industrial port, which forced a shuttle ride into town. After our tour, we were back on board so I could try and make something out of the photos. Our sail-out was nice, though, and it got a little sunny, so I was lucky enough to get a few photos as we left from the aft deck of the World Cafe. Don’t forget; if you click the first shot, you can scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping. And PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…
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The classiest port in the UK.
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The city of Kirkwall from the ship.
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A farm on the way out of town.
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A very nice lighthouse and house on the way out.
That about covers Kirkwall and Orkney Island. Since it was a short one, I want to take a couple of minutes to show you where Kathleen and I are living right now—our stateroom on Venus. In our cruising life (more than 35), we have had many different staterooms on many different ships. We consider the three best to be the verandah stateroom we had on Celebrity’s Flora yacht in the Galapagos, the Neptune Suite we got upgraded into on Holland America’s Nieuw Statendam and this Penthouse Verandah stateroom on Viking Ocean. This stateroom is larger than your standard verandah stateroom, and we love the extra room.
When we were in the Med on Viking Sky, we had the same type of stateroom but on the other side of the ship. Then we had 5029, and this time, 5030. The on-board cruise specialist who sold us our cruise told us that this side had better views for this particular cruise. I’m not sure if that is true, but since it is the same stateroom, we are happy with it. Here are the pictures that I took to send to www.cruisedeckplans.com. If you are not familiar with that website, they have deck plans for every ocean-going cruise ship, along with reader-submitted photos of the interiors of staterooms. Check them out before you pick your stateroom.
Walking in you enter that door.
Kingish…queen-size bed.
Full couch AND chair.
Great desk for me to work on.
Big TV with full dresser below.
A full shot of the bed…
…and the couch.
More couch and chair.
Closet space…
So much storage.
The safe is under the coffee pot.
Mini-bar. Everything is included and restocked every day.
Desk and chair.
Shower
Toilet and shower
Sink.
Storage in bath
Great size shower.
And that about covers it. If you have questions about the stateroom, please let me know. I can tell you that the difference in price between this and a regular verandah is about $500 for this cruise, and as far as we are concerned, it is worth every penny. Kathleen loves the space, the storage and the ability to have an “included” cocktail every night before dinner. I love that you get to reserve specialty dining and shore excursions about two weeks before about two-thirds of the rest of the passengers.
Tomorrow is a sea day. We are in Lerwick in the Shetland Islands today, and I have some great photos. I will be back with those tomorrow.
Wherever you go, no matter what the weather, always bring your own sunshine. —Anthony J. D’Angelo
by Jim Bellomo | Jun 17, 2024 | Uncategorized
It’s 3:26 a.m., and I am back on my usual schedule. My hope is that Kathleen is downstairs on deck five, sound asleep, and because I am sitting on the second floor of the Explorer’s Lounge (my favorite place on a Viking Ocean ship) with my shoes off and my feet up on a couch writing this post. At home, this is when I usually wake up, but on this entire trip, this is the first time this has happened. I probably should have gone back to sleep, but I have this nagging cough, the last remaining remnant of my cold, that will not go away.
Enough about me. Let’s talk about Edinburgh. This is the fourth time that Kathleen and I have been there. It is one of our favorite cities; some of my favorite travel memories come from there. We first visited on a whirlwind tour of Scotland back in 2003. The last time we were here was in 2019 when we rented an AirBnB right on the Royal Mile for a week. I think that was my favorite visit because it was in May, and the city was fairly empty. Not as much yesterday.
Our day started with a sail-in that featured some pretty great photographic opportunities for me. The last time we had been here on a cruise ship was in 2017 when we sailed on Celebrity’s Silhouette. We did an overnight here that included us seeing the Royal Military Tattoo (the best show I have ever seen). That time, the ship anchored way off the coast, and we had to tender into the very small port of Leith. Because of the tides and depths of the channel, the tender took about 45 minutes to get from the ship to the shore. Viking uses the port of Rosyth. That is both a good thing and a bad thing. Good because we don’t have to tender. Bad because to get into the city, you do have to drive for almost an hour to get into downtown. I guess it’s six of one and a half dozen of the other.
But one of the good things about Rosyth is the sail-in. There are some islands and three incredible bridges that you sail under to get to the pier. And you have to be a fairly small ship to get under them. We arrived to find Regal Princess heading into port but stopping just short of the bridges because she could not get under them. For those who aren’t cruisers or unfamiliar with Viking and Princess, all Viking ships have less than 1000 passengers and only nine decks. Regal Princess can hold up to 4,272 and has 19 decks—quite the size difference.
But back to the sail-in. We had beautiful weather. I took lots of photos. Here they are. Don’t forget; if you click the first shot, you can scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping. And PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…
Following the Regal Princess
I liked this little lighthouse.
It just kind of called to me.
Edinburgh in the distance. You can see the Castle in the middle.
We passed an island with buildings. More about that below.
More of Edinburgh
The newest bridge is awesome.
The red bridge is the railroad bridge
The cable bridge is the newest.
This house would make a great AirBnB. I would love to rent it just to watch the ships go in and out.
Not a pilot boat, but I still liked it.
More bridge shots.
Reminded me of going under the Golden Gate but times three.
The middle bridge is an older car bridge.
And the new one carries cars as well.
Just a spectacular edifice.
Especially when you are shooting from below it.
I just stopped to see if I could find out more about the building we passed on the island just before we got to the bridges and discovered it is/was a monastery that was built in the early 1100s (it always blows me away to read something was built more than 300 years before North America was even discovered by Europeans). Inchcolm Abbey is on an island of the same name in the Firth of Forth. You can take a tour of the Abbey and the island.
Once we were docked, it was time for our “included” shore excursion—Panoramic Edinburgh. As you may recall from my Greenwich post, when it says “panoramic,” that translates to a “luxury motor coach” ride with a narrator and an hour or so at the end to shop or explore. This one was no exception.
Our guide for the day was Scott. He made a point to let us know that the country of Scotland was NOT named after him. He was a witty, verbose kind of guy (being one of those, I know from which I speak ?) who knew his stuff. He got us around Edinburgh with some great tales and anecdotes, and I would have really liked him except for one thing. He totally dismissed something I asked him to do for my comfort and the comfort of those around me.
As we were leaving the port on our “luxury motor coach,” we were in the back of a PACKED bus. I have never seen a Viking excursion so packed. Pretty much every seat was full. When Scott started his tour, he said, “If there is anything we can do to make your tour better, just let us know.” I piped up and asked him if he could request the bus driver give us a little fresh air in the back of the bus. Because we were so packed, it was quite warm and very stuffy. Scott’s answer to me was, “The air will come on once the engine is started.” And then he was off on his narration. Not a second to check in with the driver. Not a thought about the fact that since we were moving already, the engine was obviously turned on and no air was flowing from the vents. Nope, he basically told me he didn’t care about the people at the back of the bus and that his saying, “If there is anything we can do to make your tour better, just let us know,” was just the usual thing guides say to start a tour and he really didn’t give a damn. All he had to do was take two seconds to turn to the driver and say, “Could you put on the air in the back of the bus?” But he truly didn’t care and wanted to get on with his spiel.
Yes, I agree with what you are thinking. I am being petty. But it’s the little things that make a GREAT tour. I loved what he had to say; I laughed at his jokes, and the entire time I was doing that, I was very uncomfortable because it was so warm. And yes, I could have pressed the matter by speaking up again. But once you have been told to shut up (in so many words), if I were going to ask again, I would have to get up out of my seat and walk the length of the “luxury motor coach” to have a personal discussion with him. As it stands, my usual tip for a guide who makes me laugh and knows his stuff would have been £10 per person. Scott got exactly £0.
After we were off the bus, we had a choice; we could shop or explore for an hour, get back on the bus and head back to the ship for lunch, or we could go off on our own for the rest of the day and find our own way back to the ship later in the afternoon. We had already decided before we left the ship that we would spend the afternoon in the city. There were basically two things we wanted to do. One was lunch in the famous Tollbooth Tavern on The Royal Mile. Kathleen and I have eaten lunch there at least once on all four of our visits to Edinburgh. It’s not that the food is that great…it’s good pub grub. But the idea of eating in a pub that has been open continuously since 1851 and in a building that was built in the 16th century is just too cool.
The second thing we wanted to do was tour Holyrood Palace. We have toured the Castle, I have climbed Arthur’s Seat, and we have seen just about everything else in Edinburgh that people see when they come here, but we have never been able to get into Holyrood. It is the “official home of the Royal Family in Scotland,” and every time we have been here before, some royal has been in town. When a member of the royal family or their guests are in residence, all tours are canceled. That has happened to us every single time we have been there. But this time, I had checked in advance, and tickets were available for yesterday, and we could get in. And we did. A somewhat interesting palace (I got to see Mary, Queen of Scots bedroom) but they wouldn’t let me take photos inside and that always bothers me. I usually don’t visit those places. I didn’t realize that I couldn’t until one of the docents told me there were “no pictures allowed.” I had not seen a single sign (and I always look for them) telling me that, but I shut the Nikon off. I’m so sorry you won’t get to see the King’s bed, but there are a few photos I took on the way to the Palace and of the grounds. Don’t forget; if you click the first shot, you can scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping. And PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…
The Cathedral much higher on the Royal Mile.
The Carlton Hill castle from the Royal Mile.
The Tollbooth Tavern
A typical Scottish businessman on his way to work.
The exterior of The Palace at Holyrood.
As a student of history, this just does it for me. Knowing that the building was built during our Revolutionary War.
Did you know the national animal of Scotland is the unicorn? It is.
I love a shot of a family photo with everyone not paying attention. ?
A personal side note: My favorite “mountain” is in Edinburgh. It sits above the city. It is called Arthur’s Seat. I put the word “mountain” in quotes because the definition of mountain in the UK is not the same as in Washinton State. The highest mountain in the United Kingdom is Ben Nevis here in Scotland, which is a hair over 4,000 feet. In Washington, we call those hills. We have Mount Rainier, which is 14,000 plus feet. Arthur’s Seat is 823 feet…but still, it is a mountain in Scotland. And It’s my favorite because I climbed it…at 4:00 a.m. to take a picture of the sunrise (see the photo below). I did that on my visit in 2019. So it has a special place in my heart. 
At any rate, I didn’t climb Arthur’s Seat this time, but I was really fascinated by its views and the people climbing all over it. So here are a couple of pictures if that interests you.
Arthur’s Seat in silhouette
People on the way up.
Closer
The edge
That was it for us. We finally got an Uber that would take us back to the ship, and we were off and back on board. I posted the Sea Day post from yesterday, and Kathleen took a short nap before dinner at the buffet. As a special bonus, while we were eating dinner, we were sailing out, and I was able to get some more photos of the things we had seen coming in, plus more that I had somehow missed. So here’s the final group of photos from yesterday. Don’t forget; if you click the first shot, you can scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping. And PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…
On our way out of port
Some of the same things we saw on our way in…
…but with different light.
Or entirely new islands we hadn’t seen before.
Like this one with the lighthouse on it.
And a farway look at Arthur’s Seat.
And another island
And another.
That covers yesterday. Thankfully. I say that because it seems the further north we go, the worse the internet connection gets. We were fairly speedy in London, a little slower in Edinburgh, and now we are crawling. I certainly hope this improves. If it doesn’t, just know that I will be writing this and may have to post it when we are back home or close enough to land to get better speed. For those of you who know what speed your internet is at home, ours is about 500 megabytes a second. Here’s what I am getting this morning. This means that the average photo takes about two minutes to upload…each one. So frustrating.
Today, we are going to visit Kirkwall in the Orkney Islands. We have never been there before, so it should be interesting. We did receive a note from Viking last night that our “included” excursion for tomorrow in Lerwick on the Shetland Islands (our next port after Kirkwall) has been cut from 2.5 hours to one hour. The reason they gave us is a shortage of buses on the island and the fact that there are more than two cruise ships scheduled to be there. That’s just sad.
I hope to have a full report on Kirkwall and the Orkneys tomorrow…especially if I can’t sleep again.
I’ve been fortunate enough to travel to Edinburgh a few times over the last few years, and I just loved the city. I find it one of the more beautiful cities in Europe. —Joe Russo
by Jim Bellomo | Jun 17, 2024 | Photography
Good day, all! There’s not much to report today as yesterday was a sea day, and I gave my camera the day off except for this photo of a lonely, abandoned oil platform in the North Sea. That’s the only photo I took all day long. (The photo on the top of the page is a pano I took of the Observatory in Greenwich the day before.) But today, we were in Edinburgh, and we had a beautiful sail-in to the port of Rosyth early in the morning, so I hope to have some great pictures for tomorrow.
I want to write a short report about a sea day on Vikings. Yesterday was my 22nd day on a Viking Ocean ship, and it was my first sea day. You see, our cruises in the Med were all port days. So, I had no clue what would happen on a Viking sea day. Yesterday I found out, and the answer is…not a lot. The Daily was full of some lectures, trivia right at lunchtime, some entertainment around the ship, and that’s it. No waterslides, go-carts, ice skating, belly flop competitions, or fully-dressed water volleyball matches against the officers. We got none of that. And that’s why we sail Viking. We aren’t looking for that kind of thing. We wanted what we got. A day of rest (especially for Kathleen and I, who have been on the go for 16 days). It allowed me to work on all those photos I posted yesterday from Greenwich.
Ask me again how I like it in about a week when we have two full days at sea. But in the meantime, we have three straight port days, so I am not sure when you will get the next post about Edinburgh. I need to work on the photos now, so I will sign off and say that the weather here in Edinburgh has been good to us and that as many times as we have been here, we still love this city.
The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever. —Jacques Yves Cousteau
by Jim Bellomo | Jun 16, 2024 | Uncategorized
When we first found out we were embarking from Greenwich, I thought it was kind of cool—almost right in the heart of London. When we arrived in our Welcome Pickups car, our driver got there the fastest way he knew, but sadly, that was by driving through the worst parts of Greenwich. Neighborhoods that were crumbling, covered with graffiti and about every other shop looked vacant.
But once we arrived at the hotel, the rest of the village was spread out in front of us. Behind the hotel were the parts we had driven through; in front of the hotel was the section most visitors would tour, and they kept that in very nice condition. I don’t think I have mentioned what hotel we stayed in pre-cruise. We had chosen the DoubleTree by Hilton at London Greenwich. Why this hotel? Decent-looking rooms, decent reviews and about half the price of a downtown London hotel. Plus, I prefer being near the port so we can get there on the embarkation day without too much trouble. The hotel turned out to be very nice and a good value. We got our rooms with breakfast, which was a buffet and very good. The shower in our room left much to be desired. It was much too short for the rain shower head above, and the hand-held shower head hit me directly in the face and could not be moved to another position. Poor marks for that, but otherwise, it is very nice, and I would recommend it. I did mention not renting the room to tall people (because my brother had no problem in his room, and he is six inches taller than me), and they got back to me and said that was a great idea. Kudo for the response as well.
Back to our Viking Day in Greenwich. We were up early because our excursion needed to meet in the Star Theater at 8:00 am. And we weren’t even on the earliest excursion. We had chosen to do the included Viking excursion, just because it was included. For those of you who have not cruised with Viking, they include a shore excursion in every port. On our Med cruise in 2022, we weren’t impressed with any of the included tours we took. They are almost always one of two types—either a walking tour of a place close to the ship or tender port or a “panoramic” tour of the countryside. When you read a Viking description that says “panoramic,” you should immediately know that much of our tour will be by bus…or, in Viking speak, a “luxury motor coach.”
The wonderful Cosette…or if you didn’t like the tour, Sue.
Our Greenwich tour was a walking tour. Kathleen was still worn out and suffering from our Ted Lasso tour, so she decided to stay on the ship. Steve, Jamie & I went along. My plan was to take off on my own if the guide was anything like the ones we had had in the Med—talked so much it was like they were paid by the word. As our Med cruise went on, I started doing that. I would walk with the group until I was bored and then walk off on my own to take photos. I had usually researched the port enough to know what I wanted to see. This one was different. Our tour guide’s name was Cosette (like in Les Mis), and she was excellent. Just the right amount of comments, just the right amount of humor and moved at the right speed. When it was over, I told her I thought it was the best “included” Viking excursion I had ever been on. She walked us all over two miles worth of Greenwich, and we learned a lot. And I got lots of photos. She was also very good about telling us where you could go after the tour (due to time limitations, these were places she couldn’t take us), and that really helped me pick out places I wanted to shoot. So, I did the entire tour and then walked back to see the places she couldn’t take us and got the other shots I wanted.
Speaking of shooting, here are my morning tour photos. I hope you like them. Don’t forget: If you click the first shot, you can scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping. And please…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…
The tour begins
My Cutty Sark Shot
My artsy Cutty Shark version
Trafalgar’s Pub
Our guide told us, it was pretty famous.
Hundreds of hanging flower baskets on the side.
The 02. Built by Tony Blair and sat unused for years. Now holds concerts.
You know me and street photos.
And river photos. Loved the color.
Cosette called this the gondola to nowhere.
Looking back at Venus with our tender in front of it.
The gate at the Palace of Greenwich.
Inside the gates.
Very strange. A compass on a stationary building???
Looking up at the Greenwich Observatory
It’s a long way away.
Huge green common areas lead up to the Observatory
Where lots of things happen.
In front of the Maritime Museum.
An old pub in downtown Greenwich.
I took these for Kathleen to see…
…but I really love the way they turned out.
They just had them there for kids to ride.
More street photos. I wish you could hear the college orchestra playing.
Loved the columns..
And dad playing with his two daughters.
The walkway to the Observatory. Steep as Adair.
Billed as London’s best view.
You can see so much from here.
Including this gentleman who I thought looked very British.
The ball drops everyday at 1:00 to set the time for the world.
Venus in the foreground from the Observatory viewpoint.
The London Eye in the distance.
St. Paul’s Cathedral in the distance.
I wish that ball would go up and drop.
The Queen’s house in the foreground.
The Tulip stairs in the Queen’s house.
Looking up one way…
And another.
The city through the two sides of Greenwich Palace.
And in front of the Maritime Museum, what else? A ship in a bottle.
If you are a Monty Python fan…
…you will know what this is.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vuW6tQ0218
There was a place I could stand where I felt like the bus was going to hit me.
And the Cutty Sark figurehead. She is a witch and tried to grab her victims by the hair..
Darn! I almost forgot. While I was at the Observatory, I took a screenshot of my phone’s compass. Check this out. I am at exactly 0 longitude, facing due north.
Then it was back on the ship, and Steve and Jamie met friends from Norwich for lunch at the local brewery. Kathleen and I grabbed lunch and I spent the afternoon writing the post you got yesterday and processing photos.
We had dinner in the World Cafe. They were doing a “English Dinner” featuring many dishes we had eaten at the Wensleydale Heifer and enjoyed at Paul and Gail’s. There was roast beef, Yorkshire pudding, trifle, treacle and lots more. It was good but nowhere near as good as the Howard’s B&B or the Heifer.
After dinner, it was time to sail out. The ship was scheduled to sail down the Thames to the sea starting at 7:45. While we were eating dinner, the Captain and three pilots sat down at the table next to us. We knew it was time to go when they stood up from dinner.
Leaving Greenwich differs from any sail away we have done in 35+ cruises. Usually, the seamen will slip the ropes and pull them in, and off you go. In Greenwich, because there is no pier and the ship is anchored in the middle of the river, it is moored to five huge buoys that are anchored to the river bottom. To bring in the ropes and untie the ship, a crew has to get onto each mooring buoy and untie the ropes. That became a long and entertaining process for those of us taking photos. I have a few shots to show you what I am talking about.
To untie the ship from the docking buoys…
…they have to take the boat out and get on the buoys.
Sometimes the little boat can’t handle it.
So they send the bigger boat.
And they get the job done.
Standing on Venus, I was amazed at all the women around me…
…were astounded that a woman can do this kind of work. These people don’t get it.
After they finally got the lines off the ship, we were underway, and the sail out was very different. We were led out by both a pilot boat and a big tug. The best part of the sail out was getting to photograph the entire trip on the Thames. We went through the Thames Barrier (used to control the tides), passed another cruise ship , and went past the 02 tent and lots of parts of eastern London. I will let my pics give you the rest of the story on the sail out. Don’t forget; if you click the first shot, you can then scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping…and PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…
The Greenwich Observatory in a golden light.
One of the Uber Boats and the tunnel beneath the river entrance.
The Greenwich Palace. Often used in films and television.
Like last night when they were filming.
Trafalgar’s Pub from the water.
The worthless gondolas
02
02 in Pano
The Thames Barrier
Stops floods…or so they say.
Incoming cruise ship.
Windstar’s Star Legend crossing the Barrier just before us.
And now we pass through…
…going the other way.
It’s an amazing piece of engineering.
London City Airport. London is served by six major airports.
Our tow boat buddy moved behind us once we were through the barrier.
I am a huge fan of beautiful skies
With great light.
I got a bunch last night.
Goodnight Thames.
That concluded last night. By the time we were down the river, it was close to 10:00 p.m., and that was way past my bedtime. So it was off to bed. I needed to rest up to do everything I wanted to do today on the first sea day we had ever expierienced on a Viking ship.
The Thames is liquid history. —John Burns
