Monday 12 February 2007

Thinking about holidays!

Dismal dreary usual monday and my mind starts wandering back, to my last big holiday which was my first ever cruise. We have married 3 daughters off within the year and the year before, so DH and I were in need of some tlc and as the weddings had virtually broke our bank balance, we thought right our turn. So we decided to go on a very exciting adventure and went on our very first cruise on the Sea Princess... we set sail from Southampton on a sunny morning in September, the first step onto the sip was awe-inspiring, Photobucket - Video and Image Hostingwe had done all the necessarys on arrival at the dockside our suitcases were whisked away and the we stepped into this......well my jaw just dropped to the floor. Me and DH just stood there gawping, seasoned cruisers smiled sweetly, "Oh look cruise virgins"......still didn't care, I gawped and gawped.
Well we soon set sail after our 3 daughters waving us off, which in itself I found a complete chocker!!! silly Mum....anyway our first port of call was Cork in Ireland, sailing into the harbour the houses were all painted in different colours it looked so pretty like something out of the childrens programme Ballymory. When we left Cork all the locals gathered on the dockside and the local brass band came out to play us out, it was really magic. Then off to Dublin again in Ireland. Then we set sail for the rough yeuck part of the journey, we hit a force 8 gale coming off the top of Scotland, well believe me if you'd had a helicopter to lift me off, I would have gone, I was so frightened, couldn't sleep, husband said don't look out of the window. Ok what did I do, you guessed it looked out, now you see it now you don't, THE HORIZON THAT IS.....anyway fitfull night and next stop was Torshaven in the Faroe Islands, again very interesting. Next port of call wall if I recall Reykjavik, where we visited the lava fields and the Blue Lagoon, people had the chance to take a dip, I didn't. Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting







Photobucket - Video and Image HostingHubby was absolutely freezing, but it was soooooo blue, shame the photos cant' show it. Then if memory serves me well, we went to Greenland and cruised along an inside passge, honestly at times we didn't think the ship was going to go through, but it was truly breathtakin, mind you some cruisers who had been to Alaska, po-poed it, but it was good for us. Then I think we had two days at sea unfortunately more gales, force 7's, this time wasn;t too bad, people after dinner were falling all over the place, remember we were walking to the evening theatre to see a show and wish had had a video camera, slide this way, slide that, that even shut the decks off.
Next port of call was Newfoundland in Canada, paired up with a couple and toke a taxi ride all around. Last but not least we ended up in New York, but unfortunately didn't have as long there as would have liked, because the coaches couldn't get in to pick us all up from the quay side as unfortunately 6 cruises ships had docked with 2 hours of each other, it was total mayhem. But it didn't mar a very enjoyable first cruise, we've seen some lovely sights, met some lovely people but like all holidays, one seems to enjoy the memorys maybe sometimes more, don't know whether would do one again, felt very vunerable at times out at sea, miles from knowhere.

Photobucket - Video and Image HostingMe in New York, we had sailed through so many variable temperatures, so we'd had to take thicker jumpers and summer wear it was 23c in September.

Photobucket - Video and Image HostingEven managed a couple of dips in the hot tub on board.
Photobucket - Video and Image HostingCork in Ireland and those pretty painted houses.



Photobucket - Video and Image HostingGoing through a passage in Greenland to go and see the ice flow.


Photobucket - Video and Image HostingTorshaven if I remember rightly in the Faroe Islands.

2 comments:

Lindsey said...

I think you posted on my blog asking about spinning wheel retailers. I did a Google search for you and they have this list on their website: http://www.lendrum.ca/dealerlist.html which has links to dealers. Hope that helps you out. And your cruise looks like it was loads of fun--I'm stuck in miserable weather right now, too, so it sure would be nice to get out and see the world. :-)

gilraen said...

Isn't Cork georgeous. Did you get a chance to see Cobh/Queenstown where the Titanic called before it sailed finally to sink? :)