Belfast Northern Ireland and the "Troubles"

 

Our ship came into Belfast. Northern Ireland, like Scotland, is part of the United Kingdom, having Brexited. This lovely land is now mostly high tech and tourism, as we learned on our tour to the Glens of Antrim, nearby coast, and visit to Glenariff Forest Park where we had tea and scones.

Our tour was long--the bus ride was about 80 minutes one way to the Park and back with a slight complication discussed later.  Our tour guide was a retired solicitor who had worked in Belfast for most of her 30-year law career.  Upon retiring, she found she really did not know much of the history of her home town and as a great reader, she set out to learn more.  Then, deciding she would like to keep busy and put her knowledge to work, she became a tour guide.  We learned about the "troubles" from her, current economics, and more.  We also learned she has a son, who is a doctor, but because of national medicine, he would like to do more with his medical knowledge and is thinking of emigrating to Australia.  She hopes he will fall in love with a local lass and decide to stay in Northern Ireland.

She told us that about 3,600 people were killed during the Troubles in Northern Ireland. This conflict largely ended with the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, and involved republican and loyalist paramilitaries, the British security forces, and civilians. The violence included street fighting, bombings, sniper attacks, and other acts of terror. The power and government sharing agreement signed that day ended the troubles.  Now there are some "integrated" schools for kids that let both Protestants and Catholics in for a 50-50% balance.  As we drove past some, we saw that these schools have the word integrated in their names.  

We share some common social issues with Northern Ireland now in 2025: immigration unrest and high housing costs are at the top among our common issues.  Immigrants, she told us, fill important labor areas in healthcare and hospitality, not unlike in the USA.  While Northern Ireland farmers use less immigrant labor than us, they do use some. Young people can no longer afford to purchase homes as the cost of housing has risen so much.  This isn't a California problem.  This isn't a US problem, it is a developed world problem where desirable areas everywhere cost a lot for housing.

An unforeseen difficulty did occur on the tour.  The bus driver and the tour guide do not have a passenger manifest, and always count the number of heads on board--each of them making these counts.  They counted five times before we left port, and apparently arrived at a consensus of 41 passengers on board.  At the end of our tour as we sat waiting to leave they could only find 39 of us.  Everyone on the bus stated that no one sitting near them was missing.  After waiting 45 minutes, we finally left as they had called the ship and the Captain said "Get back--your making us late to leave."  We were the last ones to reboard and the shup sailed away soon afterwards.

Images from Glenariff:

Glasgow, Scotland and Stirling Castle

 

Stirling Castle sits high atop a hill with commanding views all around of Scotland below.  This castle was the key to holding power in old Scotland.  Whoever held the Castle, held Scotland. The first known castle was in 1110, and subsequent kinds and queens added on to this complex structure.  It was sieged at least eight times, with the last siege being 1746, when Bonnie Prince Charlie (Charles Edward Stuart, who was a pretender to the throne) tried and failed to take the castle. More or less peaceful occupation occurred after that date.

Yet intrigue swirled around the castle--Mary, Queen of Scots, was at Stirling Castle as an infant until she was taken to France for her safety, returning to the castle in 1562.  Mary was traveling from Stirling Castle when she was abducted by the Earl of Bothwell, beginning the chain of events that led to her forced abdication and her flight to England seeking protection from Queen Elizabeth I.  However, Queen Elizabeth feared Mary had a more rightful claim to Elizabeth's own throne and kept Mary in various castles under her watchful protection until finally imprisoning Mary, then eventually beheading poor Mary.

This family of swans swam past our ship as it prepared to sail away:

I tasted haggis on shipboard for the first time--spicy and well flavored but the texture was a bit gooey.  Lizzie wouldn't try it.

Dublin (Dun Laoghaire), Ireland

 

Geopolitically, Ireland is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially named Ireland – a sovereign state covering five-sixths of the island and still a member of the European Union after Brexit) and Northern Ireland (part of the United Kingdom and Brexited with England, covering the remaining sixth of the island surface). It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel. Ireland is the second-largest island of the British Isles, the third-largest in Europe, and the twentieth-largest in the world.  

Today we came into port near Dublin, the capitol of Ireland, and had an excursion: "Ballyknocken House & Glendalaugh."  We headed to County Wicklow, known as the Garden of Ireland passing through a countryside of rounded granite hills, incised by deep glens and wooded valleys.  We stopped at Ballyknocken House where a famed chef, Catherine Fulvio, taught us to prepare simple soda bread and scones, and afterwards served us tea along with her earlier made soda bread and scones, served with butter and plenty of scrumptious homemade strawberry jam.

We also had a tour of the monastic ruins of Glendalough, which was established by St Kevin in the 6th century.  The ruined churches of the monastery are scattered around two lakes, and once was a famous place of learning, inhabited by thousands of students from Ireland, Britain and Europe. Here we saw ruins of round tower architecture, ruined stone church and decorated crosses.  I also had the opportunity to shop at the monastery where handcrafted woolen and other items were beautiful and for sale.

Our long bus coach ride back was the start of several long bus rides in a row as we continue to Scotland and Northen Island, a challenge for my knees to remain bent for so long on multiple bus trips.

Rotterdam Holland and our COUSINS!

We were connecting today with Susanne, Brynn and Dael on August 5th,  They drove over from Susanne's home just outside of Amsterdam.  It was absolutely wonderful to see them! 

The dynamic trio took us to see the historical windmill site where dozen of old windmills still operated, even if they were no longer used to drain the saturated lands (all below sea level). It was a lovely walk on a paved trail, and didn't seem to bother my knee that was still sore from the Norway trolley. They asked what we wanted to do, and Liz and I both opted to be shown the countryside, and so that is what they did.  

After winding on the very narrow roads which lack any dividing line for opposite direction traffic--where cars drive in the bike lane and the roadway unless there is someone in the bike lane biking--and ended up parking near an the above church in a small village, where we walked a block or so and found a lovely cafe for lunch.  I had a mix of traditional Dutch food and Liz had a very thin crusted cheese topped pizza (that's what it looked like but was called something else).  Brynn had a hamburger, Dael the same thing I had (a plate of mushroom soup, bread, crispy roll, and tomato and antipasto/cheese covered piece of bread), Susanne had something else but I have forgotten exactly what.  

I saw more of the country and learned more about Holland, I think, than our other ship passengers who didn't have such fun tour guides!  The land has no hills, and only begins to have some as it nears the border with into Belgium.  It is very flat, with the below sea level lands cris-crossed with dikes to carry the water away.  Dairies abound--mostly Friesen black and white cows.  We say many swans, a bird that was the size and look of our Great Blue Heron, horses, and sheep.

Our guides had to get us back around 3:30, and they did that with perfection, and with lots of tears we parted, hoping they will come (with Lee, too) to Mendocino for Thanksgiving 2026. It was a wonderful visit.

Then, on-board ship we learned there were some delays (which were not totally explained) and our departure was pushed back until 6.  As we left Holland, we sailed out of the complicated waterway(s), passing at least 5 huge petroleum facilities--refineries and storage tanks.  

Tonight we finally get to start putting our clocks BACK an hour, as we had advanced until we were 9 hours ahead of Laura.  Tomorrow is a sea day and we will use it to get the entire ship passengers and crew through Irish immigration

Norway

Norway is warmer than our artic areas--and we navigated over 5 hours on August 3rd into this lovely, deep and lonnnng fjord until we reached Eidfjord, Norway.  The town was definitely a vacation destination for Norwegians as well as other members of the EU.  It has a population of only about 1,000 people and yet there are lovely hotels, restaurants, and a small trolley train to carry sightseers.  

We took the trolley train which allowed us to explore the town and nearby countryside where we saw a Viking burial ground, agriculture history and current activity, old church, and much more.  

After exiting the trolley, we walked around the area near the ship--most things were closed as it was a Sunday. However, the close town plaza was beautiful--filled with art in the plaza:

Sailing out of the fjord that evening revealed that clear cut logging was still occurring in Norway and I was dismayed to see that it appeared to be tractor yarding on significant slopes. The trees being harvested were likely second growth as their boles appeared to be small diameter.  

Iceland, the land of fire and ice

 

Photo courtesy of The Icelandic Met Office/Halldór Björnsson

We didn't see the fire, as that would have required more time and an expensive helicopter ride, but the lava is still; very active in Iceland, that is bisected by two tectonic plates which are pulling apart on the geologic scale.  When we arrived in Isafjordur on July 30th, we knew it would be easy to walk around the village, and in short order we viewed the museum (mostly Liz because of the steep and narrow stairs, steeper and narrower than those at the Cabin), purchased a few mementos, and found ourselves returning early to the ship.  It is a lovely village, but explorations of this part of Iceland require a vehicle and time.

Our next stop was in the city of Akureyri a day later on July 31, where we could have explored for far longer.  Our excursion took us to the spectacular Godafoss Waterfalls, Laufas Folk Museum to see the historic Icelandic huts built with thatched roofs and thatch inserts in the walls, and to the Botanical Gardens.  This latter we could have explored on our own as it was a short walk from our ship.  Lizzie took many photos of the beautiful flowers which I'll try to integrate into the blog later--but first some images of Godafoss Falls and of the countryside.

We can't forget the ubiquitous heart-shaped red traffic lights--the City Council (equivalent) decided to make all the red portion of the red-green-yellow traffic lights in the shape of a heart.  How perfect for Akureyri!

Godafoss Falls was very impressive, and also where we encountered our first pay bathrooms, which apparently are common in Europe.  I paid with my credit card (which can be tapped-to-pay anywhere, it seems), so I will have a memento on credit card statement...

The agrarian countryside was lovely, from scenes of Icelandic horses, sheep, roll-after-roll of white wrapped hay, to just the green hillsides.

The cruise port was under construction, so it itself was not attractive due to the piles of building materials, many pieces of heavy equipment, etc., denoting "under construction."   homes.

Our tour guide was wonderful, and our journey took us through the backlands about 45 minutes from Akureyri where we have a wonderful time exploring everything from the falls to the Icelandic turf-roofed and tucked hut and of course the wonderful red hearts light signals:

Nanortalik, Greenland, and Slipping through the Prince Christian Sund

 

On July 26th we left Paamiut and sailed toward Nanortalik, Greenland, where we are to dock around 9 a.m. the next day. The sunset that night in the late hours of the sail at sea, showed us increasing sea ice, as well as the lovely sinking of the sun behind the mountains above.  However, given the complexities of transferring images from iPhone to the poor little overworked laptop with wifi dropping and no wireless signal, that image is stubbornly refusing to wend its way to where I can grab it for my blog, and I have more plans for the day than spending 30 minutes tackling this problem for a single sunset image.  So, just imagine it, my friends, as the late John Lennon would sing (as played by Adam in the Billboard Lounge onboard). 

Nanortalik was also a tender port, and was where I saw this lovely iceberg as we approached.

We left the port much earlier than planned as the Captain decided to seek shelter to wait out an approaching storm.  We sheltered overnight in a small cove on the leeward side of a Greenland mountain.  The storm passed but left behind some remnant high seas.  We then made our way into the Prince Christian Sund.  

In the morning, we could visually see how tough this sund was to navigate with both its narrowness and icebergs.  We cautiously threaded the needle as we passed between MANY large beautiful icebergs with many seeming to be within 150 feet of our ship.  We have several ice pilots on board, and the Team is using all of its combined skillsets to move us safely through the sund as we pass glacier after glacier as well as hundreds of waterfalls.

At one point, we passed our sister ship (and best ship I have sailed on, IMHO), the smaller Volendam. She was tucked in beside a glacier until we positioned ourselves on the far side of the sund, then she left and sailed past us, sounding her horn as she did.

We continued on through the Prince Christian Sund, which so far was the most spectacular and interesting part of the trip for me.  

On the following day, July 29th, we cruised through the Denmark Straight at sea, heading toward Isafjordur, Iceland.