Monday morning in Windsor started bright and mainly sunny with the temperature rising to 24c later in the day. Our hotel “Sir Christopher Wren – waterside” was an interesting, sprawling old building tucked off a cobbled street under the ramparts of Windsor Castle, and steps from Eton Bridge, which leads directly to Eton College and…
Sunday morning started sunny and warm with temperature around 16c. Leaving Bath today for our train journey to Windsor. At the station we discovered that our 12:13pm train was delayed by 10 minutes. Eventually onboard and headed to Didcot for our first change of train. Arriving late we had to quickly change platform but then…
Friday morning in Bath on an overcast, damp start to the day with 18c temperature. Clearing by 11am so we walked into the town centre on a mission to find Marks & Spencer. Having found it and done our shopping we walked back up through the main street and finally stopped at Café Nero for…
Thursday afternoon arrived in Bath by train having travelled up from Southampton, A warm partly sunny day with temperature up to 21c. Checked into out B&B then went for a walk into Bath city centre about 15 minutes away. Explored a little then stopped at a small tapas restaurant for dinner before returning just as…
Spending the next few days in Bath then Windsor, before flying home next Tuesday Sept 8th. Hopefully there will be a few photos from here to follow.
Sunday morning saw us approaching Cobh with partly sunny weather and temperature around 16c. Eventually docked close to the town by 11am. Cobh, known from 1849 until 1920 as Queenstown, is a seaport town on the south coast of County Cork, Ireland. With a population of approximately 14,000 Cobh is on the south side of Great Island in Cork Harbour and home to…
Saturday morning saw us docked in Belfast by 6:15am on an overcast day and 16c temperature. This is a busy commercial port with ferries also coming and going all day. Belfast is the capital city and main port of Northern Ireland, which stands on the banks of the river Lagan, and is connected to the open sea…
Early Friday morning sailing up the river Foyle with clear skies and temperature around 15c. We are unable to go right up the lough into Londonderry so anchored off Greencastle by 8am. Greencastle is a commercial fishing port located in the north-east of the Inishowen Peninsula on the north coast of County Donegal. The port…
On a calm, clearing, 15c Thursday morning we approached Stornoway. Docked by 8am at the new Deep Sea Terminal. Stornoway is the main town, and by far the largest, of the Outer Hebrides, and the capital of both the Isle of Lewis and encompassing island of Lewis and Harris. The town’s population is around 8,000, making it the…
Tuesday morning still at Seyðisfjörður for our 2nd day. A bright sunny start to the day with temperature of 10c We started out at 8am when 30 of us boarded the bus for the “scenic east” tour. The weather continued sunny and warm throughout the day with temperature reaching 61c by the afternoon. Our guide…
Monday morning approaching Seyðisfjörður on a cloudy, wet day with 8c temperature. Docked by 8am. Seyðisfjörður, with a population around 650, is a town in the Eastern Region of Iceland at the innermost point of the fjord of the same name. A road over Fjarðarheiði mountain pass (elevation 600 m or 2,000 ft) connects Seyðisfjörður to the rest of Iceland. This Icelandic town is…
Early Sunday morning sailing down Eyjafjörður with the sun coming up over the hill and temperature around 12c. Arrived at Akureyri by 8am. Akureyri is a town in northern Iceland. Nicknamed the “Capital of North Iceland”, Akureyri is an important port and fishing centre with a population around 20,000. At the bottom of Eyjafjörður fjord…
Arrived off Ísafjörður on Saturday morning around 7am. An overcast, wet morning with temperature around 12c. Ísafjörður (meaning ice fjord, literally fjord of ices) is a town in the northwest of Iceland. With a population of about 2,600, Ísafjörður is the largest settlement in the peninsula of Vestfirðir. 43 of us met at 8am for our boat tour out…
Friday morning saw us arrive off Grundarfjörður at 07:30am on a sunny, cool morning with the temperature around 10c. We are anchored today so will be going ashore in the ship’s tenders. Grundarfjörður is a town in the north of the Snaefellsnes peninsula in the west of Iceland. With a population of around 900 it is situated between a mountain…
8am on Thursday morning arrived at Reykjavik on an overcast day with temperatures around 10c. Reykjavík is the capital and largest city of Iceland. It is located on the southern shore of the Faxafloi bay in southwest Iceland and has a latitude of 64°08′ N, making it the world’s northernmost capital of a sovereign state….
Wednesday morning saw us arrive off the island of Heimaey around 7:30am with overcast weather and temperature around 10c. They had some trouble getting the ship into a good anchorage so now running about 30 mins late on today’s tours. Today we will be tendering ashore using the ships boats. Heimaey is an Icelandic island, 4 nautical miles…
Monday on a dull, overcast morning with 9c temperature as we approached the Faroe Islands. Arrived at Torshavn by 10am.The Faroes are an autonomous territory of Denmark consisting of a collection of 18 major islands, located between Iceland, Norway and Shetland. Total population of the Faeroes is around 55,000. Tórshavn locally referred to as Havn, is…
Morning found us travelling down the sound towards Lerwick, Shetland Islands. An overcast morning with temperature around 12c. Docked at Mair’s Pier by 10am. Lerwick is the main town and port of the Shetland Islands, with a population of about 7,000 residents. It is the northernmost major settlement within the UK and centred 123 miles (200 km) off the north coast…
Saturday we travelled up the channel to Invergordon accompanied by several gannets, on a bright, partly sunny morning with temperature around 17c. Arrived at the dock by Noon. Invergordon is a town and port in Ross and Cromarty, Highland, Scotland with a population of around 4,000. Our tour today started at 12:45pm with about 30 of us. Our…
Sailed up the Firth of Forth early on Friday morning with overcast skies and temperature around 19c. Escorted by a pod of porpoises for a while. Passed under the bridges around 9am. There are now 3 bridges across the Firth of Forth. Due to spring tides we were able to pass under the bridges to…
Departed Vancouver airport for Amsterdam on KLM at 5:50pm, Monday 10th Aug, flying on a Boeing 777ER. Arrived Schiphol airport about noon on Tuesday 11th then transferred to the London flight which left around 2pm, flying on an Embraer195-E2. Arrived Heathrow terminal 4 around 2:30pm on a sunny warm afternoon, and took the Elizabeth Line…
Our adventure will begin with arrival London on Tuesday August 11th. Overnight in London then a transfer down to Southampton on the south coast the next day. On the 12th we head north up to the Scottish mainland then on to the Shetland Islands. Continuing north will take us to the Faeroe Islands before heading…
Arrived at Ward Cove just on the outskirts of Ketchikan at 08:00am on a rainy morning with temperature of 9C. Ketchikan, Alaska is the state’s southeasternmost major settlement. With a population at the 2020 census of 8,192 it is the sixth-most populous city in the state. Ward Cove pulp mill closed in 1997 and reopened…
Arrived Sitka at 08:00am on an overcast, rainy morning with temperature of 9C. Sitka is in the southeast portion of Alaska. It was under Russian rule from 1799 to 1867. The city is situated on the west side of Baranof Island. As of the 2020 census Sitka had a population of 8,458, making it the…
A beautiful, mostly sunny day with temperature around 12C saw us arriving in Yakutat Bay around 1:00pm. This is about 302 miles from Whittier and 226 miles from Juneau. After picking up the Alaska pilot proceeded in towards Hubbard Glacier. This is located about 30 miles north off the coast of Yakutat. Hubbard Glacier straddles…
Arrived Whittier at 10:00am on a dry, overcast morning with temperature of 8C. Very scenic sailing up the channel with plenty of snow still on the mountain tops. Whittier is a city at the head of the Passage Canal about 58 miles (93 km) southeast of Anchorage. The city’s population was 272 at the 2020 census….
Arrived Kodiak at 07:00am after our 6 days crossing the north Pacific. A bright, dry start to the day with temperature at 2C rising to around 6C in the afternoon. Some snow still on the tops of the mountains. Kodiak is the main city and one of seven communities on Kodiak Island, Alaska. All commercial…
Saturday May 9th is the beginning of our ocean crossing from Kushiro, Japan to Kodiak, Alaska. Due to weather conditions further south we will be taking the northern great circle route across the Bering Sea. This entails passing through the Aleutian chain of islands at either end. The International Date Line (IDL) is an imaginary…