Photo Review Celebrity Refection May 16th, 2019 Scotland, Ireland & Iceland

[h20cruzer]

love, love your pics!  By the way could you give me your favorite seat numbers on the Air New Zealand to LHR

Norma

[cruise kitty]

12 minutes ago, h20cruzer said:

love, love your pics!  By the way could you give me your favorite seat numbers on the Air New Zealand to LHR

Norma

 

Hi Norma, we had seats 23 A & B,  hope this helps!

 

We walked over to Holyrood Palace, but the rain was really starting in, so we headed back & stopped at a cute pub for a snack,  discovered that we really, really liked chicken pate with oatcakes!  

 

After, we headed back to the hotel, Steve took a little nap, & I went to the exec. lounge for a little afternoon tea (which really meant a gin & tonic :)

 

We bundled up & headed out to walk to the Scran & Scallie,  how cold was it?  This is how Steve dressed & he was still freezing!

 

sights along the way:

 

amazing meal:

 

Edited September 5, 2019 by cruise kitty
somehow combined two post, but can't seem to fix it

[cruise kitty]

Day 5,  we really took it easy, my camera had been wonky for days & it kept loosing dates & times :(  we decided to just walk in whatever direction we felt like, wandering through the back alleys   & "Closes"  we actually went to bed pretty early because the next day was driving day!  First of all, we'd never driven on the left, but we watched lots of driver perspective videos on you tube, how hard could it be?  

 

Day 6 through 

Well, getting out of town was not easy!  we had gps, but still, there were so many turns to make, it truly was trial by fire!  We discovered some interesting differences between Scottish highways & California ones (in other words, we almost killed ourselves & those around us)  

 

I'm going to attempt to upload a video, but I'm not sure if it will work or not

 

 

 

[cruise kitty]

Days 6-11

Rather than do a detailed day by day of our driving trip through the Highlands,  I'm going to just touch on the highlights with some photos, suffice it to say, it's one of the most gorgeous places I've ever visited, we absolutely did not have anywhere near the amount of time that I'd have liked.   Brief summary: lots of castle stops!  Major camera trouble! Hairy Coos! Sheep! Views, Views, & more Views!  We spent the first night in Ft. William,  passing through Loch Lomond with many stops along the way....  stayed at small bed and breakfast that evening, & did a lovely hike into the very small nearby town of Corpach for dinner...  it actually snowed in the hills that evening! The next two nights were spent on the Isle of Skye (we took the ferry over, & bridge on the way out...could have easily spent a month on Skye, we stayed at the Cullin Hills Hotel, which I can't recommend enough!  Skye was all about day hiking for us, & we were lucky enough to hit beautiful weather.   Next we headed to Inverness, with our major stops being Eilean Donan & Urqhart Castle (Loch Ness!  Rain!)  After Inverness, we visited Pitlochry, & then Stirling & finally spent one more night in Edinburgh before flying to Dublin for our pre cruise stay.

 

 

View from the B&B in Corpach:

 

 

 

 

 

 

[cruise kitty]

Highlands driving trip, continued:  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[cruise kitty]

Highlands, continued

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mason525]

Wow- gorgeous pictures and great commentary !!! Will be heading to Edinburgh in early October for 5 days between 2 Med cruises oops actually 1 Med and 1 TA). Thanks for posting.

[cruise kitty]

48 minutes ago, mason525 said:

Wow- gorgeous pictures and great commentary !!! Will be heading to Edinburgh in early October for 5 days between 2 Med cruises oops actually 1 Med and 1 TA). Thanks for posting.

 

thank you & you're welcome :)    Edinburgh was just lovely!

[cruise kitty]

As you can see I took a long break from writing this, I'll try to be more committed :)

 

Day 12-13

 

We headed back to Edinburgh for one last night, & were up bright and early the next day for our flight to Dublin.   The hotel called a cab for us, & we made the quick journey to the airport.  

 

The flight was uneventful, but as we were coming in for the landing I saw something HUGE running & leaping across the runway...  It was super fast & I'd never seen anything like it, the flight attendant saw the look on my face (we were in the first row)  & said, "oh, I bet you just saw one of our hares,  last week one jumped onto a plane after it landed"  yikes!  

 

We had purchased some sort of Dublin Pass,  & it enabled us to buy discounted bus tickets from the airport to our hotel,  honestly if I had to do it again I probably would have just taken a cab as there were lots of stops before we reached our hotel.   

 

We stayed at the Conrad Dublin hotel,  a great location just steps from St Stephen's Green,   our room wasn't ready, so we stored our luggage with them & set out to explore the town.  

 

not too many photos from this day,  we headed uphill to the Guinness Factory, where we did the audio tour & learned how to pull the "perfect" pint 

 

There's an amazing view from the Gravity Bar, but quite simply, we were a bit tired & getting a little hangry, so we headed back to the hotel,  our room was ready & our bags had already been delivered. 

 

Because the hotel didn't have an executive lounge, they gave us a ridiculous number of free drink tickets for their pub or lounge,  we decided to eat dinner in the lounge & discovered to my delight Barley Wine, which I really enjoyed :)   We ate, walked to corner & bought a bottle of Rose wine, took showers & drank a little wine, & both were out in the very comfy bed.  We had an early start the next day as we had timed tickets for Trinity College Book of Kells & the Library, as well as a historic walking tour later in the afternoon.  

[TeaBag]

So glad you picked this up again.  I was really looking forward to your account of Dublin because that's where my family emigrated from way back when.

 

Your pictures are lovely.

Edited January 17, 2020 by TeaBag

[cruise kitty]

1 hour ago, TeaBag said:

So glad you picked this up again.  I was really looking forward to your account of Dublin because that's where my family emigrated from way back when.

 

Your pictures are lovely.

 thank you,  i"m going to try and finish this up in the next couple of days!

[cruise kitty]

Dublin, day 13

 

Up & at 'em early again as usual.  Our hotel included an excellent breakfast which we took full advantage of.  DH surprised me by requesting that an Irish coffee be served to me each morning, (cause, Ireland ;) )    Delicious 

 

I had prebooked Trinity College, the library, & Book of Kells for early morning & a historic walking tour for the early afternoon,  but first, we had some serious laundry issues to take care of.  Looking at the hotels laundry service I calculated that we were lugging a $200 bag of laundry. Yikes!  That's a lot of Irish coffee & Guinness ;)

 

Google is my friend, so by 7:30 we were walking about a half mile from our hotel to a nearby laundry that offered same day wash & fold by weight

 

Canal along the way, plus, I love seeing a city wake up:

 

 

 

If you're in Dublin, & need same day laundry service:

 

 

We walked back to the hotel to freshen up, & then walked to Trinity College, by 9 am we already had our first 5 miles of the day clocked ;)   

 

You're not allowed to take photos of the actual Book of Kells,  but here's some info from the net:

https://www.tcd.ie/visitors/book-of-kells/

For myself, I'd say this was a must do, the museum is well laid out, glad that I had booked one of the earliest available times as we did not fight crowds. 

 

The library:

 

 

 

 

Edited January 27, 2020 by cruise kitty

[cruise kitty]

Dublin, continued,  

 

We grabbed some coffee after the library & then met up with our walking tour around 11,  it was a very interesting walking tour guided by a Trinity College student,  focused on early Dublin history, especially the Viking heritage in Dublin & Ireland.   Sadly, a lot of the Viking sites have been covered by construction :(

 

example of artifacts that were found:

 

I don't have a ton of photo from the rest of our day,  this is where my camera started going badly wrong,   which was a major bummer before as we still had weeks to go,  this Christmas I gifted myself a new camera, so the next cruise blog should go much smoother ;)

We grabbed lunch after our tour, then headed back to the hotel to see what I could do about said camera, tried a few work arounds, but basically spent the next few weeks having to take out my battery & reboot the camera after every few shots, not fun 

After lunch, we headed back out & just walked, & walked...  hit up a few museums along the way as they were included with our Dublin Pass

 

& remember to look right, this was much easier now that we'd driven on the left for a bit :

 

 

[cruise kitty]

dublin photos, continued:

 

 

 

 

Art memorializing those who died during the Hunger in Ireland:

https://www.discoverireland.ie/Arts-Culture-Heritage/famine-memorial/31500

 

Before taking this trip, I really delved deep into the history of the places we'd be visiting.   I have to say that the tragedy of Ireland's history & the suffering of the Irish people under foreign rule really impacted me.  I don't want to get political here,  it's a very complicated history & it was interesting to have conversations on board the ship with people who viewed it from a British viewpoint vs those who viewed it from an Irish viewpoint.   

 

Replica of the Jeanie Johnston:  

https://jeaniejohnston.ie/history/

 

We didn't tour it because honestly at this point we were a bit overwhelmed by everything we'd learned that day.

 

Dinner,  that evening:

 

[cruise kitty]

Day 14, Dublin, Continued

 

Our plan for today was the full circle of the Howth Cliff hike.   Another excellent breakfast, & we headed out on foot to the train station:

 

 

 

info on the trail:

 

 

 

it was incredibly windy near the peak:

 

the path:

 

Lighthouse:

 

A little surprise for me along the way, I do love a good old churchyard cemetery 

 

 

 

[cruise kitty]

Howth, continued

 

it started raining a bit, & we were both thirsty & needed a restroom, this pub was warm & cozy:

 

 

wonder if I was feeling homesick, cause I ordered a beer from back home:

 

 

The path leading down:

 

 

 

 

 

great billboard:

 

[megfla]

Enjoying your pics!  We'll be taking this sailing in June.

[cruise kitty]

We took the train back to Dublin, & did some more walking,  I had a goal in mind of visiting Sweny's Pharmacy from my high school days of reading Ulysses & buying the lemon soap:

 

 

 

 

Yes, I totally bought the soap:

 

 

Our roll call had arranged to meet up at a bar that was across the river from us, but honestly, we were absolutely exhausted & the next day the cruise was starting!   We ate dinner in the hotel pub, used up some more of our drink coupons (barley wine!)  & decided to do our packing,  after that it was showers, a little wine (don't judge me please ;) )  & an early bedtime. 

 

 

 

Edited January 27, 2020 by cruise kitty

[cruise kitty]

6 minutes ago, megfla said:

Enjoying your pics!  We'll be taking this sailing in June.

 

thank you, it was a wonderful cruise!

[cruise kitty]

Day 1 of the cruise!  To the ship!

 

Breakfast at the hotel, suitcases in the lobby, bellman called us a cab, & we were off!

There was a large  amount of very unhappy people waiting inside of the port building,  sitting in seats to the side,  we went to  join them, but someone asked to see our express passes (on my phone)  & we were instantly whisked to a desk, then a shuttle bus & were on our way to the ship!

 

We dropped off our backpacks at Michaels Club, & went to explore the ship,  it was our first time on the Reflection, first time in a suite,  & so far, so good.  

 

 

 

Balcony where I would be spending a lot of time:

 

 

We headed for lunch in Luminae, & wow!  The setting, the service, the food, just outstanding.   Headed to our rooms & unpacked, scheduled massages, bought passes for Persian Gardens,  explored the ship some more, muster was pretty painless, same old drill...  & then a fabulous dinner in Luminae.  

 

Sailing out of Dublin, bundled up in blankies,  exscuse the goofy photos, but I did warm you that this blog is also for future me, so....  this is what happens when middle aged people try to take a selfie:

 

 

Greenock:

 We had decided to walk from the dock to the train station & go into Glasgow for the day,  super happy to be back in Scotland, & this day cemented Scotland as one of my absolute all time favorite place, the sights, the landscape, the people with their very self deprecating sense of humour, I'm definitely smitten 

 

 

it's about a 15 minute walk to the train station 

 

 

Easy to do, clean, comfortable train, & nice scenery on the way :) I highly recommend it!

 

 

[cruise kitty]

We decided to get on the hop on hop off bus, there are two, one that does an audio guide in different languages, & another with a live guide in english,  if you're English speaking, definitely do the live guide one, as he had so much personal additional information & tips :)

 

there's that darn bunny again! 

 

 

 

 

 

We ended up leaving the hop on hop off early as we didn't want to miss out on St. Mungo's Cathedral, or the art murals, just an FYI:  when we got on the HOHO in the morning it was pretty early & we didn't have to wait more than 5 minutes, we got off after about 3/4 of the round trip, & by then the lines were crazy, people who were waiting in line couldn't really get on, as no one was getting off, so if you're going to do this, do it early :)

 

Info about St Mungo's:

https://www.glasgowcathedral.org/visiting/

 

 

 

 

 

[cruise kitty]

Glasgow, continued:

 

 

Beautiful grounds & cemetery:

 

 

 

 

We climbed to the very top of the cemetery, amazing views up there...  next we headed for the art mural trail, here's some info:

https://peoplemakeglasgow.com/things-to-do/city-centre-mural-trail

 

 

 

 

[Cruisegirl6]

following

[cruise kitty]

Glasgow,   we found a cool pub to get a little food at:

 

 

my favorite beer,  foie gras, & oat cakes:

 

back on the train, with a lovely bouquet of flowers we bought at the station:

 

 

 just an fyi, we were scheduled to dock in Greenock at 9 that morning,  we definitley arrived early & were able to get off early & make that first train which allowed us more time in Glasgow... 

 

Another great meal at Luminae that evening...  we received the welcome news that we could set our clocks back an hour that night,  the next day would be a sea day & we had massages scheduled.   

 

We spent a good deal of time in Michaels Club,   the Concierges, Alexandra & Adriana were wonderful, & the bartender, Cranston would have my aperol spritz ready for me every evening....

[cruise kitty]

Sea Day!  we slept in a bit, &  ended up grabbing  a little fruit and coffee at the buffet, a mistake we wouldn't make again...   the fact that Reflection has an extra deck of cabins really, really shows in the buffet, it was a bit crowded & more chaotic that usual, we avoided it after that.  

 

After our massages (so so, I didn't book another,  Canyon Ranch was running things) we relaxed in the solarium a bit, then decided to hit up luminae for lunch,  we split the burger, which was amazing!

 

 

 

a welcome message from the car rental in Iceland:

 

 

Dinner in Luminae: