Cruise Day 28 - Dover, England

Today we sailed into Dover. I have never seen the White Cliffs of Dover so awake to a great view from our cabin. Also Dover Castle sits proudly on top of the hills.

Helen decided to have a relaxing day on the ship, so I went ashore alone. I wanted to walk the cliffs and experience them up close, but there was no easy transport, but walking tracks were well advertised. So I caught a shuttle bus from the ship into the middle of town, taking about 10 minutes.

As I was early, most of town shops were closed, so I headed straight for the cliffs on foot. There are houses under the cliffs on the edges of town before the walking track leaves town and becomes all there is.

The walking track soon gets steep but is well marked.

The track passes alongside the Port of Dover from above. This is a serious operation with ferries coming and going, and endless lines of trucks moving in and out.

Along the way I discovered old caves, old gun placements, and some good photo opportunities looking along the cliffs. 

I had to lay on the edge of the cliff to take the photo, which was a little scary.

As I continued up the hill, I started to consider that I should have brought some food and water with me. The sun was our, and it was getting hot rather quickly. Also I didn't know how far the walk can go, and had to conserve sufficient energy to make the return walk to down.

I know there was a lighthouse but decided it was just too far, so eventually turned back. By the time I reached town I saw ready for a cold drink!

Interestingly the walking track crosses a road that comes from the ferry terminal, so I saw this sign.

Once I caught the shuttle bus to the ship, it went for a round trip up to the castle, letting me see a few more things. I had noticed in town many people speaking French and other languages, and I also noticed many of the cars driving around had European number plates. Dover almost didn't feel like England! I guess that's what you get having an international ferry port operating in your town.

Once back at the ship, I met Helen for lunch, and had a nice long soak in the spa pool to rest after my big walk.

Almost daily on the ship there is a music trivia quiz. People in up teams of six complete to test their music knowledge. We don't team up with anyone, but have befriended regular contestants. I usually do quite well but never win. Tonight, the topic was music by Queen. My favourite band! I got every question right, and so did three other teams, so one person from each team had to stand up for a "sudden death" question, where the first person to yell out the answer wins. I won!!!! The prize is a Holland America Pin, which Helen has been wanting for the whole cruise, and I scored on the last night of our cruise. Yippee!

Dover has been our last stop, so tonight we packed our bags. Tomorrow we sail into Rotterdam, docking at 7am and departing the ship as soon as possible as we only have four hours until our flight home.

Thanks for reading the blog for this trip, and see you again here for our next holiday.

Cruise Day 26 - Edinburgh, Scotland

Today we were to visit Edinburgh. We lived here in 2008/2009 and know the city very well, so felt somewhat at a loose end what we would do today. It is also Edinburgh Festival time, making the city very busy with people, and also a million things to do if we feel so inclined.

When we lived in Edinburgh, the city was working on installing light rail (trams) running from Newhaven, Ocean Terminal and Leith all the way through the city via Princes Street and then out to the airport. The work was highly disruptive to traffice, especially buses, with our bus routes and bus stops constantly changing. So we wanted to ride the trams end-to-end to see the final outcome of all that we experienced.

Our ship came in the Firth of Forth to a gloomy morning. As as approached the Froth Bridge, we hoped to pass under, but we actually anchored just nearby. I guess we are just too big.

This meant we would be using tenders to get ashore, passing under the bridge and dropping us off at Hawes Pier at Queensferry.

Here we would see our ship parked in the Firth of Forth.

Lothian Buses put on special shuttle buses for us, a great deal where our ticket was good for all public transport all day, including trams! So we got on board and after a short wait had a 30 minute drive into the heart of Edinburgh in George Street.

We quickly learned that recently there was a fire in a historic building in Princes St, and it was requiring careful demolition and stabilistation, so an entire block of Princes Street was closed all all foot and vehicle traffic, including trams. The trams were only running between the airport and West End. Oh Edinburgh, some things never change!

We hopped a bus back in the direction we had just come from, to Stockbridge, a nice area with list of boutique shopping. Helen wanted to visit a stationery shop there. So far it was a pleasant sunny morning, and we were away from the tourist area, so it was a nice leasurely walk.

Next we hopped a bus to Ocean Terminal, taking us right by where we used to live, so we get to see the old neighbourhood.

Once at Ocean Terminal, we were able to catch a bus out to the airport. It took a route we were not familiar with, so we got to see something new.

When we reached the airport, we found the team terminal very easily, and jumped on board.

The trams a very nice, spacious and comfortable. Although now around 12 years old they are in very nice condition. The ride into Edinburgh was quite fast and enjoyable, much better than the bus alternative,

Once we got off the tram but rain started, so time to put a raincoat on. We walk along to Princes St, until finding the cause of the road closure.

I also since found some interesting news articles about this and the disruption caused to the trams and local businesses.

Historic building gutted by major blaze on Edinburgh's Princes Street

Scottish government announces £5m Princes Street fire support

I also snapped a picture of Edinburgh Castle for old times sake.

We then walked the shops, along Rose Street, and George Street. Our feet were tired so we stopped at The Standing Order, a pub we used to visit, where we spent an hour having lunch and chatting with locals. Scottish people are so friendly.

We then walked some more, checking out a few shops, the only purchase being Helen bought some treats for workmates at M&S Food.

From here, Helen wanted to rest her feed, and I was keen to walk the remainder of Princes St, so we parted ways for an hour or so.

Since lunch, the rain had stopped and I was back to raincoat in bag. I noticed dark clouds roll in, and these turned into a sudden downpour. In the time it took to get my raincoat on, I was alrready wet, the there was instant surface flooding. People scrambled everywhere to get shelter, a challenge because the shops here to not have verandahs. Princes Street was suddenly a dark, gloomy and very wet place to be. I got very wet with water running down my neck, and rain pouring off my jacked soaking my trousers.

This weather event actually made the news!

'Getting a gid clean': Locals react as Edinburgh streets turn into waterfalls

I eventually reached end the of Princes St, and went into the St James Quarter, a shopping mall. This served three purposes - (1) no rain indoors (2) I could use escalators to bring me up a few floors to George Street level and (3) it had toilets which I badly needed.

Once out of St James Quarter, I walked through St Andrews Square, and along George Street. Here I met up with Helen along with a friend of ours called Hope who were were meeting for dinner. Hope moved here from New Zealand in October 2025 so it was nice to catch up, and for Hope it was nice to have some familiar company. We had Italian for dinner and it was lovely, very authentic.

After dinner we made our way back to the ship, catching our shuttle bus which coincidentally was nearby the restaurant.

Before boarding our tender, I snapped a photo of our ship all lit up.

Tomorrow is a sea day as we have a long way to go to Dover which will be our last stop before heading home.

Cruise Day 25 - Invergordon, Scotland

Today we stopped at Invergordon. This is small town in northern Scotland, population around 4000, which has a deep sea port suitable for ships our size, and appears to be a maintenance port for oil drilling platforms.

We docked on an overcast day with no wind and very still water.

For most passengers on our cruise, the shore excursions are for places like Loch Ness, Eileen Donan Castle, Urquhart Castle, Inverness, various distilleries, all of which we've visited previously when we lived in Scotland. So we decided not to do any shore excursions, and instead just go for a walk around town.

Being in no hurry, we had breakfast on the ship, and then returned to our cabin to get ready to go ashore. Here's the view of the town and port from our balcony.

It was only a 10 minute walk to High Street which is where the shops are. There was a mix of supermarket, souvineer shops, coffee shops, and various others you would expect a small town to have.

Many of the buildings on intersections with side streets had murals painted on them, making the walk more interesting and bringing some colour to this otherwise quiet town. Here are a small section of them.

Inverness has a small museum, actually a naval museum, which I walked up to visit. It is small and most exhibits are based around the sinking of HMS Natal, a Royal Navy cruiser that sunk in 1915 near Inverness.

Next door, there was a craft fair being held inside Royal British Legion Scotland Invergordon Branch, which is the equivalent of the RSA in New Zealand.

Being a small town, it didn't take too long to look around, and we were back to the ship by lunch time, leaving plenty of time for a swim and relaxing afternoon.

The ship was about one hour late sailing, due to many excursions running late. I'd opted to stand at the sterm of the ship for sailing, so there was much banter with other passengers as the buses rolled in one by one.

Tomorrow we will visit Edinburgh, anchoring in the Firth of Forth.

Cruise Day 24 - Stornaway, Scotland

Today we sailed into Stornaway, a town in the Lewis Isles, which is part of Scotland.

The initial view from our cabin was breathtaking in the morning sun. We had been blessed with yet another sunny day.

We were berthed in the "deep water terminal" about a 10 minute drive from the centre of Stornaway. Looking across, we could see the town and port, with Lews Castle in the background.

We had to get cleared by UK customs on the ship, a quick process, where all they did verify our passport photo looked like us. Then, we went ashore and caught a shuttle bus to town for our first excursion of the day.

We were booked for a ride on a RIB (Rubber Inflatable Boat. These are high spec, high speed boats. We were firstly kitted out in warm jackets, a bit like a giant sleeping bag with arms, and life jackets. Then it was all aboard! Helen and I were seated towards the back which was good as we could hear our guide clearly when he spoke.

Once we got moving, we pulled out of the port slowly, passing Lews Castle on the way.

Here's a view from our seats, and also a view of the second boat that contained the other half of our tour group. Of the two boats, ours was faster, with two motors instead of one, and our guide loved gunning it for fun!

We were taken out around many of the islands, where we were looking for various wildlife, mainly birds.

Out here there are many isolated hours, but what a beautiful setting to live in.

We saw many seals today, different to the grey seals we're used to seeing in New Zealand. Here is one rock with mum and pup.

And see how many seals you can count in this one photo!

We then went into deeper water looking for whales. There should have beeb whales about, as evidenced by the countless birds together in one spot. Sadly though the whales were shy today and didn't surface for us.

After a couple of hours, we headed back to port, this is where the extra speed of our boat was put to good use as the skipper weaved around the other boat and we had extra bumps in the water from their wake.

Coming back into port, we passed our own ship, along with a billionaire's yacht complete with helicopter.

We also got a nice view of the town from the water.

Once ashore, we had only one hour until an afternoon excursion we had booked. So we grabbed a quick bite of lunch from a nearly supermarket, and jumped a shuttle back to our ship. We had time to quickly takea toilet break change our clothes, then it was time to jump on a bus for a ride in the countryside..

We firstly visited Butt of Lewis lighthouse, at the most northern point if the Isle of Lewis. This is built of bricks, and very tall, out on rockly cliffs.

Next we visited the sleepy town of Ness, which has a small harbour where the tide had gone right out, leaving boats stranded dry. It also has a lovely white beach.

We then drove back to the ship, learning about local customs, most interestingly use of peet for keeping homes warm during winter by using it as fuel for inside fires.

Once back at the ship, we didn't wait long until sailing time. I caught a few last pictures as we sailed away.

I haven't visited Scotland since we live there in 2009. It was lovely to hear the Scottish accents again, and it all felt very familiar. Tomorrow we reach the UK mainland and visit Invergordon.