Tuesday, June 4, 2019–This time we had no one to take us to the airport and decided to drive ourselves and leave the car in the garage—convenience over frugality. Our flight didn’t leave until 4:00 in the afternoon so we had time to run last minute errands. I bought a pair of support stockings and was going to get some for Tom, but they had to be fitted so we bought them on the way to the airport. We were ready early so we left and ended up being at the airport by 2:00. Although directions always say to be at the airport two hours ahead of time, it really is not usually necessary in Jackson. Tom and I both like flying out of Jackson because we find security easy and the workers courteous. Unfortunately the plane was having some problem with data and was delayed in leaving for about 30 minutes. I began to worry slightly about our connection, but it turned out that we had plenty of time in Atlanta. We caught the train and went straight to the International terminal, which was “F” and at the end of the line. We were the only ones in our train car for the last terminal. Our plane to London was supposed to leave at 8:00 pm, but it was delayed also and didn’t leave until 9:00. At least we didn’t have to worry about another connection! When we did board, there was a problem with the air conditioning and the plane could not be cooled until everyone boarded and the doors were closed. It was very hot. We were flying Comfort Plus because I didn’t want to pay for business class, but I was pleasantly surprised with the upgrade in comfort. We had enough leg room, footrests, and seats that reclined almost adequately. They supplied pillows and blankets so I didn’t get out the lumbar pillow that I had in my carryon out. When morning came, Tom said that he had been cold and hadn’t realized that his blanket was on the floor right under his feet. I was able to put my support stockings on as I sat on the plane, but Tom wasn’t. He’s going to need to practice when he has space and light. We were served a complete meal, but mine wasn’t very good. I had a spinach dish with some kind of carbohydrate balls that were gooey. Tom had a chicken dish which was apparently pretty good.
Wednesday, June 5–I dozed some off and on during the night, but Tom didn’t seem to rest much. We were served breakfast of fruit yogurt, cheese, and a sweet roll with orange juice and coffee/tea. At our arrival everything went well—after we detoured down some steps to use the bathroom. We had a little trouble finding the people to meet us, but after asking for help we succeeded. There were about twelve of us on the bus going to the hotel. When we reached the hotel, the Runnymede, we were told that the meadow right before the hotel was the meadow in which the Magna Carta was signed. We learned later that it wasn’t, but that the correct meadow was on the way to Windsor, where there were about a dozen chairs in the middle of the meadow where supposedly the king met the barons and signed the Magna Carta.
After we signed in and went to our room for a few minutes we went back down to the lobby and took a free shuttle to Windsor. We couldn’t tour the castle because it closed early today, but we were able to get lunch at the Cote Brasserie beside the Thames.
As we walked to the restaurant we passed a little girl feedback a group of swans and geese.
The restaurant we chose was across the bridge in the adjoining town of Eton.
We walked up to the castle after a pretty good lunch—haddock for Tom and smoked salmon for me with French onion soup for both. The soup seemed to have more pepper in it than most and was good.
We enjoyed seeing the outside of the castle, the statue of Victoria, and the town of Windsor in that area, but we were a little lost and had to ask directions back to the bus parking. When we returned to the hotel we rested —Tom slept—and took showers before going for supper. We ate a a very good buffet, met several people, and left soon to go to our room and go to bed.
Thursday, June 6–We were very lucky and we’re assigned to the last bus at 8:15 so we didn’t have to get up early, but we did have to put our bags out at 5:30, so we put them out before going to bed last night. Tom forgot to keep any socks out except his new support hose which he couldn’t put on so he went without socks! We went to breakfast which was a nice buffet and had plenty of time to go to the room to finish packing our carryons, brush our teeth, etc we even had time to take pictures in the stocks.
Our guide is Julia and she talked about the history of the countryside as related to older history and also WWII. We stopped at a quick overview of Portsmouth and its harbor with the Isle of Wight beyond it. We were on our way to the ship, Le Boreal, and then on to Normandy.
We then drove through a quaint village and on to the military base at Portsmouth where we visited the Southwick House which was the headquarters for Admiral Ramsey and where the planning for D-Day took place. We visited the Map Room and the Eisenhower room. I enjoyed seeing Boulagne where I had spent a month years ago on the map.
We drove to the Guildhouse, which was a government building. We met up with a group that had just finished the Celtic Lands tour and had a very interesting talk and a lunch that was practically inedible of rubber chicken and some kind of grain—the worst meal of the trip—but they did have a piper..
We walked around Portsmouth. (For images of Portsmouth click on the image below showing a boy about to swim in the very cold water..)
We were let off the bus at the terminal for the ships and took a shuttle to Le Boreal. It seemed very large when we saw it from the shore. We were greeted by a seemingly enthusiastic crew with stewards lined up at the bus to take our carryons. We walked through the reception area where we left our passports, received our room keys, and were photographed.
We then went to our room where I unpacked, but we had to leave before Tom could unpack to be at the meeting at 6:00 where David Eisenhower spoke, then the captain explained why there was a change in the schedule—a storm was making it better for us to land in Honfleur rather than Caen. It means a longer bus ride tomorrow. Afterwards we had an emergency evacuation drill. We were almost an hour later than planned eating supper, but we ate by universities so ate with Karen and Jack Morrow. We returned to the room where Tom unpacked and I showered. It was midnight before we were able to go to bed.
Friday, May 7–We woke up at 6:00 thinking that breakfast started at 6:30, but when we got to the dining room we found it wasn’t until 7:00. We were in the first group to leave, but all the buses left pretty quickly. We had to drive around an hour and a half to get from Honfleur to the Juno beach and the 360 degree video show which was past the Juno beach in a gap in the beaches. The show was very impressive with nine large screens. The allies had built a harbor in this gap, and this harbor was used after D-Day to unload heavy equipment used to continue the fight into France.It was still possible to see some of the barriers used to build the harbor. The traffic was horrible all day. It started out raining and quit and then started again. As we were leaving for Omaha Beach it really poured.
There were many people there. Our guide told us that many people took the entire week off to come to the beaches and celebrate the 75th anniversary. It is possible in France because most of them have nine weeks of vacation each year. We went to a restaurant near Tour en Bessie for a much better lunch than yesterday, but still chicken. After lunch we went to the American Cemetery where Gohagen had arranged a program but David Eisenhower honoring the relatives of people on the tour. Among the graves we saw was one for Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. and one for his brother Quentin, who did not die in the war and is the only non-military person buried in the cemetery. While there I saw Troop of junior RAF youths marching by. The cemetery is on the coast.
When we left the cemetery we went to Omaha beach where we saw the Omaha Memorial and some statues representing waves designed by a woman.
We then returned to the boat for supper and bed. (For Gohagen information about these stops, click here.)
Saturday, June 8–I left my iPad in the dining room at breakfast and had to return for it. We all prepared for leaving and left quickly. Our first stop was Pointe du Hoc where the Rangers climbed the cliffs.
Our guide, Sophie, told us that the Rangers were first taken to the wrong cliffs and had to correct ones. That delay made them 30 minutes late for their assault. Even though it only took them 30 minutes, they were late for their rendezvous with reinforcements and had to hold the area for two days alone. Only 90 of the approximately 200 who began the climb While we were at the monument, three big old airplanes flew over very low several times.
She also told us about the problems with hedgerows. Hedgerows divided the small fields. The Allies had not realized what a problem these hedgerows would be, but they were old and had thick trees that were impossible to go through. There were also drainage ditches on each side. In addition, the Germans could hide behind them to shoot. They also put mines in some of the fields. The Americans used cows to alert them to hidden Germans and to mines. We also saw and went into one of the bunkers. It had several rooms and was much large room than it seemed from the outside.
The rain was coming down pretty hard. I went back to the bus. Our next stop was the Utah Beach Museum where we saw another impressive video show. It was raining hard when we left the bus. On the way we passed a statue of the Iron man.
We stopped at the tiny village of Angoville au Plain, where two medics who landed nearby set up a first aide station in the church and treated all they could—Americans, Germans, and civilians. One of them returned for many years and some of his ashes are buried in the graveyard here with only his initials on the stone. The mayor of the town spoke to us in the church.
We visited the Utah Beach D-Day Museum where there were a glider and a plane such as the one that dropped the parachutists.
Our next stop was the town of Saints-mère Église where there was an exuberant celebration of the town’s liberation with a parade and speakers. There was a tremendous crowd, and we were told that there was a celebration every year, but this year was special since it was the 75th anniversary. When the parachutists landed in this town, they were unlucky in that one of the houses had caught fire and the town and the occupying Germans were all out to see them. It was here that one of the parachutists was stuck on the church steeple for two hours and pretended to be dead before he was captured by the Germans. He later escaped and rejoined his regiment. There is a mannequin on the church now to represent him.
We then went around the church to avoid the parade crowd and saw the church.
We wanted to find a patisserie, but we couldn’t get through the crowd so we ended up getting a sausage hot off the grill without bread and sharing it. (For more Gohagen information click here.) Back at the pier there were two ships—ours and a sailing ship.
Sunday, June 9–We had only the half day of sightseeing. We were taken to the Scilly Islands to see a Garden.
Our guide was a very enthusiastic “student” who talked about all the “fantastic” plants for about two hours. (For pictures from the garden click here.) There were other things to see, such as two castles built by Henry VIII, but we didn’t have time to see them. There was a long walk to and from the gardens from our landing boat. We were back on the ship for lunch. Tom chose to stay on the ship and rest. In the afternoon there were lectures. I went to one lecture called “Thinking about Castles” and learned that Duart Castle was totally destroyed during Cromwell’s time and rebuilt in 1912. That’s disappointing. I also went to David Eisenhower’s lecture on “Triumph and Tragedy”, and it was very good. The Eisenhower’s are leaving tomorrow. I called reception to ask for an ice pack for my right knee, which has started being uncomfortable, and they sent ice in a plastic bag up. It seemed to be some help. (For more Gohagen information on this day, click here.)
Monday, June 10–We toured Dublin in the bus, but the traffic was terrible and it was difficult to see anything. Our only stop was at Trinity College where we saw the Book of Kells and the library in the long hall.
The Book of was written by monks in about the 800’s. The Long Room contains about 200,000 books which were donated as much as 100 years ago. The books are arranged only by size—with the smallest on top and the largest on bottom. They are cataloged so individual books can be found. A scene in Harry Potter was from a room similar to the Long Room. (For more pictures of Dublin click here.) After Trinity College, we had a choice of returning to the bus for lunch or staying in town. There were shuttle buses to take us to and from town. Tom and I decided to stay in town and ate lunch at Kennedy’s Pub.
We each had a delicious soup of Brie—I think—and mushrooms. After a leisurely lunch we decided to go to the Epic Museum, which I had been told was one of the main attractions in Dublin and which was an easy walk immediately across the river.
This museum was a display of emigrants from Ireland and was very interesting although after an hour and a half we were tired and ready to leave. I discovered as we left that my hat, which I had put in my pocket had disappeared. We made it back to the meeting point for the shuttles and found others from our group waiting. After some dithering we found the shuttle bus. Back on the boat we had a short wait before concert by the Irish Ploughboys, who had a nearby tavern. Their were three of them—a fiddler and singer, a guitarist and drummer, and a bass guitar. All of them sang, but the fiddler sang the most poignant songs. After the singers we saw the Irish Dancers—three women and two men. Before it was over, one of the women pulled Tom up to the stage to dance. After the show, we had supper and went to bed. I asked for an ice pack for my knee again. (For more Gohagen information about this day, click here.)
Tuesday, June 11–We had to be ready a little earlier today since we were leaving at 7:55. We docked at Holyhead In Wales and set off for an hour and a half bus ride.
Our first stop was for Bodnant Gardens where we had a tour. (For pictures of the garden, click on the image below of Bodnant House, built in 1792.)
The tea shop there had plenty of women’s toilets to handle our about 200 people easily. After the gardens we drove to Llandudno where we heard a concert by a men’s choir in a Methodist Church.
Then we went to the St. George Hotel for a really good lunch of lamb with mint sauce, green beans, and potatoes. Tom and I were a little late for the bus since we stopped to use the restrooms. We drove to the castle at Caenarfon and found it fascinating.
(Click on the picture above for more images from Caenarfon Castle.)
We saw a well within the castle and had a good view from the ramparts.
This is where Charles was invested as Prince of Wales. We climbed up one floor in the King’s Tower and then walked along the ramparts to the well tower to come down there where there were fewer people—no one— coming up which was much better on the narrow spiral staircases. We drove past a town with the longest name of any town in the world as shown on the building below.
(For more Gohagen information about this day click here.)
Wednesday, June 12—This was the day for which we took the trip! We anchored near Iona and took the tenders (lifeboats) to Iona. I enjoyed watching the crew lower the lifeboats.
It was crowded, but they managed to load us all in the two lifeboats.
There we had a whirlwind tour of the nunnery, which is being restored,
and abbey before taking a ferry to Mull. I remembered Iona as being not so built up when we were there before. In the Abbey, we saw where only two columns were old and the rest had been reconstructed. (For more pictures from Iona click here.)
When we reached Mull, we had over an hour on the bus through beautiful countryside to get to Duart Castle.
(For many more pictures of Duart Castle, click on the image of the inside of the walls above.)
At the Castle we had a picnic lunch of rather nondescript sandwiches, water, and chips. Our lunch was in the tea room which was not in the castle, but we could take it outside if we wished. We were greeted at the tea room by Lachlan MacLean, the chief of the clan and the owner of the castle. He was very friendly and seemed interested in the fact that I was a McLean. I showed him the names of my ancestors, and he noticed the name Ephraim and said that he knew an Ephraim in Atlanta. He gave me his email address and said that I should email him and he’d tell me how to get in touch with this Ephraim. When I went into the castle one of the custodians found me and made sure that I signed the McLean guest register. I asked our guides if I could stay longer and go back on the last bus and they arranged it so I was able to really explore all the parts that were open and then to return to the gift shop/tea room to ask Lachlan’s advice on which books to get to learn more about the castle and McLean history. We learned after we left that there was one other McLean descendent on our tour. The bus took us to a little town on Mull, Tobermory, where we walked down the waterfront street and bought chocolates and ice cream.
I looked for the Iona greenstone that we had heard about on Iona, but could only find it in jewelry. Apparently the only way to get it is to pick it up on the beach on Iona. We left the town on the last tender out to the ship which had relocated to anchor off Mull. (For Gohagen information on the activities of the day click here.) or for (map of Mull click here.)
Thursday, June 13–We landed at Fort William, which is the second largest city in the highlands.
We landed with the tenders again and had a bus ride through the beautiful countryside again this time to Glenfinnan, which is where Bonnie Prince Charlie called the clans together before the 1745 Jacobite uprising before the final defeat at Culloden.
There was a steep and rocky trail up to a viewpoint where one could see a viaduct. I started on it, bur had left my poles on the bus and decided that it was too tricky for me without the poles. Instead, I walked to the monument and went up it on very narrow spiral steps.
Only two people were allowed in the monument at one time. There was a narrow opening at the top through which we had to pass to reah the top, but the view was really good, and we could see the same viaduct that those who had gone up the trail could see.
We drove past Neptune’s Staircase, a series of locks very close together that raise the canal 62 feet over a quarter of a mile. It takes 90 minutes to pass through and is the longest staircase lock in Scotland.
We also stopped at Glen Coe which is where in 1692 after teh Jacobite uprising in 1689 the Massacre of Glencoe occurred. Government troops stayed with the MacDonalds as guests for a couple of weeks and then killed 38 MacDonalds and chased others into the wilderness in the snow where more died. They did this because the chief of the MacDonalds was delayed in pledging allegiance to William and Mary so that he was a day late. This was used as the excuse for the massacre. We saw a video of the massacre and enjoyed the site. There was a nice gift shop where Tom bought a mug and I bought a stuffed coo.
Friday, June 14--We left Le Boreal this morning with an 8:55 am departure. They were cleaning as we left and had already removed the partitions between the balconies.
We were the next to last group to leave. We toured Glasgow today with a stop at the Cathedral and a religious museum. In walking to the cathedral, our guide pointed out to us a “rubble” wall as opposed to one built of cut stones.
(For more pictures of the cathedral, click on the image above.)
We then went to the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum which contained a variety of paintings including French and Dutch masters as well as displays of Scottish history and animals. One of the most interesting to me was Sir Roger, an elephant. (For more images of the museum click here.)
We had lunch in a hotel, and it was delicious salmon—one of our better meals. We left Glasgow for the drive in the bus to Edinburgh.
It was about a ninety minute drive before we reached the Waldorf Astoria hotel. Our bags were in the room waiting for us. Tom and I have learned to let them take our carryons as well as our big bags so we don’t carry much luggage. Supper was on our on, and Tom wanted to have Italian food so we asked at the help desk about restaurants and were given three choices within walking distance. We decided on the farthest on because we were told it was less formal—even boisterous. Tom had ravioli and, of course, tiramisu. I had lasagne and a spinach salad that I assumed would be uncooked spinach, but turned out to be cooked. I wasn’t able to eat all of either, but they were good, and we enjoyed our meal. We walked back to the hotel and went to bed.
Saturday, June15–-Wewoke up in Edinburgh with boarding the bus not until 9:15 so there was not quite the hurry we have had so often. Our first activity was a quick bus tour of the city. It was interesting to go to a park-like area near the highest “mountain” in Edinburgh. There were many walking paths, and we could see some people who had climbed to the tops of the hills—a strenuous walk!
After that we went to the National Museum of Scotland. We started with the Victorian room and then one that had older machines suchas an airplane, a one of the first steam engines, and interactive displays.
Tom stayed there for awhile and I went toa display of Scottish history and then to the terrace on the top floor where there was a good view of the city.
(For more images from the museum click on the picture above.)
The elevator was very slow so that it took more time than it might have. After that it was time to go to the bus and head to Edinburgh Castle.
Tom and I both had a memory of a rather leisurely tour of the castle, but if that was the way it was then, it has certainly changed. There was a mass of people going into the castle and within the castle. We left the guide as soon as we were released, and gave her our whisperers since we won’t need them any more. After we left her, we went to see the Crown Jewels and the Stone of Scone on which Scottish kings were historically coronated. It had been taken by the English many years ago and was only returned to Scotland about 20 years ago. When we were coming out, we saw a sign saying the Royal apartments, so we walked through those too. (For more pictures from the castle click here.) We left the castle about 2:00 amid still great crowds. We had decided to walk back to the hotel rather than to take bus, and we wanted to walk on the Royal Mile, High Street. Once again, our memory was of a much less crowded area when we were here before, but the streets were interesting.
(For more street scenes click here.) Soon after we left the castle we saw a restaurant that advertised Scottish foods. It had the same name as one of the Italian restaurants which had been recommended to us by the help desk at the hotel the night before, but not the one to which we went. We discovered that the two were owned by the same family but one did Italian food and one did Scottish food. Tom had skink, which was a thick creamy fish soup with haddock, leeks, and potatoes. I had six oysters on the half shell—two from the east coast, two from the west coast, and two from the Isle of Mull—and an appetizer named Cannonball Haggis. When we finished, we each had a Gray Ghost, which was a parfait of vanilla ice cream with strawberries, a delicious strawberry syrup, and somewhat doctored whipped cream. It was one of the best meals we had on the trip. After lunch we continued walking to the hotel. We took a rather circuitous route and had a little sprinkle of rain, but luckily we didn’t have much and made it to the hotel mostly dry. It was well after 5:00 when we reached the hotel, and we felt no need to go to supper although I did order a glass of milk from room service. I also took my postcards to the front desk and had them stamped and mailed. Karen and Jack Morrow brought us a happy and stayed to visit for awhile. We did a little packing preparation since we have to have our bags out by 7:00 in the morning but I had mostly packed and not really unpacked much so I didn’t have much to do.
Sunday, June 16–Today we go home! I’ve found that I can’t access my journal now that I’m in the plane, so I’m going to start with today and try to work backwards for a few days. We had to have our bags out at 7:00, and breakfast started at 6:15, so we put our bags out before we went to breakfast. Then we just had our carryons to take after returning to the room and boarding the bus at 8:00. I don’t like traveling with this big a group, but Gohagen does have everything well organized. When we reached the airport we found that we could check all our bags so we did. They had very clear boarding instructions with oral instructions plus a man holding a placard with the name of the group boarding at each time. We made it to Jackson with no excitement even with the stop in Boston. The flight from Edinburgh to Boston was only about seven hours so it wasn’t too bad. Tom went for the car and I waited with the luggage until he picked me up and we drove home.