Bologna Day 2 – Ravenna

On our second day we decided to take the train to Ravenna. It was about an hour train ride. 

  
  
  

I wish you could smell these flowers. They were so heavenly.

  
Most everyone must ride bikes here.  Look at all the bikes parked here. 

  
Once we were there we found a store and bought some things for lunch, then it was time to find a place to have lunch. We headed toward a church we wanted to go into, but there was no where to sit near by, so we started walking looking for a place. We finally found a bench and laid out our lunch. 
  
After lunch we headed to the Basilica of San Vitale. It is a beautiful church with many mosaic inside.

  
  
  
  
  
  
In back of the church was the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia. It is described as “the earliest and best preserved of all mosaic monuments, and at the same time one of the most artistically perfect”. It was very pretty. The legend is that these tiles even glow at night without any lights on. 

  
   
   

We found one other place to look into called the Archbishop Chapel.

   
   
After looking in this chapel it was time to head back to Bologna and have dinner 
Next Florence, Italy for the day 

Linda 

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Bologna, Italy/ day 1

We are spending a week in Bologna. Since we are here for awhile and we had done a lot the week before we decided to take it a little easy our first day here. 
We had a nice leisurely morning and then headed out. Our first stop was the Tim store. Tim is the name of one of the cellular services here in Italy. (Makes it easy to remember lol). We usually get a data plan so we can keep in touch, use the mapping program, look things up, etc.

Bologna is known for a few things, they have the oldest university in the world there (founded in 1088), also these huge twin towers. 

 
  

We walked around a bit then headed to the main square for our picnic lunch.

 We had lunch in front of the church. After lunch we went into the church and walked around. Then Tim and I went to a spa and had a nice relaxing time. 

  
We meet back up with Ron and Patty and headed out to dinner. We went to our favorite place in Bologna, named Ostera Dell’Orso (the bear) This restaurant is different in that they have long tables that fit up to 6 people. So you are usually set next to someone you don’t know. This is fun in that you get to meet people from all over. 
This night we were set next to a couple. (Andrea and Ricky) We got to talking to them and he is Italian and she is from Argentina. They were in Bologna on business. We were telling them about our trip so far. We mentioned that we didn’t have anything planned for 3 days of out trip. Andrea starting asking when we have been, etc and suggested we could come to their area. She said they have a boat that held 6 people and we could go out it. Tim asked if we had to row and we had a good laugh about it.

  
Andrea showing us how to get somewhere. 

  

Looking each other up on Facebook 

  
Our notes lol 

We may head in that direction, so who knows we may see them again. It was a good day .

More later,

Linda. 

  

Southampton/Italy

We had one day at sea before we disembarked in Southampton, England. It was cold and rainy most of the day which was OK since we had to pack and get ready to head to Italy. 

Once we were off the ship, Tim had arranged for a car service to pick us up and take us to the airport with a stop in Winchester on the way. 

   

 The driver was waiting for us with this sign. 😄

Winchester was a very quaint town. There is a famous cathedral there. 

  

Outside 

Inside 

  

  

  

  
Jane Austen lived in this area and was buried in this church.

 

There was also a copy of the Gospels written on vellum (calf skins). 

After walking around the cathedral, we walked around some of the town.  

  
  
  
  
We found the Main Street and saw these cookies in the widow of a bakery.  Just had to smile.

  
There was a street fair going on, so we walked around looking at the booths. 

  
  
 
 

Coffee anyone? 

  
We ran into this character and of course had to taKe a picture with him. I think he was collecting money from the local animal shelter.
Got some lunch from one of the vendors and went back to the car to head to the airport 
After a short flight we were in Bologna, Italy. We have stayed in Bologna the last 3 years. We really like it. It is a great hub city, easy to catch a train and do a day trip to a lot of places. 
  
These cars were in the airport in Bologna as we were walking out 
After checking in we had dinner and called it a night. 
Next, our week in Bologna ………
Linda  

Glasgow, Scotland

We docked in Greenock, Scotland. Greenock is a sleepy port town. There didn’t seem to be much going on even though it was 10 am. We headed toward the train to go into Glasgow. 

  

  
  
(Greenock)

  

We saw some beautiful flowers in a park we walked through. 

On the way to the train, we ran into the guy and of course Tim had to take a picture. 😄
  

Once we made it to the train station we had only 2-3 minutes to catch the train. Tim found a woman with a handheld ticket machine. She walked to the train, printing the ticket as we went, so we would make the train. 

On the train a lady sitting behind us asked us how long we were in Glasgow for and we told her just for the day. She handed us a piece of paper and said she had written out some places she thought we should visit. That was so nice of her. We found most everyone was really nice.

  
  

The train station in Glasgow was very beautiful.

  

I thought this sign in the train station  was funny. Notice the sizes. 

We took the lady’s advice and headed toward the shopping district. 

  

  
We found a Starbucks and an Apple Store.  

  

  

We found this police box that was green instead of blue, not sure why, maybe because we were in Scotland not England

  

We also saw this cool building that a coffee shop was in. 

  

We then walked to modern art museum that was ok, but had a cool statue in front

  

Then we found a nice square with benches to have lunch in. 

  

It was very cold, but we found a bench out of the wind.

  

We saw a Jamie Oliver restaurant 

  

From there we walked to a giant park 

  

and then Kevingrove museum and art center They had some cool stuff inside.

  
  
(This was a trophy from a boat race)
  
(Suits of armor and spears)

  

(A dog made of boots in the children’s section)

From the museum we headed back to the ship. 

Once we were back in Greenock we saw this sign…….

  

Unfortunately it was closed. I would of loved to gone inside. (My maiden name was McLean)

Next stop Southampton, England, then on to Italy 

Linda 

Dublin, Ireland

The next day we were in Dublin, Ireland.  We didn’t dock until noon, which was nice since we didn’t have to get up early and rush off the ship.

We got a cab from the port into town. The cab dropped us off at the city center. We walked around and got our bearings, the headed to Trinity College, where the Book of Kells  was. The book of Kells is a bible that was made of velum (calfskins) around 800 AD.  They had a great museum that we walked through and then saw the book. Upstairs from the book was a library called the Long Room, with some of the oldest book around. It was a beautiful room! 

  

   

 
After having our lunch in the college cafeteria we walked to the Guinness Factory and saw some of the town 

  

  

  
Once at the Guinness factory, we took the tour. It was interesting and a huge place. There are 7 stories. 

  
  
  (Tools used with the barley) 
They had some really cool exhibits from some of their past media ads. 

  
  

  
I think this my favorite one, it was so silly. 

  
  
It moved and was fun to watch. 

On the 7th floor was a bar call The Sky Bar and it had 360 degree views of the city. We even saw rainbow 

   
 
After the Guinness Factory we walked back into town and found a pub for dinner. We wanted to find a real Irish pub and I think we found it. They had music and even Irish dancing. 

   
 

  
After dinner we got at cab back to the ship. 

Was a great day! Next stop Scotland…..

Linda 

Cork, Ireland

We finally made it to Cork, Ireland after a few mishaps. The first night out to sea from the Azores we had a medical emergency on board and had to turn the ship around and have a woman med- evacuated, her appendix burst. They made an announcement throughout the ship saying that there was an emergency and a plane would be flying over the ship. Then they cleared the decks and a helicopter hovered over the ship above our room and they got the lady and her husband off. We later heard she was going to be ok. So of course we were behind and going as fast as we could to make up time, but the weather was bad (very windy and rainy) so that put us behind too. But we made it without any further mishaps, just a little late. 

We had hired a van for the day for 12 people. The first place they took us was into Cobn (pronounced Cove). This is the place we should of docked, but because of the change of plans there was another ship there that had this berth. Cobn is a very nice port town. We saw some of the town and the church there. 

 

   

Then we stopped at the cemetery when a lot of the passengers from the Lusitania were buried. The Lusitania was a passenger ship that was sunk during WWI. 

 
   

  

From there it was on to Blarney Castle. The gardens there were beautiful. It was very rainy and cold. 

  

    

     

       

 

We stood in line for about an hour, climbing to the top of the tower where the Blarney Stone was. 

  

  

    

  (Some views from the tower) 

Just as we made it to the top the sun came out.

   

Tim, Ron and Patty “kissed” the stone,  (I didn’t, you had to lay down and hang over the side of the tower to kiss it, NO thanks lol)

  

 

Found this tree stump with a vine growing up it and mushrooms at the top. 

    

 

The driver then dropped us off in Cork for a few hours. We walked around a bit, then found a pub to get something to eat and check internet. We talked to the owner and learned that 4 generations of his family has owned and worked there. 

  

He also told us some of the history of the area and how it had flooded really bad about 50 years ago. He even let us go behind the bar and took a picture for us.  

  

Then it was time to head back to the ship.

Next stop, Dublin, Ireland 

 Linda

Next stop Bermuda?

After leaving Ft Lauderdale we were suppose to have 2 days at sea then be at Bermuda. Well our second day out we had a announcement that the weather at Bermuda was really bad (winds up to 30 mph) and that we would not be stopping there. So now we have 5 days total at sea and are stopping at Ponta Delgado, Azores. 

We were happy about that because we have stopped there our last 2 crossings and really like it there. 

This time we decided we wanted to see Fire Lake. Not sure why it was called that but it was a very beautiful lake. 
  

 

It was foggy on the way up to the lake. We stopped at an outlook and couldn’t see anything. Then we headed down toward the lake and the fog cleared in a matter of minutes. 

  

  

  

From there we went to the hot springs we were at last year. They had done a lot of remodeling since the last time we were there. It was very nice. 

    

We then went into the small town of Furnace and had a nice lunch and used the Internet.   

Then we headed back toward the ship. The Azores are known for their cows. They make really good cheese there.

  

Two more days at sea then on to Cork, Ireland 

Linda

Here we go again…..

Sorry it has been so long since I have posted. We are traveling again so will be posting about that right now. Our first stop was Ft Lauderdale. We spent a few days there. 

  

   

View from our hotel 

Then on to the Caribbean for a week.  It was very relaxing

First stop was Grand Cayman. That was a beach day. We got a cab and went to Seven Mile Beach. This was a very beautiful beach. 

  

After the beach we found some internet and then headed back to the ship. A quite day. 

The next stop was Routan, Honduras. We had not been there before. Walked out of the port area and found a cabbie we hired for the day. He took us to an iguana refuge. It was interesting, and there were iguanas everywhere. 

 

 

The driver got some leaves to feed them with. They all went crazy over the leaf. They were climbing over each other to get them. 
  
    After the iguanas we went to the the other side of the island to West Bay beach where we had lunch and spent the afternoon on the beach. 

After a small tour of the island it was time to go back to the ship. 

Next stop was Cozumel. 
We had 5 of us and we rented a van to take us on a tour around the island. 

We saw a small  Mayan ruin, tequila factor and a reggae bar 

   

 

Back to the ship, a day at sea and then to Ft Lauderdale where one set of friends disembarked and more friends joined us (Ron & Patty).

Linda