Ports of Call Photos-2

British Isles

Jim & Kathleen go to the...

Sailing in these were off the side of the ship. Took a minute but

they are unassembled wind turbines.

Belfast Harbor

The drydock where Titanic was built

Downtown is straight ahead

The blades for those turbines

Bob, lost in thought as we arrive.

On the road, I take a photo of a gate. Artsy.

And a waterfall

And a meandering stream. Word of warning. I have now been writing captions so long that I have become very sarcastic. But it's 5;15 am, what else would I be?

Now there is something worth photographing...my lovely bride.

Now that's some Ram

The scenery was beautiful

Not sure if she was walking her dog or her sheep

The prior photo was taken from way up there.

Not a pilot boat but it looks like one.

Stone marker

Took this for my granddaughter, Maylee

I love photos of the tops of birds. Seriously. I have taken a bunch.

They filmed some of Game of Thrones here

And here

See what I mean. These are all over Northern Ireland.

Flowers. Artsy again

Scenery was gorgeous

No ram jokes here. I am sparing ewe.

I wish I knew what tornamoney tuar na mona meant. Google translation is:
"Predicting the coin." Not sure what that means.

The infamous Rope Bridge. Wind was blowing about 30mph.

A wider angle

Giant's Causeway

These are naturally occurring rock formations. Amazing!

Giant's Causeway

I wish photos could show you how miserable this was in the pelting rain.

Giant's Causeway

Belfast

Lerwick, Shetland Islands

Lerwick, Shetland Islands while we were still at sea

Lerwick, Shetland Islands

Pilot boat alert

Greeted by a gauntlet

Love these kids. They were yelling so loud.

Our buddies Sara and Cathy greeted by a Viking

Lerwick, Shetland Islands

The Gauntlet

Kathleen greeted by the canine loving Viking

Lerwick, Shetland Islands

We were really impressed with the greeting

Taking a break from screaming

Kathleen welcomed to Shetland Islands

Running late in Lerwick

Driving around Lerwick with Diane from G's Tours

Fish in Lerwick

Graveyard in Lerwick. People are just dying to get in here.

The beach. No one went swimming.

Somebody buried treasure over on the far side but I don't remember who.

Contrary to his happiness, Perry did NOT find the treasure.

Really, he's just perky!

Really Perky!

Tim and Perry. A contemplative pose.

Or not so much.

Uh oh! Duelling photographers.

I think I shot him three times before he got one off.

Perry is just saddened by how slow Tim was.

But he's still laughing.

Diane (our guide) Jamie and Kathleen keeping the sand out of their shoes.

Shetland Pony show.

Seals on a beach.

The lighthouse in the fog. I guess that's why they needed it in the first place.

This place. There. Zoom in to read on iPhone or iPad.

Cool building.

Perry can read! Who knew.

Coming up to the runway. Please note the strange thing growing in on the right. It's the dust on my Nikon's sensor. More about that in Inverness.

To drive to where we were going, you have to literally cross the runway of their airport.

No, the dust on my Nikon's sensor is not gone, I just cropped it out.

Not sure where the dust came from but it is on every photo after the Shetland pony show.

Runway Niner as Bob 2 would say.

There is a stop light for when planes are landing.

Seriously.

I know, I took too many of these. Tough.

Hope your finger isn't fatiguing from clicking through them.

Cool stone structure

Shetland Pony ALERT!

You've looked at the pony from both sides now...Judy Collins anyone?

Another Shetland pony. You would think we were in the Shetland Islands.

Wait! We are!

Two ponies! Same two, but still two.

Lerwick, Shetland Islands

This is what you do when your boat springs a leak, flip it over and make it your roof.

My brother and this door are NOT compatible.
Seriously, that is the door into this house.

But my brother is 6'8" or is it 6'9". He would have a hard time living here.

That's peat. Used for cooking and heat.

Close up of peat.

Diane shows Kathleen how dig peat. Wanda already knows how. (That's for you Bob)

Inside the hut/house/etc It was a house exactly as it would have been more than 100 years ago.

Peet fire.

Dark fire

Empty fireplace

Outside

Hungry pony with wild eyes

Perry feeds pony for Tim's photographic pleasure.

Nancy laughs

She's a veterinarian so maybe she's happy about the health of the pony.

The house we were in was a "Croft House." A croft is a small agricultural unit, most of which are situated in the crofting counties in the north of Scotland...like Shetland.

Sheep dog alert.

Herding chicken. I know there are multiple chickens but this done was only interested in one.

Another possibility for a ram joke but I am leaving it alone.

This is a ram with no horns. I wonder if there is an envy thing in the sheep world.

Our guide Diane's farmhouse.

Thinking about herding the ram just not sure.

Was one dog trying to herd the other?

Love these guys.

The ram comes to say hi. The dog couldn't care less. He is focused on the other ram.
The one with horns.

A herded chicken

Here come the horses.

Momma horse.

Baby horse. Not a pony in sight.

They sure liked Tim and Nancy.

Here come the sheep. Think the dogs are behind them.

Yup, there they are.

Run sheep run!

Stop sheep stop!

Diane trying to keep the horses in but get us out.

Herd dog, herd.

A castle. I wonder if it is open?

I hope so.

Yup, someone left it unlocked.

Castle

Castle inside.

More castle

Self explanatory

Getting to where I was involved a climb up a nasty spiral staircase.

Bleak and grey Lerwick

Kathleen forgot to lock the castle when she left.

Downtown Lerwick. That day ended fast.

Lerwick, Shetland Islands

Woke up the next morning in Invergordon, the port of Inverness.

At the Clava Carns

Kathleen at the magic stones. She's headed back in time. Watch Outlander for explanation.

Who put these holes in the carns?

This rock will get you to the stones.

Might be the trestle to Hogwarts, might not be. I'll never tell.

Your short bread recipe. Make some and send it to me.

On the Culloden Battlefield

Heather On the Culloden Battlefield

Jamie did not die here.

Culloden Memorial

Put a human in your photos to give them scale.

Show close ups of interesting parts.

Clan MacKintosh buried here.

Ian explains the Culloden Battlefield. The man truly knew his stuff.

More clan headstones.

Bench on the Culloden Battlefield

Plaque on the Culloden Battlefield

Thatched hut that dates back to the battle. Wounded were brought here.

Inside the excellent visitor's center.

Downtown Inverness. Taken from our lunch table.

In downtown Inverness

On the bouncy bridge. It really was bouncy.

In downtown Inverness

The bouncy bridge (at least that's what Ian called it).

Cool restaurant in a very old building.

Where we ate lunch (top floor) from across the river. Great food, good beer.

Inverness Castle.

The river Ness. Comes from Loch Ness and flows through Inverness.

Old buildings, old car.

Loch Ness. See the Monster?

Beauly Priory

Ian leads us in.

Graves in the Priory

Beuly Priory

Love this sign. Can't imagine what they sell. It wasn't a florist.

Scotch in Scotland.

Black on building from peet fires burnt to distill the whiskey.

Three of the six scotches we sampled. Good thing Ian was driving.

The other three. Good thing it wasn't superb as you can't buy it in the USA.

I wish I knew the name of this castle that Ian took us to see as our last stop of the day but
the picture, for me, is all about that gnarly tree.

Oil platforms in the bay.

Pipers wish us goodbye. The first pipes we heard in Scotland.
We would hear many more the next night.

Sunset on a perfect day!

Inverness-Invergordon

Invergordon-Inverness

The view of the Queensferry Bridge where Silhouette moored in 2015.
A shorter tender ride but a longer bus ride to Edinburgh.

One tender in, one tender on the way back to get another load of pax.

On a beautiful day like this day, the outside top deck was crowded.

Off they go.

Views from our ship

And into the city we go on a Ladywell Travel bus.

The Fringe Festival made walking difficult.

Tons of people passing out flyers for later shows.

More fringe participants. I am a big fan of street photography so I take a lot of these.

Love this comedians expression.

He was so expressive.

This was an interesting living sculpture. Especially seeing everyone rushing around him and he was standing stock still.

Nice hat.

No comment here.

This looks like a church but it was really a mall inside.

Mona Lisa never looked this bad.

Nick Cannon wore this outfit last week on America's Got Talent.

All this was part of the Fringe.

I had to take these stairs to pick up our Tattoo tickets at Will Call.

More Fringe.

I love this shot. One of my favorites of that day.

Entering Edinburgh Castle

Inside Edinburgh Castle

Kathleen has seen it before so she's taking a break.

Our (Steve, Jamie and I) guide to Edinburgh Castle.
They do free tours every half hour.

Still in Edinburgh Castle

Inside Edinburgh Castle

The Scottish Memorial to those lost in wars.

Inside Edinburgh Castle

The tour took me to the Stone of Destiny.

Inside Edinburgh Castle

Silhouette from the Edinburgh Castle

The Hotel Balmoral from the Edinburgh Castle.
We stayed here on our visit in 2003.

From the top of the Castle I shot this photo of where our seats were for the

performance that night. We were in the first row of red seats on the aisle.

The Balmoral in the background and the Robert Scott memorial in the front

(the large, dark spire coming out of the trees).

See what the crowds are like for the Fringe. This was taken from the top of the hill
just outside the entrance to the Esplanade.

Outside the Witchery, the restaurant we ate dinner at
pre-Tattoo.

Street performer outside the restaurant.

Mason (my grandson) loves police cars so I took this pic of
Edinburgh's finest for him.

One of the best parts of the Tattoo (before the show) is being able to walk all around the Esplanade where the show will take place. I got this pic of Jamie and Steve before we headed to our seats.

Most of section 8 was part of our Cruise Critic roll call.
There's Ron, Jane, Arlene and Barry. We sailed with them through the canal as well as this cruise.

They are some of the most fun people we have met.

We got to eat dinner with them one night in Blu.

Other members of our Cruise Critic roll call

We are in our seats and this is the view. We are loving the weather.

Bob is still on the Esplanade floor taking movies.

Now he's up in his seat with Holly.

And so it begins.

The guest of honor for this performance was U.S. Army Lt. General.

He is welcomed and toasted (with Scotch) by the lone piper.

The band starts the show with preliminary music.

They were good but no pipes yet.

Strike up the horns from high on the castle.

And the lights came up on the castle.

Fireworks were part of the show from start to finish.

Here come the pipes and the rest of the band.

This moment was awe inspiring.

Just awesome.

This is The Massed Pipes and Drums including all the drummers and pipers from all the other groups that would perform. 11 total groups!

Our seats were fantastic. The entire show came right at us.

Highland Dancers

I love the photos I got the entire night.

The projections on the castle were an incredible surprise and one of the big highlights for me.

The first non-Scottish group was from Nepal–The Nepal Army Band

They brought traditional Nepalese dancers with them.

Nepalese Army Band

The Imps Motorcycle Display Team

Some of these are little kids–amazing!

The Imps Motorcycle Display Team

Quite a sight!

They are riding backwards.

What a spectacle!

The Imps Motorcycle Display Team

These are little kids.

The Imps Motorcycle Display Team

Again, these are little kids—holy cats!

The Imps Motorcycle Display Team

The castle was huge part of the show. I kept thinking that it was like
Sleeping Beauty's Castle at Disneyland and then I realized...this one is real and more
than 400 years old. WOW!

Here comes The Band of Her Majesty's Royal Marines–Scotland.

Hjaltibonhoga–The Shetland Fiddlers

Hjaltibonhoga–The Shetland Fiddlers and some of the best projections of the night.

The Tattoo Highland Dancers