Maritime Jewels of the British Isles - Overview

Maritime Jewels of the British Isles

Kathy and I are just back from our Grand Circle Tour (GCT) of the British Isles.  This was a small ship tour that started in London and ended in Edinburgh.  We left on June 12th and returned on June 27 with a two night stay in both London and Edinburgh with the rest of the time on the ship.

Two Happy Traveler.

Maritime Jewels of the British Isles - London to Scilly

London

Our "Excellent" journey began in London with a two night stay to get us over the jet-lag.  After an eight hour flight from Minneapolis to Heathrow, it took us damn near as long to get from the airport to the hotel by van (1 3/4 hours, so I'm exaggerating just a little.)  I made the mistake of sitting with my back to the direction we were traveling and ended up a bit woozy by the time we got to the hotel.  After meeting our program director at the hotel, we walked around and had lunch.  I felt much better and made it to 10:30pm before crashing.  Jet-lag always seems worse to me when traveling west to east.  We stayed at the Tower Hotel, located at the base of the Tower Bridge, very nice hotel and location.

Tower Bridge (our hotel is on the right.)

Maritime Jewels of the British Isles - Wales

Wales

Ah Wales, a beautiful land with vibrant greens and misty sea shores.

Maritime Jewels of the British Isles - Ireland

Ireland

This portion of our trip covered two stops in Ireland, Dublin and Belfast.  I love Ireland, the scenery, the people, and the pubs are all to my liking.

Maritime Jewels of the British Isles - The Scottish Isles

The Outer Hebrides and Orkney

This portion of our journey was the primary reason Kathy wanted to do this trip.  She is a big fan of public TV, that has several programs centered in this area, and enjoys novels about this part of the world. Therefore, this was her dream trip.

In particular, the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides is the location for a series of mysteries by Peter May.  If you haven't read Peter May, we highly recommend his novels.

Maritime Jewels of the British Isles - Aberdeen and Edinburgh

Scotland - Aberdeen, and Edinburgh

Alas, this is the final installment of this trip.  I know you're sad, I am too!  We finished our trip with stops in Aberdeen, Edinburgh, and a side trip to St. Andrews (a holy place for golf fanatics!)