In Cartagena we decided not to take an excursion and just walk around the city with our friends Allen & Martha. Cartagena was founded on June 1, 1533 by the Spanish commander,  Pedro de Heredia.  It became the main port for trade between Spain and its overseas empire, and was a key port for the export of…

We arrived back in Fort Lauderdale around 5:30 am.  Since 28 passengers from the Grand World Voyage were staying on board we had to wait until 10:30 am before clearing Customs/Immigration and getting back onto the ship.  Most of the other World cruise passengers had already been cleared and were on their way home. Once the ship…

As Ron said in our Bantry blog post, “the end is near”.  There is a different feeling on board that is a mixture of relief, nostalgia, homesickness, and anxiety about getting everything done in these few days.  The trip home is the time for the Mariner Lunch and Mariner cocktail reception.  Everyone has medallions based on the number…

The end has come.  This is our last port then we’re on our way back to Ft. Lauderdale! (But not the end of our cruise.  We’re on to Seattle after this.) Today’s excursion is all about the countryside and is entitled “The Beautiful Beara Penninsula”.  Beara Peninsulais a peninsula on the south-west coast of Ireland bounded between the…

Alas we’re winding down on the world cruise. Today is a light activity day and our excursion is a short one and begins late in the afternoon. This morning we hopped on the shuttle bus for a 25 minute ride into the city of Cork.  Cork looks very much like Dublin in that a river runs…

Today we thought we’d try something different:  the Dublin Hop On-Hop Off bus.  For a very reasonable price you get a narrated tour of the city and you’re free to hop off at any of their stops and then hop back on later to continue your tour.  We sat outside on the top of the bus for the…

Today is all about St. Patrick.  Sorry to say but St. Patrick is a Saint in name only as he has never been officially canonized.  However he is highly revered by both Catholics and Protestants alike as an extremely important person in bringing Christianity to Ireland. Today’s excursion was entitled “A Day In St. Patrick’s Country” visiting…

Today we made our only stop in Scotland at Portree on the Isle of Skye.  Portree is the largest town in and the capital of Skye. We boarded our bus and headed out to visit the “Eilean Donan” castle.  Eilean Donan, which means simply “island of Donnán”, is named after Donnán of Eigg, a Celtic saint martyred…

After leaving Oslo, we cruised around the southwestern coast of Norway and then turned north to reach the Sognefjord.  We then turned east into the fjord and traveled about 100 miles until we reached our next port, Flåm, Norway. The trip up the fjord was spectacular but cold. We reached Flåm around 8:00 am and immediately…

It was a short overnight trip from Copenhagen to Oslo, the capital of Norway. Our excursion to was “Vigeland Sculpture Park and Picturesque Drøbak” The first part of our excursion was a visit to the small town of Drøbak.   The main tourist attraction here is the Christmas Shop.  The shop had two floors of Christmas decorations…