Only water around us

Today was a day at sea, but there was no reason to be afraid of it being boring, we really had a full schedule. In the morning we started with the bridge-tours and Captain Rune Andreassen explained the equipment to us, the different screens, the propellers and the radar system.

After the bridge visits the lectures started about the Vikings, the voyages of the original FRAM and the artwork on the young FRAM.

So we really enjoyed the break for lunch. Most of us will leave early tomorrow morning at 8 am and there we have to pack. Sometimes you will be surprised how much suitcases can shrink, or did we buy too many gifts especially Whisky bottles from the Highland Park?

In the afternoon started the next session of lecturing and we got information about Hamburg and the disembarkation. Later was the Captain’s cocktail with the lovely MS FRAM choir.

Yes indeed it was a “very good voyage” – and maybe in some of those days we meet again on FRAM.

And finally – Edinburgh

We had a warm welcome at the harbour of Leith, first of all the sun as usual and second a Lady piper. Arriving just ahead of schedule we had enough time to enjoy the part of Leith where is placed the Royal Britannia, former yacht of the Royal family. Most of use drove to Edinburgh either on their own or on the excursion.

This was a panoramic sightseeing through Edinburgh, passing Arthur’s seat, the beautiful shaped mountain in the town, from where you have an excellent view over the city. Edinburgh is the capital of Scotland since 1437, today live around 500 000 people in the town. It has several universities and is also an important trading place. The so-called New Town, designed and built in the 18th century is perfect example of town-planning. We stopped at the Palace of Holyrood, which is the Queen's official residence in Scotland. The Royal Mile is the famous road from Holyrood to the Castle with a lot of small shops.

Edinburgh Castle was the home of Scottish kings and queens for centuries. Today, the Old Royal Palace from the 15th century houses the crown jewels of Scotland and the main building from the 18th century the Scottish National War Museum. It is an important place of Scottish history and you still get the feeling of the past.

From the castle there is a great view and you can walk right into the Old Town with its lovely narrow streets. Here are shops and most important: the pubs. Some of us find in the shops the final gifts for their beloveds at home.

At four o’clock in the afternoon we left Leith through the lock. Two hours later we passed Bass Rock a famous bird reserve with thousands of gannets.

It is a pity that we have to leave the British Isles and in the end even the sky wept.

In the evening we all enjoyed the funny and fancy Cruise-Show performed by many of our crew-members.

The most northern point

We reached the Orkney Islands and they are the most northern part of our voyage. Blue sky, sunshine, light wind and beautiful excursions, that’s how the day started. It must be FRAM who is bringing the sunshine all around the British Isles. Most of us went on excursions and the others strolled through Kirkwall, the nice capital of the archipelago. Orkney is made up of 70 islands, of which only 16 are inhabited. Kirkwall is the political, cultural and commercial center. Here are a big hospital and several schools so even a small university is in town.

Right in the center is the famous St. Magnus Cathedral founded in the 12th century and extended during the following centuries. There are several old tombstones and also the mortal remains are placed in a column.

The Norsemen weren’t the first settlers; the oldest ruins are dated back to the Neolithic period more than 5000 years old. At Skara Brae is the best preserved settlement of this time and belongs to the list of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites since 1999. It is really amazing walking around and having a closer look of the different houses which are close a beautiful beach. There are many places on the islands and one of the most impressive is the Ring of Brodgar. It is a ring of 60 stones and still 27 remain. The stone ring was built in a true circle, almost 104 meters wide.

On our other trip we started to go to most southern island of the Orkneys, South Ronaldsay. It was also a historical tour, but mainly about the time of the First and Second World War. Scapa Flow is a great inlet surrounded by protective islands. During the First World War, when the Great Fleet was based here and later the German Fleet was interned. On 21 June 1919, after nine months of waiting, Rear Admiral Ludwig von Reuter, the German officer in command at Scapa Flow, made the decision to scuttle the fleet of 72 ships. Today there are still seven shipwrecks on the bottom of Scapa Flow.

In the little island Lamb Holm stands the Italian Chapel built by the Italian prisoners during the Second World War. It is an astonishing little chapel created out of Nissen huts. This trip ended up in the famous Highland distillery where we learned a lot about the distillation of the Single Malt Whisky. It gave us also the opportunity to taste a 12 year old whisky.

On the third excursion we looked for the bird life on the Orkneys. Especially the cliffs are famous for the seabird breeding during the summer. It was an exciting trip through the landscape also passing several historical spots.

Being back we got the opportunity to listen to two lectures and enjoy waffles in the panorama lounge. The day ended again with a tasting of Scottish whiskey and songs, performed by Bernie and Beastie.

Isle of Skye or the Island of Mist

What a surprising experience, we started in the morning with a clouded sky and no sun today. Maybe that’s the reason for the second name of the island. Skye is the largest island of the Inner Hebrides, about 80 km long and from 11 to 40 km broad. We arrived at Portree, the capital of the Skye, in the morning and started soon departing to the West Highlands and to the northern part, the Trotternish peninsula. Portree is nice city of around 2500 inhabitants, one fourth of the whole population.

On our tour on the Trotternish we saw the highland with the typical moorland with the heather and the gorse. In some parts they still cut the peat using it for heating; they mainly do this in May. We had a perfect view on the rock formation “Old Man of Storr”; it stands in front of the mountain ridge called Storr, rising to 1000 m above sea level. In the highlands are still some small villages and farming houses which are called croft on Skye.

The Isle of Skye is one of the youngest parts of the UK in geological meaning, only 60 million years old. So you find wonderful basaltic formations like the Kilt Rock along the coastline. We visited the Museum of Island Life, consisting of a group of small, thatched cottages.

Each presents a special rural profession and one is furnished in the style of the beginning of the 20th century. Close to the Museum village is an old cemetery where we visited the monument of Flora MacDonald who rescued Bonnie Prince Charles.

Another group drove to the south to visit the Eilean Donan Castle, one of the most-photographed castles in Scotland. Unfortunately it was under renovation and totally covered by scaffolding. But nevertheless the tour was nice passing the Cuillin Mountain Range where still were some snow on the peaks.

In the afternoon we got a lecture about “Scotland” and now we know nearly everything about the country. The evening-event was an ice-and-fruit-carving; it is really astonishing to watch how fast these guys work.

Do Hebrides mean highlights?

Our stay on two of the islands of the Hebrides – Iona and Staffa - gave us a glance of paradise. Of course the sun shines, now we don’t expect anything else. We were told that it was the first sunny day after a period of rain; maybe it was the reason that all the people welcomed us so friendly.

Even though there were some waves we took the Polarcirkle-boats for tendering. On Iona most of us participated in the excursion on the footprints of St. Columba. Columba (521- 597) was an Irish monk, who came to Iona in 563. He built up the Abbey where he lived until his death. From Iona he started very successful conversions in Scotland and northern England. Iona has been a place of pilgrimage for centuries. Still nowadays many pilgrims come to the island. Today live there around 100 people, 12 kids are at lessons in the small school. The older kids have to go to Oban. The main economic bases are agriculture and tourism during the summer. That’s really understandable when you feel the quite atmosphere and see the lovely village.

Our first stop of our tour was at the ruins of the Augustinian Nunnery. The Nunnery was built in the 13th century and in function for several centuries. The visit of the Abbey was the highlight. The first Abbey of the 6th century was demolished by the Vikings and this one was erected in the 12th century. We still could see the main church with the beautiful cloister and the old chapel at the cemetery. Everywhere is a special quite atmosphere, inviting for relaxing and meditation.

 

There was some more time to walk around or on top of the hills to enjoy the marvelous view to other islands. Good for us that we had the possibility to visit another island, Staffa. For some of us it was the highlight of our tour until now.

Staffa is just 1.6 km long and 0.4 km wide. We arrived again in our Polarcirkle-boats and most of us very deeply impressed by the huge basalt columns around. There was short but little adventures walk to Fingal’s Cave, formed by the columns and the ocean. The cave is 70 meters deep, 13 meters wide and 20 meters high, the entrance is like a Gothic arch. You really feel like being in cathedral, being in an art-work. Many artists came to this place like the painter J.M.W. Turner or the composer Felix Mendelssohn. The main theme for his Hebridian Overture came to him while he was in Fingal’s Cave in 1829 listening to the roaring of the waves against the basalt columns.

 

Today the island belongs to the National Trust and the only inhabitants nowadays are the seabirds like shags, puffins, fulmars and kittiwakes.

This was really one of our best days, most of us said.

Do you know Ellan Vannin?

Certainly not, because it is the Manx name for the Isle of Man. The nice little island is located right in the middle of the Irish Sea and we spent another beautiful day there. We arrived at 8 am and big surprise the mist covered nearly the island. Nevertheless we started two excursions in the morning to the “Manx Highlights”.

From Douglas we drove along the course of the famous TT motorcycle race; there are two events during the year. Normally you see the mountains especially the highest peak, Snaefell, but today it was hidden behind the clouds.

From time to time we had glance of the meadow framed by the yellow gorse. Normally in the middle of May it grows all over the island, but just six weeks ago was all covered by a huge amount of snow up to five meters. 14 000 sheep died in the snow. The sheep are special breed with four horns. Our first stop was in Ramsey a small town with a small shipyard, but nevertheless they build several big ships like the Star of India. From Ramsey we continued to remarkable watermill in Laxey. In former times there were successful mining in the area of zinc and lead.

To keep the water out of the shafts they used pumps driven by the watermill. ‘Lady Isabella’ as it is named is a huge watermill of around 25 m in diameter. After this interesting stop we came back to Douglas having a closer view on the long promenade with the beautiful buildings mainly in the Victorian style.

In the afternoon three groups started to Castle Rushen originally built in the Middle Age. One of the highlights was a ride in the old railway. The electric railway is the oldest in England from the year 1893.

By afternoon it was sunny again. Those staying in Douglas enjoyed strolling along the promenade, and observing a three legged race. In a certain way walking along you really have the feeling of the 19th century.

All of us enjoyed the stay and we ended up listening in the night to Ralf performing songs of Udo Juergens.

Dublin, the most vivid spot in Ireland

Do I have to mention the weather? Of course not, it is the same as last days. We arrived in the morning and the opening of the bridge looked a friendly welcome greeting. Our place was close to the beautiful Samuel Beckett Bridge designed by Santiago Calatrava. The other great point was we stayed until 10 pm.

Dublin the capital of the Republic of Ireland is an old city originally founded by the Vikings in 841. Most of the buildings are from the 18th century and they are constructed in the Georgian style.

On our excursions we saw several important buildings such as the Trinity College. It is the oldest university in Ireland and was founded by Queen Elizabeth I in 1592, but the oldest surviving buildings are from 18th century. In the Old Library of the university is kept a treasure, the Book of Kells. It is a manuscript of the four gospels, written in Latin and illustrated with colourful illuminations. The Long Room of the Library houses around 200.000 very old books. On the tour through Dublin we saw Dublin Castle, Leinster House the seat of the Irish Parliament and we stopped at the beautiful park at St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

There are several nice parks in Dublin most of them are public. Phoenix Park is a huge area, where you find the Zoo of Dublin, several sport grounds and a nice garden close to the Visitors center. We also passed the Guinness Brewery which one of the most important companies in town. After the morning excursions most of us strolled around in Dublin in the afternoon by ourselves and used the evening for having a pint – or two – of Guinness.

There is one Lady in town you we never forget especially her beautiful neckline, her name is Molly Malone, and she features in one of Ireland’s favourite songs.

The afternoon excursion went back in history as we visited the old Malahide Castle from the 12th century, which housed Kings for dinner and for marching off to war. After that we enjoyed a special Irish coffee in a pub at the seaside.

Again we spent another beautiful day at a wonderful place!

Looking for the Titanic and enjoying the sun

We are lucky – but I don’t mention it again. The sun was shining and we arrived in this nice little harbour town Cobh. The quay is right in the center just opposite the railway station. The coaches stood in line and as soon as possible the first groups left for their excursions. The others enjoyed the possibilities and amenities like shopping or just strolling around. Typical for the town are the many colourful small houses.

Cobh was first mentioned under the name of “Cove” and became a well-known health resort. After the visit of Queen Victoria the town was renamed to Queenstown and kept the name until 1920. Today it is a quiet popular point for cruising ships. In the 19th century many ships started to the USA from here, packed with emigrants looking for a better future in the “New World”. One of the most famous cruising ships of world stopped here in Cobh before it went on to New York: the Titanic.

In a lovely and very informative museum we learned about the construction of the ship, passengers, cabins and the last night. One group walked on a guided tour through the historic town that has unchanged for the last 100 years following the footsteps of the 123 Queenstown passengers who boarded the Titanic.

A landmark of Cobh is St. Colman’s Cathedral.

 

A full day excursion guided as through the southwest of Ireland. We visited Kinsale where we strolled through the colourful streets. Later we drove to the legendary Blarney Castle, one of the oldest and most intact medieval fortresses in Ireland. Of course we kissed the Blarney Stone, it is said the kiss gives you the power of eloquence.

Our third excursion was a trip to Cork, Ireland’s second largest city, and walked through the beautiful historic parts. Cork is rich in history and tradition and was founded between 500 and 600 as a monastery. Vikings used the place as a trading post from 846 AD. On we went to Midleton to visit the Jameson Whiskey Heritage Centre. It is still the most important distillery of Ireland.

To send us on our journey onward with perfect thoughts, a local tenor sang several songs to us in the comfort of the Panorama Lounge.