scubacruiserx2

Welcome to Castle Rushen

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_Rushen

Where unfortunately , not all quests are treated equally ( like quests who forget to pay the entrance fee ) .

The entrance to the keep is protected by a drawbridge and a fortified inner gatehouse entrance with two portcullis with a killing area between them covered by three so-called murder holes, through which the defenders could attack any intruders trapped between the two portcullis (iron gates) .

wikipedia

Much of the castle was dark and dank and had some mannikins doing some creepy things . My flash made things much brighter though .

It was nice to have some windows to help light the way . Without them it felt like and interior cabin - without power .

And after exiting on the top deck the view got much better !

After our wonderful lunch the tour resumed with a visit to some churches. These churches were built by Jesuit missionaries and posses a unique style of wood construction indigenous to Chiloe. While mostly constructed by the Spanish , some of the latter construction was done by Bavarian Jesuits and resembles the Stave construction that we saw in Norway. It is mostly seen in function and not form. UNESCO declared 16 of these churches to be World Heritage Sites. The most famous Church , Castro , was closed when we visited and I found this picture of it on Wikipedia

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/63/Iglesia_de_Castro.jpg

The first church that we visited was the Church of Conchi

Here's the interior

The next church was the Church of Nercon

Interior of Nercon

If you look carefully at the columns you may notice that they are wooden boards pieced together to form a column. They were then faux painted to resemble marble.

Oh boy, what fabulous photos! My husband, sister and brother-in-law will be doing a South American cruise in the beginning of 2018, and now I can hardly wait!!!!

One question; you mentioned that your passport was taken away before the cruise? When did you get your passport back? I have never had to give my passport to anyone (although I do not travel as much as the rest of you all...:) ) Was nobody worried about the passports not being returned, or is this a fairly regular thing that a traveller experiences without concern? Please, ease my mind before I have to explain this to my sister!!!! :eek:

Thank you , and congratulations on your cruise .

Yes , we objected to giving our passport as we had already obtained the visas for Chile ( Do this at the airport before proceeding to immigration ) and Argentina before leaving the US . This may have changed since we went , so please check before going .

At the counter they insisted that we surrender them . When we asked " why" , they explained so they they wouldn't have to inconvenience us . I explained that taking my passport is a major inconvenience , and that I would gladly show it to any customs official 24 / 7 when needed . I further explaining that as a Firefighter / Paramedic in Miami , I was used to being awake for long hours all night . At that point we were told that we couldn't board the ship until we gave our passports up .

We did get them back 11 days later , I believe . Besides Santiago twice , we have only had to give ours up on our Baltic cruise this year for 2 days . We have been to Russia 5 times and cruised Europe 5 times and only had to do it this year , for the first time .

We we have entered the UK on both of our TA's , their immigration officer met us on on the ship at an assigned time during the day , and stamped our passports on the ship !! :) :D

Many people that we talked to in South America (and Russia ) are afraid of missing the ship without a passport , and so they feel obligated to use the ship's tour . We did use private tours , and surrendered our passports and everything was OK . In fact , our guides told us that they would call the ship if needed , or that they would take us to our next port - if they had to . ;)

We took a cab to London City Airport (LCY) where we took a British Air puddle jumper to the IOM .

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isle_of_Man

It was cloudy , windy and cool when we arrived

It was great to see our friends Karen and Ron again and the spiffy new airport for the first time !!

The first stop on our Magical History Tour was Castle Rushen ( pronounced Russian ) .

The red arrow on the map

 

That was September/October Vancouver to Beijing last of the Alaskan sailings and then onto China via Japan and Russia on the Diamond.

Hurricane season in the northern hemisphere peaks in September and includes August and October and that's usually why cruise ships leave the South for Alaska and Europe . The storms usually generate in the warm waters and move North eventually ( we're watching one now which could turn North toward us on Sunday or Monday ) .

In the year that we went to Ireland , a storm just missed us and went North effect Ireland and the Isle on Man , where our friends had to wait for the sea to calm before taking the ferry to meet us in Ireland .

The pizza's look great.

Yes they were , and at a reasonable price also . :) :D

While at the park we climbed the mirador observation tower. While there , we were treated to this view of the cabanas and Lake Cucao.

On the way out of the park I spied this seed pod from the Chilean Rubarb plant.

It is quite a pest in some areas of the world.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunnera_tinctoria

In the description of our tour on the internet it lists a "picnic lunch" as part of the tour. It would be next on the agenda. When I hear the expression "picnic lunch" it conjures up a certain vision in my brain. That of sandwiches being eaten, while sitting on a blanket on the ground at the park , complete with ants running around. Our guide told us that that we would be stopping at a friend's house instead. It was cool and beginning to rain so it seemed like a good idea. The "picnic" was carefully and expertly prepared using home grown, ingredients. Salad , salsa , potatoes , homemade empanadas and desert comprised the picnic , now turned feast.

The potatoes were unlike any that I have seen or eaten before. It was if I had never tasted a potato before. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potatoes_of_Chilo%C3%A9

There was a homemade drink made of apple and Chilean Rubarb that was delicious . There were several different types of empanadas. Some had homemade goat cheese that I really liked. I saw my wife's eyes light up when she found out that some contained razor clams - a taste that she had acquired on our previous trip to Chile. Feeling stuffed , it was time for desert .

We had been seated under a large covered porch and next to where I was seated stood this strange tree. I asked the guide what the tree was called and he said " Chilean pine". I found out later that it is also called Araucaria or "monkey puzzle tree".

Although I must admit that I'm puzzled why it is called this. Finally , I would like to thank my wife for allowing me to use her photos of the food.

Very nice photos!

Thank you and stay tuned in because they get much better in Patagonia . :) :D

I just loved London!! And the pizza looks wonderful .... what is the "green" on top...?

We do too , definitely one of our favorite cities . Those are broccoli florets !! There were many veggies on my pizza and they added some crunch for me .

Here's Pat's Margherita version .

And Ty loves meat , especially bacon !!

The Pizza Express was very close , behind our hotel and across from the river .

We have done a few TransAtlantics, TransPacifics and a TransIndian/Southern and all have had some wet weather at one stage or another except for the TP via Hawaii and Tahiti.

Only one TP had really bad weather/ seas where we had to avoid two tropical storms by Alaska and the Aleutian Islands (just got the fringes) and a super typhoon off Japan. The Diamond Princess had a top speed of 25 knots (normally 23) and we were surfing (on about 4 swells) at one stage for around an hour, the captain was quite proud that the ship was handling it so well.:D

:eek: What time of year was that ?

Churchill's view

Dinner at Pizza Express

Tomorrow we hope to go to the Isle of Man

Lambeth Bridge

Victoria Tower Gardens

The Burghers of Calais

The Cholmondeley Ladies

Twins , married on the same day and gave birth on the same day . A video about them from from the Tate :

http://www.tate.org.uk/context-comment/video/cholmondeley-ladies-artist-unknown

Charles the I , King of England

The price of the Tate

Outside of the Tate - Chelsea College of the Arts

The weather was quite nice and so we decided to take a walk

Rather than bore the reader with the details we will move on to the visuals. If you care to read about Chiloe , a good link is found here : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chilo%C3%A9_Archipelago

We would be walking the Sendero El Tepua trail through the lowland rain forest.

While unimpressive in a close-up the Chilean Firebush put on an impressive show roadside while we were riding to the park.

There is a walk across the flatlands to reach the forest.

It looks a little like The Beatles Abbey Road album cover.

Most of the walk through the forest has a walk way.

To me , the forest seems more like a jungle ( and I know jungles because we live in one ) . Complete with ferns

and birds

This was the last room we visited just before closing at 18:00 . It exhibited eclectic styles .

Susanna and the Elders

The subject is taken from the Old Testament. Two community elders lust after the virtuous Jewish wife, Susanna. They hide in the garden where she bathes and threaten that, unless she sleeps with them, they will publicly accuse her of adultery. She rejects them, and they carry out their threat, but her innocence is proved by the prophet Daniel.

Elijah and the Angel

Born in Germany, Kneller trained in Amsterdam and settled permanently in England in 1676 where he became the leading portrait painter of his day. This rare example of a narrative painting by Kneller is very Dutch in manner and subject. He valued it enough to bring it to Britain and display it at his house at Whitton, Middlesex. It depicts the Old Testament prophet Elijah who fled into the wilderness to escape the vengeance of Queen Jezebel. Hungry, he fell asleep and was woken by an angel who showed him bread and water sent by God to save him from starvation.

Cookmaid with Still Life of Vegetables and Fruit

He seems to have a fondness for melons .

Portrait of an Unknown Lady

Her rich dress and jewels show that this woman was of high rank, although her identity is unclear. Her most notable piece of jewellery is the cameo suspended on a black ribbon. It shows the figure of Prudence, one of the cardinal virtues and considered then an especially appropriate quality in a woman. The remains of an inscription, upper right, date the picture to between 1565 and 1568. The large heraldic arms were added later; they belonged to Lady Eleanor Brandon, but she cannot be the woman depicted because she had died in 1547, around 20 years before this was painted

Portrait of Elizabeth I

This portrait of Elizabeth I (1533–1603) is the earliest known full-length portrait of the queen. It is unique in alluding to her status as a prospective bride, painted at a time when she was forced to address the question of marriage. She holds a carnation flower in her right hand, representing the love of God, but also love and marriage. In the background is a tapestry elaborately decorated with fruit and flowers, unusual in portraits of this period. The entwined honeysuckle flowers suggest a union, while the ripe fruit symbolise the queen’s fertility.

I remember Wilma very well....ripped one of the roofs off a building at the resort..... lets hope for no repeats this year for both of us!!! :)

We'll toast to that !! :) :D

O the Roast Beef of Old England

The Painter and his Pug - also William Hogarth

Covent Garden

The 3 sons of John Stuart

Wow!! I can understand your decision to avoid Westbound TA's!!! :eek:

 

 

 

Both of ours were too..... and we are hoping that the Equinox TA leaving October 25th will be late enough in the hurricane season that we won't encounter any adverse conditions:eek: we'll see in just a few weeks!!!!

I didn't want to drop the H word , but that was Wilma time (late October) . Of course that's a decade ago , and each year is different . And we thought about that when we booked the Yucatan this year , but it's the time when our friends can go .

I have decided that 3 West bound are sufficient:

1) Rome to Galveston, the Captain had to avoid Hurricane Wilma.

2) Harwich to Fort Lauderdale. Miami said we had to leave Bilbao, as it was saver at sea, rather than the ship be buffeted against the harbour wall and get damaged.

3) Southampton to Montreal. The Captain had to take a southerly course to avoid the eye of tropical storm Ian. We did however have to go through the tail.

:eek:

That's a lot of storms at sea !! That was our primary concern with the West bound TA's - hurricane season . Also , our visits to Europe and Russia were best in the Spring , rather than the Fall . We prefer jackets to visit , rather than rough seas on the ship . Both of our East bound TA's have been very nice . :) :D

No worries, when you cross the international dateline, they have a ceremony where they get all tadpoles (people who haven't crossed the dateline) and initiate them to make them all polliwogs. It is a funny couple of hours.:D

It sounds like a fun way to lose a day ! ;)

We had found a tour on the internet for Chiloe and knew that we would be sharing the tour with others. We were up early to catch the first tender and while we waited , we talked with Daniel and Sarah. As it turns out they were booked on the same Holland America tour that we were on in Punta Arenas - Torres del Paine. As we chatted , we soon found out that we had a lot in common. They had not booked anything for the day so we suggested that they check with our guide to see if there was additional seats available. There were so we slid in the mini bus to wait for the others. Soon we were off and running.

With the tide out it was obvious why we had to use tenders.

Here is the ramp that you will walk up. The picture quality is low because of the overcast conditions and the pocket camera that I used to take these.

As we left Castro , we could see that the land was lush and green and hilly and reminded of Sao Miguel in the Azores . At our first stop I observed the kind of scale shake siding that we had seen in Norway when we visited in September.

It could also be seen in this church that we walked past.

As we settled in for a long ride to the Parque Nacional Chiloe , our guide begin to share some information about Isla Chiloe.

Wonderful pictures.

So Sorry that your ATM card was stolen.

Thanks , and please be careful with you card while traveling because - it can happen to You !!! :eek:

I can certainly say that I prefer west bound with the 25 hour days but then when going over the pacific, at some point you lose a whole day. As for the Atlantic, I haven't gone east bound.:D

We look forward to having the same experience next year on a HAL TransPac which we recently booked . Thanks for sharing it Mic ! :) :D

We had to cut lunch short to make it back to the ship for the last tender at 4 pm. If I had one gripe - it would be time compression. The scheduled time in Puerto Montt was 8am - 5pm. With last tender time @ 4 pm and a tender ride from ship to shore , the time ashore is diminished considerably. Anyway , while ashore I tried to make an ATM withdrawal and noticed that my card was missing. We had left some jewelry , money, ATM and charge cards in the safe. Upon our return a through search revealed a missing ATM card. I had last used it in the Santiago airport 60 hours earlier . We went to the ship's desk to explain and request a phone call to our bank. They seated us at a desk informing us that there was only 1 phone line available and to try it periodically. It took more than 30 minutes for the line to open and during that time we noted another passenger on the phone at the desk . We surmised that she had been using the line and as soon as she hung up we had an open line. 50 minutes later we had our answer and had answered many questions . A thief had a shopping spree and had withdrawn / charged $ 6500 in one day ! :mad: :mad:

I'm usually very careful and don't usually check my balances online while traveling. Since we had nothing to lose from our bank account we went online to document our losses . Seeing the other couple at the internet café , we shared our tales of woe . When they were having lunch in Puerto Montt she had left her handbag hanging on the back of her chair to use the restroom. A thief grabbed and dashed - leaving her husband in the dust. My mistake was impatiently getting money at an ATM while my wife went to the ladies room. I usually like to have both of us work together when getting money. Lack of sleep didn't help . I thought that I had secured my card , but I was wrong. Being at sea for a couple of days meant that I didn't notice it right away . There was nothing that we could do at this point so we vowed to have the best time that we could under the circumstances. We hoped ( and prayed ) that the bank could recover our money and trusted them to take care of it. Several long days latter , they did and credited

our money back to our account. We would like to thank Holland America for their help and for not charging us for the long distance phone call. I must say that Holland America has become our favorite cruise line and we have been on quite a few cruises . Please be very careful when traveling. Work together while paying or withdrawing money. Check your accounts . We were concerned that our banking information could be stolen online but as this point I feel better checking it frequently while at sea .

Next port: Isla Chiloe

Giovanna Baccelli

Unlike the Hermitage the gallery was fairly empty

The Bradshaw Family

The Archers

Mrs Yates as Mandane in ' The Orphan of China '

This one brought a smile to my face

Master Crewe as Henry the VIII

I honestly cannot say which we would choose for our next cruise.

Both have their advantages, e.g. Celebrity have more activities for sea days, I missed the iSea lectures and the shops only have limited merchandise. We are not Trivia people, I found that 4/5 sessions per day was overload.

Azamara have the advantage that everything is included except Specality Restaurants and Excursions.

We booked almost 2 years ago when the ship was first chartered ( the charter is this present cruise, so it had to be taken to Montreal) and so for us we had a bargain - balcony for inside price. I'm not sure we would normally be able to pay Azamara's normal prices. At no time were we hassled to upgrade our beverage package, we didn't have one, as drinks are included.

 

We have not done an eastern TA, so I cannot compare. Certain it is, that the constant changing of the clocks doesn't do my body clock any good, I'm constantly waking up an hour early.

Thank you for the insight . We kinda forgot about the time changes even though we had a few in the Baltic cruise . We are still looking at some long cruises , but still with HAL and Princess holding the inside track and Celebrity right behind . And we do love a bargain when we can find one . :) :D