Semi-LIVE from Venus British Isles Explorer 4/19 with Churchill Pre-extension

[Hockeyump]

12 hours ago, shipboy said:

I am Scottish and we only have 2 seasons in the year, winter and July 😁

What about the mosquito season!

[shipboy]

1 hour ago, Hockeyump said:

What about the mosquito season!

Not a problem in Scotland, the midges eat them

[uktog]

2 hours ago, shipboy said:

Not a problem in Scotland, the midges eat them

Give me a mosquito over a midge any day (and I’m Scottish) 

[Ready to Sail!]

4 hours ago, uktog said:

And if you want to pay for a transfer at point the Edinburgh teams run from the disembarking at Newhaven to the New Town and further 

Does further mean closer to the Royal Mile?  It is a pretty good uphill walk from the Square to the Mile. We stayed just off the Mile and did walk down Colburn St. one day to New Town but other wise everything we did was based on or near the Mile. I would hope there is a drop off closer than the Square. 

[uktog]

12 minutes ago, Ready to Sail! said:

Does further mean closer to the Royal Mile?  It is a pretty good uphill walk from the Square to the Mile. We stayed just off the Mile and did walk down Colburn St. one day to New Town but other wise everything we did was based on or near the Mile. I would hope there is a drop off closer than the Square. 

Unfortunately it only takes the walk to Princes Street out. Due to congestion no drop offs are possible nearer I’m afraid. 

[Peregrina651]

4 hours ago, uktog said:

And if you want to pay for a transfer at point the Edinburgh teams run from the disembarking at Newhaven to the New Town and further on 

 

 

Arrgh, auto correct does it again.😖  Not teams, trams. Took me a minute.  I could not figure out why footballers would be running from Newhaven to anywhere! 

Edited April 28 by Peregrina651

[Ready to Sail!]

7 minutes ago, uktog said:

Unfortunately it only takes the walk to Princes Street out. Due to congestion no drop offs are possible nearer I’m afraid. 

That would certainly be a ways to the Mile for those with any mobility issues. Might be easier to take a taxi from the pier to the top of the mile and go from there, especially if visiting the Castle. 

[Ready to Sail!]

Just now, Ready to Sail! said:

That would certainly be a ways to the Mile for those with any mobility issues. Might be easier to take a taxi from the pier to the top of the mile and go from there, especially if visiting the Castle. 

Should add we walked everywhere but had 3 full days. Our hotel was near the Castle and St. Giles. At 80 and 85, we went out for half days with rest time for a few hours back at hotel midday.🤪

[formernuke]

Spectacular day in Orkney!

Smooth sail in to pier in Kirkwall this morning. Once again the weather has cooperated! Cool(upper 40’s) and windy, but partly sunny and no rain until literally we got back to the pier at 3:15.

 

For those interested, the port provides complimentary shuttle bus into town. We didn’t take it, but was scheduled to run every 30 min from 8:30 until 3:45 (all onboard time of 4pm). Drop off point was at the Visitor Information Centre. 

We chose to do a private tour today, as no combination of Viking offered tours got us to all the different places we wanted to see. As it is unlikely we’ll end up here again, we wanted to see as much as practical. It was a good choice. We had almost a perfect day, seeing most of the key sites including the Churchill Barriers, the Italian Chapel, standing stones on Steness, Yesnaby, Ring of Brodgar, Skara Brea and Skail House, a small burial mound you can climb through, as well as quick pano tours of both Kirkwall and Stromness. Highly recommend Dave’s Malcolm! (We booked via Viator, but he also works independently).

[fruitmachine]

2 hours ago, Ready to Sail! said:

Does further mean closer to the Royal Mile?  It is a pretty good uphill walk from the Square to the Mile. We stayed just off the Mile and did walk down Colburn St. one day to New Town but other wise everything we did was based on or near the Mile. I would hope there is a drop off closer than the Square. 

Other than a taxi from Charlotte Square, you can either walk all the way to the Castle (see below) or walk to Hannover Street and take the first city bus to come (they all follow the same route at this point) from Hannover Street, two stops to George IV Bridge.  This takes out most of the uphill part.

 

I like to send people this route, as it has good views of the 'back' of the Castle from Castle Terrace, and takes you through the Grassmarket.  If you're wanting something slightly shorter,turn left at the end of Castle Terrace, and up Johnston Terrace.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/mLRkHcGA9SPd5KnV8

 

The other significant alternative is the HoHo bus (https://edinburghtour.com/)  The green Edinburgh Tour route has a stop where the Viking shuttle drops you off.  This route has a live guide and is always the one I recommend first if you don't need a multilingual tour.

Get on at Stop 3 and off at Stop 9 for the Castle and the start of the Royal Mile.

Edited April 28 by fruitmachine

[formernuke]

Edinburgh (Newhaven)yesterday. Tender port. Ship anchored about 25 minutes late due to heavy seas the previous night. Excursions team responded quickly and moved everything out a bit. Good news was Captain was able to extend our time in port so our all onboard time moved from 4 to 5. 

Ship provided a shuttle to town. Went from 9-3:30 continuously. We did not take it, but was planned to drop off at Charlotte Square, outside West Register House. 
 

Tender took about 20 min. We were independent today but still got off promptly, second tender left about 8:48. Just a couple of minutes late for our private tour pickup. We did private today as we were interested in both Sterling Castle and Rosslyn Chapel and there was no combo of Viking tours that could do that. Loved both places, and we were able to sneak in short visits to the Kelpies and to the Falkirk Wheel. A great day.

The streak of great weather we had been having fell down a little, with intermittent drizzle/light rain. Nothing to put a damper on anything. 

[formernuke]

A great day in Invergordon yesterday. Ship arrived about 35 minutes late again due to heavy seas/currents overnight. Tours were rescheduled and on board time moved to 5pm

. Unfortunately some afternoon tours had to be cancelled due to a traffic accident that shut down a major bridge. Docked in town. No shutt

The good weather returned! we had wanted to take the Ultimate Outlander Experience, but it was sold out when we were able book, so we booked a comparable private tour that worked out well. Included Urquhart and Cawdor castles, Clava Cairns, Culloden battlefield as well as a pano of Inverness. Our local guide was able to navigate the back roads to get us around the traffic snarls. 

[formernuke]

The weather improved for a great day in the Shetland Islands(Lerwick). Due to expected winds and currents the captain made the choice of tendering instead of the planned docking. This turned out to be a great decision as we ended up with a short 5 minute tender into Victoria Pier, right in town. This eliminated the need for a shuttle bus. This was also the first time we had to share a port with another ship (Rotterdam).

We chose the Ancient Civilizations of Shetland excursion. This took us to an amazing site on the coast called Jarlshof that spans 5000 years of history. There are Neolithic, Bronze Age, Iron Age, Viking and 17th century ruins all right next to each other. Highly recommend this site!

🥴☘️🥴🥴

in the sure did the included Panorama and Ponies. Got to see the Shetland Ponies! 😀

[formernuke]

Final day of the cruise didn’t start off that well. The captain came on in the morning to report there had been a problem with one of the engines and we were going to arrive in Bergen about 3 hours late, with a tug alongside just in case. They were able to rearrange the tours

 

 Unfortunately for us, we had Norway in a Nutshell booked that we would miss Hopefully trip insurance will eventually cover the cost. So we just decided to go into town and walked around.  We took the funicular to mount Floien, which gave spectacular views. 

[formernuke]

Forgot to mention two things:we docked at Victoria Pier, right in town. Also the weather is spectacular (low 70’s)!

[Peregrina651]

2 hours ago, formernuke said:

Forgot to mention two things:we docked at Victoria Pier, right in town. Also the weather is spectacular (low 70’s)!

 

Arrgh, Tom!!  I'm packing now and temps in the 70s has completely blown my packing plan! <tearing-hair-emoji>

 

 

[formernuke]

32 minutes ago, Peregrina651 said:

 

Arrgh, Tom!!  I'm packing now and temps in the 70s has completely blown my packing plan! <tearing-hair-emoji>

 

 

Sorry!🥴

[Peregrina651]

43 minutes ago, formernuke said:

Sorry!🥴

 

Actually, I appreciate the heads up. I've learned quite a lot from your live thread that has helped me prepare for our adventure. I'm sorry it is coming to an end.

[formernuke]

Yes,it has been a great trip. Sorry for the problems with many of the photos but it was quite a hassle trying to edit on my iPhone. Pictures worked fine on other apps…

[SteelCity Cruiser]

15 hours ago, Peregrina651 said:

 

Arrgh, Tom!!  I'm packing now and temps in the 70s has completely blown my packing plan! <tearing-hair-emoji>

 

 

That's what happened to us last year.  All I can suggest is plan to dress in layers!