Random thoughts from the sea
Days 65-67, 2025 European Odyssey Tuesday-Thursday, Sept. 2-4, 2025; Glasgow, Scotland; Douglas, Isle of Man; and Cobh, Ireland. Looking back, I wish I had spent a semester or year studying abroad. The University of Glasgow would be on the short list of places I would have enjoyed. I briefly wondered
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Days 60-62, 2025 European Odyssey Wednesday-Friday, Aug. 27-29, 2025; Lerwick, Kirkwall and Stornoway, Scotland. Sometimes you just need to get out of town, and that’s what I decided to do at the last minute in Kirkwall, the main town in Scotland’s Orkney Islands. I love wandering Kirkwall’s streets and poking
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Day 59, 2025 European Odyssey Tuesday Aug. 26, 2025; Edinburgh, Scotland. Last time I was in Edinburgh, a flood of people swept me up, surging downhill toward a sea of buses. My challenge was to find the right one to take me from the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo to the
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Day 40, 2025 European Odyssey Thursday, Aug. 7, 2025; Edinburgh, Scotland. Imagine sitting in the stands at an American college football game, watching the home team’s marching band take the field for maybe 10 minutes. Most spectators have headed for the concession stands or toilet – or buried their faces
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Days 36-39, 2025 European Odyssey Sunday to Wednesday, Aug. 3-6, 2025; Wales and Inverness, Scotland, I am beginning to see why tourists might quip “ABC!” Another Bloody Castle! Estimates for the number of castles in the British Isles vary, but it’s in the thousands, depending on your definition. Generally, castles
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Days 30-31, 2025 European Odyssey Monday and Tuesday, July 28-29, 2025; At Sea and Stornoway, Scotland. What is it like to cruise on one of Holland America’s largest ships for the first time? Mind you, these are not large ships. The Nieuw Statendam is 975 feet long, just shy of
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Days 25-26, 2025 European Odyssey Wednesday and Thursday, July 23-24, 2025; Faroe Islands and Shetland Islands. For the past couple of years, I’ve flown the flag of each country we visit on my cabin door frame. It’s a fun ritual to change the flag when we head to a new
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Days 48 and 49, 2023 North Atlantic Adventure Wednesday and Thursday, June 28 and 29, 2023; Kirkwall and Edinburgh, Scotland. When I think of visiting ancient places, I think of the pyramids of Egypt or the Colosseum in Rome. Scotland never came to mind. But on Wednesday I went to
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Days 28 and 29, 2023 North Atlantic Adventure Thursday and Friday, June 8-9, 2023; Invergordon and Edinburgh, Scotland. Just a few feet under the festive crowds on Edinburgh’s Royal Mile lies a world of dankness, darkness and disease. I spent an hour today exploring Mary King’s Close, venturing hundreds of
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Days 26 and 27, 2023 North Atlantic Adventure Tuesday and Wednesday, June 6-7, 2023; Portree and Kirkwall, Scotland. I wasn’t expecting much of Kirkwall as I knew next to nothing about it, other than it is in the Orkney Islands on the north of Scotland. Kirkwall is perhaps best known
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