Newcastle, England

Hello from Newcastle! Sort of. Actually, not at all.

This is another one of those ports where the city is listed on the itinerary but you're not exactly docking there. Newcastle is nine miles away but with the free shuttle it should be easy to access, right? Nope, not for me. Today's shuttle didn't drop off in the city but instead dropped off at the train station where you could then take the train into the city. A little more complicated but doable. Except...as I've seen before on this trip, mobility scooters aren't allowed on the trains. So no Newcastle for me.

When we first arrived in port I went on Deck 15 to take a picture of what I thought was Newcastle. So pretty. Nah, it was just the river we came up to get to the dock. 

Not even close to Newcastle

Once I got my bearings on where things were I found out Newcastle was out here somewhere, nine miles past the ship and the containers and the industrial area. Not nearly as picturesque.

Somewhere out there

Not sure why here at the Port of Tyne they consider themselves the UK's best port of call, but they do.

There wasn't a lot to do in the area. I went to the outlet mall but found it wasn't much different than those back in the US with so many stores closed up. 

Still can see the ship from the mall

I wandered through a park.

Watched a bumblebee working in the butterfly bush.

Rolled over several types of pavement, sometimes almost all at once.

Found trash on the ground with a message for me.

Tried to follow bike trails.

Followed a different path and somehow found my way back to the ship.

Dodged a storm.

Worked my way around the marina until I really made it back to the ship.

Not the most exciting of days for the last port of call on this cruise but at least I did go out and about. We have a sea day tomorrow and then we'll be in Southampton on Wednesday for yet another turnaround day. See you then!

Edit: Big restaurant news for the ship…As of Wednesday, Bayou Cafe will be no more. I recently heard from a waiter it’s going to be turned into the Crown Grill and by the notice I received tonight it looks like the change is on its way.

Honningsvag, Norway

Hello from Honningsvag!

Today the only exciting things of my day happened before 8:00 AM. The first one occurred at about 4:30 this morning when I opened my eyes and saw this out my balcony door. This big cliff is Nordkapp, the North Cape. It's the northernmost part of Europe (that you can reach by car) and the farthest north we'll be traveling.

It's a popular tourist destination with the ship charging almost $200 for the opportunity to ride a bus to get to it from Honningsvag. Or, you can do like I did and save my money and take pictures from the sea. It's not always sunny at the North Cape and all I have is an iPhone but...

I'll take Blurry Monuments for $200, Alex. 

Zoom in and you might be able to see the monument on the right side

My second most exciting thing of the day happened at breakfast. I've been experimenting with all kinds of foods in order to find something with flavor. Today's experiment was a side by side taste test of an English Muffin with orange marmalade versus one with strawberry jam. While I couldn't taste the bread, the butter, or the fruits the jams were made from, I was able to determine one difference between the two. Sweet and sour have arrived! Well, at least for today.

Marmalade = sour
Strawberry jam = sweet

The remainder of my day didn't involve doing much but staying put, sometimes on the balcony and sometimes on the bed.

Almost reminded me of Kauai

Rain moved in and out today

Yesterday's adventurous adventure in Tromso took all my energy and added a whole bunch of joint pain. Getting dressed, climbing on and off the scooter, and even trips to the bathroom are difficult right now so I knew it was best not to push it but give my body a rest. Anyway, I took plenty of pictures when I was here back in June so I don't feel too guilty about skipping out on today. You can read the blog post about my June visit here.

Lucky for me we have three straight sea days coming up. This bod is more than happy to use all three to work on recovering in order to be ready for Newcastle, England on Monday. See you then!

Post-Covid tastes and smells: 

Tastes - sweet and sour, occasionally garlic

Smells - Rosemary, lavender, sunscreen, fresh varnish, strawberry body spray, pine body spray, lemon hand sanitizer