Mon June 2, 2025
Hi Folks! Today was a glorious sea day! And if you’ve read my blogs in the past you know we love our sea days. Sleep in, get educated, lounge around and eat great food. What’s not to like!
We started off with some education by going to the Speaker Series called “Roots of the Isles”. It was described as “How War, Invasion & Outsiders Shaped the British Isles”. I won’t go into all the details they shared but the main influence on the British Isles was from the Roman Empire.
Along with building Hadrian’s Wall, the Romans built many of the roads, aqueducts, baths and overall infrastructure. Even the main thoroughfare going North to South, the A1, is a Roman Road. The grid pattern of most cities is also Roman. Believe it or not Roman engineering even changed the shape and coastline of the British Isles!
After that we went and had a nice lunch. Then more education! The afternoon topic was “Europe up Close – Iconic Scotland”, which included discussions of bagpipes, tartans and the Highland Games. Legend has it that the Vikings invaded Scotland and took their shoes off to be quiet but stepped on thistles and screamed which alerted the Scotsman who awoke and defeated the Vikings. So the thistle is the national flower!
There are 790 islands that are part of Scotland and it’s also made up of the Highlands and the Lowlands. But it’s really all about the Clans in Scotland. They are like extended families living in the same area. Each clan has a tartan fabric made of wool and with the colors from the dyes that are from each area. Kilts are then made from the specific clan’s colors. We learned lots of cool stuff about Scotland!
We then went to the port talk about Edinburgh. They gave really good tips about how to navigate the town as well as the highlights of what to see. The Edinburgh Castle, the One o’Clock Gun, the Royal Mile, the Palace of Hollyroodhouse, and St Giles Cathedral just to name a few.
We then went back to the room and got ready for dinner. Tonight was the first formal night so we got all gussied up and went to a different specialty restaurant. Tonight we went to the Asian restaurant named Tamarind.
The menu was so good I could have gotten a ton of things (and did!). We both started off with the Satay Sampler and the Lobster (of course!) and Shrimp Potstickers. For our third starter (they were small!!) Kathy had the Thai Citrus Scallops and I got the Chinese Five Spice Baby Back Ribs. For our mains Kathy got the Wasabi and Soy Crusted Beef Tenderloin and I got the Crispy Duck. We both got the Yuzu Cheesecake which was very good but different than any cheesecake we’ve ever had. All the food was amazing!!
After dinner we went to the show which was called “Hollywood, Broadway and Beyond” by the ship’s singers and dancers. It was really good with great music! We then crashed early since we had a 7 AM excursion and have to do the UK Passport Immigration Control before that. Yikes! Hope everyone had a great Monday!
PS: We even got a fun towel animal on our bed in the evening!
The Wandering Italian 