A Duck Out of Water-We Hop Across the Pond

On one of my early dates with the man who would become my husband, we found we had a common love of travel. I hadn't been anywhere in years, and he had taken his first ever major vacation, an Alaskan Cruise just 7-months earlier, but the desire to just go was strong in both of us. Once we became serious, then engage, and finally married, we traveled a lot. We did a number of weekend trips up and down the East Coast, long weekends in Vegas and once or twice a year, a cruise. In the beginning, our cruises all sailed from US ports. In 10 years we had sailed to Alaska, Hawaii, the Mexican Riviera, Panama Canal, Bahamas, Bermuda, Canada/New England, and more times I could count to the Caribbean. However, I could not interest my husband in Europe. I never did find out why he was so reluctant, I think it was because he feared being out of place, a true Duck Out of Water. But there was one place that he did have some desire to go, and that was Ireland.

In 2013, while participating in a favorite hobby, looking for cruise deals on the internet, I found an excellent deal for a United Kingdom cruise. The cruise line was Princess (One of our favorites), the length was 8-days (Perfect-husband hates to be away from work more than 10-days at a time), the price at $899 pp was irresistible, AND it included two stops in Ireland. For me, we would be in Edinburgh, Scotland during the Tattoo, a famous military revue that I had always longed to see. After much prodding and pleading I convinced my husband to go.

I won't bored you with the details, but I did do everything through the cruise line; not just our cruise fare, but airline tickets, transfers from Heathrow to our port city of Dover, and even most excursions. It made it very easy, and helped alleviate some of my husbands fears of us wandering around, two innocents, lost and far from home.

Finally, the big day was here, and we were off. We got to the airport much earlier than needed, but it gave us plenty of time to check our bags, find our gate, and have dinner. There was a momentary panic when I realized we had to show our passports for what seemed to be the umpteenth time, and I couldn't located them in my purse. Finally fished them out and we settled in for our 6-hour non-stop flight.

An uneventful flight, an early arrival, a crawl through passport control/immigration, and locating our bags took a toll on my husband. Talk about jet lag!

After about a two hour wait, we were finally on the bus to Dover to catch our ship. Sitting in our usual location, the back of the bus, we were soon asleep. I think we both slept for much of the 2-hours it took to get to the ship.

Upon arrival in Dover, we ate a casual meal outside, and met a friendly seagull begging for French fries, and admired the view of the famed White Cliffs of Dover, and Dover Castle

I would have loved a nap, but with a set dinner time of 8:15 (We had late traditional seating, and as the ship was small, only 670 or so passengers, I was worried about dining options if we missed our seating), we thought it better to relax in the hot tub until time to get ready for dinner. After an excellent meal, and getting to know our table mates, two lovely couples, one from New York, and the other from Bristol, England, we were finally off to bed.

Our first major adventure awaited; the Channel Island of Guernsey, and the Isle of Sark.....