Not long ago, we had the pleasure of taking a British Isles cruise aboard Princess Cruise line’s Caribbean Princess. One of its many stops was the Northern Ireland city of Londonderry, or simply, “Derry,” as it’s called by many of the locals. The plan for our day’s adventure was a tour of the Walls of Derry.
The city as we see it today dates back to the early 1600s’, when the walls were constructed by a consortium of livery companies from London called The Honourable The Irish Society (nope, not a typo here. That’s what it’s called), or more simply, the Irish Society. The purpose of the walls was to protect Scottish and English settlers during what was a turbulent time for northern Ireland. Londonderry actually dates back much further than the construction of the walls, to the 6th century when a monastery was established by St. Columba. He is credited for spreading Christianity throughout much of Ireland and Scotland.
Today, you can walk the city’s wall and get a great overview on much of the rich history this town has to offer. Clearly, in a European city that has been continuously inhabited since the early 7th century, there’s a lot to see and do here.
Our ship docked in Belfast which is about an hour and twenty minutes by bus away from Derry. It took much of the day to see this city because of the travel times, but we were treated with some great views of the countryside of Northern Ireland along the way. Since we had only a day, a walk along the wall and a knowledgeable tour guide was just what we needed.
Here are a few images of our day at the Derry Wall.
In between our many adventures into the Disney Parks and other theme parks around central Florida, we like to spend time looking for wildlife to photograph. As a result, we often go to zoos or other places where we’re likely to see animals up close. Recently, we paid a visit to the Saint Augustine Alligator Farm Zoological Park. Continue reading →
There are places we enjoy visiting over and over, and one of those places is the great Smoky Mountain National Park in Tennessee. It’s located near the towns of Gatlinburg , Pigeon Forge (home of Dollywood), and the often overlooked Sevierville, Tn. We’ve enjoyed the Smoky Mountains from a 5th wheel trailer, staying in downtown Pigeon Forge. We’ve traipsed back to Cade’s Cove and stayed in our tent, and we’ve stayed in hotels nearby with and without our Harley. Continue reading →
We put together a short video with some more images of the Independence of the Seas that we thought you might enjoy. Check it out below. Watch the sound initially since the beginning of any cruise involves blasting the big horns on the ship, with other ships replying. We posted another article about the Independence of the Seas earlier and you can see it here. There was also an ice show aboard the ship. You can see some of the images from that show here.
Today, we spent some time in Studio B, which is the ice rink aboard ship. We watched an ice show that was good by any measure. Considering that we’re in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean with nine foot waves and a ship that is moving, this show was excellent. Continue reading →
Yesterday, we boarded Royal Caribbean’s Independence of the Seas in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. We’re on board for a 14 day Atlantic Crossing with a destination of Southampton, England. From there we’ll stay on board for another 14 days as we tour the Mediterranean with stops in Barcelona, Gibraltar, Rome, and a few others. We’ll post more on that later. Continue reading →
Today we started another vacation. And as with many of our vacations, we’re spending the night at one of our favorite Disney hotels, Disney’s Port Orleans, Riverside. We’ve stayed at this hotel many times before and even posted a story about it on Mouseplanet.com here.
Today, our check in at Disney’s Port Orleans is worth noting. Disney has a process where you can electronically check in without visiting the front desk, and today it worked that way for us. For our check in, we received a text message from Disney telling us that our room was ready, and giving us our room number. We already had a Magic Band associated with our account, and when the room was made ready it was associated with that room number. All we had to do was make our way to the room and walk in. No stopping by the front desk, no nothing. Tomorrow when we leave, we’ll just get up, load our stuff in the car, and leave. Easy Peasy. Continue reading →
Rothenburg over the Tauber is a medieval city in Germany, southeast of Frankfurt, and west of Nuremberg. At one time, it was the third largest city in Germany and the largest completely walled city. It dates back over 1,000 years and today is one of Germany’s treasures. The name Rothenburg ob der Tauber means “Red fortress over the Tauber”. Rot is the German word for red, referring to the red tiles on the roofs while burg refers to a fortification. Ob der means “over the”, and of course Tauber is the name of the river that runs by. Continue reading →
