Baltic Cruise

[Copernicus]

We arrive on the night of the 21st or the following day. We depart in the morning of the 26th. So roughly 3 days. We have no accommodations yet, but we're looking at airbnb and other possibilities. Unfortunately, we won't have a car, so no way to come up to see you.

 

[Copernicus]

It now looks like we'll be in Tallinn when the Trump meets with Putin in Helsinki for his annual job performance review. We've booked with a local group (Alla tours) for a couple of days while in St. Petersburg. I wish we could just wander around, but visa requirements won't allow it. However, we will be in a group of no more than 16 people, which is way less than a ship-sponsored tour, and the cost is also a lot less. So I'm looking forward to seeing some of the sights that I visited way back in 1965.

We'll be staying in an Airbnb outside of Dublin--a room in a house located near parks and a bird sanctuary. The cost is far less than in the city, and we get a full breakfast thrown in. We'll visit Dublin for a day or two and then explore a little of the countryside. Nothing too strenuous. We've been known to spend most of the day just visiting a good museum, so I expect that we'll find a lot to occupy our time there. Don't know yet whether we'll pay the hefty admission to see the Book of Kells or visit the Guinness brewery. Reviews that we've been reading say that they are overrated.

 

[Copernicus]

We are in Southampton today and board the ship tomorrow morning. This is one of the UK's busiest ports. We booked an Airbnb to stay in--an apartment where we have an en suite bathroom. It turns out that this apartment is coincidentally owned and rented by the person who is the operations manager for RCL line cruise ships in this port. RCL is the parent corporation that owns the Celebrity Silhouette, which we will be sailing on. He will be working on the loading of the ship tomorrow, including our baggage, so we got to learn a little about the details of those operations.

Southampton is the port from which the Mayflower set sail in the 1600s. It is also the port that the Titanic sailed from and most of the American fleet on D-Day. We think that her father may have left this port on his way to Omaha Beach on that day.

Here is a monument dedicated in the 1950s to the Mayflower by some of the descendants:

 

[whollygoats]

Southampton is the port from which the Mayflower set sail in the 1600s. It is also the port that the Titanic sailed from and most of the American fleet on D-Day. We think that her father may have left this port on his way to Omaha Beach on that day.

Here is a monument dedicated in the 1950s to the Mayflower by some of the descendants:

View attachment 16478

In Southhampton?

And here all this time, I was under the impression that they had sailed out of Plymouth.

For some reason, they did not title the landing site 'Southhampton Rock'. I wonder why they chose 'Plymouth', instead?