Among our Best Cruises Ever! Dublin, Scotland, and Norway on Atlas Ocean Voyages!
Shelly and I returned from one of our best cruises ever, an Atlas Ocean Voyages tour of Dublin, Scotland, and Norway. Our dear friends, Jonathan, Monica, and Jacqueline Atha, whom we met on our Atlas cruise to Antarctica in 2021, also took the cruise. We started out in Dublin, boarded the Atlas World Traveler ship on June 7, 2023, then visited 4 ports each in Scotland and Norway. The trip was amazing, the weather was gorgeous, the sites were extraordinary, and the ship, crew and service were 5-star. Cruising with the Atha's again was such a joy, and we met many new cruisers, including Karen and Wayne Honigford, and Diane and Rami Brosh. Here's a photo of us all getting ready to board the Flam Railway Train in Flam Norway.
First Stop, Dublin, Ireland
Our trip started on Sunday, June 4, 2023, with a flight to Dublin, Ireland. We did frequent flyer miles for the air portion of our trip, so we did not have too many options on flights. We had a direct flight from Washington Dulles to Dublin on Aer Lingus. Neither Shelly nor I enjoyed the flight. The plane was an Airbus A321, which I thought was small for a trans-Atlantic flight. In economy, it was a 3 and 3 configuration, and it was cramped. Legroom was minimal, and the seats seemed smaller. Shelly and I were not seated near each other. The service was inconsistent, the food was terrible, and the entertainment offering was very limited. On the plus side, it was only 7 hours out of my life, and I was psyched for this trip, so my attitude stayed positive. I listened to 7 BBC concerts and the flight went fairly quickly. We'll pay more attention to the airline options in the future. We arrived in Dublin without delay at 9:00am.
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We breezed through the airport fairly quickly and grabbed a taxi to our our hotel, the Hyatt Centric Liberties. It is in the heart of Dublin, and near the St. Patrick's Cathedral. It's a 10 minute walk to Grafton Street, and 15 minutes to the Guinness Storehouse. Dublin turned out to be a very walkable city, and everything we toured was no more than 20 minutes from our hotel. We had a standard King View room which was comfortable enough.
We checked in, and checked our luggage as the room wasn't ready. Neither of us slept on the flight, so around 11:00am, we started our "zombie walk" for the day. Our first visit was to St. Patrick's Cathedral, a less that 5 minute walk from our hotel. St. Patrick's is the largest cathedral in Ireland, and has been a place of worship for over 800 years. It was constructed on the site of an ancient well supposedly used by Saint Patrick himself. We had a nice, guided tour, and learned about it's history and the links to some famous Dubliners like Jonathan Swift, the author of Gulliver's Travels. From a beauty standpoint, it's OK. The flooring and some of the stained glass windows were pretty. But otherwise, it's a basic cathedral, I guess. There's a beautiful park next to it. Here's some photos of the Cathedral and grounds.
It was 12:30pm by the time we finished our tour of St. Patrick's. We try to stay awake until at least 9:00pm so we can get adjusted to the time change. We walked to a pub near Grafton Street to have a drink and get a bite to eat. We chatted with the bartenders, and I learned that the Riverdance-style Irish music that I love is called "Jigs and Reels".
The weather was gorgeous, sunny and low 70's. In fact, the weather for the whole trip was looking promising. After lunch, we went to tour Christ Church Cathedral. Located in the heart of Dublin city center, Christ Church was originally a Viking church and has been welcoming pilgrims and visitors for almost 1000 years. We learned about it's history and reconstruction from 1871 to 1878 by George Edmund Street, with the sponsorship of the distiller Henry Roe. We enjoyed the design, stained glass, and flooring, and toured the crypt. Here's some photos.
We had late afternoon tickets to see the Book of Kells and the Old Library at Trinity College. The Book of Kells contains the 4 gospels of the New Testament, (gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John), and was written and illustrated by monks in the 9th century. It's a beautiful and delicate book, kept in a light, temperature, and humidity controlled display. Only one page is displayed at any given time, and there is no photography allowed. But there are displays and content in an exterior room that provides the history of the Book, the materials used in its making, and the monks that created it. It was a very interesting read, and well-worth a visit when you're in Dublin. I could not take any photos, but lifted an example of an illustration from the Web. It's quite beautiful and detailed. Here's the page that opens the Gospel of John.
After the Book of Kells, we walked through the Trinity College Old Library. It has over 200,000 books and the College is in the process of cleaning them all, so many of the book cases were empty. It was still impressive to see. Here's some photos.
While we were touring the library, we got a text from Monica, Jacqueline, and Jonathan that they were outside the library buying tickets for tomorrow. So we connected and went out for a drink and appetizers. We had not seen them since early March when we stayed at their house prior to our flight to Tahiti and New Zealand. We caught up and it was great seeing them. We talked about connecting tomorrow, maybe at the Guinness Storehouse tour. Here's a photo of us.
It was 6:30pm, and Shelly and I were getting tired, so we all left and headed back to our hotels for a good nights sleep. Shelly and I turned the lights out around 10:00pm, and got a decent nights sleep.
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We woke up early and walked to a café near Grafton Street, and had a very good breakfast. I'm not a foodie so I keep forgetting to record the name of the restaurants and give them credit. After breakfast, we walked to Dublinia, a museum about the Viking conquests and medieval history of Dublin. It was interesting and worth a visit. We then went to Dublin Castle, which isn't really a castle, but a series of large, adjoining buildings that served as the seat of government during the English and British rule from the 13th to the 20th centuries. We took an interesting tour of the buildings and grounds, as well as underground to see the ancient city walls. Here's some photos from the Dublinia and of the Dublin Castle.
We then took a long walk along the river to the EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum. It was a very interesting and enjoyable multimedia and interactive museum that depicts the stories of over 300 Irish people down through the years and relives some of their greatest achievements in music, art, sport, fashion, science and more. This museum is well worth a visit, but it is a good 25 minute walk from the city center.
We had 4:45pm tickets to the Guinness Storehouse so we jumped on the Hop On, Hop Off Bus and took a one hour tour of Dublin with our final stop being the Storehouse. The bus driver was very good, and he gave us a lot of great information about the city sites and history. The bus tickets included entrance to all of the sites we saw in Dublin, so it was a great value.
We arrived at the Guinness Storehouse around 3:15pm, so we had some time to grab an early dinner. We ate at Harkin's Bar & Bistro, which is 50 yards from the Storehouse entrance. The bar is on the first floor and bistro on the second. I ordered the Guinness Beef Stew, which was delicious, and Shelly had a sandwich of some sort. This was the first time in Dublin where we did not get great, friendly service. Maybe the server was having a bad day. If you are looking for a restaurant near Guinness, try this place out.
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While we were eating, the Atha's texted us that they returned from their afternoon excursion and would meet us at Guinness for the 4:45pm tour. We walked to the entrance and met them.
The Guinness Storehouse was an interesting and fun, self-guided tour. It started on the first floor and wound up through 7 floors, with exhibits telling the story of when, how, and why Guinness started, it's history, and how the brewing process was perfected. The 7th floor is a bar and each guest is given a pint of Guinness or soft drink. Shelly had never had a Guinness before so she was in for a treat. She thought is would be heavy and bitter, and found it to be pretty light and tasty. Here's some photos of our tour.
The second day was a wrap. Shelly and I walked back to our hotel, and the Atha's took a taxi to theirs. I did not want to walk back, but acquiesced. On the way back, Shelly did her good deed for the day by buying some food for a homeless woman. She was very grateful. I guess we were meant to walk back to the hotel after all. We went to bed early and got a good, nights sleep.
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Our third and final day in Dublin started early. We and the Atha's had 9:45am tickets to the Kilmainham Gaol prison and museum. It was a great tour which told the history of the Irish fight for freedom, and the harsh conditions for people who committed petty crimes. The prison was opened in the late 18th century, and was a model for prison reform. In the early 20th century, the Irish freedom movement led to the Easter Rising in 1916. Once the rising was put down by the British, the leaders were imprisoned and executed in Kilmainham Gaol. They became heroes of Ireland and in the early 1920's, all of Ireland except for Northern Ireland became a free, independent state. Here's some photos of our tour.
Shelly and I walked back to our hotel and had a light lunch. We grabbed our luggage and headed to the Port of Dublin to board our ship, the World Traveler. Dublin was a wonderful city to visit. We saw a lot of sites during our 2 1/2 days. The history and culture is amazing and the people were wonderful Shelly and I will be back to tour all of Ireland, and we look forward to that future visit. Thank you to the people of Dublin!
All Aboard the Atlas World Traveler! Our Cruise has Begun!
We arrived at the Port of Dublin and met up with the Atha's. We boarded the World Traveler, and were guided to the Atlas Lounge on deck 4 where we were greeted by crew members offering champaign and hors d'oeuvre. We met Karen (whom Ken had friended on an Atlas Facebook forum) and Wayne Honigford. We waited about 10 minutes while a member of the medical team collected our health declarations, and we then received our cabin keys. Shelly and I were escorted to our cabin, 633, and we met Ravin, our cabin steward. We got a Horizon Cabin, which has a large infinity window that electronically lowers, rather than a balcony cabin. The Horizon cabin has more interior space than a balcony cabin because the balcony space is part of the living room area. Here's a photo.
The ship and the cabin were beautiful. We were given two Atlas backpacks and two stainless steel water bottles. The cabin has US and Europe outlets, and there are USB ports on the desk near the coffee machine. There is plenty of lighting and room darkening shades (which is important since the sun sets around 11:00pm and rises at 4:00am). The ship accommodates 198 passengers and we learned there was about 130 on this cruise, so we knew we would be well-cared for. We unpacked and then headed to the Dome, the deck 7 lounge with 270 degree views, to meet the Atha's.
We had a couple drinks and chatted about our Dublin experience.
Around 7:30pm, we met Diane and Rami Brosh (who Shelly had exchanged messages with on the Atlas Facebook forum prior to the cruise), in the restaurant and invited them to sit with us. We also saw the Head Waiter, Aaron, whom we met on our Antarctica cruise in 2021 on the Atlas World Navigator and he remembered us. He is such a great person. We had a very, nice dinner and around 10:15pm, we retired to the Dome lounge for some drinks and listened to Chase, the Piano Player. We and the Atha's chatted about tomorrows port of call, Greenock, Scotland. We had booked a Tours by Locals tour and were looking forward to it.
June 8 - Greenock, Scotland
We had a good nights sleep and got up early to have breakfast. The restaurant has a nice breakfast buffet, but also an a la carte menu, so we ordered an omelet and eggs benedict. I also got a caramel frappe coffee at Paula's Pantry, a coffee and snack shop on deck 4.
We met up with the Atha's around 8:45am and left the ship to enjoy our first port of call, Greenock, Scotland. The weather was a bit overcast, but nice. We met our Tours by Local tour guide, David Cornwallis. We booked the 8 hour private tour of Stirling Castle, the Trossachs National Park, and Loch Lomond. David showed us to the 8 seat van and we found it very clean and well-equipped with water, Scottish soda, snacks, and hand sanitizer. We drove about 45 minutes and were ready to tour Stirling Castle.
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We first stopped at the battlefield Bannockburn, where Robert the Bruce, King of Scots, defeated English King Edward II. You can see Stirling Castle in the distance. David provided a great history lesson of the battle and how it led to the English recognition of the Scottish royalty. Here's some photos.
We then drove to Stirling Castle and entered the grounds. David joined us and since he is not a certified Stirling Castle guide, he could not speak to us about the history while we were indoors. But outside, he was a wealth of knowledge, filling us in on the castle history and inhabitants, including Mary, Queen of Scots. David also has a great sense of humor, and we all exchanged amusing banter. The great Scottish leader, William Wallace, led a siege of Stirling Castle in the late 13th century and defeated the English. It was a great tour. Here's some photos.
Our next stop was to see some Scottish Highland Cows, or "Hairy Coos". We drove up to a farm and we were greeted by Hamish, a black Highland Cow. We fed Hamish some carrots and Shelly, Jacqueline and I put carrots in our mouths, fed him by mouth, and got a wet kiss from Hamish!
We then stopped for lunch at a quaint pub called The Lade Inn. We ordered haggis balls appetizer and I had fish and chips. I had haggis when I was in Scotland in 2012, and it was OK. The haggis balls came with a sauce that made them taste better. The fish and chips were good. We all chatted with David for a while. Shelly and Jacqueline saw some sheep across the street and took some photos.
Lastly, we drove through the Trossachs National Forest and to the bonny, bonny banks of Loch Lomond. We spent just a few minutes here and took some photos, including one with Shelly and our guide, David.
The weather turned sunny and warm, and we really enjoyed our tour and our guide, David. Thank you David, and thanks to the wonderful people of Scotland!
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We made reservations to eat dinner outside on deck 7 at the 7Aft restaurant. The weather was decent and we all had some variation of steak. Here's some photos. And Jacqueline took a great sunset photo.
June 9 - Oban, Scotland
We didn't plan any excursions in Oban today, instead we and the Atha's were going to walk the town in the afternoon and enjoy the epicurean experience of shucking oysters and tasting whiskey at 6:30pm on shore. Shelly and I really crashed and slept until 11:00am. The time change finally caught up to us and we took advantage of the late port call. So we met the Atha's for lunch and took the tender into town. We walked along the shoreline toward a castle. Along the way, we stopped in to visit St. Columba's Cathedral. Here's a couple photos.
We then walked to a memorial honoring those who died in WW I and WW II.
It was quite a warm and beautiful day, and we were hot by the time we got to the Dunollie Castle. Dunollie Castle dates back to the 7th century, and overlooks the port. We got some nice photos here.
We then walked back along the shoreline towards the center of town and took a couple photos. Our ship is in the background.
We were a bit hungry and looked for restaurants for a bite to eat. Shelly and I ate at The Lorne Bar, a pub near the center of town. We shared a delicious dish, sea bass, prawns, mashed potatoes, and veggies. We asked for a met the chef, Alex and chatted for a bit. He was a lifelong Obanite and a great guy.
We finished dinner just in time to meet the Atha's at the oyster and whiskey tasting at the Oban View. This wasn't a great experience. The hosts didn't speak to the entire crowd about the various whiskeys and they didn't show us how to shuck oysters. But we had a good time anyway. Here's some photos.
We took the tender back to the ship around 7:00pm. We had a great visit in Oban, the people were quite friendly, and we enjoyed a great meal.
June 10 - Stornaway, Scotland
Our next port of call was Stornaway, Scotland. We docked around 10:00am, and we had an Atlas-sponsored tour to see the Callanish Standing Stones, which are similar to Stonehenge. We and the Atha's left around 1:00pm and boarded a bus. The tour guide gave us history of Stornaway (founded by Vikings in the 9th century) and the Stones, which was our first stop.
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The Callanish Standing Stones date to around 3000 BC, and there are 32 stones in a circular and avenue design. The Stones aren't as large as those at Stonehenge, but the construct was impressive. There's dispute among researchers and scholars as to the purpose of the Stones, but the most likely reason is they were used for astronomical observatory. Here's some photos.
The Stones were impressive, and our tour guide was very knowledgeable. Our next stop was the Dun Carloway Pictish Broch, which was built in the 1st century BC. It served as an occasional defensive residence for an extended family, complete with accommodation for animal at the ground level. The Picts were people who lived in Scotland in the pre-Viking period of the middle ages. Here are some photos.
Our last stop was to Gearrannan Blackhouse Village, a reconstructed settlement of traditional Blackhouse, where people and animals lived in close proximity. We watched a weaver making some sort of cloth, and saw a video of how the people dug and prepared peat for fuel for their fire places. It was quite interesting and an obvious laborious task. We took photos of the village and the beautiful Atlantic coast.
We boarded our bus and returned to the ship. It was a great tour organized by Atlas, and our tour guide was excellent. We got back to the ship just in time to attend a gin tasting presented by Harris Distillery. Harris gave an interesting talk and presented several different gins to taste. Shelly actually found a gin that she kind of liked.
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We had dinner, and then retired to the Dome lounge to watch cruise director Simon Candlish perform and sing songs from stage and screen. He is quite talented and did a great job.
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It was a wonderful and jam-packed day. We were looking forward to tomorrows last port of call in Scotland, Lerwick on the Shetland Islands.
June 11 - Lerwick, Shetland Islands, Scotland
We docked on Lerwick at 1:00pm. The Atha's planned a tour of the island, but Shelly and I, needing some downtime, decided to just walk the town. We got off the ship and were greeted by a fierce group of your Vikings roaring at us!
We walked to the Visitor's Center, and learned few shops and pubs would be open on Sunday. So we walked along the main street until we reached the Shetland Museum and Archives. It was a really good museum that gave the history of Shetland and Lerwick from pre-Viking times to today. After the museum, Shelly took some photos of a couple small, colorful boats.
Shelly then met three ladies from Copenhagen who were in Lerwick for two weeks to buy Shetland wool. They were sitting on a bench knitting.
We then walked to a café and had a bite to eat. Shelly had pizza and I had macaroni and cheese. Both meals were very good and very inexpensive.
We walked back to the ship and had dinner and listened to Chase the Piano Player in the Dome lounge. It was a nice, relaxing day. Tomorrow we are at sea and heading to Norway.
June 12 - Sea Day
We are on our way to Flam, Norway and today is a sea day, and it's jam-packed with activities. First, at 11:00am, Shelly and Jacqueline participated in the Yachtsman Cook Off competition. There were 4 other pairs of chefs, including Diane and Rami Bosh. Shelly and Jacqueline had Jorge the Hotel Director as their coach. They were making ceviche. The other chefs were making different dishes. There were 4 judges who were also passengers. They were to taste all the dishes and rank them on a number of taste and presentation categories. They had a lot of fun, and came in second to Diane and Rami. And they each won a stuffed penguin for their effort. Here's some photos and a video.
The next activity was a tour of the bridge at 2:00pm. It was quite cool and I got some nice photos and a video.
3:00pm was a tour of the galley. It was amazingly small considering they prepare thousands of dishes per day. There's a prep area for meats, fish, and a bakery station. They head chef said all 18 crew members need to be very coordinated with their movements in such a small space. It was very clean and organized. Here's some photos.
At 5:00pm, we and the Atha's participated in the Name that Tune musical trivia challenge. Piano Man Chase played bits of 20 songs, and we wrote down the names of the songs. When we tallied them up, we got 16 of 20 correct and won. Jacqueline won a cool hat from the Canary Islands.
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6:00pm rolled around and we attended an Epicurean Wine Tasting event presented by James Barnett from Digby Fine English. We learned about English sparkling wines, and James presented 5 wines to taste. Shelly didn't care for any of them! But we learned a lot.
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After dinner, cruise director Simon Candlish performed and sang Elvis tunes. Once again, he did a great job.
And Jacqueline got her picture taken with a couple of the crew!
It was a active and fun sea day, and we were excited to see Norway tomorrow. Flam is the port of call, and we set our watches one hour ahead. Now we were 7 hours ahead of eastern standard time (10 hours for the Atha's), but we were adjusted to the time change now.
June 13 - Flam, Norway
We docked at 7:00am and were exited for our 9:00am Flam Railway train tour We connected with Karen and Wayne, and Diane and Rami, and took a photo near the train.
We took the 20 km ride up the mountain and saw beautiful scenery, landscapes, snow-capped mountains and waterfalls. We came upon a siren that was singing and dancing near a waterfall too. Here's some photos and a video.
We had a wonderful time on the Flam Railway. We returned to the ship with some wonderful photos and memories. Our stop tomorrow is in Olden, and we have another great tour planned.
June 14 - Olden, Norway
We docked in Olden at 9:00am and took then tender into town. We walked around the town for about an hour then went to the meeting point for our tour of the Briksdal Glacier. A Carnival Cruise ship was also in port, and we, the Atha's, and Wayne and Karen boarded a bus with about 70 Carnival passengers. We drove about an hour up a mountain to a point where we would pick up troll cars (8 seater John Deer open vehicles) to take us to the glacier. The weather was absolutely gorgeous. warm and sunny. We got some nice photos of mountains and waterfalls on the bus ride.
We boarded our troll car and drove up the mountain to see the glacier.
The scenery up the mountain path was beautiful, rivers, waterfalls, and then the Briksdal Glacier.
We finished our visit, headed back to our bus, and made our way back to Olden. We walked the town for a bit and had a drink at a café. We then returned to the ship and got a few more photos for our memories. And Shelly got a photo with a genuine troll!
We took the tender back to the ship, freshened up, had dinner, and attended the World Traveler Crew Talent Show at 10:00pm in the Atlas Lounge. About 10 crew members danced and sang their hearts out, and they were great! We were not supposed to take photos of the crew, so I have no digital memories of the show. I congratulated several of them and they were so excited, and said they were so nervous. I hope Atlas continues this event on future cruises.
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We had a wonderful time in Olden. The views were spectacular, and the people were very nice. Thanks Olden! Tomorrow is our last tour in Geiranger. We have an early morning docking and tour.
June 15 - Geiranger, Norway
We got up early to make our 9:15am Atlas-sponsored tour of Mount Dalsnibba and Djupvasshytta Lodge (don't ask me to pronounce the name of the lodge). It started at the Geiranger Fjord, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We boarded a bus and saw mountain farms, lakes, rivers, and waterfalls as we climbed 5000 feet to the top of Mount Dalsnibba. On the way we stopped at Djupvasshytta Lodge and took photos of a frozen lake and the surrounding mountain peaks. We made it to the top and had breathtaking views of the fjord, the winding road we took to get to the top, and mountain peaks. There were also stone structures that were the result of trolls being exposed to light. Here's some photos.
We were at 5000 feet with snow-capped mountains and frozen lakes and in our shirtsleeves! The views were magnificent!
Diane and Rami took a bus to the top then rode bikes back down to the town! Yikes! Here's Diane pushing off.
We were done with our amazing experience, boarded the bus, and headed back to town. We took the tender to our ship and departed around 2:00pm. We had one last spectacular experience leaving the fjord. We saw the 7 Sisters waterfalls. Here's some photos and video.
We cruised out of the beauty of Geiranger Fjord and into the Atlantic, heading to our final port of Bergen, Norway to disembark. But we had one night left. We hung out and listened and danced to Chase's piano music, and reminisced about our wonderful experiences.
June 16 - Bergen, Norway - Disembarking
We docked in Bergen, Norway and prepared to disembark. We said goodbye to Wayne and Karen, and farewell to the Atha's, although we expected to see them touring Bergen. This was one of the best cruises we've had, and our dear friends, Monica, Jonathan, and Jacqueline had much to do with it. And thank you Atlas for the wonderful cruse, the crew, the service, and the beautiful World Traveler. We can't wait for our next Atlas cruise (maybe the Arctic In 2024?!?).
Touring Bergen, Norway
Shelly and I were spending two days in Bergen, the second most populace city in Norway. We checked into the Choice Clarion Havnekontoret Hotel on the waterfront in the Bryggen section of Bergen. It's an older hotel but right in the heart of where the action is. We got a standard room which was comfortable and clean. We headed to the Fløibanen funicular to take a cable car to the top of Floyen Mountain. We got a text from Jonathan that they were at the top already, so we took the cable car up and met them. The views of the port and city were spectacular. There was also a small petting zoo. Here's some photos.
We then took the cable car down and walked the Bryggen area, including the famous Fish Market. The fish and crab legs were expensive, with one king crab leg going for $100!
We stopped at a café and had a drink, then parted ways. It was so great to see the Atha's and we look forward to our next visit, and hopefully, a cruise!
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Shelly and I returned to our hotel for a nap, then we went out for a drink to soak up the early evening sun. We went to bed early and got a good nights sleep.
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The next day we walked the waterfront and Bryggen, and had lunch at Porto13 Pizzeria and Bar. Bryggen was incredibly crowded, even after the cruise ships left. We had a drink and ice cream, and went to bed early.
We flew home the next day on uneventful, and on time flights. We had a fantastic trip, and the weather couldn't have been better. The people of Ireland, Scotland and Norway were great, friendly, and helpful. We have a few months at home before we head off on our next adventure. Until then, travel, meet new people, learn new cultures, and take it all in.