The British Isles - Talk to Me, Goose!

Our month of travel is coming to a close after a proper tour of the western and northern coast of the British Isles. See what a few weeks in Britain will do for you? It will have one walking on the left, speaking the King’s English and watching British telly on Netflix, apparently. Will it have one finding clarity though? I don’t know. Will it bring joy? YES.

If you followed the end of the last post, we picked up mom who was as giddy as a school girl, and headed off to London to meet our Silversea cruise around the British Isles from Portsmouth to Edinburgh with stops in Ireland, Northern Ireland and Scotland along the way.

Mom has never really been out of the country before unless you count a few jaunts to Northern Mexico from California and Arizona before (which I don’t, really) and to Canada. So, this was a big adventure for her. We landed in London on Mother’s Day, and we managed to give mom the best treat possible for Mother’s Day two-plus weeks of unusually warm and dry British weather for our entire trip.

London

We had two days in London to explore the sights, so we took advantage of mom’s scooter and headed out for a whirlwind tour of the usual tourist haunts: Buckingham Palace to see the tourists (apparently), the Royal Horse Guard Parade (to NOT see the changing of the horse guards given they were on holiday), Big Ben, Parliament (with a quick explanation about National Lampoon’s European Vacation), and Westminster Abbey. Mostly, we did all the things that tourists do in London on our first day. I know this because we mostly saw tourists, but mom enjoyed the day wandering around the city just seeing the sights and enjoying being in a place full of history and old buildings and hints of royalty.

We opted for a cruise of the River Thames on City Cruises on our second day, which mom really enjoyed. She got to see the breadth of the city without having to navigate through all the tourists on the sidewalk, and the weather was beautiful if threatening a little rain. I mean, it wouldn’t be London if it didn’t at least threaten rain, right? You can really see a lot of London from the water, and you can hear a lot about the history from the guides as well at a relatively leisurely pace. I learned a lot, too.

Brekky with a Colleague

For me, perhaps the best part of the visit to London was the opportunity to have breakfast with a colleague from the London office. I was so very fortunate to have booked breakfast with our global leader, Sara, who made the trip to meet me at my hotel for breakfast. We had such a lovely chat. I don’t really know Sara that well, but as soon as we sat down, it was like we were old friends. That is the thing about my firm. We are all connected to one another through a set of shared experiences and values that makes you know that when you sit down one on one with someone, you just know that they are the best kind of people.

I spoke in an earlier post about the fact that I have had the privilege in my career to work with the most engaging, most fascinating, most compelling people in the world. Sara fits that bill. We immediately launched into a far-ranging conversation about the world, the firm, our teams, my plans, everything. There were unexpected tears. But, there was a lot of joy too, in seeing her.

I so appreciated the connection. I have spoken earlier about what I have missed about being on my leave was the connection to my team and our people. Sara was actually on her way to Boston to see many of my friends for a meeting, and somehow, that gave me energy to know that I was strangely connected back to them in an odd cosmic way that really doesn’t make any sense, but it made me happy that she was seeing them, nonetheless. Maybe it didn’t make me happy that she was going to be in endless meetings, but I am so grateful for the privilege that she afforded me to spend time on that Monday. It filled my cup.

But, I digress…

We took the train to Portsmouth, another adventure for all of us, to navigate the station with all of our luggage, find the track, board the train, stow our luggage and then make the trek to Portsmouth. But, we did it. Getting from the station in Portsmouth to the docks did require two taxis due to the amount of luggage and the size of the cabs, but we did it. And, once we were in the hands of the Silversea crew, dealing with the luggage for all of us was no longer our issue for at least another two weeks. Whew! The ship was beautiful, if not a little more posh than Anne and I are typically accustomed.

We have really enjoyed our trips aboard the National Geographic Resolution with Lindblad, but we were unfortunately not able to get off the waitlist for the Lindblad Expeditions itinerary which followed a similar plan as the Silversea one which we booked. Given all that was going on, we figured that this option was best, and it was lovely.

Anne and I booked a larger suite, and it was quite (ok, very) large. It had a very large living/dining room and a separate adjoining bedroom. We did this so that mom could come and spend time in our room comfortably, and that worked out perfectly. We enjoyed dinner in our room one evening, and Anne and my mom spent several afternoons painting at the dining room table while I relaxed on the sofa as we sailed or were at landing somewhere. While we would have preferred the Lindblad route and approach, the itinerary we had and the experience allowed us to see quite a lot.

Seeing the Isles

As we sailed out past Land’s End, I was struck by the fact that I’ve been to Land’s End twice previously to start the Ride Across Britain. It’s the launching point for the bike ride that covers 1,000 miles and ends at John O’Groats, Scotland. Seeing it from the sea was interesting, and I couldn’t help but wonder if I would be able to see John O’Groats similarly in a number of days to bookend this experience. Spoiler Alert: I could not. Nonetheless, it also gave me a moment to reflect on a lot of things.

That experience, riding across Britain, allowed me to see a lot of the countryside at a relatively leisurely pace, much of which I would not have ever seen had it not been for tackling that monumentally hard challenge. Now, this experience would allow me to do the same, but I wondered about the challenge. What challenges might I have on this trip, if any? I knew that there would be some, but they would be different. Would I be able to climb to the top of the hills to see the sights I wanted to see, or would I have hang back? I didn’t know. I guess I had the same questions in Land’s End before, but in a different context.

Our first stop was at Tresco Gardens in the Isles of Scilly. It was a pretty good walk up to the gardens for the visit. Mom took the provided vehicle while Anne and I enjoyed the stroll up the hill. The gardens were beautiful, and mom really enjoyed seeing all the flowers and birds. It was the first day out, and, after having spent several days in Svalbard where everything was so starkly white, it was such a different photography challenge to be trying to capture images in the trees. But, here are a few shots from our day.

After the Tresco Gardens we were off to Ireland for a number of days where we visited Bantry House, Skellig Michael, Blasket Islands, and the Aran Islands before landing in Northern Ireland. The Irish Isles were amazingly beautiful. We really enjoyed the wildlife and countryside, and we all really enjoyed visiting a farm in Northern Ireland to see the dogs and Jamese work the sheep. Then we were off to Scotland to visit Iona, St. Kilda island, Inverie, and the Isle of May before making our way to Edinburgh. Along the way, we say amazing Puffins, Fulmers, Gannets, Guillemots, European Shag, the St. Kilda Wren, White-Tailed Eagles, and countless other sea birds.

By the time we got to Edinburgh, I think mom was convinced that she had seen plenty of birds. But, she also said that she loved every minute of it. We had a lot of fun spending time together seeing the world at a slower pace again and through the lens of mom who had never had such experiences before. She tackeled the challenge of getting on and off the zodiacs with aplomb even though I know she was a little dubious and afraid at first. She walked more than I think she knew she could to see the ancient Abbey at Iona, and to visit the ruins at St. Kilda Island. And, despite not really thinking she liked birds, I think she appreciated the pictures and hearing about the different birds a little bit in the recaps and briefings.

Here are a few pictures from the latter portion of our cruise.

I’ve tried to learn how to use Instagram a bit on this trip too and started to put up some of these images a bit more in real time while we travel at @dabetts_burgh on instagram, if you want to follow me there. There are more images there as well.

Edinburgh

I love Edinburgh. It’s a beautiful city with amazing history. We decided to rent a car for our stay there so that we could get into the countryside a bit with mom during our few day stay there, and I’m glad that we did. It allowed us to see the city and all that it has to offer but also to experience a lot more of the surrounding countryside. It also allowed us to experience driving on the “wrong” side of the road, of course, again. Though, this time, it seemed easier. I think riding my bike across the country twice was good practice for this.

On the first day, Mom and I walked up to the National Museum on our first day. It was lovely though we got to experience our first rain shower of the trip just in the last five minutes of our walk. The trip would not have been complete without getting rained on in the UK though, so it was all good.

The National Museum has quite an extensive collection, but mom and I focused our time on the Fashion and Design section which I knew that she would appreciate. And, apparently, which the crowds were much less interested in. We also took in the Scottish history section which mom appreciated as the section that she spent much of her time in was largely focused on the textile industry. She spent that time while I went in search of the Dupplin Cross, a Celtic cross that was there in 2000 when I visited and which had been taken from St. Serf’s Church in the town of Dunning, Scotland.

My Grandmother’s maiden name is Dunning, and Anne and I had visited Dunning in 2000 when we were in Scotland and gotten a special tour of the church at that time. The cross had been removed to the National Museum for preservation and was a complete Celtic cross from the 10th century, a fairly rare artifact in that it was still complete. However, it had, apparently been removed back to Dunning in 2002, something that the men at the church there had said was hoped for when we visited 25 years ago.

Touring around Fife / Perth & Kinross

We took advantage of our car and toured around Fife to see Dunfermline, the birthplace of Andrew Carnegie, and the burial place of Robert the Bruce. It is also home of a beautiful Abbey and cemetary as well as an amazing ruin of a palace. We got quite a tour of the Andrew Carnegie Museum from the docent there who appreciated that I was an alumnus and Anne is a retired professor from Carnegie Mellon.

We enjoyed driving around to see Macduff’s Castle, Kellie Castle, and St. Andrew’s Castle. We also made the trip to Dunning in Perth & Kinross again to see St. Serf’s Church and cemetary, but this time, we weren’t able to get in or to find the three old men who, 25 years ago, gave us a special tour when I mentioned that my grandmother was a Dunning. I’m sure that those 3 old men are long gone by now. Time moves on.

OK…But, what about your health?

Alright, if you’ve hung on this long, and you’re still wondering how it’s going with me, well, I don’t know, really. Things are indeed progressing, but I’m grateful that they seem to be progressing ~slowly~, I guess. I get very tired easily. There was a fair bit of walking on this trip, especially once we got to Edinburgh which is quite hilly, and going up hills is hard.

On the last day, my back kind of gave out, and I find my left leg is dragging a bit. And, now I feel like I am limping slightly in my left leg. What I can’t tell is whether I hurt my back and that’s causing me to limp, or if, well, you know…I am playing a constant mental game of “is it this, or is it that?” We get home from Phoenix tomorrow, and I think I have a plan to just rest up and see how things go. My arms are continuing to feel heavy and my hands are slightly weaker, but I continue apace.

I’m grateful that when I look back on the last month, I did everything that I wanted to, and while I maybe had to sit down from time to time to take a rest or put the camera down and just watch and take in the experience, nothing got in my way of taking in the joy of the experience that we were having. I think that’s my plan for now. Do what I want while I can, stop when I have to, and enjoy every moment. Isn’t that what we should all do?

So, what’s next?

What’s next? I don’t know, exactly. I’m going to go visit my doctor when we get home and get an objective assessment of what I’m experiencing. We’ll talk about where I am relative to what she saw the last time I was in. I feel like I need a third-party view of where things are. And, then I need to sit down with some of my friends and colleagues and talk about what’s going through my mind to make some decisions.

Anne and I have planned another trip because there’s still part of the world that we want to see. There will always probaby be parts of the world we want to see because it’s a big place, and we’ve only been to some small part of it. So, next, we’re going to Iceland and East Greenland for a short trip in mid-July, back on the National Geographic Resolution. It was an opportunity that came up when we were in Svalbard that was too good to pass up. And, when we considered that we probably don’t have a lot of time to dilly-dally around about decisions like this, we took the opportunity when it was presented. Now, with my left leg beginning to be recalcitrant, well, waiting seems silly in general.

What does all this mean for next steps at work…I don’t know, but I’ll figure it out. I have some ideas, but it’s time for some serious conversations with my colleagues to sort it out, I guess. I do know that the call that I got from the head hunter from another firm might have been fairly awkward for them. I don’t think I’m looking to change careers right now.

A brief compare / contrast of Silversea & Lindblad

Finally, since I made a few references to it above, I thought I would provide a little commentary here if you’re interested in my take on the differences between Silversea and Lindblad. And, the difference was clear. We prefer Lindblad, by far. Silversea caters to a much more traditional cruise demographic who might be looking for luxury, entertainment, an “upscale” butler service, and the like. There is nothing wrong with that, but it was not really for us.

Lindblad on the other hand caters much more to our style focused on the expedition experience with beautiful rooms that have plenty of space, excellent service, phenomenal food, but it doesn’t focus on traditional entertainment or anything approaching “butler” service.

I could go on about the quality, but I won’t. I think that in the future, Anne and I will stick with Lindblad. We don’t need a butler, and we prefer the Lindblad experience by far.

I’ll close with this, for anyone who is reading this for a review of Silversea versus Lindblad, as a vegetarian and vegan. Lindblad is hands down a superior option. It shouldn’t be a surprise that we are vegetarian and vegan at every meal. We had informed them more than three months prior. On Lindblad, it is never an issue. In fact, more often than not, on Lindblad they bring us the options before we even ask. While on Silversea, we were often chasing down the options and then waiting (often quite a lengthy amount of time) for a less than satisfactory meal. I don’t mean to be harsh. We had a good time, but it did impact our experience, and we will choose differently in the future.