Cruise from Southampton around UK in June 2023

Cruise around the UK 

by P&O in June 2023.

I went with Keith for 14 days. We had single

cabins and it cost just

over £700

The
 P&O ship Britannia from the Isle of Wight ferry
at the Ocean Terminal. The Titanic sailed from the Ocean terminal
in 1912 prior to her sinking.

The building with Liver birds on top in Liverpool. The building is in the 

pocession of the local authority

The first stop was Liverpool where we went ashore. Britannia was moored on the Royal Albert Docks for two days. The docks extend for 7 miles and have been a gateway to the world since the 1800s whence hundreds of Irish immigrants went to the USA.

We went ashore and saw the Liver Birds on top of the building above in stone. One faces the sea and the other inland. It is said that Liverpool will collapse if they disappear. The Liver birds are 18 feet in high and are secured to the building with metal stays. They are in appearance a cross between a cormorant and an eagle.

The Cavern Club in Liverpool is where the
Beatles performed before they were famous. The club is in Mathew Street
which is a narrow precinct.

 

Statue of Cilla Black near the Cavern Club
where she used to sing. Her proper name
was Priscilla White.

Statues of the Beatles in Liverpool all in bronze

The cruise ship Britannia docked in Liverpool

The sea was calm all the way around the UK

Statue of John Lennon in Mathew Street

The swimming pools on Britannia

The next port of call was Greenock in the estuary of the River Clyde. We caught the bus to  Largs. It`s a pleasant sea side town a few miles north of Greenock. We visited
a local coffee shop which had been chosen as the best cafe in Scotland. The staff were
very pleasant. The car ferry looked very much like one of older the Isle of Wight ferries, but with different livery

On board ship

The Britannia docked at Greenock. It carries over 3500 guests and a crew of about 1500
of many different nationalities.

Keith attempting to play table tennis in the on board competition

We stopped in Orkney after a further day at sea at Kirkwall and visited
 the stones which were like Stone Henge but made of Sandstone

The stones on Orkney. No one really knows why they are there.

At the port of Inver Gordan where the estuary of the River Ness enters the North Sea
I went on a coach trip to Lock Ness. I was hoping to see the monster. Some hope, I thought.

We were shown a presentation video of the Lock Ness
monster theme in the visitors centre.

A view of lock Ness. It`s very deep and they say there`s a monster living in it`s depths.

Lock Ness from the shore

Then I suddenly saw Nessie the monster just for a minute, but I managed to get a photograph before she disappeared. Of course people will think it was a hoax.

At South Queens ferry near Edinburgh we had to go ashore by tender from Britannia

We caught a bus to Edinburgh and walked towards the castle. We saw a piper
playing the bagpipes in the Royal Mile

The Forth Bridge with Britannia at anchor through the arch. Many workers died building it. It has to be continually painted throughout the year

Keith meets two of his JW friends in Edinburgh who do two hour stints talking to interested people about the Bible. Their names were Kai and Geena who had come from Fife.

A shop in Edinburgh where Kilts can be purchased in a tartan style

An Eagle Owl in the Royal Mile, which leads from Edinburgh Castle to
 Holyrood Palace,  For £5 people could have their 
photograph taken with the bird.

A queue to enter Edinburgh Castle

The Yuppie minute steak on a lava stone, I ordered on the ship. I couldn`t eat it because it was too rare and the wrong shape.




After Edinburgh the ship sailed to Southampton down the East Coast to it`s home port where it arrived on time and we found out it left for the Norwegian fjords later that day on another cruise.



One thing I learned about using a mobile phone on a cruise ship that no one tells you.  Keep it turned off or on aeroplane mode. Even if you are going around Britain and you make a call on your phone it may pick up a foreign server even if you are in territorial waters. Mine did and one call for 13 minutes cost me £90. There were 5 similar calls.... Be very careful.... My mobile phone company explained what happened and are allowing me to pay off the £400 mobile bill at £10 per month. I read on the internet that these incidents are common and one lady flew to Barbados with her phone in her luggage but turned on. She never made a call, but apparently if you have apps some automatically up date themselves. She had a bill for over a thousand pounds. The moral is always keep your phone off or on aeroplane mode, then it can`t happen.



The End