British Isle Cruise--Day 13

August 7, 2015—Day 13, Glasgow (Greenock), Scotland

Sunshine!  Beautiful sunshine!!  The high today is forecasted to be only 54, but the sun was warm and the wind had died down, so it felt so much warmer.  Our ship had tied up at its berth in Greenock, Scotland, by 7:00am; once again, our cabin faced the sea instead of the port, but the sun shining on it this morning made it very nice. 

After a late breakfast, my mother and I did the laundry we had planned to do yesterday.  Then I wandered around on the Lido Deck (Deck 16) and higher, all the way up to Deck 19 just to walk around outside and take a few pictures of the ship itself while it was both sunny and a little warmer.  Most of the passengers had left for various tours, some of them really long tours since our ship would remain until 2:00am tomorrow morning. 

We had no specific plans for this port either.  Greenock is a small port town about ½-hour by train from Glasgow.  Most of the tours were into Glasgow or into the Scottish countryside, but since we had the two private excursions into the Scottish highlands from Inverness and to see several castles from Edinburgh, we decided to stick close by for this port. 

Since the sun was out, we took advantage of it and had pizza for lunch out on the Lido Deck.  Surprisingly, there were even a couple of people in the pool!  Personally, I think they're crazy since the temperature was only in the 50s; while it was warmer, it wasn't THAT warm and we were still wearing several layers of clothes topped with a sweater. 

After lunch, we left the ship and wandered into the port tent where several vendors were selling Scottish goods and souvenirs.  After looking around and doing some shopping, my parents headed back to the ship and I decided to walk to town.  The town wasn’t very far, but the walk to the gates out of the port was a little ways, and very boring.  Once outside the port gate there were only a few streets to wander around.  I did visit the old cathedral and took pictures of some of the other older buildings.  Then I visited the grocery store, Aldi.  I think grocery stores in other countries are interesting and actually enjoyed wandering around the aisles looking at the food.  I also bought some lemon Scottish shortbread for my mom and Scottish mint chocolate candy for my dad.  Everyone should sample some of the local food, and Scottish cookies and candy seemed a much better choice than the local haggis (for some reason, minced meat packed into a sheep’s stomach just doesn’t appeal to me…lol).

I returned back to the ship mid-afternoon and found my parents engrossed in another of the movies offered on the on-demand TV.  The nice part about a cruise is that you really can be as active as you want, or you can just sit back and relax and do pretty much whatever you want on board.  Of course, it’s also nice to have all the food available in either the dining room or the buffet, or the outside pizza and grill, or the inside pizzeria, or the International Café (and I haven’t even mentioned the specialty steak or Italian restaurants, or the gelato and ice cream bars—unfortunately, too cold for ice cream on this cruise).  Not having to cook or clean up is always a plus!

We finally made it to the dining room for dinner!  It was Italian night (which wasn’t exactly my parents’ favorites but was one of mine).  I had the eggplant parmesan, then a little spicy pasta the chef was making, and finally the veal scaloppini, followed with tiramisu and the wonderful lemoncello.  I was absolutely stuffed. 

After dinner, I watched another movie.  It was strange to still be tied at the our berth and we wouldn’t be leaving until 2:00am.  Tomorrow was a sea day and we were looking forward to the casino opening at last, although only for a very short time from 10:00am-noon since we would be sailing close to the coast.

Although we wouldn’t be sailing and the ship wouldn’t be rocking me to sleep, I was asleep by a little after 10:00pm.