In June, 2022 we went on an unforgettable two-week cruise to the British Isles. This was our first ever cruise experience, and one big reason we decided to try cruising was because Tony was our host and guest presenter every day we were at sea. We are so grateful we were able to go.
Karla and Richard went on the cruise too, which was fun. They picked us up Monday morning and we drove to Meghan's house in Centerville, and Meghan drove us to the airport.
I had to take a picture of this sign by Meghan's front door. 😂
Not only did Karla and Richard come, but Linda Norman came too, along with her cousin Mary who is also a widow. She also brought another couple who were their neighbors after they moved from West Valley. We were all worried about Linda because she's having memory problems, but she was a trouper. That boy gazing pensively off into the distance is not part of our group but I talked to him and he was off on a Senior trip to Europe after graduating from High School. (Also, fun fact, Bill Clinton and his entourage walked through the airport while we were waiting. I didn't see him but Cindy got a picture!).
It's a combination of both exciting and nerve-wracking to settle into a plane with a couple of hundred strangers and know you're going to be together for the next 10 or 11 hours, flying halfway around the world into unknown countries and through multiple time zones. This flight was actually pretty good though. It helped that they had 50 different movies to choose from! I watched Napoleon Dynamite, March of the Penguins, My Life as a Turkey (fascinating!) and A Few Good Men. Dennis watched American Graffiti and two Harry Potter movies. Back in the day my dad wrote a meticulous travelogue when they took their one and only trip abroad to Denmark after Denny's mission. He described each meal in detail, including the sentence: "We were served carrots cut on the bias." Isn't that adorable? So, dad, this one is for you: "We were served carrots one day on the cruise, but they were not cut on the bias."
After about 10 hours we landed at the Amsterdam Schiphol airport, retrieved our luggage and got everyone in our group of about 50 people organized and accounted for. Julie was the Morris Murdock facilitator for the tour and I think this might have been the first tour experience for her. She did a good job. If I had to make a list of jobs I wouldn't want to have, tour director would be on it. What a lot of logistics and surprises.
We headed off in our chartered bus through the beautiful countryside of Amsterdam. And oh it was gorgeous at every turn. And they drive on the wrong side of the rode and the roads are narrow.
You have to look closely to appreciate this view of this long line of Linden trees. So vastly different than anything I've ever seen in America. And charming to its core. That teensy road accommodated two-way traffic, with our bus being one of the vehicles!
Our first scheduled stop was at a working dairy farm owned by an American woman who married a cattle breeder from Amsterdam. He told her they could produce an outstanding breed of children too, according to one of her many stories. She was an enthusiastic, hard-working cattle farmer. They gave us a demonstration of how they make wooden shoes, and also how they make cheese. It was a stinky, working farm, but very interesting. But I was pacing myself, and getting kind of bleary. They had a cute country store where I bought these wooden tulips (shown in my cut glass vase at home), which ended up being the ONLY souvenir I purchased on the entire trip! Oh my gosh, it just never worked out again!
We arrived at our Hotel, which was a nice Hilton. Dennis and I were fortunate because our room was ready, whereas most people had to wait for a couple of hours for theirs. Oh you should have seen our bedraggled group draped all over any available couch or chair in the main lobby. By now we'd been up for roughly 24 hours and were getting kind of woozy. Dennis and I checked into our room and Dennis went right to sleep. I knew I was going to struggle adapting to the time zone based upon my previous experiences in Rome and London, so I fought sleep as best as I could. I did take some cat naps while sitting on the couch. Here's the beautiful view from our Hotel window.
After an hour or so we got freshened up and headed out to see what we could see. I really wanted to take a canal ride, but I was picking up vibes that Dennis wasn't too keen on the idea. Luckily we ran into Tony and Cindy as we left the Hotel, and they were just coming back from taking a boat ride and they LOVED it. So we worked with the concierge and purchased tickets and he arranged for an Uber driver to pick us up. I never feel more cosmopolitan than when I say or type the word "concierge." I feel like Michael Scott on the episode of The Office when he's ga-ga about "concierge Marie" in Winnipeg. But I digress. And just like that we got whipped away by a grumpy Uber driver and headed off into the magical chaos that is Amsterdam! YOU GUYS!!!! Pretend I took this photo below (which I did not) because it's exactly what we careened through for at least 15 minutes. I can't believe he didn't hit a cyclist but it's organized frenetic mayhem.We arrived at our destination, paid him in Euros, and then I thought, hey I'd better ask him the name of our Hotel (there was more than one Hilton) because there's no way we will be able to find our way back. He told us the name and we both tucked it away in our memory bank and headed down to the canals.
It was magical. I was in heaven. Just look at all these beautiful three and four story 400-year-old homes with so much character, right on the canals! The tour guide told us that in Holland home owners were taxed on the width of their property, so everyone just built "up!"
We were playing Quiplash with the Huish's last Sunday while we were there to celebrate Macy's birthday and one of the questions was "Name a good place to take a date." Everybody else said things like to a movie, and I opted for the extravagent and wrote "Amsterdam!" I would love to go back.
I took a picture of this hoist that they have to use in order to move things in and out of these row houses.
These houseboats used to be mostly for hippies, but now they're worth a ton of money and people live in them year-round.
EVERYBODY is on bikes. And they're all so fit looking! Look at those bikes - thousands and thousands of them parked at the train station. I took that picture, but didn't take the cute one above here with the bikes parked in front of the flower boxes. But we SAW the exact same thing.
After our memorable canal ride on the love boat, we headed back to the Hotel. Except neither one of us could remember the exact Hilton and we couldn't find it anywhere googling Hiltons! I knew it started with a vowel. It's unnerving to be lost in a foreign country. Luckily Tony and Cindy answered our text and gave us the name so we were able to get back. We strolled down the streets and found a cool restaurant and ate dinner. I had truffles for the first time and I liked them. Not the chocolate kind, but the mushroom kind. I had truffles on my pasta.
The next morning we walked to the Rijksmuseum with Tony and Cindy. I was really excited to watch Tony look at the Rembrandt and Veremeer paintings. And it did not disappoint. The museum itself was a work of art that was as thrilling to experience as all of the world famous paintings.
I did MUCH better at this museum than I did at the Louvre.
Dennis re-enacting me at the Louvre, (he was doing just fine).
Then we boarded buses and headed to the cruise ship. It's so exciting and kinda scary to do something for the very first time.
The rooms are TEEENY but kind of charmingly teeny! Jet lag and sleep are the two enemies of enjoyment when you're traveling the world. And most nights we both slept very poorly but we knew we would.
For as huge as the cruise ship was, I was pretty good at finding my way around. I looked for this weird dog photo every time I rounded the corner, and then I knew I was headed down the correct skinny hallway.
We realized that they change these days of the week tiles in the elevators every day so you know what day it is. It is easy to completely lose track of time.
Enjoying a moment on the deck in the sun.
Rock climbing and pickle ball area. The seas were often "angry"and we didn't spend much time outside. I want to go on two more cruises before I die - one to Alaska, and one to somewhere warm where we can bask on our little balcony.
Denny told me see if the ship had a library. It's funny to look for a library on a cruise ship, but I did find it, and I actually read a couple of their books.
And of course I had to have the much-anticipated all-you-can-eat soft ice cream at least once, and sometimes twice a day.
We ate in the cafeteria for lunch and the formal dining room for dinner. We ate with Karla and Richard every night, Tony and Cindy a couple of nights, and met lots of nice couples too. The food was great! It was fun to order two hors d'oeuvre's or two desserts if I felt like it.
We didn't have any snacks in our room so I filled my pocket with dried apricots (i.e. Napoleon's TOTS) while we were at the lunch buffet.
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As part of our Morris Murdock group we got to hear Tony teach! We had four fascinating days with him, which were the days we cruised at sea. I think he was only supposed to teach for an hour, but he went two hours and even three hours one day. After the three-hour marathon I turned to Dennis and said "My brain hurts!" Dennis replied, "My BUTT hurts!"
It is so gratifying to hear Tony teach, and feel of his spirit and testimony as we learned about church history as it related to the Saints in the British Isles. It felt like a really awesome gospel doctrine class because many people were making comments and we all felt really comfortable and fortunate to be together as a class. There were probably 50 people in our group. From where Tony stood each day I noticed the golden lighting behind his head so I waited until it was perfectly framed around him and took this "Tony glowing, prior to being translated "photo!
I'd heard about cruise ships having formal nights and wanted to buy myself something sparkly just because. And I wore my "big" earrings. Next time I'm bringing woo-woo-woman high heels. I wrangled Dennis into bringing a dress shirt but didn't dare broach the subject of a tie :-).
Here's a photo of the main area where they had lots going on including a pretty fun dance contest one night that I watched from this vantage point.
They had shows every night in the main auditorium. Most of the performers were from the British Isles, and the woman who was the MC was a hoot. There was a married couple who were acrobats who were just awesome, but the seas were so choppy that they announced before they began that if things got too rough they would have to stop the show. Even when this Jack Jack singing group was performing one night the seas were rough enough that they were laughing as they'd get tipped from side to side while they were singing. One day the seas were so angry that we had a hard time walking down the halls because the ship was rocking and rolling so bad. all of the outer decks were closed with workers standing guard at the exits to make sure nobody went outside.
On Day 5 of the cruise we opened our curtains to see land outside. Hello bonny green Scotland - the ancestral home of my Eccles relatives! We got in two buses and drove to Loch Ness then got on a ferry boat and ferried up the river. We did not see Nessie. The green of the fields of grass was like a highlight marker, or the new Jazz uniforms, and the long, deep Loch Ness river was beautiful. The weather was spotty so we ended up switching from outside the ferry to inside. We also had internet connectivity for the first time so I was so happy to quickly sent some photos to the kids and my sisters.
One of the drawbacks of being with a large group on a tour bus is that you have a schedule to adhere to. We were running late so weren't able to tour the beautiful grounds of this castle, but actually I was fine with that.
Even their cows are exotic.
On day eight of the cruise we disembarked in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Our guide was absolutely adorable and I made sure we tipped him generously. We saw their University and gardens. He was so proud to be from Belfast and to have graduated from the University. His pride and Irish brogue made the tour so touching and personal.
We were supposed to tour this building, but as the bearded gentleman pictured below, straight out of central casting told us, they were locked out and scurrying around to get someone to come and let he and his fellow employees in for the day. Pretty funny.
We drove through a part of Belfast that our tour guide described as still having an "uneasy" peace and you could feel the tension in the air just passing through on a bus. They actually close an iron gate at night separating the two parts of the city. Lots of graffiti in places, such as this example that Richard is looking at here.
A stained glass window depicting hope for a united future, and recognizing the difficulty of having both Catholic and Protestants and Nationalists and Unionists straining at each other's throats for centuries.
Northern Ireland, where we visited, is a British territory, whereas
The Republic of Ireland is a sovereign state. Centuries of trouble have
plagued the island.
Last
year, after 23 years of relative calm, there was rioting in Belfast.
According to what I read, this breakdown was caused by Britain’s exit
from the
European Union and the stresses of the Covid-19 pandemic. These and
other factors rekindled the combustible
potency of the old feuds between a largely
Catholic side that wants the territory to be part of Ireland, and a
mostly Protestant side that wants to remain part of Britain.
Parts of Belfast displayed lots of Union Jacks and Queen Elizabeth Platinum Jubilee flags.
This wall was covered in murals expressing the unease and tensions that exist in Belfast in regards to the security measures that have been in place for decades in order to keep the peace.
I had to take a picture of the "Give Way" sign. One of the many proper signs they have in the British Isles.
We then headed to the Titanic Museum. Oh my goodness. Fascinating, and factual, but we literally hung out for two solid hours AFTER touring the museum. Plus, I tripped and fell over a poorly designed cement outcropping on this plaza pictured below. I skinned my knee and tore up both my palms, just like a little kid who falls off her bike! There was a couple on our tour, and he was using a wheelchair at times, other times he was walking using a walker. His wife didn't look too happy most of the time, and I hadn't met them yet. After I fell they came right over and made sure I was okay and even offered to let me use his wheelchair! So sweet.
On day nine we cruised to Wales and it was a beautiful blue sky day! It makes everything so pretty. Someone told us there are only 40 days a year without wind, and 65 days a year where it's sunny in Wales, so we were lucky.
We "tendered" for the first time, which was something Dennis and I had never done. Who knew it means taking a small ferry from the mother ship onto dry land.
The stops along the way were so pretty.
We toured the Caernarfon castle with Tony and Cindy and it was fun to have them all to ourselves. We were with Karla and Richard so much that I kept hearing Karla's voice in the back of my head for days after the cruise was over.
In the photo below, you can see the fake heads they made to scare off would-be attackers so it would look like there were always sentries on duty. Man life was hard for so many centuries -literally "life and death" every day!
The castle we visited is where Prince Charles was coronated "Prince of Wales" which is a title given to the firstborn son of the King of England. When Queen Elizabeth dies, Charles will become King and William will be "Prince of Wales" and Katherine will be "Princess Kate of Wales "like Princess Diana was called. William and Kate lived in a town we drove through and they said she shopped around the town quite often .
Pictured below is the rightful heir to the British throne.
The castle was so cool. Tony said the Salt Lake Temple was built to look like our "fortress."
Tony and Cindy climbed clear to the top of this castle. You can see them waving!
Gaelic as a language is a scream. Here is the longest name of a place on earth. They call it Llanfair for short :-)
The beautiful weather made for a spectacular day.
The next day was another cruising day, where we got to hear Tony teach and the sea was almost as calm as glass so it was nice to spend some time outside and look at the ocean. We stood outside with Tony and Cindy and Karla and Richard and debated if we could survive if we jumped. Tony said yes, the rest of us were doubtful. Here is what the view was out our little window.
After gorging on lunch we played up and down the river with Karla and Richard and Tony and Cindy joined us. I got the extreme giggles when we all tried to pronounce the last name name "Frischknecht." I had one of those great, silly, cleansing laughs. I think that's the main reason I like to play games. I spent part of the afternoon reading Mary Higgins Clark (perfect vacation reading) and also picked up Saints Volume Three and started reading it and enjoyed all of the stories. I think they should have included MAPS like in the Bible, because the church expands all over the globe. That night there wasn't a show we were interested in, so we came back to our room and I deleted 1,000 photos from my phone while Dennis slept. I've found the thing I missed most about not being able to have internet (or choosing not to pay for it) was that I couldn't look stuff up!
I ended up sleeping really badly that night, and at around 5:00 a.m., after being awake almost the entire night, I decided I wasn't going to be physically able to go see Cork, Ireland. But I also decided that if Dennis said "man up" then I would :-). But, bless his little neck and ears, he said "If you want to stay here that's fine!" So I jumped at the chance to recharge. I didn't really get going until 3:00 pm and took this selfie. You can see that my left eyelid never did wake up.
Our next stop was Waterford, Ireland and it was a magical day. We were on our own - woo whoo! but we managed to navigate everything without a hitch. Tony and Cindy had booked a tour to the Waterford Crystal factory, but when Dennis and I tried to we had waited too long so we weren't able to join them. We tendered over to Dunford, Ireland, caught a bus on our own and enjoyed driving through the beautiful countryside on our way to Waterford. We were able to book a tour of the factory without any trouble.
It was fascinating to watch the craftsmen at work. So much of it is still done meticulously by hand. Waterford crystal has diminished a lot though, and young people like my kids' ages are no more interested in crystal stuff than Grandma Ranquist was interested in Polly Pockets!
Here's Dennis holding a Waterford crystal trophy made for a golf championship.
It was fun to see the different things they've made. I had to take a photo of this Coke bottle.....
....and a crystal tool set, chess set, violin and guitar among other things.
They put the Waterford crystal mark at the base of all of their creations, and here's Dennis checking the flower vase in the restaurant to see if it was Waterford or not. I think it was? When we got home I checked the crystal vase Grandma Ranquist gave me, and it doesn't say Waterford on the bottom, but it is still beautiful crystal vase made somewhere else.
The reigning queen of the city of Waterford.
We poked our heads inside and it was a beautiful church.
It was a beautiful day all the way around, and stayed beautiful right up until we tendered back to the Jewel of the Seas. or the Princess of the Seas or what was it called? I can't remember!
Tony gave his last class while we were cruising to England. Part of his class was on how the early British Saints were so important to the church when they came to America.
We invited Linda Norman to come and play
cards with us one day and she did pretty well, even though she is
struggling with some memory issues. We didn't see her very much at all
on the cruise. She was with her group of four and we were with ours, and
they didn't eat in the dining room at night. One of her group actually
ended up getting Covid while we were on the cruise so that was no fun at
all for them.
We had a yummy dinner and I had to take a photo of my watermelon with balsamic appetizer.
I guess the seas were angry during the night and lots of people mentioned they heard them blasting the fog horn all night but we didn't hear it.
The end of our British Isles tour was our day in England. We took a 90-minute bus ride .
We caught a glimpse of the white cliffs of Dover, which I'd wanted to see more closely but we didn't sign up in time to take advantage of that particular tour.
But sheesh, we only had time to stand in line and see the crown jewels at a castle 13 miles outside of London. So close, but yet so far, 13 minutes away was Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, the Ferris Wheel, the River Thames, the London Bridge, LONDON, the theatres, the throngs, the Shakespearean gorgeousness of it all! Why on earth they took us to the tower castle instead of downtown is beyond me. It would by like saying to European tourists "Hello European tourists! Welcome to Salt Lake City! We are going to downtown Salt Lake City and see Temple Square and Trolley Square" and then because of time constraints they take them only to see Trolley Square and call it visiting Salt Lake? I'm still steamed. I was half ready to grab Tony and Cindy and tell them to hail a cab and go downtown. I was so excited to see London again, and am sad for the people on our tour who had never been there and will never get there again. The crown jewels were very nice and shiny. Once you finally get to the actual crowns, they stick you on a conveyor belt and so you can't dawdle and admire them. I said they should have those at wedding receptions!
They didn't allow photos, but here is what they look like online :-)
Dennis has the total guard duty pose down pat.
I kept saying I wanted to play shuffleboard, because that's something that I'd always heard that people do when they're on a cruise. On our last night I took my library books back and decided to at least take a photo of the shuffleboard equipment, which was located on the 12th deck. I had to climb a set of stairs to get to the top and the wind almost blew me over. I said out loud "This is NOT a good idea!" but snapped this photo of the ocean and hurried back to safety. That's as close as I got to shuffleboard.
What a highlight of our lives to be able to go on this cruise. One of the many wonderful things about being able to travel is that history and current events seem so much more tangible and this beautiful world feels so much more intimate.
I loved putting this blog together and am glad it didn't take me three years like our Rome tour did! We will definitely have cruises in our future - wanna come?
