Sorry for not updating, the wifi is bad and we are paying for it now, so I've been using it for checking emails and texts. I'm at a mall today, so hoping I can just cut and paste my notes into this. In any case, here goes!

I haven't been posting lately because it didn't seem right to be having fun when so many family and friends were suffering from Harvey. Our hearts have been breaking for everyone back home affected by the storm. Our wifi has also been very sketchy, too, which has made posting tricky.

In any case, Rich and I are on our last day of a wonderful Viking River cruise. We are on the one that goes from Budapest to Amsterdam and have enjoyed it immensely. We fly to London tomorrow and will board a Princess cruise ship to go on a British Isles Cruise. We will then be coming home at long last at the end of the cruise. What a journey this has been! We have met some wonderful new friends from all over the country/world, which I think has been the best part. I'll try to post pictures from London later.

Dublin is a busy and bustling city, full of pubs, shops and cafes. We did the Hop on & Off Bus in the morning and then had a food tour in the afternoon. I like Irish food a lot...especially the butter! Very creamy and delicious. Our guide told us their cows produce a very high quality of milk due to all the rain they receive--makes for plentiful grass. We got to make our own Irish coffee--quite tasty! A fun day in Dublin.

We had a wonderful day driving around Belfast. It has a bit more modern feel to it than Dublin did--mainly because of its turbulent past. A lot of their buildings have been bombed and then rebuilt due to their past wars. There is still evidence of conflict, but nothing like it was in the past.

One highlight of our tour was seeing the Titanic Museum, Belfast is where the ship was made. Very unique looking building. We saw their Parliament Building--a huge stone structure that sits way up on a hill overlooking the city. Their City Hall building was also quite impressive; inside were beautiful stained glass windows telling the history of Ireland. On the grounds was a memorial to all the lost souls of the Titanic disaster.

We drove all around and saw lots of buildings covered with graffiti depicting the conflicts of the area. We stopped and toured the Botanical Gardens which is right next to Queen's University--a very medieval looking building! We also made a trek up the mountainside to see the Belfast Castle. Nice view of the city from up there. The rain held off for the most part, which we appreciated!

Setting sail for Glasgow this evening.

Visited Glasgow today, beautiful city full of old red sandstone buildings along with very modern ones. Having a wee bit of trouble understanding the locals, but we are loving it!

Toured Invergordon, which is the port city for Inverness. Caught a bus and then did a City Sightseeing tour. Not a whole lot to see--it's a small town and most famous for its proximity to Loch Ness. We saw the river and a small part of the lake but didn't have enough time to make it out for a viewing of Nessie. :) Had great weather for this part of the world!