An unconventional distillery

 

In Dundee, TSH and Diva walked along the waterfront and into the impressive city centre, which has many grand stone buildings. In spite of it being Saturday, the centre was not busy and they wondered how long it will take for large town and city centres to recover from the Covid crisis.

TSH even managed to see a steam train passing by the ship – Tornado for those who wish to know.

Some people may be familiar with the Irish folk song about the pub with no beer. Much to TSH’s disbelief, the excursion in Edinburgh included a tour round a distillery with no whisky. The reason is that it is a new enterprise and it is not allowed to call its product whisky until it is 3 years old. So in the meantime they are selling products which are produced on the road to whisky, and gin which they can make in just a few days. The gin flavouring is sea salt (from a named coast) and beeswax (!!).  The other part of the tour was supposed to be a guided tour of Holyrood, but the ‘guided’ part was dropped, there was not much in the way of helpful signage and Diva did not want to touch the audio tour equipment. So it was all a bit unsatisfactory.

The next morning, they went on their own visit to the royal yacht Britannia, which is an excellent visitor attraction. In its days of service, the vessel had 240 crew (not sure if that included the food, drink and cleaning people) and conveyed at least 2 cars – a smart Bentley (??) and a small Land Rover type for expeditions to uninhabited parts.

The view from the ship in the port of Leith is spectacular – a full panorama including distant hills, Edinburgh Castle, Arthur’s Seat, road and rail bridges over the Forth and a Regent cruise ship in the fore-ground.

One pleasant dinner with Dr Peter Crimes and one pleasant dinner of pizza in the open air.

No TV for several days. No internet in TSH and Diva’s suite.

TSH has booked the Sainsbury delivery for the return home at the end of the month.

All change?

 

Silversea’s overlords at Royal Caribbean have decided to rebrand them. At the moment, this appears to be limited to the external appearance of the ships. The bottom section has been painted in what Diva assumed was undercoat, looks like battleship grey and is apparently meant to be silver. The logo on the funnel has changed so that it looks washed out – as if someone put white undercoat across it. There has been no official mention of this onboard – TSH and Diva asked the HR manager about it when they were chatting with her. They think it is a huge mistake.

The HR manager also described the logistics of the last 16 months. Getting as many crew as possible home - sometimes using the ships as ferries, preparing to help with evacuations from the Australian wild fires, assembling quarantined and vaccinated crew, dry runs to prepare the restaurant staff for the return of guests. The latter involved filling each restaurant in turn with non-restaurant crew such as cleaners and deck hands, who all enjoyed the new experience of being waited on.

The passengers are still trying to help out. During a lighting issue in the theatre when the lecturer could not read his notes, a passenger offered him her phone torch. It was politely refused. The lecturer – Peter Crimes – was a PhD student in the Geology department at Liverpool University when Diva, in her first job, worked on the Computer Helpdesk.

Weather misty but not too cold and the sea is very flat.

Wildlife sightings: 1 rabbit, 1 egret, 2 cormorants.

 

Last day of holiday

Tai Chi on deck again, in almost complete isolation. Balance is much easier, in spite of the vibration of the engines and the gusty wind. Excellent lecture from Peter Crimes, who has researched the mutiny on the Bounty, and has discovered that Captain Bligh was a fair and reputable captain and Fletcher Christian the disreputable one. He had found that the cause was drugs and women. From the pics and description of Pitcairn, the wonder is that anyone goes there or still lives there.

The English pub theme in the bar at lunch time involved a long queue, so TSH and Diva went to the usual buffet, where there were fish and chips but they had forgotten to provide chips!! This meant they missed the singalong – the only one they heard was ‘slow boat to China’, which is not the right era for two children of the sixties.

Time to pack for home!!