Another altered itinerary

It is never good news when the captain makes early morning announcements directly into all the suites. The Silver Spirit was anchored at Newhaven for a tender ride to Leith followed by a bus ride to Edinburgh. But the water was too choppy for safe tender operation, so the visit was cancelled and the ship headed directly to Amsterdam. TSH and Diva always intended to stay aboard so they were not personally inconvenienced except for all the people who stayed on what should have been an almost empty ship. But think of the chefs. 400 extra people for lunch!!

Bean bag tossing is now being arranged to keep people amused. The good news is that the MacDonald brothers are still on board and will perform again. Basically, they were unable to disembark as planned and are being taking against their will to the Netherlands. With all their instruments and stage props!!

In the SALT (local dishes) restaurant, TSH ate his most unusual salad ever - Taybank salad. It contained roasted brussels sprouts, beetroot and raspberries. His main course was lamb and skirlie. At breakfast time he had a dish of porridge and picked up what he thought was a jar of honey. It turned out to be strawberry jam, but he poured it on and decided that the combination worked very well. 

The wild penguins of Dundee

 After many hours sitting in the Firth of Forth outside Leith, the Silver Spirit eventually wound its way slowly to Dundee, arriving a day early. On the bonus day, TSH and Diva joined the complementary bus to Edinburgh and were able to go ahead with their planned walk around the Old Town. Dinner was their final (for this cruise) pizza in the open air in Spaccanapoli.

They visited Glamis Castle and were greeted yet again by a lone piper. It was a good tour, bur a little disappointing for Diva, who had expected to see more of the rooms connected with the Royal Family and less of the old kitchens converted into showrooms for the animal heads, bearskins and suits of armour. Not to mention the stone spiral staircases.

The penguins were brought to Dundee by Scott of the Antarctic and released into the river when the local zoo could no longer accommodate them. They moved along the river to Broughty Ferry (the upmarket part of the area) and established a successful colony. Google does not know about this event, so it was lucky that TSH and Diva had an informative local guide.

No port in a storm

 The arrival in Leith dock was scheduled for 4:30 am. In TSH’s words, there was ‘banging and crashing’ all night, so they assumed that the Silver Spirit had passed through the lock and entered the small port of Leith. Turned out the entry to the lock had failed because of high winds and swell, the lock was closed by the port authority and the ship was at anchor in the Firth. Eventually, Captain Arma decided that it would not be possible to call at Leith and hence Edinburgh on either of the two scheduled days and he was looking for an alternative. By then, TSH and Diva had got up especially early to be ready to take the first shuttle bus to Edinburgh and Diva had eaten her sightseeing breakfast of bacon rolls.

The cruise director (who invited TSH and Diva to dine with him on Venetian night) decided to organise a ‘country fair’ to entertain guests who would be experiencing an extra (maybe 2 extra) day(s) at sea. The main attraction is the towel and napkin folding (attended by 3 guests last time) and they are promised golf. There is much bunting.

TSH had experienced a personal crisis earlier when he was searching throughout the suite for his ship card – which he never loses, as that is Diva’s department. There was a card on the worktop, but that was Diva’s. The search eventually reached her handbag, where she had carefully stored his card instead of her own.

There is still no information about what is to happen next or where Silver Spirit is going. Food and service still excellent.