St Kilda was a great stop. Visiting an island where there are the remains of a very large settlement. A beautiful sunny day I took off my coat I was too warm. A little swell getting on and off the zodiac but the staff handled it well.

In the afternoon we sailed between two small but high islands that have large colonies of birds. Gannets were in abundance as shown by Kens pictures. Really spectacular with an island on each side and birds everywhere.

Last night we did the hot rocks grill. At first it was chilly but it warmed up and the sun started to shine. It was a great night.

Tomorrow we are in Kirkwall.

Ngaire, loving the reports. Especially interested in your (and others) report on Highland Park distillery tour in Kirkwall.

Marc

A group is going today but not being a spirits drinker we opted for a different tour.

We saw the Italian Chapel built by Italian prisoners of war. It is quite a story and our guide today was every good. Told the story better than any guide we have had before.



Then an overview of the island and drove over the concrete block barrier cutting off the North Sea to the towns bay. This was ordered by Winston Churchill after a German submarine entered the harbor here during world two

A fossil museum, which was somewhat interesting.

Then we left the tour in town and we saw the cathedral again. Only cathedral I have seen with a gun featured in a church. This man was a famous arctic explorer.



Been to Kirkwall quite a few times before. Today rained, then sunshine, then hail, then sunshine. Weather constantly changing but for most of the day is was sunny.

June and Ken found this in town



Picture from our refreshment stop.

We opted for a different tour today also but did go to the Talisker Distillery in Portree. Although the Talisker 18 gets good reviews, Ray found the one we tasted to be very smoky & somewhat harsh. We passed the Highland Park Distillery on our tour & it is about twice the size of Talisker. Hopefully, someone will have a review of it for you.

Wish I was with you. I love the smoky, peaty Islay single malt whiskeys like Talisker which actually is an ingredient of Johnny Walker Black. Certainly not everyone's cup of tea. Highland Park is much milder though still has some peat-they are on the Orkney Islands. The scotches from the Lowlands are the mildest of all. Have fun, everyone!!

We went hiking, so can’t report on the distillery either;however, last evening, a bunch of local girls put on a dance show for us, and they were serving a sampling of a bunch of local spirits at the entrance to the theater. I did not partake as not my thing, but it was there for tasting if you wanted.

Photos from John:

Dorothy, June and Ngaire flirting with handsome young Irishman.


The Silver Cloud needing a little repair

We stayed onboard in Lerwick. We have been to Lerwick multiple times and it was not a nice day. Last night we went to La Dame and had a wonderful dinner. We were with June, Ralph, Barb and Tim. I realized we had not taken any people pictures until after the dinner. Too focused on conversation and the food. We did take some pictures of the food and I will post these pictures.

We were all focused on the main courses, lamb, filet and lobster were our choices. Totally forgot about taking pictures during this course. All the dishes were excellent.

Lobster and Mango Appetizer.


The Mushroom Soup with caviar on the little crisp bread stick. The Lobster Soup also had the caviar and three large pieces of lobster.



Lobster Tail in a Pea Soup



Fanciest Fruit Plate


Chocolate Dessert

In a bus now leaving Aberdeen going to see Balmoral Castle. Beautiful scenery with stunning homes on huge lots with gardens with many flowers.

Really glad we went on the Balmoral Castle 7 1/2 hour tour. Far longer than I would normally do. Scenery on the way was beautiful and a great guide. Raining lighting intermittently.

We were only allowed into the ballroom that was featuring an exhibit on Queen Victoria. Of course I wish I could have seen more of the rooms but not surprised the access was very limited. The Queen was here last weekend.

There were exhibits in the stables and we enjoyed walking the grounds. Overall 90 minutes at Balmoral which was enough time and it started raining more as we left.

We then went to a small village where we had an hour to get lunch. We went to the closest place that was the Highland games museum.The cafe was GREAT. All home made goods and a nice faculty and only one other table taken.

Ken and Ralph at Balmoral



Couple of different angles of the castle





The cafe








Flowers

We really did not feel like getting up but we did. Then found out everyone decided to stay onboard. We were up so we went. Little sprinkle on boarding the zodiacs.

As we entered the bay we were welcomed by three seals one came really close and looked us over. He had a big head. The countryside was not as pretty as Aberdeen but still nice.

The Floors castle was magnificent. No way to get all of the castle in a picture. The inside did not disappoint. Many rooms full of pictures of the Duke and Duchess of Roxburghe who still reside in the castle. The rooms were fully furnished with collections of paintings, huge tapestries, China, and collectibles. Also mannequins with ceremonial dress. There was a bird room with taxidermy of birds from all over the world. From tiny to extremely large birds. Very impressive.

The family is active in all horse activities including horse racing and their horses have won many races. After we toured the castle there was s lot of Porche cars outside.

Unfortunately we could not take pictures inside. But here are a few from the outside.

Last night we decided to change our tour to a massive house called Constable Burton. The house has been in the family for 700 years. When we got on the bus only one couple joined us on the 40 person bus.

It was a great tour. A fascinating house and the owner William Constable invented machines to create electricity 200 years before it was available for houses. The house had a lot of rooms full of many items it was impossible to absorb all we saw. Topped off with a cup of tea and a ham and cheese toasted sandwich. They ran out of scones.



y

Our last tour day today. We are going to the Canterbury Cathedral. Tomorrow we arrive in London and fly to Johannesburg for our two safaris.

OVERVIEW OF THE CRUISE
We have been incredibly fortunate with the weather. A few drizzly rainy days at the beginning of the first trip and a couple of drizzly rainy days on the second leg. Only one day where it was raining a lot when people were returning to the ship in zodiacs. But out of 22 nights that is not a lot of rainy days. The two bird cliff zodiac cruises offered the weather was not co-operating. I did not do either of those zodiac cruises. We have many glorious perfect days with sun and no wind, and today again the sun is shining. As far the seas go we had two nights of a little rocking but overall very calm seas. Amazing weather. Far superior weather than I had anticipated.

Overall tours have been good. With this many days you will hit some that are not as great but really ours have been excellent. There were some that people were not thrilled with a tour which to be expected. Lunga island the Puffin day was a highlight for me.

The Silver Cloud.
The positives. I love this ship. The ship is large enough to have great facilities but small enough for the small ship experience. There have been no issues getting out the zodiacs with this larger passenger size. In fact worked better than the Explorer. Not jammed up in a small space waiting to board the zodiacs as we did on the Explorer. The theatre for recaps is fantastic, More room than necessary and you can see so well from almost every seat. There are multiple dining options. The food has been really good with a ton of variety for everyone’s taste and a large room service menu. The cabin is very comfortable with lots of drawer and hanging space. Two cocktail longes with enough space for everyone to find a seat. There is a forward observation lounge that is not used much as you have to go outside to reach it. Four elevators centrally located that come so quickly. The two rocky nights the ship handled the seas very well. My “windy” website said 10ft waves and large swell and considering that I expected more motion on the ship than we experienced.

The negatives are on this trip people were expecting a classic ship experience and totally unaware that zodiacs are often used for the transfer to the shore. They were not happy and many should not have been booked on this trip. But I think overtime this problem will go away as the realization of what these new expedition ships are really all about. One thing many of us do not like is that most dining venues don’t open until 7.30 pm, only the main dining room opens at 7.00 pm and service can be slow so it makes for late dining. The bathroom does not have enough storage space and if you have a tub it is hard to get in and out. Some of the true expedition type people miss the intimacy of the Silver Explorer which I understand. You do get to know the expedition staff better.

But for me I am so glad this is our ship for Antarctica. Nothing is perfect but this ships positives far outweigh the negatives and I will always prefer to sail on this ship if I have a choice. I still have a soft spot in my heart for the Silver Explorer and always will. I definitely would sail on the Silver Explorer if it has the itinerary I want. Really looking forward to January Antarctica even more now. I want to be back onboard the Silver Cloud.

I have absolutely loved following you on PUFFIN. The photos and descriptions have been wonderful. I guess it struck such a chord with me because this is where my family is from. Every photo had its own tale to tell. It all looked story-book perfect....the country side, the steep cliffs, the sheep everywhere and those beautiful homes and castles and I couldn't leave out the Pubs!

For those of you heading home, safe travels. For you lucky ones going on Safari, hope it's the best ever!

We were having coffee on our balcony this morning on the Seven Seas Explorer and we passed you guys in the English Channel!! Did you see us wave 😁?!?! I took a picture but can’t seem to post it and can’t find Ngaire’s instructions for the new way to post pics on the forum.

Sorry Cindy I missed the wave.

So today was Canterbury. Again a perfect day walked around today in a short sleeved tee shirt. We were able to get a PUFFIN bus it was nice to be altogether. About a 45 minutes later we were in Canterbury. The guide was good I felt like I was listening to Sandra Bowen for those of you that may remember Sandra.

What a massive cathedral and so much history. Really enjoyed finally seeing this very historic sight. I will add a few pictures below.

After we left the cathedral we went to have our last scones. We found the Alice in Wonderland Mad Hatters Tea shop. There was a group of girls having a tea party. The stools they were sitting on were tea cups. The decor and all the china had a mad hatters theme. THey had a true high tea. I took a picture of the top two tiers of cakes. I thought of our own LCT Alice in Wonderland and of course Kim as well. Wished they were with us. The scones arrived hot straight from the oven and they were lemon poppyseed. Talk about yummy! It was a fun place and we all enjoyed it a lot.

Packing now sad but looking forward to our upcoming safari now.



So many stunning and huge stained glass windows.


On the grounds outside the cathedral a huge horse. Constructed by children.


Mad Hatters Tea Room

The unique cakes


The cup stools


Peter Rabbit


The character outside the shop the little children just loved.

Goodbye to London taken from the Silver Cloud.

We are in the Virgin Atlantic lounge at Heathrow. So sorry that this trip is over! It was really a great voyage. It did sound a.little boring on paper but it turned out to be so very interesting. We have seen so much of Ireland and Scotland in particular that I do now feel like I have really seen these countries and not just their big cities. Bonus was all the great friends, old and new that joined on us each leg.

Yesterday after our fearless leader left us in London, some of us did the RIB Thames experience followed by Tea at the Ritz. What the heck is an RIB Thames experience you ask? Rigid Inflatable Boat which runs at very high speed down the Thames. This is an open boat and of course many of us got a bit wet. It was so fun! They blasted Queen songs and the themes from James Bond movies as we raced up and down the river. By contrast, tea at the Ritz was a bit more subdued 😀

We were on the Cloud back in 2006 when it was a classic cruise ship. I like it much better as an expedition ship. I echo Ngaire’s comment that there were quite a few passengers who should not have been booked on such a ship. Although the complainers seemed to me to be much more prevalent on the Amsterdam to Dublin leg. Maybe that was my imagination or maybe I just tuned them out after the first week?

The crew on the Cloud are just wonderful. They all were so warm and friendly. They seemed to a person to really be happy on this ship. Lots of hugs on our way out the door today.

To all the Puffins: thanks for the great company. Safe travels and hope to see you soon
———————
Helen

Agree with everything Helen says.... We had a great time on this cruise as well as our 8 days pre-cruise touring around Ireland with Sue & Ray. It was a great group of old and new friends on PUFFIN. The ship and ports were new to us and just great. We're looking forward to cruising on the Cloud again to Antarctica in January.

We're now at The Sofitel hotel at LHR (very nice hotel) for 1 night with massages booked for this afternoon. We'll fly home tomorrow morning.
Life is GOOD !

I tried to post a big long post yesterday, but it disappeared. Anyway, totally agree with everything above. I love Cloud as an expedition ship and am looking forward to the two more voyages we have booked on her. The crew was great. We had a bit of crappy weather, but that is expected in this part of the world, and we had fun despite.

Alice and I have been back to work for 2 weeks. I am actually posting now from the plane going home from the week of work back east. We would have loved to have been at the high tea in the Mad Hatter tea shop!!! How fun! Lemon poppy seed is one of our Alice’s favs. We loved the Puffin trip even though we could only do the first leg. It was all wonderful. Our pre-cruise in Amsterdam with part of the group and post-cruise by ourselves all was great! And we too are excited to be getting back on the Silver Cloud in January. Thanks for the continued posts from the second leg.