Nice Day at Eilean Donan Castle - Portree Isle of Skye Scotland

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All Sharon could remember was that we were going to see “One of the Castles”; but, she wasn’t sure which one. We of course could read the tour ticket (once we got it out of the safe) which said “Eilean Donan Castle”; but, she wasn’t sure if this was “The Castle”. “The Castle” is the one that is the most photographed castle in Scotland. “The Castle” is the one that appeared in “World is not Enough” and “Skyfall” (James Bond movies with Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig respectively). Before the end of the day, we would know that Eilean Donan Castle IS “The Castle”. Our arrival in Portree on the Isle of Sky wouldn’t occur before noon, making this a sort of back-asswards day: Early tours would be in the afternoon, afternoon activities in the morning, and once again we’d be re-boarding the Rotterdam well past our normal dinner time. Things have returned to normal in the Lido and there are no longer lines at the hand-washing machines; and, precautions that most were taking to combat the Noro-virus are now thought by some as unnecessary.

Team Trivia this morning was scheduled at 10AM; so, for good measure Sharon and I arrived just after breakfast and we had our table at 8:45AM. Actually, I had misunderstood Sharon and thought that she had said that Team Trivia was at 9:00AM. With the lack of attendance and our team nowhere in sight we soon realized our mistake when Sharon asked, “What time is it?” We trouped back to our cabin; but, at least we’d done our Sudoku. My sheet was a mess; but, I did manage to finish. Sharon just gave up.

When we returned to the Crow’s Nest, somebody was stretched across and sleeping on the couch that formed part of “Our Trivia Spot”. We felt lucky to get one of the smaller interior tables, and we were going to be quite cozy as there was barely enough rough to crowd six chairs around it. We had a full contingent this morning and they were happy to report that they’d one the previous evenings Trivia. Jim reminded his wife, “We tied!” They added that they hadn’t done as well during Team Trivia with Linda. Rose Marie said, “I think we only got five points.” Jim corrected, “We got six points.” The other interior table had a full contingent as well, including one particularly loud obnoxious fellow who had one of those voices that has the same effect as chalk on chalkboard. Linda challenged us with, “If someone gave you ‘Zongzi’, would you: (a) Eat it, (b) Write with it, (c) Play it like an instrument, (d) Smoke it, or (e) Feed it something?” We had five different answers and I was abstaining because I was clueless. The scribe chose “Smoke It”. Now Duncan has proven pretty good at coming up with off the wall answers (and he wouldn’t disappoint us today); but, this one eluded him. According to Linda, you would “Eat it.” “What two stars have their cigar prints on the Hollywood Walk of Fame?” I instantly scribbled “WC” on my scratch paper; and Sharon added “Groucho” to that. We had our answers… There could be no other; but, in our haste we sort of overlooked another obvious choice: “George Burns”. I’m sure that W.C. Fields would have done it too, if he’d thought of it! We got one of two points for this. “What is the source of the name ‘Kewpie Doll’?” All we could come up with was “QP”. When Linda announced the answer, Sharon goes, “Hmm, Hmm, Hmm” and searched hear scrunched up scratch paper and revealed where she’d written down “Cupid”. We need to remind Sharon every now and then to share her answers. “What year were Stereo LP records introduced?” Sharon was suggesting “1964”; which, I suppose when she first remembers getting a stereo record of Herman’s Hermits. We had “1948” from Rose Marie; and, I suppose that is because Linda has asked more than one “1948” questions so far on this cruise. Duncan was pushing for “1957”. We agreed that his was a more centrist answer, so we went with it. Linda was looking for “1958”, and one team had answered that, so ours was “Close but no cigar”; However, after checking on Wikipedia later, stereo LPs became available in “Late 1957/1958”. November 1957 was when they became commercially available. So close! “The World Championship of What occurs every year at Tinsley Green, and has since 1932. The championship goes back to 1588, and uses the smallest sporting instruments.” I was thinking polo until that last clue. Croquet was an obvious possibility. Pam had proposed lawn bowling. Duncan chuckled, and was embarrassed to show us his answer. Sharon urges him to share, and he reveals “Marbles”. Sharon and I agreed, “That’s a good answer.” I think that we were the only team to get this one right, and we burst out laughing when Linda made the announcement. Linda then asked the final question (before the bonus) and it was another of her rambling questions with multiple choices. We couldn’t hear because of the loud buffoon between us and Linda. And likewise, their guffawing continued when Linda repeated the question. Sharon stood up and shouted, and I rarely hear Sharon shout, “Could you repeat that please. We couldn’t hear the question. THEY won’t be quiet.” “Who won’t be quiet,” Linda asked, looking sharply our way. And Sharon and I point at the buffoon; and, for once there was silence. Linda obliged with a third rendition of “Lavender, Magic Mint, Mulberry and Wild Watermelon are all what: (a) Flavors of Lifesaver, (b) Colors of Crayola, (c) Flavors of Chapstick, or (d) Kool-Aid Flavors?” Half our team wanted (b) and half wanted (c). Sharon and I were split; and, my Trivia shirt does say “…My Wife Knows Everything”. If you know Sharon, then you’ll know that she will always go with the Crayola Answer, ever since someone proved to another in her department at work (back in the day when Erin’s MUCH, MUCH older sister did work) that “Periwinkle” is a color by showing him a Periwinkle Crayola. Duncan was the scribe, and he and Pam were siding with Sharon, so we got this one right! My Girl knows her Crayola’s! The bonus question, worth up to 7 points, “List the countries in Africa that start with the letter ‘M’?” Linda’s accent makes it hard to understand her at times, and Duncan was busily writing “Namibia, Niger, Nigeria…” when Linda repeated the question and this time added “’M’ as in ‘Mary’!” Duncan goes, “Oh man… Now she’s messed me up… I was ‘In-the-zone’ with ‘N’!” I begin scribbling down “Mozambique, Mali, Madagascar and Morocco…” and just prior to my writing each of these down I just happen to hear the murmurings from that table with the buffoon “Mozambique, Mali, Madagascar and Morocco…” Each of us compare our scratchpad notes and we all have “Mozambique, Mali, Madagascar and Morocco…”! Surprise, surprise. Then Duncan goes “Ooh, ooh… I’m not sure but I think this is a country” and he scribbles down “Mauritania”. I told him that was indeed a country… and if you replace the “tania” with “ius” then “Mauritius” is a country too! We couldn’t come up with anything else better than “Malta”; although, we all believed that to be in Europe. If Duncan had written our answer more sloppily, say, the way that Sharon writes, we might have got credit… something like “Mal@#%”. The one that we were missing was “Malawi”. We got 19 out of a possible 24 points, beating the field by at least one point. Maybe we have our groove back.

After trivia we’re heading back down to get ready for our tour. We’re the last two to board the elevator, and there are about six others already waiting to descend. Everybody seems to be going to the Main Deck, same as us. I observe, “Looks like we have an express.” Then this short smug lady in the rear grins, reaches her arm between others, touches her finger to Deck 8 just below us, and runs her finger down the gambit to the Dolphin Deck on Deck 1. Several look at her more than incensed, and she giggles, “I’ve always wanted to do that.” The tension of her faux pas was alleviated some when we stopped on the Lido, and one person got on. That person got off on the next deck. One deck down, two others got off, and I suspect they’d had enough and planned to walk down. One more deck, two people got on. I think it wasn’t until the Lower Promenade that nobody got on or off. Those who remained on the elevator were staring at the culprit with that, “We hope you’re happy with yourself;” but, we needn’t have bothered… she certainly seemed quite happy with what she’d done.

We met in the Showroom, got our stickers for the Eilean Donan Castle Tour. They soon called our group for the tenders and we were one of the first ones on the tender. Unfortunately, we ended up being the next to last ones off the tender so when we boarded the only seats available were near the very rear of the bus with a half-blocked view due to curtains and window-frames. We got the last two seats together. The lady in front of us noted how on one of her previous cruises they’d gotten stuck in the rear and there was no window to look out at all. Their solution to that was to just take somebody else’s seat after the lunch break. She said the people weren’t happy about it; but, they were on a sightseeing tour and they expected to see something other than a blacked-out window. Her view wasn’t much better than ours. Sharon and the lady in front of us played with the curtains and got them out of the way a bit more. Sharon tried to take some pictures from the coach; but, it was not easy. We snaked our way up a narrow street from the pier, and our guide noted that on our return we would need to be dropped off in town and we’d walk back to the tenders. We passed through a number of scenic towns and countryside on the Isle of Skye before crossing the bridge to the mainland viewing many sheep and even a few Highland Cows (pronounced Hi Lan Coos). We arrived at Eilean Donan Castle and we had about two hours to explore on our own. An old stone bridge and walkway approaches the steep walls and entrance of the castle. The castle is laid out on three levels. At each level you can venture outside onto the ramparts, and at each level you get a better and better view of the marshlands that surround the castle. There is no taking of pictures inside the castle; but, evidently some feel that surely that doesn’t include selfies. I mean, OMG, it would hardly worth coming if you couldn’t take a selfie in the Great Room and snapchat it to your friends. The castle was quite cozy, and the kitchen was quite industrious and capable of producing impressive feasts. The kitchen was decorated with utensils, dishes and food in various stages of preparation as it might have been “back in the day” (and I’m talking WAY back in the day). We treated ourselves to some ice cream afterwards, two scoops each so that we’d reach the 5 pound minimum to use a credit card, and we found a place to sit, view the regal panorama before us and enjoy our ice cream. Sharon got the last of the chocolate for one of her scoops. The server seemed irritated that a replacement bin wasn’t ready in the freezer area beneath the display; but, he managed to coax one scope from what was left. Her other scoop was mint-chocolate chip. I had the “Whiskey-Fudge” and mint-chocolate-chip also. We accidently grabbed each other’s ice cream and Sharon wasn’t happy with her first taste of whiskey-fudge. She was in a hurry to try it because part was overhanging the edge of the cup and about to drip, so she tried without thinking. Boy did she pucker with shriveled up nose, “Ooh! Yuch!” Actually, I thought this new flavor was quite good and subtle. The mint-chocolate chip was very minty with chocolate chunks too big to make Sharon happy. When we got back on our bus, and were pulling away, I heard the lady in front of us, “Imagine the nerve… They just took ‘Our Seats’.” I didn’t have to look to know that this was not the lady that sat in front of us on the way to the castle. Unfortunately, the original lady had changed seats with a couple that was walking with canes etc and now had to make there way to the back of the bus. We weren’t happy with our window but wouldn’t think of taking someone else’s seats.

On the way back our guide excitedly points out a fine Scottish tradition in process on an upcoming green field where a game of shinty is in progress. Shinty is a game in which grown Scotsmen run around a field with sticks and attempt to beat the living daylights out of each other. It’s best when played by teams made up of clans who hate each other. A stone-like puck is hit around the field, preferably into an opposing player or even better through the goal and by the goal-keeper. The game of shinty is rumored to have been exported to Canada from whence hockey was born. Anyway, that was the origin of hockey, from the Scottish lass who was our tour guide, for any Vegas Knights boosters who might want to know. I know that Sharon’s siblings are all big Vegas Knights fans now!

We didn’t get back until nearly 6:30 for dinner. This was after a bit of a walk from where the bus dropped us off till we found the way to the Tender Dock. It wasn’t very well marked and the directions were not clear but we did eventually make it down the steep hill. I enjoyed my double baked souffle and leek and scallion soup. I hemmed and hawed on the entrée; but, finally decided on the spicy peanut cilantro salad. It said that it came with marinated turkey. When my entry came I was struggling to remember what it was that I had ordered. The only thing that I could recollect was the “Turkey” part. Well, this didn’t look like turkey. It looked like fish. I tried a bite, is IS fish! Then I remembered the “Spicy Salad” part and I let the steward know. He whisked my plate away and replaced it with my salad within one minute. Sharon had the beef tri-tip with charred button onions; and, she must have enjoyed her dinner because she ate most of it. I departed from my “Cheese Fetish” and got the “Everyday Crème Brule”. Sharon was happy that they once again had the white chocolate limp-pop.

It was just after 8PM and the ship was getting underway. Neither of us were in to watching another show from the singer we’d seen a few days earlier. So, I checked out the casino; but, they were just starting to setup the first table. I decided to get a couple of bottles of San Pellegrino from the Exploration Café and return to the cabin. I had some work ahead of me to get the blog up to date. Sharon headed to the Piano Bar for Barry from Boston’s UK night.

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