Cruise Report

Oct.29th

Ocean Dream arrived at Greenock, Scotland, which is our first time. Local people wearing their traditional clothes welcomed us by playing the traditional musical instrument, bagpipes.

Let’s go to the capital Edinburgh by train. Through the window, you can see a peaceful view of the ranch. We really enjoyed the ride as we watch sheep and cows grazing on the grass, and seeing houses once in a while in a big land. We arrived at Waverley station in Edinburgh.

Scott Monument welcomed us when we got out of the train station. This monument was erected in memory of Walter Scott, who is a writer and a poet. Its height is 61m and you can see this tall tower from different areas of the town. The view really matched with the autumn leaves.

For lunch, we had a traditional Scottish meal, fried haggis. This haggis is made from sheep’s pluck, a very popular dish in this region and it also goes well with the Scotch Whisky.

After lunch we continued our stroll. You will see a lot of these patterns when you are walking around the town. This pattern is called the “Tartan check”, and has originated in Scotland. Local people call it Tartan and used in different fabrics and materials.

This is the Edinburgh Castle which is looking down the center of the town. The bedrocks that the castle sits on is called the “Castle Rock”, and it was also used as a natural fort before it was built. The castle had been destroyed and reconstructed many times and grew bigger every time. We watch the scenery as we feel the history behind it.

We went to a bar at the end of the day. Local people are enjoying the conversation as they hold their drinks in hand. It was a relaxing day in Scotland where we felt the season is changing. Our next destination is Lisbon in Portugual. The trip to enjoy the Europe continues.