Got up at 7.30 this morning in anticipation of our cabin steward bringing our champagne and lobster breakfast. Going out on the balcony, the weather was clear and bright, and only a gentle sea breeze ruffled our hair. The sea was like a mill pond; in fact, it has been remarkably calm for the whole of this cruise so far. 🙂
A gentle knock on the door heralded the arrival of our breakfast, and Trevor opened the door and started bringing in huge trays containing all our breakfast order; one tray for the food and the other for the tea, coffee, milk for our cereal and orange juice. An ice bucket contained our half-bottle of Laurent Perrier. 🙂
I put on one of the velour bath robes that Cunard so thoughtfully provided, as we sat on the sofa and started on our food. The table wasn’t very big, so we had to place the trays on the bed and just take what we needed for now. I started off with fresh grapefruit and orange juice, followed by muesli with milk, washed down with good hot coffee. Then we lifted the domes from our plates of lobster Benedict, yum yum. It was just like eggs Benedict, only it contained succulent, juicy lobster tail meat instead, smothered in delicious Hollandaise sauce.
We then opened the champagne and poured it into our flutes, before taking it out onto the balcony. We could hear Billy and Carole on their balcony too, and Trevor stuck his head round and he and Billy chatted like neighbours over a garden fence. 🙂
I pulled my deckchair forward so I could put my feet up on the glass front of the balcony, my glass of champagne on the small table at my side. This was the life! 🙂
After our scrumptious breakfast, we got washed and dressed and took a look at the Daily Programme to see what was on this morning, as we were not due to dock in Stornoway until one o’clock this afternoon. We saw that Peter McGowran, the retired Chief Yeoman Warder (Beefeater) was giving a talk at 10.00am and, as his presentations have all been excellent so far, we decided to go there. Peter’s talk explained the Yeoman Warders’ role in the Platinum Jubilee in 2022 and, later that year, the Queen’s death. It was all very interesting and quite poignant.
We then had a break before the next presentation at 12.15pm, so we went up on deck and wandered around, where I took some photos as Queen Anne glided along. I couldn’t resist take a wake view – who doesn’t love a good ship’s wake?
The next presentation was by WW2 historian Michael Kushner, about the brilliant mathematician and computer genius Alan Turing, who invented the machine that broke Germany’s “Enigma” and helped shorten the war by maybe two years. It was an excellent presentation, and we recommended to Billy and Carole (who were sitting next to us) to watch the movie The Imitation Game, starrting Benedict Cumberbatch as Alan Turing.
This took us nicely up to one o’clock, and we went out on deck to watch as the Queen Anne was tied up in the port of Stornoway, Isle of Lewis, where we would remain until 5.30pm tomorrow.
We noticed that a new cruise terminal had been built since the last time we had been here in 2012. There was a huge area of rough ground which had probably yet to be surfaced, and we could see that the stone to create the area had been cut out of the nearby hills. A line of shuttle buses waited to take us into the town, which we could see away over to our right.
We decided to wait until the queues had gone down a bit; in any case, we weren’t in any hurry because we didn’t have any excursions booked until tomorrow. In the meantime, we went up to the Artisans’ Foodhall to get some lunch, and I enjoyed a plate of cold meats and cheeses accompanied by salad and washed down with water and a cup of coffee.
We spotted Billy and Carole on the way back to our cabin, and we agreed to meet at 3.00pm to disembark and go into town, which is exactly what we did. The queue for the shuttle buses was not too onerous by this time, and soon we were on our way for the 10 minute ride into town. Trevor and I didn’t recognise anything from when we were here 13 years ago.
As we walked along the rugged, pleasant little harbour, we saw Lews Castle on the hill, and wondered whether it would be worth a walk up there. Looking at Google Maps, however, we saw that it closed at four o’clock and, as it was 3.30pm now, we wouldn’t make it up there on time.
Instead, we just strolled around the harbour, looking at the boats and the fishermen and all the signs of a town which, for many decades, has made its living from the sea. We stopped off at a sculpture of an ancient king and queen, one of those ones where there is a gap where the face should be, so you could stand behind it and put your own face in. Trevor and Billy both did the touristy thing and obliged! 🙂
We continued into the town, stopping at a shop (one of many you will see on the Western Isles) selling clothing made of the famous Harris Tweed. Many people think that Lewis and Harris are two separate islands, but in fact they are joined by a narrow strip of land. Their landscapes, however, are so different that you’d think they were two completely separate places. As such, you will find that Harris Tweed is woven in Lewis as well as Harris, and is usually done by the weavers in their own homes, using traditional pedal-powered looms.
Carole wanted to buy a Harris Tweed jacket for herself, so we went inside the shop which was doing a roaring trade, mainly from the American passengers from the Queen Anne. One guy had several carrier bags of clothing as well as a jacket over his arm. He must have spent thousands!
Carole spent some time browsing before she picked out a lovely fitted jacket in a heathery colour. I accompanied her to the fitting room where she tried it on. It was a little snug, so I went back to the rack of jackets and got the next size up, of which only one was available in that colour. The jacket fitted perfectly, but we noticed a slight puckering of the sleeve at the right-hand shoulder, and no other jacket was available, so Carole left the shop, disappointed. Billy breathed a sigh of relief though; the jacket was £295.00. However, that is just an average price for a ladies’ Harris Tweed jacket, as they are all pure wool, hand woven and quite unique to the islands.
We left the shop and walked further along, where a sign pointed us towards a craft fayre being held in a nearby village hall, so we decided to go in. Several stalls were set up, selling anything from hand-made jewellery, watercolour paintings of local scenes, hand-knitted jumpers and smaller Harris Tweed items such as handbags, purses and cushions. One stall displayed a selection of patchwork cushions, and I noticed they were selling bundles of pre-cut Harris Tweed cloth for £15.00 for 25 squares. I purchased a bundle; I am going to sew myself a Harris Tweed cushion when I get home. It will be something completely unique and a nice souvenir of our visit to Lewis. 🙂
After we’d been to the craft fayre, Billy and Carole decided to go back to the ship, but Trevor and I thought we’d stay a little longer, and go for a pint! We said our goodbyes and set off along the street in search of a bar. On the way, we saw the RNLI lifeboat come in and dock, so we took a photo of it and sent it to a friend of ours, who is a keen volunteer with the RNLI.
Soon we came across a nice-looking pub which had tables and chairs outside, but they were all occupied. We therefore went inside; it was obviously popular as it was hard to find a seat inside. Eventually we spotted an empty table and Trevor went to the bar while I bagsied the seats. Then we each enjoyed a refreshing, freezing cold beer while looking around the pub at our fellow customers – people-watching is such a great way to pass the time. 🙂
As it was well after five o’clock now, we knew we wouldn’t be back on board the Queen Anne in time for dinner, so we just decided to go to the Artisans’ Foodhall instead. We therefore didn’t hurry over our drinks, and we took our time getting back to the shuttle bus stop. We had pondered over whether to come ashore again after the show tonight, but since we discovered last month that the pubs in Scotland close fairly early on (10.30pm or even before), we didn’t think it was worth it.
When we arrived back at the cruise terminal, I was able to get a great photo of Queen Anne, her bow outlined against a cloudless sky.
It was about 6.30pm when we arrived back on board, and we dumped our bags in 4066 before getting washed and changed and going up to the self-service buffet on Deck 9. I enjoyed a selection of hot dishes, such as chilli con carne and beef stew with vegetables, followed by bread and butter pudding and custard. We were probably finished at around the same time as we would have been if we’d gone to the restaurant at the usual time.
Tonight’s entertainment featured a comedy magician called Stephen Garcia. He was pretty good actually; he did some neat tricks and illusions which were all accompanied by amusing patter and some audience participation. All in all, a decent show.
Afterwards, we hotfooted it along to the Golden Lion for the quiz, whose questions were all based around magic and mystery. As ever, we didn’t do very well. Can’t they just do a general knowledge quiz for a change?
After the quiz, I was in time for the sunset tonight, and as we made our way up to the Commodore Club on Deck 12, I ran outside onto the open decks, and managed to get a photo of a wonderful orange sky, with the mountains and rocks and railings of the ship outlined in black silhouette. It was a late sunset tonight – 21.59 hours.
We then just joined Billy and Carole for a couple of drinks – Carole persuaded me to try a classic martini made with Tanqueray gin; it was strong and refreshing.
Then we just sat there and made small talk as the sky darkened outside the big windows and night descended over Stornoway. After we’d said our goodnights, Trevor and I decided to go back to 4066 and enjoy a glass of the fizz we had bought in Edinburgh before we settled down for the night.
We had all day to enjoy Lewis tomorrow, and it was with this pleasant thought that we drifted off to sleep.