Port Stanley, Falkland Islands




This is Hans and my second time in the Falklands and not much has changed. It’s a small community of about 3,000 which doubles whenever a cruise ship docks. The locals wisely stay indoors when we’re out and about since there’s really no main street. What would be a major road is the one along the harbor and it’s thickly packed with cruise tourists all jamming into the same little gift shops.

The Falklands are an English protectorate, so everything here is in British Pounds Sterling (read expensive) and they drive on the left, mostly Range Rovers. Four wheel drive here would be fairly necessary in the chilly winter months. Today, at nearly the first day of summer, temperatures were about 12 degrees with a mix of blue sky and cloud. But the wind! Yikes. I wrapped my scarf around Teddy’s neck since I had a hood on my jacket and I was grateful for it. I was no fashion plate, and Teddy has the photo to prove it, but my ears were happy.

We stopped for a drink in the same pub Hans and I went to five years ago, but this time, we couldn’t sit outside. Too windy. Inside, the place was hopping with tourists but despite the crowds, we were served virtually instantly: two white wines, one Heineken and a basket of chips to share.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Summer Palace

Image
Wow. Our days are full of strange sights and long hours. In the bus every morning at 7:00, and never home before 5:00. The summer palace was built by Rama V to commemorate the village where he met his wife. How romantic is that! Lo hiding between the antlers The gardens are gorgeous, with topiary herds of elephants, deer and rabbits. Sounds of peacocks echo through the gardens but they remained frustratingly elusive. Their cries were augmented by the screech of other unseen birds in faraway branches. But we did see an amazing variety of bougainvillea in all colours. Hans standing by the elephant's trunk. From the walls in the Reception Hall, yellowing faded faces of Ramas I to IX gazed out from acestral photos. Each Rama is believed to be an incarnation of Vishnu. Other rooms held lacquered furniture inlaid with mother-of-pearl and stunning teak carvings. As with all Buddhist buildings, we have to remove our shoes and in some cases, we were asked the night before to dress respectfu...
Read more

At Sea

Image
Today we were scheduled to stop in Marseille but overnight the wind picked up and we apparently have heavy swells. Too heavy to allow a vessel of this size to dock safely, so the port was cancelled. Didn’t matter much to us since we hadn’t scheduled a tour and were just planning to take the shuttle into the old part of the city for a walkabout. Instead, we have a day at sea and that’s never a bad thing when you’re on a fabulous cruise liner. Already, I was part of a losing team at a game this morning and now I’m catching up on blogging. Later, who knows? There’s never a shortage of things to do on the ship. And there’s always the fitness room. I can only hope it will be full.
Read more