France and Scotland

Inspiration is everywhere ~ colors, shapes, emotions ~ and we found so much of it on our trip. Our first port of call on the cruise was Le Havre, France. Marie and I chose to do a shore excursion to Monet’s home and gardens in Giverny. It was a cool but beautiful day, and the bus ride was only a bit more than an hour long. Both Marie and I were surprised to note that the landscape along the bus route looked a lot like Wisconsin. Monet’s gardens were amazingly beautiful.

And the bees were happy there (look closely).

We were fortunate to get there before the crowds got too big. Then we were taken to an old sugar beet distillery. It hasn’t been used to make sugar for a long time.

Instead it’s been converted into an event venue ~ and the food was delicious!

Our final stop on that tour was the city of Rouen and I’m saving what we saw there for a future post. The following morning our ship arrived at Edinburgh, Scotland. The Norwegian Sky was too large to dock in town so we had to ride in on a tender. As we entered the harbor we were greeted by a lighthouse, complete with a bag pipe player in a kilt!

We enjoyed walking along the Royal Mile in the city of Edinburgh. The photo at the top of this post is of the castle from the main road, but we began our walk with this view. Truly medieval.

There were even treasures in the sidewalk ~like this pretty mosaic.

The colorful shops were such a contrast to the ancient buildings.

We found oodles of shops with Harris Tweed items (note the vintage sewing machine),

and other fabric related things (there’s a vintage machine on the sign!)

The inside of this shop did not disappoint (hand-made items and another Singer machine!)

This window was at a tailor’s shop with no machine, but scissors, a needle and thread.

It was a lovely stroll down the Royal Mile – and we ended it with hot chocolate in a shop amidst the bustle of tourists and locals.

The next day we arrived in the Orkney Islands and Kirkwall along the northern coast of Scotland. The islands were so interesting and had a rugged beauty all their own, combined with so much history.

Kirkwall was filled with fun shops and a beautiful church. But we were on a mission to find Jude’s Fabric and Joke Shop. We headed to the address on our GPS.

This didn’t look promising, and we assumed it was defunct. So, we headed to the craft fairs advertised along the main street. They were great, and one of the artists told us to go to Jude’s. When we said it wasn’t there, she told us to give it another try. So we returned and went through the brown door by the garage door. Ooh – there was a sign!

We wandered for a while in the overcrowded spaces, and finally found the door (with no sign). When we asked the sales lady about our difficulty in finding the shop she responded “our customers know where to find us” 😂.

It was worth the search!

What a lot of stuff! We found the cottons along with buttons and other delights along the front wall.

And another Singer ~ this one with a hand crank!

The fabric I just had to take home with me was simply a quilters cotton, but the design of embroidered flowers looked very 3D. And notice the “Thistle Sprig” the sweet saleslady included with my purchase (a symbol of Scotland).

She was so sweet.

What a wonderful time we had in France and Scotland!