20260330 Viking Vela Northern Lights and British Isles - Day 15/32

Viking Vela In Search of the Northern Lights and British Isles Explorer Cruise Day 15/32 – Tilbury, England, United Kingdom - Turnaround Day

We awoke, alongside and docked in Tilbury, England, part of the Port of London Authority. This is the last day of the In Search of the Northern Lights cruise and the first day of the British Isles Explorer cruise.

Our view for the next two days

Let's talk about that for a minute because there is always confusion. This is England, right? Or, is it more properly the United Kingdom? Or, is it the British Isles? What bout Great Britain?

I'll let Google AI explain it for me:

The United Kingdom (UK): A sovereign state (a political union) comprising England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. Its full name is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Great Britain: The largest island in the archipelago, consisting of three nations: England, Scotland, and Wales. It is a geographical term, though it is often used as a shorthand for the UK, it does not include Northern Ireland.

The British Isles: A geographical term for the group of islands off the northwestern coast of Europe. This includes Great Britain, the entire island of Ireland (both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland), the Isle of Man, and thousands of smaller surrounding islands. 

Differences Summary

Northern Ireland is in the UK, but not in Great Britain.

The Republic of Ireland is in the British Isles, but is an independent country, not in the UK.

Great Britain is a landmass; the UK is a country; the British Isles is a geographical region. 

Got it?

On this cruise, we will stop in England, Wales, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and finally return to Bergen, Norway, where our entire journey began.

Everyone had to vacate their staterooms by 8:00 so the crew could turn the cabins for the next guests. Us? We didn't get out of bed until 8:15. It's good to be an in-transit guest. We had a leisurely breakfast in the World Café before leaving the ship to go through immigration. Before the trip, we were required to obtain an electronic travel authorization (ETA), the U.K. form of a visa, to enter the United Kingdom. We both did that, paying $22.75 each for the privilege. When we went to immigration, the agent glanced at our passports and handed them back. No scanning, no lookup, no verifying the ETA, nothing. Well, that seemed worth it. (read: sarcasm)

After coming back to the room briefly, we decided to take a walk to Tilbury Fort. It was closed to visitors, but it was something to do.

A proper U.K. flag with the Vela in the background

We are docked on the Thames, directly across from Gravesend

The Thames? Wait, isn't that a river? Doesn't a river have water? That means Arlona will want to touch it! Well, that was the plan. On the way to the fort, we found a way down to the shore. There was sand leading up to the water, or so she thought...

Yes, that is her second shoe stuck in the muck - she had already lost the first one in the boggy grass and was carrying it

She was already committed, so muddy socks and all, in she went

The aftermath

They say that responsible travelers take only memories and leave only footprints - mission accomplished

This seemed appropriate

We passed the World's End Bar, the oldest bar in Tilbury. In fact, the bar was here before the town. 

It's been here since the 1700s

We visited on a Monday - it's closed on Monday and Tuesday

We continued on to the fort.

The beginning of the fortification walls

Water Gate

Tilbury Fort is considered the finest surviving example of late-17th-century military engineering in Britain. 

It was originally built in 1539, and then redesigned and expanded in the 1670s

With the sky turning from blue to overcast, and the upped 40sF temps and 15MPH biting winds, not to mention Arlona's muddy feet, we decided to make the short walk back to the Vela. Back in the room, her muddy shoes, socks, pants, gloves, hat, and jacket were peeled off, and a load of laundry was in order. Since we had some other dirty clothes, we decided to take advantage of the fact that nobody was on the ship and do two loads.

Between washing and drying, we grabbed lunch in the World Café. New guests were slowly arriving. We continued to take advantage of the low guest population and went to the gym for a quick workout. After a quick shower, we were feeling fed, pumped, and squeaky clean.

Embarkation day usually doesn't come with many activities, and today was no exception. Ship tours and spa tours were the only things happening this afternoon. Tonight's only activities are a couple of documentaries. So it's a slow day on the Vela, letting the new guests get acclimated to their home for the next 13 days. The pier was a flurry of activity, with trash being unloaded and supplies and passenger luggage being loaded.

We stopped by the officer's board to see all the changes for this cruise.

We have a new Staff Chief Engineer, Cruise Director, and Travel Consultant - we have sailed with Kate, the Cruise Director, on Viking Star in 2022, and Victor, the Travel Consultant, on Viking Yi Dun in China in 2025

We went a little early to the Explorers Bar for a cocktail. 

Sun rays shining down on the Thames

We really like the Explorers Bar because it is typically a great place to meet people and have interesting conversations. Usually. On the last cruise, and this cruise, at least the first night, people are simply not social. Nobody wants to sit and chat at the bar. Couples will sit and turn their backs and just talk between the two of them. It's weird and different from other cruises we've been on. I don't know what to attribute that to.

Dinner tonight was at Chef's Table for the second night in a row. Tonight's menu was Asian Panorama.

It was another nice meal in Chef's Table. We returned to the room to watch the recorded port talk for Tilbury to verify our plans for tomorrow. We are taking Viking's included tour, Iconic London, tomorrow at 8:00 am. It is a three-hour panoramic bus tour through London, bookended with one-hour bus rides from and to the port in Tilbury.

20260329 Viking Vela Northern Lights and British Isles - Day 14/32

Viking Vela In Search of the Northern Lights and British Isles Explorer Cruise Day 14/32 – IJmuiden, Netherlands - Wind Turbines, Windmills, Tulip Farming

Tulips aren't natively Dutch, as they are originally from Türkiye

We slept in this morning, mainly due to the one-hour time change overnight. We barely made breakfast at the World Café before they closed at 10:00. They were hustling to get set up for a Reuben Sandwich at 11:00 so folks on excursions could get an early lunch. We figured that we would just skip lunch today.

We spotted these odd protrusions from the ocean on the sail into IJmuiden.

Arlona guessed that the yellow things might be bases for a wind farm

As we continued sailing, we saw this.

Arlona was right, given that we passed multiple wind farms as we continued toward IJmuiden

The Netherlands is betting heavily on wind power, both onshore and offshore

We entered the harbor, protected by a nice breakwall.

You can see another offshore wind farm in the distance

Multiple lighthouses greeted us at this industrial port

Onshore turbines

Our planned docking time was noon, and we arrived right on schedule. We went to the Star Theater at 12:30 for our tour departure. Today, we took the optional tour, Dutch Countryside & Tulip Farm. We boarded Bus 18 and left the port.

Leaving the cruise terminal

Our first glimpse of a non-turbine windmill

We passed huge fields of daffodils

More windmills

The top of the windmill can be manually turned to align the blades with the prevailing wind

More planted fields

Hervormde Kerk Avenhorn church and a quaint house next door

Hervormde Kerk Avenhorn church

Hervormde Kerk Avenhorn church

We saw lots of homes with these unusually trimmed trees

Many homes had thatched roofs

The houses are just so cute

More interesting trees

We arrived at the Pronk Tulip farm, family-owned since 1959

We toured the Pronk operation that produces over 23 million tulips annually. Most are used to produce more bulbs for resale as well as replanting. Flowers from other bulbs are harvested and bundled for auction and sale.

Trays of bulbs starting to sprout

This bulb had just sprouted

They are kept in temperature-controlled rooms until they are exposed to light and water

This was the end of this growing season - this room would normally be filled with trays, floor-to-ceiling

Robotic machines that place bulbs into growing trays

The immature bulbs are exposed to different wavelengths of LED light to promote growth

The greenhouse has two levels - more mature plants are on top and exposed to sunlight

A tray of young plants

So many tulips

As the trays of plants mature, they are automatically moved through the greenhouse to different stations for light and water - they grow in water without any dirt or chemicals

The thick leaves protect the flower

That white box hanging down is a climate sensor, monitoring and controlling temperature and humidity

Automated systems move large containers of trays of tulips along the growing path - this includes moving them upstairs after the LED light treatment, and back downstairs for harvesting

Plants nearly ready for harvesting

They grow multiple varieties of tulips

Inferior bulbs unsuitable for planting are discarded - local farmers grab the tractor and trailer full of them and use them for compost

Automated bundling machines that trim the bulb and bundle groups of ten stems

The stems are wrapped and packed for shipment to the auctions, where they are sold and distributed worldwide

These are shorter and lower-quality - white wrappers are used

The premium-quality stems are bundled and sold under a different brand name

We only saw the greenhouse operation. They also plant outdoors with high-tech systems for monitoring, quality control, and harvesting. It is quite an operation and is making the transition toward modern tulip farming quite successfully. It was really interesting hearing all the information from a Pronk family member, and you could really feel the passion that the family has for tulips.

On the way back to the ship, we made a brief photo stop at the Schemermolens Windmills.

We didn't get to tour the museum, as we only had a few minutes for photos

The weather had changed from sunny to overcast, cold, and quite windy

The wind affected Arlona's hair more than it did mine

So quintessentially Dutch

As we arrived at the port, we saw a group of what appeared to be reindeer

We arrived back at the Vela a little before 5:00. We got changed and went to the Explorers Bar for a cocktail and to watch the sail out. We departed promptly at 6:00, leaving the protection of the breakwall and heading into the rocky North Sea.

The crazy Dutch were taking advantage of the brisk wind, even with the chilly temperature, to windsurf and kite surf

Exiting the breakwall

We dined at Chef's Table tonight. Chef's Table has a fixed menu each night. Every three days, they change to a new menu. Tonight's menu was British.

We enjoyed dinner. Everything was quite good. We booked Chef's Table tomorrow night too. It will be a new menu, and I'll share that tomorrow.

After dinner, we went to Torshavn for a solo performance from one of the resident vocalists, Libby.

She is quite an accomplished singer at only 21 years old - we really enjoyed her performance

A highlight of the evening was seeing our friend, and incoming Cruise Director, Kate Syrett. We sailed with her in 2022 on our world cruise, and she is a wonderful person. We're excited to have her as our Cruise Director for this British Isles cruise.

So good to catch up with Kate

Tonight is the final night of the "In Search of the Northern Lights" cruise. Only 16 of us are continuing on for the "British Isles Explorer" cruise. That means luggage - a lot of it - in the hallway for delivery to the terminal tomorrow morning. Thankfully, we don't need to deal with that for a couple more weeks.

Bags waiting for pick-up

Tomorrow morning, we will dock in Tilbury, one of London's ports. We will need to leave the ship to go through immigration before 10:00 am. We may take a walk in the port. The weather will play a role in our decision.

Tonight, we received our excursion tickets for this next cruise. We also received new stateroom key cards. Tomorrow at 10:00 am, our new ones will become active. We've done back-to-back cruises before and haven't gotten new keys. Weird.

This has been a good cruise. We look forward to continuing on with another great experience traveling through the British Isles. We get the hour back tonight that we lost last night as we shift to London time, so we get a bonus hour of sleep tonight.