Final day at sea; packing, checking and saying goodbyes, then home

The adventure finished as it started...the photographer had been chasing me around the ship for photos all the time. He spent ages attempting to catch me off guard and I had remained vigilant....until Cobh. He caught me.

I had walked off the ship behind another lady who had obscured him and his camera. At the very last minute I spotted him, too late, he laughed, I laughed and this was the result. I was amazed it came out so well, so promptly bought it. Lets face it how could I resist, it's another memory and all memories are fun to recall.

 As we finally came into Southampton, I went to deck 6 and had my last ginger ale. I sat in one of rounds and watch the coast slip by and get closer to the centre of Southampton. My cases were long gone and I had left my cabin for the last time. I wouldn't be returning to 5009, that would be occupied by the next passenger off on a weeks trip to Norway.


I went along and thanked the bar staff who had been such fun and then headed back into the Market Place for my last round of goodbyes to the chef, the waiters and to the others I had had such excellent banter with throughout the trip.

The last and possibly most important person was my cabin steward, a lovely, quiet man who worked quickly and smiled always. He gave me towel folded elephants and hippopotamus and blue towelling hearts with red petals inside. He gave me extra teabags and milk and was always keen to offer me whatever he could to make my time even better. He was wonderful and I thank him for that.

It came over the tannoy, group one was ready to depart. It would be me very shortly as I was group four. I would be picking up a taxi and getting to the station for 09:00. With luck and good connections I would be home for around midday.

I'm not thinking about that just yet, I'm still floating around Iceland, Cobh, Bruges and Amsterdam and if you don't mind I'm staying there for a few days.

Tenerife next and that's about 7 weeks away........happy days.