Last Day of Norwegian Cruise

The penultimate night of our cruise was our second formal night so it meant dressing up again.  We all went for comfort rather than looks, especially me.  Claire started with snails in garlic butter; that should keep the vampires away.  Mum has fruit and I had soup.

I had no choice but to order the “Surf and Turf” as it was fillet mignon and lobster tail; it would have been rude not to.  Strangely, they had basmati rice with the surf and turf which I promptly swapped for french fries.  I have never seen it offered with rice before; maybe they had lots left over from our Indian lunch.

Each day when we get back from dinner they have made a towel sculpture on the bed but tonight they had a monkey hanging from the mirror.  Claire didn't like it.

Each evening one of our waiters has made an origami paper animal for mum.  She has saved them and I thought I had better get a picture before they get squashed in her case.  Last night mum was most upset when we got back to her room and she had forgotten it so I had to go all the way back to fetch it.  I can hear you, “What a great son”.

Each morning, in the library, they offer two Sudoku’s an easy one and a hard one, along with a daily quiz and a crossword, so its my job to go there and get a copy for mum and myself.  Mum has only recently learnt how to do Sudoku but has still managed to complete the easy one every day.  She hasn't yet managed a hard one though.  I still have one hard one that I haven't managed to finish yet.  However, the quiz and crossword are impossible; they seem to have an American bias.  Because mum had the massage early in our trip, she has been sent an offer from Dolly for another one with 30% discount.  Claire has just taken her for it while she goes for a run and I am left to write the blog.  I can hear you!

They have lovely toiletries here in our rooms, made by Elemis.  A nice shampoo and a separate conditioner which I have used every day.  The soap smells and feels like spearmint.  Its just like spreading toothpaste all over your body.  Call me Mr unadventurous, but I have never spread toothpaste all over my body but I know exactly what it would feel like now.  Especially around the parts that don't put on weight.  like your feet.

Our journey along the fjord away from Ulvik was quite spectacular, but again the camera has trouble catching the same image as your eye.  While I was taking one photo, I spotted a load of people outside right at the fore of the ship, that I hadn't managed to find so I asked a chap if he knew how to get there.

He did so I headed off there.  It seems so much better when you are outside instead of looking through windows.  With the wind in your conditioned hair and whistling around your toothpaste covered body.  Unfortunately, it started to rain just as I got there.

There are streams everywhere between the mountains carrying the rain to the fjords.  They have 260 days of rain in these parts so I guess that we have been quite lucky during our trip.

I spotted a suspension bridge that didn't look high enough to get under but I suppose we must have come in this way when it was dark.  When complete, this will completely replace the ferry system which is nearby.

The ferry looks like it has already past its sell by date, a bit like our tenders.  It looks like they wont have long to wait judging from the looks of the bridge.  I guess that they have designed it to be high enough far all the current traffic that sails through these waters.

There is a huge anchor on this deck but I suspect its just for show.  We are on deck 6 where we had our lifeboat lecture on the first day.  You can walk all the way around this deck on the outside but we missed the steps through the glass doors where you can get to this part of the deck.

There is also a large bell with the date that our ship first set sail.  Thats a nice reminder of our holiday.  You can even see the bridge behind it with the shape of the bell reflecting the contour of the bridge, that was lucky.

I even managed to get part of the bell in when we went under the bridge.  By this time it was raining quite heavily and everyone else seemed to be dressed in coats with hoods (anoraks) except for me who was in sandals, short sleeved shirt and shorts.

They have a saying here in Norway, “There is no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing”.  I seem to fit into that category in more ways than one.

Never mind, I can still take a reasonable photo.  I noticed others copying my shots as I was walking away back to a covered area.  Maybe I should copy their dress sense; no don't be silly.

The last shot that I probably will ever take from the fjords is probably my personal favorite.  Taken through the rails which includes a life ring and where the perspective of the rails follow the contours of the suspension bridge and the water line even though the bridge is in reverse perspective.  That was lucky!

Of course on the final day of your cruise you have to go to the final speech where they tell you how to get off a boat.  This was a bit better as they introduced lots of the staff and crew finishing with them all singing a song.

For our final lunch they sat us on the table next to the window near our dinner table right next to the Queens Lounge sign.  Nothing but sea to see now though.  I noticed that there are large waves but they have smaller ones on them and they have even smaller ripples all over them.  I bet that the ripples have even smaller ones but I cant see that small.  These waves must increase the surface area of the sea by at least double allowing much more gases from the atmosphere to dissolve in the sea.  All I could see was sea, just think how much water must be evaporating into the atmosphere.  No wonder they have so much rain around here.

The last one is a not very good copy of the one they took of us all on our way in.  They wanted $20 dollars for it so I took a picture of the picture.  Trouble is ours was right on the bottom and the place was full because its the last day.  All the other times I have been in to copy it they have either not been there or someone has followed us to try and sell them to us.

We have had an easy afternoon today, relaxing in our room since dinner.  Mum went for another massage with Dolly and came over all relaxed and tired so she went to her room for a sleep.  It gave us chance to watch the last two episodes of the Sopranos series one because our DVD’s had to be back by 4pm.  What are we going to watch tonight?