NORWAY
A new adventure
Part Four
FRIDAY 3 SEPTEMBER
We woke up to sunshine dazzling the North Sea. Having left Stavanger around 5.30 the previous evening, we were well on our way home.
Breakfast was a leisurely affair again and afterwards we went up on Sky Deck, by definition the top one. It was nice and warm port side but starboard, which was very much in shadow, was a lot, lot cooler. We went right up to the front of the ship, not that there was anything but sea to see apart from the odd distant boat hanging on the edge of the horizon.
After lunch in the Waterside, we went to see a talent show. This was really good, and was proof that there are many ordinary people who are able to sing a darn sight better than many alleged stars. One was a lass of just ten years of age. She sang what I thought was quite a difficult song to sing very well. One of the secrets of singing a song properly is knowing when to come back in after a break and she was spot on.
We then returned to the cabin and started packing. The cases had to be placed outside the cabin by 8.00 in the evening, so we changed into the clothes we would be wearing in the morning. The less we had to pack into the wheelchair bag and my camera bag the better.
Our final dinner in the Cinnamon Restaurant was spent in the company of a party of four people and made for an entertaining couple of hours. Then it was back to the cabin for final preparations for the following day.
SATURDAY 4 SEPTEMBER
I did not have the best of nights for some reason – it happens occasionally and hacks me off no end. We needed to be out of the cabin by 8.00 in the morning and I had booked a wake-up call. Anyway we were up and out of the cabin shortly after 8.00 and went up to the Waterside for a final breakfast.
To try to reduce the chaos of two thousand people disembarking at the same time at Southampton we all had different coloured disembarkation cards and a note of when we could expect to be called. This aspect of the procedure seemed to work well and we left Ventura for the last time just after 9.30. Baggage reclaim was pretty painless and then we headed out of the terminal to find the car.
I left Maggie and the cases at a point where I could pick her up after retrieving the car. An hour and a half later I did precisely that! Getting out of the car park was a total nightmare as several hundred cars tried to leave at the same time. Thankfully everyone was pretty relaxed – there really is no point being otherwise – and there were no untoward incidents.
Eventually we were on our way home. Again I found the route from the Docks to the M27 motorway pretty straightforward, and then it was foot down to the floor. About an hour and a half later we arrived home. I think Sky, our cat, was pleased to see us, although she was more than a tad disgruntled at first. But we were home after a marvellous week, experiencing cruising for the first time.
People have asked me since if I would do it again. My response is ‘never say never’. The great thing about it is that it is something that caters for people like Maggie so much better than flying does. And after eight years of not being able to go abroad, for her to be able to do this was so fantastic. She thoroughly enjoyed the experience, as did I of course. This was the great positive of the holiday, leaving aside everything we saw and everywhere we visited. Certainly, all that helped to make it such an unforgettable week. So, never say never! Indeed we have not knocked the idea out of court, and if the opportunity arose then yes, we would do it, perhaps going a bit further north simply to experience the Aurora Borealis, or Northern Lights. Now that would be something else! But for now, we have such precious memories of our first ever cruise, of Bergen, Olden, the fjords and Stavanger and of course the Ventura.
