Travel – Page 97 – Life is a Journey

UK – Day 6 – Bound for the Baltics

Posted on July 7, 2010October 10, 2026 by Libby Withnall

We are absolutely thrilled with the size of our room and glad we didn’t get the balcony – as that extra space is in our room :-).

After getting our bags unpacked and everything sorted and put away we went for a wander around the ship. It’s quite a nice size – big but not too big. But because we’ve not sailed this class before it’s going to take us a while to learn our way around.

At 4.30pm we had muster but we didn’t have to take our life jackets and we just went to the theatre – very civilized. It’s amazing how different places have different regulations.

Since sailaway was scheduled for 6pm – right when we’d be at dinner – we had our ritual cocktail beforehand. Amy and I had virigin pina coladas.

We enjoyed those then went back to the room for a little while before heading to dinner. It was caotic getting into dinner – with everyone having to be taken to their tables the first night. I was happy to be seated next to the window and the best part was our lovely table companions from Canada, Melissa and Osbourne, and their two little girls,, Alyssa and Anna, who are 7 and 9.

Dinner was delicious – Onion tart, vegetable quesadillas and strawberry pavlova.

We had planned to go to the Welcome Aboard show but it had already started by the time we left dinner. The girls wanted to go for a swim but when we went down the outdoor pool was closed for maintainence and they were not allowed to use the indoor pool (it’s only available for kids at certain times). So I got myself a cup of tea (no tea making facilities in our cabin – shock horror!!!!) and we went back to our room. We’re looking forward to a fun day at sea tomorrow.

Leaving Harwich…

UK – Day 6 – Setting Sail

Posted on June 24, 2010October 10, 2026 by Libby Withnall

Finally a bit of a sleep in. I didn’t wake until 6am today :-). I started typing up yesterdays blog while Christy was asleep but once she awoke I moved to packing up all our stuff. We enjoyed our last breakfast at the B&B.

Just before 10am the van arrived to drive us to Harwich. It took nearly 2 hours but it was a nice drive through the English countryside. I was very excited to catch my first glimpse of the ship.

Check in hadn’t yet started so we had a bit of a wait till we could check in, then we were on board. Unfortunately we can’t go to our room yet as they sanitising all rooms (after having virus onboard the cruise before last). We set up camp and had lunch at Windjammers.

I started with some Asparagus Soup.

I then hopped online to finish up yesterdays blog post.

I later enjoyed some salad – love the salads you can get onboard.

It’s 2pm and they’ve just announced we can go to our cabins so we’re off to drop off our luggage and explore the ship. I’ll try and update when I can.

UK – Day 5 – Please Sir can I have some more?

Posted on June 24, 2010October 10, 2026 by Libby Withnall

More of London that is. I can’t believe it’s our last day. Time has gone so fast and we’ve seen and done so much.

The day started out like every other – waking around 5am, playing on laptops, getting ready for the day, breakfast watching the kitties play and catching the tube.

First stop today was the London Eye. It was such a beautiful and a whole lot quieter than I’m glad we skipped going the other day. The 3D experience was enjoyable but only because there was no waiting for it. Luckily there was only a few minutes wait to get on the Eye as well and we had a fantastic view. It was certainly something to do once but the kids were a little bored.

We then walked over the bridge to Westminster Abbey – eating an ice cream as we went.

We were also lucky enough to be passing Big Ben right at 11am and got to hear it chime.

Westminster Abbey is amazing. Unfortunately we had just missed the last verger guided tour (at 11am) so had to make do with the audio one. We encountered our first unhelpful Londoner who wouldn’t let Christy do the audio tour. Apparantly all under 10s get bored and start swinging their audio players around! We just sent Amy over to another guide to collect one. And of course, she listened and didn’t swirl her player around even once :-). No photos inside but I got plenty of the outside.

Kevin was excited to find the graves of Issac Newton and Charles Darwin. I was amazed that Elizabeth I is buried over the top of Mary I. Just an amazing place. So full of history. We had lunch in the courtyard cafe.

We then walked to the nearest tube station and went to Baker Street – home not only of Sherlock Holmes but Madame Trussards.

Some of the celebrities we met…

Charles Darwin in case you didn’t know.

And we even got to meet the Queen of England.

Christy loved doing the little ride at the end. We also did the Marvel Superhero 4D ride which was fun. Since it was only 2pm we decided to go to visit Buckingham Palace so Christy could see the gates that my Poppa painted.

Both girls were suffering with blisters so we decided to catch a black cab to Covent Garden.

Upon arrival in Covent Garden we went in search of somewhere to sit and rest our weary feet. We eventually found a Marks and Spencer and shared some ice cream sundaes.

We then wandered around for a bit, bought Christy a handbag, watched some of the entertainment. After another wander around we sat and the girls waited, in vain, for some street entertainers.

And Kevin & I enjoyed some fresh raspberries.

Christy also played with the video camera. We now have some very riveting footage of the local pigeons.

We then walked over to the Royal Theatre where we were to meet my old school friend, Sue, for dinner before the show.

It was so good catching up after reconnecting on facebook. I haven’t seen her for 25 years and she was THE BEST company.

Dinner was yummy.

The girls loved this puffy bread.

All too soon we had to say farewell to Sue and head across the road to the theatre to see the musical Oliver.

The show was great. Amy fell asleep and missed half the show. I must say I was that tired my eyes closed a few times as well. The show was fantastic though. Christy loved it – esp. all the kids. I couldn’t believe how many were in the cast.

After the show we staggered back to the tube station and went home to Southgate for the last time. Because we were all so tired and the girls had blisters we caught another black cab. Then it was straight to bed. It was 11pm but boy it had been a busy, long, day. We’ve loved London but are looking forward to two more relaxing days.

UK – Day 4 – Science & shopping

Posted on June 23, 2010October 10, 2026 by Libby Withnall

Unfortunately I awoke a little on the early side today – around 3.30am – and couldn’t get back to sleep. Kevin & Amy woke around 4.30am and Christy a while later. Once again I used the time to blog and play on the computer. Just before 8am we went downstairs for breakfast. Today we were greeted with the delicious smell of warm crossiants.

We set off, with Kevin taking our “setting out for the day” photo. As you can tell warm weather of 25deg is forecast for today. We haven’t even packed jackets (except for Christy) so they’d better be right.

We caught the tube all the way to South Kensington today – 19 stations and a short walk later we were at the Science Museum. We had about a 10min wait till it opened.

Kevin had wanted to come to this museum but he was a little disappointed as a lot of renovation work was going on.

We stopped for some morning tea. I can’t get over the healthy food choices available here and the fact that so much is organic. All the disposable plates were recyclable, the cutlery was bambo and fairtrade tea, yet again. I tried my first flapjack – can I just say YUM!

Probably the best part for the girls was this great interactive area. We probably spent around an hour here, but it was a bit overrun with bad mannnered school kids.

We then walked next door to the Natural History Museum. This was just one of the entrances.

This was another caotic, busy, hard to find your way around museum. We decided to leave lunch till Harrods so had a quick snack. I had organic popcorn! We then set off to explore.

Can’t say I particularly enjoyed my visit here but Amy was in one of her “tween” moods which didn’t help. We paid to go “The Deep” exhibition but it was a bit of a fizzler.

I did like seeing the deep sea fish though – very weird!

We then walked to Harrods, stopping along the way for a photo in a red phone booth.

So many beautiful buildings. Especially set against a lovely blue sky.

And so to Harrods….

First stop…FOOD! Another maze of a shop. We eventually found the kid friendly Wonderland cafe. Try not to faint when you see the prices (just under double for Australian dollars).

We ordered 3 bowls of Sweet Potato Soup, which was made with the amazing care and attention. And was delicious!

And a bowl of fries for Christy. Who had fun watching Tom & Jerry while eating her lunch.

We had a visit here from Evil Tween Amy so it was an expensive but not an especially nice lunch. I was mean Mum and made her buy her own water – I refused to pay 4.50 pounds (around $8AU) for a bottle of water, when we had some in our bag.

I had to laugh when I looked out the door of our cafe (with cartoons on the TV) and across into the next restuarant with a man playing the piano.

We then did a small amount of shopping. The girls were just amazed by the pet section.

And these pet cupcakes look good enough to eat.

We also watch a Vitamix presentation and were amazed to discover all it can make – including hot raw soup. The samples made were delicious and we’re looking forward to playing with our vitamix some more.

Back on the tube. When we got on there was only one seat which I told Amy to sit in as she’d whinged the most. Immediately the man sitting beside her (complete with tattooed scalp) jumped up to give me his seat. Just goes to show you can’t judge manners based on looks. My feet, and I, thanked him, as did Christy who sat on my lap. Back in Southgate we had dinner once again the Charcoal Grill. I ordered the pita with hummus, which was delicious, but too much. We seemed to have a LOT of leftover food tonight.

We then walked home – it was such a warm night and there seemed to be a lot of people around. Still so light at 7pm.

I washed all our underwear in the bath and hung them around the bathroom. We had planned to do a full wash but found out there in no laundromat in Southgate and we’d have to catch the tube and lug all our laundry. Plus we don’t really have the time. So we’ll need to pay to get everything washed on the cruise :-(. We watched a few episodes of Airline and then everyone gradually went off to sleep. I was the last one standing (or lying in bed as the case may be) at 9.30pm.

We have a big day tomorrow – the London Eye, Westminster Abbey, Madam Trussards, dinner with an old school friend and seeing the musical Oliver. Can’t believe it’s already our last day in London.

Goldies spotted today – zero 🙁