The last full day on a cruise this long is always bittersweet. I am ready to see something new (airport? my own bed? a different ship?) so I have to wonder sometimes how serious I really am about taking one of the “round the world” trips by ship.

Perhaps I would do much better by scheduling such a trip across several ships and different itineraries so that my trip would be broken here and there by a few breaks in port. (actually, as far as I can tell – I can do a west coast down through the Panama canal followed by a trip up the east coast. I can easily travel to Europe, across the Med, through the Suez and head for the far east. If I land in OZ, then it is not that difficult to travel around Australia and New Zealand before heading across the Pacific to Hawaii then on to Seattle or Vancouver. Easy-Peasy. And more money than I currently am interested in spending…..).

Back to the present. I always prefer cruises that have a day at sea before reaching the final destination. It gives me a day to say good bye (and collect up emails for everyone with whom I want to stay in touch, a chance to pack without pressure and plenty of time in which to use up the remaining internet minutes.

So here I am, last evening of the cruise with my two bags ready to go – one is full of clothes that I won’t need on my next journey, books, presents and various lotions and the like that are not worth putting in hand luggage. The contents of the second include yarn, needles and those clothes which need to make a trip through the washer on Tues eve so that they are ready to depart again with me on Wed.

The Sea Days Knitters

I finished the Uhuru Shawl, managed to give away three balls of yarn to other knitters, had a chance to go to the tango and cha-cha review, and traded emails with a number of people. I also made it past the mid-point on my Hanne Falkenberg Ballerina so I am hopeful about finishing it on the next cruise.

Stopping at the library, I managed to find a book or two for the airport. Dozens have been contributed by various generous people. Also from the practical who don’t want the weight in their suitcases for the returning trip. Except for a few Spanish language books, the rest are split evenly between German and English.

The ship’s crew did a display of all their countries flag in the atrium rather around the pool because of the wind.

not quite enough room for 60+ flags

And the Captain always gets the last word …

CAPT Rune