Goodbye Viking Neptune

We were up early this morning to get ready to vacate the room by 8:00 AM. Our bags were gone last night. I sent off 4 bags, 3 suitcases and my carry on bag. I still had a very heavy backpack, tote bag and my purse. I will have to whittle all that down for the flight on Saturday. I’m hoping to shove the purse in the tote bag. We said goodbye to our steward, Tedhi. He is the same age as my son, Chris and is from Malaysia. He started in Los Angeles and will go home in July. He was the most wonderful steward, very helpful and he took care of us when we were both sick. I wanted to take him home!

We had our last breakfast in the World Cafe. Everyone, crew and guests was saying goodbye. The crew seemed happy that we were leaving and were looking forward to new people this afternoon. It must be hard for such a quick turnaround, especially for the housekeeping crew. From now to the end of the year, there will be short cruises for the Neptune. The next world cruise will leave the end of the year.
‘We boarded the Uber Boat at 9:15 for the short ride to the pier. The tide was out so the exit ramp was a steep incline to get to the top. Not easy with a heavy backpack, purse and full tote bag. Then we walked a bit to where the luggage was waiting. We got porters to get our bags to the bus. Since I had 4, there was no way I could handle them with all my other gear. I hope we can get one at the airport on Saturday.
We had a Viking representative on the bus with us. She gave us a commentary as we drove into London. It took about 45 minutes. We arrived at the hotel. It’s not a huge place but very modern. With 2 bus loads of cruisers, it was pretty crowded. We checked in and learned that our room wouldn’t be ready til 3:00.
‘We checked our carry on things and went to lunch around noon. There is a pub in the hotel so we went there. We shared a burger and fries. It was the best burger we’ve had in ages. We were sitting in the front window so we could watch the world go by. When we decided to leave we just got up and started to walk away, forgetting that we’re not on the ship and we had a bill to pay!! We got a big laugh out of that.
‘We talked to a couple on the way out who told us there is a post office down the street. I decided to take my tote bag and ship some things home. Bunny waited at the hotel. It was a block to the post office. British post offices are more the just post offices. I was able to change my Euros to Pounds, then spent most of them on the postage. At least the tote bag has less weight and I can cram my purse in it for boarding.
‘When I came back I checked to see if the room was ready. It was, so we picked up our carry on things and came to the room over an hour ago. I called about having luggage delivered. It’s still not here.

While we were waiting for the room, we talked to the Viking representative and made reservations to go on the London Eye and a Thames River cruise tomorrow . Then we walked over to the Concierge desk and got tickets to go see the Tina Turner play tonight. So our time is filled. We will get to see most of London from the Eye. I hope the Tina show is good.

Photos:The gang at the last dinner. We will miss them very much. Life will be pretty quiet when we get home, the Thames flood barrier on the way through it, 3 Cutty Sark photos, a carousel on the plaza by the ship, the sign in the pub in Greenwich with the 0.0 listing-right on the prime meridian, a photo of the Greenwich market , an antiques market.