Last day in Norway before we sail the next day to Bergen

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Well it was our last full day in Norway and we tried to get the most out of it but like normally on your last day we ended up packing which seemed to take up most of the day, which is weird as I never unpacked in our Cell Block H. I just left my suitcase under the bed still full as no space in the wardrobe.

We went to the briefing on what you need to do to leave the ship so all well on the western front. We had booked on a tour of the Marble Mines starting late afternoon so that was exciting and part of the trip was to go on the Atlantic Ocean Road. This road, only 5.2 miles long, took 6 years to build during which time it was hit by 12 European windstorms. It has been classified as a National Tourist Routs and even featured on an episode of Top Gear. It was covered in snow but that was no issue for a coach driver in Norway - in the UK all traffic would have been brought to a halt. More on this trip later.

At lunch on Thursday, Rachel and I had been plotting an award ceremony for Eric. Now you are probably saying award ceremony why? Well at lunch every day Rachel and I had an orange and this is going to sound such a princess thing - but if you know me you know I can and do act on a number of occasions like a princess. I am sure you are aware a princess does not peel her own oranges and as Eric was a soldier he decided to take one for the team and be designated orange peeler. Some of the times his orange peeling skills were not quite up to scratch. So we awarded him not stripes but segments for his efforts. Rachel made an epaulette with orange segments which we glued on to a napkin. The captain decided that he should be in the ceremony also, ha ha.



So the famous five were no more as we became the 3 degrees (ha, ha); Rachel, Mike and myself set off on the coach along the Atlantic Road. The scenery is so different on land driving on roads to the scenery on the ship. If honest it was really great to see the scenery from the road. We stopped at Eldhusoya at the start of the Atlantic Road for approximately 20 minutes and walked around the circular boardwalk and back to the coach. We had an amazing sunset and I was so hopeful on our last night that we would see the amazing northern lights in all their glory, but unfortunately we did not - I suppose you cannot switch a light switch on and hey presto you get the northern lights. We then went to Bergtatt which is a working marble mine. You have to get kitted up i.e. hard hats and life vests, as you enter the mines in rafts that take you across an illuminated crystal clear lake. This again was stunning. I bet you are getting really fed up with me saying stunning, picturesque etc but Norway or the parts of Norway we have seen are just this. Unfortunately photos honestly do not do justice to this magical country. Once we are taken back to the entrance they take us to a massive cave with a stage and we are given vegetable soup and whilst eating we are treated to a concert on the big screen of a local tribute Elvis band. Yes you read that correctly, we were in a marble mine with a stage and an Elvis tribute band. Once the soup was eaten we were then shown a couple of videos on the mine and how it works and what the future is. It appears the marble they produce (250,000 tons a year) is then ground very, very thinly and used to provide the gloss on high class paper. As you all know, we are using less and less paper and probably even less high class paper as we are all moving digitally. Their thoughts are that they would like to get investment for data centres - I am thinking good luck with that one as the US have seemed to corner the market in this space.



Anyway we return to the ship at Molde where the famous footballer Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was born and where he now lives again. Well we have sacked Rachel as she forgot to bring a couple of hip flasks of G&Ts for our journey on the coach . She will have to make a lot of amends for that one!!!!!!!



After a nice night of chatting we all get to bed as tomorrow we have to get our bags out in the morning.



So it is an unforgettable ending to a fantastic journey. Unfortunately we knew we were going to have a day of waiting i.e. waiting to dock, waiting for first flight to Amsterdam and then waiting for another flight from Amsterdam to Manchester and then by car home - or so we think.



This time we made sure once we got to Amsterdam instead of having something to drink/eat we would go straight to the gate as we were not going to make the same mistake as going to Norway when we nearly missed our flights.



Whilst waiting for our first flight we find out the the UK is going to have a major snowstorm. So we are a bit on edge that would Manchester Airport be closed due to snow - we worried that we would be stranded in /Amsterdam but it was silly to worry as number 1 you cannot change anything and number 2 it did not happen.



So land in Manchester and it is snowing but not to bad if honest but we are on our village facebook page and David who was looking after the house sent us a message saying I would not try and cross the fell to our village as it was impassable. Once we dropped off Eric and Sue to their house we set off to see if we could get home - this was a mistake as we managed to get to Winfields in Haslingdon and we knew then with the snow on the ground we would struggle to make it home - so rang Sue as she had kindly said if you cannot make it come back as they had a room we could use. So we turn around and make it back and by this time are totally shattered so before my head hit the pillow I was asleep - it felt really weird sleeping in a bed and not a day bed!

We are now back home and planning our next adventure.

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