A boat, a very big boat

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So this year is a different year. I have no control over where we go, instead I'm letting a nice man with a big boat drive us to places. So we started the journey on Thursday with a dive to southampton, picking Seth up from nursery pre nap assuming that he'd sleep for the first hour..... He didn't. 2 hours in and very cheery but getting closer to actual bed time, we did a hard reset of the boy (services, changed, dummy, no peppa, hand holding) and finally he dozed. We negotiated the horror of Southampton (twice after a wrong turn) and found a co-op in the ghetto before finally getting to my friends house. Here we settled in for the night. The next morning was all too calm and organised, we should probably have expected that, at the exact moment the taxi arrived, the torrential rain got torrentialer and we knocked a glass off the draining board into several million pieces..... Crisis eventually dealt with we got on our way (forgetting, in our haste, Seth's reins and Ash's shoes, whoops!).
We timed the terminal arrival unusually well (although, note to self, don't wear so many layers and don't put toy cars in bags as apparently they look like knives on scanners) in front of 900 people arriving on coaches, boarded in the rain and pretty much fell over with the sheer crazy of this boat. We definitely lower the tone....

After a red arrows fly past as the three cunard queens lined up we were off.

Aside from a few dress code related incidents, the day at sea passed calmly as we made our way to Norway. I can highly recommend teaching your 22 month old to say the name of the country you're going to for instant admiration of middle aged cruise couples! We explored the buffet several times, the kids zone, the pools and Seth very much enjoyed the lifts!

Kristiansand saw us reminded of why Norway, however lovely is TOO EXPENSIVE; 2 teas.. A tenner, a hotdog and coke from a street vendor 15 quid. Seth however loved the sparrows and pigeons (what with the lifts and birds, I'm starting to think we should have just taken him to Nottingham city centre for a week) we saw fountains, boats and a skinhead Alan Cousins, a great day all in all, next stop, Copenhagen

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