Falmouth, England, UK

---

Today was the culmination of the first part of the trip - we had circumnavigated the globe in the east to west direction arriving at Falmouth at 7.00 am. We had to say goodbye to all our friends from this leg of our journey. If any of you read this blog we will really miss you all. We are hoping to meet up with Stewart and Pam again when we get to Cape Town.

We also moved cabins from Deck 5 to Deck 7. More about this in a later blog.

We met up with Mopsy and Popsy (M's parents) at about 10.00 am. Mopsy had done brilliantly and managed to get most of M's shopping list. First stop was Azda for a runny egg for breakfast and some new clothes (M had gone up a size and D needed some new ones). This was a fairly efficient exercise with not too much time wasted. Next we returned to the ship where we took our goodies on board and returned with Xmas presents that we had purchased for family and things that we did not require (clothes too small etc) for collection when we return. We were hoping that Mopsy & Popsy would be able to come on board and have a tour of the Van Gogh but this was not permitted because of the press presence on the quay (due to Travelscope going into Administration). Instead they had to settle with viewing the ship from the shore and they said that the ship was bigger than expected.

We then went into town where we purchased some sweets and the few missing things from the list. We then HAD to go on the internet to perform some housekeeping functions which we achieved in the library in Falmouth. Incidentally, this was the most expensive internet access we had in our whole trip around the globe. Next a new fleece for M who lost hers on New Years Eve and is a must for watching movies in the cinema as the air conditioning is very cold. By now it was around 2.30 pm and was raining. All aboard was 3.30 pm so this did not leave much time for us to spend with Mopsy & Popsy who had got a 6 hour drive back to Southend to look forward to in the rain and dark. We suggested a coffee/beer in a pub but Mopsy understandably wanted to get away with as much daylight as possible as the rain was making driving conditions worse. The four of us returned to the port where we chatted for 15 minutes or so before re-embarking in the rain.

It was really lovely to see M's parents but the time went much too quickly. We had forgotten how early it gets dark in England in January having spent most of the past 3 months in the southern hemisphere where it is summer. We could never have managed to get all the things that we needed if M's mum and dad hadn't purchased most of the shopping for us. THANKYOU very much Mopsy and Popsy. We will make it up to you when we get back - promise!

We made a few phone calls and spoke to friends and family (you know who you are - it was really nice to talk to you). Congratulations Marc and Julie - we will be at the wedding (take this as the RSVP).

Lastly M would like to thank her parents for the lovely presents that they bought her. We wish we had more time to spend actually catching up but time in port goes far too quickly!

---