Monday was full with getting the last few things on my pre-trip list done, including a Wal-Mart run over lunch for a pair of black dress pants for dinners on the ship. The body shop had taken over dealing with my insurance company and assured me I could leave the car even though he didn't have final approval and he'd get it done. Work went swimmingly, getting the last few things done, and I was out the door right at 5:00 with out-of-office messages on both email and voice mail. Done and ready to boogie! I went to knitting and then finished packing when I got home. I was 95% done and had time yet in the morning.
The plan was to pick Anne up at 9:15 and then drive to the body shop, which was right by campus, to drop off my car. Anne's friend, Beth, was meeting us there and dropping us at the airport. I woke up at my regular time so had a leisurely morning before heading to Lincoln. We had a bit of a snafu with luggage and despite having paid with Anne's United card, I had to pay for my luggage. Oh well. Since we had separate tickets from Lincoln>Chicago and then Chicago>London, we had a long layover planned. Luckily Anne had one-day passes for the United Club and while we had to backtrack to the first terminal, we had a lovely afternoon snacking on free food and enjoying the free wifi, after which we headed to our next flight. It was uneventful and, of course, we got almost no sleep. At least we enjoyed the Elton John movie.
Exhausted but happy, we were in the UK. We made our way to the coach station and bought one-way tickets to Bristol. We were both asleep before the coach left the depot and only woke up when it stopped in Bristol. Bridget was there to meet us and it was great to see her smiling face. She drove us to our AirB&B, where we dumped our bags and headed to the local pub for some lunch and catching up. Then we drove to a little craft shop, where I bought a skein of sock yarn. Go figure. We walked around the cute downtown area but our energy was flagging so we ended up back at the B&B, where we chatted the evening away.
We got on the ship and found our cabin easily. Unfortunately there was a note on the bed saying we would not be going to the Faroes due to bad weather so would be starting with 3 sea days and would be circumnavigating Iceland in the opposite direction so all our plans had to be remade. Not our problem though. After a mandatory lifeboat drill, we found a spot to knit on the aft deck until dinner time. First up was getting changed for a cocktail party to meet the knitting group and then dinner, where we had 3 full tables and the people we sat with were all nice. It was going to be a fun time.
The storm that was making it impossible for us to go to the Faroe Islands was also making for rough seas. Six meter waves! There were sick bags hanging every 2 feet along the cabin decks and on every stair rail but neither Anne nor I needed them. You could not stand up without holding onto something and walking was problematic. Oh well.
We had a dedicated conference room for our classes and our designer was lovely. We had morning and afternoon classes and got to know everyone while learning Icelandic knitting. Between classes, we were eating all the time - breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea and dinner before ending the days knitting by the bar on deck 9. I was totally enjoying the time on the ship, unlike my previous Carnival cruise, and it was a good thing because we had 3 days before we'd set foot on land. By the end of the weekend, we wore more than ready for land. Iceland here we come!
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