Riding the Rails and a Flood!

   We took the train from Paddington to Southampton. It was a bit of an adventure because we did not end up on the trains that I had searched out and this one had a some stops that I did not recognize. The short of it was that we had to change trains twice - something that I had tried to avoid but we did manage to get off at the central station and from there a short taxi ride took us to the long waiting lines. They had not started to board when we got there and the wait was a bit more than usual. However the "Elite" status got us in the fast line and we were aboard in short order after that.

Sail Away

    The rest of the night was spent getting around the ship - it is a bit older than some of the others we have been on and things were in different place. We did meet Bill and Ali for a drink and then later the other 2 couples at our table. All was well.
    Sunday was spent at sea and as someone remarked the road was filled with potholes! It was a
bit rough but by noon it settled down a bit. The afternoon was spent at the dance class and then dancing session. It is basic but all but 3 people had danced before and Adam went through about half of his dances. He did remark that there would be about 6 more classes so that should be interesting to see what he comes up with. I should say that the champagne waterfall was a hit that night. The ship hit a wave and all the bottles ended on the floor! Missed that in the photos.
Oh the flood! Well when we relaxing just before dinner, water started to run out of the bathroom. Thank goodness it was clean water but by the time we figured out what happened,

Pizza Time

we rescued our shoes but it was wet out around the corner. Needless to say we were quite upset about it although we got a quick response. When we returned later we noticed that there were towels on the carpet and later our room steward told us that he noticed it again while we were at dinner. This time the water was out in the hall. Again more not impressed. The short of it was that we had supervisors from Housekeeping, engineering and Hospitality all talking to us. No other rooms at that level are available with 2800 on the ship. However the good news is that they changed the valves or whatever and we have been dry since. The post script in the next blog.

Bergen Fron The Mountain

     Yesterday we were in Bergen and had a nice walk around day. we took the inclined car up to the top of the mountain and then just wandered back into town. It is a very nice town in Norway. Of course we tried the local beer and had a peanut butter pastry. The rest of the evening went as expected.
    We just finished touring today but I will leave that for the next post. I did notice that a few sent messages but the system is so slow I could not read them. I will get back to them next time. Finished the Shetlands and headed north. Thanks Dave for the feedback! Judy having tea!