We were downstairs at 7am but there were lots of delays so we ended up not leaving the boat until almost 8. I also have to say that a lot of the managers were getting off in London and a lot of the crew. There were going to be 26 staying on for the next 14 days and getting off in Bergen Norway but I am glad we did not stay since so much of the crew we came to love were not going to be there. To have to start over after all this time with people who did not know you and asking your cabin number and not knowing your preferences would have been strange. Plus all the world cruise perks were done in London so the people staying on board were in for lots of changes.

When e got off the tender the General Manager Ronald was there to say see everyone off. He really was good. For those of you on the 21/22 not as good as Johan but still good and he tells great stories of his experiences being general manager on ships. He got a hug from me. The big surprise is that right after Ronald was a familiar face from the 21/22 world. I am not even sure how he got on the boat dock but there were 2 brothers that traveled together on that cruise, Larry and David. They got along with everybody and were very personable. I even remember that on the last night they stayed up all night so they could say goodbye to everyone as they were getting off the boat. I had even told a few people that story the night before and here was Larry. He recognized us and he looked great and I stopped and spent a few minutes talking to him. He said he was in London and thought he would come to see who he knew. I wish we had more time but there were people behind me and we had to collect our bags and get on our bus so I had to hurry off.

The bags were under tents on one of the lawns of the buildings in Greenwich. Not sure how they get permission to do that but they did. We also noticed that the day before when we did our walking tour there were tons of movie trucks around the area. I mean tons and they had all been moved so the buses could come in close to where the boat dropped us off. Impressive the pull Viking seems to have.

The airport ride was much longer than I thought it would be and some people were getting nervous that they ere going to miss their flights. One couple even called Viking emergency line and got booked on a later flight We had to go right through London and the traffic was horrible I am not actually sure what time we got to the airport but it was around 10am. Luckily check in was very smooth and so was security and then we were off to the Virgin Atlantic lounge which was very nice and had tons of space. We had a little breakfast and then it was time to board.

The flight home was smooth and we watched 4 movies. Granted 2 of them were cartoon movies but still good. I did nap a little bit but not much. We landed on time and passport control was also very smooth. Usually they have 10 international planes land all around the same time and we usually seem to be the last in line but this time it looked like just us or we were first. It took a bit for the bags to show up and by then we were getting the alerts of the delay for the next leg. We were supposed to be home at 8:44pm but now we were not even leaving until 9pm. I told Kathy we should just grab the bags, rent a car and go home but surprisingly she was against that and concerned that we were too tired to drive home. We checked the bags back in and headed to our gate. BY 7pm we had gotten 3 more alerts of more delays and we were now leaving Atlanta at 11:41pm. The gates were all full and the Delta lounges had long lines and everything was crowded and dirty. When we got the last alert Kathy told me to get on line and rent a car which I did and off we went. By 8pm we were in our rented car and on the road. We got home right at midnight about the same time the flight left Atlanta. I feel like we made the right move but Kathy is the one who drove home. I did stay awake but not saying I did not get sleepy.

Friday morning we were awoken early with thunder and strong winds and lots of rain. It was early and while we were aware of the storm we did not really wake up. By 10am the storm was past and we never lost power or anything. We honestly had no idea of anything bad happening. We left for the airport on the south side of town at 11 and I followed Kathy who was in the rental car. As we started getting closer to the airport who started seeing the damage from the storm and that was when we realized that at least one tornado had come through. Trees were down and power lines were down and branches were everywhere. The real problem was that none of the gas stations had power so Kathy could not find one open to fill up the rental car. I went to the cell lot and Kathy had to drive an extra 25 miles to find and open gas station that did not have a long line. She got back to the airport a little after 1pm and our luggage was waiting in the office. We headed back home and dropped off luggage and headed to Publix to pick up a few items and then back home. By 6pm we both felt tired and decided to go to bed and when we woke up we would get up and start unpacking. Kathy slept until 9 and I made it to 10pm and than up until 1am when we went back to bed and slept until 7.

It is now Saturday evening and Kathy is totally unpacked and doing load after load of laundry. I have 1 pack unpacked and working on other. I got the yard mowed and edged while Kathy did some cleaning and unpacking.

We had some friends stopping by from out of town that we met on the 21/22 world cruise, Kris and James. We had lunch with them and told them all about the cruise and they caught us up on their travels. We brought them back to the house for a quick visit and then back to their car by 4pm. Quick visit but nice and they brought us 2 dozen homemade macaroons!

Our yard and how high the water is.

Our friends Kris and James.

We will do one more post and that will be the final wrap-up that will have numbers of how many countries we went to, how many miles we sailed, how many books we read etc. It will take me a few days to get all that info.

I want to thank everyone for their comments and for following along. We do this for 2 reasons, the main one is so that we don’t have to text and e-mail everyone individually and it is your choice as to how much you want to follow along. We also do it because it is a great record for us and we do look back to see where we were and what we did. I did love reading the comments from you all and that does help us to keep the blog up. Many times kathy had to encourage me to do the blog and she always had to refer to her notes for where we were and how to spell everything.

Wrap-up coming soon and thanks again.