SKULL MAPPING

Finished up Stavanger with a trip to the Persian Garden & some skull mapping. The Persian Garden is a lovely room with heated stone beds looking out at the scenery at the top of the ship. It has steam room, sauna, scented aromatherapy rooms & cold showers that can be set to tropical storm or nordic mist. The names speak for themselves. Skull Mapping was very good, we have never seen such a meal presentation. I have some videos that may interest Jack, Seb & all the littlies.

What do you think of Linda's tattoo.

On our way back though the North Sea, nice bright day. We walk off the ship with our own luggage at 6:30, we are parked right next to the ship in the harbour.

COSMO & ME

Cosmo is now my best friend, went to the Captain's cocktail party & had quite a few. Linda didn't stint on the appletinis either. Our ship look pretty insignificant in the fjord grandeur.

Stavanger is nice, charming old wooden buildings that haven't burnt down yet. Nice to wander around & the weather has been great. The wallytour worked well. 

Qsine tonight, must book Sushi for lunch, keep screwing. This is our last port, we arrive back Saturday & are walking off at 6:30am, should be home by 9.

FJORDS, FJORDS & MORE FJORDS

We have moved from Alesund to Olden, which is a very, very, very small town, perched on the edge of the deep snow covered glacial valleys. We are in a national park that has the largest glacier in continental Europe. The boat trip we took in Alesund was good, much better that the one in Bergen. Today we went on a coach trip into the mountains overlooking Lake Stryn. Linda spent some time piling up little stones, btw the variety of granite they have here is amazing - lots of different colours. We have covid cases on board, oops. Got away with the weather, it's been raining a lot, but we have managed to miss it all. Tomorrow, Stavanger where we are going on a Wally tour.

BERGEN, ALESUND

We've arrived in Norway after a sea day. Norway has a problem with fire, both of these towns have burned down. Alesund, which means the sound with eels, was totally rebuilt in 1905ish and is all art deco. The buildings look like they are outlined in black. Norway has $100 billion oil revenues, taxed at 50% - that's $10 thousand each for the 5million population, inc children. Good eh! Pretty bleak when it's raining & it rains 240 days per year. Saw the NATO naval base yesterday, built under a mountain, protected by massive blast proof doors. You can sail ships & subs straight in. Just getting ready for a boat trip around the fjord. Hope weather picks up.

TOE IN THE WATER

Just getting ready to depart for our 1st cruise since the covid cruise from BA to San Diego on the Eclipse in March 2020. This time we are on Silhouette, the sister ship to Eclipse. We are heading for Norway, where apparently we have no chance of seeing an aurora. (aside from a Disney movie) We have hurdles, firstly a witnessed lateral flow test in an hour - a must pass event. Then we have not forget to take all our documentation - covid vaccination documents - health questionnaires & successfully complete an interview. Let's see. Celebrity have been changing the itinerary, now arriving late in Bergen which scuppers our DIY tour plans. We were going up the cable car to the top of the mountain. Ah well.

Tomorrow we are leaving to spend an overnight in the New Forest, take in a National Trust house and be close by to board at Southampton at 11:30am.

STILL HERE

 Thats us chilling at breakfast, we have a nice spot at the back of the boat. Captain Leo tells us little aphorisms from his grandfather during his daily talk. I noticed that when the going gets tough, grandfather doesn't appear, recently granddad has been ever present - good news. We are the only Celebrity ship at sea with passengers, yesterday we received video messages from crew of sister ship Equinox, wishing us all the best. I have never seen such a level of ship cleaning since we have been on board. Even the walls are regularly scrubbed, the seats must get cleaned 4 or 5 times a day. Everything appears spotless. The cabin man has a different cloth set for every cabin. Still no flights. Entertainment is now produced fresh from the entertainment staff we have on board. We haven't had a repeat show or lecture in 27 days.

POLLYWOG OR SHELLBACK?

That is the question. We were already Shellbacks, but now everyone else on board are also since 9:45 this morning. That is when we crossed the equator. Sailors use those names to refer to people who have not, or have crossed the equator & paid tribute to God Neptune. We held the ceremony of kissing the fish at the swimming pool, we had done it before & it was so crowded we went for strawberry daiquiris to pay our tribute. It worked, the sea's been really calm. We called in at Manta, Ecuador to pick up some medication and drop off a heart attack passenger. All passed relatively smoothly and we have been sailing steadily north, still expecting to arrive in San Diego on Monday 30 March. This is now the longest we have been at sea without going ashore - some 11 days. Saw our old compatriot, Azamara Pursuit in the distance. Celebrity have been trying to arrange flights for us when we get to USA. Some bad news for 170 of us who won't be getting off but are going back to Mexico. I can only guess that these are folks who don't meet US entry requirements.