We reached the pernumpulent day of our holiday and our last stop in Kristiansand before returning to Southampton. I'm sure they could drop us off closer to home, they're almost passing the door. Sadly we have to locate our taxi, collect Serg from the Hilton car park and drive back up to Stone, at least I am sure to feel more refreshed than how I do following a long-haul jaunt.
Kristiansand seems quite low key, nothing outstanding in the guidebooks or literature apparently, consequently Liz is undertaking further sleep bank recharging before going for an explore at 11am.
Normal service has resumed, I'm still waking at eight o'clock irrespective of location, weather, the time I go to bed or alcohol ingested. Liz by contrast will always require another hour, irrespective of location, etc, etc. Perhaps my sleep bank batteries are fully charged?
Breakfast has become a little routined, initially you try everything available out of a mix of inquisitiveness & sheer gluttony, gradually as the days pass you resort back to the same old choices (although I have resisted the temptation to have a small bowl of All Bran, chopped fresh fruit & skimmed milk).
They tend to do one special thing each morning, it's just a matter of locating it hiding amongst everything else. Today it was black pudding, obviously remaining from last nights sausage, liver & black pudding main. Sadly we have not seen the return of the gammon steak, the most extravagant of breakfast meats, and with one morning to go it seems unlikely we will. Or is it two mornings; do you have breakfast before disembarking the ship, I'm really not sure? We'll need some kind of sustenance before undertaking the drive back to Staffordshire.
Breakfast rarely takes beyond fifteen minutes without company, so I tend to sit and take in our location whilst it is relatively quiet. The port of Kristiansand appears lovely from a distance, a sparsely populated deep green wooded area from the starboard side. It's only when you survey from the port side that it becomes apparent that it has a dirty great port stuck slap bang in the centre, which tends to negate it's charm somewhat.
I had a bit of a fright early this morning whilst sitting on the balcony, I noticed a couple of bright orange boats bobbing round alongside the ship, it was only when they drew closure that I could decider they both had Oriana inscribed on their hulls and were in fact lifeboats. Mild panic ensued; had I slept that well that I had somehow missed the call to muster and the subsequent command to abandon ship? I was about to dash inside, force Liz's head through a life jacket and valiantly toss her overboard ... "Save yourself!!!" When the captain announced to not be alarmed, they were performing a lifeboat drill. Lucky for Liz; although on some days I'm not even sure a dunk in the drink would wake her from her slumber?
We had been misinformed, Kristiansand was significantly more pleasant than we had been led to believe. It was warm, the locals were friendly, cheaper than expected and overall a very nice pretty Norwegian town; the sort of place you could imagine making a number of return visits
We stopped for lunch at a cafe just off the main high street, I had a steak sandwich and Liz had a burger. She is quite a burger connoisseur and this one most a been a belter as it whizzed into her Top Five Burgers EVER List, no mean feat. Saying that my sandwich was darn good, even describing it as a sandwich does it a huge disservice (plentiful amounts of beef, pesto, mozzarella, fresh salad ), so it looked like we located a bit of a gem.
Liz has a Beauty treatment this afternoon so we had to head back to Oriana, we returned to the ship just in time as it started to pour with rain as we approached.
I'm unsure how I'm going to occupy myself whilst Liz is beautified, scrutinising the Horizon booklet there was nothing even vaguely Rupert friendly. I position myself in the Lords Tavern for a bit of change of scenery but swiftly noticed that I was the lone patron. A member of the entertainment committee came in and started to set up a Wii and the jukebox started to play Celion Dion, fearful that someone would think it was one of my selections and all credibility would be destroyed I drained my pint and made a swift retreat back to the cabin.
One thing is guaranteed with the sudden change of weather it seems highly unlikely that the final Sing along Sail away will take place on the sun-deck on eight, very near our cabin. I think we have been saved, although we were both keen to witness the spectacle in full with our own eyes.
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