Ah, parting is such sweet sorrow. Last morning breakfast, all four of us saying goodbye to Krizzy (who definitely didn’t get the “borrow” part of the gloves, btw, they are now hers now, which is all fine and good, she can use them, and I have tons of others) and everyone in the lounge. Collecting all our stuff, marching down to the meeting point to be taken off the ship – which is sort of a zoo – but Karen eventually gets us to our luggage and we bid her adieu as well.
Out on the pier, we join the taxi cab line – which surprisingly isn’t all that bad considering there are 7 ships in port today. It takes less than 10 minutes to get ourselves and our luggage deposited into a taxi and then off we go – out of the massive port facility, through the city, past Tivoli then on the highway to the Crown Plaza airport hotel. Hugs and kisses and safe travel wishes all around as we grab our gear and wave to Maggi and Richard as they head off to the airport and their afternoon flight home. We have all day here then an entirely too early (6am) flight tomorrow.
The hotel check in isn’t until 2, so we have hours to kill and there are no early check in rooms available. But this place is massive – with a huge convention area or something attached – which is like an indoor garden. The hotel stores our luggage, and we take our kindles and phones over to a comfy seating area to begin the long wait for our room. It takes until 2 – bummer – but we are finally assigned a great room way up high with views all the way to the water – and the port. We can see all 7 ships from here. That’s a bonus!
There is a metro stop right outside the hotel, so we could go back into town easily if we wanted, but we don’t. There is also a mall right next door, however, which is huge bonus. The hotel has a restaurants and bars, but the mall has this huge food court – with real restaurants, not just fast food outlet chains. Ed finds a great place called Dalle Valle which has 1/2 off all food (except their buffet) from 4 to 10 on Saturday. Good deal!
We catch up on email for a while, I download my book, freshen up, then head over to the restaurant early – since we have to go to bed by 8 to get up at 3:30 for our 4am cab. Eek. The restaurant is huge and busy even though we’re pretty early. We decide not to do the buffet (it looks great, but we don’t need that much food) and go for the half price options: Ed has a burger that is monstrous and I have the Dalle Valle salad which is huge as well, with strips of sliced filet, pine nuts and pesto dressing. So good – and the cheapest meal we’ve eaten in all of Norway!
Stuffed and hydrated (that’s what I call a beer!!) we head back to the hotel to read and relax before our early evening bedtime. Nice way to end a great trip.
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