Day 1 Baltic Jewels & the Midnight Sun: The Journey Begins

 June 24, 2022 - Fly Away



Today begins what will be the longest trip we have ever taken!  All told, we will be away from home for five weeks.  After a flurry of last minute packing, we were off to Bethany's house, where we left our car, and thence to Logan Airport for our Delta Flight 58 to London.  We arrived early - as we like to do - checked our two bags and made our way through security without incident (thank you TSA Pre-Check).  

                  

We found a restaurant and enjoyed a glass of wine (me) and a bourbon (Jeff).  Jeff also had a dish of macaroni and cheese, which I thought looked heavy on the elbow macaroni and short on the cheese.  But he enjoyed it.  

We boarded our plane at about 6:45 p.m.  Our seats were in the first row of the "Premium Economy Cabin" - which gave us plusher seats and a lot of leg room for which Jeff was very grateful.  We both tried to sleep, but it gets more and more difficult for us to do that as we get older.  We may have to spring for first or business class next trip.

We had an on time arrival at London-Heathrow, claimed our bags with ease, found the Viking representative(s) and then did a LOT of sitting around while waiting for other planes to arrive.  Then there was MORE sitting around in the atrium of the airport Sofitel Hotel enjoying some continental breakfast goodies (Jeff) and chatting with fellow passengers before we FINALLY boarded a coach for the 90 minute drive across London to the Greenwich "neighborhood."  We had a tour guide who talked a lot, and I confess that I slept through quite a bit of it.

Our ship, the Viking Mars, is the newest in the Viking fleet of Ocean Vessels.  Everything is brand new and quite lovely.  I have not yet found out how many folks are aboard, but the ship carries as many as 940.  We were greeted like royalty and handed a glass of bubbly.  Our rooms weren't ready yet, so Jeff and I made our way to "The Living Room" where we sat and enjoyed our wine until we were notified that the room was ready.

We both climbed into bed for a much needed nap.  I woke at about 4 pm London time and meandered down to guest services to ask a couple of questions and some "people watching" for a couple of hours before coming up to wake Jeff for dinner in The Restaurant.  After dinner we came back up to the room and watched a spectacular sunset from our veranda.


Good Night from Greenwich, England!







Comments

  1. HoneyLouJune 27, 2022 at 10:33 AM

    Your Sunset picture is awesome :^D So glad that the 2 of you are having time to relax and be together as you love so much. It is always good to have time alone with the on who you love best in the Whole world. Peter and I had a great lunch near Edinburg Castle-The Witchery by the Castle. We preferred the booths which are downstairs and where we went the first time. Hope that you get a chance to have go there 4& a half stars.

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