Up earlyish for a 9.20 departure from the ship. Jean elected to have breakfast, but as it’s never been an important meal for me and I really wasn’t hungry, I stayed in the stateroom, did the last bits of packing and checked that we really had cleared all our stuff out of every cupboard, drawer and other orifices. Neither of us had slept particularly well.
The exit from the ship was sombre, of course – it has been a great experience – but it was smooth and efficient. Unfortunately, I never got a chance to take a picture of the Queen Mary 2 from the outside. Pity, as she’s a beautiful ship. A bucket list box well and truly ticked for me today.
Once outside in the remarkably mild fresh air, we contacted our chauffeur (doesn’t that sound grand)! After a certain amount of confusion, as the Mayflower Terminal is enormous and was rammed, we got it together and were on our way back home reasonably quickly.
Uneventful journey back. Entered the house to be greeted by an enormous pile of post, but at least it was warm.
Spent the rest of the day doing all the stuff one has to do on returning from a time away. Unpacking, restocking the fridge, switching stuff back on (including my PC), etc., etc. And – a fast and stable Internet connection! It all works, even after having been away so long! Hallelujah!
The anticlimactic atmosphere was leavened enormously by a short visit from our elder daughter. Absolutely fantastic to see her and catch up.
It was also great to get an email from Jay, of Jay and Gary, who have been excellent company during our Queen Mary 2 voyage. Hopefully we will meet again on the Queen Anne to northern Norway in March 2024.
I actually had to cook a dinner for us for the first time in ages. Struggled a bit to remember where stuff was, but managed it in the end.
Glad to be back, of course, but feeling very flat and actually very tired. So much to process over the last 97 days.
I’ll try and summarise this in my last post on this adventure. It will be difficult. So many different experiences.
For those that have followed us, to whatever extent, we are very grateful for your comments and feedback. It’s been something of a mission to get these posts done, not helped by some poor or non-existent Internet connections, but all good things really do come to an end.
I hope you’ve enjoyed reading some or all of these posts, and we do appreciate you sticking with us.
Thank you.
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