August 20th Day 24 - Final Cruising Day

Our final full day on the ship was spent at sea traveling from Oslo down the North Sea and back to Dover, England. The waters had calmed by the morning and so it was a smooth ride the rest of the way.

The big question was, what to do with ourselves since we didn't have any city to explore with our walking shoes? Luckily, Julie the cruise director (or was she on the Love Boat?) had planned events throughout the day...the first being a cooking demo by the head chef and maitre d'. It ended with a tour of the kitchen a sort of "behind the scenes" of the galley. I've been in many professional kitchens in my lifetime - the result of being an actor in NYC! - but this kitchen was huge. There were escalators and elevators and twists and turns like you wouldn't believe! It's amazing the food ever makes it's way into the dining room.

The afternoon was spent playing BINGO. Yes, capital BINGO! There was a pot of $700 to be won in the third game but you had to get a total blackout (meaning, for all you BINGO novices out there, that all of your bingo squares had to be blotted out). We played a good game (meaning we had a drink while we played : ) ), but alas we didn't win. Oh well.

Before dinner we were treated to a Beatle Tribute concert given by four guys dressed up as the fab four. It was a little silly, but we had a good time. I even got up to do the twist with a couple of ladies we met a few days before at the wine tasting...did I not mention the wine tasting? We went to a little wine class/tasting and were sat at a table with two ladies from England - Ann and Margaret (their names I only remember because of the American actress Ann Magaret). The tasting itself was okay, but meeting these two was definitely the highlight.

But I digress...the concert ended with a rousing version of Twist and Shout and while Constance wouldn't get up to dance - she had her fancy shoes on - I think she had a good time...

Ringo, Paul, George and John

After the concert there was, of course, the final hurrah at dinner. They pulled out all the stops when the servers and entire kitchen staff came out and paraded around the dining room with trays of baked Alaska desserts.

Here we have Constance ogling the Baked Alaska!

But the night didn't end there! We decided to make our way back to the Casino Lounge for a final night of entertainment by our favorite pianist/comedian...whose name I don't remember...

His parents were visiting....on the cruise from Minnesota...I know it seems a little strange to have a picture of this guy with his parents, but there was a whole episode just before this where we were taking pictures with a bunch of people and the ditzy dancer girl from the cruise performing crew kept saying, "Okay nice picture. And now silly picture!" Of course, everyone wanted a picture and I couldn't stand it anymore, so I took this one and left it at that...

One thing I have to mention before I end the cruise (this cruise) portion of our adventure is a person we met toward the end of our journey - our former family doctor! Crazy, huh? One morning when Constance and I were at breakfast, a middle aged Japanese guy came up to our table and said, "Mrs. Holck? I'm Sakamoto." It was totally bizarre and unexpected and yet, there he was. He was at one point the doctor for all four of us - my parents, Coco and I. In fact, he was still my parents' doctor until just a couple of years ago. I mean, really, what are the chances that we'd meet him in the middle of the ocean halfway around the world on a ship with nearly 1000 other people?!

And there you have it - at long last - the end of the cruise. We both had a grand time and met some fun people...if you're reading this and have any interest, ask me about Johan....oh the mystery...it's nothing really, just one of the head waiters that Constance and I took it upon ourselves to mercilessly flirt with! Ha ha. We had fun. Harmless fun, I swear.

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