Friday 26th April – Home again, home again!

The last morning of a cruise is always a bit of a juggling act. Suddenly one longs to be free of all the hassles and just get home. I had been scheduled to leave the ship at 10am. This would have been fine if I could have slept in, but I had to be out of my room by 8:30, and breakfast in the Lido finishes at that time too. I could not face sitting around all that time with nothing to do, so changed my arrangements to self-disembarkation. That meant I did not put my suitcase out the night before but dragged it off myself at whatever time I chose to be ready. It worked brilliantly and got me home about 3 hours earlier than I would have made it if I’d gone through the usual channels.

I got up at 7am and was walking off the ship by about 8:15. There was a long line of taxis waiting and I caught one to Southampton Railway Station and got on the 9:15 train to Reading without too long a wait. At Reading I had nearly half an hour to wait for the local 10:23 train to Radley, and then there was the 5-minute walk to my door. I was home by 11:15.