June 25, 2022
Our plan for today was to move from the VRBO to the ship, grab some lunch there and then head to Windsor Castle for the afternoon. Pam’s research indicated it would take a little less than an hour to get go the Castle, and we were even able to compare the cost of making the journey by bus, train (tube) or taxi.
The first part of the plan worked great. We were all packed and ready to leave the apartment before 9:00, and our driver wasn’t scheduled to arrive until 10:00. We were feeling pretty proud of ourselves. When the driver showed up at 9:15 we were feeling really glad that none of us are last-minute packers!
Getting from London to Greenwich was a piece of cake, so we arrived with about 45 minutes to burn before we could board the ship. We found a little café and the guys started looking at our options for getting a taxi to the Castle. Hmm…this site says it’s a 2-hour drive; this one says 48 minutes…this one says 2 hours, too… The man behind us, who is from London, overheard our conversation and said it would really be more like 2-1/2 hours each way, what with this being a Saturday and the transportation strike and all… It didn’t take long for us to reach agreement that Windsor would need to wait for another day. Not a huge deal for Ken and me because we’ve been before, but we were disappointed for Keith and Kathy and would have enjoyed seeing it again. Oh well! On to the ship!
Viking is providing us a terrific experience thus far. Check in was easy-peasy, and after a delicious buffet lunch we spent some time exploring our new home. It is beautiful!!! The ship is only four months old, and we are only its third set of passengers. Everywhere we turn there is something else to take our breath away. Our stateroom is a bit larger than the one we had for the world cruise, we have the option of listening to a pianist, a cellist, or an acoustic guitar singer every evening before and/or after dinner while enjoying an adult beverage, and there is additional entertainment most nights in a large theater. Tonight they are offering a movie, The Martian, with Matt Dillon (very appropriate since our ship is named “Mars” 😊), but after this the entertainment will be live. They also have two additional theaters where we can watch different TED talks every day. And get this – all of the public bathrooms have chirping birds being piped in. It’s hilarious. I think we’re going to like it here. See what you think.
Viking Mars
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