Today is another travel day. We are up early in the morning to bid farewell to some more guests that had traveled so far for this occasion - Carl and young master Carl. We saw them down at breakfast, and then waved them off as they were taken in their car to Edinburgh airport. Then it was time for us to get ready to leave. We packed up our stuff and loaded it all into the car.
Once we are ready to leave, we bid our farewells to Steffi and Olaf, the last guests left behind. We will be driving part way with Lars' parents and Tante Berit. We make our way back down to Edinburgh, back across the Firth of Forth and around the city on the ring road. Just before the end of the ring road, we stop and say our goodbyes to the rest of the party. They will be heading down to Kelso, where they will be meeting up with Kevin and his family.
As the weather has improved, we retract our roof and make our way to Newcastle, where we will be catching our ship to Norway, our next destination on this northern European circuit. The drive is uneventful and we make good time all the way down, arriving at the Port of Tyne shortly after noon. We have time for a quick bite to eat, to fill up our petrol tank and to grab a few additional supplies at the nearby Tesco. We spend almost the last of our Pounds.
Then we head back to the port and get into the queue to be processed to board the ship, the M.S. Princess of Scandinavia of DFDS Seaway. It is not too bad and we are soon getting our boarding pass and cabin assignment and clearing immigration and driving onto the huge car ferry. We are onboard shortly after 2 PM and up in our cabin settling in. We have gotten the basic accommodation - a four bunk room (which we will not have to share with anyone) with shared facilities. It is only one night.
We explore the ship for a while before leaving port, and then return to our cabin where we decide to take a nap for a few hours. We have a tough time rousing ourselves from our rest, but decide that we should get up and check out the ship. We also have some duty free shopping to do, as we want to make sure that we have sufficient drinks to get us through Norway. We certainly cannot afford to buy any alcohol there. After picking up our stockpile, we spend some time in one of the lounges working on our journals, then it is back to our cabin.
We have brought some food with us for dinner, and we have a light meal in our dark, little closet that we are told is a cabin. After taking care of some photo transfers from camera to computer, it is time to head off to bed. In the morning, we will be arriving in Kristiansand, Norway.