London (Greenwich), England

May 5, 2024 - Our final day! Luggage needs to be out tonight for our early morning flight home, so this is our last day of the world adventure. We were due to arrive at 11:15, which was a bit surprising given the short distance from Dover, where we departed at 7:30 PM on the 4th. But as we looked out the windows this morning during breakfast, it became apparent why it would take some extra time. What an AMAZING sail along the Thames River towards our tender position in Greenwich! Most cruise ships don’t get this opportunity, but since Viking Ocean ships are a bit smaller than most others, we were guided by tugs along the Thames. We went through the very narrow flood barriers and then, in a slightly wider section of the river, we turned around and then backed in towards our tender position right by the Cutty Sark ship and the Greenwich maritime area. It was a beautiful sunny day, and we really enjoyed being outside, either on our veranda or on the decks, to enjoy this scenic sail. It was then fascinating to watch the process of “anchoring” to the buoys in the river, and connecting to the pontoon from which we would transfer to the boats that would take us to the pier. All we could think as we watched the process was how much work it will be for the crew this evening that will need to transfer all our luggage to the pier, where we will pick it up and board buses for the airport!

We disembarked just before 2 PM for our 90 minute walking tour of the area around the Cutty Sark clipper ship, where we also saw the Royal Observatory, where the world’s longitude is measured from the prime meridian, and where Greenwich Mean Time sets to global time standard. It was crowded with people enjoying the park areas on a Sunday afternoon of a bank holiday weekend. Our tour didn’t allow for it, but if you climb the hill to the Royal Observatory, there is a point where you can stand with one foot in the western hemisphere and one foot in the eastern hemisphere.

After we finished the walking tour, we walked with Julie through the historic Greenwich Market, which again was very crowded with Sunday shoppers. After this, we stopped at a pub and had fish and chips — a must when in England. We then returned to the ship, and were treated to a destination performance at 6 PM by the Libera Boys Choir which was phenomenal. There were many tears in the audience as we listened to these angelic voices. We then went to put out our luggage and meet up with friends briefly in the Torshavn bar to say some additional farewells. Although, many of the people in our group, all have the same 4 AM meeting time to board buses for the airport. So we will see them for a few minutes on the Pier before we board different buses for different terminals at Heathrow.

Once we are home we will have to do a summary post - as we don’t have the words now to express the feelings on this last day of this amazing adventure. Thank you for joining us virtually on this trip of a lifetime.

Dover, England