16-AUG--Day of Food

Prime Meridian!

It was a big day today.  We changed hemispheres!  Ok, maybe not exciting to anyone else, but it was cool to me.  We also squeezed about five meals into our busy day.

At 5AM, we bounced out of bed, hastily dressed, and ran upstairs to watch the departure.  

We arrived on the top deck just in time to see us begin moving, as the drawbridge was lifting.  That was neat!  The ship passed below the Tower Bridge and we scurried to the front of the ship (we were being tugged backwards) to see the draw bridge go back down.  Then I busied myself watching for the exact moment we crossed from the Western to the Eastern Hemisphere.  Finally, we headed back to our room to try to get back to sleep.  Well, after 90 minutes of running around, we were not exactly sleepy.  

Ready, set...

Go!

Up!

Just through the Tower Bridge.

Going down...

All done!

Theresa and the Thames...and a bunch of other looky-loos!

After breakfast, we finally explored the ship, and watched as we transitioned from the Thames River, to the Estuary, into the North Sea.  And then Theresa took a nap.

The North Sea.  Lots or windmills!!

Tea, anyone?

There was a Sudoku Challenge, in which Theresa finished second, and then after lunch, we watched a movie in our room, and just enjoyed doing pretty much nothing.  At 4, we went to afternoon tea.  They had a fancy selection, in a wood and glass case to pick the lawn clippings with which to make our tea.  Theresa got her favorite “scones and clotted cream”, or as Bill calls it, “stones and tasteless butter”.  Either way, we ran off to a trivia challenge at 5, and joined a couple from Australia, and another from Scotland.  The Scot chided Bill for showing up with a glass of Jameson (Irish Whisky).  But, we tied for first place, so we have those bragging rights!

Formal night.

Tonight was one of the “formal nights”, so suit and fancy dress.  While getting dressed, we enjoyed some canapes in our room, which included caviar.  For dinner, we were invited to join the ship’s manager of rooms, part of the Hotel department.  We had a very nice dinner with him and two other gentlemen guests.  The only grumble would be that they had assigned seating so Theresa and I could not sit together, so we couldn’t share parts of our meals.  (I know, Boo Hoo, right?  First World Problems).  We closed out the evening with a quick after dinner drink, and Theresa caught part of the Harpist, who was the evening’s entertainment (while Bill got busy on this).