Rubyfisch

Which one? We are on one in August.

It took about 15 minutes to drop our bags and check in. We are waiting the chairs now, but it seems like people have gotten on.

Also, if you aren't familiar with the Silver Line, you need the SL2. When they see your suitcases, they'll tell you to get on the SL1 to the airport. Google maps also tells you the wrong stop. I mean, it works, but there is one right at the port - literally next to where you turn in you bags.

Entertaining myself so I don't annoy everyone by bouncing like a puppy ....

Waiting for the SL2 ....

10:48 - on a moving train from Alewife.

After one minor peanut butter related incident and one set of missing headphones, we are headed for the T.

I find it amusing that Holland luggage tags are just slightly too big for my holders (which I bought for Royal Caribbean). Before I left for London, I engaged in some oragami to get them to fit (and printed them at 70% scale). I've now tagged our checked bags. And took care of the rest of the random things in the fridge. Time to take out the compost, trash, and recycling.

I hoped people would enjoy my London ramblings - I had a long time alone to think thoughts about them.

Well ... For inexplicable reasons, our fire alarm just went off, so we are wide awake. It's funny, I used to live in a building you could see the cruiseport from in Boston that had a faulty building fire alarm and a Jimmy John's with temperamental ovens. So the alarm went of a lot. Like on a weekly basis. And would go off for a long time. I was going on a Royal cruise out of Boston, and the morning of the cruise, as I was doing the final kitchen cleaning, the stupid alarm went off. I went outside and waited. And waited. And waited. Finally, I went back in, put in ear plugs, finished up, and went to the ship. I kid you not, you could here the alarm on the outside decks of the ship....

Query - when is the appropriate time to run into the bedroom like a child on Christmas morning and wake my partner up by saying "it's cruise time!!!"? We've got to be getting close .... Right?

She's waiting for us:

I've now been four times - twice on vacation in 2017 and 2018, and twice for work in the past six weeks. I would go back in a heartbeat. Although, I think I prefer it in the office season. I've done in December, when it isn't crowded and there are Christmas markets and decorations everywhere.

It's embarkation morning! I was up a little after 6:00 (stupid time change) and am too excited to sleep ... I finished the book I was reading. I suppose I should actually zip the suitcases and put the luggage tags on. Far too early to leave (and my partner is sensibly asleep).

We are more or less packed ... So progress...

It's a beautiful, if warm, day here in Boston today. I still haven't packed. I still have more laundry to do. But I decided to get outside for a bit. This is home for me, in Cambridge, in the conservation land behind our apartment complex:

So, in terms of what we are doing in any of the ports, we don't really have plans. I've booked no excursions. I've done very literal research. We are just going to wing it .... To be fair, we went to all of these ports last year, and we are going back again at the end of August (on Zuiderdam) where we have a boatload of onboard credit and Have it All with its shore excursion credit

Okay - I think we are caught up - well, here, my laundry is not caught up at .... On to more New England/Canada content.

The perpetual sunset of flying west - these are taken over the course of four hours:

The food was pretty good, although the temperatures were kind of off - the soup could have been warmer, the pasta had definitely been heated too long. Red pepper soup (really good): Mezzaluna (I forgot a picture this time, so this from my last flight): Lemon meringue bar (quite tasty, and partially eaten here): I did not want one of their terrible hot sandwiches at 2:30 am UK time, but here is the one I got my last flight. Like, a £3 egg and mayo sandwich from M&S would be infinitely better. I was told this was a Ruben - I think that is a vicious slander. Also, why is it served with more bread ....:

My flight was at 8:10. Around 6:45, I noticed that Boston wasn't on the board at all, even though much later flights were. I checked Flightaware, and it had me leaving out of A10. I went to check with the staff, as you take a train from A to B, but you have to walk back, and I had no idea how long they would take. The attendant assured me that we would not be leaving out of A, and to check back at 7:10. In an unsurprising turn of events, we were, in fact, leaving from A, so I and a couple of passengers wandered back through the tunnel. The walk is really not a big deal ... It's maybe 10 minutes. Once we got our gate, it turned out we were bussing to our plane. I was highly amused that the bus listed Boston as the destination - like it was taking us there: And then up the stairs to the plane: And a preflight drink:

So, almost all BA long haul flights leave from Terminal 5B, so I headed to the B lounge, which according to the boards is way less crowded than the the other ones. I got there around 5:30 and the food options were kind of starting to dwindle. I got a broccoli and blue cheese tart, some beets, and some pakora and inhaled it. I then went on a confusing quest to take a shower. I asked three separate people, who all told me talk to someone else, until someone finally just told me to use any of them that had fresh towels. I kind of felt like I was doing something I was supposed to, but the shower (and changing into comfy clothes) was worth it. The shower does have all the charm of a YMCA gym shower, but there was plenty of hot water and it seemed clean. I don't understand why BA springs for Elemis products, and yet doesn't provide conditioner (just soap and body wash). Also, would it kill them to have more hooks or a shelf .... After that, I was still hungry and it was a while until my flight, so I got what might be my favorite British comfort food that I don't think gets discussed enough in the US - jacket potatoes with beans and cheese.

I really like Heathrow, so I walked around a bit and took pictures of cute stuff ..

Now that I have gushed over London and fangirled over my favorite shows, on to my travel fun. My flight to Boston started with navigating Liverpool Street Station with my suitcase - something I've gotten much better at. At some point last week I happened upon a functioning escalator down from street level, which was an improvement over last time where I carried my suitcase down the stairs. It's a 45 minutes to Terminal 5, and then an elevator ride up to the the check in counters. Checking in on BA always seems to take forever (which is not aided by the flaky app).

It's cruise day minus one! I'm in my embarkation port. And dining so much laundry. I just put the first load in, didn't even seen to make a dent in the pile ....