Saving Money

We'd already “done” most of Trondheim because, as Blog followers will know, we were the only customers on a tour last summer when we'd had our own personal guide. Therefore, we decided to have an early lunch and take the shuttle bus into Trondheim when the rush had died down.

Janet has booked a cruise on the Balmoral for next Christmas. Actually we both have, but I don't want to take the credit because all I had to do was nod. Apparently with the Gold discount, the free cabin upgrade and the “It's almost your 40^th Wedding Anniversary” free package we'd have been crazy not to it book on-board. The ship was deserted and the crew were doing emergency drills when, just before lunch, we took the signed forms to the Future Cruises office. In front of the closed shops, several dozen crew members were lined up in rows. As we passed them a seaman further down the corridor waved his hands at us just as the tannoy announced “water tight doors closing, watertight doors closing”

Two steel doors clanged shut in front of us and as we turned two more closed behind. Locked in a watertight compartment we glared at the crew and the crew glared back. Normally crew members are all smiley but these were definitely hacked off about something. In the Costa disaster some of the crew rushed for the lifeboats ahead of the passengers. I expect that the Boudicca's crew have now been psychologically profiled and that these were the ones that have failed. Fred Olsen must have decided that, in the event of a potential disaster, there was no way that this lot were getting to the lifeboats first.

On last summer's tour we didn't get to see inside of the Cathedral so that was our first destination. The bouncer on the door said we had to buy the reassuringly expensive tickets from the tourist shop. The nice girl in the shop suggested that we waited a couple of minutes because the Cathedral would soon be closing and the last 20 minutes were free. Overcome with gratitude Janet decided to buy some post cards and stamps. Obviously something got lost in translation because, from the cost, it was obvious she had sold us the ones that are personally delivered by hand picked couriers who only travel first class. Still, it will make a change if the postcards get home before we do. The Cathedral was well worth a visit but twenty minutes was enough. It's impressive with intricate stone work and beautiful stained glass but it's, well, all a bit gloomy.

After the Cathedral, we took the tram out of the city into the surrounding hills for a walk in the snow and some lovely views. The cost of the return trip on the tram was, amazingly, about £2 each. The tram ride was the high spot of one of the ship's expensive tours but a lady we'd met at lunch had convinced us that we could do it on our own. On our way back down we were passed by what the tour brochure had described as an “historic” tram full of Fred Olsen passengers. The writer who called it an historic tram had obviously never been to Blackpool. Finally we visited the “Old Bridge” for a quick kiss. Last summer we had kissed at this point on the advice of our personal tour guide who had assured us that it was guaranteed to bring eternal love and everlasting happiness. That was now nearly six months ago and I reasoned that a top up wouldn't do us any harm.

Back in the shuttle bus we both experienced a warm glow. That was partly due to the cold weather gear we had been testing and partly due to the ten minute panic we had when we discovered we had forgotten the way to the shuttle bus stop. Mainly however it was due to the fact that we had beaten the system by taking a tram ride for a fraction of the cost of the official trip. Later in our cabin we reflected that, with the notable exception of the postcards, we had saved an amazing amount of money in just one day.

Dave