The final day at sea is for trying out all those new things you haven’t yet got around to.

Breakfast – porridge and pancakes.  The man sitting next to me ate SIX Danish pastries, then told his wife he was going back to the cabin for a nap. Don’t think we’ll be bumping into him on the running track, or even the stairs.

Lunch – the chocolate chip cookies are gently warmed!  How could I not know this till now??

Exercise – we learned the Merengue.  That’s a dance, not a dessert (or Ian would have eaten it)

There are 71 different nationalities on the ship.  Truly cosmopolitan.

The cruise ended spectacularly with an evening sail under the Storebealt bridge, which requires careful lining up.  The ship has only 4 metres clearance, and you would swear the funnels are going to hit as you pass underneath.  The fountain display was a colourful finale, before our eviction in the morning.

Our Cruise Card, aka the passport to fun, glamour and excitement (not to mention food, drink, entertainment and our comfy bed) was unceremoniously disabled this morning and we were cast ashore in Warnemunde.  With our bulging suitcases (thanks to the bathrobes and other free paraphernalia that we seem to have accumulated), we waited in the cruise terminal until it was time to take the train to Berlin.

An uneventful 3 hour train trip south brought us to the final stop of the holiday, the capital of Germany.  The Hauptbahnhof (central train station) is the largest in Europe and was suitably confusing with its multiple levels.  We’re pretty good at working out train systems and before long we were on the S-Bahn to Charlottenburg, which is the former West Berlin.  Our 5th storey apartment is just a short distance from Kurfurstendamm (KuDamm), the 4 km long shopping street.  It’s back to cooking our own meals, making our own bed, and no choccies on the pillow.

The washing machine, unlike the temperamental beast at Stralsund, was simple to operate.  However I have not been able to convince the dryer to run for longer than 5 minutes at a time – I keep having to reset it.  Ilze!!!!  Help!!!!!