Richard was up & dressed by 6am & went out to find a coffee, there was a coffee shop on board but it was closed & nothing was open. He did say there were other people wandering around. I got up, showered (the shower was good, lovely hot water although you had to hold onto the shower head) & then got dressed & we headed up for breakfast at 7.30, I think it had just opened. We found a table by the windows, the sea was so calm, & helped ourselves to the buffet, Richard had cooked breakfast & I had a soft boiled egg sandwich & then a bacon sandwich, I didn’t feel I’d made a great breakfast choice!!
Ship time (Amsterdam time) & English time were an hours difference, so we headed back to our cabin & I read & Richard played backgammon, next thing I saw was the Abbey ruins & we rushed up onto the deck to take photos of our journey down the Tyne, it was still so flat & lovely & sunny up on the deck. We docked & we made our way back down to our cabin, we struggled to get through the crowd of people already waiting with their bags, it was worse than on a plane when you land, not sure what the rush was as the gangplank hadn’t been attached. We collected our bags & made our way down the gangplank & into the passport control & the customs hall. We spotted the bus but it was full so we got onto the next one meaning we waited around for about 15 mins. The bus dropped us off opposite Newcastle Train Station & we headed into the station & to the ticket office to purchase tickets for Hexham. We made our way across to platform seven & waited 35 mins for the train. It was a lovely journey through the country side & such a beautiful sunny day.

We exited the station & started walking to our apartment, we stopped into Waitrose for milk & a pork pie & carried on up the hill to our apartment. We had the key code but no key was in there, it was only 12.30 so we walked to the end of the road & sat in the park & ate the pork pie. Just after 1pm Richard headed back along & the key was there so we let ourselves into the apartment. I logged into the wifi & whatsapp’d Lynne, they were waiting to hear if Mum would be discharged as she had an irregular heartbeat, if she was discharged & felt OK then Lynne would meet Jill about 1/2 way at T bar services for a “patient transfer”. Lynne wasn’t sure if Bruce was going with her, if not I would go.
We headed down to Waitrose to do some shopping & spotted Lynne & then Bruce arrived. Bruce had a committee meeting so Lynne & I would drive down. We came back to the apartment & I had something to eat, Lynne was trying to get hold of Jill, they’d had a very slow journey back from Stoke 1 1/2 hours & Mum had felt sick in the car & was understandably not feeling well, so they decided it was best she slept overnight at home & drive up tomorrow.
Lynne came around to our apartment, we walked up for a look at Mums new flat, really nice & it’s ideal for her & then Lynne came back for a drink.