330

Oh, my!  It's nearly time for us to leave Rinda and I haven't shown you around at all! The Viking website shares pictures of the various areas of the boats, so those aren't included. I always think that the brochures and websites use the larger, more expensive cabins in their illustrations, but I'm sharing photos of our stateroom, Cabin 330, a modestly priced accommodation.

The huge French balcony window provided the illusion that we had more room than we actually had, but nonetheless, I thought there was sufficient space. We did have to do a little dance if both of us wanted to be at the foot of the bed at the same time, but that didn't happen often. The bed was comfortable (but the pillows were just awful -- very, very flat!). The bathroom was well-designed. There was plenty of storage space. We even had our own very small personal refrigerator; Viking was feeding us nearly every time we turned around, so I didn't know what it was for, but one of our most delightful acquaintances admitted that he'd been using it to store dirty clothes, thus conserving a drawer! We chose to believe he was being facetious.

This fellow is reading the book I'd brought along. I always take a laptop or iPad when traveling, and make good use of the Kindle and Nook apps, but I also like to have one paperback book. I don't know why. A few days before we left home, I wandered up to the bookstore to see what I might take. Right there on the featured table was Rutherford's Paris, and I grabbed it. Nearly 1000 pages, I thought it might suffice. And it certainly did! It was the perfect book for the trip -- each night I found myself reading about things I'd seen during the day. I got caught up in the various family threads; I've long been a Rutherfurd fan, and this book's story captivated me. I hope that towel-dog finds another copy so he can finish it!