Friday 21 February 1997 came around and the holiday kicked off. A night down the pub? No. A cosy night by the fire with an attractive young woman? No. It was in fact a night in front of the TV (with mates, beer and pizza) watching Carlisle United live!!!! And we won 3-1 - Yippee Qi Ay !!! Anyway, brother Bob arrived Saturday morning and we headed over to Newcastle to catch the ferry to Norway. Basically this mini-holiday was spent sleeping, eating and sat in the bar playing cards (and scrabble) and drinking :)

When we got to Bergen on the Sunday evening we had a quick walk around the town, a drink and something to eat in a local pizzeria. We phoned home to say we had arrived safely and to find out if we had won the lottery - unfortunately we hadn't. Back at the ferry we retired for the evening.

In the morning we got up and did the touristy bit of walking around town, going up the mountain and then doing some shopping. Unfortunately it rained all day and by the time we got back to the ferry we were drenched and had to have showers and get changed. We departed late Monday afternoon for Newcastle and the crossing was a bit rougher. I was sleeping in the top bunk and nearly came out a couple of times! In the morning Bob wasn't feeling too good - he had an inner ear infection at the time and his sense of balance wasn't the best. I was, however, loving it! The crossing was going to take longer than expected and so they opened the observation lounge (deck 7) at the front of the ship. It was brilliant - just like being on a 7 hour long roller coaster ride! Several waves broke over the observation deck windows! This is 60-70 feet above sea level, remember!

We eventually arrived in Newcastle at about 17:00 on the Tuesday - 5 hours late! It was cutting it close to get to the Carlisle United away game and so we just headed home to Carlisle, but I did get to the Windows97 Exhibition in London on Wednesday for work - marginally interesting. Thursday saw Bob and I nipping across the English Channel to Calais for some more Duty Frees. Most agreeable :) I got back home on Friday 28th morning, went 10 pin bowling with my ex-lodger Kevin (beat him 3 games to nil :) and then spent Friday evening catching up with my TV progs that I'd videoed. Saturday night I was out ;)

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