August 23:  This is our last day on the Wind Surf and it was spent at sea.  Early in the morning we will arrive at Edinburgh, Scotland and will disembark from the ship.  It was a peaceful, relaxing day with reading, eating, visiting, packing, and reviewing preliminary bill.  There was a slight problem with the bill in that all expenses were placed on Ginni’s credit card; I thought that was a good thing but Ginni did not think so <:).  But, through Wind Surf’s great computer system, the purser was able to separate us out and expenses were applied to the applicable account.  Mid-afternoon the crew modeled latest fashions from the gift shop so I watched and learned the current trends.  That evening, we attended a talk on disembarkation given by the Guest Services manager and joined everyone in the lounge for the captain and crew bidding us farewell.  We had dinner with Richard and Sharon, the Canadian couple that we had met earlier in the week.  After dinner, we went to the Compass Rose for an after dinner drink and listened to CC Maxx Duo performance.   Since we had to be up at 4:30 in the morning, we went to the cabin earlier than previous evenings.  We placed our luggage outside our door so the crew could pick it up and take it into the terminal at Edinburgh for our pick up once we disembarked from the ship.

August 24:  The sound of the alarm seem to come very early!  It was approximately 9:30 or 10:30 PM the evening before back home.  We did have a couple cups of coffee before the announcement came for those of us heading to the airport should leave the ship.  Since the Wind Surf only carries 300 passengers and many of them were staying a few extra days in Scotland, there were only about 20 people leaving with us which made it easy to get our luggage picked up after we went through Scotland’s security.  There was a shuttle bus waiting to take all of us to the airport; upon arrival at the airport, I was able to get checked in quickly but it did take some time to go through another security check.  My journey took me from Edinburgh to Amsterdam (where I had to go through another security check) to Detroit (where I went through customs, immigration, and another security check) to Cedar Rapids with arrival at 8:30 PM.  Luggage arrived with no problem and the airport shuttle service took me home; by this time, I had been up for 24 hours and was starting to feel it.  But it was a wonderful trip and am certainly glad I went.  Good things about the trip was Wind Surf’s excellent service; the weather, with an exception of a couple days, was good; the Scandinavian people were quite friendly and helpful; the Scandinavian countries were all exceptionally clean with their laws making sure people do not litter.  Couple things I would of liked different was the itinerary where I wished we would of had more time in Oslo; I felt Wind Star should of made more of an effort providing guests with information regarding Stockholm and how to get around; one less airport stop both going and coming would of been appreciated but I realize coming out and into Cedar Rapids makes more difficult to arrange.  Overall, a great trip and I am looking forward to planning another one next year.