Small Bears "en Vacances" Part 8: Going Home

I often say that we are very lucky small bears and, if you have been reading about our holiday, I'm sure you will agree.  We had all enjoyed a marvellous cruise, but now it was almost at an end.

On our last afternoon, after Endon got back from his trip to the lavender farm, we bears decided to explore the boat properly.  We had seen a plan of it and knew that there was a little club room at the stern, with jigsaw puzzles and board games, so we decided to start there. 

We thought it would be busy, but it seemed that most of humans were in their cabins packing, or up in the bar.  Because it was wet, they couldn't go up on the deck and nor could we.  

We found there were tea and coffee making things for everyone but Hanley did a hard stare when he saw the cups weren't from Stoke-on-Trent.

After playing in there for a little while, we found a flight of stairs to the next deck up and here, to our great surprise, we found a nice gym - and it was empty!

"After all the food they've eaten, I would have thought it would be very busy with humans trying to get fit and lose weight," I said.

We decided we should set them an example.  Hanley spent a few minutes bouncing on a big ball, but the fitness machines were all too big for small bears, so we decided to carry on exploring.

Scurrying along the corridor from the gym, we found ourselves at the top of the main stairs.  There were some seats here, with cushions which were very soft and springy, so we did lots more bouncing.  We could smell cake somewhere nearby, so decided to wait here.

Meanwhile, I found a big book full of nice things people had written about their stay on board.  We decided we bears ought to write nice things too, but we didn't have a pen with us, so we wrote something later and got Polar to slip it into the book.

The mystery of the cake smell was solved when we heard an announcement that afternoon tea was going to be served in the lounge, which was right in front of us!  So we ran on in, ahead of all the humans, and there we found the most delicious selection of cakes we had ever seen!

After enjoying a delicious tea, with Polar and Grizzly, we listened to Mr Lazlo playing the piano.  Then we found our cabin steward, Mr Mitko, so we could thank him for making our cabin tidy, leaving us little chocolates every evening and bringing our flannel friends.  

There were lots of other people to thank as well, including Mrs Andrea, the cruise manager, and Mrs Judith, our travel company lady.  And we got to see all of the crew except the chefs, who were busy making dinner.  We cheered for them all, especially the chefs, who we hoped could hear us down in the kitchen!

While our human guardians were having dinner, we remembered we ought to bring back some presents for the other bears.  We decided we would be very good and not eat our evening chocolates, so we could bring them home.

"That's only three presents, and there are nine other bears," said Endon.  "I wish we had thought to get edible treats for everyone sooner."

Of course Endon had bought us our honey soap, but not all the bears like being bathed and some aren't bath-able at all.

But Hanley Bear had a plan.  He got up very early on our last morning and, while the humans were all busy sorting out their luggage, he went into the restaurant.

His first plan was to gather up some breakfast rolls and pastries, and he had a nibble of some of them to see if they would do, but then he remembered we were going to have an extra day in London before we got home.

"Bread and pastries will get stale by then," he thought.  "there must be something else!"

Then he found that there was a honey, jam and marmalade dispenser on the breakfast counter, so he hide some jars under the table and smuggled them into the Bear Bag while Polar wasn't looking.

Soon it was time to say goodbye to our lovely ship and leave for the station.  We stayed with Grizzly while Polar went exploring, taking pictures of the amazing double-decker trains, which are used for local journeys and for high-speed trips.  

 

We were all very excited about going on the TGV again, although we knew we had a long day of travelling ahead of us.  

 

"You bears must have eaten lots of cakes yesterday afternoon," said Polar, as she carried our bag on board the train.  "You feel quite a lot heavier than usual!"

Hanley kept quiet about his stash of honey and marmalade!

 

The TGV wasn't too busy, so we were able to do some more exploring.  Hanley discovered there was a little mirror on the back of the seats - at first, he thought he had found a small French bear to talk to!

I have included some of Polar's pictures of trains, because I know lots of our friends like trains.  The ones above were taken when we reached Gard du Lyon in Paris, where we thought we had lost one of our party for a few minutes, but luckily he was found before the coach had to leave for Gard du Nord.

 

The pictures below are at Gard du Nord.  We had a very good journey home from there, but were very sleepy bears so had naps for most of it!

Polar had booked us a hotel near the station again, but it was a different one to where we had stayed going out and the reception person wasn't very helpful.  He left Polar and Grizzly to carry their bags up two flights of stairs to their (very small) room on their own.  

 

We all gave him very hard stares but at least the room was clean.  Polar said she thought it was the sort of place MI5 might hide a defecting spy!

"There might not be spies in this room, but there is a smuggler!" she added, when she was helping us all out of the Bear Bag and found the little jars from breakfast.  "Which of you bears did this?"

 

Hanley owned up and explained they were presents for the other bears.  "We've had such a brilliant holiday, we thought we ought to bring presents for them all," he said.  

 

Polar gave him hugs for telling the truth and caring about his friends. "That's the sort of thing Paddington would do," she said.  "And tomorrow, you're coming with us to see his statue."

 

We all cheered when she told us that, and that wasn't our only adventure in London!