Friday, November 4 – Land at Last

We are docked in Horta today.  We were here many years ago and took a ship’s tour to a pineapple plantation.  We have missed stops here at least twice because of weather.  Today we made our own tour of the cabin.

MA had a restless night, so we stayed in later than usual.  As a result, we missed breakfast in the MDR and the Lido which, much to our surprise, closes a half-hour early on port days.  Breakfast became sticky buns and coffee.  While hardly healthy, it was quite tasty.  After a stroll around the deck to look at the town and assess the weather, we returned to the room to read and write yesterday’s journal entry [see below].  When the tablet started to fall from MA’s hands, it was time for a morning rest.  D woke her for lunch in the Lido because the MDR does not serve lunch on port days.  We were happy to find meatloaf; again, not so healthy especially when paired with French fries, but satisfying.

After lunch, it was nap time again, especially for MA.  D slept for a little bit but spent much of the SCAN reading.  Once he woke MA up, he went to see the Future Cruise Lady. 

We have a cruise scheduled for next spring with stops in Amsterdam.  The printed itinerary says that the ship will dock in Ijmuiden, way the heck outside of town, but Cruise Lady reconfirmed that the Prinsendam will, indeed, dock in downtown Amsterdam where we have docked in the past.  This was great news for us because it means that we will be able to meet with cruise friends who are coming early for their own cruise out of Amsterdam; it would have been impossible and/or too expensive to do it from the original dock.  We are also interested in a cruise to celebrate our 50^th anniversary, but the ones which might interest us [and which actually include our anniversary] also include Christmas and we don’t want to miss the chance to be with the family.  We have plenty of time to work something out.

The entertainment tonight was a “cast” show, so we skipped it.  They are usually too loud and overproduced by our standards, so we rarely attend them.  Back in the room for reading and writing, as usual.

 

TOMORROW -- Ponta Delgado

Thursday, November 3 – Still Adrift in the Atlantic

We will be in the Azores tomorrow and Saturday, making today our last sea day on this trans-Atlantic crossing.  True, we will be at sea again Sunday and Monday as we make our way to Malaga, Spain, but many of the passengers are hailing this as the last sea day.

There was little to distinguish it from any of the others.  We attended George’s morning lecture which was mostly about how sexual attraction among animals is a major factor in genetic changes.  Mostly, though, it was about mating rituals for a few species for which he had video although none of it appeared to be his.  And he never explained how attracting a mate through these rituals helped strengthen or reinforce the species’ gene pools.  We also noted that in every case he cited it was the male who enacted the ritual and had the elaborate plumage while with humans it is the normally the female who dresses to attract the male.  George has some interesting information, but he does not connect the dots very well.  As teachers, we continue to be disappointed with his lesson-planning.

We turned the clocks forward again, so lunch was a quick affair of cheese and crackers before Trivia.  We could have done a bit better today [12 points], but the group next to us thought we did well “for a team of two.”  We weren’t sure if that was a compliment or not.

The entertainment tonight was repeat performances by Juan Pablo and a ukulele player who had done his firs show before we boarded. 

TOMORROW – Horta, Azores, Portugal