Wanderung 17

No Rain in Spain, not even on the Plain!

April-May 2008

Monday April 14th 2008

Noon position: 31 degrees 15' North, 65 degrees, 46' West

Bob:

We were up a bit after seven o'clock, threw some clothes on, and hustled up to the morning stretch class so we could get a decent space for the workout. I had been sandwiched in a corner next to "The Egg" on the previous morning, and I wanted to have more room to flail about with my arms and legs while stretching. "The Egg"--my name for it--is an egg-shaped fiberglass capsule that promises 30 minutes of "bliss" for just $50. Bliss is achieved, apparently, by a combination of a vibrating massage, aromatherapy, and possibly a light show while one rests in the fiberglass shell. My immediate response was a giggle fit because the thing looked like something Woody Allen would have been using in the classic movie "Sleeper".

On more careful (and more sober) inspection, it looked like a tight fit for someone my size. But unlike Monika I'm not generally claustrophobic except when pinned to the pavement by tons of metal. And when taking sailplane lessons I was even in a fiberglass shell just about the same size as "The Egg" while dropping toward the Earth's surface without a motor, and that experience had also cost somewhere around $100 for an hour what with the fees for the tow plane, tow pilot, and instructor. "The Egg" might have been more relaxing than a sailplane lesson, but I doubted very much that it would be as exciting. There is nothing quite like trying to stretch your glide over some trees to reach the landing strip while all the while thinking that in a dead-stick landing like that there was absolutely no chance of a "go-around" if things went badly. Nothing like the adrenaline surge when your life is on the line!

In any case, I decided to skip "The Egg" despite it's promise of total bliss and save my pennies for more sailplane lessons (or helicopter lessons, which turned out to be equally exciting but in a very different way!). Besides, I already achieved Nirvana while walking around Rothenburg, Germany, during Wanderung 15, and that experience was about as far from lying passively in a fiberglass egg as you can get, so I probably wasn't a good candidate for the Chakra brand of bliss anyway.

Monika:

I woke up to rain. I had not expected it, since the captain had assured us, we were heading for a high. But on the other hand, we were heading for Bermuda and who knows what's going on around that area (Bermuda Triangle and all that). The Walk-A-Mile was called off on account of weather, but they did hand out the Vitality Points. So we felt obliged to walk on Deck 4 where most of the walk was under the overhang of the lifeboats. You had to go up steps to get to the very bow where the helicopter landing pad is. Thats where it was a little more windy. But to my surprise, the seas where still quite calm and the ship hardly moved


 

Bob:

We had a quick, light breakfast after the stretching class and ran up on deck for the Walk-A-Mile, but it was cancelled on account of rain! We resolved to walk later in the day when the rain let up and wandered about the interior of the ship a bit before returning to our cabin. In particular, we were looking for ballroom dance venues and Monika had read about The Dungeon, which had a DJ playing ballroom dance music from 9 to 11 p.m. each evening, and we were curious what it looked like. It turned out to look quite unusual indeed.

The lights at the bar had a weird bluish cast and the only succinct way I can describe the decor is very "Goth". Decorations for the "dungeon" theme involved several huge gargoyles and skeletons situated in various nooks and crannies playing various musical instruments, a disconcerting combination at best. The entrance featured two beautiful stained glass windows that had the overall arched shape of stained glass windows in a Gothic cathedral, but with a completely non-religious theme, of course. The artist had depicted two very good-looking young women in those two panels and the quality of the work was excellent. Nice to know artisans still can do excellent stained glass work like that, and the girls were certainly better than a sharp stick in the eye!

Monika:

. After wandering around and looking at the different venues, we spent time in our cabin writing the log and listening to music on the little MP3 player Bob had gotten for father's day and loaded with almost all of our CDs.

Bob:

We spent the rest of morning in our cabin updating our journals and solving acrostics. That combination worked well because we could each take a turn for about half an hour on the computer or the acrostic and then switch them to the other person for the next half hour session. Very restful. In the afternoon I snoozed a bit while Monika wandered the ship, attending a seminar on collecting art in the process. I rejoined Monika to attend a reception in the main theater for the repeat cruisers on the ship, of which there were a LOT, and that turned out very well indeed.

Monika:

After lunch Bob decided to lay down for a bit. So I thought, I'll just explore the ship a little more. I took along a dollar to try out the casino. Starting out with a cup of coffee at the cafe on the promenade, I then went down to the photo shop to look at the pictures that had been taken of us. The getting-on-board picture was not too bad, but we are waiting for a second good one, since we have a coupon for a free one with a paid one. While down there I heard an announcement about a seminar on the collection of art. It sounded interesting, so I headed for the Ixtapa lounge. This is the biggest of the lounge areas, obviously decorated in a Mexican scheme. The seminar itself was a Powerpoint presented by a young, earnest man, helped by a second young, earnest man, who will do the art auctions later on. It gave an overview why people should collect art (investment, hah!), but then also explained different techniques like lithography, seriography, etching, woodcutting, etc with nice examples of each. At the end they were handing something out which I thought was a catalogue of what they were going to sell, but instead it was an original lithograph (8x11) with proof of authenticity, and it really was not too bad. Maybe, I'll go to the auctions to get more free art (and, of course, free champagne).

I dropped my piece of art of in our cabin and checked up on Bob (still asleep). So I headed for the casino to see how long $ 1.-- would last. It turned out, that at the 25 cents slot machines the answer was not very long.... oh well, next time I'll try the 5 cent machines. After another cup of coffee, I went to wake up Bob, take a shower and dress for the reception for the returning guests.

Bob:

First, we had some free drinks and were exposed to a mercifully brief "Thank You for Cruising with RCI" talk. But before and after the talk a 5 piece band played dance music. The dance floor was the theater's stage or proscenium area, which was quite large. I had trouble talking Monika into dancing until she had finished her rum punch and enough couples were already on the dance floor that we could kind of hide behind them. The band played foxtrots, waltzes, and Lindy/jitterbug tunes, all of which I could cope with, so we danced away for 20 minutes or so and I had a blast.

Dinner was again excellent food combined with excellent conversation. I noticed our old pattern of chatting the evening away that had occurred on the Wanderung 14 cruise with Rick, Brigitte, and Dave was now recurring with Don, George, Helen, Jeff, Vicky and Sue. Vicky and Sue would usually leave just before or after dessert, but the rest of us talked and talked until they turned up the lights on us and were clearing all the tables for the late seating folks. Still, Allison, our waitress, was invariably polite and never tried to rush us, just as our wonderful waitress Sueda had on that previous trip. Having wonderful conversations with tablemates certainly makes a critical difference in how much we enjoy each cruise.

Monika:

This reception was in the theater and they not only offered champagne but also rum punch and fruit punch without alcohol. So Bob also got something to drink. A short welcome and "Please Come Again" speech was followed by a beautiful Pas de Deux by a husband and wife ballet team. After that the band played dance music for another 20 minutes and we could dance on stage. By this time I had 2 rum punches and there were several other couples dancing who did not look like they could enter a dance competition, so we joined them. It was a lot of fun, we danced a couple of foxtrots, a very, very slow waltz and a Lindy. The situation was ideal, there was enough space, so that Bob did not have to worry about running into people constantly, but enough couples that we were just one of many.

After successfully dancing for 20 minutes, we were ready for dinner. We again had a very nice dinner conversation with everybody, with Jeff trying to explain the English game of cricket to us. No, he did not succeed. But we did find out that the home team provides tea, and Helen explained she would have to make 60 sandwiches and 60 pieces of cake. Of course, if the game got called on account of weather (we are talking England after all), she had to eat sandwiches and cakes for the next week.

Bob:

By the time we had finished dinner, the Navigator of the Seas was docked at the Royal Naval Dockyard on the northwestern tip of Bermuda, so after dinner we disembarked for our first experience of the island's atmosphere. It was completely dark by then, and the brightly lit ship looked beautiful across the black, rippled waters of the harbor. Except for bars, the local shops were all shut for the night, of course, but the overall ambience was very relaxed and casual, and we felt completely safe in wandering around in the dark until it was time to return to the ship for the night.

Monika:

While we were at dinner, the ship had tied up at the King's Dockyard on the southern end of Bermuda. We decided to get off the ship and have a look around. Of course, nothing was open, but we did get nice pictures of the ship across the harbor and found out were we would rent the motorscooter the next day.

Copyright 2008 by R. W. Holt and E. M. Holt
Prolog Map of Trip Epilog

April 2008
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9 10 11 12
13 14 15 16 17 18 19
20 21 22 23 24 25 26
27 28 29 30
May 2007
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
1 2 3
4 5 6 7 8 9 10
11 12 13 14 15 16 17
18 19 20 21 22 23 24
25 26 27 28 29 30 31

Return to the Wanderungs Homepage.
Sign the Guestbook or Read the Guestbook.
Comments about this site? Email the Webmaster.
Contact Bob and Monika at bob_monika@hotmail.com.