Sunday, September 13th, 2011: At Sea
Bob: We awakened to a very foggy, misty morning. In fact, the fog was so thick that we could clearly see it INSIDE the ship atrium around the swimming pools on Deck 15 as we walked back to the buffet to have breakfast. Now THAT's thick fog! In fact, the ship's foghorn started blowing while we were having breakfast. Inside the ship, we heard that long, drawn-out, echoing "hooooooooot", but boy when it blew while we were outside walking back to our cabin was it LOUD! |
Monika: It seems this cruise gave us every dangerous weather at sea. This morning it was fog. It was rather eerie walking from our cabin to the buffet. But the captain sounded the foghorn reminding me of home, walking in Hamburg in a fog hearing the fog horns from the Elbe. However, this was a heck of a lot louder. |
Bob: We had a couple of tasks on our "to do" list for the final day. We dropped off all the ship's books as well as all of our surplus paperbacks in the ship's library. We discarded all except the paperbacks we really wanted to keep in order to free up as much space for packing as we possibly could. We also discarded all the plastic bottles we had accumulated during our sojourn in Great Britain and even threw out the old 2009 British Isles road atlas as we had purchased a 2012 version along the way. We listened to a talk on New York city by a destination specialist, who happened to be a longtime resident of the Big Apple, and it gave us some ideas of what we would like to see some day as well as the name of the subway station in Brooklyn that was nearest to the ship dock. That let me find it on my GPS and set it as a waypoint to use for our planned hike off the ship the next morning. After that was our last dance class with Sam, the Cruise Director, and she not only did a thorough review of the cha-cha and merengue, but she also handed out a 6-page description of each of the major dances she had taught. A cheat sheet like that, to someone who has a memory as fallible as mine, is worth its weight in gold, but I was sad to see the dance classes come to an end as we had so much fun with them. |
Monika: Given the fog outside, we concentrated mainly on indoor activities. There was a talk on New York City by the destination specialist, a New Yorker. Since we were going to dock in Brooklyn, she taught us that to get to Manhattan in a taxi we had to say "Take the bridge, I don't wanna pay the toll." with proper New Yorker impatience. And then there was our last dance class with Sam the cruise director. She also handed out sheets with the choreographies she had taught us. So now we can practice at home! |
Bob: After lunch Monika toddled off to attend the last art auction, gamble at the casino, upgrade our departure ticket times, and just generally have a last fling while I started packing in deadly earnest. We had accumulated several bits of rocks and crockery (pieces of slate, mugs, spoon rests, spice jars, tea bag holders, etc. etc.), so packing involved trying to individually wrap each piece and then collectively arrange it to minimize the chance of possible breakage. Then of course, I had to cram the remaining clothes in as best as possible and see if it would still close! After a couple hours work it did close, but barely! |
Monika: Of course, there was a last Champagne art auction, where they auctioned off the nautical chart signed by the officer corps. The auction proceeds went to a marine charity after being doubled by Princess Cruise Lines. Luckily for the charity but bad for me, the chart bidding finally went a lot higher than I was willing to go, over $300. And then there was a last stint in the casino. I had put $10 from our stateroom account in the "players bank" and gave it a last whirl. Surprise, I won. So when my bank reached $10.02, I decided to cash out, happy in the knowledge that I had a lot of fun and was 2 cents richer. The Captain came on the intercom with a last message. As was his want, he apologized for interrupting some real or imaginary on-board activity, this time it was the knitting and puzzle piece finding competition. His last message: "The prayer of the eternal traveler: May your luggage come with you." |
Bob: Monika returned flush from her two-cent victory at the penny slot machine (her story to tell!), and then turned her hand to packing whilst I updated my journal before dinner. Over the customary excellent cuisine and absolutely flawless service by Aleksandra and Alex, our waitress and helper, we had our normal wide-ranging table discussion. It was the first time I had actually heard someone say phrase "Damn your eyes!", a phrase I had only read about in old novels but which Peter obliged me by saying with the proper British accent, and, I dare say, the appropriate military emphasis as he was, after all, a retired Brigadier General! Listening to Peter discuss the experiences he had whilst stationed all around the world, including Kosovo during the Serbian crisis, was just fascinating. But everybody around the table had unique things to contribute to the dinner conversation. Janet shocked me by actually knowing what I was talking about when I mentioned double-clutching a manual-shift transmission. I think she called it "doubledy-clutching", but she surely knew exactly how and under what conditions to do it. Given that less than 1% of males have that extent of automotive knowledge and, not to be sexist or anything, correspondingly fewer females, I was impressed. As I also learned that she was a motorcycle rider, clearly she was an unusual woman in several respects, but that certainly made for an interesting table discussion! |
Monika: The last animated meal combined the usual mix of excellent cuisine with interesting talk. It really was fun sharing a table with these two British couples. Before the dessert came the parade of flaming Napoleons - of course, in this day and age, flashlights had to substitute for the flames. But the dessert was still really good. |
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| Prolog | Map of Drive in England | Map of Transatlantic Cruise | Epilog |
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