UP PERISCOPE

April 14, 2018

When we first came to Cartagena a couple of years ago, I did a destination lecture about the history of the city.  One of the interesting things was the life of Isaac Peral, who designed an advanced submarine that launched in 1887.  His design was copied by both sides in World War I and was little changed until World War II (ain’t war grand – expands technology!).  His original submarine is in a museum here and we searched the last two times and couldn’t find it.  You know where this is going!  We walked within 200 yards of it and never turned in the right direction.  Today we found it, and it was worth the trouble to get there.

Some of the readers of this blog, or at least the parents of some young ones who may not read the blog, are familiar with our fascination with model building, namely Star Wars Legos.  Well in this museum there are models of another kind – models of sailing ships, models of war vessels, models of submarines – all done in exacting detail.  The sailing ships were particularly fascinating.  Not only are all of the ropes for the rigging in place, at the spars the rigging runs through pulleys, and down near the deck, they are tied off with appropriate knots.  Think sewing machine thread.  I took a few photos.  The incredible skill and patience to build such!

I’m using a lot of superlatives tonight, but this evening’s Headliner show – called “Encore” – was outstanding.  Great singing and dance that was rewarded after the closing number, “You’ll never walk alone,” with a sustained standing ovation.  There has really been excellent entertainment on this cruise.

And now with her own brand of entertainment, hereeeeee’s Bonnie!

TTFN

Well, at about 7 am ( I said 6:30 but your dad said it was 7) our phone rang as we were sound asleep in the bed. This is two days in a row we have been woken by a phone ringing and stopping before we could get to it. Well, we were awake now so we got up. He showered and dressed and I decided to wait till after our touring because tonight was formal night and I needed to wash my hair. So after dressing, up to breakfast. I had a cup of brown water “hot chocolate” an unripe slice of cantaloupe and banana bread. Oh well! After breakfast we walked outside on the Lido deck to look at a really strange ship in dock across from our ship. It was big and gray and had 4 huge masts that where probably 30 or more feet high and made of gray medal. Very strange indeed.  They never did announce you could go off or where the ramps were but we eventually found it on deck 4 midship.  We went to the cabin after breakfast, got our euros, and I got a sweater, light jacket and hat and headed out.  We had been here before and knew where the shopping was but our goal was to find the naval museum. We found it in about 15 minutes but it did not open till 10 and it was about 9:30. So we decided to head up the shopping street. We stopped in a couple of souvenir stores we had visited before and he bought a little statue that looks like a KKK guy but isn’t for 7euros.  Then, I found a newspaper stand and London paper for 5 euros, very expensive.

Then, we found a new store, which I liken to the states Dollar Store. This store had some of everything, craft stuff, even yarn, pens, pencils, crayons, coloring books, stickers, stuff for the kitchen, the yard, kids toys, etc.  It even had a glass floor in part of the store where there were ancient Roman ruins under it. How cool. We bought a couple of things including a dot to dot book for 1 euro for me. It is really cute. Your Dad’s shoulder was hurting and he wanted to take some Tylenol, so we bought a bottle of coke. Well, while I am paying he gets out the Tylenol , opens the bottle and when attempting set it on the counter up dumps it over the stuff I am buying which is in a bag, the counter, the credit card machine and the display at the front. A big mess. I completed paying my 7 euros as they brought paper towels and they and he cleaned up the mess. The whole time the 2 employees were talking, I am sure not kind words about the crazy Americans. We were still wiping off stuff after we got outside. I am sure they won’t let us back in there.

Well, we walked a little farther then turned around and headed back to the museum, which was now open. We paid our 3 euros each and proceeded to walk around. There were ship models, cannon, guns, deep sea diving equipment, medical and kitchen equipment you could find on a ship. There were sextants and all kinds of navigational tools. Pretty impressive but no submarine.  So he asked in the small gift shop where the submarine might be. It was in the next building to the right. So we headed there. Fortunately, the ticket you bought in the first building also got you into this building. And there it was. Quite impressive. They had a time line on the wall about the man who had designed and built it.

Well, when we finished and walked outside he took his sun glasses out of his pocket and they came out in 2 pieces.  We usually bring 2 pairs but had not. So now what! I said let us go look in the souvenir shops. We returned to the first one we had been in and they had none, the second one had some for 39 euros, um no. Then, I noticed a small shop up the side street we had not been into earlier. Low and behold they had a rack of sunglasses, some for 6.95 euros, they had some more expensive ones also, but we bought the 6.95 euro pair. Hopefully, we make it home with these. As we had gone through the gate to get on the ship, there was an ambulance and a police car sitting beside the ramp onto the ship and they were loading someone covered with a sheet into the ambulance. As we were getting ready to go up the ramp they brought out a suitcase and put it into the ambulance. We have had medical emergencies on the cruise then any before.

Well, back on the ship, and I didn’t set off the alarms, go figure. We headed to Lido. We had decided to have hamburger and fries. Well, they were only luke warm and pink inside. Not good. Less then satisfactory. Then, we went down to Piazza, deck 5, to play cards. They have been having a do it yourself water color painting classes in the piazza, and they had it set up again today. They set up 4 easels, paints and brushes and if you want you can create a painting. Well, they must have been using turpentine because it smelled really bad. But we sat down and played some cards, score 5 to 4, I am winning.

After cards we went back to the room, he to nap, me to shower and wash my hair. I did so, then started to read my paper. But he wanted to sleep so I played on my phone and then, I fell asleep. He got up about 4:30 and tried to get on the internet but it said he was already on it on another device. So up he went to the internet desk. Turned out the internet was down and sending out phoney messages. There were 7 people(angry) in line in front of him with the same complaint.

He returned. We got dressed for supper in our best and headed out.  We stepped out on to deck 7 to see if we were sailing off, but we were still tied up.  All aboard was at 4:30 but at 5:15 we were not moving.  They never did come on and say anything but eventually we were sailing. 

Now tonight was escargot and lobster tail night. I had neither. I had tomato soup, and beef shot ribs and a sugar free cherry jello mousse. The ribs were not much.

Supper was great fun and we took pictures of our table mates and our waiters. Then, off to the show and an hour of conversation with our theater friends from Delaware. He does most of the talking and I listen. I hear about 75% of what is being said. Show was fantastic, some show tunes and several selections in other languages. Didn’t understand the words but the music and singers were great. There was a special featured soprano, in addition to the regular singer and dancers,  who had a beautiful voice. Great show.

Well, tomorrow is Palma, and Majorca where we have never been. We have a hop on hop off bus and a visit to a castle. The weather is to be nice but only a high in mid 60's. Shall wear sweater and light jacket.

Love you all, Mom, Granny and Bonnie