I FORGOT WHAT I WAS GOING TO SAY

May 1, 2018

I had a very clever title for tonight, and it tied in with something I was doing, but I have forgotten both of them, so here we go with something else.

A beautiful day ashore today in Ponta Delgada.  No rain, but there was one dark cloud and it came over the island from the east side and just kept going out to sea.  It was so warm out that I took my sweatshirt off and wandered around in my Star Trek: City on the Edge of Forever t-shirt (pants and shoes were included in the outfit, of course).

We were docked right in downtown, and as soon as we were off the ship, it was maybe 100 feet to the main street and up the hill to St. Peter’s Church.  It was closed.  Today, as I think we’ve told you in an earlier edition, is a European holiday.  But as the morning progressed more and more places were open and as we returned to the ship from our 4.5 mile wandering, St. Pete’s was open.  The churches we’ve seen here in the Azores are different from the ones we’ve seen in the rest of Europe (or the rest we’ve been in).  No stained glass windows.  Lots of gold and ornaments, but no stained glass.

There was one shop we wanted to go in, and we did, because the door was open.  There were displays of yarn in the window, and the selection that caught the eye of my crocheting side kick was a combination of purple and yellow.  She wanted to add it to her collection and make something pretty of it.  We walked in and a woman hustled over to us and very rudely said, “We are not open.”  I said, “But the door is open.”  She said, “No matter,” and showed us to the door which she closed behind us.  How rude!  We didn’t come back past that store or I would have given her a line from “Pretty Woman.”  You remember us.  Big mistake.  Big.  I’m not sure if I have the quote correct, but you get the idea.

We had our first gellato of the trip.  Mine was coffee and chocolate.  Hers was strawberry and chocolate.  We each got two dips and wished we had gotten three.  Yummy!

We picked up four decks of cards for the card collectors, and Bonnie bought a bread basket made of cloth.  You’ll see it soon at an evening meal at 233 (I got the number right that time, Mike).

My next-to-the-last talk for this cruise is tomorrow.  Then May 3 is a day off (there is something going on back home that day, if only I could remember) and then May 4 is potatoes – this time it will be delivered in under 75 minutes, I promise.  And then lots of sight seeing as we visit places we’ve never seen before.  We are looking forward to these stops, and have scheduled two excursions.

We were back at Table 125 tonight – the same table where we had the duds as table mates last night.  Two interesting folks from Canada.  She needed a companion, so she brought her boyfriend of 11 months.  She said, “I needed someone to share the cabin, and I couldn’t think of anyone else.”  Sounds like a back-handed invitation to me.  But, Pauline and Doug were enjoyable communicationaires for the evening’s groceries.

We’ve set the clocks ahead another hour, so we are now 5 hours ahead of you, and it is after 10 p.m. here, so I’ll turn the keyboard over to the female blogger, and I’ll rehearse a bit before shut-eye.

TTFN

Well, I decided not to shower this morning!! I planned to wash my hair and shave my legs today , it has been more than a week, so I was waiting till returning. I would be wearing a hat all day and walking for miles and my hat would have ruined a hair wash.

We got out at about 9:30. We walked from the ship and up the hill to a church which , as he told you, was closed. So we walked back down to the front street and continued on our journey. He thought from the map he knew where the next church was so in a few blocks we turned up a street and started to look for it. We finally found it and it was open so in we went. These churches though extremely ornate are quite different in appearance from others we have seen. They use mostly gold, I assume gold plating, on everything. They are quite beautiful and some of the statues are unusual. There pipe organs are huge and beautiful.

As we walked down the very narrow and mostly one way streets, sometimes with cars whizzing by, on very narrow side walks, we would pass some nice shops but most were closed. Every once in a while one was open. We visited several souvenir shops and purchased a couple of things. No sunglasses today. There is an stone structure of 3 huge arches in the middle of the town that history says if you walk through you will return to the island. So we walked through both ways because we weren’t sure which was the right direction.

At the end of the street there was a fort. We walked up and there was a bar across the entrance but a young soldier told us we could buy a ticket and come in and visit the military museum and the fort. It only cost 1 euro so we entered. Your Dad asked if the exhibits had English labels but the soldier wasn’t very clear on that but most of them had Portugese labels. But none the lest it was a nice visit. Went all the way to the top and could see out all across the sea and the town. This is an active fort still used by the army and navy if we understood the soldier correctly. There were lots of heavy artillery and vehicles on display. There was one area which was about a war in which  Ponta Delgada  was involved
from 1961-1974. We couldn’t understand why the war, but there were lists of the men who had died and lots of the weapons and medals from it. Very interesting.

As we were leaving the fort the bright sunny day was gone as dark gray clouds settled over the fort. I told them to stay. They really didn’t because when we got back to the ship, they had moved to over the ship. Though we never got rained on.

In one square we saw a tree that was about 175 years old. It was huge and the limbs were being held up by large metal posts. Very interesting.  I wanted a diet coke and we hadn’t found any in Horta and so far hadn’t found any here. I finally broke down and bought a coke zero, though the last time I got that in Europe it tasted horrible. I did finally find one and I bought it to.

Well, by the time we got back to the ship at 12:30 I could see the doors of the first church were open. So we were going to go back up but somebody, not naming any names, had to pee.  So we walked back down the long steps to the dock area to look for a potty first. Well, down on the dock to the left of where the ship was , there was an area where people were sunbathing and swimming. No mind you the temperature is in the low 60's. There were even people laying out in bikinis on towels. Well, there was some kind of bath house and your Dad found a potty. After the potty break, we went back up the steps, across the street, up the hill and up the steps into the church. Well, worth the effort.

Then, back down the steps and into the terminal and through the terminal security. And of course I set it off and had to be wanded. Then, onto the ship and through the security and I didn’t set it off. Go figure!

Dropped off our stuff and headed up for lunch. Since we had already had dessert it was salad only. And I drank my coke zero. After we got back to the room, I took my shower, etc and then I worked on crocheting and he worked on emails. Then, he napped. At about 4:30 they came on with the announcement that we were getting ready to sail, so I dressed and went up on deck 3 to watch the sail away. It was cool as always and I got to see the pilot jump from our ship to the pilot ship as we sailed out. Neat stuff. After we got going and it was 5, I went back to the room to see if he was getting ready for supper.

Supper was okay. I had flat iron steak and mashed potatoes. Ivy would have loved my steak and Amy would not have eaten it. But I enjoyed it. Dessert was a sugar free apple slices dessert. Not much.

Well, tomorrow I will try and walk early, though the Captain has said the day will be in the  low 50's and rainy and rocky. So we will see. Almost 6 miles today and over 14000 steps.

Love, Mom. Granny and Bonnie