May 6, 2024

              Last night our headwaiter, Bryan told us we were docking close in and it would be a 10 minute walk into town.  Maybe on his legs.  We figured 20 minutes into town and after wandering around for an hour or so, it was 30 minutes back to the ship.  But we had a good time, bought some souvenirs, had some just okay gelato, and came back to the ship.  Then a nap and dinner for 2 at our table for 6.  Our table mates were on excursions.  We will excurse tomorrow.  I did my Lady in Gold talk today to a good reception.  Off tomorrow and then Purple and Picasso Wednesday, and I am finished for this cruise.  It will be stops in Malaga and Alicante, then Barcelona and home.  Relatives, friends, and blog readers all – I am beat.  Maybe I will be more lively tomorrow (we come along side at 08:30 and sail away at 15:30, or 3:30 p.m., whichever comes first).  Pictures tomorrow. Lots of love! Dad/David/Pappy

              Well, the cards weren’t with me tonight. He could have not played the last two hands and he would still have won, so we stopped before I got farther behind. Oh, well tomorrow is another day.

              We got up at 6 and got showered and dressed and headed to the Windjammer. I had gotten up at 5 and played scrabble on my phone because I didn’t sleep very well. I decided to try the oatmeal this morning. Big mistake! It was awful(!!), so I got a piece of toast and some bacon and cantaloupe. Then, he headed back to the room to study and get ready. I went to deck four to walk. It was cold and very windy. I couldn’t hear my story because of the wind so I just walked 3 times around the deck. The Captain has been flying low the last 8 days so we were already passing land and were due to dock by 11:30 instead of 1:30. So I got to watch the island go by while I walked. I took a couple of pictures. After the walk, I went to the room and picked up the crocheting and headed to the lounge for his talk. He did the “Lady in Gold”. Had a good crowd considering we were docking and would be able to get off soon. After the talk I collected his stuff and we went to the room.

                Then, even though it was a little early for lunch we went upstairs. The captain came on at 11:30 and said the ship was all clear and you could get off. We went all the way up to deck 13 and forward so we could see if we could walk into town. It appeared we could walk, so we went into the Windjammer and had some lunch. They had fried chicken and I got a small piece and some steamed vegetables. It was very good. They had some balsamic vinegar out and I put some on the vegetables. I got a no sugar added dessert, chocolate of course. It was good. The desserts are very small but it was plenty. We got some ranger cookies but they were really sugary and hard. Now dipped into coffee they would have been okay.

               Now it was back to the room to put on our roaming clothes and get some euros, hats, sunglasses, canes and water bottle. The one head waiter guy said last night it was a short 10 minute walk to town. WRONG! !  It took us more then 30 minutes to follow the blue line to town. From the top deck on the ship we could see a black sand beach to the right of where we were parked and we wanted to try and go there. So off we went. We walked through the security building and there were some small gift areas. We looked and agreed we would stop back when we returned. Didn’t want to have to carry it. There was a large ferry sitting out in the harbor and you could buy tickets to go somewhere(?) and you could even drive cars on to it.

After following the blue line, we finally got to one of the main street and started walking down the street. One of the first places we came upon was the gelato store. It was very small and only had 5 flavors. But it had amareno cherry, my favorite, and he had strawberry, a flavor which he liked. Mine was very good but his not as good. He was really hoping for a coffee or chocolate kind. There were tables on the sidewalk outside so we sat and ate. There are beautiful small patches of flowers and trees all along the street. We stopped to take pictures of them.

               After gelato we continued walking down the street and found several souvenir shops.  Found a few things to buy. We saw two of our table mates and they said you could get to the black sand beach, which was on the other side of the street we were on, by crossing over and walking down a small boardwalk onto the beach. We walked a little farther then, crossed over. It was a beautiful beach with all types of sports stuff set up and a large rock barrier against the sea coming in to far. I did not want to walk in the sand and it was really black. I don’t like sand in my shoes and he walkway only went so far out.

               After the beach we started to walk all the way back. It was a long and tiring walk. We both were pretty worn out. We followed the blue line back. When we came to where the ferry was, there were now cars lined up waiting to get onto it. Pretty cool. We got a couple of really cool postcards in the port shops. By the time we got back on board we had been out about 3 hours, so to the room and a nap.

               Got up at 5 went to supper. We were the only ones at the table. Nice quiet supper. Then, off to the disastrous card game. I gave up after one game and we came back to blog. We have to get up at 6 tomorrow because we have a tour that meets at 8:30. So he is tired and now we are going to bed.

               Love you all and miss everybody. We will have supper next Monday. We will be celebrating Tate’s birthday. Tacos and ice cream sandwich cake. Who is coming, haha!

               Love Mom, Granny and Bonnie