May 8, 2024

 

              Good evening Mr. and Mrs. America and all the ships at sea.

              Stand by for blog.

              That first from Walter Winchell, and the second paraphrased from Paul Harvey.  Good day.

              A reader of these ramblings asked me earlier today where we had docked since we hadn’t told you.  Ooops.  Sorry.  In the Canary Islands, first La Palma and second Tenerife.  At Tenerife we took an excursion to Puerto de la Cruz.  It was a 40 minute bus ride each way with a lot of “Oh, look at that!, ”  And “Wow!  Did you see that?”  Beautiful scenery and a leisurely couple of hours in a city on the sea.  We have a few pictures, and I’ll select a some and post them at the end of this edition.  I laughingly told Bonnie, we had spent $25 each to ride almost an hour and a half to buy more souvenirs when there were souvenir stores right off of the ship.  But not the great scenery.  And it was a fun 4 hours.

              My last talk, “Purple and Picasso,” was this morning, and now I have the next 2 days off.  No more rehearsals, no more set ups and take downs.  Sadness.  But the Lord willing, we’ll go again another day.

              We just came back from Studio B and the ice rink where we watched “Spirits of the Seasons.”  It is a colorful, high energy show which we’ve seen several times, but never better than this time.  The kids were fantastic.  Energetic.  Great moves.  Smiling.  Interacting with the audience.  Just a great 45 minutes.  I have some pictures of that too, but as fast as they were moving, I’ll have to see what’s good to share with you.

              Tonight’s costume for dinner is “dress to impress,” and I need to finish, so I’ll turn the keyboard over to Bonnie and then look for some good pictures.

              Love, Dad/David/Pappy

              TTFN

              Well, it is Wednesday but first I shall tell you about Tuesday. We got into the port of Tenerife about 7. We had gotten up at 6 so we could get showered and dressed and have breakfast before going to Studio B to meet at 8:30 for our 4 hour tour. We of course got there early and were rebuked by the young man, Jonathan, at the door. He was extremely rude and we were told to move back from the door till he called the 8:30 people. He only wanted the 8 and 8:15 groups. It was 8:05. He did not talk nice. Well, he finally let in the 8:30 groups. If you were traveling in a group of people, you were told to have all of your group together before you went in so you would all be on the same bus. Some did not listen. There were 3 people who wound up on bus 9 who were traveling with a larger group that were on bus 8 with us. They went around trying to find 3 people to switch. No one did. The 2 buses actually travelled right behind each other so it really wasn’t a problem except they couldn’t sit together.

           There was a delay that we told later was because a lady had collapsed in the waiting area outside and they had to attend her. No problem we were off at 9:15 instead of 9. The ride was very comfortable and the scenery was beautiful. We were driving to a port city, Puerta de Cruz, and the ride was great. No narration just a ride. After 40 minutes we were there and dropped off in front of a fancy hotel.  They told us we had to meet at 12:15 for our trip back. The bus went somewhere else to park. The hotel was on a very narrow street , one lane, and very congested.

 We started our walking about. We went down to the beach, again a black sand beach, and looked around. It was very nice. Then we went back up to souvenir row. We shopped in about 6 or 7 shops. Some classy shops and some typical what I call “junk” stores. I got a new shirt and we got a lot of other stuff too.  I think there were four or five bags.  It was a great day. We stopped at a café and had a “ham “and cheese toasted sandwich. The ham was not what I would call ham.  I ate half of it without the ham, not very good! I did have a small coke and he had a cappuccino. The coke was a very small can. They served it with a tall thin glass with 2 large ice cubes the size of the bottom of the glass on the bottom and 2 slices of lime on top. You poured the coke into the glass. It was a very tasty coke. Then, we returned to the hotel and got back on the bus at 12:15. Then, we rode back and returned to the ship about 1. We stopped in the pizza shop and had 2 pieces each of delicious pepperoni pizza. Then to the room for a nap.

Off to supper at 5:30 and we both had fish and chips, too much breading on the fish. I peeled it off and ate the fish and 3 or 4 of the fries. There was some sort of vegetable tart for appetizer and a chocolate mousse for dessert. Then, off to the room so he could study for his last talk that was Wednesday morning. Clocks went back another hour, so we are 6 hours different.

Wednesday morning: I got up about 6 and played scrabble till the alarm went off at 6:30. We needed to get up, shower and dress and go to breakfast. It was sparsely crowded since we lost another hour. I tried a ham and cheese omelet. There were 2 very small cubes of ham and small bit of cheese. I ate about half. Then, he was off to the cabin for his last morning of studying, while I headed to deck 4 for my walk. It was quite breezy this morning so I had a sweater. I completed my 3 rounds and headed back to the room to collect my crocheting and head to the Star Lounge and of course there was art set up for a 2:30 auction. His last talk “Purple and Picasso” was well received. Though one of his sound pieces would not play. Several times this cruise the sound pieces have not played. We then headed off to the room for him to change and then we were going for pizza.

On the way to the room, I passed their 2 for $30 dollar t- shirt sale, so I perused and got 2. I had bought a new hat at Nassau last year and was wearing it for this cruise. This morning when I took my shower, I discovered that it does not come down over the back of my neck. OUCH! I had a very red sunburn neck. I did not realize the sun was that hot yesterday. But it was. Fortunately, we had some burn gel in the pink medicine bag. It felt very cooling on my neck when he put it on me. So though very sore to the touch I was okay. Since we are going out 2 more days, I needed a new hat, so after purchasing the shirts we found a big wide brimmed white hat for the next two days. It was only $10.

Then, we continued on our journey to the room and then down for pizza. The pizza on this ship is very good. We each enjoyed 2 pieces and a small dessert and headed to the room. We had planned after a short nap to go to the 3 o’clock ice skating show. But they changed the time to 3:30. We were going to play some cards before going to the room but all the tables were taken. So we just went to the room and I got a longer nap. We decided to head to the show at about 2:45 anticipating a long line to wait in. But unbelievably they said we could go on in and sit down. We did. We got a nice front row seat on the right side, of course as usual the very front of the front section is always reserved and was already filled. But we had great seats.

The show was great. The skaters were very good. Afterwards we went to the room to dress for the “dress to impress” night. Really!  We dressed and had some time and we started the blog. Supper was Greek salad, minus the cucumbers for me, prime rib for me and ossobuco for him. I had panna cotte for dessert and he had, wait for it, strawberry ice cream.

Well, we are now back in our room and in our pjs. The Captain told us at lunch time that we would be passing by Gibraltar about 4 in the morning but wouldn’t be able to see it. Besides the winds are to be at 70 mph, no kidding, and cold. I will pass. We are expected to get to Malaga an hour early  (this  captain really has the hammer down). There is to be a shuttle at this port and the next to take you town. It is a 35 to 40 minute walk otherwise. It only cost 5 euros for a round trip ride. No turning back the clocks we are done with that, so we are just sailing to our ports. No more talks, just relax and enjoy.

Well, it will some be time for bed. The shows have not been much this cruise. But we have enjoyed our table mates and had a great time. He is probably going to write some more now. I will say goodnight.

Love you all, Mom, Granny and Bonnie

And she will be back tomorrow folks.  I am really enjoying her contributions to this.  Remembering everything from her recounting revives the fun we had.

              And now some pictures.

              First from Puerto de la Cruz (yesterday).

My favorite shot. A beautiful place. A great excursion.

A tunnel at the side of the mountain. Interesting ride.

               And now from the ice show:

This little girl was selected from the audience to ride a sleigh for the winter number. She was enjoying herself! The young man on the other sleigh, not so much.