May 10
Bonnie awoke early, earlier than I, your faithful scribe,
opened his eyes to a new day. Upon
arising I found a note which said, “I went up on deck to watch the ship come
along side and tie up.” That is one of her favorite parts of cruising. There are so many things going on involving
so many workers and machines ashore. In
the olden days it was tug boats pushing the larger ships into place at the
dock. Now these multi-thousand passenger
ships have special engines called azipods which can rotate 90 degrees in
opposite directions (as needed) and they push the ships to the dock. I
showered, shaved, and shampooed and was dressed when the bride of my youth returned to Stateroom 2409, and it was off to
breakfast in the Windjammer.
The sky was overcast, the wind was blowing smartly, and we
wondered what the day would bring. We
were hoping to visit this old city that we’d never seen before, and since the
weather was holding, out we went. I came
on this cruise without a jacket, trusting the weather reports that I had read
and heard, and that was a big mistake.
Really big. Huge. Fortunately I had two long sleeve shirts in
my wardrobe – a thin sweatshirt and what I call a sun-resisting shirt, so I
layered up. T-shirt, sweatshirt, casual
collar shirt, sun-resting shirt, and for good measure, my long sleeve black
sweater. Yes, five layers. And I was ready to go ashore. Mom had on a short sleeve blouse and a jacket
she bought in Bermuda and she was warm enough.
The city was advertised as handicap, cane, and wheel chair
accessible. We are not sure in whose
estimation that was made. True enough
once you got into the city there
were gently sloping ramps, but to get that far you had to climb a
mountain of stairs. A wheel chair or
other conveyance would never have made it.
Our first stop (aside from looking in the windows of a plethora of souvenir
stores) was the main cathedral. When we
reached it there was a sign on the main doors that said a Eucharist (communion) service was in
progress and to please, tourists, do not come inside. We noticed lots of people who obviously could
not read English, or else didn’t care because they were going in and out – and the
men did not know the common courtesy and respect for the sanctuary because
they kept their baseball caps and other
head gear on.
We walked on, exploring, popping in and out of shops, and
finally when we decided we’d wandered enough went back to the cathedral. The sign was gone and we went in – after removing
out hats. I took two pictures from the
doors towards the altar and then Mom and I lit candles and prayed for Frank and
Karen (as he is undergoing treatment for leukemia) and for Mac and Tate. Then Bonnie noticed that on the right side of
the main altar a baby was being baptized and I walked up to watch. It seemed a beautiful service of worship, and I smiled as I remembered a photo I have in one
of my talks. It is of a little girl,
less than two years old, holding a cell phone and saying, “You won’t believe
it, but in church today a man wearing a dress tried to drown me, and my family
stood around taking pictures.” I saw no
attempt at drowning – a beautiful lace mantilla was put on the little girl’s head
– but there were three photographers
recording the special moment.
Back outside the weather was turning, the sky was dark, the
wind had picked up, and the temperature was dropping. AccuBon said it was probably going to rain
and we left our exploration and returned to the ship, getting back on board
before the rain came.
And now to fill you in with the many details I have missed, here’s
my cruise buddy.
Pictures will follow her report.
TTFN
To be more accurate about my rising. I was first up at 2
unable to sleep. I read my Bible reading then played games on my phone (that is
all it is good for except taking pictures, telling what time it is in Augusta).
At 4 I was sufficiently sleepy to go back to bed putting my mask back on. For
whatever reason at 6:50 my mask went crazy and I had to remove it. I actually
threw on the floor. I decided since I was up again I would dress and go up and
see to the docking at 8. I went to deck 4 without my jacket, bad mistake so I
went back to the room to retrieve it. It was very cold and the wind was
blowing. When I opened the door he was just getting up. I said I was going back
up and he could take his bath, etc and get ready and I would come back about 9
when docking should be complete.
Well, yesterday they had said the gangway would be on deck 1.
But I noticed when I got up there they had the stuff set up on deck 4. I got
some good pictures of the town and the water and boats etc. A man had come out
on deck near me and he was waving and shouting to a lady and man in the dock
area. Speaking in Spanish but they seemed to know each other. He told me it was
his sister and she lived just an hour away from Vigo. He was getting off the
ship and going to spend a month in Spain with her and family. Cool. Well, as
the ship was approaching the dock there was a worker on the dock yelling to
someone on the ship and telling them to move further up before docking. So the
ship which was almost against the dock but moved back out and up before
finishing.
A line of people had started to form behind me lined up at
the scanner for getting off even though we were not ready yet. It was strange
they were putting 2 gangways. One was going to be up on deck four and it was
two very, very steep ramps leading down to the dock. The other they set up off
of deck 2, our deck.
Well, I came back to the room and the Captain was announcing
that people could start getting off on deck 2 but 4 was not ready yet. Would
loved to have seen the scramble by those people on 4 to get to deck 2. There
were over 50 by the time I came down. David finished getting ready and we went
out to go to the Windjammer. OOPS!! All those people wanting to get off
including the tours were jammed into our hallway. Excuse me, excuse me till we
finally got to the elevators.
We had some breakfast. I had my first mustard and bacon
sandwich of the cruise. After eating we checked the weather outside and he
decided it was very cold. So back down to the room, fight our way down the
hallway, saying “we live down here , excuse us just going to our room not
trying to cut in line”. We got to the room gathered our stuff and we were off.
The streets are narrow . They pretty much go straight up.
Sometimes there were long steep steps and sometimes it was walkways. At the
first leveling off place we found a
bookstore. It had honest to goodness books in English besides Spanish. We
looked and purchased 2. Then on up the hill now walking on steps. He told you
about the church which was just above the bookstore but we visited it later.
The next place we stopped was the sabor store, candy!! We got
some free samples and made some purchases. There were tons of cafes with tables
set up along the streets. One was selling octopi, there oysters and lobsters
and all kinds of fish. I passed! Going on up and reaching a plateau we looked ahead
and the street diverged into two first going down, down, down and then up and
up and up. We saw a store with a cow in front of it (no a large statue of one
not a real one) we have shopped at this store in others places in Spain. They had
something in the window I wanted. I found it and purchased it and a couple of
other things. David paid with a 20 euro note and some of the coins I had. The
lady was supposed to return a 10 euro note but forgot till you dad asked. So
sorry! As we were leaving he saw something he wanted for 3 euros and said oh
why not and bought that. After paying we were going out the door and the alarm
went off. OOPS! The clerk forgot to remove the electronic tag.
Next we stopped at the pharmacy. He got something there too.
Then looking at the steep and long paths ahead we decided to return. So back
the way we came we went. That is when we stopped at the church. I made my last
purchase of some post cards and the clouds were getting darker so we continued
back to the ship.
When we started our journey on the street we thought we were
back in Rome. Lining both sides of the sidewalk were sheets on the ground
covered with “name brand” purses. There were also all kinds of hats and soccer
t shirts. These enterprising people also had noticed the clouds and there were
many umbrellas for sale.
Well, there was another cruise ship in dock, not sure where
it was from, so we had to navigate the right path to ours. Of course there was
security, beep beep for me and losing his pants for your Dad. We finally got
back to the ship and on board.
Went to the windjammer for lunch and to finish our card
game. He won and is ahead 3 to 2.
Now back to the room. I was taking a shower and washing my hair.
After at least 4 days of hat head I needed it. He went to the desk to get
envelopes for our tips. Then we took a short 1 hour nap and off to dinner.
The menu was a little strange and they had said it was a “dress
to impress” night which is the next thing to formal. Really! We just dressed.
The menu had a mixture of things from previous nights. Strange. We were told
every night would be different. I wonder what will happen tomorrow night. We
each got a steak. They were okay. I ordered strawberry shortcake but it had
mainly pineapple in it, only one strawberry. We gave the waiters their tips
because on the last night it is usually very hard to find them.
When we got to the room the Cruise Compass said we should look
at the app and it would tell us about getting off. Well, my app is worthless
but he looked at his and it did not have on it that we had bus passes to go to
Heathrow. So I got undressed and put on PJ’s while he went up to the desk with
the receipt for $200 for two passes to find out why his app did not say
anything about them. Found out we are to receive green 19 tags tonight or in
the morning. It will be in the morning because our steward does not do a night
turn down.
Well he has studied for tomorrow. We have an alarm set for
6. We need to be at immigration at 7 and then to breakfast, and he has to study
and his talk is at 11. Then, we will start the packing process after lunch.
Remembering to leave out clothes for Monday morning!
Well war and peace is over and I will say good night to all.
In case I don’t get a chance to say this tomorrow: “Happy Mother’s Day” to Jennifer, Amy, Carey,
Ivy, and Madison.
And to you Karen! Thank you for the lovely flower bouquets (gifs)
you sent me by way of David’s text. I loved the mouse!!
Love you all. Be home on Monday about midnight.
Mom, Granny and Bonnie
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