It was still dark at 7am, so we slept in a bit later than usual. The ship's movement with the sea swells was much like sleeping in a swinging hammock. Breakfast on sea days is 8am, so if we arrive at 9am for instance, it is not a problem. Knowing what we always order, Andri and Danu are always prepared to serve us fairly quickly. At least some of the fresh fruit has returned with the deliveries yesterday, but we are still waiting for the real Greek yogurt. Sometimes it takes a day or so before it can be found in the refrigerator.
Yesterday, we received the finalized invitation for the 150 year Holland America Line anniversary celebration that will occur in the city of Rotterdam on April 18th. As far as we know, only the President's Club members and the Pinnacle suite guests are invited to this exclusive affair, which will be hosted by Gus Antorcha, the current President of HAL. Business attire suggested. The plan is for our group to meet in the Rolling Stone Lounge at 12:30pm and depart the ship by 1pm. The coach ride to Rotterdam will take an hour and a half to the Hotel New York, getting us there about 2:30pm. At 3pm, we will hear special presentations, remarks, and witness a gift presented to the citizens of the Netherlands. We assume there will be drinks and canapes during this event. We will depart the hotel at 4:15pm for the ride back to the Zuiderdam in Amsterdam. Our normal dining time will have the Gala Dinner, with a continuing party at 9pm on the Lido deck .
Along with this event, we got the invite to a President's Club Reception and Dinner on April 20th. Beverages will be in the Rolling Stone Lounge at 6:30pm and followed by dinner in the Pinnacle Grill at 7:30pm. Once again, business attire recommended. Gus Antorcha, the President of HAL will be present along with other people from Seattle.
Today's weather has changed with the presence of clouds, rolling seas, and cool breezes. During Captain Frank's noon talk, he brought up the subject of future weather and the effect it may have on our destination. Since it looks like there are a few systems developing near here, we can expect some rain and high seas with strong winds. He suggested to enjoy the sunshine today, since it may be the last we see for a while. At times, we think the Captain overstates possible conditions, and hopes for the best. We do know that the seas of the English Channel can be pretty turbulent, and that is exactly where we will be in a matter of a few days.
We took the Captain's advice and spent some quality time after lunch in the sun on our veranda. As we are heading due north, we had the sun for hours. It was a much- needed break from computer work and fact-gathering research for the upcoming countries. There are so few sea days that it might be hard to keep the reports up. But we will try hard.
Around 4pm, we had an unexpected knock on the door. It happened to be one of the plumbers who was checking to see if our carpet was getting wet. He said there was a leak in the cabin above us, and they had to check every room under that area. That did happen to us while on the Amsterdam one year, and we had to move out for a few days. And the leak was coming from in between the cabins from who knows where. By the way, our carpet was dry as was the bathroom floor.
With the sun going down after 9pm, it felt strange going to dinner in the daylight. The time change has a lot to do with this, but the further north we go, the lighter it will stay. Right before we left the room, we read tomorrow's Daily Report and found a really odd message on the front page. It concerned a Spanish VAT sales tax that will be applied to everyone's account while traveling in waters closer than 20 miles from shore. The explanation left a lot to be desired, because all of us took it differently. Here is the exact message: We must add a 10% VAT on all photos, beverages, Dining Room, Pinnacle Grill, and Canaletto purchases made onboard in Spanish territorial waters. It will be automatically added to everyone's bill. What??? We bet this put the guests into a frenzy, so perhaps this message will need some clarification tomorrow. But in the meantime, both Barb and Ellen purchased a bottle of wine from their package to avoid any extra charges. And why, we all asked, did this not happen while we were in Malaga and Cadiz, Spain? Definitely not a friendly tourist city.
Dinner had some Portuguese choices in both appetizers and mains. One was a tomato soup….very good, but the other was a fish stew, which Heo tried. The rest of us had lamb chops or the Club Orange chicken alternate. The crème Brule dessert made Barb's day, so much so, she ordered two to go. Nik wrapped it up with foil to take back to her refrigerator for later or tomorrow morning.
Tomorrow's port will be new to us, so we did some research. It is a much smaller city than Lisbon, so it should be fun exploring. And possibly looking for another winner pizza, even it is raining. We'll go prepared.
Bill & Mary Ann
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