Every day seems to bring a surprise. Today we all got a letter from Henk, our hotel director, saying some of the shops onboard will be closed on different days and times. One of us has been watching some of the Mary Frances purse collection, and decided it was time to go and see if they were still available. There were a few left, so one of us lucked out with the ones desired. While there, we asked why the shops were closing one at a time. One of the salesgirls said their contract was up and tomorrow another company was coming onboard with their own merchandise. There may or may not be special discounts on selected items while supply lasts. Essential items such as toiletries, medicines, and sundries will remain available. Running low on antacids, we picked up a small pocket-size roll of Rolaids for $6.99. Obviously not on sale.
We used most of our day catching up on our two day stay in Barcelona. We did take a break to keep an appointment with Chantall, the future cruise consultant. However, only her assistant was there, who has a very strong accent that we had trouble understanding. Since Chantall has already dealt with us and our search for 2026 cruises, we wanted to stay with her. Her assistant put us down for an 11:40am slot, and she promised to call us when she was there.
Well, that call never came. Around 1pm, Chantall did phone and we explained the mix-up. Her assistant never informed her we had another time slot. Oh well, Chantall had us come right away, and we figured out a plan for the fall of 2026.
The weather was dismal as it was foggy, windy, and rough as we made our way past Gibraltar this morning. There was no chance of seeing the Rock of Gibraltar, although we did see the outline of the mountains of Morocco which was about 17 miles away. Once through the Straits, the sun appeared as we sailed on the southern part of Spain.
Keeping the guests busy, there were a total of four lecturers, one starting at 10am. Ginny Stibolt delivered a talk about the bitter and sweet saga of the olive tree. We are quite familiar with these trees because we have several of them on our property. And they are well-suited to our climate, are bug and disease free, and are now being grown in older orchards that had fruit and walnut trees. They are thriving.
The next speaker was Vivanne Rowan who spoke about Lisbon, while Michael Sullvan talked about the porcelain plates we call "china". Volcanoes, earthquakes, and tsunamis were the subjects for Dr. Charlie featuring the ring of fire.
By the way, there was no Sunday brunch, but there was a King's Day Lunch in the Lido. Everything Dutch and lots of it orange. Royal Dutch Tea followed at 3pm. A King's Day Pub Crawl took place at 8pm in the Crow's Nest for $29.
Dinner was basically Dutch in the dining room as well with the dress suggestion "orange". We both ordered the West highland salad, and the green pea soup which was excellent. Bill swears I had the same dinner as last night, but called something Dutch. It was pot roast with root vegetables. He ordered Bami Goreng, the Indonesian entrée that always shows up on Orange night. We shared a small slice of apple pie with plump raisins and vanilla ice cream on the top. The best news was that the clocks went back one hour tonight. Everyone is happy about that…even the crew.
It was a dark night in the World Stage with a movie "Tulip Fever".
Looking forward to Lisbon tomorrow. It's a great place to take a long hike and look for pizza and beer.
Bill & Mary Ann
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