ProseKnitic – of Words und Wolle

You would think after all the time I have lived in Europe I would have better sense. I even told you that I had managed to uncover, while cleaning up the bedroom and packing, the two lovely umbrellas purchased in Naples.

So explain to me why, in spite of the fact that it rained yesterday, I didn’t think to take one along today? Perhaps it was because it rained yesterday while I was inside the MECC and so missed the entire experience of rain in Maastricht. Seeing is believing. Since yesterday I neither saw nor experienced the rain I didn’t think of it this morning. All of this is the long explanation for why I wound up dashing the 1.5 km back to the hotel from the Convention Center.

The lectures today were interesting – topics ranging from malaria through immunization programs to pulmonary embolus risk after flights – all of which took second place in my concern compared to getting my new red leather jacket (from Istanbul) wet.

So may I just leave you with

When I registered for this conference it seemed to me I had two choices: travel on Saturday and use Sunday for look around and education or travel on Sunday and be rushed. Since this turned out to be the two week holiday for most of southern Germany, being smart about travel seemed wisest.

 

So here I am, registered, educated and fed. Not a bad deal.

The session I attended turned out to be extremely interesting. Titled Responsible Tourism the three speakers covered a fairly wide range of topics. The first discussed the economic impact of tourism for good and bad on the developing world ( with a strong aside about who actually makes money and how/why/what travel health professionals can accomplish. The idea of the human zoo comes to mind…. Visit a local tribe and see….

The second speaker, more than a little disorganised covered the two way street of disease impact on both travellers and local populations ( hint – the new world only furnished syphilis. The old world provided measles, mumps, chicken pox, smallpox, …..)

The final speaker was the most interesting and organised. She discussed the whole emerging money making field of volunteer tourism aka voluntourism . Specifically she discussed Gap years, short term feel good projects and the more than real negative impact that many of these program’s have. As a group we had a rousing discussion of the different segments of this population.

Even more fun was the opening ceremony complete with The Night Watch

 

 

 

And an excellent speaker who discussed what was really portrayed in many of the Old Dut h Master’s Paintings.

I forgot to take pictures of the exquisite food preparation. You will just have to use your imagination.

It was just short of 2000 last night when I had a blinding flash of the obvious. I didn’t have to pack liquids in my suitcase. I was taking the train. Yes, I know that it should have been in my mind early on but you have to remember that I normally take the train to the airport so train in my mind is normally an intermediate form of transportation, not the definitive one. In this case it meant that I could toss my toothpaste, sunblock and hand lotion in my backpack without fear of loss at the first security point. What security point? I am taking the train. Or rather – trains.

Today I am headed to Maastricht in the Netherlands for the ISTM Conference on Travel Medicine (19-23 May).

Just in case you cared – by road it is 343 km which means Google maps estimates driving time around 3:10 ( I will spare you the 23 steps of the driving distance). By public transportation (now also there complete with numbers of changes) the estimate is around 5:19 from Google.

This is what the Bahn had to say:

Heidelberg Hbf	Sa, 18.05.13	ab	08:25	5	IC 2216	Intercity Bordbistro
Köln Hbf	Sa, 18.05.13	an	11:15	5
Umsteigezeit 28 Min.						Umsteigezeit anpassen
Köln Hbf	Sa, 18.05.13	ab	11:43	6	ICE 16	Intercity-Express Bordbistro
Aachen Hbf	Sa, 18.05.13	an	12:16	9
Umsteigezeit 16 Min.						Umsteigezeit anpassen
Aachen Hbf	Sa, 18.05.13	ab	12:32	1	RB 11912 RB 11962	Regionalbahn Fahrradmitnahme begrenzt möglich
Heerlen	Sa, 18.05.13	an	13:06
Umsteigezeit 10 Min.						Umsteigezeit anpassen
Heerlen	Sa, 18.05.13	ab	13:16	4	32044	Regionalzug Fahrradmitnahme begrenzt möglich

In actuality, it is going to take me slightly more than 6 hours because  I have to take an alternate method from Koln on since all the seats are sold out on ICE 16 and I need to take a regional instead.

It doesn’t bother me – I save money and enjoy the the Bummelbahns. Besides, it leaves me more time to knit.

Speaking of same – I finished the simple cotton scarf to go with one of the hats knit in March.

Allegedly the hotel has WiFi.

1600 Update

Yes the hotel has wifi – no charge! I am ensconced in a most comfortable room after having trucked across the city (ok, only 1,4 km) to get here. I am about to go out and wander around including finding some supper, but first wanted to finish up this note.  Now I have to just decide what is next on the project list for those between lecture times….

There are times where you can see life, specifically your life, changing around you gradually. Where you have come from is clear and where you are likely going to end up (not discussing choices now, just obvious directions).

And then there are those moments, perhaps but certainly not more than a few hours where everything permanently and radically changes. I went through that 18 years ago and everything has faded to the point where the information sits quietly in the background and only occasionally ambushed me. For others, that point is current and acutely painful causing a reexamination of life, plans and the future.

So it is for a colleague with whom I had lunch on Wednesday. I remember him from 2000 when I was stationed at the SanAk as a cheerful but serious, studious officer committed to both medicine and the military. His off time as a single person was devoted to travel, specifically to Thailand where he continued to work at several clinics which has been established during one of his deployments to the area. The last time he returned, he did so with the unexpected complication of a pulmonary embolus probably secondary to the the long plane flight.

Now as a person who rarely drank, never smoked and always lived his life in moderation, this was a serious change in his life and short term travel limits. Not to be outdone, about six months later within the space of 24 hours a small bit of upper back pain turned out to be a major evolving myocardial infarction. No family history, no nothing and not 60 till his next birthday.

What do you do when you are on your own, your cardiac function is now so low that you are being retired. Your daily regime includes more than 40 pills a day and your doctors have basically suggested that traveling more than an hour from a major medical center would be extremely stupid. Your plans of Thailand as a long term member of the clinic are gone. In fact, trekking and travel are pretty much gone.

My choices were much simpler not being in the “drop dead tomorrow without any notice” category. But given the choices I made 18 years ago, it is obvious that my thoughts tend toward quality over quantity. I am decidedly happy that I have my current health, my husband enjoys his job and my offspring are all busy with their lives.

So I travel, meet people, knit, read and write this blog on those days when I have internet connectivity. Multiple ways, I goes, to leave a little of oneself behind.

Is not a person or misspelling. It is the new name of the Conference that runs every 1-2 years at the Sanitatsakademie der Bundeswehr. It used to be call A-Schutz meaning, more or less, radiation protection. Now, it is getting a bit more oriented toward preparedness and accident/incident response.

Anyway, I am headed to the train station on my way to Munich. I will have my iPhone. I will have my knitting and my iPad. I won’t have internet, so there is no point in taking the lap top. As I look outside, it might just have stopped raining which would be nice.

Don’t know how many umbrellas we have purchased over the years, but you think I can find even one when I need it?

It is 0600 in the morning and the sun is not yet up. The Mariner has just docked while I have $10 left on my free internet credit (which might just explain this short note).

I signed up for the transport to the airport (rather than do it the extremely cheap way involving dragging my suitcases up Las Ramblas) so that I can arrive to the Lufthansa lounge and relax rather than be sweaty, crabby and jostled by the bus.

This transatlantic has been a good time: I have met some fascinating new people as well as become better friends with some I have now cruised with almost as often as with my DH.

Since the girls headed back to NYC – I have knit 7 hats, six scarves, a shawl and a couple of objects which have yet to be named.  Pix will be posted as soon as I get home – or more likely tomorrow since I won’t make it home till late tonight.

Thanks for reading!

and also packing. Of course, if I could keep track of the days, my life might be easier (something about thinking today was the 3rd, but I don’t have much, if anything as far as photos from the third so I was confused but. ….)

Any who – I walked from the ship into town. It was a lovely day and the idea of riding in a bus packed with others was just beyond me (did I mention that there was a really, really long line for the free shuttle?)

First in from the port is the Volvo Ocean Race Museum.

Now, not being a complete fool – I figured this was some kind of sailing race. Yes, round the world as a matter of fact with the start, finish and operational control center right here in Alicante!

The films were absolutely amazing and there are a number of interesting shorts on YouTube.

The other interesting sight was Castillo de Santa Barbara overlooking the town. (Go here if you want the actual Castle site with some great photos. Reading Spanish might help)

You can walk up (if you can figure out how), take a tour (which provides you the bus), take a Hop-On-Hop-Off bus or pay 2.40E and ride up in the elevator.

Arriving early, there wasn’t a line for the elevator (since the elevator goes up and down the mountain with only 10 pax at a time you can see that the several hundred people in line when I headed back down might just constitute a challenge.

From on top of the Fortress you can see out to forever it seems as well as much of the architectural details. This was more of a fortress with the emphasis on function. No fancy rooms or salons here, just placements for the guns and the determination to control shipping.

The rock was partially covered by clouds this morning as the ship maneuvered in next to the quay just before 0700. Given that most of the rest of the sky was clear, the pollution of the city might have something to do with the dirty brown color captured by my camera.

Not sure actually where we are docked in relation to the city and the central bus station but I think I will find out in a few minutes right about the time that I find WiFi, which, unfortunately is also after I had the realization that this is UK territory. Pounds sterling I have in my wallet but a UK connector? Not at all, the ones from my time in Camberley are nestled comfortably in George’s desk drawer where they are not doing me one whit of good.

As a result, I may just spend more time on the iPad as its battery lasts a lot longer.

noon update

In the first group off the ship, I headed straight for the cable car station. Remember last time I was here? It was a Tuesday and they were down for maintenance. This time I arrived to find that they don’t open till 0930. About to depart the area, several tour buses pulled up. I jumped into the crowd stopping at the window to buy my ticket (return) and managed to be on the third car headed up the hill.

The view was spectacular – on the way up you could see Africa. From the top I could see the Atlantic, the Med, Spain and the apes.

 

Ah, yes, the Barbary Apes – a version of macaques. Not stupid, they go after anything that looks like food (including plastic bags because those carry food) and are known to bite.

Not being interested in monkey bites, I stayed reasonably away from them. After climbing around on what was left of the fortress, I traveled down again by cable car and walked through the city.

After stopping at the Gibraltar Museum (two pounds entrance no photos allowed) I spent a futile hour attempting to find wifi. Finally on the way back to the ship I stopped at an Indian restaurant where, for the price of a cheese nan – I am on line.

Photos in the future!

(from here it is back to the ship – on board time is 1530)

 

Today is the last sea day, but not the day before we dock. Instead there are two ports to go, just to make sure that I am out of sorts and not packed on time. If nothing else, it gives everyone whining time..

Leaving Funchal, Madeira late yesterday afternoon I tried to get myself motivated.

Failing that, I went up to the lounge and hung out with everyone else. That left me today to figure out where everything goes in the suitcase and what I want to wear for the next couple of days.

Not finding any of that interesting, I invited people in to knit and chat instead!

Landed in Madeira today after seven days crossing the Atlantic. The seas were not high, but there were still at least the usual complaints – mostly from the people who put on their patches prior to boarding the ship in Galveston. It certainly was not the level of fun that Chere and I had last spring riding the rollercoaster of the bow – so I guess I am missing the issue.

I know that some people get ill (I have a daughter who does, but she is great about it and certainly doesn’t feel obligated to inform everyone on the ship in an extremely loud voice.)

But I have no idea what is going on with the old email, yahoo seems to believe that I am totally and completely not me. As a result, I will be retiring the old UK email address. It actually makes sense considering I set that one up in Jan 2008 while I was living in the UK at that particular address. I could have changed to our address in Heidelberg, but none of us believe that I am actually there all that much – so what would be the point?

(If I was there, I would actually have to get back to sorting out this attic full of stuff, three storage rooms full of stuff, shelves full of books and containers of craft supplies……)

The weather is holding for the moment, but I do expect rain later today.

At sea again tomorrow – Gibraltar the day after where my Pounds Sterling may actually be of some use followed by Alicante then a flight home on Monday from Barcelona….

On the east bound journey from Galveston to Barcelona there are seven hours that need to be lost somewhere along the way.

Given that one of the choices (do them all at once) makes absolutely no sense to people not use to thinking that it is black out during the day and light out at night, the other two choices come to the fore -

1) you can change time zones in the middle of the night making it fairly invisible to eveyone, but also depriving everyone, especially the staff – of sleep.

2) you can make the change in the middle of the day. This deprives everyone of an hour of entertainment, but lets the staff keep their sleep.

I don’t remember what we did on the Jewel, I could ask Chere. Or for that matter on the Grandeur or Atlantica. I have done more East to West than the other way around.

Anyway – for six days in a row 11:30 became instantly 12:30 shortening the day by an hour and decreasing the time between trough feedings. The later didn’t seem to bother anyone, but after about three days I swear that some of the people looked worse than Zombies. Since they weren’t tired in the evening (who goes to bed at 1900?) they stayed up an extra hour or so past where they usually did before attempting to get up at their normal time. Essentially this bright crew then confused themselves by not one, but two or more hours that were not in sync.

Needless to say by today – the last one of the changes and six hours difference into the fun, they were walking into walls and not feeling well.

I was not at all popular when I gleefully mentioned that there was still an hour to go after Madeira. But who ever thought that I was a nice person?

Deck 10 is the deck which contains the bridge, senior officers cabins and some of the fancier suites. No wonder that it is the deck with the sailing theme. Both Erte style three dimensional displays showing the elegant from the days of rich taking leisurely cruises across the Atlantic to some really cute action puppets from shipwrecks and the south seas adorn the walls.

I otherwise have been known to refer to this deck (the top passenger deck) as the nose bleed deck, but I obviously have no prejudice against the rich and famous now do i?

Since I didn’t take pictures the last time I did a bridge tour, I thought I would take the chance offered today to see the bridge again with camera in tow.

On the Mariner the bridge is on Deck 10 all the way forward. In fact, beyond the door that says “crew only past this point” there are cabins for the senior crew. Seen from the outside, they have portholes (no balconies).

.

The second officer gave us a tour and extensive explanation, slowed down only by one passenger (German, engineer) who had a million questions that the rest of us didn’t think were all that relevant.

Beyond that, the captain stopped by and what should have been a 30 minute tour managed to be stretched to close to an hour. Lots of electronics, duplicates of everything and people hard at work

Another wheeled transportation floor. No trucks here; rather we have mostly racing cars. Not just racing though – the smaller sketches, prints and photos on the wall show styles ranging from representative abstracts to photos of modern formula V finish lines along with some lovely illustrations of 1920-30s classics. Of course, there is also whimsy and fun in more than one collection of toy cars proving once again that toys are not just for kids.

For those of you not familiar with the British Empire and their participation in WWI, there are a number of good references out there on the participation of the colonies in operating under the British Flag in the war effort.

Perhaps the most notorious of these was the blood bath at Gallipoli where Australia and New Zealander troops attempted to take a Turkish Strong hold directly uphill in the face of machine gun fire. Needless to say, there were thousands of deaths without success. The “bold strike against the Ottoman Empire” envisioned by Winston Churchill became a total blood bath.

The 25th of May April [thanks to Catdownunder for reminding me since I don't have always have a clue about when either things happened or what month I am in ] has become a day of national remembrance.

Besides the NZ and Australian contingent on ship, there were a significant number of allied military and friends for both the memorial service and luncheon.

Continuing with the theme of transportation – Deck 8 has two wheelers and a pair of unicycles. Both bicycles and motorcycles are represented. There is a sense of humor, holographs and toys for large and small people. I appreciate the three dimensional cases where your direction of view determines what you see.

The theme of the day is flight.

Along many of the walls are sketches and pictures from the early days of flight as well as artist (?) interpretations along with some items with an obvious sense of humor. Personally, I think this is one of the best uses of Barbie Dolls that I have ever seen.

Again – most of the large objects, dioramas and holographic images are at the entrances to the cabin corridors on both port and starboard.

Instead of hanging out yesterday and whining at Starbucks – RCL provided us a free trip to NASA in Houston (the bribe to us 30 B2B cruisers in order to get us off the ship for a while).

Of course, it is at this point that I realize that I have not
1) downloaded the pictures to the computer
2) have enough band width to show them to you in any case.

More later

Please note the map. It shows the Atlantic Ocean framed by two continents. It is missing the route. Don’t talk to me – talk to Royal Caribbean who just happened to publish it as is….

ITINERARY

DAY DATE PORT ARRIVE   DEPART Sun Apr 21 Galveston, TX 4:30pm Mon Apr 22 At Sea Tue Apr 23 At Sea Wed Apr 24 Nassau, Bahamas 7:00am 5:00pm Thu Apr 25 At Sea Fri Apr 26 At Sea Sat Apr 27 At Sea Sun Apr 28 At Sea Mon Apr 29 At Sea Tue Apr 30 At Sea Wed May 1 At Sea Thu May 2 Funchal, Madeira, Portugal 7:00am 5:00pm Fri May 3 At Sea Sat May 4 Gibraltar, UK Territory 7:00am 4:00pm Sun May 5 Alicante, Spain 9:00am 4:30pm Mon May 6 Barcelona, Spain 6:00am

I spent time wandering behind the scenes today at both the galley and the Savoy Theater. Needless to say, the use of any extra space is maximized. Cupboards organized, racks just so and the larger costumes hanging overhead.

Otherwise, I spent the late afternoon/early cocktail hour talking to one of the lovely older gentlemen on this cruise who usually comes up to Deck 14 either by himself or with his wife.

He was 22 when they married 66 years ago, she had just turned 20. WWII was just over and they were starting out their lives. Quonset Huts for housing in many cities and the GI Bill to get an education. They held jobs, raised their family moved when they needed to and settled on a retirement home.

Cruising has been good to them for the last dozen or so years. They have seen extensive areas of the world while enjoying each others company. He walks with a cane and shuffle, not quite as fast as he used to. Her limitations are more subtle. She looks around with bright eyes and a bird like enthusiasm for new people and new places. Unfortunately that newness is a problem in and of itself. Lovely to talk to, she doesn’t quite understand how her husband managed to get quite this old or who “that woman is who confronts me in the mirror every morning.”

He says this is likely going to be their last cruise. She is now getting lost and confused on the ship. It is not that the staff is not going to find her and bring her back, it is rather than she doesn’t do well anymore in changing environments. He doesn’t want her to feel anxiety and panic should be not be there for a moment, or worse, she not recognize him

Losing one’s mind and memory is hard he reports; worse on the family than the individual. And you don’t know reality when you just smile and wave without talking to people.

 

Since I never did give you postings before concerning what passes for Art and Decoration on the Mariner – this is your opportunity to get a peak each day as I while away my time on sea days and you are spared the comments about “reading and knitting” since those are my main activities on sea days. Oh, and studying – let me not forget to wail about upcoming exams on a regular basis.

Anyway – I am going to go in progression with the Main passenger decks 6-10, then finishing up with those largely devoted other activities but have significant numbers of people crammed into inside cabins along with paired ilne-ups of cabins with “ocean view” aka portholes. Since all of these cabins are above the water line, the porthole lets light in during the day but offers no opportunity especially in times of rough seas for idiots to open up an opportunity to introduce large amounts of sea water to the interior of the ship.

As is the trend on RCI ships – the areas at the entrance to the outside corridors off of which the cabins are located have paired sets of vertical display cases. Going along the corridor, each side has a larger horizontal case. The theme on this ship seems to be transportation -

Deck 6 relates to trains.

Dunns River Falls

The year was 1980 and the place was Jamaica. It was our second year of marriage and we were thoroughly sick of Minnesota winter weather. We packed up our daughter and bought an all inclusive package deal to somewhere warm.

We got burned in the sun, walked through markets and found ourselves uncomfortable at being the outliers in the crowd. Jamaica at the time was over 99% African Ancestry with the money and power in the minority white hands.

Believing that we should see at least one tourist attraction, one day we booked a trip to Dunns River Falls. I had towels, George had Shana in the back carrier. We didn’t climb the falls figuring that slippery up for an hour with a toddler in a backpack would not be smart. The camera was a Canon AE1.

Today I made the trip again. The daughter is no longer just past her first birthday but has turned 34. Jamaica has been through political, geological and meteorological upheaval. A significant amount of money still comes in from the tourists, and Dunns River Falls tops the list.

Green Groto

Since the other part of the tour took me to caves, I figured why not? Besides, there are fruit bats which are always cute

country side

Did I mention that there are 2.4 (give or take a few hundred thousand) million people scratching out a living on this island which traces its written history back to Columbus’ second voyage (1494). The reason I put in the word written is obvious – the island was already occupied when it was “discovered.”

As you can imagine, for the next three hundred years it was a pawn in the pirate, Spanish and British Colonial conquest games with the Brits winning the final prize. It should be no surprise, even after 50 years of independence that there are three districts with distinctly British names even though for some reason the next lower level of government is the parish.

There are resorts and wealthy people, there are also some areas of extreme poverty. Jamaica is in the Guinness Book of records for the highest country density of churches and probably has even more bars than that.

Tourism underpins a large portion of the economy (cruise ships, resorts, golf courses) as well as some minor fishing. The Bauxite mining operation is largely closed down but the clean up certainly appears to be at a stand still. Then there is coffee. it was the only thing I purchased on the island.

This time I didn’t spend any time outside the port area, and only a few minutes in the shops.

 

I remember Georgetown in the Grand Caymans from when I came through here a month ago with the girls. While they did their thing, I went to the small museum, walked to Burger King for free WiFi, explored the area around the port some, bought a pair of earrings and headed early back to the ship.

This time I thought about my choices
1) get off the ship to go into town
2) Stay on the ship
3) ride the tender in and back just to get a pix of the ship (or just to get closer to the water.

I headed outside. It was hot, humid and the clouds were rolling in.

It was so much nicer sitting in the lounge with my mini-iPad, knitting and a nice latte; spending a pleasant afternoon with friends.

This is my third time through Cozumel this spring. The nice young man at the Beach Bar (across the street from Paprika) pointed out that he has outlets beneath one counter so that I could sit comfortably and not run on battery power. Handed me a diet coke and said he would check on me in an hour…..

Since I am not a shopper, going to all the stores holds exactly no appeal to me at all.

Instead, I can try a local beer, eat quesadillas

and relax talking underwater photography with a local man who makes his living from videoing people learning how to scuba dive.

It also means that I can ignore all the bandwidth issues that start when everyone in the world finds this lovely cool place and gets in on the wifi. Not uploading photos – it doesn’t make a whole lot of difference to me.

Tomorrow is Grand Cayman and the day after is Falmouth. Since I don’t have a board call this time – I am joining some friends for a trip to Dunn’s River Falls (just in case it has changed from when George and I visited it in 1980 with 13 month old Shana in a back carrier).

Ignoring the line to get off the ship yesteray morning (it is not just fewer immigration agents – they are moving more slowly) I wandered down the street to Starbucks. Right around 0815 it was lovely. Not all that many people and the Wifi is open so I was able to update both my mini-iPad and the phone as well as delete reams of junk email.

Then the crowds started arriving. I will see that it is fairly easy to distinguish those who are

1) local to Galveston and forgot about the ships this morning
2) getting on Carnival Magic
3) bound for Mariner of the Seas

I can understand the energy of small children. But I don’t get someone who could pass for the tatooed woman in the circus letting two small children run around and shriek at the top of their lungs. It is not like there are not other choices. I almost wish I had hearing aids to turn off

Ah… my life finally improved when the people that “mom” with the screamers was picking called to say they were off the ship and waiting. Leaving the building, the noise level dropped about 50db.

Now, if all the rest of these people would leave so that I would have enough band width to download my new audiobooks from Audible (even at format 2 it can take a long time with narrow bandwidth) life would be the rest of the way sunny…..

I lasted till about 1300 before fighting my way back on the ship!

ITINERARY DAY DATE PORT ARRIVE   DEPART Sun Apr 14 Galveston, TX 4:30pm Mon Apr 15 At Sea Tue Apr 16 Cozumel, Mexico 7:30am 4:00pm Wed Apr 17 Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands 10:00am 6:00pm Thu Apr 18 Falmouth, Jamaica 8:00am 5:00pm Fri Apr 19 At Sea Sat Apr 20 At Sea Sun Apr 21 Galveston, TX 7:00am

One of the perks of spending too much time (which also means money) on a cruise line is that you get to do all sorts of extra stuff. In this case, I took the opportunity to get a tour on the actual ship bridge.

Yes, there is a Captain’s chair that is reminiscent of the Enterprise but no where near as fancy. First time I have also seen a couch, chairs and coffee table. Made the bridge seem a bit more homey (shades of Nathan Lowell’s Share series). There are duplicate sets of controls in both of those wings that stick out in front which are mostly used for maneuvers in port/locks where being able to see the actual side of the ship counts. The ship is not completely paperless yes since they still have hard copy maps although just about all plotting is done electronically. Paper is disappearing across the fleet in the next few years. There were only four of us in the tour. My other choice was the galley – I might just do that next week.

Then there was the backstage tour – hosted by the dance captain, sound guy and lead stage tech. Actually the best and most informative of the various stage tours I have taken. She talked about show development, training, costuming, staging and practices while on the ship.

The propaganda history film wasn’t worth seeing but the Captain’s Corner was actually excellent. One of the older Captains in the fleet (and, of course, Norwegian) he was clear, concise and had a full set of slides that were actually relevant to the ship providing more information and less “entertainment” which suited me just fine.

Given that I am not clearing off the ship tomorrow, packing is something that took all of 10 minutes (stuff in one suitcase, drawers in the backpack) and leave the rest on hangers).

Knitting

I finished a hat this morning that I think I am going to keep for me before moving back the Underwater Garden Scarf that I started on the Epic and haven’t touched since. I was going to just eliminate the fancy part, but got hooked on the weird patterning so looks like I will delete a lot of the filler and keep the pattern.

Its a bit overcast today, providing us all the opportunity to obtain the most lovely sunburns without much effort. As I was applying sunblock earlier I received some really weird looks. Haven’t any of the these people heard about UV?

Anyway, I wandered along the tidal pools but didn’t see anything new or exciting that warranted taking out the camera before heading to a lovely beach bar offering low cost drinks and decent speed wifi. For whatever reason, no one else seems to be here and on-line which has made my life wonderful.  Several of the couples with whom I have been hanging out are off snorkeling today and I may go yet. It is only a 10 meter hike down the stairs to the water and my gear bag is here at my feet. Not sure I am completely comfortable about leaving my stuff in the care of the otherwise completely great bartender (even if everything is password and code protected).

What I am not doing is shopping. Or taking ship’s tours. Or getting drunk. None of which should surprise any of you in the least.

Tomorrow is a sea day during which I am going to repack my stuff into suitcase and gear bag so that my cabin steward can move everything to my next location. Meanwhile I am listening to the German couple next to me complain about the high beverage charges here in the bar ($4/total for a beer and a coke. Hint – cola is just as expensive as beer). Since they obviously just got off the Allure (6000+ passengers plus a literal boat load of staff) I can’t see what they have to complain about.  Oh, sorry – they are Austrian – not German. Makes all the difference (not).

Just about everyone else here is alternating between spending time in the water with sitting, eating and beer drinking.

I am off to try and locate a battery charger to replace the one that I left hooked up above the mirror in the head on the Xpedition. When I left it there I thought – will I forget this? Nah, I have lots more pictures to take and will need to recharge batteries at least once more ……..

None of us were really clear this morning why our anchor point was so far out that the shore was barely visible through the haze.

I mean, this is usually a tender port, but 30 minutes ride seemed a bit much. Of course, since the distances between these particular island stops is so short that departure times are more selected for cost and safety than they are for travel time. Ok, to put it really easily – docking/port/tender contracts are normally by the hour. It may not be worth the cost to the cruise line for an additional 1-2 hours if not that many are going to stay on shore (especially after dark) since there is a limited amount that can be earned after dark from ship organized activities in Caribbean ports. I am leaving out anything that is not totally and completely legal.

Anyway. I lazed around the ship till the worst of the crowds cleared, then happily rode in and walked through part of the old colonial area before ending up once again at the Radisson Hotel. There was no one in the business center this time. A kind clerk at the desk when I inquired just smiled and logged me in to the wifi.

So there I am in paradise sitting in a nice A/C lobby and trying to manage getting to and from a couple of conferences later in May as well as sending various emails out to family members in hopes of an answer.

When the battery died – I headed back to the ship once again managing to spend hours on shore with nice people and absolutely no souvenirs!

We docked today in the same location Noah and I did two years ago off the NCL Spirit. It was not the same location as earlier this year. There was a new pier and some bit spiffier than before, but once you were out the main gate – nothing had changed.

I took my new snorkel gear out to the Underwater Museum. Turned out to be a seeded location (which meant that there were actually things to see) but too much time was spent on that and not enough time spent on the reef where there were lots of little fish which didn’t want to come anywhere near my camera.

In any case, you can see that the water was incredibly clear. Now it would have helped if my mask wasn’t turning out be a tiny bit too large (just love leaks) and the legs hadn’t started to cramp.

Then of course – is the most recent Hitchhiker before I move on to something with color

Knit on the standard 3,00 mm needles from one strand of Zauberball This one is going to get tossed in the mail to Chicago so that it can do duty next winter in New York. Now I just have to ask if the dude wants a hat to match…..

It was the usual chaos at the Cruise Terminal. I took one look at the mess and fled the scene after dropping off my luggage. With the check-in not due to open for another 1-2 hours it seemed like the golden time to head to the RailRoad Museum.

Back in 2008 Hurricane Ike came through Galveston. There is still a mark on the booth higher than my head indicating the water level. Needless to say, the museum was completely devastated. A large amount of the historical papers, documents and plans were lost, others so badly water damaged that they could not be salvaged. Even in spite of that, the exhibit is good. Not only are different eras covered but the explanations are in clear and concise English without technical jargon.

The Model railroad building is still being updated with only one major set of tracks up, but it works well and the three trains don’t require cash insertion to perform to the delight of both adults and children. A number of the engines and cars have been restored – others still need restoration desperately and their condition is not improved by the Galveston salt breeze coming from the ocean which is excellent at promoting rust.

When I had killed as much time as seemed reasonable, I headed back to Terminal 2 and joined the overweight and ill dress throngs. Simply put, not the same class of people as on Celebrity Xpedtiion. However, having C&A Loyalty status does help, I was able to skip the hangout in the hall in favor of pre-boarding. Once on ship, it feels just like the Freedom Class only a bit squished together. Most things are still in the same place; the CL is on 9. Both it and the Diamond lounge were completely empty giving me a lovely place to sit and type.

And for the last day and a half – I have been spending my time in the Diamond Lounge on 14 meeting a various number of really nice people. Other than wandering around and talking to people, I have knit another hitchhiker and gone to a couple of shows. The Ice Show was great, the production show good and the BeeGees impersonators I don’t think got the message that you are supposed to look, dress, sound and act the original.