At Sea Again

We spent a relaxing day at sea yesterday, including a long morning in nice sunshine alongside the pool on the stern Lido deck. We didn’t participate in, but had fun listening to, a trivia game that involved naming old TV shows based on hearing their theme songs. There are all kinds of fun activities onboard everyday, including games like this one, bingo, a nice library/reading room, two swimming pools and hot tubs, music, several bars, a culinary arts program, and more.

A few random subjects to share… When we were in Turkey and then again in Athens, the Ms Prinsendam was docked alongside us. She is the smallest of Holland America Line’s (HAL) ships and is the one we sailed on when we did the cruise of the Baltic in September 2007. Ms Eurodam is HAL’s largest ship at the moment. Ms Nieuw Amsterdam is being built and will, I believe, be a bit bigger yet. Anyway, it was fun to see two ships for which we have considerable affection tied up side-by-side, one quite large and the other now seeming to be much smaller than we remembered.

I’ve enjoyed watching the gulls when we enter and leave each port. Particularly when we begin to move away from the dock and the tugs and pilot boats are assisting and our thrusters and propellers are beginning to do their jobs, the gulls become very excited and gather and dart all about to look, I suppose, for food in the agitated water. Though they may not be the most attractive birds, they are amazing flyers, swooping and gliding and changing direction with great skill. I keep thinking of the old Jonathan Livingston Seagull book.

It may be true that HAL attracts and maybe caters somewhat to an older clientele than do some of the other lines. However, we have met lots of couples, our age and younger, with whom we have struck up very nice relationships, at least for the duration of the cruise. At the same time, we have seen a few older folks, some decidedly overweight, who have really struggled with the tours or with other arrangements. This really makes me stop and think about my own condition and taking steps now to insure that we can continue to enjoy these kinds of experiences.

We have one more port of call in Messina, then an overnight voyage back to Civitavecchia. That will put us halfway through our trip. We are definitely not ready to go home yet. Lots of folks will disembark at Civitavecchia, and some new folks will join us. We feel fortunate that the Australian couple, Margaret and Murray, will continue to share our dining table for the remaining part of the voyage. We really like them and may well stay in touch in the future. We will be sorry to say goodbye to Chris and Sandy from Spokane (same age as our Will and Sandy). They have been lots of fun too. Our table is usually one of the last to leave the dining area each night, simply because we are having so much fun and are engaged in such interesting conversations.