No words, just beautiful!
Bahamas
Tag: cruise
San Juan – Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico is an unincorporated territory of the United States. It was founded in 1521 by Spanish colonists, which makes it older than the United States! San Juan is the capital and largest city.
Ted is heading out by himself today since I’m sick of🤒. Fever, coughing, headache. The medical staff test me for Covid and influenza, run some blood work, X-Ray, and decide that it’s a bacterial infection.
Ted and the “Mr. Sexy Leg Competition” – now with working videos!
Cruise ships are fun. They offer a nice variety of entertainment, a hypnotist show, a comedian, live music in every bar, etc. And then there are games, trivia of all kinds, competitions, couples games and more. And then there was the announcement of the Mr. sexy Leg Competition. And since Ted has great legs, and I mean GREAT LEGS, I suggested he’d participate. And because Ted is a great sport, he got up there on stage at the pool, along with 20 other guys, Timo included, to show off their legs. Each of them did a little something special, a dance or movement that would show how great their legs are. Ted, funny Ted, introduced himself and said he wants to get laid tonight. He started with a pole dance, followed by a (safe) striptease, flinging his hat off, pulling his T-Shirt off and finishing with another little pole dance. All the women were roaring and he was chosen to be Mr. Sexy Legs. Oh my, we had a good time! Timo was a runner up, but his dance moves just couldn’t compete with Ted.
Fast forward: random people on the ship approach Ted, congratulate him, buy us drinks and have a good laugh about his performance. The next day they ask if he got lucky, if he was successful, if he got what he wanted. And when you switch on the TV and check out the entertainment program, they show a video with – guess what – Ted’s pole dance and striptease! Oh my!!!
Anticipation
Anticipation is a mixture between expectation and prediction. Expectation leans more to wishes, predictions more to the known. Maybe it is a right side vs left side of the brain thing? Who knows???
I know anticipation really well, I’m in the middle of an overdose right now: the next trip awaits me and it’s packed with predictions (high school reunion in the heart of Bavaria! Cruise through the Caribbean! Broadway shows in New York City! etc) and expectations (will I recognize those people I went to school with? Will the hurricane season be in full swing? Will my non-profit loose momentum during those 6 weeks while I’m gone?, etc) All those hard facts, the predictions have a „!“, whereas the expectations end up with a „?“. What’s more exciting?
We shall see and I’ll make sure to keep you posted. Let the journey begin…
Cruise Ship Art
Yes, there is such thing as cruise ship art! Like cruise ship music, that consists of poorly paid, uninspired, overworked, tired looking professionals, that can be heard in 5 different locations, cruise ship art is everywhere. It is right in your face and it is painful. They have artwork in every hallway, staircase, elevator. And they have an art gallery!
So this art gallery has a collection of very interesting / amusing paintings and sculptures, all of which fall under the category: “the Alps, the roaring elk, the sunset”! But it is modified towards the cruise ship art lovers, who happen to have left their taste at home. All those pieces are very bright (primary colors, mixing colors is overrated, right?), very interesting (caricature Mickey Mouse in front of a naturalistically painted romantic forest setting – wait a minute, wasn’t there gonna be a roaring elk?) and extremely ugly (abstract blizzard in orange, red and black).
What surprises the most is, that the so-called art gallery is busy. Very busy! People are standing in line to get rid of their money; I guess they have too much of it! And then – from day 1 on – there are “sold” stickers on a few of those art pieces! That makes the art lovers get their elbows out and try to skip the lines and purchase quickly! Of course it’s all one-of-a-kind – indeed and thank god there aren’t any more! Hush hush, quick quick! The so-called art experts give you professional advise and recommend paintings according to your decor at home. Yikes 😱
Zakynthos
So I’d already been in Rome, Napoli and Sicily. Zakynthos, or Zaki as the locals call it, was the fist “new”. And it was a good one! A beautiful little island with lots of little farms growing mostly olive trees. The main summer income for the islanders is tourism, the main winter income is olive oil. No wonder that they sell all kinds of olive products everywhere: oil, lotions, along with honey, wine etc.
Our friends Yuki and Bill, Ted and I joined a day-long tour by bus & boat. Half of the day we drove around the island, first on the westside, where most of the 20,000 people live, then on the eastside with its high cliffs and gorgeous views.
The most famous view is down to the shipwreck beach. A group of cigarette smugglers had a problem with their ship and – instead of being caught by the coastguard – they just abandoned their vessel and ran off. The ship ended up on this beach and is falling apart ever since this happened (in the 1980s). Unfortunately the beach is closed and you are not allowed to go ashore because of falling rocks from the cliff surrounding the beach.
We had a few more stops with views to other beaches, one of which had sulfuric gases bubbling out of the water near the beach, making every public restroom small like a perfume store. But it is healthy apparently… On top of the cliff above the stinky beach is a little bar, where the people on the beach can order food and drinks, that then is transported down by an interesting gondola basket
The second part of the day we spent on a boat, moving along the coast and it’s many little beaches, coves and grottos. We drove inside a few of them, we swam in the Mediterranean we had a lot of fun!!! The crystal clear water has all shades of blue and turquoise – like heaven to me ❤️
Taormina
Last year we fell in love with Sicily, when we visited the Aeolian Islands to do a one week long hike. But our hike organisation Macs Adventure had to change the itinerary, because the volcano Stromboli acted up and destroyed some of the hiking trails we were supposed to use. So we ended up with 2 nights in Taormina and we loved it! We wanted to come back and when we saw the itinerary of this current cruise, we didn’t hesitate to book it.
Unfortunately the day in Taormina was cut short and we were supposed to be back by 3pm. When we wanted to leave the ship by tender, this process took forever and we when we finally were on land we couldn’t find a taxi to bring us up to Taormina 🥴
It was around 11.30am when we finally arrived and we immediately rewarded ourselves with a delicious cannoli 🤩
There is an image that you can find throughout Taormina: flower pots with an middle eastern looking male face. Legend has it that this handsome guy came to Taormina and fell in love with a local virgin. After making love with her, she discovered that he was a married man. So she chopped off his head and used it as a flower pot. And the herbs growing from this pot were thriving! Ever since the people in Taormina make flower pots with his image so that their herbs and flowers grow well!
Alex – honk – Alex – honk honk – Alexandria
It is loud here in Alexandria! Very loud. And very dirty. And very smelly! I wish I had Ted’s nose; his sense of smell is almost non-existent and that is a big advantage sometimes.
Today is National Armed Forces Day, a national holiday and everything is closed.
Alexandria was on our itinerary, and my brain just jumped up and screened: Bibliotheca Alexandria, but this magnificent modern library, that I always wanted to visit, is also a victim of the National Armed Forces Day and therefore closed 😱
Ok then, let’s go to the national museum then. We met our friends on the way there, they just finished their visit, so we feel safe. We know it is open, small, interesting and it has a bathroom which makes Ted happy. We arrive and the guard at the entrance tells us that it is closed. No electricity.
Egypt is not really inviting today, we are already tired of walking around and we choose to sit in a cafe and drink a coke (Edith) and a water (Ted). And it turns out that they don’t have coke. I guess maybe it has something to do with National Armed Forces Day? Honk honk honk…
Panama Cruise – Day 11 – Tuesday, January 17th
In case you wonder why we enjoy this cruise so much, part of it is because we have a lovely room with a balcony. Cruising through the Caribbean Ocean in January means perfect weather, 25-30 degrees Celsius with pleasant winds. A balcony is the must-have to enjoy sitting outside, read a book, play with Harold (my Ukulele) and/or drink a glass of something.
Today is our last day before we have a 3-day-3-port visit in Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan, and Cabo San Lucas. And today we were quite busy: a q&a event on how to run a floating hotel, we watched a 1 hour performance of a marching band from the university of Wisconsin (300 of their band members are on this cruise!), we attended a wine & macaroon tasting, had a lovely dinner at a Mexican restaurant and watched the Beatles cover band again; this time: the psychedelic years!
Ship Facts
- The ship was built in Germany and is registered in Nassau, Bahamas
- It is not registered in the USA because, if so, it could have only hire US citizens, but for hospitality they prefer to hire people from other countries (kitchen: India, room and restaurant service: Philippines, etc. Entertainment is mostly US)
- The ship is 1094 ft – 333.5 meters long
- It is 135.8 ft – 41.4 meters wide
- 1700+ crew
- 70+ nationalities
- 20 decks
- Total souls on board: 6700 (guests and crew)
- The laundry facility has 25 staffs
- The crew laundry is washing 300kg per day / 1500 pieces
- There are 20+ different dining options
- 210 waiters and 150 chefs
- 10000 meals are served per day!!!
- 1000 rolls and 550 baguettes per day
Miami – Day 3
Day 3 in Miami meant sleeping in, breakfast in bed, rest, cuddle, pack and jump in an Uber to go to the cruise terminal. Our ship, the Norwegian Bliss, is one of 7 ships that are here today. Just think about the logistics to these operations 😵💫 By the end of the day, it is always amazing that you have your luggage in your room and a meal in your belly!
