Wanderung 14

The Plane to Spain replaced by the Bounding Main!

April-May 2007

Day4: Thursday April 19 2007, At Sea

Noon Position: 28 degrees 16.825' N latitude, 055 degrees 34.395' W longitude, Course 70 degrees true, speed 26.7 mph

Bob:

Trying to keep active, after a leisurely breakfast we started our day with a 1/2-hour Morning Stretch class, then walked 2 miles, learned a new line dance (the Becky?) at the poolside Fun Fitness session, and topped it off with a "Sit to Be Fit" class from 10:30 to 11:00. The latter class had us learning some innovative ways to do mild exercises while remaining seated in a chair. The age ranges of folks attracted to each of these exercise venues was quite distinct. In fact, we were the oldest folks in the Morning Stretch class, about in the middle of the pack for the mile walking session and the Fun Fitness session by the pool, but we were clearly the youngest folks in the room for the "Sit to be Fit" class! Still we racked up Ship Shape Dollars for each activity, which added some extrinsic motivation to our basic need to get some exercise.

Monika:

Another day at sea, another few Ship Shape Dollars. We started off by stretching in the morning, a 1-mile walk, another line dance by the pool, and finally something called "sit to be fit" which were exercises and relaxation while sitting in the country club lounge. With these four programs the staff had really something for every age group and fitness level. The first few were for the younger, active crowd (40-60), whereas the last one was suitable for older and less mobile folks.

Bob:

After lunch we tried to learn some Rumba at a 1:00 dance class, with moderate success, and just stayed there for an interesting lecture on the two modern dictators of Portugal and Spain. In a nutshell, we learned that Portugal was ruled by Salazar from the late 20s until the late 60s, and Generalissimo Franco ruled Spain from the Spanish Civil War in 1936 until he turned things over to Crown Prince Juan Carlos in the late 60s or early 70s. Despite that long period of absolute dictatorship, both Portugal and Spain now have stable democracies and thriving economies. The lecture had a lot about the origins of democratic thinking, which was interesting but included things like England's Magna Carta which were rather close to being "ancient history". Personally I would have liked a little more detail on exactly how each country managed that tricky transition from dictatorship to democracy in the 1960s and 70s. It seems to me that absolute dictatorships more frequently transition to new dictators than to democracies, and I would really like to know why neither Portugal nor Spain followed that path. Still, the lecture with its accompanying slide show was on the whole quite interesting.

A short afternoon nap gave me the energy to walk another mile at 4:00 (and earn another Ship Shape dollar!), after which we attended a "loyalty" reception for folks who were repeat customers of Royal Caribbean. That of course, included most of the ship, so there were a lot of folks clustered in the Colony Club enjoying free drinks and hors'derves. We met Dave there and chatted a bit with him while a band played some dance tunes, and then we joined Brigitte and Rick for dinner at 6:00 p.m. As usual, we amiably chatted away and actually had some nice interaction with our waitress Sueda after the other diners had left. As usual, we were the last ones out of the dining room and chatted some more afterwards before Monika split off to her a tenor sing and I returned to the cabin to catch up on the journal and read a bit. It's not that I was against singing in general, however. In fact, I was attracted to the idea of singing myself at one of the late-night karaoke sessions, but my early-to-bed schedule just never let me get around to it.

Monika:

After lunch came a Rumba lesson and then a lecture on the history of Portugal and Spain. This lecture was well prepared and presented which goes to show that our lecturer can be interesting in his own specialty. We dressed semi-casual and went to the repeat customer reception which seemed to include 90% of the guests. After another interesting dinner--our table always seemed to be the last to leave--Bob went back to the cabin while I went with Brigitte and Rick to listen to today's entertainment. It was the quintessential Italian Tenor, "Renato", with relatively good voice but lousy jokes singing all the chestnuts

Copyright 2007 by R. W. Holt and E. M. Holt
Prolog Map of Cruise Map of Spain Epilog

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