Wanderung 27

Bob:

Packing at the end of a cruise is always painful as we tend to spread out our stuff all around the cabin. Reclaiming it all and stuffing it into our bags is a necessary, but not enjoyable, task. I took the first session, then we took a break and attended Peter and Choe's last dance practice session. There we learned a 3-twirl lady's underarm turn from the promenade position of the slow foxtrot, and practiced a bit of cha-cha and rhumba, which was all valuable.

We both attended the cooking demonstration before having lunch and getting back to packing. The cooking demonstration was a lot more fun than you might expect; the Executive Chef was very serious about cooking his dishes, but the Maitre D' acted as a very effective comic foil during the show. Between laughs, we really did learn some tips about cooking pasta, making tirimasu, and even what "julienne" meant--meat cut in strips rather than cubed. At the end the main chef and the pastry chef had a "competition" where they demonstrated making a dessert in teams with two volunteer couples from the audience.

But smelling that food being cooked right in front of us (and it smelled GOOD!) made us so hungry we had an early lunch and then Monika packed until it was time for the final Arts and Crafts at Sea session. There we made commemorative bookmarks for the cruise: we both made one for Herculaneum, which had made a big impression on each of us, and I made one of the motor scooter ride on Bermuda, which was memorable for me.

On the way back to the cabin we bought two more pictures, one of Monika in her beautiful new gown on formal night--a knock-out portrait with the silver blouse shining against the black background--and one of me as we pulled away from the Rock of Gibraltar where I was mugging it up for the ship's photographer.

Packing finished, we rested a bit before attending the last pre-dinner dance session and then had a last dinner with Pat, David, Chris, and Tina. Our dinner ended with a parade of the wait staff carrying beautifully cooked Baked Alaska, which was our final desert (and quite delicious, too!). Returning to our cabin we put our two biggest wheelies out to be taken by the porters and then settled in for the night. Although sad to be leaving the ship, we were looking forward to seeing our son Martin and driving up to the Kennedy Space Center the next day.