Wanderung 30

[Bob] We were At Sea for Monika's birthday, but I had picked up three tiny gifts at the Celtic Knot store in Cobh, so I had at least something to give her. I decided to have her pick one gift out of the bag at each meal time, and for breakfast she picked out the Celtic cross crafted out of black and white wood. We posed the stuffed Newfoundland dog with the cross on the bed to take a picture, and when we returned home Monika hung the cross in the window next to her chair in the family room.

The highlight of our morning was a back stage tour, and we enjoyed it despite the huge crush of folks who wanted to go in too. The stage and was slightly larger than on other, smaller ships, and that allowed more elaborate shows like "Fiero", which we had seen the previous night. But it was still cramped and they made efficient use of every square inch including the space up to the ceiling, where we saw the oversized baby buggies used in the "Fiero" evening show we had previously seen. We also got to chat with the cruise director, who was, as expected, very personable and patient with all kinds of questions

For lunch Monika picked out the Guinness deck of cards, and when she opened them I was glad to see that all the face cards in the deck had the classic advertising posters for Guinness beer reproduced on them. That may seem like an odd gift, but Monika does enjoy the occasional game of Solitaire and she certainly enjoys Guinness!

One highlight (?) of our afternoon was a dance class on the Rumba, but for me it was a really difficult lesson. The instructors wanted us to use a "Z" step rather than the box step I had always used for Rumba before, they wanted me to lead off with my right foot rather than my left foot as I have traditionally done in all ballroom dancing, and they wanted me to emphasize and step forward and back on the second and fourth beat of the 4-count music rather than the first or third beats. So basically everything was completely turned around, kind of like driving a stick-shift car in Ireland where you sit on the wrong side of the car to drive on the wrong side of the road whilst shifting with the wrong hand. Just gangs of fun. By the end of that lesson, all my previous Rumba expertise had been completely erased and I was left basically back at "Ground Zero"!

The true high point of the afternoon was sitting on our balcony and watching for whales and dolphins. Although we only saw one set of about three dolphins, we caught sight of at least five or six different whales. We were still near the shallow banks offshore Newfoundland where many fish do feed, so I suspect the whales were also pausing to feed on their migration South for the Winter. But the nicest gift to Monika on her birthday was a whale that breached about a mile off to starboard. Trust me, when something that big leaps out of the water and crashes back down, you can really easily see the resulting splash even from a mile away! After a while, though, it was just too cold to stay outside, so we came back to sit on our love seat and watch the ocean flow by.

As this was a "Formal Night" , we dressed in our best togs to join Pauline, Ed, Evelyn, and Harold for dinner. As a birthday cake was presented to Monika for dessert, they all joined us in a rousing chorus of "Happy Birthday ", which was nice.

[Monika] After dinner we had some more portraits taken, as we were all dressed up and the professional photographers were scattered around the atrium area of the ship. Of course, Bob and his "Bugs Bunny" tie had to photobomb my picture. The highlight of the evening was a second Captain's party in the atrium, complete with free drinks and a live band for dancing. [Bob] Most of the dances were quite fast-paced, and I just couldn't face that after my disastrous Rumba lesson of the afternoon, but when I heard a slow waltz, I did take Monika out on the dance floor to give her at least one celebratory birthday dance.

When we got back to our cabin, our door was decorated with a Happy Birthday sign and birthday balloons from Princess Cruise Lines. Monika picked out her last gift, which was a porcelain spoon rest with a fancy Celtic design on it. Too pretty to really use, Monika later decided to hang it as a decoration over the stove, where it hangs to this day. She said she was happy with all three gifts, and we had some leftover birthday cake, so I could retire for the night with a clear conscience.