Gothenburg Sweden

Greetings from the North Sea and Sweden. We left Great Britain and followed the channel between England and France. Have seen a lot of large container ships heading in both directions. Had some beam seas in the North Sea, which weren’t all that bad. Michael had a little mal de mer, but managed to do all his bridge duties with lots of naps between sessions. I think we both still had jet lag and as I write this at 5 am on Tuesday morning where it is already bright and sunny, I think we both have recovered from it. Just can’t sleep. Went to bed last night around midnight and it was still light out and we could see the sunset. One sorta gets the feeling you get when in Alaska – its light out, now what do we do next and it makes it hard to go to bed.
Yesterday was a sea day and there is nothing much to report. There were various activities on board, mostly lectures, bridge, and classes at the gym. The bridge lessons were sparsely attended due to overlap of the Russian lecture (there were about 8-10 students for each of the beginner and intermediate lessons), but had a really good turnout for the afternoon bridge game (6 ½ tables). As usual, people really enjoyed Michael’s teaching and directing. Most of the students were American and British. We don’t know from day to day what our schedule will be until the ship news bulletin comes out the night before. People ask us when the next game is and we tell them to read the paper and find out like we do!

The passengers that we have met are mostly Americans and Brits, with a few Canadians and Australians thrown in. It seems on the smaller ships that people take the time to chat with each other and that anonymity doesn’t apply like on the larger ships. We have met several couples from the Coachella Valley! Last night was a formal night and most people actually dress up, not like on some other ships where they wear whatever they feel like wearing. We ate in the “regular” dining room and sat a t a “shared” table. We enjoy the shared tables as we have been able to meet people from different places and have such interesting conversations.

The entertainment on board ship is crude to say the least. Smaller ships don’t have the space to have the razzle dazzle production shows. Last night’s entertainment was performed by the cruise director who did “black curtain” comedy with dolls and props of some sort and sang opera, and an English comedian who was not very cutting edge, had a dead delivery, used old jokes and picked on his wife. He would never have made it with an American crowd. Michael could have done a better job telling his jokes!! If they run out of entertainment, he should volunteer to do a set.
I do have to say, it is amusing listening to all the different types of British accents. The Brits are very interesting people; they are quite different from Americans though… …can’t quite put my finger on why this observation, but I’ll have to ponder it some more.

Today we went to Gothenburg Sweden, which is the second largest city in the country. We managed to get escort duty for a city exploration excursion and we were assigned different buses. We actually met up with each other at the botanic gardens. As escorts, we have to carry a backpack around with first aid stuff and can’t wear blue jeans – and guess what I brought to wear on excursions! We also have to keep track of the time of the stops, make sure all the stops were completed and then write a short evaluation of the excursion. The city was dense, crowded and very clean. Housing was apartment buildings; no private homes in the city. It wasn’t the most exciting tour nor did it have interesting architecture. We were only in port for 5 hours, so it was a quick tour. The people on the ship are like children sometimes. Our tour was from 11 am to 2:30 pm and no stops for lunch. They wanted to know when and where they were going to eat when the bus returned to the ship, and what time would we have breakfast tomorrow when we leave at 6:45 am for Berlin. Fortunately, I had a copy of the daily bulletin and gave them the information. Don’t they read the daily bulletin????? All in a day’s work.

I took the night off and stayed in the cabin and watched a dumb movie. Michael went to the show – opera – ugh! Then he went to the dining room for dinner. It’s early to bed tonight as we are off to an early start for our day in Berlin.