August 26

We sailed past the rock of Gibraltar last night, the captain said it would be at 11:28 but it was more like 11:15 so I guess we are making good time!

Here is how we spend our days at sea (more or less…)

Woke up at 7:45.  Today they had a special coffee and pastry get together for the world cruisers with bingo afterwards, so we did that.  We didn’t win.

Then we walked for an hour on the fitness track on the 10th level, it is beautiful and sunny!

Norm did his weights and had some computer time, and I relaxed, I am reading The Girl on the Train, and enjoying it.

We had lunch out on the terrace on the 9th level.  Now I am doing this blog post, and will then go to the spa deck which is a perk for us at concierge level.  There I will relax and read until my hot stone massage at 4.

After that we are having dinner with 3 other couples in Toscana, the Italian restaurant. One of our new friends, Lois, is having a birthday and we will all celebrate there.  Many things to choose from after dinner, we may go to a movie (and yes, they have popcorn).

The movie is Surviving Picasso with Anthony Hopkins.  I usually then spend some time in the casino playing blackjack or poker while Norm reads in the room.

Tomorrow is Barcelona and about 500 passengers will leave here and another 500 will join for the next segment – to Dubai.  Lots of new friends to meet.

There have been 3 different art instructors on the cruise so far.  Here is some of the work I have had fun with.  The artist, Maj, on this segment is fond of collage and I did three of those. Two were interpretations of still life items she had displayed and the third is a travel collage.

With the previous artist, Suzanne, we made these magnetized signs for our suite doors.

Great subject matter, I used a dining room menu as part of the background

More great subject matter!

The art instructor, Maj Kalfus, did cartoons for the New Yorker. She had one in the onboard newsletter every day. The one in my collage says “let’s hydrate”. Very appropriate.

The butterfly and the apple at the bottom are mine

the two on the right are mine, bottom right is the door sign.

I missed the bridge lesson today to do the world traveler coffee, and Norm is going to an enrichment lecture about Barcelona while I relax in the spa terrace.

A relaxing day at sea, after eight port days in a row! Looking forward to Barcelona.  We will explore on our own and then I have a 2 hour ICF Board meeting before getting back on board.