Day 13- Sea day

A lazy sea day today, so there is not much of great excitement to report, I’m afraid. We were able to sleep until just after 7 am, and then lounged around the cabin watching the news until 8:30. We then had a little breakfast and then spent about 90 minutes at the gym. It was pouring rain all morning, so we were happy to be inside the ship, rather than trying to get around a port!

At 11:30 am the “Port Expert” on the ship gave a 1-hour talk on the history and sights of the two Portugal ports we will hit, Lisbon and Ponta Delgada. She uses slides from her previous trips to the ports to show you landmarks, etc. We find this useful for orientating ourselves in cities that we’ve never been to. Also, I find that I have to take every opportunity to find activities to amuse yourself on sea days, or they can get quite long. Andrew could nap the day away but I have a much shorter attention span.

After the port talk, we went to the British pub for lunch. Andrew had battered shrimp and chips, I had a Scotch egg and chips drowned in malt vinegar – yum! We followed that up with nice warm peanut butter cookies from the International Café – which serves café-type foods such as pannini, soups and salads, along with pastries, 24-hours a day!

We then hung out in the cabin until 3 pm, when we had tickets to a wine tasting class. The class offered 6 premium wines from various regions in Europe and the US. We like wine, but don’t know very much about it, so it was fun to learn from the sommelier and figure out why we liked certain wines better than others. As is typical for us, I prefer red and Andrew prefers white (we tend to be opposite in our tastes), but he did like the Cabernet they offered, so we’ll count that as a success! We are signed up for another class later on in the cruise, which will feature less expensive wines. I’m looking forward to that one as I am a firm believer that I can enjoy a $10 bottle of just as much as a $50 bottle!

Us at the wine tasting

Now, we’re back in the cabin. I’m typing this blog and Andrew is out on the balcony. It’s finally sunny this afternoon, but windy as hell! We tried to walk up on the upper decks earlier and were nearly blown overboard; no small feat as we have both gained about 20 pounds on this trip, so far!

Andrew on the balcony

We’ll eat dinner late tonight, because they fed us canapés at the wine tasting so that we could also learn about food pairings. I learned that I like cheese with everything! J I would be happy to skip dinner altogether (I feel like we have been eating non-stop today), but it’s lobster night so Andrew is insistent that we go. I suspect that, by the time 8 pm rolls around, I’ll be perfectly happy to eat again!

Tomorrow we dock in Lisbon, Portugal from 12-6 pm. It’s a very short amount of time to be on shore, but the late start means that we will get to sleep in a little AND hit the gym before we go in to town. Our plan is to walk around on our own and see the sights. On our list of “must sees” are riding the funiculars (look for photos tomorrow) and finding a pastry shop that specializes in a Portuguese specialty – egg custard tarts. Again, and not surprisingly, food is near the top of my list!