Tues May 7, 2024
Hi All! Today was a glorious sea day… good for sleeping and eating… wait, we do that every day on these cruises! Lol. We did sleep in today but then went to our friend Nikki’s talk on Lisbon. So sad that he’ll be leaving tomorrow. Hope they can get another good speaker but they’ll have a hard time filling his shoes!
He told us how Lisbon is on the Tagus River not on the ocean and is 11 miles up the river from the ocean. It’s the oldest city in Western Europe founded by the Phoenicians in 1200 BC. The greater Lisbon area has a population of 2.9 million people. They call it the City of seven hills and it is really hilly. I got to spend about 2 weeks there about 8 years ago and just love it. We have an all day tour around the city tomorrow so we’re looking forward to it.
We also listened to Jonny Warneken who was the British guy who lost his leg early in life. His topic today was on swimming the channels of the world. The channel swimming organization recognizes 7 channels around the world (i.e. English Channel, North Channel, etc.). So far 2,400 people have swum the English Channel and only 27 people did all 7 channels. He was the first disabled prrson to swim the North channel (between Northern Ireland and Scotland) and it took him 15 hours! He had to learn to deal with swimming near jellyfish, sharks and even a minke whale. Incredible!
We then listened to the Seabourn singers at the pool while the cruise director dished out gelato. Rough life!
After that they had a salute to the ship officers and staff at poolside. For many people this is their last night and they’ll be getting off the ship tomorrow. We’re one of the lucky ones staying on for the next voyage. We’ve now completed the Canary Islands and Morocco portion of the trip and will be doing Northern Europe now, which they’re calling the Seafarer’s Route. Should be fun!
We ate dinner at the Collenade (casual restaurant) tonight since it was “surf and turf” (of course!). It was very good and allowed us to get done in time for the early show since they weren’t doing a late show.
The show was two of the previous performers together which was Janine Johnson (soul diva singer) and Adam Johnson (pianist). They both were great. We ended the night as we always do, listening to Ana and Humberto. So glad they are staying on for the next voyage.
Tomorrow we’ll be exploring Lisbon, Portugal! Hope everyone had a great Tuesday!
The Wandering Italian 