18.08.14 day at sea
Rushing sea, bright sunshine and Africa beyond the horizon
Hearing the waves outside definitely made for a great night's sleep. If we were the first to have dinner yesterday, we are the last to have breakfast today. The plan is as always: have breakfast late, skip lunch and instead eat across the buffet for dinner. So far it works in every point. When you arrive, the Bella Donna is still very full and the initially empty plates are quickly refilled. Anyone who has followed my last reports can perhaps remember the most important things about breakfast. And there's plenty of it: salmon and tons of horseradish. Oh, a day like that can start so wonderfully.
After breakfast we go to the kids info, where we see the introductory film for what feels like 10.000 times. But getting to know the carers in this way is always important to us because we want to know where the children are. Obviously, many holidays have already come to an end, because this time the middle and older children are grouped together.
Well, and if the little ones disappear in the kids club, the big ones are at the dance class or in bed, what do we orphaned parents have to do? Balcony. Definitely a balcony. Now on the way to the east, our balcony faces the south, which means that we have the most wonderful sun on the balcony all day. Since we landed on deck 6 this time, that means that we also caught one of the large balconies. Plenty of space, wonderful warm sunshine, a fresh breeze so that it doesn't get too hot, the rushing sea below us and Africa somewhere on the horizon. Do I have to write more to explain why we are doing really well?
Just lying around on the loungers, reading, writing a travel report, that's our morning program. In between, a couple argues loudly about what ends in the question of divorce and whether she should jump off the balcony. Hateful people than me would now think: "Jump, so that there is peace, but don't splash on our balcony". That would be technically possible, the balconies on deck 6 are larger because the ship is wider here, so the balconies above are set back. But none of us is hateful (or at least wouldn't admit it), and luckily it calms down on its own. And since there is no blood dripping from above, we also calm down and for the next few hours we only hear the sea again.
Around noon, when the sun is at its highest point, there is no more shady place on the balcony and now I have to get some sunscreen too. And of course we have the stress again: the children have to be picked up from the kids club the first time, we have to borrow pool towels and at some point try to find a real white coffee. I am sure that the sympathy of the reader is certain to us ...
In the afternoon we actually interrupt the balcony session for a coffee with milk in Café Mare. We have the opportunity to watch the 8 dancers rehearsing. We always like to do that because it's a bit of a look behind the scenes. And we're always impressed by how good they are. When one of the dancers jumps up onto the stage from a standing position, one thing becomes clear: We have to do more sport, we would only have managed to do that on a curb ...
The grown-ups are now trying to find shelter at volleyball, but feel pretty harshly disgusted there because they are not yet 18. Well, at 19 you don't want to be mistaken for younger, but above all, friendliness should always be appropriate even when there is great demand.
Punctually at 18pm we go to eat in the market restaurant. My stars today: The braised Madeira chicken, beans with tomato and mint, crispy duchess potatoes.
Our evening program begins with the introduction of the crew and officers. The two managers from yesterday take over the performance again, but just like yesterday, the spark of happiness does not jump over to the audience, despite the gifts they brought with them. The captain Jens Janauscheck is also a bit dry, but that's okay, he doesn't have to be an entertainer, he has to steer the ship sensibly and we trust him to do that.
A real highlight, on the other hand, is the show “Can You Feel It” with songs from Jackson 5. We are always amazed at how good the singers are or how perfectly the choreography of the dancers works. Then the actors are introduced by name and then we recognize old friends from our last trips, for example the dancer couple or the little Hungarian singer with the big voice, whose name I can now pronounce but not write. Unfortunately, the actors are not presented in the AIDA-iTV as is often the case.
Continue reading: 3rd day of the ship - La Goulette
