We got up early, and kevin brought me tea in bed.  Nice!  We went to the breakfast buffet at about 7:30, and because it was so early it wasn’t crowded at all.   also nice.  i loved that they had fresh figs.

nobody was out walking, either.

it was a cold and windy morning, and we watched a little TV in the room, and then i got us some delicious sweet rolls to make up for all the healthy food earlier.  i decided to go for a walk, initially wearing my stocking cap because it was so chilly.  i started running instead, just to keep warm.  i went six times around, 2.2 miles, so at least i got a little exercise.

then lunch, another lecture by Charles Barclay the astronomer, but i wrote that i fought to stay awake.

it wasn’t a busy day, but a nice one.

here’s us going to dinner, me in my six dollar ralph lauren dress i got at a thrift shop.

we went to the winter garden to listen to a pianist, and i had a drink called a “Cunard Cobbler,” with sherry, contreau and orange juice, and wrote that it was very weak.  i had gotten dressed up because i thought we were going back to the dining room for dinner, but kevin had thought we were going to the buffet.

this is the last post you’ll ever see of the Winter Garden, because they retrofitted the ship and it’s now called the Carinthia Lounge.  Here’s what it say about it online:

Named in honour of the line’s former Carinthia ships, the new venue has been designed to offer a ‘serene and cheery’ lounge space serving light breakfast and lunch. Guests will be able to enjoy a dedicated patisserie and an afternoon tea service, including the option of a Veuve Cliquot Champagne Afternoon Tea experience. At night, the Carinthia Lounge will offer ‘premium wine, small plates and relaxed entertainment’.

so, hmm about that.  it looks nice, but i also thought there was nothing wrong with the Winter Garden, but change is always changing.

we decided the buffet would be better, so we had a lovely meal, plus we ran into Sabina Shalom, the delightful woman we’d met on the way over.  she’s the one who wrote the book A Marriage Sabbatical, about her adventures travelling alone around the world in her middle age with just a backpack and $1,500.  she had been so charming and lovely when we’d met her, so we were so happy to see her again.

while we were doing all that travelling and hiking around Wales and Ireland, she’d been in london visiting nieces and nephews, i’m pretty sure.  and she had two mini strokes while there!  worrying…she seemed to very tiny and frail.

we also struck up a conversation with a nice English couple.  they were very, very active.  they’ve hiked and biked a whole lot, and they live Bavaria and Germany the best.  he was retried from the fire department.  the funny thing is, after we saw them at dinner, we always spotted them working out furiously whenever we passed the gym while strolling the deck.

here’s my light and lucious dessert.  we went to the buffet at night more than once, and they always had some ice creamy booze deliciousness as a dessert option.  plus really nice cheese for dessert.

the english couple had to eat in the buffet because they hadn’t brought any dress clothes.  hmm, that’s an option for another trip – we’d save a lot of luggage space that way.

we went back to the room and watched the movie “mortecai,” which was pretty terrible.  i ate one of the many candy bars i’d bought in maidstone.  good grief!  i wrote that i could easily gain 5 pounds during the crossing if i didn’t quit eating so much chocolate.

look at this beautiful sky!  we should have spent the whole evening sitting out enjoying it.  maybe it was too chilly?

there’s a faint rainbow right in the middle.  lovely.

and that’s it for our second full day of sailing.  i believe i don’t have so many photos of the rest of the trip, but we’ll have to see.

ok then,

mrs. almost done posting the pictures cause we were almost home hughes.