Monday, 10/18
Shore Excursion on
Palma
Having gone to bed so
early, we were a bit surprised to wake up still tired, but we shuffled our way
to the buffet and had some breakfast. I thought the scrambled eggs looked good,
but as usual with buffet scrambled eggs, they were still a little runny. Not
enjoyable. I don’t like food that isn’t well done. I got some other stuff, too,
from potatoes to fruit, and some orange juice. What I really wanted was a cola,
for my morning batch of caffeine, but I didn’t get any.
We went to the
auditorium and waited for them to call our excursion. We got there about half
an hour early, so it took them a while, but eventually, it happened. They sent
us down a long black corridor and at the end of it, crew members put a sticker
on our shirts that had a number on it, and we were sent down to the gangplank,
where crew members scanned our room keys to note that we were leaving the ship.
Outside, there was a
long line of buses waiting. A crew member took a final look at our tickets and
said, “30. Your bus is at the end of the line. So we trotted off, taking him at
his word, headed for the last bus. We had almost reached it when one of the
tour guides stopped us. “Wait, wait, you just went past your bus,” and pointed
to the sign sitting on the dashboard, instead of the sign at the top of the
bus. Sure enough, the dashboard sign of the 4th bus from the end
said ‘30’, and the title of our excursion. So color me pink with embarrassment
as we went back and presented our tickets. Then we climbed aboard and found
seats. Before long, we were on our way.
I don’t remember the
name of the port city, but the island was Palma. It’s part of Spain. While the
tour guide pointed out some buildings for us to look at, and told us some of
the city’s history, the bus driver weaved his way through narrow streets and up
a hill to the castle at the top. After the bus was parked, we were given about
20 minutes to walk back to the front of the castle and take pictures. There was
a long staircase to get from the road to the castle. I opted not to tax myself
by climbing all of them, but John went up and took pictures. I started to get
worried as the minutes ticked by, wondering if I would have to race up the
stairs to find him and drag him back to the bus. But he showed up, and we got
back more or less on time.
Then the drive back
down the hill, and through some more narrow streets, past more homes and
churches. Then the bus stopped at the corner of modern thoroughfare, and we all
got off. We walked about a block and then crossed the busy street, paused to
hear some history of the building in front of us. Then we walked for about 2
days, uphill, on cobblestone sidewalks to get to the center of town. Or if not
the center, then a downtown section of the city. Many important government
buildings were pointed out to us, which John dutifully took pictures of.
At one point, the
tour guide pointed out an old olive tree in the square that was purported to be
800 years old. It had a very interesting shape, which I would have loved having
pictures of, in case I ever felt inclined to paint a portrait of a strangely
shaped tree. But John never thought of taking pictures of it, and by the time I
thought of suggesting it, we were off and walking elsewhere.
A block or 2 later,
we paused to compare architectural details of 2 buildings. One of them was
under renovation, and we had to stand about the base of the scaffolding. When
we started off again, one of our group stepped forward to go through the
scaffolding, only to trip over a bracing bar. He got back up, and those of us
around him wondered if he was okay, but he wasn’t bleeding. So we hurried on,
sometimes sharing the half-lane street with vehicles or delivery trucks.
Eventually, we came
to a building which the guide called a market. Think of a mall, only instead of
store fronts, it was full of booths of all sizes, selling all sorts of things,
including meat and produce. We were given half an hour to roam among the booths
before we gathered back together. In that time, the man who had fallen and his
wife had found a pharmacy and bought some antiseptic ointment and a couple
bandages for his banged-up shins, so he was a little more inclined to shake off
the experience.
Once we had all
rejoined the group, the guide took us inside, up the escalator to the 2nd
floor, and to a special event restaurant, where they served us a traditional
meal of Palma, complete with wine. It was very good, though the wine was a
little too dry for my taste. (I like soda-pop wine.)
After a filling meal,
I wasn’t looking forward to walking any great distance, but it turned out we
only had to walk about 3 blocks to get to our bus, which had changed location
and was waiting for us. A quick trip back to the pier, and we were boarding the
ship.
John went to the hot
tub. I laid down on the bed and rested. In years past, I would have fallen
asleep, but not this time. I’m proud of myself. I may not have made it to the
hot tub, but at least I didn’t fall asleep.
We had a reservation
at the Japanese specialty restaurant that evening. The type of place where they
cook the food on a big grill right in front of you. This place included making
the fried garlic rice on that grill, which was a fun addition. They used about
a pound of garlic butter making the fried rice. Our drinks package allowed us
to get mixed drinks that were $15 or less, and this restaurant had 2 cocktails
on their menu, so we each got one, and then tasted each others.
Anyway, I opted for
the filet mignon, well done. I usually tell them to ‘burn it, stomp on it, and
burn it again’, because I’ve had ‘well done’ meat that was still mooing. But John
begged me not to add those instructions, for fear the chef might actually climb
on the grill to stomp on it. So I quietly asked for it to be cooked well done,
and wasn’t the only one to ask for that, so there!
When he got around to
cooking the filet mignon, especially the well done portions, the chef added
butter and soy sauce to the meat. So when I got to eat it, it was soft and
tasty, not hard and cardboardy. I’ll have to remember that trick if I ever
decide to cook meat at home.
After we ate, we went
back to our room, took our evening pills, checked our tickets for the next
day’s excursion, set our alarms, and went to bed.
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