Wednesday's and Thursday's preparations

Wednesday, May 8^th 2013: continued

We spent much of the late afternoon / early evening (there should be a word for that lovely time of day) on deck. Initially we were in a spot where I could get some sun and Matt could get some shade (a frequent holiday conundrum) where we spent a good while chatting to a couple from Kent. They had been married 48 years but didn’t look a day over 60 (but I am rubbish at estimating ages) and he had taken it upon himself to be an unofficial tour guide on our up-coming trip to Rome to a lady and her elderly mother – despite never having visited Rome before himself. Later we moved to the sports deck. I have no idea where everyone else had cleared off to (maybe we were missing something exciting) but we had the place to ourselves. The sun was strong so Matt hid himself away with his book under his sarong. It was an e-book so there was no page turning going on but it was the snoring that gave away that he had fallen asleep.

We needed an early night, in the knowledge that we would have a busy day ahead of us in Barcelona. So it was kind of convenient that we were sat with a nice but not exceptionally chatty couple at dinner. So dinner was over quite quickly (I do love that with whatever meal you have it comes with “your choice” of potatoes and vegetables – a different sort each evening I think) and I even managed to finish my book before sleep time – after we had taken a turn or two of the dance floor (a particularly successful foxtrot this evening).

As an aside, it baffles me that people insist on ruining perfectly nice drinks with artificial sweetener; especially when their physique and the meal you have just seen them consume would suggest that in general they have a disregard for the energy content of what they are putting in their mouth.

Thursday, May 9^th 2013

It was our earliest start yet, with a plan in mind to get into the city as quickly as possible. We had complete alarm success and headed out for breakfast (as it would possibly be a while before our next meal I stoked up with a veggie sausage in addition to my usual), packed and ready for the day, at 7.30am.

I had even pre-applied sunscreen. The weather however was having different ideas – the clouds looked ominous. So it was back to the cabin for a quick equipment swap – it didn’t look like I was going to need my sunglasses or a sunscreen top up. I didn’t mind too much though as a bit of rain would mean that I could wear my new anorak. We were just about ready to go ashore when the captain announced that we would need our passports. So it was back to the cabin to collect these from the safe. And Matt persuaded me that it wasn’t going to rain so I lightened my load a little by unpacking my anorak. I must admit that I was a little disappointed – it’s a really nice anorak.