Day 2 - North Sea

Day 2 – Monday 1^st September 2014 – North Sea

It is a warm day with partially cloudy skies, a flat sea and the ship is doing 19 knots heading north.

Gym

Into my routine of being back at sea with a visit to the gym followed by a sauna, I certainly have missed this way of starting the day, which sets me up nicely for what is to follow.

A wander along the inside deck from the gym forward, brings you aft to the Lido, the open self-service restaurant, a lot of people in this area, eyeing up what they were going to have for lunch, as the staff began lying out the well-appointed and varied dishes.  I was happy with my lemon tea and made my way onto the open aft deck with its swimming pool and jacuzzis.  Some adventurous souls were having a dip, but they looked too serious to be enjoying the moment.  I eased myself into a comfy chair and took in the sea scape of passing ships and oil platforms.

At 12.15 into the Queen’s Ballroom on Deck 2 for the ballroom dance class with instructors Nadiya and Valadymyr from the Ukraine, today it is the beginner’s Cha-Cha-Cha.  The ballroom was full, so the lesson has attracted a lot of interest.  After the usual wiggling about, it was time to walk into the nearby Golden Lion Pub for a proper lunch of fish and chips with a pint.

Stateroom 7081

  

  

Retire to the cabin, to re-charge the batteries for the evening and night ahead.

The first formal evening and at 18.30 into the Captain’s cocktail party held in the Winter Garden situated mid-ships on Deck 9.

Winter Garden

Here I took up conversation with the Chief Electrical Officer and in a small world, we both knew a seagoing colleague from his home town of Cork in Ireland.

At 19.30 moved up one deck to the Princess lounge for pre-dinner drinks and in the restaurant our table of seven was complete with myself and companion Annie, Mike and Jill from Spain, Colin and Debbie from Basingstoke, Hampshire in the UK and Adrianne from New York.  I enjoyed an excellent meal of soup, surf and turf, followed by crème brulle.

A most interesting thing happened, as I overheard, Nitish our Sommelier (wine waiter), tell one of the table guests, he was married to a Russian and lived in St. Petersburg.  I caught his attention at the end of the meal, told him of my quest and my lack of information out of Russia.  He told me, he would contact his wife and see what she could find out, I was amazed and elated at making, what was to be my first break through in finding my Grandfather’s resting place.

Into the theatre at the forward end of the ship for the second performance at 22.30 of the flautist Stephen Clark, who was magical on his flute and he gave the finest rendition of ‘Danny Boy’, I have ever heard.

In the ballroom, it was the Black and White Ballroom and not too difficult to spot, this voyage medal winning dancers, as opposed to the numerous enthusiastic amateurs.

Back up to Deck 10 and into ‘Hemispheres’ the night club to finish off, there was not so many revellers about, maybe like ourselves, too much excitement in one day, but very, very relaxing.