A day at sea

This being a day at sea gave us time to get to know the boat more. A newsletter lets us know what is happening each day and today there was lots - most of which did not interest me. There were illustrated lectures of note. We went to one on Stockholm which helped us know more about what we would be seeing as well as introduced us a bit to the history of Sweden. June stayed for a lecture on Faberge eggs, Matrioshka dolls etc.while I went and walked - 20 times around the track for 2 miles. It gets a bit boring, but the sea air is lovely.

I am still awed by the size of the ship. We are on Emerald deck which is the 8th floor - I think it is the first floor of staterooms. On floors 5 - 7 are the main restaurants, the theatre, the casino, bars, a library, a card room, stores.... The pools are on 14 as well as another dining room while the spa and gym are on the 15th floor. The "16th" is open air and that is where the track is for walking or running. We had lunch and then went to a lecture on St. Petersburg which was very well done. Afternoon tea - ahh life on a ship is tough and then time to relax a bit, get on the Internet and catch up a bit on news in the real world.

So I spent my birthday at sea. June had arranged for flowers in our stateroom (it's a good thing my birthday was at the beginning of the trip) and they are just gorgeous.

This evening was "formal" night so we put on our fancy clothes. Some people take this quite seriously. You could have formal portraits done and the lineup for them did not end until after 10:00. I know all you readers will be disappointed to know that we did not have one taken. Dinner is always at shared tables. It gets a bit tiresome to repeat the "and where are you from". Unfortunately, ignorance of the world on the part of Americans has been confirmed. So dinner conversation has not been scintillating. After tomorrow we will at least be able to discuss the things we saw during the day. After dinner, which was quite delicious, we went to the show. It was quite well done (though I was very tired and missed a bit), but not really my taste. Then to bed......