Monday, Sept 5th
Today we are at sea all day. We can see the coastline of Spain and many cargo ships. We met for breakfast and out the windows we could see dophins playfully jumping. After breakfast I attended a Windows 10 workshop and almost understood what the teacher showed us. Then I went upstairs to the computer room and signed up for computer minutes. I was finally able to get on my blog but was unable to post pictures. Tonight I went to guest services and a nice young man spent about an hour helping me upload my pictures. Tomorrow we dock in Cadiz, Spain. It is suppose to be very hot so we may not do a lot of sight-seeing.

Tuesday, Sept. 6th
We went on a Hop On Hop Off bus tour around the city of Cadiz, Spain. The tour lasted about an hour and then we walked around the narrow streets looking in shops. Susan and I visited a cathedral and then we met up for lunch. Three of our group went back to the ship and Liz, Lola, Susan and I had lunch in a tapas bar. Lola went back to the ship and Liz, Susan and I got back on the Hop On Hop Off bus again and got off to visit a church which was closed. Why didn’t they tell us that? We found a wonderful park to walk through. We came back to the ship and had dinner in the buffet. Then we saw a special performance of the traditional Spanish dancing art form, Flamenco. We enjoyed the performance.

Wednesday, Sept. 7th
We arrived at Gibraltar early in the morning. We walked out of the ship and found a friendly guy named Albert with a taxi and he took us on a wonderful tour. We went all the way to the top of the rock. We saw monkeys, the Tunnel of Siege and walked through caves. We were dropped off in the center of the town and had a great lunch at Hacienda Patagonica Tapas and Grill Bar. Then we walked all the way back to the ship.

Today we got up and caught the Hop-On-Hop-Off bus and rode to Placa de Catalunya filled with fountains, statues and pigeons. We strolled along the center of the city on Las Ramblas. We had already seen Gaudi’s magnificent Sayrada Familia cathedral. The cathedral is a spectacular monument to spirituality and we toured the interior in awe. We continued our stroll down the busy street Las Ramblas filled with tourists, souvenir shops and restaurants. We had reservations at a restaurant called Senyor Parellada and had a leisurely lunch. Then we strolled to visit another church, bought some wine to take on the ship and then went back to the church to find the nearest bus stop. We finally asked a nice girl where we could catch our bus and she said to follow her and she would take us to the bus stop. We arrived back at our apartment and relaxed drinking wine and snaking until bed time.
Sunday morning we got up and packed for our departure on the Oosterdam. Our van arrived and we loaded up all the luggage and off we went to our next adventure.
We arrived at the ship and after waiting in line we finally got the keys to our room.

Our first adventure in Barcelona was realizing our luggage didn’t arrive with us.  I was so upset because a young girl at LAX talked me into giving up my carry on which had my medicine and my jewelry in it because the plane was so full there wouldn’t be room in the overhead for my suitcase.  I was nice and let her talk me into it.  She said not to worry as it would arrive when I did.  Well it didn’t.  We finally  got it yesterday.  They delivered our suitcases to the rental office of the apartment because they said I never answered my cell phone.  I carried it in my hands for two days waiting for the call so what happened?

Today I will have my camera and will take pictures.

December 28
I forgot to write that we toured the Everglades. Our ship docked early so we had time to go with Lola and Casey on a tour of the Everglades.

We saw several alligators.

Our wind
blown look.

This is what our boat looked like. It was fun skimming across the water.

Susan held a baby alligator.

The animals on display had been rescued.

This is my last post for this trip. As you read my blog it starts with the last post and goes backwards. I was extremely frustrated on this trip trying to write my blog. First of all, I did not have my correct password. How could I not have the correct password? I have no idea except I have three pages of passwords that I have to keep track of. Then you have to pay $55.00 for 100 minutes of Wi-Fi aboard ship. I was unable to get my correct password so I started writing my blog by hand hoping that I would be able to post. My little computer was so slow that I spent most of my Wi-Fi time watching the cursor spin. I went to the ships computers but unless I had my correct password it didn’t do any good.
So, when I got home I found my correct password and decided to write my blog after the fact. Then I had problems loading my pictures onto my computer at home because I loaded them on my little computer. I finally worked that out. Then getting the pictures from my cell phone to my computer was another challenge. It isn’t easy for me to do all this computer stuff but I love doing it.

December 27
This is our last day at sea as we sail back towards Fort Lauderdale. I have decided to go see a movie, “War Games” in the little theater. Susan, of course, wants to go to the casino. I lecture her on being careful with her money. About an hour into the movie I see Susan in the shadows looking for me. I wave to her and she comes over and sits in my chair with me. Then she wispers in my ear, “I just won $801.00 on the penny slot machine.” Earlier she had won $300.00 on a penny slot machine but she had been putting her winnings back into the slots. I told her how very proud I was of her that she had stopped playing and she was to go to the room and I would be there when the movie finished. It was kind of hard to celebrate in a quiet,dark theater full of people all watching a movie.
I would also like to mention that Susan had complained about us having to leave our room to go to the bathroom as the toilet wouldn’t flush. This had happened three times. We got a letter in our mailbox that we had been compensated for our inconvenience. On Susan’s bill they had taken off $300.00. So Susan nailed it in the casino and on her bill.

Susan shows her casino winnings.

Fort Lauderdale skyline as we arrived.

We left at 6:00 a.m. and this was the sun rising through the clouds as we fly home.

December 25
The ship is totally decorated for the holidays with Christmas trees and Christmas scenes all over the ship. Every staff member you pass wishes you a Merry Christmas. Christmas dinner was very nice and there is a man aboard who looks very much like Santa Claus. When we dock at Cozumel, Mexico under privileged children are invited aboard and they are given Christmas gifts from the ship’s

Entering the dining room

The lights of Cozumel, Mexico

Dining room staff greeted everyone as they entered.