Thank you for eating!


We are spending a few days sailing as we travel from Aqaba, Jordan to Salalah, Oman. We traveled south down the Red Sea, where Egypt, Sudan, Eritrea, Djibouti, and Somalia were to the west of us, and Saudi Arabia and Yemen were to our east. 

One of the aforementioned countries


Last night we rounded the corner around Yemen and entered the Gulf of Aden. This is the previously reported location of the “piratical activity”. As I was out and about walking on Deck 2 yesterday, I noticed an armed guard standing at the railing, looking out over the horizon with her binoculars. I wanted to ask her if she saw anything, but didn’t want to distract her from her very important job of protecting us.

Ship off our Starboard side; hopefully not a Pirate ship

We’ve been enjoying some of the ship’s amenities during these days of sailing. Instead of the treadmill, I decided to walk on the outdoor track that goes around Deck 2, and enjoy the scenery and the great outdoors (and the armed guards and the razor wire). 


Razor wire, up close and personal

Walking track around Deck 2























Being outdoors was great, but at one point on the track it was very windy. In fact, my first time around, it was so windy that I could hardly move. I was walking into the wind, and was struggling to move forward. So I decided to turn around, go the other way, and walk with the wind. Then I felt like I was being pushed, had to work hard to keep from running, and hoped that I wouldn’t be doing an embarrassing face plant. But it was still enjoyable walking out of doors and enjoying the ocean view while actually getting some exercise.

Even though we’re not going on any excursions on these sailing days, we’re still enjoying some relaxing vacation time. You know you’re on vacation when your toughest decision of the day is to decide whether you want to read, watch tv, or take a nap. Oh, the rigors of cruising!

Speaking of watching tv, the choices are not great. I realize that with cable that comes with 537 channels at home, we are spoiled. But we have limited options here. There are many news channels, including CNN, MSNBC, Fox news, CNBC, and there’s also the BBC and Australian News. However there are no sports channels. So Viking’s not perfect. Did they not realize that the World Series took place last week and there are a number of Americans aboard? Well, maybe they checked their bookings and learned that no one was from Philadelphia or Houston.

I suppose they are aware that we like our American football, so they have offered one football game for us to watch on a special channel. They advertised by saying we would have access to an NCAA event (sic), and then said that we would be able to watch the football game between the Eagles and the Texans (okay, so maybe there are people from Philadelphia and Houston aboard after all.) Anyway, the game would be shown live here, but because of the time difference, it would be at 3:15 a.m. I missed football so much that I planned to watch it. I would be able to rest later in the day by choosing “take a nap” from my long list of choices of things to do while on vacation. So at 3:15, I turned on the tv and it didn’t work. The next morning we mentioned that our tv wasn’t working, and they said, we’ll fix it. They pushed a magic button from somewhere in VikingLand and then called our room and said “try it now”. We did and it worked. So the only time our tv hasn’t worked on the trip coincided with the only opportunity to watch a real live NFL (not NCAA) football game.

Speaking of time difference, we are currently 9 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time. We will stay 9 hours ahead until we reach Mumbai, at which time we will be 12½ hours ahead. Not sure why 12½ and not just 12 or 13 hours, but somewhere along the way we gain a half hour.

My new Viking motto is “No meal is complete without the gelato.” Yeah, still hooked on the gelato. Now they have a chocolate fountain, and they can dip your cup of gelato underneath the hot chocolate fondue and have a hard cap of chocolate form over the cold gelato. Also, every time we walk out of the restaurant, they say “thank you” as we leave. Now since all the meals are included on the trip, we did not spend any additional money by eating at the restaurant for any particular meal. So they are thanking us for eating? Wow, cruises are great, and one of the great benefits of cruising is the food, and now they are thanking us for eating the food. I only have one reasonable answer to that: “You’re welcome”! Now pass the gelato.







Comments

  1. AnonymousNovember 8, 2022 at 1:52 PM

    HAPPY BIRTHDAY KAY!!!
    Ellen Hebert Hutchinson

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousNovember 12, 2022 at 7:20 AM

    Happy belated birthday!!! I was thinking of you on your day. Love, Den

    ReplyDelete

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