Thursday June 20 – At Sea

A couple of points of interest from our trips ashore.

We did not realise that it is now politically correct to talk about BCE (Before the Common Era) instead of BC and CE (Common Era) instead of AD.

The beggars in Barcelona now set out cups indicating where your contribution will go.  We saw a few with their five cups labelled, Weed, LSD, Food, Beer, Disneyland. See photo from post yesterday.  We actually saw a couple of deals going down in the back streets of the old district of Barcelona.  One was just a guy selling to a tourist, but the other looked far more professional with two burly lookouts waiting outside.  As we disembarked the ship, I saw a notice that I had never seen before saying that it was illegal to bring drugs on board and that anyone found with drugs on board would be taken off the ship and would have to find their own way home. 

Today, we had our ballroom dancing with our new teachers, Barbie and Ken (Woops! Not Ken – his  name is Eric) from California.  We also had a new line dancing teacher, Emily who comes from Canada.  They were all very good.

As we sailed between Malaga and Algiers, for this event the kitchen staff really went to town with special fruit and vegetable carvings and with the food displayed in a most artistic way.  The seafood was fantastic.

For entertainment tonight we had Kenny Martyn.  He is a clarinetist who played a tribute to Benny Goodman with the Princess Band.  He is excellent and we feel very fortunate in being able to hear him play. He is on again tomorrow night and we will certainly be there.