Five-8-two

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Tuesday, April 5, 2022

Alicante, Spain

Whelp…Mother Nature & Poseidon had other plans for Riviera today. Alicante was a no go. The winds were 35 knots, the waves were about 15 – 25 feet. Just too dangerous. In fact, a cargo ship snapped its mooring line WITHIN THE BREAKWATER! That is what one might say NOT GOOD.

When we opened the drapes, the sea was white with foam while the dark grey clouds dropped down to meet the foamy waves, it was quite difficult to see where one started and the other ended. It rained all day long as the ship pitched and rolled with the winds and waves. It wasn’t bad, at all. I did find it amusing that there were barf bags fanned out neatly atop each and every trash receptacle on the ship. Good thinking on someone’s part. Didn’t much look as though any were used but be prepared.

Since we’ll be on the ship, which means masks in public, we spent the majority of the day in our stateroom. I’m willing to wear a mask – because health is everything – but that doesn’t mean I like wearing them.

We turned on the TV, watched bits and pieces of a movie, switched to the news, back to a movie – ya know? I must say the new SMART TVs on board are quite nice (and fancy) – you can view your bill online, search menus, watch the news (no CNN though…we watch BBC or MSNBC) stream TV, stream movies etc. Makes for nice rainy-day entertainment.

I was behind on the writing, so I caught up. We both did some reading, and Christopher recreated some of his music lists on the Italian phone. All good. Oh, I forgot to mention something from yesterday – we went to a Samsung store – we think we’ve found our new phones. The phones we have are pay-as-you-go and no bells nor whistles. We are both somewhat concerned about security etc. We haven’t spent $$$ on a phone in 6 years, so we feel OK about this expenditure.

So, the title Five-8-two refers to the number of passengers aboard Riviera: five hundred and twenty-eight! Less than the capacity of the R class ships! We were wondering if the crew has been proportionally reduced as well. Unsure. We HAVE noticed the lack of people in the GDR. Today at lunch there were perhaps 10-15 occupied tables when we were there.

This lack of passengers might explain the email we received the day before the start of this leg asking if we’d like to move into a Vista Suite or Owner’s Suite…for a price. Nope. We need new phones and a few other things…but BOY-OH-BOY were we tempted. NOW…if it was a free upgrade? In a heartbeat!

Dinner tonight was at Red Ginger. We brought two bottles of wine. One bottle was left in the room by the Ship (a Cab); the other a white, was perhaps left by the previous guests. We weren’t sure, but when we took it out of the refrigerator today, I noticed the room number on the bottle. SO…free wine with dinner tonight. When we went to pay for the corkage fee…NO CHARGE. The wine came from the ship in both cases, so no corkage fee. Note to self.

Dinner at Red Ginger was wonderful as usual. We deviated from our usual course plans. I started with the Chef Sushi platter, then had the Tom Kha Gai soup (chicken, lemongrass, curry and coconut milk), and the Miso glazed Sea Bass. Christopher had the Fried Calamari (no garlic flakes) the same soup as I, and Lamb Rack (4 chops). For dessert I had the steamed apple ginger cake and Christopher had the Chocolate lemongrass brulee. We both left happy, sated and not bursting at the seams.

Red Ginger has no windows and is somewhat dark, so when we got out to the Grand Staircase (Lalique, BTW) we saw…THE SUN! When we left for dinner, the rain was still going strong. By the time we’d finished, it was a brand-new day. Perhaps tomorrow will be nice? I’ll make sure to put in my request to Poseidon and Mother Nature.

We went up to the Grand Bar to listen to the string quartet for a good while before they took their break. When they went for their break, we went for a nice walk and watched the sky change from a bright crimson to a deep purple as the sun made its descent far off in the distance. IT was, to say the least a dramatic sky.

By this time, it was past 8:30 – time to get to the room and unwind from SUCH an exhausting day. HA!

Tomorrow: Malaga (again).

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