Cruise Day 3 - Mon 19 Feb

---

Cruise Day 3 - Mon 19 Feb



Slept in till well after 7 - what a shock! We went downstairs for breakfast and requested, and given, a private table for 2. Tom had cereal, eggs Benedict and a Danish. I had smoked haddock poached in milk, smoked salmon on a beautiful bagel (not super dense like our supermarket ones), and a Danish.

After brekkie we went up to the library and read the newspapers and did sudoku until it was time to go to the Carinthia Lounge for trivia. They decided to do riddles instead of general knowledge this morning (e.g. what is the end of everything? What do Winnie the Poo and Alexander the Great have in Common?). We were pleased with 15/20. After Tom attended a talk on the Australia II (Americas cup, decades ago) and I enjoyed a Baileys whilst blogging and jigsawing, we decided on the light lunch served in the Carinthia Lounge - Tom had a Mac ‘n cheese followed by a particular sandwich. I had a platter of Scandinavian fish (salmon, prawns and crab) and pastries. We were serenaded by a string trio - the first three songs were delightful, the rest were unfamiliar.

After finding that last night’s photos come at a cost of $US30 each (on a thumbdrive!!!!) we mosied off to our afternoon sessions - an astronomy talk for Tom and a classical music concert for me. Tom found his quite boring. I went to a classical concert by a pianist who had a huge repertoire of works by famous composers but pieces I’d never heard before.

We had dinner upstairs on level 8, in a steakhouse that you have to book and pay extra. First we were shown the cuts of meat on a tray that were available. Then a tray of various steak knives was produced and we could select our own.

I had the most wonderful lobster cocktail as a starter, Tom had tea-smoked duck breast. For mains we both had filet steak - Tom’s with pepper sauce, mine with bearnaise, accompanied by broccoli, cabbage and potato. Dessert was an unusual, but tasty, strawberry pavlova for me, and a chocolate, peanut butter, and caramel sundae for Tom. The couple at the table next to us were fascinating Americans who absolutely loved what they saw of Fremantle and Perth, remarking on the lack of graffiti, litter and homeless people. They have never been to Australia before. They really think Biden will get back in, but are sure there is an impending civil war. They asked us about something they’d perceived - why do Australians love Australia so much? There was another Aussie couple sitting behind us who joined in the conversation - none of us could really pinpoint it. It’s just everything.

On our way back to the cabin there was a crew member going along wiping every door handling with a sanitising cloth.

Then we had to put our clocks forward 30 minutes.

---