Alongside In Hamburg

At Tea

       We spent most of the day with a pilot sailing into Hamburg down the Elbe River. It was a very long transit and a good rate of speed. There was a German air force plane flyover early this morning checking us out!

Along The River

Close Quarters

       The only Zumba today was the morning session. I counted about 75 people there which has been consistent with the morning sessions. Again today everything was jammed into the morning with not much happening in the afternoon. We use to go to the art auctions but since they changed the art auction system a fer cruises ago they are not much fun even if we just sat there. I did go off to the earth science lecture which was on the formation of the earth and how the oceans came to be and he way in which our oxygen atmosphere developed. It was rather interesting. The lecture was quickly followed by the Le Havre port lecture. We decided long ago that we would be going into town. We have been to the area at least 4 times and since we are not going to Paris or the Normandy beaches (we have been there twice) we will take the shuttle into the city. We did research on it before we left so there was not much new. The only thing is that we can shuttle and nonot so good things to say about the way the cab into town.

Greetings!

       A nice lunch in the dining room. We sat with people from Buffalo NY. The conversation was mostly about killing pigs in Texas (the other couples) and Canadian customs. The Buffalo couple had nothing but good things to say about them. They had some harsher words for the way they get treated by US customs. After tea we watch the egg drop challenge. That contest involves dropping a raw egg from deck 7 to 5 without it breaking. We have done it a number of times. A few eggs actually broke but they gave a prize (pens?) to all the participants. Then of course the relaxing afternoon with a glass of wine followed. 

         We skipped the entertainment as it was a singer doing classics from the '30's and '40's. Instead we just sat, had a drink and watch the bank of the river go by. By the time we were close to Hamburg and then docking it was time for dinner. Some people went ashore as soon as we docked but because we are on tour at 7:30 tomorrow morning, we decided to get a good night's sleep. We will be touring Berlin. This tour is the primary reason why we selected this cruise.