Tranquility

Some are born tranquil.

Some achieve tranquility.

Some have tranquility forced upon them.

I had tranquility forced upon me today.

I woke up full of hope that now that we were out of the Bavaria Channel, my computer would magically once again attach to the internet. Alas, that was not to be the case. When Char pulled out her iPad and Mike, Kitch and Walt all had cell phones which connected with the internet, and when there were people happily e-mailing away on the ship's computers, I had to admit that it was my computer's problem, not an internet problem.

I was able to use Char's iPad to send an e-mail to Jeri asking her to post a message on Facebook (because I didn't seem to be able to get on Facebook on the iPad either).

I gathered up my flash drive when I saw there was a vacant ship computer and nobody waiting in line and, though it is always a frustration trying to get to the yahoo site where I post journal entries, I was finally able to do it, and also post a parallel entry to Airy Persiflage. At least I knew I could do that much and continue to post entries.

It was a quiet morning. The ship held a history quiz.

It asked things like "who invented the electric lightbulb" and "how many castles are there in Germany?" Mike and Char did fairly well on it, but did not win the prize (a cocktail credit).

The rest of the morning was a leisurely crusing morning. We watched scenery pass by...

.

..napped...

...and watched for turtles on the rocks (found lots of rocks, no turtles).

At noontime, we took a break from all this strenuous lounging and went up to the Aquivit Terrace to have some lunch.

(on today's menu was duck!).

We eventually arrived at our day's excursion destination: Bamberg. Char and I decided to skip this day's off shore trip. It was another old town with an old town section, medieval history, a cathedral, a view and a town square. It sounded like the last two days and we knew that we had Rothenburg coming up tomorrow and decided to give our feet a rest. Mike, Kitch and Walt went off for the day; Char, Joyce and I stayed on board. I took a shower, watched a movie, and tried again to get on Facebook, this time successfully. I now knew that I could do everything important on the internet, but I also had a reason NOT to be on it all the time, and that knowledge gave me a nice sense of peace and...tranquility.

While the gang was in Bamberg, the ship was sailing through a few more locks to Hassfert, where we were going to pick them up. We passed through more picturesque towns...

...fields..

.

...and locks.

Char and I met in the lounge after our quiet afternoon in our respective rooms (she napping, me watching a movie). We ordered a cocktail and were joined by Ron, whose wife Joyce had also gone on the afternoon excursion. We watched out the window as the ship slowly sailed into Hassfurt and we saw the crew standing on the banks waiting for us.

They were just in time for dinner.

There was some sort of trout on toast for an appetizer, borcht for soup (disappointed to find so little sour cream...I remember a big dollup of it when we had the soup in Russia), The main course was orange and soy scented grilled pork tenderloin, and for dessert creme caramel with whipped cream and fruit.

After dinner, I came back to the room and, feeling tranquil, sat on our balcony watching the sun go down. Char was doing the same on her balcony.

I was so tranquil, I took a nap before getting to this entry. While I was napping, Walt went upstairs to check out "The Liars' Game," they were playing in the lounge, which, he reported later, was like a Says You bluffing round...guessing which of four people had the correct definition for an obscure word (like "gardeeloo"). Turns out Walt won and brought a bottle of champagne back to the room.

Now it's 1 a.m. and I have to decide if I'm going to go upstairs and post this or take another nap first.

Decisions, decisions.