2024 – Queen Mary 2 Grand World– Part 1 –Tenerife to Walvis Bay 1.4

After three days at sea, we docked on Monday, January 15 in Santa Cruz de Tenerife.  I didn’t get out until 1:30 pm.  My email brought news that I had the string trio for dinner the day after tomorrow, so a newsletter was in order.  Luckily, the same email bought the information I needed for our DV tour in Cape Town, so there was plenty of news.  I wrote it up and sent the newsletter to be printed. 

Tenerife is a port I have been to a large number of times.  It was never better than last year, when we landed Palm Sunday.  This year, it was a Monday, so all I wanted out of it was some fresh air, a bit of a walk, and a few Tapas. I did get a nice harbour picture with the Queen Mary 2 in the background, behind the masts.

They have made it easier to walk into town, I passed the pool and monument, crossed the street,and there I was: downtown.  I walked up Del Castillo to the upper square, went a block or two over and down again, now ready for my tapas.  I wasn’t disappointed.  The tables in the street were full at Tapas.26 but I had one just inside and this seriously colorful server. 

I had the obligatory jamon iberico and cheese and added a hot sweet potato and cheese dish that was delicious.  But tapas are for sharing.  It was a lot of food for one.  I like more people, more variety, but, you get what you get when you go out alone, three hours later than everybody else.  The little dessert churro was paired with a shot glass of something rummy and yummy.

Back on the ship, I picked up my printing, collated, wrote notes, and delivered my newsletters.

I had dinner with six more Brits, and not a one lives in London. Jon Udry, the juggler was the show.  I like jugglers but didn’t find this one too impressive. Montreal has spoiled me for circus acts.

We were back at sea for a long stretch on Tuesday January 16. Next stop, Walvis Bay.  All I want to do is get off the ship and go to Swakopmund, late-ish, something simple.  The older I get, the less keen I am to wander around dodgy countries alone, though.  I the group includes a couple of people who might be thinking the same.  I’ll investigate possibilities on the Internet. 

I’m doing Indonesian and Sri Lankan visas for any of my people who can’t do them easily themselves.  It’s a nightmare you have to get photos of passport pictures with no glare, which can take 6 or 8 tries, as well as photos the people and copies of their paid confirmations, which are 5 or 6 pages long.  The people might have them on their computers or phones, or on paper, in which case they have to stand in line at the front desk to have them scanned and emailed to me.  The WC   Even with my computer, and Consultant is offering this service, too, and you should see his line up.  I can’t do more than one in an office hour and it goes way over time.

I did another Sri Lankan Visa in one guest’s cabin in the afternoon, and we went to dinner together.  She is positively delightful.  She lives on Cape Cod in a retirement home and cares about it so little that she had to look up its address.  To be fair, she’s never there.

Happy Hour was well attended for once.  There were a couple of regulars and two people I had not met.  Delighted.  Had dinner with one of them and spent the rest of the evening in the Chart Room so as to introduce myself to the Ukrainian String Trio.

I had a reason for that, we were having dinner with them the next night.  That day was filled with finalizing our Cape Town shore excursion and another couple of visas.

We had a wonderful little DV dinner with the Brevis String Trio on Wednesday night.  One of my people is a Harvard mathematician and, as math and music are related, knows about music arranging.  He had been impressed by this trio and wanted to talk to them.  Tatiana, Olga and Elena were charming and shared a little of the horror going on in their country.  My Mathematician, who was at Harvard from just after Tom Lehrer’s time, and I cheered them up with our acapella version of Lobachevsky.  You had to be there.