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🎶 TODAY’S TUNE

Sailing
Takes me away to where I’ve always heard it could be
Just a dream and the wind to carry me
Soon I will be free

📇 THE STORY

Again with no sleep! I woke up around 3. Jim woke up around 3. I told him not to check the score of the game… He checked the score of the game. The Bills won. Could we go back to sleep? No. Now we had to check out what all the talking heads were saying. And I needed to catch up on my writing.

Our day started with a buffet breakfast, not really, our day started with the cappuccino machine and meeting a new friend, Heather. She couldn’t sleep either so she was up doing a puzzle book in the area outside of the coffee room. I guess I should do a video of our boat layout. Of course that will change when we change ships. So.. back to breakfast. The display is quite lovely. There is a chef making omelettes, muesli, loads of breads, meats, cheeses, smoked salmon with capers and something akin to not cream cheese more like I want to say the sour cream/yoghurt the 13 lads of Yule like? But if that is not enough, you can order off the menu: eggs Benedict, smoked salmon Benedict, french toast, etc. We just buffeted. Jim ordered an omelet. I had the smoked salmon and meats and cheeses. No more coffee, but the multi vitamin juice is quite good.

After breakfast it was off to the bus, I forgot my little ticket to the walk. I actually don’t think anyone received the tickets. Nevertheless, on the bus to Basel?? We drove through Little Basel and arrived in Big Basel. Apparently the East West Hotel is in Little Basel and for awhile Big Basel and Little Basel were like West Carthage and East Carthage, but I don’t think they had a Turkey Bowl or some other competition to determine the better side. More that Big Basel is up higher than Little Basel and all the ornaments on the building are grimacing or sticking out their tongues at Little Basel. Eventually everyone played nice and came together and became one happy Basel. Our tour guide Jana gave us lots of good information of the city and we were on the same walking tour as Mary Lou and Tim. We let Mary Lou and Tim know about a couple of Cheesey Goodness places, one particularly close to the ship and split off from the group.

Now it was time to search for chocolate, läckerli, and Street Art. I remembered what a local told me.. ask for fresh baked. The older läckerli is harder and will last much longer. We stopped ath the Läckerli Huus. Not Jakob’s and I didn’t do a taste test, but I was told the Huus was good and there it was, bonus that they had chocolate as well!.

Before we left, Jim had researched and printed off a street art map walking tour of Basel. He knows me so well. So off we trotted through the streets like we knew them. We found some on the map, some not on the map, some that were tagged over, some were in a a state of repair. I am just going to leave the pictures with you. If you click the link above, scroll down and you can see the map of the walking tour.

As we sprinted towards our ship/boat/vessel (still haven’t asked about the correct word and although I use the word boat, I am pretty sure I should be using the correct word.. I will try to catch Carla when she is not being inundated with other guests, anywho, we are walking/marching/promenading along the river bank and as I am watching where I walk, I am also looking at the river. There is a man who has just come out of the water. I know this because he his toweling off and wearing blue swim trunks. Not for long…. I immediately turn my head away as he strips down to the graces or glories God has given him. I truly don’t know which because unlike Ethyl, I didn’t look. 🎵”Oh yes they call him the Streak, boogedy, boogedy!” 🎶 As we entered the boat we were blessed with a freshly baked macaron. We nipped down to our room, I exchanged my yellow raincoat for my windbreaker and my lovely ear possum head/ear wrap from New Zealand, dumped off our stuff and walked a different way in Basel looking for Cheesey Goodness. Our new friends, Mary Lou and Tim, were already there. They invited us to join them with a beer and to share their fondue as it was enough to feed us all.

Back to the boat for a nap, but we snapped a few pictures along the way. There was a playground/park area that Q would have loved. There also was a crow trying to soften a piece of gum in a water fountain. There were all sorts of little animals carved out of wood in this play park: sheep, squirrels, nuts. I couldn’t take pictures of them all… I truly loved the hair place. Thought that was a nifty idea to show what she could do.

Nap time was quite nice, but not quite long enough. I woke with a start and decided it was definitely time for a shower. Oh the towels that we are given. I thought I had read there were no wash cloths or maybe that is what I seem to remember from other overseas trips, but we have plenty of wash cloths, hand towels, and big fluffy bath sheets. After I dressed, I went down to the lounge. I wanted to keep uploading pictures from today, but stopped to visit with friends. Tonight’s information started with a procession of the Captain and his officers. Really we commenced with being graced with our choice of Champagne, a Kir Royale-champagne with Cassis, or a Mimosa. Next came our choice of a bbq pork slider or a little wienie in a blanket (puffed pastry). You can guess which I chose.. yep the little wienie. Jim did share a bite of his bbq pork. It tasted like the pork had been cooked in a sauce of curry ketchup. After the presentation, we proceeded downstairs for dinner.

Amy (not Pam) and Jim who had taken the adventure up to Interlaken, procured a 6 top and we joined them along with Mary Lou and Tim. I neglected to snap a picture of the menu. I did get a picture of all of our dinners. Dinner was quite good, and the best news? We have started sailing.

✨GAMBoL glimmer

Jim went to the top deck. We were going through a lock. I watched from mid level as we inched our way through the lock. Yes I did sing the Erie Canal song. 🤣

#HowFortunateWeAre #RetiredAndLovingIt #MakingOurOwnSunshine