FIFTY-NINTH
DAY
HOMEWARD
BOUND
November
11, 2005
The captain announces over the
speaker that he has never seen weather this good, even in July in this part of
the Atlantic. The entire week has been
bright, sunny, cloudless and mild. So
the Gods are good as we move into our final day and night of cruising. We take our umpteenth bus tour and this one cements
my conviction that I will never take another organized tour from the boat, at
least, not until tomorrow in Lisbon.
The Algarve on the Atlantic coast of
Portugal is a favorite hangout of the British who like its low prices and sunny
beaches and many golf courses. Our tour
to nowhere takes about 4 hours and yields very little of interest. The usual suspects—a castle, a fort and a
church are visited as well as a cork factory.
Then because there is so much to see and do, we drive in a big bus up a
hill the size of Mt. Tam that takes us about an hour to see the view of the
coastline. I get sick from the curves
and at the top we find a schlocky crafts store and not much more. This one takes the cake. We get back to the ship and take off for
Lisbon and our disembarkation very early tomorrow.
We have enjoyed the cruise. The Windstar ships are small and casual, the
crew incredibly friendly and we have had
fun. So as we grind our way up the coast
of Portugal I turn my thoughts to Rome.
We do have another day in Lisbon and I have never been there, but I find
myself concentrating on the next experience.
I will have to speak to my meditation coach who says, “in the here, in
the now.” My appetite for touring is
thoroughly satisfied. I am thinking that
when we get back I will try to do my research for a few days and try to
establish a routine for living in our new spot.
It might not be a bad idea to stay low for a bit.
Thanksgiving is around the corner and half of
the NFL season has been played. There is
a bar in Rome that plays some of the games on Sunday night and I suspect that
it might not be a bad idea to go. The
weight of not seeing kids, family and friends is weighing slightly heavy.
Moving into our new apartment will mean a whole new set of challenges both
linguistically and otherwise. My
associate is improving rapidly so we should do ok. Our job is to make this new space as pleasant
as possible so that it feels good to us. So a bit homesick coupled with another
changing circumstance has me over thinking the near term. In the meantime, as I write, the seas have
picked up and finally we are rocking and rolling toward Lisbon. I think I will try some Scotch therapy.
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