May 18, 2012: Docking in Rome, Italy (Civitavecchia)
	May 16, 2012: Barcelona, Spain (Montserrat)
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From the Ship's Log:   Thursday, May 17, 2012 At Sea Position at Noon:      41°17'N, 006°11.6'E Weather:      Gentle northwesterly breeze, smooth seas, very low swell. Clear skies, I018hPa, 17°C/63°F

Yesterday was our last port for this first cruise, and tomorrow we will dock in the Port of Rome- Civitavecchia. Today is a day to relax and, sadly, say goodbye to the friends we've made who won't be continuing on with us for the next cruise.

Our route today took us much of the night across the Northern Mediterranean, and the next day around the southern tip of Sardinia. Tonight we will be heading north directly to our docking in Civitavecchia tomorrow:

For the last time, we followed our usual routine with MaryEllen and Jim- bridge in the morning followed by lunch. When we got back to the cabin afterwards, Fred found that we had a visitor on our balcony, and he took up his camera and got some pretty amazing shots:

In the afternoon, we did our normal stuff, like the gym, and Fred and I wandered around the ship for a while. I also got hooked into a bridge game in the afternoon in the card room.

Sunset found us back in our cabin and out on the balcony.

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It was a nice sunset, and the three of us spent some time photographing it and talking about all the neat places that we'd seen on this first cruise. You can use the clickable thumbnails below to see a few of the pictures we took:

Before dinner, we joined MaryEllen, Jim and their friend Sally for a drink in the Crow's Nest, and I took this opportunity to get a couple more pictures of them. I took one that included Fred, and he took one that included me:

We ended up having supper with them in the Lido Restaurant, and then we bade them goodbye; they would have to be up fairly early for disembarkation, and since we didn't know when their staterooms would be called, we had no idea when or where we might meet them. But let's hope stay in touch.

This Evening's Towel Animal  

Monkey Business

Tonight was also our last "towel animal"- at least for this cruise. And we ended with one that was easy to recognize. Particularly since our cabin steward didn't just put it on the bed, but hung it on the drapes.

Tomorrow will be an unusual day- one we've not experienced before. We'll be staying on board the ship as one set of passengers gets off and another gets on. There'll be all kinds of special schedules, so we'll see how it goes.

You can use the links below to continue to the album page for different day.

	May 18, 2012: Docking in Rome, Italy (Civitavecchia)
	May 16, 2012: Barcelona, Spain (Montserrat)
	Return to the Index for Our Cruise to Europe