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Musicus

By Musicus,
in Solo Cruisers

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AndyP7

AndyP7

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I've been following along since the beginning but haven't posted until now. What an amazing adventure Egon is having! I check daily for updates to see what's next.

 

Thanks to yellowbird and ladysail for bringing us his adventures as well as the pictures that help tell the story :)

 

Andrea

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INCHARGE

INCHARGE

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What an amazing man. People of all walks of life, young and old, can learn so much from this man. How many people can say that they have done as much as this man in his lifetime? I don't know if he has grandchildren, but his story should be saved for generations. What memories Steve will have of his dad. Not many of us actually get to get blow-by-blow descriptions of our parents lives. I wonder if he sent detailed reports to Steve when he and his wife traveled? An adventure we all wish we could have. Thanks Pat, and Ladysail2.

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yellowbird23

yellowbird23

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AndyP7/INCHARGE >> The effort on my part is nothing. You are right about Egon. One amazing man. I know he is truly looking forward to going to Switzerland. He and Heidi both had an interesting life and, yes, Steve should be very, very proud of his father. Of course, I don't think Steve is a "slacker" in any sense of the word either.

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yellowbird23

yellowbird23

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May 20, Lisbon: I had put this on my cabin door: " MISSING! Someone ripped off and took my ceramic name tag from my cabin door. I would appreciate having it back - it means more to me than to you! Egon # 11141".

This morning before 8 am, the cabin steward caught me still in bed nursing my cold and brought the name plate in which he just had found on the floor in front of my door. Luckily, I have just enough of the thick double-sided sticky tape left to refasten it. I guess some kid got hell from a parent(or not).

 

Yep, I have a full blown cold, blowing and coughing. Tomorrow in Gibraltar, I'lll get some more cough syrup and, hopefully, a good cold medication at a pharmacy. Sure want to cure this before May 2. Meantime, my good friend Ruth, sister of my sweetheart Beatrice, has invited me to stay at her place in Bremgarten, a suburb of Bern and I am sure grateful for this because further searches for something available and affordable proved fruitless once again. And sweet Sabine (niece of Annemarie Hahnloser) will, at her suggestion, make an appointment for me to see her husband Andreas, who is a cosmetic surgeon, to look at my leg which is still being treated and bandaged daily but does not show improvement.

 

Yesterday in Cadiz, it was cold and rainy and I got drenched, which of course, is the ideal fundament for a cold. Today in Lisbon, it started out somewhat similar, but I really bundled up and then sat inside a restaurant nice and cozy with the loo right around the corner, which was a blessing since when I ran out of lots of Kleenex, I could avail myself of lots of TP. There's always a rainbow somewhere.

 

April 21 and we have arrived in Gibraltar. It's raining cats an dogs and I may not be able to go out and have to wait for Alicante tomorow. The ships monitor, showing the ship's position, speed, wind, etc. and visible on the Cabin's TVs and many locations throughout the ship, also shows today's outside temperature which reads 146.C/295.5F. Guess we are going straight to Hell.

 

April 22 in Alicante, better weather but still cool. We only got there at 1pm and in the morning Anna invited me to meet the new Hotel Manager who is an attractive young lady from Finland and then were joined by what I took to be a senior officer who told me, when I ask for his function, that he was the captain (nobody had introduced him to me as such and he is only in his forties) .. anyway, I sank visibly and apologized but of course I was not familiar with the uniform insignia. A very nice man and very different from the captain who left. Then I went for my leg treatment to the Medical Center, where I had one of my awful coughing spells, which got the doctor to listen to my chest, prescribe, sell and charge me for a course of 12 tablets (2 daily) which also contain penicillin, and others to loosen mucus. As I write this tonight at 11.30, I already feel somewhat better.

 

We only got to Alicante at 1pm and I took the shuttle bus into town and the went on to the park where I was last time. I finally sat down under one of those huge trees where I have WiFi. I was approached by a well dressed man who flashed what looked like an identity paper and said he was police and that they were looking for a white haired man, together with another person, who exchanged $ 2000 for Euros in one of the big hotels and it turned out that the Dollars were forged. He apologized but would have to ask me for identifications such as passport (which I didn't have on me, but a Canadian Citizenship Card) asked for driver's license and other identifications such as credit cards etc, which he saw in my open wallet. All the time he seemed to be on his cellphone ostensibly with headquarters and asked many other questions about being with a group etc etc. By the time he finally was through and put the phone down, he said something like "sorry for the incovenience, but you understand, we must protect the public. It's OK now, you have been cleared" and gave me back a small pile of papers from my wallet, including the Bank of America Check Card on top and told me to go over to the next park because they would be closing this one off now. All sounded very plausible and I haphazardly put the stuff back in my wallet and took off. It was only when I got back to the ship an hour or so later that I discovered that my Mastercard and another Bank Card were missing and then suddenly thought of the fact that at one point during the "examination" he had asked for my pin, which I refused to give and chastized myself for the fact that I didn't realize at that point what was going on. There's an old Jewish saying: "Ve get too soon oldt and too late schmart". How very true. I was extremely upset and agitated and could easiy have had a heart attack at the realization of what had happened and then frantically started thinking of the necessary countermeasures. I finally found Mastercard's telephone number, rushed off the ship again half an hour before we were to return to it, only to find that there was absolutely no telephone in the entire terminal building. Back onto the ship, I tracked down Allan, the new guest relation officer with whom I have a bit of a friendship going and he used the ship's satellite phone for me to cancel the Mastercard and ask for a new one to be sent to Olivia, whom I will see May 17 in Southampton. Normally, a call from the ship costs 6 Euro/Minute -and my call was at least 5 minutes long- but maybe, just maybe, ... well, we'll see. So much for Alicante.

 

In retrospect I see this episode as another classic example of my "unquestioning submission to authority" that had been hammered into me during the **** years beginning in 1933, and which I already referred to once before in my reports when I spoke of the day in 1939 when I left Germany for England and was taken off the train by the SS at the Dutch border. (to add this last sentence, I got up at 4.30 this morning, April 23, during a restless and thoughtful night.)

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luvcruzing

luvcruzing

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Wow. How awful for Egon. And I berate myself when I do something that makes me think that I should have known better. My 103-year-old mother used to always say that no matter how old we are, we still make mistakes and have lots to learn. I hope this is the last time that Egon has a bad experience.

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INCHARGE

INCHARGE

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What still worries me is what information he may have gotten on the card that Egon still has. He was on his cell, and we don't know who he was giving information to. He could have easily given that card info, with expiration number and security code, to another crook on the other end. Someone I know had laptops ordered from her card. I think he needs to contact that bank as well. How can people be so cruel?

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AndyP7

AndyP7

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How terrible for Egon! I'm glad he realized it soon after - the credit card companies are usually pretty good about handling these things if you report the theft quickly. If I read correctly, Egon didn't actually give his pin number, which should make it harder for the thief/thieves to do anything with the card.

 

Here's hoping he gets over his cold quickly and enjoys his side adventure to Switzerland in just over a week!

 

Andrea

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yellowbird23

yellowbird23

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Pics to follow...

 

In Barcelona, I sat again in front of McDonalds working with my computer on my lap and waiting for them to open - I was almost an hour too early for that to happen at 9.30. In Barcelona, I have been warned frequently by passersby who see me with my laptop - apparently there are many "grab and run" thieves and if that should happen to me it sure would be the end of a lot of things. It's a pretty dangerous life I am leading away from the ship, which includes the scooter drives which often present challenging and hazardous moments. I do the best I know how, but can see the writing on the wall limiting the time I'll be able to cope with some of the physical aspects of my life, which includes walking.

 

By the way, I finally realized that the other card the crook took was the Bank card of Bank of Montreal, which didn't have my name on it but witch I used on ATM machines (of course with pin, which he doesn't have). I am sending an email to have it canceled - was going to phone but this would have to be after 6pm because of the 9 hr time difference which made it impossible, also Easter Monday the bank may have been closed.

April 24, Geneva. I decided to scoot to the railroad station to check it out so that I'll know my way round there when I leave from Bern. But it was raining lightly and I eventually got quite wet. Then I was off in search of the post office, which I found but of course was closed -i forgot that this was Easter Sunday; I wanted to mail my letter of thanks to Lauretta's parents and this will now have to wait until Malaga on the 26th. I eventually found an internet hotspot, where I was able to work my mails, but in a very uncomfortable position because they had to use their computer cable to plug into my laptop (they have cabins for use of their own machines only).

But I got to realize another huge problem when I talked to my good friend Mandy at the Reception about my upcoming trip to Bern: While we arrived last time in Geneva even before the scheduled 8am, the clearance by the Italian authorities was ony given about 8.45. My train leaves at 9.19 and it takes at least 10 minutes by taxi to the station and then some time to get to the right track. So now I'll talk with Stefanie, the new ship's immigration officer, to see what can be done such as my getting clearance right away when the officers come aboard, rather than having to wait until all has been checked. Wish me luck! It would be extremely complicated changing the ticket and advising everybody. Now I just talked with Stefanie who assures me that I'll be cleared first and off the ship in time; she also will have a taxi waiting for me. Here's hoping.

I have been assigned a new table amd the champagne was shared with the only other couple at the table the first night: Trevor and Du Toit, both men from South Africa and married to each other since 9 years. so the rest of the champagne was corked and served next evening, when the table was vastly enriched by two you and very pretty ladies and a young man, all from Australia: Daniel, Oralee and Bree, the first two 18 year old law students, Bree, the "oldest"(I guess 22) a personal assistant to an executive, whatever that means and they are all very nice I brought some of the strawberries to Angelica who just came back - nice to see her. But, just as in previous days, I was in bed by 9pm, still trying to cure my coughing. In the afternoon, before playing in the Atrium, I used an inhalation machine with medication supposed to clear bronchial tubes.

There are again a lot of kids on board and they are noisy and without concern for anybody else.

April 26: Nice day in Malaga, sat outside at McDonalds for a few hours doing my stuff. Again early to bed, after a small Dinner - just don't have any appetite these days.

April 27, Cadiz and a beautiful day. Unfortunately there was no internet access at my "usual" outside restaurant opposite the cathedral for some reason and I drove around until I found a signal since I could get no info on a possible internet cafe, and then just sat on the sidewalk on the scooter with the laptop on my knee (I think I'll write a song "with the laptop on my knee" since it happens so often). Got a few more things straightened out in regards to the trip to Bern and Olivia's visit to the ship, also learned from her that the address she had once given me was incomplete, so that I wonder whether the various mailings will ever reach her (including the Bank Cards!) And I stopped at a pharmacy and got another cough syrup to loosen this persistent hacking which drives me batty and hurts muscles in my back. I am determined to beat this before Bern. And this afternoon I did a major restoration to the bowtie which I use with my cocktail suit; it had come unhinged and, as if an indication of the general state of affairs, was sagging badly. It was no mean feat, since I can use only one eye and this required very close work.

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yellowbird23

yellowbird23

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MSC is really frustrating!!!!!! I called them last week and they have yet to get back to me with confirmation that it was delivered. Given that I was charged for it nearly 4 weeks ago, I'm furious.

He had a credit of $34 on April 1st. Could that have been it?

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yellowbird23

yellowbird23

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Yikes! We may be moving sooner than later and my hubby will definitely owe me a long cruise. Had 11 couples go through our house yesterday and 2 more today (so far, that is). Wish us luck. We both need a vacation after all this stress. This is also my 34th day free from gambling!!! Horrible, horrible addiction, especially while cruising.:D Maybe we'll just join Egon for the rest of his cruise sailing off into the sunset....lol!!!

Edited by yellowbird23
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majorjan

majorjan

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Yikes! We may be moving sooner than later and my hubby will definitely owe me a long cruise. Had 11 couples go through our house yesterday and 2 more today (so far, that is). Wish us luck. We both need a vacation after all this stress. This is also my 34th day free from gambling!!! Horrible, horrible addiction, especially while cruising.:D Maybe we'll just join Egon for the rest of his cruise sailing off into the sunset....lol!!![/quote]

 

Good luck on your sale! and also for your long sail! Would be great to join Egon for the rest of his cruise. Thanks for all your postings and keeping us informed.

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yellowbird23

yellowbird23

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Yikes! We may be moving sooner than later and my hubby will definitely owe me a long cruise. Had 11 couples go through our house yesterday and 2 more today (so far, that is). Wish us luck. We both need a vacation after all this stress. This is also my 34th day free from gambling!!! Horrible, horrible addiction, especially while cruising.:D Maybe we'll just join Egon for the rest of his cruise sailing off into the sunset....lol!!![/
quote]

 

Good luck on your sale! and also for your long sail! Would be great to join Egon for the rest of his cruise. Thanks for all your postings and keeping us informed.

Thank you majorjan, although was being facetious regarding the long sail on Poesia. I will NEVER go on that ship again. There was not too much I liked about it, although my cabin was really great and great location even though it was an inside.:) We are really considering going "land" cruising on Aruba, my favorite of all islands!

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Okie1946

Okie1946

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Yikes! We may be moving sooner than later and my hubby will definitely owe me a long cruise. Had 11 couples go through our house yesterday and 2 more today (so far, that is). Wish us luck. We both need a vacation after all this stress. This is also my 34th day free from gambling!!! Horrible, horrible addiction, especially while cruising.:D Maybe we'll just join Egon for the rest of his cruise sailing off into the sunset....lol!!!

 

 

Will keep my fingers crossed that you get an offer soon. I know it can be frustrating not knowing what is going on.

 

On the other side of the coin - hope everything for Egon will work out and his banks/credit card companies are on the ball. Identity theft can be devestating and when you are so far from home it can be worse. Keeping him in my prayers.

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