First Day On The Seabourn Legend

We left beautiful Nice, France today to head out to sea on the Seabourn, a small and very beautiful ship. Our suite has a lovely view of the ocean, and is very comfortable. After the customary, mandatory ‘life-saving drill,’ we explored the ship. Dan watched the ship pull out of Nice’s harbor as Jim soaked his weary bones in the hot tub on an upper deck. For dinner, we joined a group of four other people in the main restaurant. They were an entirely mixed bunch of Americans and Brits. A very friendly gent from Atlanta was on his first trip to Europe and though he favored the abolishment of Social Security, he could be a sympathetic conversationalist. A black lady who was courting her third fiancée (who is 85, but not on our trip) came from Reno, and told us various tales of her cockadoo and dog. Needless to comment, she disagreed with the man from Georgia on social welfare. Then there was the retired couple from England. The wife used to give tours about Bernini on a volunteer basis, when she lived in Rome, and her husband had also lived in such places as Singapore, Unite Arab Emirates and Egypt. They were both fervent admirers of the late Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. What’s the solution when eating dinner with such a variable group of passengers? Avoid talking politics, at all costs. Interestingly enough, Jim did not engage the group on politics and we retired fairly early, around 10 PM, because we have a tour tomorrow when our ship docks in Marseilles.-Dan