Week 13 - Stress then Cruising

Nothing's wrong with a week that ends in Europe. But before I got there, I had some drama to get through.

My basement wall project would be done while I was gone and on Monday morning, I got the estimate for the job and would have fallen over had I not been sitting. When we discussed it last summer, he told me it would be $17-18k but the estimate was >$30k! I called him immediately to express my dismay and he had no recollection of the earlier amount he'd given. He said he'd see what he could cut and with no recourse at this point since I was leaving in 3 days, I spent some time planting seeds and trying to put it out of my mind. I also pulled the final sock yarn to pack and went to knitting, where I vented about the price. 

The Emeriti/Retirees group had a tour of the Innovation Campus greenhouses on Tuesday morning and I had invited my friend Lorri. It was very interesting and then we went to Green Gateau for my very belated birthday lunch. We even split a piece of my favorite cake. Yum! I dropped her home and started loading my piles into my suitcase. I just had one more load of laundry to do on Wednesday and I'd be done packing.

l slept badly so was pretty tired Wednesday morning but only had the single load of laundry to do and the final cat prep - loading up big food/water bowls and setting up many litter boxes (3 in the normal basement spot and 3 in the shower upstairs in case they were too freaked to go downstairs with all the construction noise). When I went down to put the laundry in the dryer, the laundry room was flooded and the storage room where they'd be starting work was too. Apparently my main sewer line was blocked. The local plumber was no help so I called my contractor and he said he'd get his snake to try to clear it. I went to the library to pee and found the plumber who was working on the sink in the new conference room outside in the parking lot rifling through his van. I asked if he could come to my house if the contractor couldn't get it snaked and he said to call the office and request him. Fast forward to the afternoon when my contractor's 25 foot snake hadn't worked and this guy came out with his industrial snake machine and got it cleared. With that, the mega stress that had been ratcheting up with each passing minute evaporated. That done I finished my final trip prep and even had time to knit and watch Survivor. Sheesh! Not what I needed the day before leaving.

There's not much to say about Thursday. Lorri and Bob (same Lorri as Tuesday) came early to take me to the airport and the travel, which was through Chicago, was uneventful except for me tripping on my way up the aisle (idiot man had his elbow into the aisle and it caught my carry on) and being saved by passengers with kleenex and a band aid as my right forearm dripped blood. I barely slept on the flight and we faced 2.5 hours in line at passport control in Brussels then were wisked to the bus for a drive to Antwerp. We boarded the ship and the trip officially began! 

We unpacked then had an orientation of the ship and a bit of the local area before we headed out in search of the first yarn shop of the trip. On the way there we found a grocery store that had my favorite Kellogg's Country Store cereal, which is only available in Europe and hard to find so I was very pleased already. We found the yarn shop and I bought a single skein of pink yarn that they dyed themselves (solid so nothing special) and then it was back to the ship for dinner and early bedtime. Exhaustion had set in but we'd sleep well for sure.

Saturday brought our first green group walking tour with our leader Rene, who was full of info and a lovely man. Anne and I opted to stay in town after the tour and walked around enjoying Antwerp. I bought a cherry beer that Rene had recommended and gave it to the bartender to chill for enjoyment later that day. We set sail at 5:00 for Ghent and had our official welcome dinner, which wasn't over until almost 9:00 so we went right back to the cabin and went to bed early again.

We woke up in Ghent but were docked outside the city so had to take a bus to the city center for our walking tour. It was marathon day so the city was very crowded and we had to dart through runners several times to cross streets. We had a local guide for this tour and when it was done, we stayed in town again, grabbing a pastry and coffee to call lunch. Anne and I then took a canal cruise of the downtown before taking the bus back to the ship. We decided to take out e-bikes, which were available on the ship, to cruise around. Now I haven't been on any bike in years (decades maybe) and it didn't go well. I wiped out on gravel covered cobble stones almost immediately and then shortly after decided it wasn't for me and turned to go back to the ship. Well, when you stop pedaling, the motor kicks in and I ended up driving into a stone bridge by the ship. Fellow passengers helped me up and I walked the bike back. Done with that! I took a shower and changed then went up to the lounge. We had a talk on Belgium today and then another yummy dinner.

While falling off the bike (I had a skinned and bruised right knee and a big welt on the back of the other calf) wasn't the way I would have chosen to end the week, it was still a good one. We had already met some fun people that we'd be eating every meal with for the rest of the trip and was enjoying everything about being onboard. River cruising is wonderful and we had another week of it ahead. Yay!