Royal Caribbean Cruisers -- How Are Things Where You Are? (was "Routine" ​ 😁 ​day in lockdown... how was yours?)

[island lady]

1 hour ago, grapau27 said:

65°C sunny and warm morning.

We decided to have a coffee then a stroll along the beach promenade before I go to the bank then back home to sit in the garden.

 

 

Wow...beautiful pictures...looks like a lovely weather day for sure!  

[island lady]

23 minutes ago, bobmacliberty said:

I keep referring to my wife as "my wife", so I'll start using her name...Micheline.  It's pronounced Michael-een.  She was named after her father's friend Michael.  Her family and friends often just call her Mike.

 

So I was all ready yesterday morning to say that we had very little in the way of second Moderna shot side effects (we got the shot at 7:00pm Wed).  My arm soreness Thursday morning was less than after the first shot.  Micheline's soreness had spread to her shoulder and back, and by noon the next day she had fatigue and some chills.  A few hours later, I also had some mild chills and body aches, which got a little worse.  We dressed in sweats and watched TV while covered in blankets and went to bed early.  Thankfully, everything's back to normal this morning.

 

Same thing with us after our Moderna shots.  Hardly noticed it on first shot.  Tech giving us the second shot told me the first shot just "sets you up" but the second shot is the kicker. 

 

After sedond shot we felt fine first day, then by second day.....headache, very sore arm for me.  Bucky had flu like symptoms, felt like crap.  All went away by day three though.  

 

Small price to pay to not get Covid full on.  🙂 

[bobmacliberty]

10 minutes ago, island lady said:

 

Separate.  Fries would get soggy. 

 

The "sauce" for the mussels is a simple white wine they steam them in.  They heat up the large deep pan with a little olive oil, some garlic and shallots, then add the white wine until hot..add the mussels to steam. 

 

The dish is soooo simple, fresh and good.  🙂 

 

Mmmmmm...Moules et Frites.  My go to dinner near the Grand-Place.

[island lady]

3 minutes ago, bobmacliberty said:

 

Mmmmmm...Moules et Frites.  My go to dinner near the Grand-Place.

 

Need to go back to south of France someday!! 🤗

 

Doing a B2B (hopefully by then) on Allure out of Barcelona Oct. 2022 before our TA.  Will be looking for that dish again.  Our pre-cruise hotel is right on the main harbor there...bet I will find a Spanish version of it close by.  😉 

[sgmn]

12 minutes ago, island lady said:

 

But the one thing I tried that I almost gagged on...the Vegemite.  Ughh...  Must be an acquired taste.  😜

Have you tried marmite, you either love it or hate it,  they even use that in their advertising 

[John&LaLa]

38 minutes ago, bobmacliberty said:

I keep referring to my wife as "my wife", so I'll start using her name...Micheline.  It's pronounced Michael-een.  She was named after her father's friend Michael.  Her family and friends often just call her Mike.

 

So I was all ready yesterday morning to say that we had very little in the way of second Moderna shot side effects (we got the shot at 7:00pm Wed).  My arm soreness Thursday morning was less than after the first shot.  Micheline's soreness had spread to her shoulder and back, and by noon the next day she had fatigue and some chills.  A few hours later, I also had some mild chills and body aches, which got a little worse.  We dressed in sweats and watched TV while covered in blankets and went to bed early.  Thankfully, everything's back to normal this morning.

 

I was fine with 2nd Pfizer. Laura hadva low fever and chills. All better now

[John&LaLa]

12 minutes ago, bobmacliberty said:

 

Mmmmmm...Moules et Frites.  My go to dinner near the Grand-Place.

 

You see that in Copenhagen as well 

[island lady]

13 minutes ago, sgmn said:

Have you tried marmite, you either love it or hate it,  they even use that in their advertising 

I think I have seen that in specialty stores, but no...have not tried it.  Though with this description I found online, and the taste "experience" I had with the Vegemite...not sure I want to?  😉 

 

The flavour of both spreads can be summed up in two words: 'strong' and 'salty'. ... And there is a slight difference in taste — Vegemite is more intensely gobsmacking than Marmite, which has a milder flavour and even a slight sweetness compared to its meatier Aussie cousin.Nov 7, 2017

 

[bobmacliberty]

The day that we've been dreading is rapidly approaching...the day that we need to go back to Cincinnati to sell our house there.  We leave here next Monday.  We are really NOT looking forward to leaving Amelia Island and definitely not looking forward to the whole house selling process.  We've got a week or 2 of clean-up and staging work to make the house sparkle for picture day.  Our realtor expects the house to sell very quickly (at list price or above) so I'm not too worried about that part.  We then though need to decide what to move/sell/donate.  I stay as far away from FB as possible but I think we'll be FB Marketplace regulars for a couple of weeks.  We also need to move my 23 year old daughter out of our house and into an apartment.  Then we have the actual move process itself for us.  Yuck.

 

I AM looking forward to simplifying everything down to one address and one set of bills (nice monthly savings), but that also means getting our daughters set up for their own car insurance, bank accounts, etc.  Hopefully, we'll be back here by end of June with everything behind us, except for maybe the closing itself.

[dani negreanu]

32 minutes ago, bobmacliberty said:

 

Mmmmmm...Moules et Frites.  My go to dinner near the Grand-Place.

 

Chez Léon ? 

[dani negreanu]

14 hours ago, molly361 said:

French fries are great dipped in brown gravy

 

14 hours ago, John&LaLa said:

French Fries go with ketchup, lots of ketchup.

 

Anything else is sacrilege 

 

Might as well dip them in grape jelly

 

With all due respect, only mayo for yours truly 😉

[island lady]

9 minutes ago, bobmacliberty said:

The day that we've been dreading is rapidly approaching...the day that we need to go back to Cincinnati to sell our house there.  We leave here next Monday.  We are really NOT looking forward to leaving Amelia Island and definitely not looking forward to the whole house selling process.  We've got a week or 2 of clean-up and staging work to make the house sparkle for picture day.  Our realtor expects the house to sell very quickly (at list price or above) so I'm not too worried about that part.  We then though need to decide what to move/sell/donate.  I stay as far away from FB as possible but I think we'll be FB Marketplace regulars for a couple of weeks.  We also need to move my 23 year old daughter out of our house and into an apartment.  Then we have the actual move process itself for us.  Yuck.

 

I AM looking forward to simplifying everything down to one address and one set of bills (nice monthly savings), but that also means getting our daughters set up for their own car insurance, bank accounts, etc.  Hopefully, we'll be back here by end of June with everything behind us, except for maybe the closing itself.

 

Uggh... I am with you there.  Moving gets to be more and more tedious the older we get...and unfortunately we seem to pack rat our stuff more as we age!  😮  

 

We did force ourselves into what we called the "five year plan" before we retired and moved into this smaller home.  Told ourselves to stop buying "precious stuff" and start to liquidate what we had.  When it got much closer, we had many trips to the Goodwill and one really huge garage sale,  of which we pretty much gave everything away to grateful buyers.  😉 

 

Good luck with the process, and in the end...it will all be worth it.  🤗

[bobmacliberty]

12 minutes ago, dani negreanu said:

 

Chez Léon ? 

 

I've been there a few times...probably the most famous.  Lots of other options on that same street, with plenty of competition between the hosts outside the restaurants trying to convince you to choose them.  Since you lived there for a while, my favorite restaurant in Brussels is the Belga Queen.  It's a fancy old bank converted into a restaurant, complete with the basement vault area that is a bar.  I think you said it's been many years since you lived there and I don't know if it was open when you were there.

[Sunshine3601]

1 hour ago, island lady said:

 

Funny thing about the ship too.  The turkey bacon is really...really awful!!  But they have a turkey link sausage I thought was quite good, and had no idea what brand it was.  Haven't been able to find anything close to that in the stores.  

 

Maybe I need to sneak into the galley next time to check it out.  😄 

Look for jones farm all natural turkey sausage links in frozen food section.  They are the best I have found.  

[xpcdoojk]

1 hour ago, bobmacliberty said:

I keep referring to my wife as "my wife", so I'll start using her name...Micheline.  It's pronounced Michael-een.  She was named after her father's friend Michael.  Her family and friends often just call her Mike.

 

So I was all ready yesterday morning to say that we had very little in the way of second Moderna shot side effects (we got the shot at 7:00pm Wed).  My arm soreness Thursday morning was less than after the first shot.  Micheline's soreness had spread to her shoulder and back, and by noon the next day she had fatigue and some chills.  A few hours later, I also had some mild chills and body aches, which got a little worse.  We dressed in sweats and watched TV while covered in blankets and went to bed early.  Thankfully, everything's back to normal this morning.

My deceased uncle Harley, who spent WWII driving Patton’s staff in Europe, named my cousin Harleen.  Then to keep it similar... my aunt was Dorthy, so second child was Darleen.  The next was an accident like me and they just called her Karen.... 😂

[Sunshine3601]

34 minutes ago, bobmacliberty said:

The day that we've been dreading is rapidly approaching...the day that we need to go back to Cincinnati to sell our house there.  We leave here next Monday.  We are really NOT looking forward to leaving Amelia Island and definitely not looking forward to the whole house selling process.  We've got a week or 2 of clean-up and staging work to make the house sparkle for picture day.  Our realtor expects the house to sell very quickly (at list price or above) so I'm not too worried about that part.  We then though need to decide what to move/sell/donate.  I stay as far away from FB as possible but I think we'll be FB Marketplace regulars for a couple of weeks.  We also need to move my 23 year old daughter out of our house and into an apartment.  Then we have the actual move process itself for us.  Yuck.

 

I AM looking forward to simplifying everything down to one address and one set of bills (nice monthly savings), but that also means getting our daughters set up for their own car insurance, bank accounts, etc.  Hopefully, we'll be back here by end of June with everything behind us, except for maybe the closing itself.

It is an overwhelming project but the end result will be well worth it.   I'm not a fb person either but have sold various items on marketplace, even a car.   I'm sure you house will sell fast.  Good luck and keep us posted🤩

[xpcdoojk]

1 hour ago, island lady said:

 

Oh yes...love..love the food in NZ!!  Frustrating that we were supposed to be down there right now.  😞 

 

But the one thing I tried that I almost gagged on...the Vegemite.  Ughh...  Must be an acquired taste.  😜

Yeah, it is unredeemable.  I can’t say that all food in NZ is awesome, but they make good French fries.

[xpcdoojk]

55 minutes ago, island lady said:

 

Need to go back to south of France someday!! 🤗

 

Doing a B2B (hopefully by then) on Allure out of Barcelona Oct. 2022 before our TA.  Will be looking for that dish again.  Our pre-cruise hotel is right on the main harbor there...bet I will find a Spanish version of it close by.  😉 

We spent a week our last trip to Europe before our sailing from Barcelona, we drove up to Andorra, then spent a few nights in Provence, then in Monaco before heading back to Spain.  Lovely place, with really really good food everywhere!  

[xpcdoojk]

57 minutes ago, sgmn said:

Have you tried marmite, you either love it or hate it,  they even use that in their advertising 

Yep, hate.  

[island lady]

9 minutes ago, Sunshine3601 said:

Look for jones farm all natural turkey sausage links in frozen food section.  They are the best I have found.  

 

Thanks!  🙂 

[island lady]

6 minutes ago, xpcdoojk said:

Yeah, it is unredeemable.  I can’t say that all food in NZ is awesome, but they make good French fries.

 

I thought the Scones were the best!!  🤗

[island lady]

6 minutes ago, xpcdoojk said:

We spent a week our last trip to Europe before our sailing from Barcelona, we drove up to Andorra, then spent a few nights in Provence, then in Monaco before heading back to Spain.  Lovely place, with really really good food everywhere!  

 

Thanks!  Really bummed we lost out on our Allure B2B Med loops plus TA this last Fall...and our summer river cruise for this summer.  But...all rebooked again, and hoping they happen this time.  🙂 

 

Enjoyed several small boat river cruises in Europe in the past, and the Med cruises in the past, but it has been awhile.  

[clochette]

15 hours ago, dani negreanu said:

 

Personally, I wouldn't gag... Having lived in Brussels for 5 years, and traveling frequently to the Netherlands, I had my share of their excellent French fries with Mayo.

 

BTW, they serve mussels with a side of fries too.... I wish I was facing a big pot of mussels + fries right now 😁

 

it has to be fresh mayo homemade, not jar mayo, and it is the best on french fries so much better than ketchup

[xpcdoojk]

We have done two river cruises in 2014 and 2015 on Avalon.  Enjoyed them very much, they are just so horribly overpriced, considering how you can do and see more just driving around in a car.  Of course, our finish in 2015 in Paris and Versailles got kind of disrupted by the bombing and killings, and everything was shut down for the last 5 days there.  

 

Our last trip in 2018 we spent 3 nights in Avignon which is on the Rhône River, and they do River cruises thru there.  Lovely town.  Yummy food and wine and beautiful countryside and as a Tour de France fan, it was cool to see Mont Ventoux in the distance as it is one of the most famous climbs in the race.  

[bobmacliberty]

6 minutes ago, island lady said:

 

Thanks!  Really bummed we lost out on our Allure B2B Med loops plus TA this last Fall...and our summer river cruise for this summer.  But...all rebooked again, and hoping they happen this time.  🙂 

 

Enjoyed several small boat river cruises in Europe in the past, and the Med cruises in the past, but it has been awhile.  

 

We lost a 3 week Italy trip that included a 9 night Greek Isles cruise last September.  Still waiting until Italy gets closer to "normal" to rebook.  We've instead booked Alaska and Hawaii sort of B2B (3 days between to go from Seattle to Vancouver) next year.  We'll hang out in Hawaii for a while before flying home.  We love the Westin Maui on Ka'anapali but might give Wailea a try...or maybe Kuai or the Big Island (never been to either).  This is what I was really looking forward to in retirement before Covid, flexibility to travel when we want.