Wednesday, April 2
Today is our 32nd Wedding Anniversary and we have booked in to a special dinner where the 3 Michelin Star Restaurant "De Librije" comes to Holland America in their premium restaurant "The Pinnacle Grill" so we are really looking forward to that. We are also enjoying winding our clocks back an hour each night. It makes such a difference after fitting in dinner, shows, piano bar, drinks with new friends etc to get back to our cabin and voila - it's an hour earlier.
We love days at sea because they are so relaxing. We started by meeting our Canadian friends for breakfast in the dining room. This was followed by a laze around the pool and some cooling off laps before making our way to lunch. We then attended a lecture on Colombo, Goa and Mumbai - our next ports of call. We would have to say that we were not particularly looking forward to any of these ports but the lecture was terrific and we are now approaching them with a more open mind and even thinking we will enjoy them. (Ha ha we hear you say Brian & Jenny - and we do have to admit that when we received all the Indian Immmigration forms last night, we did think of your "Indian experience")
Noelle also had an interesting encounter in the lift when she ran into Tom & Kay Cook, the owners of her last place of employment, Thomas Cook Boot & Clothing. She had not seen them for 6 years and now everywhere we go we are running into them. It's such a small world.
We have now returned after the most amazing dinner. The Pinnacle Grill on the Rotterdam is absolutely beautiful in an old world style and the service was excellent with all the waiting staff dressed In The De Librije Restaurant uniforms. The food was unbelievable and we experienced all the techniques we have seen on "Master Chef" like the foam, deconstructed dishes, etc. Most of the flavours were so unusual but so intense. We were really blown away by the whole experience. When our coffees arrived, they were accompanied by a gorgeous "Anniversary Cake" courtesy of Holland America but we were so full we had to ask them to keep it for us to have tomorrow. It was truly an anniversary to remember for a long time to come.
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Alan,
ReplyDeleteExceedingly jealous of what appears to be a fantastic trip, and glad to hear you're enjoying it so much. It is indeed a small world, because Tom Cook is my wife's best friend's cousin. Rochelle Watt (nee Osborne) managed their Sydney store some years ago.
All the best, adventurers
Peter Poole
Hi Peter, apologies for the tardy reply but I only picked up your comment today! I'm still getting used to the iPad and this blog site. It is indeed a small world, as Noelle remembers visiting Rochelle on one of our trips to Sydney many years ago. Hope all is well with you and your family.
DeleteAll the best.