Sept 3 Berlin, Germany

We passed on an excursion to Berlin today. They were very expensive and sounded tiresome as they involved travel time of 3 hours to get there and 3 hours to get back with 6 hours in Berlin a total of 12 hours or probably more off the ship. Originally we had planned to disembark and find something on our own but it wasn't possible as passengers without a visa were not allowed off the ship. This was the first time I ever encountered this. So we enjoyed the ship, ate a lot and rested even more. I checked out the wedding chapel and was a little disappointed as it seemed small and very plain. But of course this room is also used for AA meetings as well as a LGBT meeting place I think. Maybe my disappointment was because it was such a long walk from my cabin that I needed a nap afterwards! This is such a huge ship.
We dined in the Concerto dining room with two couples; one from Perth, Australia and the other from Florida. They were all interesting tablemates. I had a lovely dinner of crab dip and chips, leek soup and my entrée was seafood skewers with rice and veggies. For desert I ate a burned rhubarb square with mango sauce and afterwards we sat in the lower level of the atrium; the social heart of the ship called the Piazza and sipped mocktails. My fav was called Key West and it consisted of watermelon juice, cranberry juice, grapefruit juice, grenadine and topped off with club soda and garnished with a lemon or lime slice and sometimes mint, depending on the bar and bartender. We listened to a very good band and watched the passengers dancing. There was also a short show of street performers doing an acrobat routine. I then wasted $20. in the casino and cheered myself up with a dish of pecan crumble gelato. The ship departed at 8p.m. with the horn tooting a few bars of the Love Boat song as it does on every departure. We'll sail for two nights and a day now before we reach Tallinn, the capital city of Estonia.