Sleep7

Now where was I? Ahh.. here I am.😊 Back on the ship we enjoyed our final Happy Hour and a goodbye toast to the passengers who were leaving the next day. Of the 120 people on board around 40 were leaving which meant that 80 were staying to enjoy another week on the Imagery II heading back north and ending in Amsterdam the following Sunday. Lucky them.. I am rarely jealous but I wished we could have stayed. Sam's gotta go back to work.. another trip needs to be planned.. Here is the menu for our last supper. As per usual I ordered the steak well done and as per usual it was extremely "well done."👏

👋Hi Lois R! Thank you for your sweet post and thank you for sharing last week's adventure with me!😊

👋Helloooo notamermaid!! 😊Of course I remember you from the river cruise board all those years ago. You had commented that you were surprised and happy the ship included Mendig as an excursion. I'm very touched by your compliments! It really means a lot. So glad you are enjoying it!😊

Oh! And we did spot some more tulips in a Spar Express small supermarket.🌷

These daffodils saved us! When we got off the shuttle bus our daughter called and we were chatting with her as we were walking and NOT paying any attention to where the bus dropped us off and where it would it be picking us up later.😮 We walked and talked and then realized we really didn't remember where the bus stop was and Sam thought he dropped a pin there was the pin was to the ship not the stop. We realized later that the daily planner did have the address of the location but it was a hairy 15 minutes trying to retrace our steps to where we were dropped off. And then we rounded a corner.. saw a big church and then these daffodils and we knew we were close! Whew!

After lunch Avalon ran a shuttle back into town if you wanted to spend some more time there. Oui!

Then a short city tour on the bus and back to the ship for lunch. Brussels is a city I would love to come back to as we really just scratched the surface of what to do and see. It's on my list now.📝

First we decorated chocolate bars. Then we "freeformed" our own designs.

Elisabetta explained all about the chocolate making process and all of the amateur chocolatiers went to work.

Promptly at 10am we entered the chocolate shop. I learned 2 things that day.. chocolate making is super fun and NOBODY looks good in a hairnet!

She also pointed out this beautiful building nearby that was constructed mostly out of glass because it used to house a silk and fine materials market. It was all windows because you needed the light to really examine what the merchants were selling. Interesting!

The shipped was docked about a 20 minute bus ride into town. We were dropped off in a square that looked just like the center of Vienna. Our tour guide then said that the bureaucrat (can't remember exactly who it was) loved all things Viennese and he ordered the buildings there to look just like the ones in Vienna.

Anyways.. back to Brussels! Another 50 shades of gray rainy day but we enjoyed it to the fullest as it was our last on the cruise. We chose the included chocolate making class excursion and it was awesome!!

😊I keep making the same "If it's Tuesday.. " joke. Just looked up the movie.. I remember seeing it in 1969 as a kid with my parents. So weird about the "Vaccinated Americans" abroad. Foreshadowing to 51 years ahead.😷

If it's Saturday it must be Brussels.😉

Disembarkation instructions were waiting in our cabin after dinner. Parting will be such sweet sorrow.. tomorrow.. 😢

Everything was delicious.😋

Even though it was the second to last evening on board.. tonight was the Gala Dinner!! We were dressed and ready!

50 shades of brooding gray clouds and a nuclear power plant which is always an odd sight to see.

🌈Once back on board we could appreciate a positive aspect of "changeable" skies.. The most glorious rainbows!!🌈

A quick lunch and then we zipped back to the meeting point for the bus going back to the ship.

A great gift shop too!

More from the Diamond Museum.

💍Ahaaaa!! The real reason I wanted to stay longer in Antwerp.. the DIVA Diamond Museum!! As a jewelry lover this is my Louvre.😍 12 Euros to enter.. so interesting and so glad we had a chance to visit. There is a branch in Brussels too.

👋Hi Sharkster! Yes.. Keukenhof only opened this year on March 23rd and our cruise sailed from Amsterdam on March 19th. Seems that the timing of the tulips blooming is different each year depending upon the weather. If February and the beginning of March is particularly chilly then tulips bloom later than average and last longer. Conversely if the beginning of March is unusually warm they bloom sooner and then die earlier. Our cruise was the first cruise of the season (after a cold spell) so we didn't end up getting to see the tulips at Keukenhof. A slight disappointment but the week was so wonderful that it was VERY soon forgotten. So for anyone booking this cruise and tulips are super important to them they should try and take it in April. That is prime time and you are pretty much guaranteed of seeing the tulips in all their glory.🌷 It's interesting.. I would say that 2/3 of the passengers were actually staying on board for the following week which ended back in Amsterdam and then a tour to Keukenhof was offered on the last day once back in Amsterdam.😊