Friday, April 22, 2016
Slept a little later than we wanted as we slept through the alarm. Rushed off to breakfast and made it in time for our course at the Culinary Center for today’s lesson “Global Gourmet” beginning with Middle East and made roasted garlic hummus, then Greek, watermelon, tomato, feta and basil salad, then Spain for prosciutto wrapped around Cabrales cheese and a mix of dried cherries, olive oil, walnuts, sherry and cream. Next for Italy was penne al Michelangelo made with sausage, shallots, garlic, wine, spices, red pepper flakes and heavy cream for the sauce then the partially cooked penne pasta is added to the skillet for finishing and served immediately with Parmesan cheese. Our final recipe was from Sweden where we made Gotland saffron pancakes (crepes) kicked up with saffron and served with salted caramel ice cream (we did not make this). Very informative chef instructor, Annie Copps, who obviously enjoys cooking and teaching, from Boston and studied under Jacques Pepin and worked under Julia Child and Todd English. These culinary courses are designed to help you better appreciate the cuisines of the world, and to explore spices, cooking techniques, ingredients, vessels and preparation of foods from around the world. Since we ate what we cooked we did not need any lunch so we had a glass of wine on the pool deck and decided a nap was in order. About 5:30 we went to the Horizons Bar for happy hour. Dinner tonight at Polo Grill where we really enjoyed the fare. Iris had New England clam chowder while Bob had oysters Rockefeller followed by a filet mignon for each of us, excellent, then creme brûlée for Bob and 7-layer Belgian chocolate cake for Iris. Yum! To bed early.
Saturday, April 23, 2016
Slept later than usual, did the laundry, made it to breakfast before closing at 10:00 AM, back to the room for packing for Iris, rest for Bob, up to the deck for a milk shake at 1:00 PM then ready for our 2:30 tour of Gibraltar with it’s 30,000 residents sharing the border with Spain. Gibraltar has unemployment of 2%, the Spanish town just across the border has 40% so lots of Spanish cross the border every day to work. The airport (very short runway) causes the road to the border to be closed when a plane is arriving or departing as the road runs across the runway. We had great views of “The Rock” from both sides during our bus tour to the Southernmost point in Europe where we had a good view of Morocco, the mosque built by a Saudi prince placed almost at the closest point to Morocco, the Christian church nearby (but not as elaborate as the mosque). We then drove to the Rock Hotel, very old English owned hotel where we had tapas and sangria before heading back to our ship. These were not Spanish tapas but English ones. Nice tour! Drinks at Martini Bar followed by a snack for dinner in the Terrace Cafe as we were full of tapas. Early to bed as tomorrow is packing in ernest.
Sunday, April 24, 2016
Lecture this morning about Barcelona so we would have some ideas about what we will see tomorrow. Iris finished most of the packing except for the few items we need for our last morning as the bags have to be out by 10:30 PM. Had dinner with Jacques and Diane in the Main Dining Room, our first trip there in 2 weeks, nice folks and enjoyed the food and conversation. To bed early.
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