San Juan

The kids did not sleep so well, and so we didn’t either. That’s the
trouble will everyone in one room. J was sort of waking up periodically
making noises, but then settling down. If he had been in his room at home
everything would have been fine. Anyways. After breakfast R decided
that she did not want to walk around town with us, she’d rather stay in
the kids club. Sigh. I wanted her to see the super cool fort and the
old city, but did I really want to drag a reluctant 6 year old along??
Nope. So she went to the kids club, J got in the hip carrier and we set
off. We waited for a while for a Trolley that was supposed to take us
around the old city, (it was free) but it took forever to come. You
should know that from the pier to the fort was a huge change in elevation, so we wanted a ride up, and to walk back. We walked up a short ways, then found a taxi. The traffic into the old city was jammed up. The driver was very crusty about this, and complained that when they put up the
Christmas lights, they shut down whole streets. Anyways. He went the
L-O-N-G way around and we finally arrived at Castillo de San Felipe del Morro.
We had been to this fortification before, I think on our first cruise. It
was just as beautiful. Gorgeous views of the island and the lower fort.
I have tons of pictures of course. We spent some time here exploring.
I must say my fear of heights is alive and well. Even with walls that are
6 feet deep, I still feel that awful jumpy feeling in my stomach when I get close to the edge. Coupled with that is a little light headedness.
Daddy and J went tromping around, while I was more cautious.
After exploring the casillo, we walked back through old San Juan to the ship. They are spending a lot of money restoring all the buildings. Most I’d say have had a facelift. But we did come across 2 where the inside structure had been torn down, and just the façade remained. I got some
cool pictures of the sky through these window frames. We popped into a
few shops “The best souvenier shop in San Juan” didn’t really live up to its name. We did however find 2 stores selling art by local artists. We bought a small piece of pottery. By this time it was getting quite hot,
and I was anxious to get back to R. We walked back, noting that the
“Westerdam” was berthed beside us (the Maasdam). We took the Westerdam on its 2nd sea voyage back in 2004 for our 10th anniversary. Fond memories!
Once back we went right for the Lido and cold water. It turns out R already had lunch in the kids club and was not interested in watching us eat. She told us to come back for her after lunch….so much for needing to
be worried about her. The afternoon she spent in the pool, and J had a
nice long nap. Late afternoon on the pool deck I talked to the mother of
M, a little girl she loves being with. It turns out her husband is the doctor on board! (I saw him our first day of the cruise for pink eye,
which is thankfully gone, and no one else got). They live in Vancouver,
but are originally from South Africa. I must say I like these smaller ships with fewer kids. R finds it easy enough to make friends, and since there are not that many kids, she seems to get to know these kids better and loves playing with them.
At supper we were once again entertained by the string quartet in the balcony above us. Both of the kids enjoyed the music. R recognized many of the songs (from Carmen, Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, the Sugar plum fairy from the Nutcracker) I am proud to say. We clapped enthusiastically for
them. After as usual R went to the kids club and I went back to the room
to put J to bed. I just hear the engines starting now, we are due to leave in a few minutes.
UPDATE: here are some pictures

Daddy (with J) went down this huge staircase to the lower level. I didn’t want to do that with my knee. Here is a view from the bottom.

So while they were down below, I found some super cool look out spots from above that gave me some spectacular shots. Here you can see the cannon runs clearly.


After exploring the castle, we walked back to the ship through the streets of Old San Juan.