Table 78

On the first night of our cruise we followed directions and went to our assigned table, Table 78 at 8:00pm.  It is a table for 6 in the center of the room and a couple that had already been seated were speaking German to one another.  They looked a little older than Ann and me but it is hard to tell. Otfrid and Erika are from near Munich and they shared that they were language teachers, but that English was not one they had learned, nor was Spanish.  They specialized in Eastern European and Slavic languages and even Arabic.

And then her son went to Spain to study theology and fell in love and married a Spanish woman in Malaga.  Now they had the need to learn Spanish and, from traveling elsewhere, felt the need to become more fluent in English. Which made them perfect table mates for us.  We are interested in Germany and Eastern Europe as well. It turns out that they were older than they appeared to me, in their 80s and still traveling the world.

But we still had two empty chairs at the table …

Enter Cynthia and Jesus from the Tampa area, both Spanish language teachers of professionals working in bilingual populations.  They arrived a few minutes after we had and joined right into the language discussion. And they both had walked the Camino more than once - Jesus had completed six walks over the years! Jesus was from Galicia, now a US citizen and has been working in the US for many years. He commented that walking the Camino helped him maintain connection to his home country and he is one of the few people who knew exactly where we are moving to and remembered it warmly.

Just another example that reinforces Einstein’s reported statement that “Coincidence is God’s way of remaining anonymous.” (I know he likely never said that, but it is so good!)

We are getting along fine on the cruise, slept well, found everything we needed, went into Key West, our first port of call, and got back onto the ship. Key West is lovely and there is a lot to see, eat, drink and hear. We took the trolley tour and spend some time in the Mel Fisher Treasure Museum which tells the story of a man who woke up every day and said “Today is the Day” while searching for the sunken remains of a Spanish ship loaded with silver, gold and more.  Perhaps we will have another chance to spend more time here in the future.

I suspect that this will be my last post for a week or so. Next stop is in the Canary Islands. Thank you for joining us along the way ...

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The Other Jew today is Arlo Haskell who wrote The Jews of Key West: Smugglers, Cigar Makers, and Revolutionaries (1823-1969), an entertaining and authoritative account of Key West’s Jewish community.