Tauck cruise begins

On Sunday, a mid-afternoon bus ride brought us to the M.S. Grace and we will spend the next 8 nights here. Ship is quite narrow but long- 133 meters! Appears this trip is close to sold out with 125 or so guests. As we were checking in we made the acquaintance of - guess who? - Doug and Nancy from Colorado! Will try to get a pic of the 4 of us at some point. We're one of 2 Canadian couples, two couples from the U.K. and the remainder are American. 
We had our first dinner with a very pleasant couple from Chicago. After introductions, he immediately began apologizing for the current political situation. Gesture appreciated but we said let's drop it and just enjoy the experience. Dinner last night was with another very nice couple from Buffalo. Wisely, they steered clear of politics and religion; for our part, we don't bring up the Trump subject. We'll do an afternoon beer tour with them today.
There are 7 classes of cabin on this ship and, although we're in the 2nd highest, it's still quite snug!
Food is ok - i don't think we've been wowed at all but it's early going. Tauck has looked after everything! Just show up. Guides have been quite good. 
We're in Antwerp now and have just completed a morning walking tour of the old town. Very charming!
Reubens is their favorite son. I had no idea of his output of around 2000 works although many were worked on by his students.
To be continued.....

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