[12/29/2015 Tuesday]
Today we disembark for the first time, which means we have our first shore leave in the capital city of Santa Domingo in the Dominican Republic. Our stay lasts from 8am- 1:30pm, so only half a day. Since we are docking a little outside with the big ship, there will be a paid shuttle bus to take us into town.
So we get up early at 6:30 a.m. and eat breakfast in peace, at 8 a.m. we take the bus to the city.
We are in the oldest city in America, Christopher Columbus was its discoverer, there is a beautiful old town. We stroll through the alleys and shoot photos, so slowly awaken the people and stores open little by little, one is here already very adjusted to tourism by the cruisers.
The town is much more European than the small towns in Jamaica. There are many souvenir stands in the streets and we reach after some time the Independence Square. But we want to go a little further to the Palace of Uruguay to log our first cache in the “DomRep”, after a short search we find it then. It is noticeable that there are also many locals here who try their luck as cab drivers, but the cars are really in extremely poor condition.
On the way back we drink in a cafe “Cafe con Leche” thus coffee with milk and use the free WLAN, unfortunately, the owner keeps the password under lock and so I can upload with my tablet no new travel reports. In a supermarket we buy rum, coke and water, possibly we may not take the things on the ship, but we try it. In a store that offers freshly harvested cocoa, we try cocoa tea, cocoa beans and other very tasty things, we take the tea with us.
Slowly we stroll back and on a square I discover by chance the store of the Hard Rock Cafe, unfortunately many sizes are already out of stock, but I buy a T-shirt.
Around 1 pm we are back on the ship, our purchase has passed through the control. We go for lunch and watch the departure from the port. Since we have booked a bike tour through AIDA tomorrow, we pick up our bike helmets in the evening and play “Active Bingo” for the first time in our lives! This is surprisingly fun, there is a champagne or two, but otherwise we win nothing. In the room we drink another rum and coke and go to sleep around 11 pm.