APRIL 11, 2008, CONTINUED…

CIVITAVECCIA: It was sprinkling most of the morning but I walked along the waterfront and into the town, almost all of it old city, which is what civitaveccia means. There are lots of nooks and crannies to walk through; upscale and ordinary shops. I was actually looking for a market to buy some diet Cokes; this kind’ve gave me a goal for my wanderings. I found McDonald’s and decided to try it since it was handy. I ordered a large diet Coke; what I got was about the size of our medium cups, no ice but the drink itself was cold, and it cost 2 euros, 20 cents. The current exchange rate is about 1.57 USD per euro so it’s an expensive drink in any event even without considering the volume. So the Cokes on the ship are now cheaper than those on shore.
I ran into a huge open air market and you could find almost anything there. One section for fresh fish, butcher products was another, kids clothes, adult clothes, flowers, fruits, vegetables; everything except diet Cokes. The rain varied but never became a deluge; the jacket I wore has a lining and a hood so I was fine but humid. The temp was in the 60s I imagine. Eventually I went back to the ship and found Ed in the Buffet where I also had some fruits and salad, after which we went down to get on the tour bus for our afternoon tour. Just as we were going to the bus, the sunshine came out and we had no rain during the tour even though it returned to the ship’s location later in the afternoon.
MEDIEVAL HILLS AND OLIVE OIL: We explored a city, Tuscania, which was founded by the ancient Etruscans (that’s redundant isn’t it?). It is in the Maremma region for those of you with maps and dates back to the 9th century bC. An earthquake destroyed parts of it in 1971, but they have been restored and still reflect the Etruscan history. We also looked around an ancient site: Tarquinia.
In the countryside, we visited a family owned farm where olives and vegetables are grown, sheep ad beef cattle are free ranged. The owner took us to an olive tree and explained how olive oil is made. After this, we went into a building where tables were laid out with pecorino cheese (from sheep), prosciutto, 3 aromatic olive oils, bruschetta, red wine, and artichoke hearts in olive oil. Ed bought a small metal canister with some of their wines.
Along the way we saw lots of gorgeous countryside. It is the beginning of spring here and everything is some shade of green. There are fields of durham wheat, artichokes, and many other crops. For Nancy’s benefit, this was near the road we took to Orvieto.
When we got back, we finally got through to Lisa on the phone to catch up on events. She asked about the laundry room and we confessed that we have to endure one more run at it before we return home.
DINNER: We came late to the table had 4 folks from an adjacent table at our table with Dave and Twyla; our tables share the same wait staff. The couples all play trivia but on different teams. We started visiting when Bill arrived so the guests returned to their table. We talked about the various sites we’d seen today (Dave and Twyla went to Rome and saw the Colleseum and St. Peter’s Basilica. We talked about various sites in Italy that one or another of us had seen.
We have a new captain on board and he came on to announce that one of the tour busses was stuck in Rome traffic and wouldn’t arrive until 6:45 p (we were us to leave at 6 pm). So later he let us know that the bus had arrived and we were on our way. That is the advantage of booking your tours through the ship: if you tour is late for some reason, the ship will wait for it. If you go independently and are late, you have to fly to the next port to meet the ship after finding a place to stay overnight. It only takes one time like that to make up for the money you saved by booking on your own. If you’ve got a lot of money, I suppose it doesn’t matter.
CLEAN UP: I will download the photos from these two days tonite so that things don’t get too far behind. And recharge the batteries. One corner of the cabin looks like an electronics display only not nearly as neatly organized.
I asked the cabin steward for two additional pillows so I can elevate my feet at night. These long bus rides result in a lot of swelling and tingling around my ankles and lower legs so I need to address it in some way. I can’t use diuretics because of my arm; I prefer trying the simple things first anyway. My tennis shoes are large enough that I don’t have any problems with getting my shoes on and off.
TOMORROW CANNES, FRANCE. We have scheduled a tour of an old medieval town (do you see a pattern here?) that will take about 4 hrs., then the rest of the day we can just roam the streets. We’ve been through Cannes before but never stopped in it.

APRIL 11, 2008 – CIVITAVECCHIA

We were awakened by the sounds of the ship’s routine into the berth. This port serves Rome and many of the passengers were off to tours in Rome. We have one this afternoon to parts of Tuscany.
Ed got up first and went through his ritual with the drugs then went off to exercise. I’ll upload this blog and then go into Civitavecchia to see what there is to see and return for lunch. It is overcast and chilly outside with a light mist. There are 3 cruise ships in port that I can see besides ours. I can already hear the scraping of the paint on our side of the ship. They are in constant motion keeping the ship up to shape. When we are in port, they really work hard.

APRIL 10, 2008 – AMALFI COAST

The alarm rang at 6:30 am but it wasn’t a welcomed sound even though I had turned down the volume. I had awakened earlier and never really got back to sleep. Since my regular watch is losing time, I am no longer able to turn on it’s backlight to see what time it is when I wake up in the night.
I got ready first while Ed greeted the room service fellow with our nibbles. We were in the Cabaret Lounge by 8 am as we were directed. It took a little longer to get the ship cleared by the local authorities but eventually we went to the tender for the trip to the pier in Sorrento. As they boarded a wheelchair onto the tender, I recalled our conversation the other night about how many back injuries the staff sustain helping disabled passengers onto and off the ship. The swells were 3-4 ft. and so it requires that they give us their hands as we transfer onto the tender but many of these folks require much more assistance.
AMALFI COAST TRIP: It’s everything you’ve heard and more. We had plenty of seating to choose from; there were 20 of us on a bus that holds around 50. I try to get on the side opposite the driver so I’m on the sidewalk side. However, on this trip, it meant that I was frequently looking a few thousand feet straight down to rocks and broiling sea. The habitats look like someone glued them onto the side of these steep cliffs. At one point I saw an old retaining wall about half way down the side of a cliff. The only possible way to get there would be by rapelling!
The weather was in the 60s which suited me just fine; the locals had jackets on. It was overcast and when we got back to the ship, a few sprinkles arrived. We had Patrick, the drummer in the band, with our bus. He’s a talented musician and a fun young man. We had fun talking with him during lunch.
The tour took us through lots of towns you’ve heard of. On the tender ride back to the ship, I sat next to a man who was a US soldier who landed at Salerno in 1943. We talked a little and I asked him some question (I can’t recall what it was at the moment) and he started tearing up. I started tearing up as did his wife. He was between the two of us and we both hugged him. The wife gave the man and me a tissue to wipe the tears. We wound up laughing that someone would ask us how we enjoyed our tour and we’d say it was marvelous as we dabbed at the tears rushing down our cheeks. This was his first visit back here since the war. Later he told me a few things and his wife said this was the first time she’d heard these things. As many of you know, there’s a special place in my heart for these WWII vets.
AMALFI CENTER: We had about 45 min. to walk around this cute little city center. There is a large and absolutely stunning cathedral in the middle. I would love to have toured it but there wasn’t enough time. We found a restroom and a diet Coke, in that order, and then just looked and walked. I got some great candid shots of these old streets. Ed picked up some spice packets.
LUNCH: We were in a restaurant in Mayori (not the right spelling I’m sure; my Latin and Spanish helps me a little with some Italian; I wouldn’t starve in other words). We had a local red wine, sparkling white wine, and still water. We started with cannelloni stuffed with ricotta cheese and spinach. Mmmm good. Then we had chicken breast with Parmesan cheese, peas and onions. The breads included really thin bread sticks, Ed’s favorite, and a healthy, and delicious, hard roll. For dessert we had an egg custard with a caramel sauce. I’ve probably forgotten something but I cleaned my plate and we finished all the wine among the 4 of us (we were joined by an older gentleman named Charles.
The wisteria were blooming everywhere and the lavender color was a delight along with bright yellow and red flowers. Speaking of yellow: this is lemoncello country and the lemons grow to be the size of cantelope and larger. The peel is used to make this local liquer which is exported all over the world. And be forewarned (we had it at supper on the ship), it is a high proof liquor. Wooo wee.
MT. VESUVIUS: You can often see it and it’s easily recognizable. It has little wiffs of smoke from the top. As you probably know, it is studied by volcanoligists daily.
DROP OFF: We were dropped off in the city center of Sorrento to wait for the shuttle bus; the streets are too narrow for anything larger. Sandy, another passenger and I, decided to walk down the stairs. We’re talking steep and several hundred if not over a thousand feet. We found the 4 flags to which we were directed. There a man pointed us in the direction of this nondescript set of stairs so off we went. There were several decision points as the trajectory of the stairs changed but we made the right choices and found ourselves at the bottom where there was a hairpin curve and lots of tall, walls made out of clearly old stones. We soldiered on and pretty soon we saw one of the shuttle busses coming from the other direction so we knew we were on the right path. Quickly enough, the tender was seen at the pier which rises out of nowhere.
One tender left just as we arrived and the final tender of the day was on its way to pick up the “left overs” as this was to be the last tender of the day. So back on board.
GOLDEN RITA: Ed wanted to go up to the Pacific Lounge to watch the “sail away” and have a blended margarita. These margaritas come in gallon size (I am exaggerating but…) upside down pyramid gigantic stemmed glasses. He picked a seat at the front of this Lounge looking out over the front of the ship. My seat had a tremendous view of the enormous snake plant next to the line of sight, just beyond the window were several struts and other supports for the ship, and just beyond that was the wind break for the spa on the deck below. And oh yes, in the far distance I could just make out that there was a bow on the ship and something blue beyond. Clearly I wasn’t understanding the charm of this location, so I asked Ed to change seats with me. Not much improvement I’m afraid. I tried to crane my neck to see out the side windows of the lounge and as you may expect, that had its own set of problems. Just between you and I, I could have enjoyed a better view with less hassle from our balcony.
But I think I have it figured out. It wasn’t really the view of the “sail away” that was his interest. It was the woman singer backed by this grammy winning musician. They really are both quite good but…
SUPPER: We met Erna and Hank on the way to supper. They had gone on the farm tour with Dave and Twyla who were waiting for us at the table. Erna and Hank said they had eaten too much already today and wouldn’t be joining us for dessert. Twyla remarked that she was hungry as they had only eaten samples everywhere though they did have a great trip and thoroughly enjoyed the farm.
Dave bought himself a bib with bottles of wine on it and he proudly wore it through supper. Our head waiter gave us an up close and personal appraisal of the value of the various wines shown on the bib.
It seems that Mauritzio, the head waiter, had been so excited to get back to Italy. He had talked about it for days. So as soon as he could, he went on shore. As you leave the ship, there is a sign alerting everyone to the next port of call, the time of the last tender, and at the bottom the time the crew must be on board which is always about an hour before the last tender. Somehow Mauritzio hadn’t picked up this little bit of information in his zeal to be back on the soil of the motherland. So when he came on board and stuck his cruise card into the machine, the ghurka guards took his credentials from him (which effectively means he cannot get off the ship again until the Captain gives him permission). He was stunned and wanted to know why they were taking his papers away from him: he was 1 hr and 5 minutes late returning to the ship. It’s a funny story as much because the staff farther down the food chain are usually the ones who get busted.
LEMONCELLO: Since we had not had lemoncello, we decided to take advantage of the ship’s special tonite of lemoncello in a small glass with a cute bottom to it. This was $5.25 and you couldn’t buy the glass for that much less the whole megillah. I expected some sickeningly sweet, watered down version of the real thing. Oh no, this stuff would start a bonfire if you lit it with a match. Is there something above 100 proof? If so, that’s what this is. so I’ve now tasted it, and that’s enough drinking today to last me for a long while yet.
COMEDIAN: We had asked Patrick about the show tonite as we were ambivalent about going. He told us a little about it and we decided to go. This guy, (web site –I think—is ComedianJimMcDonald.com) is good looking in the Rob Lowe sort of way. He kept us entertained for the hour and had created a very eclectic show that included slide shows at various times and some props now and then. Several of the ladies were cackling more than I was so that’ll give you and idea of how the crowd received him.
NEW CAPTAIN: Fr. Austin and Capt. Lupo leave us tomorrow.
CIVITAVECCHIA: I have the pronunciation from real Italians: cheh-vit-a-vek-kee-ah. We berth at 7 am and leave at 6 pm. Our tour isn’t until 2 pm in the afternoon and we are supposed to tour Tuscania. I hope to get some window shopping done in the morning.

APRIL 9, 2008 – SORRENTO TOMORROW

The 7:30 am alarm wasn’t welcomed but I finally rolled out at 8 am and got ready. Ed went to breakfast and met me at the lecture later.
PORT TALK: SORRENTO: This was interesting to me for several reasons. Not until I heard this talk did I have a sense of the relationships among Capri, Naples and Sorrento. This is a tender port and the boat shuttle ride is 20 min. which seems longer than I would have expected. We have signed up for a tour along the Amalfi Coast and that will take up all the time in port. The speaker does a satisfactory job but it is pretty much by the book except for a few spontaneous questions where he is much more spontaneous.
COOKING AROUND THE WORLD: Yesterday the Commandatore personally delivered our certificates and the cookbook with recipes from the passengers. As it turned out, our book had 2 blank pages so we got another. I had many folks autograph their recipes and that started the idea for others. It was kind’ve fun actually.
He did two recipes today and a dessert from the cookbook we bought. This was his last denmonstration and we have, by now, become accustomed to the usual: salt shaker that doesn’t work, dials on the burners that he can’t make work right, and the hoo yah expression when something is hot.
YACHTIES & KNOTIES UNITE! This was an interview and Q&A with Phyllis and Ralph about their 6 yr sailing experiences on their 50 ft. ketch over 45,000 miles throughout the So. Pacific. This was very interesting as you may expect and we had been looking forward to it but I left before it was over for Trivia.
TRIVIA: Only Mary, Sid, Ed and I. Bill stayed to the end of the interview and we never knew what happened with Elizabeth. So we soldiered on, just the 4 of us. We did ourselves well but two other groups (full 6 complement I might add) tied and so it required a tie breaker question. The prizes were passport holders today.
Elizabeth came as we were ending and told us she didn’t want to play anymore. Apparently there was some kind of temper tantrum in the group while we were gone and it’s no fun she said. I know enough about the individuals mentioned to have some idea of what happened. While we were sitting there, another group asked if the 4 of us would join them this afternoon as 4 of their members weren’t going to show; we said yes, of course. Mary leaves us in Rome so there will be several shortages among us. I asked Sandy if she and Berk would be interested in joining us but she declined; they may show up sometime and if there’s an opening in a group, they’ll play with that group. That’s too bad; Sandy and Berk are great team additions and we’ve always enjoyed playing with them.
LUNCH: I went to the buffet so I cold have salad and fruit. I guess we’re running low on fruits as only cantelope and honeydew were the only offerings. Then of course there was the cookie (raisin oatmeal) to top it off. So no cookie at 3 pm today. We visited with a couple from Seattle and discussed the housing situation and Boeing’s impact on that area.
SPECIAL NOTE TO AMY: You have no idea how much I am going to appreciate my next haircut with you. My bangs are past pupil level by now.
NEWS: We got CNN for about 10 minutes just now, then no signal. Forget the BBC and the newspapers were stopped in the library on 4/1 with the note that we would be getting the BBC News as of that date. We all think it was an April Fool’s joke on us.
I was looking at the International Herald Tribune in the Cabaret Lounge before the speakers today and one lady in an excited voice said: “Is that an English newspaper!” Then Phyllis came along and stood looking dumbstruck quickly followed by the look of someone who’s been starving when they first see food again. However, I don’t know when I’ll have time to quietly savor it. The first part is the general world news by the way with an insert in English which contains only Greek news. Pretty clever.
NEGOTIATING IN FOREIGN CULTURES: this was most interesting. Ambassador Fritts described the model used by the Russians during negotiations: like a game of chess. The Japanese and others don’t want explicity language, nor often do they want them in writing. They prefer words like “best effort” and “work toward”. Americans want instant gratification and that’s not what the rest of world works on. In many countries, they are taught from a young age to lie and he outlined how this came to be the survival tactic in that culture. He gave an example where LBJ made a major faux paux by having a private conversation with the Japanese Prime Minister with only the Japanese translator. LBJ’s understanding of what was decided at this private meeting was different than the Japanese’s version. It could have been avoided if LBJ had done things through the experienced and knowledgable people in the State Dept. had aided him and certainly he should have had his own translator with him as well; you never rely on the translator from the other country.
DISASTER AT THE OPERA: We were laughing so hard we couldn’t breathe. He described the story where Tosca jumps off the ramparts; the stage hands were to put several mattresses on the other side for Tosca to fall into. The stage hands were angry with the diva and put a trampoline there instead. Another was a performance of Aida where an elephant crapped as it went across the stage. Someone said something to the effect: Terrible manners, great criticism. There were more. And the way he describes things, even when innocuous, is hilarious. He’s Irish after all.
TRIVIA: We joined the group who calls themselves the something birds. Well we joined two of their six members; the other four had another obligation. We were invited for this session as I described in the morning. When I sat down, one member gave me the “rules” and how this group does things. Fine with me; I liked them all. So anyway, Ed, Mary, Sid and I did our bit. It was a fun experience and very cooperative without the anxiety we’ve often had in our regular group. And we WON! And we won by 2 points! Our reward was can covers and one of the group gave me his as he has plenty. I told him it wouldn’t go to waste.
FORMAL NIGHT: Yuk, but we got dressed up anyway. We were all there except Bill and Lea. It was fun with our usual wide ranging discussions. I had given Hank and Erna some papyrus pages and he put our names in hieroglyphics on one of the pages and gave it to us as a thank you. It had his name in hieroglyphics too! I love this kind of spontaneous, unique gift.
ENTERTAINMENT: We didn’t do this. I got into my sleeping gear and finished some stuff that had been waiting for me. We’re still tired. Ed went to listen to some music after he finished some emails he “had” to get out.

APRIL 8, 2008 – ATHENS

We woke up at 7am and room service arrived at 7:30 am. Our tour gathered at 9:10 and we were off soon after. We sailed into the harbor of Pireas which is about 20 min on the expressway into Athens. We had to take a shuttle from the ship to the port entry. The shuttle busses are the widest I’ve ever seen and they’d take up more than one lane on a highway. Surely they’re only used inside the port.
I can’t pronounce, much less spell, the name of our tour guide but she sure looked Grecian. The motorcoaches we were all on today were very well appointed and like almost all of our drivers, today’s driver was very careful but not a slow poke. The two cities are continguous one with the other, just like LA. This was a pretty rigorous 8 hr tour. They tell you several times that there are 80 steps to the top of the Acropolis, and that’s not counting the other steps through the tiny streets of the Plaka and other sites we saw.
First we went to the National Archeological Museum, a large structure filled with visitors of all ages including school kids. Some of the latter had little workbooks where they had to draw things and write notes. This certainly helped focus them. The guide had provided us with something new they were trying out. We were given a receiver, roughly the size of a cell phone today, and a single ear bud. The guide talks into a collar mike and you can hear her without shouting over the other noise in each room. This wasn’t perfect but it was a lot better than we’ve experienced elsewhere. There were lots of interesting statues here and what enhanced your appreciation of them was a discussion of how they were made, the culture when they were created, the changes the sculpturers began to incorporate as they gained more knowledge and skill in working with the various media, first stone, then bronzes of the lost wax method. Further, she told us how and where many of them were found, what it entailed to get them into the museum and caring for them. As you may expect, we only got a taste of what this museum holds before we were onto our next site.m
ACROPOLIS: The weather today is perfect for this, around 70 F. So you still work up a sweat but it’s not a killer and on top of the hills, one can sometimes enjoy a breeze. There is scaffolding and renovations everywhere here. She explained how the repairs are being done and that the marble shows up as white now but will become the same patina as the older pieces with time. There’s a temple to the virgins on this hill as well and stadia you can see from the top of the hill that were amphitheatres in old days. The 80 steps didn’t include the flat walking at an upward incline. Like many cities, Athens is on several hills and so the top of this one gives you a good view of the whole city. Also like many metropolitan areas, it suffers from smog, and at this day, some of the blowing sand from the hamseem Egypt is enduring.
LUNCH: We left the exit for the Acropolis and walked down some narrow paths and streets in an older part of Athens. This was fun as you might expect and it led us to our restaurant. Ed and I disagree on it’s name but we do agree that one named after Sisyphis (spelled and pronounced differently here in Greece of course) was right in the immediate area.
We had a wonderful, huge Greek luncheon with local wine (probably a blush of some kind: we couldn’t read the Greek as you know), a great tomato, feta cheese, olive, red onion, cucumber, and olive oil salad. There was hummus and tehina though they tasted different but still delicious. We had this with large slices of crusty bread. We had a meatball, probably of lamb, beef in gravy, moussaka, spanikopita…I think that’s everything. For dessert there was a unique type of ice cream.
LA PLAKA: After we rolled out of the restaurant, we again walked many tiny old streets. The guide gave us our meeting place and we were off for an hour of just wandering around. I got a red hat for my activities and Ed found a Greek fisherman’s hat that fit him! And he liked the way it looked so he got one for himself. Other than 2 diet Cokes and a copy of the International Herald-Tribune, that’s all we bought and we managed to get Euros through a roundabout method too long to recount here. On the way back to the bus, I picked up the latest issue of the Economist (waayy expensive here by the way) and got more change in Euros from a reluctant vendor.
OLD OLYMPIC STADIUM: On the way back to the ship, we stopped here for a photo op. This stadium was rebuilt recently to it’s ancient glory and holds 72 thousand (you read it right) people on it’s all marble steps; the Hollywood Bowl only holds 28 K. This is the same stadium where the eternal flame was started on it’s way recently toward Beijing.
Along the way we saw the Greek Parliament building, Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Hadrian’s Arch, Statues of Lord Byron and Harry Truman (remember the Marshall Plan?), the Temple of the Olympian Zeus, Constitutional Square, the National Gardens, the Academy and University Library.
We got back to the ship about 5:40 p and the ship left at 6 pm.
SUPPER: Twyla and Dave were already there when we got there late. We talked about the various sites we had seen in Athens and the entries in the photo contest. Suddenly Hank and Erna showed up for dessert. We had so much fun and again we were the last ones out of the dining room.
TONITE’S ENTERTAINMENT: Ed had warned me that he wanted to watch the basketball game tonite at 8 pm; you know it’s important to him when he’ll miss the entertainment elsewhere on the ship. So I’m going to try to catch up with all the blogs.
Tomorrow the lectures begin at 9 am so I have to get up early; we are all still tired from the overland and the sleep deprivation. People are tired so it’s good that tomorrow is another sea day.
Apparently Frankie had a very successful white elephant sale while we were on the overland and we’ve asked for another one. This is for folks to auction off their buyer’s regret purchases and donate the money to their favorite charity. One small quilt that a woman bought for $10 went for $150 to the Cancer Society.

APRIL 7, 2008, CONTINUED…

DINNER WITH THE SHIP’S PHYSICIAN: Nikolas and Ursula hosted us along with Jason (of this morning’s trivia) and his wife Jennifer. They are from New Zealand, while the MD and his wife are from Germany. This was quite fun and we never lacked for things to talk about; again we were the last to leave the dining room. There was a discussion of the disabilities folks have on the ship and whether they should be allowed to go on many of these tours. Also how the staff are expected to lift and carry many of these folks up and down ramps, onto tenders and such. It’s not an official part of their job descriptions and many suffer long term injuries in the process.
And the laundry room was a long discussion with lots of laughs and “omigod”. And to clear up the rumor mill: there have been no deaths on this voyage: repeat no deaths on this voyage. Jennifer will convey this information straight from the horse’s mouth to the “stitch and bitch” crowd (knitters, crocheters, and needlepointers).

APRIL 7, 2008 – TO PIREAS (ATHENS) GREECE

I will write about our marvelous overland experience as I have time. We are entering a period where we are off the ship for several days at a time so I may be tardy in finishing a day’s blog. I have several photos from our Egyptian overland which I hope I remember to post.
As soon as we left Port Said last night, the boatbegan rocking like we haven’t experienced since the Pacific. Lots of folks are looking a little peaked and it means you have to hang onto something when you’re in motion. The sea outside doesn’t look that menacing but I walked the open upper deck this morning, and the wind was so fierce I thought I might be blown down before I reached the sanctuary of the other side. Needless to say, none of the tanning lounge lizards were out. Oh and some folks are complaining that it’s too cold; it’s in the upper 60s and I’m delighted!
LAUNDRY: I knew I’d have to confront this when we returned from the overland but that doesn’t make it any more palatable. I set the alarm for 6:30 am and groaned when it rang. We will be sleep deprived for a long while now; you’ll see why when you get the blog from the overland. Finally, I got my act together and got to the laundry room about 7:30 am (thank goodness I had sorted out the laundry last evening!). I managed to get a washer after a little while; by then Ed had brought up the rest of the laundry and other washers were opening up. So I had l 3 washers going about 10-15 min. apart. And then managed to get two dryers. So I put the heavy clothes together in one, and two loads of permanent press heat in another. This latter one had to be separated later so that a 3rd dryer was called into action and Ed took out his almost dry shirts to iron.
So finally, it was all done. Ed and I had taken our showers last night so it didn’t take that long to get ready. Ed had breakfast while I monitored the laundry room progress. Later, he came down and we were both busy folding, ironing, or lugging the stuff back to our room. I had done some hand laundry last night from the overland: my compression sleeves and bras, cold wash black T-shirts; these are still hung all over the room to dry after a night in the shower in the room.
US DIPLOMACY: WHAT DO AMBASSADORS DO ANYWAY? I spoke with Fritts before his talk. While we were away, he did a talk on US immigration policy and I was very sorry I missed it. I have not seen it listed as being shown on the TV in our room. (And speaking of TV, we STILL cannot get the BBC News.) He listed many of the functions of the embassies and consulates and their personnel. There are actually very few people in our foreign service; I don’t recall the numbers but it’s shocking small and this is even after Colin Powell managed to get the force increased almost 2 fold. One bit of trivia: All of these places have caskets for those times when US citizen die abroad. And he discussed the ethical dilemmas they encounter which was fascinating.
TRIVIA: Elizabeth wasn’t here so Jason replaced her. I had to leave early (next entry) so I didn’t see the result though when I got back to the room and didn’t see any prizes I knew r wwe hadn’t won. The questions were fair but not easy. I don’t know our ranking among the groups.
FACIAL WORKSHOP: This was actually a good thing after all the dry air and sand we’ve been breathing and ingesting the past few days, coupled with our sleep deprivation. We all sat in chairs and the “teacher” gave us globs of creams and such and directed us in doing our own facials, all the while telling us of the “amazing” results we’d see with these products. Even with that, I didn’t consider it a hard sell. It was fun to do it with other women and we left with one of the products: a full sized container mind you. All of this for only $33. There’s one for men this evening too as I recall. And they will schedule another one before we end the cruise. Since I didn’t feel any pressure to purchase, I may do it again.
AN INTERVIEW WITH SCIENTIST/ASTRONAUT RUSTY SCHWEICKART: He was gracious and stayed for about 10 minutes, but he’s been suffering with sea sickness and had to leave as he wasn’t feeling well. JJ pulled a fellow passenger from the audience who had worked on the Hubble Telescope and other interesting projects and this old fellow was gracious and equally as interesting.
PORT TALK: PIREUS AND ATHENS: We apparently now have a permanent port speaker until the end of the cruise. He’s a young fellow from New Jersey but seems to be sufficiently informed to provide the information we want along with photos that illustrate what we’ll see and such. We had to leave a little early for
TRIVIA: We were in the same room but they made us move to another area in that room. It meant that our group got separated. Ed, Bill, Mary and I were working together; poor Sid was alone in our regular area (the same one we were shooed away from!) and I don’t know what happened to Elizabeth. We worked well togther though we didn’t win and I can’t tell you if we came in #2. This trivia was done by a fellow passenger whom I like very much. But you know how I feel about fellow passengers doing this: always a bad idea and today was no different. The staff person who was scheduled to do it was present; it’s the same one some of the groups complained about and sent a contingent to give their “rules”. I don’t blame that person for agreeing to have another passenger do it under the circumstances.
PHOTO CONTEST: Tonite is the deadline. It’s so hard to choose and so eventually, I just picked two from the overland and turned them in. We are # 46 and 47, so that’ll tell you how many entries there are. Since we on the overland had a chance to see the pyramids before the hamseem (that’ll be in the blog; in So. Cal. It’s known as the “Santa Ana” winds) obliterated everything, perhaps there’ll be some who are interested. And these are photos we will enjoy living with.
DINNER TONITE: We are both sleepy and tired but we agreed to have supper with the ship’s doctor and his wife. Mentally I’m looking forward to this experience. I’ll write about it in the next scheduled blog entry. In the meantime, I want to get this uploaded so you’ll know our ship escaped the pirates in the Red Sea. Ha.

APRIL 3, 2008 – SAFAGA TO LUXOR & KARNACK

BEFORE I FORGET: We believe not all of our emails are getting through since we have sent emails to some folks and we get odd emails saying they’re worried about us. So as long as I’m putting up a blog or otherwise have contact, you know we’re OK. Please pass this information along to others.

There were 53 of us going on the overland but the convoy from Safaga to Luxor included 300 from the ship. The others were on day trips like we did last time. The convoy this time was longer and while there’s security everywhere, it is still somewhat less than in 2004. There are armed security on each bus, a police escort in the front ( and I think the rear as well)…you get the picture. The side roads were closed to let our busses pass everywhere. And there are “chick points” at regular intervals (that’s how they were spelled too). They put up barricades so that any vehicle has to zig zag to get through.
MOSES: Yes, it’s true. We were part of “followers of Moses”. Moses took us through the desert for four days only but he is an excellent guide. He is wild about American movies and Clint Eastwood is his idol. The tour guides in Egypt are all licensed Egyptologists and Moses son has just graduated and will be starting his career as a tour guide soon.
Abercrombie and Kent, now often called Akorn, was the tour company. We were with them last time and had a great experience so we were pleased when told they would be the company. And the name carries some weight: Going through X-ray at the airport, the X-ray police wanted to confiscate my sun tan lotion. One of the tour guides, we were 22 in our group with our own guide; other groups had a similar ratio. The guide spoke to the policeman in Arabic and heard him say Abercrombie, so we compromised: the guide kept my suntan lotion and returned it to me later.
Now this happened at only one X-ray machine mind you. And many of us were carrying one or two liter bottles of water, often inside our backpacks, and they were never confiscated. On the positive side, we never had to take our shoes off. On the plus or minus side, depending on your viewpoint, at almost everyplace we had to go through X-ray, we had to do it twice. This wasn’t just the airports; it was the hotels, and all of the sites we visited.
My sleeve complicates matters but we managed with the help of the guides and Ed so that it wasn’t too much of a problem though I got some very strange looks in some places.
We traveled on an air conditioned motorcoach on an “agricultural road” to Luxor. It looked like it too. You’d see poor little donkeys working their hearts out hauling these wagons full of green produce and the driver sitting atop.
VALLEY OF THE KINGS: First off, and this includes the whole trip, we never had any temps that went above 90s. That doesn’t mean we didn’t get hot and dehydrated, but the experience wasn’t nearly as arduous as it was in 2004. We toured a few of the tombs here. You need a separate ticket to see Tut’s tomb which is largely excavated at this point; we saw a lot of Tut stuff at the Museum in Cairo. There were scads of other tourists and they take you to the site on the Egyptian version of the people movers at Disneyland.
There are 62 pharaohs buried here and there’s still some valuable property in many of these tombs. There are guards everywhere and lots of locals in the gebaya at each entrance to check your tickets. The level of preservation of the items in these tomb, including the paintings, is really quite remarkable. They have not been renovated, merely cleaned so the original shows at it’s best.
TEMPLE OF HATCHEUSUT: She was Egypt’s only female Pharaoh.This was just a photo stop, but this would be a very interesting place to go inside.
COLOSSI OF MEMNON: We did get off the bus here, but it was just an elongated bus stop. Last time, we didn’t even get to stop.
SONESTA ST. GEORGE: This was our hotel for the night and the lunch location, the same one we visited in 2004. It is right on the Nile and a great location; calm, serene and so on. We had lunch, checked into our rooms, and had some time to clean up and rest. We were able to get BBC News here and there was a great debate, held in Monterey, CA. the panel included one of the founders of Google, Carl Bernstein, an African journalist, a psychologist, Queen Noor of Jordan, and others whose names I can’t recall. They discussed news today: how it’s gathered, how it’s consumed, regulation or not, ethics, and so on. Fascinating. Great mental dessert.
TEMPLE OF LUXOR: While touring this, Ed and I realized that we had only been driven around this on our last visit. This time we went through it. It was dedicated to the god Amun a fertility figure. Karnack and Luxor were originally connected by the Avenue of Human-headed Sphinxes, stretching almost three kilometers between them.
KARNACK: No, not Johnny Carson’s Carnack (but wasn’t that a howl?). Here we arrived at sunset and walked through Karnack while a sound and light show entertained us at each spot culminating with a seated conventional show at the end. It was Friday night and the Imans were moaning out their prayers in the background which I found very distracting and annoying, but which some felt enhanced the validity of the experience. I was also somewhat disappointed with this show as I had expected something different than we experienced. Too much to explain here; neither of us is sorry we went but we wouldn’t do it again nor recommend it.
SUPPER: Was outside between the swimming pool and the Nile River. There was a belly dancer who was truly awful. A young girl who swung around in stereotypical moves Miss Piggy would do. I was stunned. She was followed by what I’ll call a “whirling dervish” and this guy is amazing. They twirl for the longest time (we aren’t talking just 10 minutes here) and does things to keep you looking. We were tired just watching him. The food was buffet and BBQ and terrific as all the food was on our trips.
Hotel: At least 5 star, very comfortable, all toilets have a bidet hose nearby the commode. I just knew this would be important information for you to know.

APRIL 4, 2008 – TO ASWAN

We had a wake up call at 5:30 am and were on the bus by 6:30 am; this means we do our showers at night and suffer with bed head all day. What the hell: you’re not supposed to look good on vacation in the swealtering heat anyway.
FLIGHT TO ASWAN: Egypt Air flew us everywhere in Egypt and Moses was constantly amazed as they have traditionally had a reputation for poor service, and never being on time. Both reps were countred with our experiences on this trip. We arrived at Aswan at 8:40 am. This is a sweet little town with old and new parts and it’s right on the Nile. Very picturesque and serene. I wouldn’t mind spending time here doing nothing.
While our luggage and such was taken to the hotel, we went to visit the High and Low (older) dams. I didn’t know there were two of them. The older dam had been heightened several times before the new dam was built. Egypt approached the US to help in building the High Dam and John Foster Dulles refused so Egypt asked Russia which did provide the money. This was a bad mistake on the part of the US but we had had many years of good relations now.
PHILAE TEMPLE: This was an unexpected surprise. We took a motorboat ride to Agilka island where this temple had been moved from the former location which is now under water. It’s mind boggling to me how they have so successfully moved these ancient cities and reassembled them perfectly. And the degree of preservation is indescribable. Restorations are done to preserve the integrity of the original work, not to make it look like it did when it was first built.
UNFINISHED OBELISK: This is at the quarry which supplied ancient Egypt with most of the stone used in the various building projects. The obelisk illustrates the method used to make them and the problems, for example, a defect in the stone that precludes its use, often after the work had progressed a long way. There were 5 little puppies here and a Japanese tourist was feeding them. One of our ship mates fed them water and we spent almost as much time with the puppies as we did the quarry itself.
VENDORS: There have been vendors at most places, some more pushy than others. They have many clever techniques which I won’t recount here because if I did, I’d never be done with this blog. Just chalk it up to lessons learned to survive in the 3rd (and some 1st world) countries.
LUNCH: We went here for lunch and to rest in our hotel rooms. This hotel is on an island in the middle of the Nile so you have Nile river scenes on all 4 sides; it’s glorious as every room has a great view. It’s called the Movenpick (a Swiss company) Elephantine Island Hotel. We got there by taking a local ferry boat across.
FELUCCA RIDE: At 4 pm we all met for a ride on these sail boats on the Nile called fellucas. We are now in Nubian country, the upper Egypt (this is the southern part of Egypt; lower Egypt is near Cairo; The Nile is the only river that runs South to North—trivia question alert). These people are black skinned and look more like your typical African. The felluca is an interesting sailboat that I can’t adequately describe. The fellows who sail it (it is so quiet on it; reminded me of the hot air balloon ride!) zig zagged across the Nile and took us around the islands. We saw many interesting sights along the way including the boat where “Death on the Nile” was filmed, Agatha christie’s famous book, and women washing serving trays in the Nile. Young boys swim out to the boats, or more commonly, have little wooden boats they could have made which they paddle with flat pieces of wood about 6 inches square. The sneak up behind the boats and hide just out of sight and hang on for a free ride—pretty dangerous for so many reasons.
The Nubians played music and sang for us using something that looks like the Irish: Bouharain (boy that’s slaughtering the spelling but perhaps you’ll recognize it: the flat, drum played with a small stick except that the Nubian’s play it with their hands only. Eventually they had all of us up dancing and this included not just swaying and motions with your arms, but jumping up and down too. It was a good way to end the ride which also included (surprise!) trying to sell us trinkets. We contributed to the drums for tips to the guys.
DINNER: this was a Buffet dinner at the hotel. Food was universally good at each location and included the usual foods you’d expect plus many local, and always delicious, dishes. Then it was off to bed to try to get some sleep before we had an early morning rise.

APRIL 5, 2008 – LONG DAY WITH 3 FLIGHTS

BREAKFAST: Too early wake up call and off to Aswan Domestic Airport at 7:30 am. The hotel has agreed to let us have the rooms until 6 pm today so we don’t have to put our bags out until 5:45 PM. Hallelujah!
AIR EGYPT AGAIN: This is the time my sun tan lotion was confiscated; Mohammed, the tour guide for group two, returned it to me in Cairo, bless him. By this time I had asked them to try to get me window seats on the right. Sometimes it worked, sometimes not. The first time, we were in first class, the second time, I was alone in a seat on the left side of the plane (not the right) and Ed was back in the back of the plane. By the time we had our flight from Aswan to Cairo, it had gotten the right combination of seat requests. Forget about preboarding after you leave the states however. You’ll be stampeded if you’re not careful. Handicapped (and I’m not bad) haven’t a chance honest to God. You find yourself protecting each other.
ABU SIMBEL: This is the temple you will recognize that was moved due to the building of the High Dam. It was built by Ramses II, Egypt’s longest ruling Pharaoh, and is one of the most recognizable images in the country. There are actually two temples that have been moved here; the second is for Ramses’ favorite wife Queen Nefertari. There former home is now underwater in Lake Nasser.
Words don’t do justice to these two temples. One is like Stonehenge and the places in Ireland where the sun hits a certain place twice a year on the solstices. In this case, it hits 3 statues. However, the ancients had it right and the engineers who arranged this move (and what a public works project that was!!) were one day off! Now isn’t that amazing! Again the state of preservation is remarkable. The colors, where there are paintings, are fresh and easy to behold.
We had carried box lunches with us from Aswan this morning, and we ate them at the rest house near Abu Simbel.
AND AIR EGYPT TO ASWAN: We finally got to the hotel (after flight, bus ride, ferry ride across the Nile) about 2p. this is when I could have kissed the hotel manager who allowed us to have our rooms until 6 pm. We took showers and had plenty of time to pack and rest a little.
The schedules where we have a few hours in the afternoon to rest in these hot climates are such a sensible itinerary no matter what the age of your tourists.
PAPYRUS FACTORY: This was fun learning how it is made and seeing all the beautiful stuff they make. We watched these young ladies use water color to make cartuches for customers. Ed and I were interested in some papyrus paper to bring to Hank and Erna for their water coloring. The ole world bait and switch was alive and well. We were quoted on price per page for 11x17 page and were taken to the counter to buy it where the price increased 4 fold; it went downhill from there and we walked out without anything.
I fell down on the way into this factory but felt fortunate that I still had my Reid sleeve on. It pads my arm well and served as a cushion for the fall. I wound up with some wrenching and a black and blue mark on my legs, but otherwise uninjured. I try to be very careful on these outings since the surfaces are uneven and I often can’t tell the depth of the earth in front of me. Also, they often have marble stairs without a railing to use. We all talk about the danger in walking no matter how young and fit you are.
BBQ DINNER: Again great food, right on the Nile near the swimming pool. We had a violinist as we arrived for supper, another whirling dervish (these guys are something else), and later a Nubian group of musicians, singers and dancers. These guys pulled a bunch of us into the dancing which reminded me of the hora danced at so many family weddings. It was fun and kept us awake when all of us were crying for sleep.
LAST AIR EGYPT: 7:15 pm we followed Moses and Mohammed to the Aswan airport for our flight to Cairo. We arrived in Cairo at 12:30 am and got our luggage around 1 am. Great 5 star hotel, Semiramis Intercontinental. However, we hardly got our money’s worth, we were here such a short period of time.

APRIL 6, 2008 –CAIRO

The 6:30 am wake up call was not appreciated. We are zombies by this time. But we are well trained by now: Moses is waiting to deliver us through the desert. He is about 55 y/o I guess so it’s not easy for him either. We had breakfast in the hotel and at 8:15 am boarded the bus to Giza. By the way I don’t think I mentioned that our groups were never more than 22 people on a bus that will hold 50+ and so we were very comfortable in that respect. There was water and a restroom on board though it was down in the stairwell and a contortionist would be challenged to get into and out of it.
WELCOME BACK: Some sand storm had begun when we arrived but we could still see pretty good. We went first to a location between Cheops, the tallest of the pyramids, and another. Later we drove to an area near the last pyramid where the Bedoins had camels and you could have photos taken with the camels and a short camel ride. Despite the presence of the camel police, and Moses’ efforts to assure prices, they still game you. For example, you tell them you only want a photo, next thing you know, the camel is up and walking off. Before they’ll have the camel kneel so you can get off, the price has gone up remarkably, like $100. We saw the camel police chasing several camel boys away who weren’t following the rules.
Neither of us remembers the camel cops from last time. And one said Ok I could take a photo of him; later two others said no photos of them. Along the way, an armed police (but not in any kind of uniform) “befriended” Ed and I, suggesting he take photos of us, etc. etc. When he was done, he quietly rubs his fingers together asking for “backsheesh”. This happened a lot in several places where the very police who are supposed to be preventing this harassment, are the very ones asking for tips or bribes, take your choice of description. Still he give them something and go on our way.
SPHINX: He’s still here but there have been some upgrades both in the progress made on reconstruction, and on the guards and fences around it. There were lots of groups of school kids at all the sites we attended. At this one, I started blowing kisses to a group of young ones. All except one blew kisses back; this little boy stuck his tongue out at me. I pretended I was pinching his cheeks and giving him a big slobber kiss; he laughed and blew me a kiss.
SPEAKING OF WHICH: The vacation photo that got away: We were driving somewhere in the countryside on the bus and I was looking out the window at the folks on the side of the highway. There were two ladies dressed head to toe in black with only their faces and hands exposed; both were on the plump side but were probably in their 20s. I smiled and waved at one and she just beamed and started wildly waving at me with both hands. That memory will stick in my mind for a long time. It is the opposite of the way we see them otherwise.
LUNCH: this was on the same boat as in 2004. We boarded this lovely boat and it sailed down the Nile. By this time, the sand storm/hamseem was so bad you couldn’t see the tops of the buildings in Cairo from the river. Moses was smart to kick our butts out early because at least we were there early enough to see the pyramids and such even if it was hazy; the folks who came later saw nothing but a giant sand storm.
We had yet one more whirling dervish to entertain us, and the food was marvelous once again.
EGYPTIAN MUSEUM OF ANTIQUITIES: I especially enjoyed saying hi to King Tut’s artifacts once again. Moses made everything so interesting but the museum was packed and noisy. But I must tell you about one small statue of a scribe in Pharoanic times. This statue is not life size but it has life like eyes. Here’s how they did it: the eyes are made of quartz crystal. This is then painted with the sclera and iris. But here’s the fascinating part: they put copper on the back of this eye before it’s inserted into the statue. When you put a light into the pupil, you get a red flash just like a camera gets from the retina. Is that cool or what?
BACK TO SHIP: We had a drive of several hours back to the ship in Port Said. The route was different than 2004; probably a new road. Again lots of (now written as) “check point”, and lots of security again. The ride went fairly quickly and we got back to the ship about 30 min earlier than expected. Getting to the ship after you got off the bus was a different story however: there were vendors non-stop through the walk to the ship. Our luggage was delivered quickly enough; it was in our room when we returned from a quick snack in the Panorama Buffet. The young man who does this has many diverse jobs. When we first got on the ship, he brought out luggage. He always has a smiling face. I tracked him down and gave him a few dollars. He’s never forgotten that. I get big smiles everywhere I see him. He bought a remote control plane for one of his kids in Dubai and I met him in the terminal.
Our regular cabin steward, Rodolpho, is gone now for the marriage of his sister in Guadalajara. We heard that Princess paid for his air flights and is giving him paid leave to do this. He will rejoin us in Cork, Ireland and finish out his contract. We decided to give him his tip before he left for the wedding so he can enjoy it while away.
This evening we met Ray, our fill in. He’s rather shy but sweet and is still learning the ropes. I can identify with these kids and how they want to do a good job and they are still learning.
There’s so much more tidbits to share but we’ll regale you with them when we’re back. This overland in Egypt was outstanding. I’ve enjoyed all the overlands but This trip through Egypt is in a class by itself.