Pat and Norm's World Cruises and other adventures

Livorno, Italy

Posted on June 5, 2019 by patmathews

June 5, 2019

Livorno is located in central Tuscany and is the gateway to Pisa and Florence.

Today we chose to go on a tour to Florence called “Fascinating Florence”. It was a 10 hour tour and we were delighted to find out that there were only 10 people on the tour! That made it a terrific day since the group was so small.

Here’s our sail in and the port. There are a lot of ancient towers and walls in all of these cities. Most of the walls have been destroyed but some pieces of them remain.

Our guide was Antonella. The trip to Florence took about 90 minutes and she gave us a lot of information about Tuscany and Florence, which is the capital of this region in central Italy.

Approximately 3 million people live in Tuscany and about 350,000 of them live in Florence.

The area is well known for agriculture, especially wine and olives and also for tourism in Florence, Pisa, Lucca, Siena and San Gimignano.

We have been to all of those cities before on our trip to Italy with the family back in 2001 and really enjoyed them, so it is time to do some of them again.

From the 13th to the 16th centuries, this era of creative freedom encouraged the genius of Dante, Donatello, Michelangelo, Giotto, Botticelli, da Vinci and Machiavelli to create some of the world’s most noted masterpieces.

Our first visit in Florence was the Galleria dell Accademia which contains the masterpiece – Michelangelo’s David. Antonella encouraged us to study some of Michelangelo’s unfinished sculptures which are in the same gallery. Some were to be created for the Pope at the time, but they were never completed. The David is the only fully completed sculpture.

Here are the unfinished ones – which are genius in themselves.

And the David is just amazing. Michelangelo studied cadavers to get every detail just right. Antonella was so helpful as we studied this sculpture – she pointed out aspects such as the facial expressions that we might not have noticed in the same way. The sculpture was outside for 300 years before it was moved. There was damage to one finger and a wrist which was repaired. There is now a replica in the spot outside where this original once stood.

Another sculpture in this gallery is the Rape of the Sabine Women by Giambologna. Other paintings by Botticelli and Renaissance masters are in the gallery as well.

Here is the copy that is outside.

The Accademia was first a school, so there is another whole area of sculptures that were done by students. Some of them have holes in them because the students were studying proportion.

Antonella took us on an extensive walking tour of the main sights in Florence. She explained the influence of the Medici family who were bankers that gathered influence in Florence in the 15th century. They were great lovers of the arts and of architecture and were wealthy so could contribute to the city in many ways. They ruled as a political family and were the most powerful families in Florence.

This is their family crest which is found on many buildings in the city.

Florence is called the “City of the Lily” and it gave birth to the Renaissance and changed the way we see the world. The churches, medieval towers, Renaissance palaces and museums and galleries contain some of the most outstanding achievements of Western history.

Here are some examples.

These are the famous golden Gates of Paradise on the Baptistery of St. John. You can’t get too close to them but even from a short distance they are impressive.

The many churches are just amazing in the detail of the frescos, stained glass and paintings that adorn the inside and the statues on the outside. The Duomo is the reddish dome in the first photo.

And the Church of Santa Croce contains 270 tombstones that adorn the floors of the church along with the tombs of Michelangelo, Galileo, Machiavelli and others. It is a huge place.

Of course we had a wonderful lunch in Acqua Al 2 which was recommended by friends on the ship. Then we had gelato at Antonella’s favorite shop.

Here are some other sights from the city, including the ones from the terrace overlooking the city on our way back to the ship.

This is the famous Ponte Vecchio over the Arno River.

Amazing day. On the way back we went through the countryside – lots of vineyards and beautiful landscapes.

Posted in Europe, Excursions, Food, June, World Cruise 3 | Leave a comment

Civitavecchia (Rome) Italy

Posted on June 4, 2019 by patmathews

June 4, 2019

Another beautiful day in Italy. We had some thoughts of going to Rome but decided against the long bus trip – 50 miles and lots of traffic, so it takes almost 2 hours each way. We have seen the sights in Rome before but would like to have a longer time there than just a rushed few hours. Since it is embarkation day for the next segment, we would need to be back by 5:15 for the lifeboat drill.

Here’s the port in Civitavecchia.

Today we opted for a tour to Bracciano Lake and a wine tasting which was a perfect 5 hour tour.

Our guide was Luca.

He first thanked us for “not going to Rome” as almost everyone does from this port. He also spent some time on the poor economy in Italy. Our lecturer, Adam Tanner, indicated that it is probably the worst situation in Europe, worse than Greece. In the south of Italy, unemployment is up to 60% and about 200,000 young people between 18 and 35 have left the country for higher education and better opportunities. And as many as 100,000 retirees have left in search of places to live that have lower taxes. So the country is really far from recovery. Pretty sad.

He also talked about the effects of climate change on their farming industry. Many of the crops need to be harvested earlier and the weather does affect the farmers dramatically.

The trip to Bracciano Lake was just beautiful. There were rolling hills, lots of farms and sheep, olive groves, vineyards and hazelnut trees.

Luca said that the area was used for filming many of the “spaghetti westerns” of the past.

We passed this castle but didn’t have a stop there. Beautiful.

We drove around the lake to the small village of Anguillara. We wandered through the village to the top of the hill where the church stands. It was closed but we did see the charming homes, beautiful flowers and of course, the lake.

We then traveled back around the lake and Luca and our driver Tony stopped so we could get a picture of another castle. This is the one that many celebrities, including Tom Cruise, use for their weddings. Luca said it is bad luck, though, none of the famous couples are still married!

The winery we visited is called Cento Corvi which means 100 crows. We only had 19 people on this trip and we were the only ones at the winery. They served cheese, artichokes, olives, bread, two kinds of ham and olive oil and we tasted 7 different wines. We chose one white and one red to buy and take back to enjoy on the ship. They were all pretty good.

The winery itself was very nice and we really enjoyed relaxing there.

Back at the port and had a relaxing couple of hours before the lifeboat drill. The ferries here have comic characters on them!

We have a 10 hour tour to Florence tomorrow so a relaxing afternoon was really good!

Posted in Europe, Excursions, Food, June, World Cruise 3 | 1 Comment

Sorrento, Italy

Posted on June 4, 2019 by patmathews

June 3, 2019

We had a fabulous day in Messina, Sicily yesterday and the sunset was great. Because we had a pasta lunch and lingered over it, we weren’t hungry for dinner so I got a salad and brought it back to the balcony to watch the sunset. The volcano in the shot is called the Stromboli and it is one of the three active volcanoes in Italy. It last erupted in January.

Our next port is Sorrento which we hadn’t been to in more than 15 years – it was not on our previous world cruise itineraries. We visited twice in the past.

The sail in was beautiful and the day was gorgeous. Sorrento is situated on a terrace overlooking the Amalfi coastline and the Bay of Naples. They don’t have a dock so we had to take the tender in to shore. The name Sorrento derives from a Greek word meaning “flowing” due to the form of the town which appears to flow over the limestone bluff on which the town stands, defining the edge of the cliffs. You can see remains of ancient structures in the stone face and also determine how high the cliffs are by the small boats at the bottom. Legend says that mermaids lured unsuspecting sailors to crash their boats on the rocks by singing their songs.

We planned a lunch with our Around the World host and hostess, Steve and Tricia. We have been trying to get a date together for the past couple of months and were pleased that Sorrento worked out.

We headed up the steep steps in the morning to explore the city before our lunch. Quite the climb. There is a lift but we didn’t realize it until we walked to the viewing terrace area from the top. We probably wouldn’t have used it anyway – we like the exercise.

We visited the most prominent churches. First we went to the Basilica of Saint Antonino which was built in the 10th century. The entry has a 17th century Christmas crib with statues that are decorated with clothes made of precious fabrics and lace. Saint Antonino’s tomb is located in a crypt below the church.

We visited all of the churches around the town and here are some other pictures. The marble and gold are amazing in every one. In one of the churches, there were flowers everywhere, probably from a previous wedding. Workers were removing them. I was tempted to take some back to the ship as they were so beautiful!

We walked all around the town. Here are some of the views and sights. This area is known for its lemons and some of them are just huge.

Some views from the top looking down.

We thought this next guy was very clever, no head showing! So we gave him a tip for a picture.

How do you like the name of the shop – shopping victim!

Lunch with Tricia and Steve extended well into the afternoon. We had Chianti, bruschetta and delicious pizza at an outdoor cafe called Blu Water. Then we moved on to another outdoor cafe for limoncello, which is renowned here. Tricia and I had it with chipped ice and prosecco. Delicious…

We were so focused on our overdue conversations, I didn’t get anyone to take pictures of us. It was a terrific afternoon.

At night, because tomorrow is the day the segment ends and another one begins, it was Monday night at the movies and I saw Life is Beautiful. I had seen it before but really enjoyed it being here in Italy. Sad subject but just wonderful acting and the joy someone can bring to the worst situations.

Posted in Europe, June, World Cruise 3 | 1 Comment

Messina, Italy

Posted on June 2, 2019 by patmathews

June 2, 2019

Here are two pictures of last night’s sunset, courtesy of Facebook and Fran Mayo. Thanks, Fran, just beautiful. We had dinner with Tom and Alice in Toscana and saw just the pink sky.

We have been to Sicily before, but not to Messina. We woke to a rainy morning but the forecast was that it would clear by 10 AM, which it did. Very comfortable temperature, I wore jeans and a jacket!

Here are some pictures as we arrived.

We set out for a nice walk around the city and had a great time.

Messina is the third largest city on the island of Sicily and the 13th largest in Italy. There are about 238,000 people living in the city proper.

Today is a national holiday here (Republic Day – like our Independence Day in the US, when Italians voted to end the monarchy in 1946 so their country could become a republic) so most of the stores and restaurants are closed. The churches have Masses going on and we did stop in several churches.

We saw these fireboats celebrating Republic Day and heard there will be fireworks later tonight (but we sail out at 6!)

The first one was the Cathedral of Messina which is on the main square of the city – the Piazza del Duomo. This cathedral has quite a story. It was built in 1150 and has had a series of tragic mishaps and destructive events. Candles at a 1254 funeral set the building on fire, it was hit by earthquakes in 1783 and 1908 and then was burned again in 1943 after a bombing raid. The dedicated people of the city rebuilt it each time. According to legend, England’s King Richard the Lionhearted worshipped here in 1190 at the beginning of the Third Crusade.

One of the highlights of this church is a clock tower with an elaborate astronomical clock that features a roaring lion and a crowing cock. The 12 minute event happens at noon and we made sure to come back in time for that. We also heard the organ at the end of the mass. I took some videos of the clock but of course can’t load them here on the ship.

There is also a beautiful fountain in this square. It was built by one of Michelangelo’s students and celebrates the city’s first aqueduct and Orion, the city’s mythical father.

We visited several other churches as well as a memorial hall dedicated to those who lost their lives in WWII. Very impressive architecture.

We heard they just installed these statues on the long walk up to the Santuario Montalto. I do not know the significance of them. Some of the best views of the city are from outside this church.

There are a lot of steps to climb everywhere!

Here are some other things we spotted on our walks.

These mosaics are found on the sidewalks.

The bakery windows are just amazing, beautiful pastries and marzipans.

We had a hard time finding an open restaurant but finally found one. Nice pasta, bread and salads for lunch. Love the picture of the clocktower on the plate!

We had to get some of the roasted and sugared nuts from the vendors located all around the square. They smelled so good.

Nice day in Sicily – tomorrow Sorrento.

Posted in Europe, Food, June, World Cruise 3 | 1 Comment

Piraeus, Greece

Posted on June 1, 2019 by patmathews

May 31, 2019

Well, it is hard to believe that 5 weeks from today we will be home. It always seems to go too fast, but we will savor these last weeks.

Today we docked at the port of Piraeus, the first chief port in Greece, the largest passenger port in Europe and the second largest in the world, servicing about 20 million passengers annually. It is also among the top ten ports in container traffic in Europe and the top container port in the eastern Mediterranean. The city hosted events in both the 1896 and the 2004 Summer Olympics held in Athens.

Here are some pictures of our sail in.

I never heard of the Battle of the Salamis – and of course it has nothing to do with sausage. I figured it must be important if they are celebrating an anniversary. I looked it up and it was a battle between the Greeks and the Persians – the Greeks were very outnumbered but won anyway. I guess that is why they are celebrating this anniversary!

Piraeus is surrounded by the Aegean Sea to the east and the Ionian Sea to the west. It is surrounded by mountains on 3 sides.

We haven’t been to Athens in over 15 years in spite of our travels, neither of our previous world cruises came to this port. So we decided to do a tour called the Best of Athens and Cape Sounion.

Our tour guide was Elaina, and she was very informative. And the weather was perfect, it has gotten delightfully cooler.

She spent quite a while on tales of the Greek gods and goddesses – legends to be sure and every culture has them.

We went to the Acropolis first because she said the crowds would be less earlier in the morning.

Athens has a population of 4.5 million people and there are 11 million in Greece, so a large percentage of the population lives here. 90% of the population is Greek Orthodox and there are many beautiful churches here.

She also talked a lot about Greece’s financial problems. When the problems came to a head in 2010, the minimum wage was cut almost in half, from 750 Euros per month to 400. Retirement income was cut by the same percentage. Unemployment in this area was almost 60%. Prices went up so everyone was even more impacted. Younger people either left the country (about 200,000 left) or were forced to live with parents, postpone marriage and families and search for jobs, which also impacted the economy to say nothing of happiness, and things were just as tough for the parents. Many stores and businesses were forced to close. A dire situation which is slightly better now but they are hoping for improvement. Gas is between 1.60 and 1.75 Euros per liter which is over 6.50/gallon.

Tourism is about the only thing keeping them even a bit ahead and she says that occupancy in the island resorts is 100% in high season, which is great for them.

On our way to the Acropolis, we passed two of the Olympic stadiums and some beautiful harbors.

The Acropolis.. how to describe it. Norm’s oxymoron is “beautiful ruins”, and indeed they are. This is the sacred city of the ancient Athenians. The most important buildings were constructed by Pericles in the 5th century BC.

We entered through the Propylaea, the gateway to the winding path to the top of the Acropolis. Is this their guard dog?

From here we went to the Temple of Athena Nike.

The Erechtheion is a temple built as a shrine to Athena (and in case you didn’t know, Athens was named after this goddess), and the twin deity Poseidon – Erechtheseus. The most distinctive feature is the ingenious design of the six support columns carved in the shape of maidens. Some of the original statues are on display in the Acropolis Museum.

The Odeon of Herodes Atticus and Theatre of Dionysus are amphitheaters on the south slope of the Acropolis. You can only view these, but performances are still held in the Odeon and those with tickets can go inside.

The views of Athens from here are also quite amazing.

The Parthenon sits at the highest point of the Acropolis, 230 feet above the city. It was built to honor the goddess Athena and has been the model for thousands of buildings throughout the world. There are some columns on display with the center hole visible. Lead was used in these cavities to stabilize them. Elaina explained that the historians have evidence that the way the columns and blocks were brought to this high point in the city was to use trees as rollers with the blocks or pieces of the columns on top and then roll them up the hill. Painstaking work I would say, but the results are impressive all these centuries later. Restoration work is constantly in progress as you can see from the iron bars.

We loved that Elaina had us use the earphones so we could hear everything she described.

We had time to explore the whole site. The areas to walk around the structures are quite slippery and one of our fellow passengers did twist her ankle.

You can see that there are a lot of people there, including school groups. I asked if it was a typical crowd, and Elaina said it was quite light!

After our visit, we spent a bit more time on a scenic route in Athens on the way to our lunch stop at a Greek Taverna. They are common all throughout the country.

These orange trees line the streets. Elaina said they are really ornamental oranges and not suitable to eat.

We saw Hadrian’s Arch, the tall gateway from 131 AD that connected Ancient Athens with the Roman quarters.

We also stopped at the Panathinaiko Stadium which was the site of the first modern Olympics in 1896 and was built on the site of the original Olympic Stadium from 330 BC.

It was hard to get good pictures, but it is very impressive.

We also passed the Presidential Mansion which now houses the Parliament. The guards today were in regular uniforms, but we spotted this man in similar dress to the formal attire that is worn during the changing of the guard ceremony. According to Elaina, the shoes alone weigh 6 pounds each.

Next we traveled to Attiki, northwest of Athens, for our lunch at the taverna O Moypoyzhe. And what a lunch it was. They could have fed twice as many people! The white wine was mediocre but the food was amazing. We saw this interesting sculpture of an athlete on the way.

Our trip to Cape Sounion was so pretty as we rode along the coast. There is some fish farming going on here. And the trees are pistachio trees!

The Greeks chose their temple sites by considering both the natural beauty of the location and its appropriateness to the god in question. Cape Sounion is the site of the Temple of Poseidon which is located on a magnificent seaside cliff on the southernmost point on the Attica peninsula. It is a perfect spot for a temple dedicated to the god of the sea!

You can see some of the Aegean islands. The beauty of the surviving Doric columns has inspired countless writers and poets, including Lord Byron.

We headed back to the ship and enjoyed a terrific Greek dinner buffet by chef Mario and his staff.

There are so many ferries here that take people to the other islands. Here are some sail away pictures.

Bye, Athens and Greece. We shall return!

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Santorini, Greece

Posted on May 30, 2019 by patmathews

May 30, 2019

This was our first visit to Santorini and wow, did we love it. Here is our approach this morning.

The buses going up the hills look like little caterpillars!

We have enjoyed every port in Greece on this cruise and in the past. This is a tender port and because we knew that the cable car can have long lines, and walking up the donkey paths is slippery (you know why!), we decided to do a planned tour. Our guide was Amadeus. What a character he was!

Santorini was formed from one of the biggest volcanic eruptions in history which occurred around 1600 BC. The beautiful villages on top of steep cliffs offer some of the most stunning scenery in Greece. It is an island in the southern Aegean Sea about 120 miles southeast of the Greek mainland. The population is about 16000 and about 5000 donkeys. Amadeus made a point of telling us how stubborn and stupid donkeys are!

He also talked a lot about Greece’s financial problems. They have a lot of tourism to Santorini which also has its down side as the towns can be quite crowded. He was quite funny but also sad as he described the financial conditions here. Norm said it was like a Greek tragedy.

One of the surprising things he told us is that marble is prevalent here but there is no market for it anymore, so people pave their driveways with marble because it is cheaper than cement!

Another thing he pointed out and that we noticed is that all of the grapevines are small and close to the ground because of the fierce winds. The tree below shows how fierce it can be.

We first traveled to the highest peak for a photo stop to capture the fabulous scenery.

We went on to the village of Oia which is built on a dramatically steep slope of a caldera that formed after the volcanic eruption. Many of the dwellings are nestled in niches hewn out of the volcanic rock. There are caves here used for wine, too.

The beautiful landscapes of blue and white buildings are just stunning to look at and I couldn’t stop taking photos. There are many small chapels that families build for the surrounding neighbors.

We had free time here to wander around the town and go into the shops and galleries. Many unique items were on display here.

We went on to Fira, the island’s other village. Here we had as long as we wanted to spend. Great shops.. The last tender back to the ship was at 5:30 but the crowds for the cable car are long, so we walked all through the town and had a lunch overlooking the sea. Very wonderful and relaxing. Then we took the cable car down to the tender port and went back to the ship. Wonderful day!

The cable car.

We love Greece – we will be back with more time to spend. Tomorrow on to Athens.

Posted in Europe, Excursions, May, World Cruise 3 | 2 Comments

Rhodes, Greece

Posted on May 30, 2019 by patmathews

May 29, 2019

Today our tour was initially scheduled for the morning, but due to a few cruise ships scheduled to arrive the same time as ours, the tour was rescheduled for the afternoon.

Here is the view of city on our arrival.

So, we got off the ship on our own and wandered through the city of Rhodes. We love it here. The city is surrounded by medieval walls with seven gates and the cruise ship docks very close to the St. Catherine’s Gate.

The medieval city is a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1988 and is very well preserved. The walls were built by the Knights of St. John.

We walked through the narrow streets and as always, were just charmed by the sights. Here are some of them.

We eventually reached the magnificent Palace of the Grand Master. This was originally a Byzantine fortress in the 7th century AD and later held the administrative center of the Order of Knights. It was destroyed by an explosion in 1856 and later, in the 1930’s, was rebuilt by the Italians to be used as the home of the Italian Commander (during the Italian occupation.) Today it houses two large exhibits on the City of Rhodes. In one of them, no pictures were allowed but we could take them outside in the courtyard and in the second exhibit. The mosaics in the floors and the lighting fixtures were particularly impressive.

We did some shopping – and there are many shops and restaurants here – and then enjoyed lunch back on the ship before going on our tour to Ancient Lindos.

Our tour guide was Anna Maria.

The trip to Lindos took about an hour and we learned a lot about Rhodes. This island is one of thousands – only about 120 are inhabited. They get 300 days of sun a year so it is a really beautiful place to visit almost all year, although between April and November is prime tourist season. Only 15 of 5000 hotels are open in the winter. The temperature rarely goes below 50 degrees. Turkey is only 12 nautical miles away and there are ferries that go between Greece and Turkey.

On our way, we stopped at a pottery showroom and watched demonstrations of pottery making and the painting of the finished products.

Along the way, we saw lots of olive trees and also oleander, which Anna Maria told us is a poisonous tree.

There were some markets in Lindos and also the donkeys which you can choose to ride up to the Acropolis which means “highest city”. Only 700 people live in this city.

Lindos is ancient town with well preserved 15th century buildings. We climbed up to the Acropolis of Lindos which is a steep climb, but nothing compared to the Tiger’s Nest in Bhutan! The views are beautiful.

This island arose from the sea after a volcanic eruption so you see shells in the rock formations here.

The day was hot but not nearly the high temperatures we had in the middle east. Very enjoyable return trip to Rhodes. We really like Greece. They are still experiencing financial problems though, and it is sad to hear. The people and the country are both beautiful.

Posted in Europe, Excursions, May, World Cruise 3 | 2 Comments

Limassol, Cyprus

Posted on May 29, 2019 by patmathews

May 28, 2019

This is our third time in Cyprus – so today we took a tour to the center of the island – to Nicosia – which has been the capital of Cyprus for over 1000 years.

The port of Limassol is the second largest city and has a population of 200,000.

Nicosia is the last divided capital city in the world after the fall of the Berlin wall. The northern side has been occupied by Turkey since July 1974 and the southern side by Greece. The division is called the Green Line. Nicosia is the largest city in Cyprus and is still encircled by the old city walls.

Our guide today was Angela and as with most guides we have had, she was a wealth of information.

Cyprus was a British colony until 1960. It is the third largest and third most populous island in the Mediterranean with 850,000 people.

Tourism is their largest source of income, mostly British and Russian visitors previously but now many are coming from Hong Kong and Japan. They are very worried about the effect Brexit will have on their country.

They export potatoes, citrus fruits, olive oil, carob, halloumi cheese and wine as well.

In 2013, their largest bank collapsed and caused a devastating effect on the economy. Prior to that, they realized the problems in Greek economy but it had never affected them. Their unemployment rate before that was a low 3.5 % but it soared after the bank collapse to 18% and has never really recovered.

Angela talked a lot about how it affected her own family. She has two sons who were unemployed for a long time and now one has work but makes very little money. We really unaware of the extent of the problems here.

Here are some pictures from the trip to Nicosia. It was about a 60 minute trip.

The last picture is from an excavation site. The one above that shows the water tanks that seem to be on top of every structure.

Our first visit in Nicosia was to the Cyprus Archeological Museum where the most significant collection of Cypriot antiquities is housed. There are artifacts dating back to the Neolithic Age (7000 BC), Mycenaean relics and also early Byzantine. There are ceramics, tomb monuments, bronze statues and coins that span 5000 years of the island’s history. The most famous exhibit is the statue or Aphrodite from Soli, now the symbol of Cyprus. It is amazing what has been recovered from the excavations. Most of the statues are made from limestone which is prevalent here.

The last one is the Aphrodite.

Here are some of the views of the old city walls.

We then visited the Cathedral of St. John, built in 1662 by the Archbishop Nikiforos. No pictures are allowed inside but every inch of the walls is covered by 18th century frescoes that depict biblical scenes. Angela told us that people of that time could not read, so this is how the stories were told. It is just beautiful. The outside just looks like an ordinary building, you wouldn’t know that it is a cathedral. Due to the religious persecution of the time, people wanted a place to pray but wanted to disguise it.

Here are some shots of the outside, the bell tower, the Archbishop’s Palace and the courtyard. You can see bullet holes on the outside of the nearby Archbishop’s Palace from the 1974 Turkish invasion.

After this visit, we went to the area of the Green Line checkpoint but are not allowed over into the Turkish side. We had free time at Ledra street in the Laki Yitsonia area where the narrow streets are lined with shops, restaurants and galleries. Great gelato here, and also some fun signs.

Great day – tomorrow we will be in Greece.

Posted in Europe, Excursions, May, World Cruise 3 | Leave a comment

Tel Aviv, Israel

Posted on May 28, 2019 by patmathews

May 26 and 27

We were so excited and couldn’t wait until these 2 days. Why? We were meeting our son, Mark and our soon to be daughter-in-law, Ramsay, in Tel Aviv. They were there on a trip called Honeymoon Israel and were scheduled to fly back to Boston just before we were to arrive in Israel, so they extended their trip by 2 days so we could meet during our trip around the world.

We arrived in Haifa on Sunday, May 26 and had a face to face immigration which needed to be completed in the terminal before 8 AM. Perfect for us, we saw the sunrise, then we got a train at 7:50 to Tel Aviv. Last time we were here we took the train there so we knew that the station was just outside the port, just about a 2 minute walk.

We booked the overnight at the hotel where they had stayed for a couple of days, the Royal Beach Hotel. It was right on the beach and a perfect location for neighborhoods, markets, old Jaffa and restaurants.

We had a great visit, lots of walking (over 8 miles on Sunday and a lot on Monday too, before we returned to the ship!) and such a nice visit with them.

Here are some of our adventures near the beach and in Old Jaffa.

I absolutely have to mention the food. We got some recommendations from various people and also went to places that Mark and Ramsay had seen or knew about. In every case, the food was delicious – we do love middle eastern food and this did not disappoint.

Here are some of the lunch photos. We learned that if you don’t want to eat too much bread you can use sweet onion to dip in the hummus. We had 3 different varieties of hummus. What a great lunch.

We wandered through the Neve Tsedek arts colony and the markets. We love markets, and the spices here are amazing, as are all of the fruits, vegetables and delicacies.

I don’t know what kind of spice that “Philadelphia” one is! I didn’t buy any.

There are some wonderful graffiti street art examples in this area. Here are just a few.

We heard a lot about Anita gelato, and it did not disappoint. Terrific.

We relaxed a while in the late afternoon, our balcony was a great place to watch the kiteboarders and people on the beach. We got to hear about Mark and Ramsay’s experience on their trip, which was wonderful.

Our dinner choice was a highly recommended restaurant, The Old Man and the Sea, which was indeed right on the sea. We took a taxi summoned by their online method which is called Gett, since we had already walked so many miles. Luckily we got there when we did because the line began building and was very long after we were seated. There must be a few hundred seats here, both inside and out. We were inside but with a large open space connected to the outside area which was truly the best of both worlds. There were lots of Muslim people there just waiting to break their Ramadan fasts.

This place was so fun to watch because it is amazingly busy with waiters running around all over the place, cooks making up the dishes at open counters, and yes, the bread man. Look at this bread! He kept making it and stacking it and it disappeared just as fast.

First they bring you 20 different kinds of appetizer portions of salads, hummus, tahini, etc., and a pitcher of their famous lemonade. We probably shouldn’t have ordered anything else because by the time our entrees came we were already pretty full. All delicious!!

The clean up is unique – no trays used here, they just stack everything and carry it back to the kitchen, usually while running.

After dinner, we walked back to the hotel along the beach and saw families having picnics to break the fast and lots of people on the scooters that are everywhere.

Nice hotel, good night’s sleep and another day awaits.

We skipped the World Cruise event in Acre and are looking forward to hearing about it, and my friend Shosh was planning to meet us but her mom had a surgical procedure and she had a reaction to anesthesia, so she wasn’t able to make it.

We couldn’t have asked for a better way to spend our time in Israel – with Mark and Ramsay!

On Monday, we went to a very cool breakfast place and again walked all around the area. Even met 2 passengers from the ship. In a huge city like Tel Aviv, what are the chances?? Small world.

More exploring, then we went back to the hotel, checked out and relaxed by the pool and had lunch.

Our ship was leaving at 8 and we had a dinner scheduled in Toscana with friends at 7:30, so we took the train back to arrive by about 5:30. Mark and Ramsay were staying until about 8 when they needed to get to the airport for a 12:30 AM flight back to Boston.

Fabulous two days. Now on to Cyprus and all of the Mediterranean ports.

Posted in Asia, Food, May, World Cruise 3 | 1 Comment

Suez Canal Transit

Posted on May 25, 2019 by patmathews

May 25, 2019

Yesterday we were at sea in the Gulf of Suez. Ray, our cruise director, created another event – Arabian Nights, and Mario had an Arabian buffet in the Terrace Café. The show was at 5:30 so that we could have a deck party at night.

We originally had a transit time through the Suez at night but that changed to a day transit, so we were anchored outside the canal until early morning hours when we would begin the transit. As Ray said, this is “Egypt time” so there is no telling when the transit would actually begin but we are sure to be anchored for the deck party.

What a fun night! I had the abaya and hijab that I had to purchase in Abu Dhabi on a previous trip and Norm had the fly net from Australia.. Here are our outfits. The flies are everywhere through the Suez.

Many of the waiters and crew were also dressed up. And the buffet was fantastic (as always!)

We had a great time at the deck party. They had 2 for 1 drinks because there were too many good outfits to give prizes. Lots of people thought Norm was the most creative!

Here are some pictures from the deck party. Not all came out great because of lighting.

And here are Andy and me in the casino after the party.

Now for the Suez Canal. This is our third passage, and there are some changes for sure. We call it “day in a ditch” because there are no locks and it is really kind of a boring trip. There are very wide areas and then some that are quite narrow. It can take about 11 hours for the full transit and only one ship at a time – so there is kind of a convoy.

The first part of the canal was completed between 1860 and 1862 and had an immediate and dramatic effect on world trade and played an important role in increasing European penetration and colonization of Africa. There was a lot of unrest and tension between Egypt and the UK and in 1954 the British agreed to pull out and Egypt’s president Nassar nationalized the canal. This caused Britain, France and Israel to invade in the week long 1956 Suez War. As a result of the damage, the canal was closed until April 1957. A UN peacekeeping force has protected the canal since 1974. About 14% of world shipping passes through the canal each year.

In 2015 Egypt officially unveiled its expansion to the Suez Canal which was completed in one third of the time originally estimated. This added an additional 22 mile shipping lane and widened the current canal. This allows an increase of the number of ships that can transit in a day from 50 to 97 and reduces the time of travel from 18 hours to the current 11 hours.

Here are some pictures from along the way. There are security checkpoints, ferries that take people and cars across as well as floating bridges that can be moved into place.

Lots of development is taking place. You see the mosques (and by the way, notice the loudspeakers – every mosque has them to announce the call to prayer 5 times each day).

The last picture shows a ship in the additional shipping lane.

Today, Ray announced something different. We will have a time change at 2 PM instead of doing it at night! We move one hour ahead before Israel. Lots of people are doing overnight tours and many are leaving early on day long tours so he thought it would be cool to change the time in mid day.

We are very excited to go to Tel Aviv tomorrow and meet our son Mark and his fiancé Ramsay. They have been traveling in Israel for 10 days and extended their trip so that we could meet them! We will stay in Tel Aviv overnight and reboard on Monday when they will fly back to Boston and we will head to Cyprus and the start of our Mediterranean ports. There will be very few sea days and lots of adventures in the ports in Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Monaco, Spain, Portugal and France.

Posted in Africa, May, World Cruise 3 | Leave a comment