Sea Day before Athens

Monday April 27 2009 - No wireless internet connection this morning, after 95 days of wireless access in the cabin, apparently there‘s something wrong with their router. I went up to deck 10 to post my blog and wireless access was available there, so it’s just a matter of distance. I went to a cooking class/ demonstration this morning as I’d left my door key in the cabin and Izzy didn’t answer the door, she was sleeping, so it was either sit in the casino or go to the cooking class. It’s cold today, a high of 10 degC (50 degF) so no pool time, after I got back into the cabin (courtesy of the room steward) I fell asleep and didn‘t waken ‘til noon (doing nothing is tiring). After lunch we attended the quiz show, ‘Brain of Royal Princess’ to find the brainiest person on board, it was an entertaining half hour where a lady from Boston beat out 3 other worthy contestants.

The Backbeat Beatles in concert in the Cabaret Lounge



The highlight of the evening was a live show starring none other than the fab four themselves, the ‘Backbeat Beatles’, the Cabaret lounge was packed to the limits. I enjoyed the show very much, they looked quite like the originals, especially Paul and John and they sounded great, singing many of the Beatles biggest hits and chatting with the audience. I had to restrain myself as I found myself almost clapping along with the music and the whole scene was made all the more penchant by the sight of so many saggy boobed old people (and that was just the men) trying to emulate the moves of their youth, I heard the medical centre was on stand-by alert.

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Istanbul

Sunday April 26 2009 - Istanbul, what can I say, I loved it, it’s exciting, visually stunning, friendly people and all at the price you want to pay. This morning our breakfast was interrupted when the captain announced ‘brace, brace, brace‘, he told us later that as the ship was coming in, an unexpected current pushed us quickly toward the dock, fortunately they just managed to avoid a collision using the thrusters.


Me in the Blue Mosque - it was a little dark




The Blue Mosque - Istanbul



We left early this morning to visit one of the city’s most recognised landmarks, the Blue Mosque. Since we were early, it wasn’t very busy, but the vendors were there waiting to pounce as soon as we stepped off the bus, if I was asked once to buy souvenir book of Istanbul, I was asked a hundred times, usually 5 or 6 times by each guy. We removed our shoes at the entrance to the mosque and carried them with us in the bags provided by our tour bus, the tour company also provided headsets and receivers which picked up from the microphone worn by the guide, so we could hear him easily even in crowds. The mosque was most impressive, the interior is decorated with more than 20,000 blue Iznik tiles and 216 stained glass windows, it is an active mosque and most of it is cordoned off for use by worshippers, but we were able to admire the entire area as our guide outlined the practises and uses of each area. Outside the mosque, we walked through the Hippodrome, once the site of a Roman circus with it’s giant obelisk transported from upper Egypt over 2000 years ago.
We moved on to the Topkapi Palace Museum and Harem, contrary to what you might think, the harem was not specifically a place for the Sultan’s women, the word ‘harem’ means ‘private area’ and it was used as living quarters for the Sultans entire family, not the least of which was his mother, who was responsible for picking new wives for him. The harem was bare and devoid of much in the way of furniture but it was still fascinating to see the inner workings of the great dwelling.

Cats at Topkapi Palace - they were very friendly, especially that little black one



A short walk took us to the museum and its’ magnificent collection of jewels, including the massive 86 carat Topkapi diamond, Izzy compared it to the diamond on her ring and gave me such a look. We passed a gold and glass chest filled with emeralds, some the size of goose eggs, other piddley little ones only about the size of a grape, then a beautiful suit of gold encrusted with jewels and sceptres and swords and sash badges and crowns all laden with gold and precious jewels and only a thin sheet of glass stopping you fondling it all and rubbing them over your naked body, Izzy drools at the thought. But the best thing about the palace was all the little cats wandering about, they were very people friendly and we found out later that they were all cared for, micro chipped, registered and fed by the state.
Since it was almost noon, our guide directed us to a picturesque spot, the Konyali Restaurant, overlooking the Bosphorus, where we had lunch, typical Turkish fare, some good, some not so good, but I got enough to eat.


Inside St Sophia church/mosque/museum



The museum of Saint Sophia was our first stop after lunch, it was built in the 4th century as the Holy Roman Church of St. Sophia, then in the 15th century, when it was converted to a mosque by the Ottoman Empire, 4 minarets were added and finally in 1936 it was transformed into its’ current use.

Izzy with water jar inside St Sophia



The interior with its’ massive dome rivals the Vatican for sheer space and grandeur, impressive giant marble jars, each carved from a single piece of stone, occupied the corners, their function to provide running water in the winter months when outside wells were frozen. Around 02.00pm we made the obligatory visit to a carpet store for a glass of apple tea and a demonstration/sales pitch on carpets, after an informative 20 minutes, we left and went shopping in the bazaar, Izzy bought a genuine Turkish carpet, we know it’s genuine since we paid $10 for it. After a while, we returned to the bus and were back at the ship by 04.30pm, in time for sail away at 05.00pm.

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Two Days at Sea after Israel

Friday April 24 2009 - Two weeks left in our trip around the world and after weeks of virtually calm seas, as we head North West in the Eastern Mediterranean, the water is a little rougher this morning. The barf bags have been set out in the hallways, a sure sign of rough weather even though, currently, It’s sunny and clear with a forecast high of 18 degC (65 degF). Our next stop, Istanbul is 400 miles to the North. We slept in ‘til 11.00am this morning, went up to play trivia, then after lunch, spent the afternoon in the casino with varying success, before getting ready for a captains cocktail party at 05.00pm. He went through the usual speech, gave out the awards for long time cruisers, warned about the coming rough weather and said he was looking forward to our arrival in Rome as he was leaving the ship for some time off at home. We arrived late for the party and only had time for one free drink, a disappointing outcome since the quality of a CCP is directly related to the number of free drinks you can drink in the allocated time.


Doreen and Bob



Saturday April 25 2009 - It’s cold today, sunny with a high of 14 degC (57 degF), the rough seas didn’t materialize and it’s still fairly calm. The afternoon’s highlight was an advance birthday party for Maine Bob at 04.30pm, his wife Doreen had arranged everything in what we called ‘smokers corner’ on deck nine. He was shocked when he turned up to find about 40 people waiting for him and even more shocked when we all sang ‘Happy Birthday to You’ followed by ‘When I’m 64’ . Doreen had beer and wine laid on as well as finger foods and the whole thing went off very well, Bob was feeling no pain by the time it broke up around 07.00pm. Istanbul is just over 100 miles to the East over the Sea of Marmara and we’re scheduled to arrive there at 07.00am tomorrow morning.

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Ashdod - Israel

Thursday April 23 2009 - Because we left Egypt late last night, there was some confusion as to when we would arrive in Israel, so we went to sleep not knowing when our shore excursion would be leaving. I set the alarm for 07.00am and when we got up, we found that we were scheduled to go through Israeli immigration and start our tour at 08.00am. We rushed breakfast and went up to the Royal Lounge at 07.55am where we waited 20 minutes for the officials to arrive then after a series of waits we made it on board our bus and started off about 08.45am.

guard on the street outside the port area




View over Jerusalem



We made a brief photo stop at a high point overlooking Jerusalem then headed down to the Dead Sea, 400 metres below sea level, my ears popped as we passed the sea level mark and continued lower, then along the coastal road to the Fortress of Masada. It was an imposing sight, a mountain block detached from the rest of the escarpment, its’ plateau 450 metres (1400 feet) above the level of the Dead Sea.

Me at the top of Masada




View from the top of Masada with cable car at the bottom left



The history of Masada is fascinating in that it was laid siege to in the first century by 8000 Roman troops, the 960 defenders of the rock, when all hope of holding out was lost, decide it was better to die by their own hand than become slaves of the Romans, subsequently they killed all their families then each other until the last person killed themselves. We took the cable car to the top and our guide, Helen, led us around describing the purpose and history of each building, there are lots of buildings still standing or reconstructed per the original. After a while, we took off ourselves having arranged to meet the guide at the bottom around 02.00pm. It is a very interesting site, much more has survived than I had imagined and much more was there in its’ time.
We met the guide back at the bottom and moved on to the Lot Hotel and Spa on the shoreline for lunch and a close up visit to the Dead Sea.

The beach area at the Dead Sea



Lunch was buffet style and was not too bad and after we had eaten, we went down to the waters edge where we had free time for a swim. We were warned not to stay in the water too long as it can cause undesirable physical effects on you, the chemicals in the water can also damage your skin and destroy any clothing immersed in it and you should make sure you don’t swallow any or get any in your eyes. It is also very important that you thoroughly wash and rinse yourself after bathing. We had about 2 and a half hours at the beach front and Izzy and I spent most of it swinging in a big hammock, we returned to the bus at 05.45pm and made the two and a half hour trip back to the ship.

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Port Said - the Pyramids

Wednesday April 22 2009 - Up at 04.45am this morning for an early start, we were to be on the bus by 06.00am. We were the last bus in our convoy which had a pick-up at front and back of the column, each pick-up had two police officers in the front and three armed soldiers in the back on seats set into the bed. On our bus and presumably the same on the other buses, in addition to the driver there was our business suited armed security guy, an Egytologist/guide and a representative from Memphis Tours. As we left the town of Port Said, each cross street was blocked and traffic held by a policeman so that the convoy never had to stop, our lead vehicle used his siren frequently to announce our coming. We left the dock area at 06.10am and arrived at the Giza Plateau just before 10.00am so it was a long journey, about an hour into it as we came through a police checkpoint, we had a few nervous moments when as the last bus, we were separated from the rest and pulled off the road as the convoy took off without us. Our tour representative got off and exchanged words with the police and after some arm waving we were back on the road. I wouldn’t want to give the impression that the people were not friendly toward us, because in general, they were, people occasionally waved and smiled as we drove by and we reciprocated.


Izzy climbed the Great Pyramid




The Great Pyramid of Cheops, with Izzy at front



We stopped for about half an hour at the great pyramid of Cheops and were able to climb part of it, it was spectacular to see and even more massive than in pictures. The vendors in the area were very aggressive, one came up and pulled off Izzy’s headgear and started to rearrange it, as he said, in the correct way, meanwhile another guy was loading me down with ‘free’ gifts, ’no charge’, he insisted it was purely a gift, then when I began to walk off he suggested I should give him a gift, just a small one, I said I had no money whatsoever and he was quick to take all his gifts back.

Izzy and friend on the high plateau




Overlooking the Giza Plateau



We then moved up to a higher plateau which gave a good view of the great pyramid, the Chephren pyramid and the Mykerinos pyramid, once again were bombarded by aggressive vendors, but the view was excellent, unfortunately we didn’t have time to ride a camel across the sands, maybe next time.

The Sphinx




Me and the Sphinx with Cephren's pyramid behind



Next we moved down to the area of the Sphinx, east of the Cephren pyramid, the Sphinx’s face is thought to be in the likeness of Cephren and is believed to have been the guardian of his tomb.
It was now about noon but before heading for lunch at a local ‘5 star’ restaurant, we stopped at a jewellery maker where several people onboard had ordered cartouches made, the quality of the cartouches was so bad that no-one would accept them.

Me, Izzy and Pat in the restaurant



Lunch as buffet style and the best that can be said is that it was edible, though I must say the restaurant staff were extremely gracious and help[ful. After lunch we made a one hour visit to the Museum of Egyptian Antiqueties, 120,000 artefacts from the pre-dynastic era to the time of the Pharaohs, then the long drive back to the ship, we reformed in convoy about half way back, arriving dockside around 06.00pm. I liked Cairo, the people were generally friendly and welcoming, but the city is an open sewer in places and poverty is everywhere, it’s a shame that the area around these major world renowned antiqueties is so poorly maintained, it might serve well to clean the place up a bit.
We ordered room service on board, then as we ate our food, an announcement was made by the captain, the canal was backed up with shipping heading South, so we weren‘t able to depart at our scheduled time, our most likely new departure time 10.00pm.

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