First it is nice to be safe and sound back home ... today is Monday 11/24/2008 and I'm writing from the comfort of my office in Bulverde ... it's really good to be home.
When I last made a web log entry we were at sea and bound for the port in Civitevicchia, Italy with an expected arrival of 4am on 11/22/2008... that turns out to have been a little optimistic. We actually limped in about 8 hours late and damn glad to have arrived at all.
All day during our last sea day (11/21/2008) the weather was turning a bit foul. High winds (the ship was reporting "Force 7 near gale force winds") and moderately high seas (4-8 ft waves which for a ship the size of the Grand Princess are really not that big a deal). It wasn't raining but it was cold enough to required a coat on deck ... the wind chill factor was pretty darn cold.
At dinner that night (around 7PM) as we looked out the window near our table we could see that the seas were definitely NOT improving and we had experienced a few "bumps in the road" that we all laughed and said we must be running over small vessels as we sailed along. One of the bumps at dinner was big enough that I suggested that one may have actually been a trawler.
We retired fairly early knowing we had a full day of getting into port, hoping we actually had a driver waiting for us at 9:30AM and then getting into Rome quick enough to get a tour of the Sistine Chapel in before returning home on 11/23. At this point we were making about 20 knots, the seas were still "reported" as "moderate" and I'm pretty sure 8 foot waves were the smallest thing we were seeing ... the sea was covered in what I call "white caps".
Somewhere around 11:15PM we were jolted to the point that not only did we wake up but it knocked out all of the power on the ship ... as in ... no lights, no engines no nothing. We were "adrift" at sea. And the sea was definitely not very happy about the whole situation. We stepped out in the hallway to see that there were emergency lights on but that was the only light.
After some time ... less than 15 minutes, they did manage to get some of the lights back on and announce that "there is no danger, the crew is working to resolve the power problem and all passengers should remain in their cabins until further notice". I wonder if there were people in the elevators and how they were fairing about then.
We walked out on the balcony and it was pretty clear that we didn't have any engines pushing us along ... but the waves were doing a fine job.
Shortly the lights and A/C systems were restored and the announcements told us that "all is under control ... please remain in your cabins". At this point the engines were either not running at all or barely making any headway against the storm.
Sleeping for the rest of the night was pretty iffy ... we did the best we could and finally around 6am (remember we were supposed to be in port at 4am ..) I got up and looked out to see that we were no where near any port of any kind ... the seas were still easily 6-8ft and the winds were still pretty stiff. The announcements told us that we should be in port around 2PM ... that would be about 10 hours late.
It is about this time people start realizing all of their travel plans were totally shot. Supposedly the phones in our cabins were "free to use at no cost" but I can assure you there was no such thing as an open line. We were also offered "free internet access in the internet cafe" but that did NOT include apparently free WIFI and there were about 10 computers in the internet cafe so you can imagine what the access to those was like.
As you might recall we had "hopefully" arranged for a driver to meet us at 9:30am ... we weren't at all confident we would be seeing him today ... later in the morning it was announced that Princess would provide free shuttle bus service to either the airport (the main airport) in Rome or to the "city center" in Rome. Carolyn and I had hotel reservations at a tiny hotel near the center of the city (as close as we could tell) but our travel companions needed to get to the "other/smaller" airport in Rome. So I snagged 6 vouchers for the bus to the center of the city with the notion from there we could catch taxi's to wherever we needed to go.
The ship was reporting that we were making about 10 knots at this point ... and our arrival was upgraded to about 12:30pm .... the seas had calmed "somewhat" and the ride smoothed considerably. We ate breakfast and sat around wondering if we would actually make it by 12:30 ... We didn't go look but there was apparently significant damage to several of the shops (like the perfume shop, the jewelery stores, the knick knack stores) as well as one of the restaurants had a broken window ... shattered ... and it sure didn't seem like we were running on all engines.
Eventually we did make it to the port ... actually around noon ... but then ... disembarkation which is usually pretty smooth was completely rearranged with a new scheduled delivered to our stateroom late in the morning.
Bottom line here is that we sat in our "disembarkation lounge" - the casino in our case for about 2.5 hours before they finally let us off the ship ... and it's now close to 2:30PM ... we grabbed our bags and of course no sign of our driver ... can't blame him I'm sure he had a schedule to keep and we were now 5 hours past our planned time to meet up with him.
Chaos doesn't begin to describe the scene outside the port terminal where we were supposed to board the free shuttles into Rome ... picture 2600+ disheveled and upset passengers, all having at this point completely lost any specific travel plans they had made months in advance, 10+ hours late disembarking the ship and with no clue which bus they and their massive amounts of luggage should go next. It was a classic goat rodeo ... and we were all the goats ...
Eventually, and I can't even remember at what time ... all 6 of our party did manage to board some bus hopefully going to the center of the city ... which it turned out meant one of the lesser train depots in mid-city Rome. To their credit, Princess did provide a "guide" on the bus to tell us where we would be arriving and getting all of our hotel or further travel plan information so a member of her company could meet us at the train depot and assist with taxis. The down side of this plan was that there were in fact many many of these buses were descending on that unsuspecting train depot and the poor fellow that was helping wrangle taxis ...
When we finally arrived and got to the "get a taxi here" spot I was happy to see that the facilitator spoke very good English because basically none of the taxi drivers spoke any English. All was well and good ... until ... I gave the address of the hotel Carolyn and I needed to go to ... the taxi driver became very excited and shook his head in the negative all the while gesturing and speaking very fast Italian ... it turns out that on that day at that time ... some sort of demonstration was going on in the exact location where we needed to get and the police had all of the streets around the area blocked off ... he could ... leave us about two kilometers from where we needed to go ... NOT!!!!!!!! ... The excited Italian discourse went on for a while, I explained to the facilitator that no way in hell was I gonna be dropped of in the middle of Rome with 4 50 pound bags and no clue how to get to my hotel ... interestingly ... now we got to the point of ... "normally the ride from where we were to where we wanted to go would be 10 euros ... but with this demonstration the driver would have to take many many turns and if we could get there at all it could cost as much as 25 euros ... ah ha!!!! ... the situation is now clear .. :Can he get us to the front door of the hotel for 25 euros??? " .... " why yes I believe he can ... " ... "load that taxi up we are on our way .... "
25 euros later with very little having to circle around the barricades ... we magically arrive at our hotel ... took maybe 15 minutes ... at this point 25 euros was cheap in my mind.
We struggled with our bags up into the hotel and checked in to a room about the size of one our bed rooms in the house ... but this one included a bathroom with shower, sink, toilet .. actually we were glad to have the restroom "en-suite" vs down the hall.
We set the alarm for 5am ... our flight out of Rome was at 9:45am ... we actually woke up about 4am ... got the night desk clerk to get us a taxi and were on our way to the airport at 5:30am .... the rest of the travel home went as planned we actually got to the house about midnight ...
I'll post pictures in the gallery later this week once I've had time to decompress and catchup with work ....
What a last 48 hours this has been
Bade
--
Bade
Like an old desperado ... painting the town beige
Monday, November 24, 2008
Friday, November 21, 2008
Pyramid central, camel jockeys and another bus ride ...
Cairo/Giza ... 11/19/2008
After breakfast at the "palace" we hopped on the bus for a repeat drive into Giza and the site of the pyramids. This time it was in daylight and we were taken up to the actual pyramid and Sphinx location.
Our guide took a count of people wanting to ride a camel (either single or double) and then cautioned us not to get suckered into a camel ride on our own ... getting on the camel is free ... getting off however is at whatever price the camel jockey tells you ... our guide would arrange for all of us that wanted to ride and we would pay later in the day when we settled up with the tour company .. a "single" was $15 and a "double" would be $25 ... as you can see by the pictures all of us opted for the singles.
As we walked around the pyramids it was amazing to try and picture what it was like 5000 years ago. Essentially a bustling "city" existed to support the workers. Our guide was adamant that the pyramids were not in fact built by slaves but rather by dedicated Egyptians that viewed the Pharaohs as partly divine and considered it an honor to work on the pyramids.
There were of course hundreds (thousands) of tourists from all over the world just like us gawking at the incredible size of these monuments ... but in addition to tourists there were many many many school aged children present ... clearly with their school classes on a field trip. They were all smiling and waving at the "Americans" and eager to talk to us, tell us their name and to "welcome us to Egypt". Linda had brought a number of ball point pens and was very popular with the students as she gave them away.
After our alloted time taking pictures and wondering around we were herded back on the bus and driven further up the hill to where the camels were tethered and set up to take riders. The air was pungent with the "aroma" of camel ... and sweaty camel jockeys ... made ones eyes water.
The temperature has been a pleasant mid-60's while were have been in Egypt with mostly clear sky's.
>From my perspective mounting and riding a camel wasn't that much different than a horse. The camel is kneeling or "sitting" on the ground with it's legs folded under it, one uses a stirrup to mount onto the blanketed "saddle" and then you alternately lean back and forward as the camel unfolds it's long legs and stands up in sort of a two part action. Camels are tall.
Once mounted the camel jockey in his long flowing "dress" (not sure what they are really called) and tennis shoes and dark shades hands you one "rein" and basically leads the camel and constantly talks to the beast so he doesn't just stop. My jockey was very talkative and insisted on taking several pictures of me as we went along. The ride was only about 1/4 mile and at the tail end he allowed me to "trot" the camel to get a feel for the animals gait ... it was mostly smooth and I felt very secure for the whole short ride. Once we stopped the camel was "instructed" to re-seat itself which again involved a series of bends and dips.
We had been told that tipping the jockeys was expected .. I gave him 2 euros which he was not really happy with and was asking for "paper" money ... so I took the two euros back and handed him a US $5 ... he still wasn't thrilled but as I walked away he said he'd like to have the euros ... I gave him one of the two and he seemed satisfied ...
After all the riders were done we ... boarded the bus yet again and were taken to another restaurant for lunch (about 12:30pm this time) and then back on the bus to our final destination before the long drive to Alexandria.
Our last Cairo stop was at a "government approved" papyrus store and tourist store combination. We were given a brief demonstration on how papyrus was made and then encouraged to buy some of the wonderful art on papyrus they had there. We also did some brief shopping for souvineers and then boarded the bus for the 3+ hours drive to Alexandria.
We arrived at the port about 6:15pm and the ship sailed for Rome (Civitevicchia) at about 7:45PM.
This will be the last posting before we get home to Texas ...
Today is actually Friday 11/21 and we just passed through the Messina straight ... we will arrive at the port very early on 11/22 ... we are scheduled to get off the ship about 9:30AM tomorrow .. we DO believe we have successfully scheduled a ride back to Rome with the same guy that drove us from Rome to the port ... so fingers crossed he will be waiting for us.
Carolyn and I will stay the night in Rome and leave very early on 11/23 for the airport hoping to be home around midnight.
Our companions Woodie/Linda, Paul/Jeannie are going to the smaller airport in Rome and hopefully flying out late back to Germany where they hope to catch another military transport back to the states.
It's been a great adventure ... we are ready to be home ... I'll post lottsa pics in the gallery once I'm home and have some time ...
Hope you enjoyed the trip!
After breakfast at the "palace" we hopped on the bus for a repeat drive into Giza and the site of the pyramids. This time it was in daylight and we were taken up to the actual pyramid and Sphinx location.
Our guide took a count of people wanting to ride a camel (either single or double) and then cautioned us not to get suckered into a camel ride on our own ... getting on the camel is free ... getting off however is at whatever price the camel jockey tells you ... our guide would arrange for all of us that wanted to ride and we would pay later in the day when we settled up with the tour company .. a "single" was $15 and a "double" would be $25 ... as you can see by the pictures all of us opted for the singles.
As we walked around the pyramids it was amazing to try and picture what it was like 5000 years ago. Essentially a bustling "city" existed to support the workers. Our guide was adamant that the pyramids were not in fact built by slaves but rather by dedicated Egyptians that viewed the Pharaohs as partly divine and considered it an honor to work on the pyramids.
There were of course hundreds (thousands) of tourists from all over the world just like us gawking at the incredible size of these monuments ... but in addition to tourists there were many many many school aged children present ... clearly with their school classes on a field trip. They were all smiling and waving at the "Americans" and eager to talk to us, tell us their name and to "welcome us to Egypt". Linda had brought a number of ball point pens and was very popular with the students as she gave them away.
After our alloted time taking pictures and wondering around we were herded back on the bus and driven further up the hill to where the camels were tethered and set up to take riders. The air was pungent with the "aroma" of camel ... and sweaty camel jockeys ... made ones eyes water.
The temperature has been a pleasant mid-60's while were have been in Egypt with mostly clear sky's.
>From my perspective mounting and riding a camel wasn't that much different than a horse. The camel is kneeling or "sitting" on the ground with it's legs folded under it, one uses a stirrup to mount onto the blanketed "saddle" and then you alternately lean back and forward as the camel unfolds it's long legs and stands up in sort of a two part action. Camels are tall.
Once mounted the camel jockey in his long flowing "dress" (not sure what they are really called) and tennis shoes and dark shades hands you one "rein" and basically leads the camel and constantly talks to the beast so he doesn't just stop. My jockey was very talkative and insisted on taking several pictures of me as we went along. The ride was only about 1/4 mile and at the tail end he allowed me to "trot" the camel to get a feel for the animals gait ... it was mostly smooth and I felt very secure for the whole short ride. Once we stopped the camel was "instructed" to re-seat itself which again involved a series of bends and dips.
We had been told that tipping the jockeys was expected .. I gave him 2 euros which he was not really happy with and was asking for "paper" money ... so I took the two euros back and handed him a US $5 ... he still wasn't thrilled but as I walked away he said he'd like to have the euros ... I gave him one of the two and he seemed satisfied ...
After all the riders were done we ... boarded the bus yet again and were taken to another restaurant for lunch (about 12:30pm this time) and then back on the bus to our final destination before the long drive to Alexandria.
Our last Cairo stop was at a "government approved" papyrus store and tourist store combination. We were given a brief demonstration on how papyrus was made and then encouraged to buy some of the wonderful art on papyrus they had there. We also did some brief shopping for souvineers and then boarded the bus for the 3+ hours drive to Alexandria.
We arrived at the port about 6:15pm and the ship sailed for Rome (Civitevicchia) at about 7:45PM.
This will be the last posting before we get home to Texas ...
Today is actually Friday 11/21 and we just passed through the Messina straight ... we will arrive at the port very early on 11/22 ... we are scheduled to get off the ship about 9:30AM tomorrow .. we DO believe we have successfully scheduled a ride back to Rome with the same guy that drove us from Rome to the port ... so fingers crossed he will be waiting for us.
Carolyn and I will stay the night in Rome and leave very early on 11/23 for the airport hoping to be home around midnight.
Our companions Woodie/Linda, Paul/Jeannie are going to the smaller airport in Rome and hopefully flying out late back to Germany where they hope to catch another military transport back to the states.
It's been a great adventure ... we are ready to be home ... I'll post lottsa pics in the gallery once I'm home and have some time ...
Hope you enjoyed the trip!
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Of pyramids in the dark and a night in a palace ...
Cairo ... 11/18/2008
After arriving in the city limits and hitting the unbelievable traffic we continued on to Sacaro the site of the "Step Pyramid" which was the first pyramid built around 5000 years ago. We learned that this "stepped" design was the early prototype for the more familiar pyramids we would see later at Giza.
We spent some time taking pictures and wandering around the site then loaded back on the buses and off to eat "lunch" at about 2pm ... it's no small trick to find restaurants that can accommodate 130+ people but it was all wonderfully arranged and included in our package as were all of the entry fees to the various sites.
After lunch back on the bus (seeing a pattern here? we spent a lot of time on that bus!) and over to the Egyptian Museum of Cairo. This is a huge museum that would take days to explore fully. Due to our limited time our guide "Amro" escorted us through the King Tut portion where we saw all of the famous pieces of that discovery. We learned several interesting things about Tut... basically he was an unimportant historical figure but gets all the press because by accident his tomb had not been pillaged by tomb raiders and so his artifacts are the ones found mostly intact.
In the main "room" where the sarcophagus and head mask are kept we squeezed in with literally hundreds of other sightseers in a way too small space. (Think NIOSA on a bad night) ... after that we broke off from the main group and wandered around the museum on our own just gawking at amazing things and reading the little signs until it was time to ... board the bus for another of Mr. Toad's wild ride through the streets of Cairo.
We made our way to Giza which is the site of the Great Pyramid and the Sphinx.
By this time it was getting dark. Our guide passed out tickets to the Sound and Light Show. We made our way to the seating area where there were rows and rows of folding chairs set up. Shortly after we set down (facing what by this time was a dark "stage area") some men dressed in traditional garb came around beating drums and playing various types of horns ... this lasted a while and then out of the darkness came an amplified voice describing the evolution of the ancient Egyptian civilization ... and the as if by magic the three pyramids of Giza were briefly lighted ... we were seated at the foot of these majestic creations of man. Soon the lasers "drew"" various parts of the narrated story on the face of the pyramids and the Sphinx was lighted in various colors as the narrative told us the story of the Sphinx.
The light show lasted 55 minutes and was well worth the harrowing transit through the traffic.
After the show we ... boarded the bus ... and were taken to our "hotel" for the evening to check-in (actually our guide already had our room keys all we had to do was "find our room") and freshen up before our dinner and "show".
Our hotel was it turns out first built in 1869 as a palace to accommodate dignitaries attending the Suez Canal inauguration ceremonies. It was constructed on an island in the middle of the Nile. Today it is still a palace with many of the old palace rooms used as dining and meeting rooms but it has been expanded into a huge 5 star hotel. Our suite had 3 rooms and a bathroom almost as big as our entire stateroom on the ship. The king sized bed was a welcome site.
A quick shower and change of clothes and we hurried downstairs to meet up with the group to walk across the street to a huge "floating restaurant" on the Nile where we were treated to a nice buffet dinner and show that included several different dance troops, a whirling dirvish and a belly dancer. An amazing night to top of and amazing day.
Carolyn and I ducked out of the dinner a little early ... we were beat to a frazzle and were happy to hit the bed about 10:30pm
The next morning we were served a great buffet breakfast in one of the huge palace rooms and then ... back on the bus to the Giza Pyramids ...
I'll save that tale for the next posting.
After arriving in the city limits and hitting the unbelievable traffic we continued on to Sacaro the site of the "Step Pyramid" which was the first pyramid built around 5000 years ago. We learned that this "stepped" design was the early prototype for the more familiar pyramids we would see later at Giza.
We spent some time taking pictures and wandering around the site then loaded back on the buses and off to eat "lunch" at about 2pm ... it's no small trick to find restaurants that can accommodate 130+ people but it was all wonderfully arranged and included in our package as were all of the entry fees to the various sites.
After lunch back on the bus (seeing a pattern here? we spent a lot of time on that bus!) and over to the Egyptian Museum of Cairo. This is a huge museum that would take days to explore fully. Due to our limited time our guide "Amro" escorted us through the King Tut portion where we saw all of the famous pieces of that discovery. We learned several interesting things about Tut... basically he was an unimportant historical figure but gets all the press because by accident his tomb had not been pillaged by tomb raiders and so his artifacts are the ones found mostly intact.
In the main "room" where the sarcophagus and head mask are kept we squeezed in with literally hundreds of other sightseers in a way too small space. (Think NIOSA on a bad night) ... after that we broke off from the main group and wandered around the museum on our own just gawking at amazing things and reading the little signs until it was time to ... board the bus for another of Mr. Toad's wild ride through the streets of Cairo.
We made our way to Giza which is the site of the Great Pyramid and the Sphinx.
By this time it was getting dark. Our guide passed out tickets to the Sound and Light Show. We made our way to the seating area where there were rows and rows of folding chairs set up. Shortly after we set down (facing what by this time was a dark "stage area") some men dressed in traditional garb came around beating drums and playing various types of horns ... this lasted a while and then out of the darkness came an amplified voice describing the evolution of the ancient Egyptian civilization ... and the as if by magic the three pyramids of Giza were briefly lighted ... we were seated at the foot of these majestic creations of man. Soon the lasers "drew"" various parts of the narrated story on the face of the pyramids and the Sphinx was lighted in various colors as the narrative told us the story of the Sphinx.
The light show lasted 55 minutes and was well worth the harrowing transit through the traffic.
After the show we ... boarded the bus ... and were taken to our "hotel" for the evening to check-in (actually our guide already had our room keys all we had to do was "find our room") and freshen up before our dinner and "show".
Our hotel was it turns out first built in 1869 as a palace to accommodate dignitaries attending the Suez Canal inauguration ceremonies. It was constructed on an island in the middle of the Nile. Today it is still a palace with many of the old palace rooms used as dining and meeting rooms but it has been expanded into a huge 5 star hotel. Our suite had 3 rooms and a bathroom almost as big as our entire stateroom on the ship. The king sized bed was a welcome site.
A quick shower and change of clothes and we hurried downstairs to meet up with the group to walk across the street to a huge "floating restaurant" on the Nile where we were treated to a nice buffet dinner and show that included several different dance troops, a whirling dirvish and a belly dancer. An amazing night to top of and amazing day.
Carolyn and I ducked out of the dinner a little early ... we were beat to a frazzle and were happy to hit the bed about 10:30pm
The next morning we were served a great buffet breakfast in one of the huge palace rooms and then ... back on the bus to the Giza Pyramids ...
I'll save that tale for the next posting.
Into Egypt we go ... or ... "Looks a lot like West Texas ..."
Port Said, Egypt ... 11/18/2008
We docked early this morning and met up with the rest of our "tour group" of approx 130+ persons in one of the ship's smaller dining areas. This tour group had all been arranged and booked independent of the cruise line. The lady that had coordinated the whole tour was supposed to be sailing with us but had a family emergency that caused her to be unable to make the trip ... several very capable and experienced travelers that had booked as we did agreed to coordinate in her stead and we carried on.
The whole package including the buses from Port Said to Cairo, the various exhibit tours like the pyramids, the museum and such, the overnight stay in Cairo, and the bus trip out of Cairo to the port in Alexandria all were included in our package cost of $295/per person ... this was virtually the same overnight package Princess offered for $799/pp ... so if you are not aware of www.cruisecritic.com and the wonderful and experienced cruisers that hang out there ... be sure to check it out before taking a cruise ... you will save money and have better tours!
Our troop boarded 4 big buses (the kind that have a potty onboard) and motored thru the dirty crowded streets of Port Said towards Cairo. We noticed as we motored along main boulevards in Port Said that the side streets were all blocked off by armed soldiers and police. It turns out that our group of 4 buses were a very small part of over 100 such buses leaving the port all together ... the modern version of a camel caravan I suppose. The people along the route out of town were all smiles and waves as we passed them by.
The journey to Cairo was about 3.5 hours long. All along the way we were escorted by some number of "jeeps" and "pickups" loaded with armed military personnel ... the highway was 4 lane + most of the way and these escorts would zoom along side us or jet past sirens blasting to "clear a path" as the hapless Egyptian "regular" traffic tried to get out of the way ... I guess these folks are used to this sort of thing along the highway but it seemed odd to me to have someone with a gun telling other motorists "we" had the right of way ,,, ALL the way.
The "scenery" along the route was interesting. To our left for a good bit of the way was the Suez Canal. As we zipped along we passed several really huge tankers and cargo vessels in the canal. On the right side we saw a mixture of clearly irrigated farms and very stark desert.
The "farms" were typically only a few acres of neatly cultivated and kept crops. Often we would see people in the fields essentially doing the farming "by hand" and "by donkey". We saw a FEW tractors and such but it was apparent that most of the work was done the very od fashioned way. The farm "houses" themselves were generally VERY small square shaped flat roofed buildings, often with no apparent "doors" just entry ways. Many children were in evidence all doing farm work as well. I asked our guide "Amro" if these farms were privately owned and he said no for the most part the land and farms are owned by the government and the farmers were "renting" which I took to mean much like tenant farmers.
Occasionally we would see very large crop fields and these he said would be privately owned farms by very wealthy people.
As we arrived in Cairo Amro started to tell us a bit about the city ... 25 million people live in Cairo ... that is a LOT of people. As we discovered later, 24 million of them must drive some sort of vehicle ... the traffic in Cairo has to be seen to be believed, I thought that Rome had a traffic problem ... in comparison to Cairo Rome is a well ordered town of very careful and courteous drivers! The "stripes" on the roads of Cairo are only loose "guidelines" and never taken seriously ... the two "must be working" parts of ones vehicle are brakes and a horn and you can get by without brakes.
I can't possibly describe what it was actually like to be in a behemoth of a bus, in a row of now 4 buses (as the other tours went their own way once we reached Cairo) driving down streets that are way too narrow for my Mini-Cooper with 3 sometimes 4 "lanes" of traffic made up of cars, trucks, buses, bicycles, scooters, and carts pulled by donkeys ... moving when possible at fairly high speeds en-masse. There were many times when we could easily have reached out the window (but they were thankfully sealed) and patted people on the head shoulder or the top of their vehicles next to us ... well less than three or four inches of separation between sides of the vehicles.
Our first stop was actually in Sacarro at the "Step Pyramid" ... I'll describe that in my next post.
We docked early this morning and met up with the rest of our "tour group" of approx 130+ persons in one of the ship's smaller dining areas. This tour group had all been arranged and booked independent of the cruise line. The lady that had coordinated the whole tour was supposed to be sailing with us but had a family emergency that caused her to be unable to make the trip ... several very capable and experienced travelers that had booked as we did agreed to coordinate in her stead and we carried on.
The whole package including the buses from Port Said to Cairo, the various exhibit tours like the pyramids, the museum and such, the overnight stay in Cairo, and the bus trip out of Cairo to the port in Alexandria all were included in our package cost of $295/per person ... this was virtually the same overnight package Princess offered for $799/pp ... so if you are not aware of www.cruisecritic.com and the wonderful and experienced cruisers that hang out there ... be sure to check it out before taking a cruise ... you will save money and have better tours!
Our troop boarded 4 big buses (the kind that have a potty onboard) and motored thru the dirty crowded streets of Port Said towards Cairo. We noticed as we motored along main boulevards in Port Said that the side streets were all blocked off by armed soldiers and police. It turns out that our group of 4 buses were a very small part of over 100 such buses leaving the port all together ... the modern version of a camel caravan I suppose. The people along the route out of town were all smiles and waves as we passed them by.
The journey to Cairo was about 3.5 hours long. All along the way we were escorted by some number of "jeeps" and "pickups" loaded with armed military personnel ... the highway was 4 lane + most of the way and these escorts would zoom along side us or jet past sirens blasting to "clear a path" as the hapless Egyptian "regular" traffic tried to get out of the way ... I guess these folks are used to this sort of thing along the highway but it seemed odd to me to have someone with a gun telling other motorists "we" had the right of way ,,, ALL the way.
The "scenery" along the route was interesting. To our left for a good bit of the way was the Suez Canal. As we zipped along we passed several really huge tankers and cargo vessels in the canal. On the right side we saw a mixture of clearly irrigated farms and very stark desert.
The "farms" were typically only a few acres of neatly cultivated and kept crops. Often we would see people in the fields essentially doing the farming "by hand" and "by donkey". We saw a FEW tractors and such but it was apparent that most of the work was done the very od fashioned way. The farm "houses" themselves were generally VERY small square shaped flat roofed buildings, often with no apparent "doors" just entry ways. Many children were in evidence all doing farm work as well. I asked our guide "Amro" if these farms were privately owned and he said no for the most part the land and farms are owned by the government and the farmers were "renting" which I took to mean much like tenant farmers.
Occasionally we would see very large crop fields and these he said would be privately owned farms by very wealthy people.
As we arrived in Cairo Amro started to tell us a bit about the city ... 25 million people live in Cairo ... that is a LOT of people. As we discovered later, 24 million of them must drive some sort of vehicle ... the traffic in Cairo has to be seen to be believed, I thought that Rome had a traffic problem ... in comparison to Cairo Rome is a well ordered town of very careful and courteous drivers! The "stripes" on the roads of Cairo are only loose "guidelines" and never taken seriously ... the two "must be working" parts of ones vehicle are brakes and a horn and you can get by without brakes.
I can't possibly describe what it was actually like to be in a behemoth of a bus, in a row of now 4 buses (as the other tours went their own way once we reached Cairo) driving down streets that are way too narrow for my Mini-Cooper with 3 sometimes 4 "lanes" of traffic made up of cars, trucks, buses, bicycles, scooters, and carts pulled by donkeys ... moving when possible at fairly high speeds en-masse. There were many times when we could easily have reached out the window (but they were thankfully sealed) and patted people on the head shoulder or the top of their vehicles next to us ... well less than three or four inches of separation between sides of the vehicles.
Our first stop was actually in Sacarro at the "Step Pyramid" ... I'll describe that in my next post.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
We are out of Egypt back on the ship and underway to Rome ...
Just a very brief note to let friends and family know we did in fact
make it back to the ship and are underway towards Rome. The crossing is
two days and we have no additional stops before docking in the port there.
make it back to the ship and are underway towards Rome. The crossing is
two days and we have no additional stops before docking in the port there.
Many pics and tales to share of our Egyptian adventure but not tonight
... I'll post some detail tomorrow while at sea.
Bade
Monday, November 17, 2008
Tomorrow ... Egypt!!!... or "Ride 'em Camelboy!!!"
Well it's finally here ... the long awaited excursion to the pyramids.
We will hook up with our "private group" (of about 130+ people) tomorrow
AM on the ship and disembark as a group to load up on 3 buses for the
3hr+ drive to Cairo from Port Said.
We will be in Bus #2 ,,, no doubt the best bus in the group!
Our excursion will have us visiting the Step Pyramid, the pyramids of
Giza including the "Great Pyramid" and the Sphinx ... and ... we plan to
"ride a camel" ... that will no doubt be an experience in itself.
Tomorrow night we are supposed to see a "Light show" over the Nile and
have dinner "on the Nile" (actually on the banks of the Nile I believe
the actual boat cruise we had planned got superseded by the Egyptian
government for some sort of special occasion.) We should get to see
some belly dancers and "whirling dirvishes" as entertainment during
dinner. We will be staying in the Cairo Hilton overnight and then back
on the buses to journey to Alexandria ... I believe there is to be some
museum time and shopping before we re-board the Grand Princess and start
our two days of sea travel back to the port outside Rome.
So don't look for posts from me for a couple of days.
Also I managed to get only 1 picture of the Mykonos stop posted to the
gallery ... the internet link on the ship has been awful today.
Bade
Sunday, November 16, 2008
After the "season" the whole Island shuts down???
Mykonos ... is a small Greek island that attracts the rich "jet set" types from around the world in the months March through November ... after that the cruise ships stop coming and the island essentially "closes" for three months.
We are one of the very last ships expected to dock this year and it was evident that the island shop owners were preparing to close up for the winter. Since today was Sunday we expected to see several closed shops but for the most part things were open ... in virtually every shop we entered (and we entered many) we were given the same "end of the season special sale price" spiel ... every thing is 1/2 price.
It seemed to me that the predominate items for sale were gold jewlery ... there had to be 30 - 40 "gold shops" all pretty much with what looked to me like the same goods. The jewelry is all apparently made in and around Athens and then sold on Mykonos because of a significant tax break. Or so we were told. Since Carolyn really doesn't wear much jewelry I was happily surprised when she bought a lovely "Greek" necklace.
One of the most striking things about the island is the cube shaped homes, apartments and stores that dominate the sea shore and steep cliffs overlooking the sea. Virtually all of these structures (99% easily) are painted stark white from top to bottom and they typically have blue trim on shutters, doors and window trim. It gives the whole island a very ordered and clean look.
Although Carolyn and I did not make the short hike to see them the island is also famous for its windmills ... as early as the 16th century windmills have been a constant landmark on the island. In the glory days these windmills were used to grind grain to make it easier to ship. The island was on a main shipping lane and had an abundance of wind year round so an entire industry of grain milling grew up there.
Our travel companions all spent more time site seeing on the island than did Carolyn and I ... I think after the necklace buying experience we were both a bit in shock and caught a fairly early shuttle back to the ship.
Tomorrow is a sea day as we make our way South to the Egyptian port Port Said ("Sah eeed"). There we will disembark very early and be transported to Cairo, tour that area and then spend the night in Cairo and be bussed the next day to Alexandria. It is unlikely I will be posting until we get back on the ship in Alexandria. But we should have some tails and pictures of that part of the trip.
The Grand Princess looks exactly as it did in 2006 when we sailed her in the Caribbean. We have a smaller stateroom than we did on that cruise but still a nice balcony.
The demographics of the passengers (all 2600+ of them) is about what you would expect for late season cruisers. The significant majority are retired couples, mostly able bodied ... I have seen only a handful of children onboard. There are some 20 and 30 somethings but not many. When our docking time has allowed or we have a sea day I have managed to hit the jogging track and am so far the only person foolish enough to actually be jogging at the time. The track is 1/10 mile (so bigger than the Alaska trip) and has a nice "padding" around most of the track. I encounter a small handful of "walkers" but well less than 10 at any given time. I strolled through the gym today and was surprised to see every treadmill, bike and stair stepper in use ... mostly by those 20 & 30 somethings ... but as on the previous ship it was hot and stuffy in the gym and I don't understand why there aren't more people using the track outside. We have been blessed with picture perfect weather in all ports of call ... hope that holds up.
We had a very nice dinner in the ship's steakhouse tonight and all agreed it was a great meal.
We have at this point only one small concern and that is as yet we haven't nailed down how we will get back to Rome from the port ... I've been in email contact with one shuttle service that will accommodate the two drop off points we need since Carolyn and I are staying over in Rome and the other two couples fly out back to Germany very late on 11/22 ... the cost is fairly steep and we haven't yet settled on exactly how we are going to work that detail.
I'll post a few pics of Mykonos after my massage tomorrow ... yep life is tough out here on the high seas ...
Bade
We are one of the very last ships expected to dock this year and it was evident that the island shop owners were preparing to close up for the winter. Since today was Sunday we expected to see several closed shops but for the most part things were open ... in virtually every shop we entered (and we entered many) we were given the same "end of the season special sale price" spiel ... every thing is 1/2 price.
It seemed to me that the predominate items for sale were gold jewlery ... there had to be 30 - 40 "gold shops" all pretty much with what looked to me like the same goods. The jewelry is all apparently made in and around Athens and then sold on Mykonos because of a significant tax break. Or so we were told. Since Carolyn really doesn't wear much jewelry I was happily surprised when she bought a lovely "Greek" necklace.
One of the most striking things about the island is the cube shaped homes, apartments and stores that dominate the sea shore and steep cliffs overlooking the sea. Virtually all of these structures (99% easily) are painted stark white from top to bottom and they typically have blue trim on shutters, doors and window trim. It gives the whole island a very ordered and clean look.
Although Carolyn and I did not make the short hike to see them the island is also famous for its windmills ... as early as the 16th century windmills have been a constant landmark on the island. In the glory days these windmills were used to grind grain to make it easier to ship. The island was on a main shipping lane and had an abundance of wind year round so an entire industry of grain milling grew up there.
Our travel companions all spent more time site seeing on the island than did Carolyn and I ... I think after the necklace buying experience we were both a bit in shock and caught a fairly early shuttle back to the ship.
Tomorrow is a sea day as we make our way South to the Egyptian port Port Said ("Sah eeed"). There we will disembark very early and be transported to Cairo, tour that area and then spend the night in Cairo and be bussed the next day to Alexandria. It is unlikely I will be posting until we get back on the ship in Alexandria. But we should have some tails and pictures of that part of the trip.
The Grand Princess looks exactly as it did in 2006 when we sailed her in the Caribbean. We have a smaller stateroom than we did on that cruise but still a nice balcony.
The demographics of the passengers (all 2600+ of them) is about what you would expect for late season cruisers. The significant majority are retired couples, mostly able bodied ... I have seen only a handful of children onboard. There are some 20 and 30 somethings but not many. When our docking time has allowed or we have a sea day I have managed to hit the jogging track and am so far the only person foolish enough to actually be jogging at the time. The track is 1/10 mile (so bigger than the Alaska trip) and has a nice "padding" around most of the track. I encounter a small handful of "walkers" but well less than 10 at any given time. I strolled through the gym today and was surprised to see every treadmill, bike and stair stepper in use ... mostly by those 20 & 30 somethings ... but as on the previous ship it was hot and stuffy in the gym and I don't understand why there aren't more people using the track outside. We have been blessed with picture perfect weather in all ports of call ... hope that holds up.
We had a very nice dinner in the ship's steakhouse tonight and all agreed it was a great meal.
We have at this point only one small concern and that is as yet we haven't nailed down how we will get back to Rome from the port ... I've been in email contact with one shuttle service that will accommodate the two drop off points we need since Carolyn and I are staying over in Rome and the other two couples fly out back to Germany very late on 11/22 ... the cost is fairly steep and we haven't yet settled on exactly how we are going to work that detail.
I'll post a few pics of Mykonos after my massage tomorrow ... yep life is tough out here on the high seas ...
Bade
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Just how many mosques does it take ? ,,, or ... Which way exactly is Mecca??
Istanbul ... we definitely ain't in Kansas (or Texas) any more ...
This is a city of between 13 and 15 million people ... that's a lotta people and as far as I could tell they all drive cars downtown ... I thought the traffic in Rome was bad (and it was) but Istanbul seems to have more drivers and fewer associated hand gestures!
We began our tour today by being met by our guide and driver (you really can't imagine the relief I felt when I saw the "Mr Millsap" sign in our guides' hand as we exited the port terminal in a mass of humanity leaving the ship ... as with Ephesus I had booked and we all paid for this tour over the internet ... with no real clue as to whether or not we had sent our credit card numbers off to Turkey only to be used to supply weaponry to Al Ceada <sp>. I feel somewhat responsible for these tours and until I actually see we have indeed secured what we hoped we purchased I'm a little on edge.
Our guide "Tolga" was a young man (34 yrs old) with a degree in Civil Engineering ... why he's guiding tours I can't really say but he was pleasant, informative, very direct about how he felt about the radical Islam clerics and spoke tolerably good English (sooooooo much better than my Turkish!!).
As on our previous tours he suggested we scoot boots to get ahead of the cruise line package tours of hundreds of people who were no doubt headed to the same sports as us. Our tour was scheduled for as much as 6 hours. (through the cruise line this was a $749 tour ... we paid just slightly less than that for the Ephesus and Istanbul tours total together -- we booked both tours thru the same company).
Our first stop was the Hippodrome which is basically not much more than a large elongated oval "area" where Roman circus (chariots and such) games were played ... honestly I didn't see what all the fuss was about ... it has several obelisks that mark the center line of the area but beyond that it's just a "space" in the middle of downtown Istanbul mostly covered in wide sidewalks and streets now days. Tolga did a lengthy "lecture" on why the area was important to the Turkish people, how the 3 remaining obelisks were transported and erected but I was a bit underwhelmed.
Just next to the Hippodrome is the Blue Mosque ... this actually was worth the visit ... it is surrounded by 6 "minarets" which are the tall spires you will see in the pictures from which the Muslim faithful are called to prayer facing Mecca 5 times a day. The minarets are in and of themselves a site to behold as they glitter with gold caps high in the sky and surround the mosque itself. The "Blue" mosque is so named because of the more than 20,000 blue Iznik tiles that adorn its walls inside. These are all hand painted and valued at tens of thousands of dollars each! The interior walls are also covered in many many tons of gold decorations. The sheer size of the mosque is startling as you gaze up to the top of the domed ceilings. To enter the mosque we were required to remove our shoes and carry them around in a small plastic bag until we exited. While in the mosque our guide explained about how the call to prayer was done and how afterwards the "Imam" or head honcho cleric would then ascend a set of stairs and "preach" the daily lesson ... it is, according to our guide, these "lessons" that have in some instances corrupted the actual beliefs of the Islam religion and as in Iran have basically turned away from the Koran and instilled in the people many false beliefs. Our guide said he has not attended a service in a mosque in over two years for that reason. We got a decidedly different version of Islam than we often hear about on Western TV.
>From the Blue Mosque we walked over to the Topkapi Palace museum. This was the former palace of the Ottoman sultans (the guys we see in the movies that look like they have a giant towel wrapped around their heads for a hat). The absolute opulence of the artifacts in the museum was incredible! Among many other things we saw jewel encrusted swords, belts, garments, knives, bows, and an entire glass "box" filled to the brim with loose emeralds ... big emeralds as in chicken egg sized emeralds. Most amazing to me was the solid gold baby cradle with hundreds of emeralds, rubies, diamonds and other precious stones encrusted all over it. We also saw a 56 carat diamond ... looked like it might be a bit gaudy for an engagement ring! This is likely as close as I will ever be to several Ming dynasty pieces of pottery.
Leaving the palace we walked over to St. Sophia museum which "was" a mosque and a church at various times in the 5 or so hundreds of years since it was first constructed but is now solely a museum. It was interesting to see the combinations of the Christian and Islamic holy symbols and icons juxtaposed against each other in this one place.
After we let St. Sophia's our guide walked us over to a small sidewalk restaurant were we enjoyed a "typical I suppose" Turkish meal ... there were no tacos or enchiladas on the menu!
Next we jumped into our Mercedes Bentz "minivan" and drove through again narrow, windy, crowded streets to the Grand Bazaar ...
Picture any Mexican Mercado you have ever been in ... now ... picture it covered with domed ceilings and housing over 4,000 shops, its own school, its own mosque, post office and police station. ... hence the title Grand ... this Bazaar was establish in the mid-1400's and is still going strong today.
We were given some helpful information about how not to get hopelessly lost in the warrens of the Bazaar and then shooed off on our way to shop ... it really didn't take long to become lost ...I'd say ... 3 minutes maybe 5 ... uh oh ... but in time we managed to find the key "street" Tolga had told us to look for and knew we coud escape. None of our group was particularly taken with the shopping experience in the bazaar ... haggling is expected and the quality of goods is definitely suspect. A few small items were purchased and we escaped into the somewhat chilly and blustery late afternoon air ... we met up with our guide who called our driver and specified where to pick us up ... due to the density of the area and the absolute crazy traffic congestion it was important to give the driver enough of a head start that he could arrive at the same corner as we did at about the same time or we would have a 30+ minute wait as he circled back aound.
We were delivered back to the port safe and sound and grateful that we did not try to do that tour of Istanbul on our own ...
Tomorrow around noon we will be at the small Greek island Mykonos which is said to be a destination spot for the world's "Jet Set Crowd" ... uh oh ...
Bade
This is a city of between 13 and 15 million people ... that's a lotta people and as far as I could tell they all drive cars downtown ... I thought the traffic in Rome was bad (and it was) but Istanbul seems to have more drivers and fewer associated hand gestures!
We began our tour today by being met by our guide and driver (you really can't imagine the relief I felt when I saw the "Mr Millsap" sign in our guides' hand as we exited the port terminal in a mass of humanity leaving the ship ... as with Ephesus I had booked and we all paid for this tour over the internet ... with no real clue as to whether or not we had sent our credit card numbers off to Turkey only to be used to supply weaponry to Al Ceada <sp>. I feel somewhat responsible for these tours and until I actually see we have indeed secured what we hoped we purchased I'm a little on edge.
Our guide "Tolga" was a young man (34 yrs old) with a degree in Civil Engineering ... why he's guiding tours I can't really say but he was pleasant, informative, very direct about how he felt about the radical Islam clerics and spoke tolerably good English (sooooooo much better than my Turkish!!).
As on our previous tours he suggested we scoot boots to get ahead of the cruise line package tours of hundreds of people who were no doubt headed to the same sports as us. Our tour was scheduled for as much as 6 hours. (through the cruise line this was a $749 tour ... we paid just slightly less than that for the Ephesus and Istanbul tours total together -- we booked both tours thru the same company).
Our first stop was the Hippodrome which is basically not much more than a large elongated oval "area" where Roman circus (chariots and such) games were played ... honestly I didn't see what all the fuss was about ... it has several obelisks that mark the center line of the area but beyond that it's just a "space" in the middle of downtown Istanbul mostly covered in wide sidewalks and streets now days. Tolga did a lengthy "lecture" on why the area was important to the Turkish people, how the 3 remaining obelisks were transported and erected but I was a bit underwhelmed.
Just next to the Hippodrome is the Blue Mosque ... this actually was worth the visit ... it is surrounded by 6 "minarets" which are the tall spires you will see in the pictures from which the Muslim faithful are called to prayer facing Mecca 5 times a day. The minarets are in and of themselves a site to behold as they glitter with gold caps high in the sky and surround the mosque itself. The "Blue" mosque is so named because of the more than 20,000 blue Iznik tiles that adorn its walls inside. These are all hand painted and valued at tens of thousands of dollars each! The interior walls are also covered in many many tons of gold decorations. The sheer size of the mosque is startling as you gaze up to the top of the domed ceilings. To enter the mosque we were required to remove our shoes and carry them around in a small plastic bag until we exited. While in the mosque our guide explained about how the call to prayer was done and how afterwards the "Imam" or head honcho cleric would then ascend a set of stairs and "preach" the daily lesson ... it is, according to our guide, these "lessons" that have in some instances corrupted the actual beliefs of the Islam religion and as in Iran have basically turned away from the Koran and instilled in the people many false beliefs. Our guide said he has not attended a service in a mosque in over two years for that reason. We got a decidedly different version of Islam than we often hear about on Western TV.
>From the Blue Mosque we walked over to the Topkapi Palace museum. This was the former palace of the Ottoman sultans (the guys we see in the movies that look like they have a giant towel wrapped around their heads for a hat). The absolute opulence of the artifacts in the museum was incredible! Among many other things we saw jewel encrusted swords, belts, garments, knives, bows, and an entire glass "box" filled to the brim with loose emeralds ... big emeralds as in chicken egg sized emeralds. Most amazing to me was the solid gold baby cradle with hundreds of emeralds, rubies, diamonds and other precious stones encrusted all over it. We also saw a 56 carat diamond ... looked like it might be a bit gaudy for an engagement ring! This is likely as close as I will ever be to several Ming dynasty pieces of pottery.
Leaving the palace we walked over to St. Sophia museum which "was" a mosque and a church at various times in the 5 or so hundreds of years since it was first constructed but is now solely a museum. It was interesting to see the combinations of the Christian and Islamic holy symbols and icons juxtaposed against each other in this one place.
After we let St. Sophia's our guide walked us over to a small sidewalk restaurant were we enjoyed a "typical I suppose" Turkish meal ... there were no tacos or enchiladas on the menu!
Next we jumped into our Mercedes Bentz "minivan" and drove through again narrow, windy, crowded streets to the Grand Bazaar ...
Picture any Mexican Mercado you have ever been in ... now ... picture it covered with domed ceilings and housing over 4,000 shops, its own school, its own mosque, post office and police station. ... hence the title Grand ... this Bazaar was establish in the mid-1400's and is still going strong today.
We were given some helpful information about how not to get hopelessly lost in the warrens of the Bazaar and then shooed off on our way to shop ... it really didn't take long to become lost ...I'd say ... 3 minutes maybe 5 ... uh oh ... but in time we managed to find the key "street" Tolga had told us to look for and knew we coud escape. None of our group was particularly taken with the shopping experience in the bazaar ... haggling is expected and the quality of goods is definitely suspect. A few small items were purchased and we escaped into the somewhat chilly and blustery late afternoon air ... we met up with our guide who called our driver and specified where to pick us up ... due to the density of the area and the absolute crazy traffic congestion it was important to give the driver enough of a head start that he could arrive at the same corner as we did at about the same time or we would have a 30+ minute wait as he circled back aound.
We were delivered back to the port safe and sound and grateful that we did not try to do that tour of Istanbul on our own ...
Tomorrow around noon we will be at the small Greek island Mykonos which is said to be a destination spot for the world's "Jet Set Crowd" ... uh oh ...
Bade
Friday, November 14, 2008
IN Turkey, but by no means WAS it a Turkey ... or ... Please pull the rug out from under me...
Today's excursion/adventure started out pretty darn early ... our wake up alarm was set for 5:30AM to make a 6AM breakfast and hit the gangway at 7AM to meet up with our guide for a 4 hour tour to be back on ship by noon for a 1PM sail away. Now in my mind getting up at 5:30AM on vacation just seems wrong ... oh well.
Today we docked in the Turkish port city of Kusadasi. This part of Turkey is in Asia Minor ... Istanbul where we will be tomorrow is in Europe ... I can't even believe I just typed that!
For today's tour I had done some internet research way back in September and booked through an agency recommended by several travelers. Our tour's objective was to see as much as reasonably possible in around 4 hours. Sounds simple enough until you find out what you are actually going to see and the distances involved. I had a bit of trepidation going into this part of the odyssey simply because we had booked this and the Istanbul tour on the internet and already paid in advance for the tours. What if no one was at the gate wagging a "Mr Millsap" sign ... however; all was well our guide (Nelay) and driver were pretty much johnny on the spot and led us to a very nice Volkswagon "tour bus" outfitted for 10 or so passengers ... we had the bus solely to ourselves (6 of us) as well as the guide that spoke very fluent and easy to understand English. This lady has been guiding tours essentially since the ruins were opened to the public (just over 25 years) and was very personable and easily answered all of our questions about the local politics, economy, costs of living and so on. It turns out that until 25 years ago the city was a small fishing village of a few thousand people but when the ruins at Ephesus were discovered the population ballooned as did the service and tourist industry. We are in the final two weeks of the busy tourist season and in two weeks basically the whole area goes on holiday because the cruise ships stop coming. The city is very clean and well kept and essentially "new" since much of it was built up in just the last 25 years.
So we are on board our private tour bus and our guide suggests that we boogie on to the "house of the Virgin Mary" to beat the hordes of tourists that have booked through the ship and will be coming in BIG buses shortly. We motored several (20+) miles through the country side much like the Texas hill country and then started a very steep and windy climb up a VERY narrow road along a very perilous cliff ... I'm thinking about all those big buses behind us and am glad I'm not in one of them!
The "House of the Virgin Mary" was discovered after much futile searching by various archaeological teams when a nun that had never been to the area described a very detailed vision she had of the exact location. Following her vision the searchers were able to locate the small house without difficulty. This is the "house" where the Virgin Mother spent her last days on earth. In 1961 Pope John Paul XXII proclaimed the house to be sacred and is now not only a "tourist attraction" but a shrine visited by thousands of faithful every year.
Leaving Mary's house we motored a short way back down the mountain road to the location of Ephesus. I hadn't realized that the people living here at the time were in fact the "Ephesians" to whom St. Paul wrote his letters while in captivity.
This was at the time actually a port city with the Agean sea right up next to the city. The city had approximately 500,000 citizens at its peak. While Pompeii was an amazing place, to me Ephesus is even more breathtaking. When you see pictures you will understand ... these people knew the earth was a sphere, that there were other planets, had a sophisticated underground sewage system and the streets were literally paved with marble. The temples and even business buildings were beautifully decorated with friezes and frescoes and it was clearly a center of culture and sophistication. One picture I will post early into the gallery is of the library ... it was at the time second only to the great library of Alexandria.
After walking for an hour or so through these ancient and proud ruins we hopped back on the bus for a quick picture stop at the Temple of Artemis. This was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.
Back on the bus and back to the city of Kusadasi for some what else but SHOPPING ...
Our first stop was at an amazing store that sells upscale jewelery and carpets ... we watched a demonstration of how the carpets are made (truly amazing to see a woman continuing to work on a rug she started in January and still has about 3 months before it is finished) and then were taken downstairs to see what was for sale .... uh oh ...all I can say is "Oh my God ..." ..this store (underground) had several fairly large "rooms" with beautiful wood floors completely devoid of furniture except for the "couches" that spanned two of the four walls ... the owner had 3 or 4 "helpers" start taking carpets of all sizes and colors (and knot counts and fabrics...) and started scattering them about the room while we were served hot apple tea in tiny individual flasks ... uh oh ... all the while describing the quality of the various carpets and basically providing an education while making a very smooth sales pitch ... uh oh ...
Now remember that beautiful silk handmade rug Carolyn REALLY wanted but didn't buy because clearer heads prevailed ?... well not so much this time ... in 6-8 weeks we will receive an actual genuine hand made Turkish rug ... what can I say ... maybe it will be a "magic carpet" and I can sell rides around the neighborhood to try and recoup some of the "end of the season sale" price .....
We visited the shop that is actually owned by our guide Nelay and the ladies in our troop made additional purchases there.
Back to the ship and away we sailed ... next stop ... Istanbul ... uh oh ...
Bade
Today we docked in the Turkish port city of Kusadasi. This part of Turkey is in Asia Minor ... Istanbul where we will be tomorrow is in Europe ... I can't even believe I just typed that!
For today's tour I had done some internet research way back in September and booked through an agency recommended by several travelers. Our tour's objective was to see as much as reasonably possible in around 4 hours. Sounds simple enough until you find out what you are actually going to see and the distances involved. I had a bit of trepidation going into this part of the odyssey simply because we had booked this and the Istanbul tour on the internet and already paid in advance for the tours. What if no one was at the gate wagging a "Mr Millsap" sign ... however; all was well our guide (Nelay) and driver were pretty much johnny on the spot and led us to a very nice Volkswagon "tour bus" outfitted for 10 or so passengers ... we had the bus solely to ourselves (6 of us) as well as the guide that spoke very fluent and easy to understand English. This lady has been guiding tours essentially since the ruins were opened to the public (just over 25 years) and was very personable and easily answered all of our questions about the local politics, economy, costs of living and so on. It turns out that until 25 years ago the city was a small fishing village of a few thousand people but when the ruins at Ephesus were discovered the population ballooned as did the service and tourist industry. We are in the final two weeks of the busy tourist season and in two weeks basically the whole area goes on holiday because the cruise ships stop coming. The city is very clean and well kept and essentially "new" since much of it was built up in just the last 25 years.
So we are on board our private tour bus and our guide suggests that we boogie on to the "house of the Virgin Mary" to beat the hordes of tourists that have booked through the ship and will be coming in BIG buses shortly. We motored several (20+) miles through the country side much like the Texas hill country and then started a very steep and windy climb up a VERY narrow road along a very perilous cliff ... I'm thinking about all those big buses behind us and am glad I'm not in one of them!
The "House of the Virgin Mary" was discovered after much futile searching by various archaeological teams when a nun that had never been to the area described a very detailed vision she had of the exact location. Following her vision the searchers were able to locate the small house without difficulty. This is the "house" where the Virgin Mother spent her last days on earth. In 1961 Pope John Paul XXII proclaimed the house to be sacred and is now not only a "tourist attraction" but a shrine visited by thousands of faithful every year.
Leaving Mary's house we motored a short way back down the mountain road to the location of Ephesus. I hadn't realized that the people living here at the time were in fact the "Ephesians" to whom St. Paul wrote his letters while in captivity.
This was at the time actually a port city with the Agean sea right up next to the city. The city had approximately 500,000 citizens at its peak. While Pompeii was an amazing place, to me Ephesus is even more breathtaking. When you see pictures you will understand ... these people knew the earth was a sphere, that there were other planets, had a sophisticated underground sewage system and the streets were literally paved with marble. The temples and even business buildings were beautifully decorated with friezes and frescoes and it was clearly a center of culture and sophistication. One picture I will post early into the gallery is of the library ... it was at the time second only to the great library of Alexandria.
After walking for an hour or so through these ancient and proud ruins we hopped back on the bus for a quick picture stop at the Temple of Artemis. This was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.
Back on the bus and back to the city of Kusadasi for some what else but SHOPPING ...
Our first stop was at an amazing store that sells upscale jewelery and carpets ... we watched a demonstration of how the carpets are made (truly amazing to see a woman continuing to work on a rug she started in January and still has about 3 months before it is finished) and then were taken downstairs to see what was for sale .... uh oh ...all I can say is "Oh my God ..." ..this store (underground) had several fairly large "rooms" with beautiful wood floors completely devoid of furniture except for the "couches" that spanned two of the four walls ... the owner had 3 or 4 "helpers" start taking carpets of all sizes and colors (and knot counts and fabrics...) and started scattering them about the room while we were served hot apple tea in tiny individual flasks ... uh oh ... all the while describing the quality of the various carpets and basically providing an education while making a very smooth sales pitch ... uh oh ...
Now remember that beautiful silk handmade rug Carolyn REALLY wanted but didn't buy because clearer heads prevailed ?... well not so much this time ... in 6-8 weeks we will receive an actual genuine hand made Turkish rug ... what can I say ... maybe it will be a "magic carpet" and I can sell rides around the neighborhood to try and recoup some of the "end of the season sale" price .....
We visited the shop that is actually owned by our guide Nelay and the ladies in our troop made additional purchases there.
Back to the ship and away we sailed ... next stop ... Istanbul ... uh oh ...
Bade
Thursday, November 13, 2008
It's all Greek to me ... or "Please pass the Ouzo" ...
*ATHENS!! *... a city of 5.5 million friendly, bustling people that are
anxious to show tourists their beautiful city and the truly amazing
ancient artifacts.
anxious to show tourists their beautiful city and the truly amazing
ancient artifacts.
When we disembarked this morning in the port city of Piraeus we
essentially had a very sketchy plan of "somehow" getting into Athens and
then on to the Acropolis, walk around the Acropolis for a while, then
find some way to get to the Palaka (the old shopping area of Athens -
picture a really BIG flea market with hundreds and hundreds of stalls
and shops - pictures will eventually find their way to the gallery I
promise) and then try to get back to the ship before it sails.
For people that know me well this sort of nebulous plan doesn't really
work for me ... as in it drives me quite insane. So ... as we exited
the terminal building and were thinking about the 30 minute to the train
that would take us "somewhere in Athens" we were accosted by several men
offering "taxi tours". Now usually I would be leery of hopping in a
"taxi" agreeing to pay 30 euro per person and hoping we weren't being
kidnapped by an ax murderer ... but my fear of not really having a plan
that offered surety of getting back to the ship before it sailed won out
and we agreed to at least take the taxi to the Acropolis (which was
basically a hell of a long way from the port) for the fee of $25 euro .
At this point we were "turned over" to "Visillas" a big burly man of
about 60 years old (visions of ax murder still popping in my mind) and
he led us over to his "taxi" ... a brand spanking new screaming canary
yellow Mercedes Benz ... a big one ... pretty nice ride for an ax
murderer in my mind. As it turns out the car costs 50,000 euro and the
taxi medallion cost 220,000 euro ...
As we motor to the Acropolis "Visillas" begins to describe the service
we would get for 30 euro per person (vs the one way trip) ... basically
for 120 euro we have hired him and his very nice taxi for the day ... he
will take us wherever we want to go, wait for us while we see the sites
or shop and deliver us back to the ship whenever we want. *SOLD!! *This
same "tour" purchased from Princess as an excursion is $799 ... if it's
for real we have scored big time.
As it turned out it was exactly as he promised, we went to the
Acropolis, the President's palace, the Olympic stadium built in the
1800's for the first modern olympic games, Jupiter's temple and then
shopping in the Palaka and finally to a wonderful restaurant on the
waterfront ... then back to the ship. The "tour" was perfect and the
weather was clear and comfortable.
If you've ever seen pictures of Athens you have seen the Parthenon on
Acropolis ... it is a *HUGE *columned structure way up on a hill top
overlooking the city. The construction of this temple of the Goddess
Athena is incredible ... the views of Athens from this vantage point are
breathtaking ... you see the massive size of the city and can just
imagine the goddess overlooking her "people" down below, From every
vantage point you can see some other ancient columned temple to another
Greek god or goddess. The fact that these structures were built by mere
mortals without benefit of powered tools and machines is mind boggling
and the artistry of these structures made mostly of chiseled and carved
marble is simply more than I can comprehend.
After we made our way down from the Acropolis we were all relieved to
actually find Visillas patiently waiting to take us to our next point of
interest. (it was at this point in time that I mentally "unclinched" and
decided we were very possibly going to survive the day after all)
Next we made quick photo stops at the Olympic Stadium and the
President's palace.
Next we visited the Temple of Jupiter, another columned structure (most
of these things are around here) but its sheer size is astounding (pics
in gallery) only a few columns are still standing but it is easy to
imagine what it must have looked like. At this stop we also reviewed the
Roman Baths.
Visillas then drove us down several impossibly narrow, crooked streets
that were overflowing with parked cars and people (did I mention the
"taxi" was a *large* vehicle? We "missed" lottsa cars and people by
well less than two inches on both sides) ... once again I'm pretty sure
I owe someone a new car seat. We were released to visit the "Agora" and
the "Palaka".
We walked around the "Agora" (sort of a Greek forum) where we saw an
amazing temple where a young kitten had taken up residence and basically
claimed the temple as her own ... she had several tourists (including
us) taking her picture as she posed for us.
Next we entered the "Palaka" ... the old shopping area ... basically
this place is a huge flea market ... purchases were made, money was
spent ... and after walking around the Agora and the Palaka for a little
over two hours we miraculously found our way back to our drop off point
to find Visillas patiently waiting ,,, *I love this man like a brother!
I am very likely going to see the ship again after all ... *
Carolyn ALMOST put us in the poor house when she discovered a stunning
handmade silk rug (about 4' x 6') for a mere $1800 ,,, she *REALLY
*wanted that rug ... it was beautiful ... but common sense, and the
realization that Igit, Belle, and Balam would also LOVE this rug,
prevailed and the shop still has it. Linda did purchase a lovely table
cloth from a very aged (and persistent) lady just as we were approaching
the taxi ... to Linda's credit she did haggle down to a good price.
At about 2PM now Visillas (once again through impossibly narrow and
crowded streets) took us to a waterside restaurant where besides a
lovely traditional Greek meal we ordered and drank Ouzo ... a licorice
flavored liquid fire ... it leaves a "glow" (ok a searing burn) in one's
throat and stomach and a smile on your face!
After a "late lunch" Visillas drove us directly to the ship ...
bypassing the lengthy shuttle ride from the terminal we had endured in
the morning.
All in all ... a picture perfect day in Athens ... guided by a wonderful
man in a beautiful taxi ... nary an ax in site
Bade
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
It was a hot time in old Pompeii in 79 A.D. ... or "I don't think we are in Kansas anymore Toto,,,"
I'll post some (of many many) pictures in the gallery ... they can
better describe what we saw today than my words.
better describe what we saw today than my words.
We started the adventure with 5 of our troop walking through downtown
Naples looking for the "commuter train" station ... think Subway or "El"
in Chicago ... our group leader Woodie knew where it was back in the
1970's but surprisingly things have changed in 30 years so to say we
walked a "bit" out our way ... is like saying the Italians are a "bit"
crazy when they get behind the wheel of a car ... we did eventually find
the station and Woodie purchased 5 tickets that I was convinced were NOT
what going to get us where we going (Pompeii/Sorrento) but we bravely
boarded the train anyway and off we went.
This train run can justly be called a "milk run" ... between our
starting point and our end point (Sorrento) there were 34 stops to let
people on and off ... and we traveled about 50 miles round trip.
Our first departure from the train was Pompeii ... about half the way to
Sorrento. Pompeii is about 12 or 13 miles South of Naples.
What can I say to describe the experience of walking around Pompeii that
can possibly do justice? Simple answer is nothing ... I'll try but do
go to the weblog gallery and you'll get a better idea of what this
place is all about. (I'll post pics as soon as I can never fear -
probably tomorrow as it is a "sea day").
What you learned in school about Pompeii is that it was destroyed by a
volcano (Mt Vesuvius)... what you don't learn is how BIG the resort city
actually was. We started the walking tour about 9:30AM and walked until
we couldn't walk any more ... about noon ... and seriously didn't really
look at half of the site ... I was expecting something the size of
downtown Bulverde ... try about the size of Eden ... the population was
easily in the many thousands. The excavated sites revealed incredible
mosaic floors, beautiful and colorful frescoes painted on plaster walls
depicting a very grand and exotic lifestyle. There were hundreds of
"storefronts" that indicate a bustling economy with several very grand
houses with large gardens, fountains and columned vestibules. Pompeii
could I suppose be compared to Palm Springs ... wealthy families,
gladiators with a full coliseum and training area, a huge outdoor
amphitheater, several large and ornately decorated temples and an
incredible sewage system with sidewalks on both sides to help keep the
citizens from wading through sewage water.
Most school age children see pictures of the "people covered in lava"
... and that did indeed happen ... but the "lava people" in pictures
are actually plaster casts of the voids of ash the excavators discovered
and filled with plaster ... kinda a "lost wax" technique.
It's hard to imagine what it was like that day in 79A.D. ... Vesuvius is
an imposing mountain towering above the citizens of Pompeii ... to see
that mountain start belching molten lava and ash completely without
warning is mind bending ... there were apparently people very much like
modern day hurricane victims ... many of the Pompeii citizens did escape
with their lives ... but sadly just like today there were many people
that didn't believe they needed to leave until it was too late ... in
one form or another those people are still there today.
We boarded the train going further South at about 12:30pm ... 30 minutes
and about 16 stops later we came to the end of the line in Sorrento. We
went there with two primary objectives ... eat ... and to shop a bit.
Sorrento is an upscale artisan community with an emphasis on inlayed
wood items ... Carolyn bought several beautiful and unique items...
chaching!!!
We returned to Naples via the train (about one hour and fifteen minutes)
and hoofed it back to the ship. We figure all tolled the 5 of us walked
over 6 miles today ... a good workout and we are all glad for the
upcoming "sea day" to recoup before we invade Athens day after tomorrow.
Bade
Monday, November 10, 2008
Just a short flight from Rome and we are aboard ship ... or like the Israelites leaving Egypt...
I'm not really sure how to describe the trip from Rome to the port city of Civitevecchia ... we arranged for a minivan to "drive" the 6 of us from the hotel in Rome the 80 km to the port. This in and of itself turned out to be a very good plan since the trains and public transportation buses had scheduled a "political action" meaning union strike for today and nothing of public transportation was moving in Rome.
Rome we have learned is a city of between 5 and 6 million (not the 3 million I had previously been told) and like New York or Chicago in the states ... the populous of Rome depends heavily on public transportation ... subways, buses and trains. As a result of the strike (which by the way was scheduled well in advance so every one has time to prepare) ... is simply that traffic in Rome is one huge (and I do mean huge parking lot.
It's really hard to describe the scene ... our driver and his minibus arrived on time (early in fact) and since there is never any available parking in downtown (and our hotel was very "downtown") anyway (picture George Costanza trying to park in midtown Manhattan and you have a fair idea of the normal day to day parking problem (and as far as I could tell no such thing as a high rise parking garage anywhere)) ... so our driver "Alessio" basically parked on the corner of the street blocking a couple of lanes and turned his blinkers on ... this while we loaded way more bags than his van was designed to carry and 6 full grown adults ... no problem!
And off we go ... "oh my God"! ... picture a street absolutely filled on both sides with parked cars two deep ... now add to that picture two lanes of opposing traffic ... lottsa traffic ... and then add several hundreds of frustrated Italians honking horns, waving arms, yelling and making many excited gestures ... now enter Alession and our overstuffed minivan. He's what I would call a "fearless" driver ... crossing 4 lanes of snarled, dead stopped traffic making a left turn through a totally blocked intersection in front of other large buses, trucks, many "Smart Cars" and so on ... no problemo! To his credit Alessio got us out of downtown and onto "autostrada #1" ... kinda a IH35 toll road.
OK ... we're juning down the highway through the beautiful countryside with well manicured fields, trimmed trees and very picturesque houses ... sweet!! on our way ... hmmm ... just how fast are we going??? ... uh ... speedo shows 160 km/hr ... people passing us on
occasion ... that's about 96mph ... in a minibus fully loaded ... I'm pretty sure between the traffic in Rome and the speed on the highway ... I owe the shuttle company a new front seat!
We did make it to the port in one piece ... the port city is very pretty and clearly a tourist hot spot. Onboard the ship with no hassle ... one couple in our small group was visited by the upgrade fairy and scored a minisuite upgrade ... very cool! Way to go Jeanne and Paul!
It's good to be on the ship ... tomorrow is Napels/Pompeii/Sorrento ... probably a self guided walking tour since Woodie has been here before ...
Bade
Rome we have learned is a city of between 5 and 6 million (not the 3 million I had previously been told) and like New York or Chicago in the states ... the populous of Rome depends heavily on public transportation ... subways, buses and trains. As a result of the strike (which by the way was scheduled well in advance so every one has time to prepare) ... is simply that traffic in Rome is one huge (and I do mean huge parking lot.
It's really hard to describe the scene ... our driver and his minibus arrived on time (early in fact) and since there is never any available parking in downtown (and our hotel was very "downtown") anyway (picture George Costanza trying to park in midtown Manhattan and you have a fair idea of the normal day to day parking problem (and as far as I could tell no such thing as a high rise parking garage anywhere)) ... so our driver "Alessio" basically parked on the corner of the street blocking a couple of lanes and turned his blinkers on ... this while we loaded way more bags than his van was designed to carry and 6 full grown adults ... no problem!
And off we go ... "oh my God"! ... picture a street absolutely filled on both sides with parked cars two deep ... now add to that picture two lanes of opposing traffic ... lottsa traffic ... and then add several hundreds of frustrated Italians honking horns, waving arms, yelling and making many excited gestures ... now enter Alession and our overstuffed minivan. He's what I would call a "fearless" driver ... crossing 4 lanes of snarled, dead stopped traffic making a left turn through a totally blocked intersection in front of other large buses, trucks, many "Smart Cars" and so on ... no problemo! To his credit Alessio got us out of downtown and onto "autostrada #1" ... kinda a IH35 toll road.
OK ... we're juning down the highway through the beautiful countryside with well manicured fields, trimmed trees and very picturesque houses ... sweet!! on our way ... hmmm ... just how fast are we going??? ... uh ... speedo shows 160 km/hr ... people passing us on
occasion ... that's about 96mph ... in a minibus fully loaded ... I'm pretty sure between the traffic in Rome and the speed on the highway ... I owe the shuttle company a new front seat!
We did make it to the port in one piece ... the port city is very pretty and clearly a tourist hot spot. Onboard the ship with no hassle ... one couple in our small group was visited by the upgrade fairy and scored a minisuite upgrade ... very cool! Way to go Jeanne and Paul!
It's good to be on the ship ... tomorrow is Napels/Pompeii/Sorrento ... probably a self guided walking tour since Woodie has been here before ...
Bade
Sunday, November 9, 2008
"Rome Rome it is strange ..."
... to the tune of "Home Home on the range" ... everybody sing ...
Rome is actually pretty strange ... there is "modern Rome" which is very much like you might expect any city of 3 million people to be ... busy, bustling, loud, full of traffic and people in a hurry.
And then there is "Ancient Rome" which is in fact surrounded by "modern Rome". Literally next to a temple or "house" or whatever constructed hundreds of years before Christ walked the earth will be a city street with stores selling everything from souvineres to wireless computer equipment. It's really very odd.
We left for the tour bus about 9:30AM ... hopped the bus to the Coliseum got off and started our marathon day of site seeing. To get as much as possible out of the day we decided to spend the euros and hook up with one of the "private" guided tours ,,, our private group of about 30 souls each paid 20 euros for an English speaking guide ... in this case "Roberto" who really did an excellent job of marching us through the Coliseum, explaining the finer points and some funny stories ... we finished that tour at noon where we were handed off to "Elayne" ... a young Canadian girl with a masters in art history ... she led the 26 or so of us that wanted to get our euro's worth up the Palentine Hill which was where Rome was founded a long damn time ago and guided us through the "palace" on the top of the Palantine. Really a very good tour and well worth the 20 euros.
One thing we learned was that these "private tours" are basically a cottage industry started a few years ago ... these folks contract with the executors of the big attractions like the Vatican, the Coliseum and so on for the right to lead tours with "special privileges" which really means you get to line jump ahead of the people paying somewhat less and you get a "guide" vs reading the signage or renting headphones to listen to recorded descriptions. I love capitalism!!
After the Palentine we walked through the Roman Forum (skipping lunch) and then on to the Pantheon. We covered lottsa ground and just barely caught the 4:30pm bus back to our starting point to crash before a splendid dinner at a small "mom and pop" restaurant Mom was about 75 and Pop was around 80 ... a fun dining experience. We topped off the day with gellato on the street ...
Tomorrow we head to the port and board the Grand Princess for 12 more days of adventure.
I posted several(but only a few relative to the numbers we took) photos in the gallery ... just click on the blog link and the gallery is a link on the left ... or click here Link to gallery
Rome is actually pretty strange ... there is "modern Rome" which is very much like you might expect any city of 3 million people to be ... busy, bustling, loud, full of traffic and people in a hurry.
And then there is "Ancient Rome" which is in fact surrounded by "modern Rome". Literally next to a temple or "house" or whatever constructed hundreds of years before Christ walked the earth will be a city street with stores selling everything from souvineres to wireless computer equipment. It's really very odd.
We left for the tour bus about 9:30AM ... hopped the bus to the Coliseum got off and started our marathon day of site seeing. To get as much as possible out of the day we decided to spend the euros and hook up with one of the "private" guided tours ,,, our private group of about 30 souls each paid 20 euros for an English speaking guide ... in this case "Roberto" who really did an excellent job of marching us through the Coliseum, explaining the finer points and some funny stories ... we finished that tour at noon where we were handed off to "Elayne" ... a young Canadian girl with a masters in art history ... she led the 26 or so of us that wanted to get our euro's worth up the Palentine Hill which was where Rome was founded a long damn time ago and guided us through the "palace" on the top of the Palantine. Really a very good tour and well worth the 20 euros.
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| From Eastern Mediterranean 2008 |
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| From Eastern Mediterranean 2008 |
One thing we learned was that these "private tours" are basically a cottage industry started a few years ago ... these folks contract with the executors of the big attractions like the Vatican, the Coliseum and so on for the right to lead tours with "special privileges" which really means you get to line jump ahead of the people paying somewhat less and you get a "guide" vs reading the signage or renting headphones to listen to recorded descriptions. I love capitalism!!
After the Palentine we walked through the Roman Forum (skipping lunch) and then on to the Pantheon. We covered lottsa ground and just barely caught the 4:30pm bus back to our starting point to crash before a splendid dinner at a small "mom and pop" restaurant Mom was about 75 and Pop was around 80 ... a fun dining experience. We topped off the day with gellato on the street ...
Tomorrow we head to the port and board the Grand Princess for 12 more days of adventure.
I posted several(but only a few relative to the numbers we took) photos in the gallery ... just click on the blog link and the gallery is a link on the left ... or click here Link to gallery
Saturday, November 8, 2008
Rome wasn't seen in a day ... but we will do our best!!!
Hello from the Eternal City! First I gotta say it's a long travel day
from Bulverde, Texas to Rome Italy ... but we knew it would be.
Second the Rome security and customs is WAY faster than Vancouver ...
but how can it be slower?
sadly learning we were too late to get into the Sistine Chapel
(well unless we wanted to pay $50 each for a "semi-private group of 25
tour...) we decided to see the Basilica on our own ... WOW!!!
The whole thing is breathtaking and I can't begin to describe the sheer
SIZE of the place ...
Words fail me at this late hour ... had a nice dinner in a small
bistro ...
from Bulverde, Texas to Rome Italy ... but we knew it would be.
Second the Rome security and customs is WAY faster than Vancouver ...
but how can it be slower?
Other than long and a bit cramped for the 8+ hour flight from Newark the
travel went very smooth We arrived at our hotel about 9:45am Saturday
and our travel companions showed up about 10:45am all went as planned.
We hopped on a bus and rode down to the Vatican
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| From Eastern Mediterranean 2008 |
sadly learning we were too late to get into the Sistine Chapel
(well unless we wanted to pay $50 each for a "semi-private group of 25
tour...) we decided to see the Basilica on our own ... WOW!!!
 |
| From Eastern Mediterranean 2008 |
The whole thing is breathtaking and I can't begin to describe the sheer
SIZE of the place ...
We will fill in more details later ... kinda late Saturday night and
still no sleep ... we did go to the Trevi Fountain ...
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| From Eastern Mediterranean 2008 |
Words fail me at this late hour ... had a nice dinner in a small
bistro ...
Full blown site seeing tomorrow after much needed SLEEP ,,,,
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
"All my bags are packed I'm ready to go ..." ... well MOSTLY packed anyway ...
It is almost time for our odyssey to begin! Carolyn and I have both packed our main bags (she has 2 to make the 50 pound limit I managed to make it in 1 with a few pounds to spare). We will leave our final carry on packing until tomorrow .
Our plane leaves Friday morning at 6:45AM -- YIKES!! -- that means we will need to be at the airport around 4:30AM which puts our departure from casa de Millsap at 4AMish ... you can then figure what time we need to set the alarm for ... YIKES again!!
The flight to Newark will take about 3.5 hours putting us in Newark around 11:30AM Eastern. The good news is we should have PLENTY of time to catch the flight to Rome ... it departs Newark at 5:30PM and a mere 8 hours and 20 minutes later we will be in Rome Italy at 7:50AM Saturday morning. -- YIKES --
Once we get thru customs in Rome (and we can only HOPE we don't have a repeat of the "fighting old farts" Vancouver incident!) we will seek out our shuttle transfer to the hotel where we will hopefully meet up with our friends Woodie, Linda, Paul and Jeanne. They should have gotten to Rome from Germany today ... hope they made it!!
Once we hook up in Rome and get settled in the hotel we have a full day of site seeing planned Saturday. Top of that agenda is the Vatican and associated spots like the Sistine Chapel -- DOUBLE YIKES!! never figured I'd actually get to see something like that in person! --
After a full day of site seeing stacked on top of basically 24 hours of travel ... we hope to get some much needed sleep and then Sunday see the sites around our hotel that will include the famous Roman Coliseum, the Trevi Fountain at night, and several other famous Roman hot spots.
Monday morning we will take a shuttle from the hotel to the pier in Civitavecchia a port city about 80km from Rome. We will board the Grand Princess for 12 days of what we fully expect to be astounding adventure and wonder. The weather so far is projected to be very tolerable and we have our collective fingers crossed.
Oh ... and of course Thursday night (tomorrow) we have to attend the Ranger football game ... they are playing for the district championship! That will get us home about 10PM ... gotta get up around 3:30AM --- YIKES!!!!! ---
Our plane leaves Friday morning at 6:45AM -- YIKES!! -- that means we will need to be at the airport around 4:30AM which puts our departure from casa de Millsap at 4AMish ... you can then figure what time we need to set the alarm for ... YIKES again!!
The flight to Newark will take about 3.5 hours putting us in Newark around 11:30AM Eastern. The good news is we should have PLENTY of time to catch the flight to Rome ... it departs Newark at 5:30PM and a mere 8 hours and 20 minutes later we will be in Rome Italy at 7:50AM Saturday morning. -- YIKES --
Once we get thru customs in Rome (and we can only HOPE we don't have a repeat of the "fighting old farts" Vancouver incident!) we will seek out our shuttle transfer to the hotel where we will hopefully meet up with our friends Woodie, Linda, Paul and Jeanne. They should have gotten to Rome from Germany today ... hope they made it!!
Once we hook up in Rome and get settled in the hotel we have a full day of site seeing planned Saturday. Top of that agenda is the Vatican and associated spots like the Sistine Chapel -- DOUBLE YIKES!! never figured I'd actually get to see something like that in person! --
After a full day of site seeing stacked on top of basically 24 hours of travel ... we hope to get some much needed sleep and then Sunday see the sites around our hotel that will include the famous Roman Coliseum, the Trevi Fountain at night, and several other famous Roman hot spots.
Monday morning we will take a shuttle from the hotel to the pier in Civitavecchia a port city about 80km from Rome. We will board the Grand Princess for 12 days of what we fully expect to be astounding adventure and wonder. The weather so far is projected to be very tolerable and we have our collective fingers crossed.
Oh ... and of course Thursday night (tomorrow) we have to attend the Ranger football game ... they are playing for the district championship! That will get us home about 10PM ... gotta get up around 3:30AM --- YIKES!!!!! ---
Friday, October 24, 2008
Only a couple of weeks away!!!
Man time flies when you are hemorrhaging money! (I hate the stock market, the bond market, and the supermarket these days!) Oh well ... we can pretend we have the money to make the trip!
Actually we are REALLY glad we got the trip paid for (for the most part) when we did because we are committed to go this way and with the way the economy is going we might have otherwise missed out on a trip we likely will never have the chance to take again ... so ... all smiles ... off we will go!!
As we did in our Alaska travel log we will try very hard to make daily entries here and we LOVE to read comments so please do let us know what you think or questions about what we have seen.
If you scroll down in this log you will see some of the highlights of where we expect to go and what our actual itinerary is. As posted we will fly out of San Antonio VERY EARLY on November 7 ... have a lengthy (like 6+ hrs) layover in Newark and then wing it across the pond to Rome landing there around 7:45AM on November 8.
I have arranged thru our hotel in Rome to have a "driver" pick us up at the airport and take us to the hotel ... we COULD have taken the train since the hotel is only a couple of blocks from the main train station in Rome but to tell the truth after my long ago experience with a cab driver in London that didn't understand my "Texan" I'm pretty sure getting on the correct train heading the correct direction and getting off at the right place and then getting directions to the hotel and walking there in Rome ... where not only do they not understand "Texan" but for the most part "English" ... I'm pretty sure that plan would be doomed to failure.
Our hotel is the Orlanda in Rome the link follows
Link to Hotel Info
This is NOT a 5 star hotel ... but it's close to the center of Rome (like the Coliseum) and other tourist type spots we want to see during our 2 day stay before sail away on November 10.
We will be touring the Vatican on our first day (Saturday) there and a couple of other such spots and then on the 9th will toodle around the major "must sees" downtown.
There are six of us traveling together ... we will meet up with our friends Woodie and Linda Meyer and their friends Paul and Jeanne Stone in Rome on the 8th. Those two couples left today (10/24/08) for Germany to visit and tour around that part of Europe before we hook up with them in Rome.
As posted in this web log earlier (scroll down) ... we have several exciting excursions all planned ... it's gonna be a blast!
We will post photo's either directly in the log or more likely in the Med Trip Gallery (there is a link to the gallery on the left side of the web log title page just under the subscription box) ... but ... internet access on the ship is both incredibly slow and excruciatingly expensive ... so it's likely that the majority of our photos will be posted after our return to home ground.
Ok ... enough for now .... thanks for reading and remember we love to read your comments as we boogie along ...
Bade
Actually we are REALLY glad we got the trip paid for (for the most part) when we did because we are committed to go this way and with the way the economy is going we might have otherwise missed out on a trip we likely will never have the chance to take again ... so ... all smiles ... off we will go!!
As we did in our Alaska travel log we will try very hard to make daily entries here and we LOVE to read comments so please do let us know what you think or questions about what we have seen.
If you scroll down in this log you will see some of the highlights of where we expect to go and what our actual itinerary is. As posted we will fly out of San Antonio VERY EARLY on November 7 ... have a lengthy (like 6+ hrs) layover in Newark and then wing it across the pond to Rome landing there around 7:45AM on November 8.
I have arranged thru our hotel in Rome to have a "driver" pick us up at the airport and take us to the hotel ... we COULD have taken the train since the hotel is only a couple of blocks from the main train station in Rome but to tell the truth after my long ago experience with a cab driver in London that didn't understand my "Texan" I'm pretty sure getting on the correct train heading the correct direction and getting off at the right place and then getting directions to the hotel and walking there in Rome ... where not only do they not understand "Texan" but for the most part "English" ... I'm pretty sure that plan would be doomed to failure.
Our hotel is the Orlanda in Rome the link follows
Link to Hotel Info
This is NOT a 5 star hotel ... but it's close to the center of Rome (like the Coliseum) and other tourist type spots we want to see during our 2 day stay before sail away on November 10.
We will be touring the Vatican on our first day (Saturday) there and a couple of other such spots and then on the 9th will toodle around the major "must sees" downtown.
There are six of us traveling together ... we will meet up with our friends Woodie and Linda Meyer and their friends Paul and Jeanne Stone in Rome on the 8th. Those two couples left today (10/24/08) for Germany to visit and tour around that part of Europe before we hook up with them in Rome.
As posted in this web log earlier (scroll down) ... we have several exciting excursions all planned ... it's gonna be a blast!
We will post photo's either directly in the log or more likely in the Med Trip Gallery (there is a link to the gallery on the left side of the web log title page just under the subscription box) ... but ... internet access on the ship is both incredibly slow and excruciatingly expensive ... so it's likely that the majority of our photos will be posted after our return to home ground.
Ok ... enough for now .... thanks for reading and remember we love to read your comments as we boogie along ...
Bade
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Friday, June 13, 2008
We have a cabin assignment!!!
When we booked this cruise we decided to save some money and book what is called a "cabin guarantee" ... which in essence means ... Princess doesn't know the cabin number you will be assigned at booking BUT you are guaranteed the class of cabin you are paying for "or better" ... it's that "or better" that we were hoping for when we booked the "cheapest" class of balcony cabin on the ship ... referred to as "BF" category ... well we just got our cabin assignment .. Lido deck cabin #L219 ... which is a "BA" category cabin .. the top of the line balcony class cabin ... so we got essentially a $500/per person cabin upgrade by taking a chance on the "cabin guarantee" ... IF (unlikely) they decide to upgrade us again ... it would be to a mini-suite ... which is what we had on our previous Caribbean cruise on the Grand and what we have on the Alaska cruise ... they are very nice ... but kinda spendy and we are TRYING to do this cruise on a bit of a budget due to the horrendous airfare costs ...
Ahhhhhhhh ... to be UPGRADED .... it's all good ...
Ahhhhhhhh ... to be UPGRADED .... it's all good ...
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Airline tickets secured ... OUCH!
Well I went ahead and bit the bullet and bought the roundtrip airline tickets for this trip ... we decided that buying them now vs waiting and hoping airfares would decrease closer to the actual trip was probably foolish in this time of astronomical fuel prices ... hope we didn't screw that up!
A few things about airfare prices nowdays ...
- #1 ... they ain't cheap
- #2 ... Using American Airline frequent flyer miles is apparently virtually impossible now. I had HOPED I could get at least one roundtrip ticket with 40k-50k airmiles ... not so much ... in fact ... unless I was willing to go 100k airmiles (which is way more than I have) ... I could not get a flight that accommodated or even almost accommodated our travel dates ... I am beginning to suspect that they ask for your travel dates and then specifically block those out of available frequent flyer mile seats. It's odd though because I was able to book two round trip first class tickects to Vancouver for the Alaska trip with out any hassle.
- #3 ... Using American Airline frequent flyer miles to UPGRADE a purchased ticket is also a joke ... see a trend here? I thought I'd BUY the tickets and then upgrade to 1st class with miles ... no problem ... 50k miles per ticket .... NOT!!!!!!!!
We are flying Continental Airlines ... Leave San Antonio Friday November 7 and return Sunday November 23 .... we will overnight in Rome 11/8 and 11/9 to see some sights there before we depart on the ship and then we will overnight in Rome again 11/22 before the flight back home.
Thursday, May 29, 2008
We have booked some excursions in Turkey ...
The six of us agreed to book tours in Kusadasi/Ehpesus and Istanbul together ... the details of those are below ... we think these will really be interesting. We are using this travel agency .. they have been very responsive and helpful via email => http://www.ekoltravel.com/aboutus.html
14 November 2008 Grand Princess
TOUR 3 : Private Ephesus + House of Virgin Mary + The Temple of Artemis => http://sailturkey.com/panoramas/ephesus/
07:00am : Met by your private guide at Kusadasi port with Mr. Mrs. Millsap sign and start for Ephesus trip. Drive to the Temple of Artemis, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Ephesus was undoubtedly one of the most important cultural centers of the ancient world. Impressive structures we will see include the Library of Celsus, Temple of Hadrian, Theatre and Odeon. We also visit the House of the Virgin Mary where she is believed to have spent her last years. On August 18th, 1961, Pope John XXll proclaimed the House of Virgin Mary at Ephesus to be sacred. Drive back to Kusadasi. Some free time for shopping.
Including Professional Licensed Guide, transportation A/C, entrance fees.
Minimum Required time for this tour is 4 hours.
15 November 2008 Grand Princess
Private Blue Mosque + Topkapi Palace + St.Sophia+ Hippodrome + Grand Bazaar => http://www.turkeytravelplanner.com/go/Istanbul/Sights/Sultanahmet/BlueMosque.html
08:00am : Met by your private guide at Istanbul port with Mr. Mrs. Millsap sign and start for Istanbul trip. Istanbul was undoubtedly one of the most important cultural centers of the ancient world. Impressive structures we will see Topkapi Palace, Santa Sophia, Blue Mosque, Hippodrome, Grand Bazaar. Drive back to Port.
Including Professional Licensed Guide, transportation A/C, entrance fees. Minimum Required time for this tour is 6 hours.
NOW ... I just have to get those pesky airline revervations made and paid for ....
Bade
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