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.
Thursday, November 20, 2008
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
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