Khios Greece

    Yesterday was a sea day and the whole ship seemed to be in a "sleepy" mood after the long days in Egypt.  There are only 1925 passangers aboard so the ship seems "empty" most days anyway.   The seas have been as flat as can be expected since we left Rome.  In a few minutes we head for Istanbul.

    We did manage to go to a dance lesson and attend a few

lectures but generally it was a peaceful day.  I really appreciated that.  I have been feeling a bit "off" for a few days.  All I want to do is sleep - which is what I did during the art auction.  We did attend the last show of Lenny Windsor.  We had seen him before.  He was a writer for the Benny Hill show and had some good stories to tell.  He was aboard on our trip last fall.  We did go to the line dancing hoedown last night but missed most of it as dinner was a bit late.
   

Local Beer

Today we did not take an organized tour, but opted instead to just wander around the small town of Khios.  It does have a world hertigage monistary but it did not seem exciting enough for us.  We did visit the local museum as well the the biggest Greek Catholic church in town.  We did end up at a sidewalk cafe and had a glass of "greek" beer.  I think I will pass on that when we get to Athens.  It was too bitter for my taste.
      Tomorrow is Istanbul.  We did not take an organized tour as we will be docked close to the sites and can take a shuttle if we don't feel like walking the short distance.  Weather continues to be warm and sunny.

Egypt - Alexandria on Day 2

     After the long day of going to Cairo, we were up "early" again and were off touring the city of Alexandria.  Although we were going to stay "local", the tour lasted from 8:30 until 2 pm.  Judy continued to mention how she was disappointed in the city.  I guess she thought that it would be something exotic and it is anything but that.  It is very dirty with holes all over the place.  No place except one that we visited was clean as we know it.

   The tour had 3 stops.  The first was the museum where local

Pompey's Pillar

artifacts were displayed.  It certainly did not have the flare of Cairo with the King Tut artifcts but it was well done.  They recently found thousands of artifacts - statues, pillars, etc. on the bottom of the bay.  Much had been dumped there to prevent naval forces from entering the harbour.
    Our second stop was Pompey's Pillar which is the tallest remaining ancient monument in the area.  It is made of solid granite and is the only thing standing in a temple area that had hundreds(?) of shorter columns.  All the rest are on the ground or in the bay!  I don't know if they re-erected this one column after the earthquakes that destroyed the temple.  Two things are of interest here.  First it was the only place that did not have the "dollar boys" hounding you at every step.  To be fair the museum was free of them as well.  The second was that the grounds did not have one piece of litter in it.  This is the older part of the

City Street

city with slums all around.  Here we are looking at this ancient temple and are impressed by the lack of hawkers and garbage!   The other item of interest here was the "daughter" library to the one destroyed by fire.  It was a common practice to have a library with temples.  It was carved out beneath the temple and some of the books that were saved from the great fire were stored in nooks carved (shelves) in the wall of the passageways.  Unfortunately these books were also burned on order from of the Christians later because they were "pagan".  Funny, some of the oldest bible copies were among the items.

Dockside Shopping

      The third stop was the Roman catacombs.  These are not like the ones in Rome where the Christians were burried but rather Roman catacombs.  They date to the first to third century.  They are on 3 levels.  The original one was for some wealthy family and then they just kept carving.  The lowest level if filling with water because of changes to the water table caused by the building os the Aswan dam.  It was under an old garbage dump and found when a donkey of a garbage collector fell  through the ceiling of the tombs.
       All in all a very interesting place. Next _ Sea day then Khios, Greece.

Camel Riding At The Pyramids

   The port of Alexandria was the starting point for our visit to the Pyramids in Cairo.  The day started very early - before 7:30.  By the time we cleared the Immigration, baggage checks, etc to get ashore we were underway to Cairo by about 8:30.  We were warned that it was going to be a long day.  It lasted over 12 hours.  Of course you can not go anywhere in Egypt without an armed security guard on the bus but it also meant that all buses had to travel as a group.  Can you imagine 20+ buses all headed to Cairo in a convoy with no stops allowed for the entire 3 hours ride to the Pyramids.

  My first impression of the Pyramids was one of disappointment - at the fact that Cairo has grown so large that the city now abuts the property.  Once on the grounds and on the hill, then the city seemed to disappear and the structures could be seen without the city buiding appearing to overshadow the location.  We were warned about the sellers and hawkers before we got off the bus but it is always a cultural shock when they come at you.
     We took our photos of the pyramids at the first stop and then decided to get a picture of Judy

On The Camel

on a camel.  Remember we were warned - $1 for a photo (everything started at $1) and $3 for a camel ride.  No ride just a photo please.  Then the hard sell.  Judy gets on and the boy handler gets the camel up.  Next they tell me to get in the picture.  So O.K. for that.  Off with the hat, on goes the "rag" a whip in my hand and I looked like Lawrence of Arabia.  Perhaps Indiana Jones! The man takes my camera and shoots a few photos.  He then asks for another $1.00 So that seems reasonable.  The next thing you hear is Judy screaming as this boy is taking

her for a "ride" in the desert.  Now they warned us about $1 to get on, up goes the camel and then they do not get you down unless you pay them.  Judy starts to scream more.   She can do that with the best of them as she didn't like it.  I start to boil as I can see what's coming.  I start to scream - Give me my hat back!  I scream louder, give me my camera!  I get the camera and the hat - 2 out of 3 ain't bad!  Judy is screaming louder!  The camel man asks for more money - remember I am holding out on the second $1.  I started to yell no more money until she is on the ground.  I figured it was the least I could do for her.  I guess the teacher voice must have come out because they finally "stopped the ride" and let her off.  Only then did I pay them.  One woman on our bus paid 20 euros to get her mother down and today we heard that someone payed 40 euros!  The lady did get the "tourist police" to come over and did get her money back!  Boy those Pyramids are sure something.

    We made a second stop at the Pyramids and finally went to the Sphink.  My impression was how small it really is in comparison to the actual Pyramids.  We walked around there for awhile, dogging the "only $1 U.S. dollar" boys.  Then it was off to the "shopping" stop at the "preferred" store (as usualy - at least no rug demo - that comes later in the cruise) and finally to the Mariott Hotel for lunch.  Lunch  - buffett - was good but not outstanding.  However they probably were feeding a 1000 people at at time.
    Cairo itself with their 20 million is dirty and crowded.  It seems like if you dig a hole to fix something, you leave everything on  the street.  So you see holes and dirt, bricks and trash everywhere.  The run down areas are very poor and dirty as you might expect.  I will let the pictures do the talking!
    The last stop was the Cairo museum which had about half the goods looted during the recent riots.  As a building it was less that impressive and the best thing in it was the original Tut artifacts.  I think we expected something more from such as famous museum.  A lot of the exhibits did not have labels on them and generally poorly lit.  Having said that, it was still an impressive place.
      After the museum was did the 3 hour trip back to the ship.  We did get stopped in a big traffic jam so the driver drove over the curb and median and reversed direction.  There were 3 lanes of traffic in each direction!  We all clapped when we saw the ship.  I suspect that it was because we had seen some truly amazing things and survived the dollar boys and the traffic.
    Next post will be touring Alexandria!

Mediterraneran Sailing

   Today is he second of our 2 sea days and we are enjoying the warm sunshine and fine sailing weather.  For the detailed readers you probably know that Da Vinci did not have anything to do with the Sisteen Chapel.  Enough said.
     Our trip down to the port took just over an hour and was the local commuter train which means that it was packed with people returning home in the latter part of the afternoon.  We arrived at the station but could not locate the railroad crossing under the tracks which meant that the walk around took about 15 extra minutes.  Taxis were all at the ships that were in that day.  In fact the next day there were 4 cruise ships in, including the Star Princess.  We found our hotel and then walked back to the seaside for a pizza and beer supper and a chance to relax after the 3 filled days.  We did try to get to sleep early but needed to change rooms later that night.
     The morning of boading we again walked the town with a stop at the local museum. This is an old Roman port so they have many artifacts from early times.  The hotel provided a free shuttle to the ship and when we arrived at 12:30 there was nobody in line and we basically walked right on.   The rest of the day was spent relaxing.
     Yesterday we sat around most of the day.  The port lecture was not very good providing little actual details for our visit to Egypt tomorrow.  I attended a "Spook" lecture in the afternoon.  The presenter was a British intell officer and he put me to sleep.  Judy figured it out faster than I did and was gone in 5 minutes.  Line dancing and a movie on deck filled the afternoon.  The Captain's welcome aboard/chanpaigne waterfall event was that evening.  Few people attended.  There are only 1925 on the ship and it is empty by this ship's standard.  It seems like people are somewhere else.  This ship has a lot of younger couples onboard, not like the crossing where few of the passengers are not retired.  In fact at our safety demo we had the most cruises of anybody! Hard to believe.
      Today we went to line dancing again and Veronica is probably the best instructor we have had on these cruises.  She moved the class along nicely and after 40 minutes we had finished a good workout!  12 bells just sounded.  We are 300 miles from Egypt and crusing at 21 knots.  Pub lunch and perhaps the Art auction come later.  Tomorrow is the 12 hour visit to the Pyramids.  We are resting up for the 3 hour bus trip.  More Later

A Find and Moving to the Port

   We still have  a bit of time so I thought that I would try to

Old Wall

finish the Rome portion of our trip.  We needed to take the train to the port so we decided to do some touring in the morning.  Breakfast and packing were the order of the morning.  We stored our bags at the hotel and headed South west on the metro for San Giovanni which is the church which is the home of the Bishop of Rome - the pope.  It is located just inside the old wall fortifications of Rome so that visit was a bonus.  The church itself was like all the others in the splendor of the interior.  We also had a chance to attend Mass while in the the church.  We then headed back to the hotel which took us towards the "Colosseo". 
    Our destination was San Clemante an

old church.  The church itself was very stark by any standard and you would not spend a second in the church.  The attraction was the area under the church.  They have done some excavations and you can enter the "older" church which goes back to 4-500 AD.  It still has some of the original frescos in it.   It was as big as the "new" church which was built on top of it.
 The real attraction however is what is under the "old" church.

  They have found the original  Roman ruins.  It included a temple (room) used for ancient worship by a group that was as popular as christianity in the early centuries.  A room for a school was also in the the area.  Then there was the series of rooms which was probably a Villa of some sort.  It had a small spring in it where the water was still flowing!  Running water in the house!   The place was very large - it seemed like room after room  was opened up.  It may have been used as a Roman Mint at one time.  Very very interesting.  A hidden find in Rome!

  The way back saw us stop at Santa Maria Maggiore.
Another hugh church but by then we were churched out.  We headed back to the hotel,   grabbed our bags and took the train to the port where we stayed the night before joining the ship.  More on that in the next post.  Today we are at sea, tomorrow the same, and then Egypt the day after! Cheers!

A Day At The Vatican

Waiting For The Vatican

   Our second day in Rome we decided to return to the Vatican.  Although we had been there before we thought that we should go back and spend more time enjoying all that it has to offer.  After a good filling breakfast we took the metro and were there in a few minutes.  Our first stop was the museum!
    What they say is true - long lines and wait.  It took us about 90 minutes to get into the place and you could barely move for the people.  At 15 euros a pop the place must be a mint!  We refused to pay the 45 euros for the skip the line and guided tour that sellers offerd every 1.5 feet while we were in the 2 block line.  Next time we may try to book the per entry

time on the internet which I think is available.   In any case we had the opportunity to visit all the exhibits as we were there for about 5 hours in all.  We did see the ancient holding as well as the "usual" tour stops of the tapestry gally and the decorated apartments leading to the Sisteen chapel.  There must have been 1000 people in that area with one one person doorway to get out.  Still a very good visit.  Pizza and beer followed the visit.

     We then headed to the church itself when by that time in the afternoon the lines were very short.  We dicided to go to the top of the dome again but becasue of time took the elevator the first half the way.  It was still close to 300 steps to the top.  It was a beautiful sunny day and because it was late afternoon the sun was in the best position for shooting the plaza in front of the church.  We then followed that with our second visit to the church iteslf - always a jaw dropping experience - but were too late to visit the grottos below the altar where the popes are burried.  Finally a visit to the special exhibit for the JP beautification occasion - quite well done - ended the day.  By now it was getting close to 6 pm.  We decided (why I don't know) to walk back to the Termini -which if you know Rome is across town.  That includes wandering along tiny streets to get to our hotel.  On the way we stopped at the Piazza Navona for a rest and of course the Trevi Fountain. Had to do those 2 areas!  Finally afer a pasta and wine dinner we finally made it to the hotel tired but satisfied.

Flying To Rome

   We are on ship and sailing near Sicily and we finally have a chance to get some computer time to bring you up to day on our travels so far.  Before that I have tried to get into my Primus account but can't read the e-mails so you need to post to this blog if there is something urgent.
    Our flight to rome was delayed for 45 minutes because of "paper work" and then something with the plane.  We did arrive around 10 am in the morning.   The flight itself was very uncomfortable because, although we had the emergency exit seat which in iself should have been a bonus, the seates did not recline at all.  That meant that for 8 hours of overnight flight there was no relief from the upright position.  In any case we did get the train to Rome in timely fashion and within a few minutes walk of the Termini we were at our hotel.  It was very close to a hotel we had stayed at before and down the street from the Diana Hotel.  The hotel was very nice and we would stay there again if needed.

Spanish Steps

   We dropped our bags and headed for some touring.  The day was overcast which later (as we left our wet weather gear in the hotel) the overcast turned to steady rain.  We took the metro and stopped at the Spanish Steps.  Rome is full of tourist this time of year and as expected the area around the steps had wall to wall people.  After taking our pictures we climbed the steps to the church and then to the Villa Medici and gardens behind the steps area.  After wandering the gardens for some time and as the rain started to get heavy we headed to the Plaza dei Popolo.  It was one of those places that we had seen but not visited.  The attraction there was the church

which has the famous painted of the conversion of St Paul in it.  Sorry the signs are not correct - church closed!  We waited for about an hour for the later opening but no luck! A bit disappointing but that is just the way it is.  In order to spend some time waiting we slipped into the Da Vinci Museum which is in the square.  What a find.  It had working models of some of his inventions.  We tended to remember him from the Sisteen

Davinci's Museum

Chapel aand Mona Lisa paintings but some of the inventions were something else.  He "invented" the transfer of power from one plane to another -i.e. the modern jack - and applied this to many things like a propelled cart. Ball bearings to reduce friction, a basic helecopter design, a parachute, elevation devices for morters and a system to repell scaling ladders from forts.  It was wonderful.  Little on his medical drawings and  paintings.
    By this time we were getting a bit tired so a short metro ride, some vino and pasta and bed followed in quick order.  A good sleep was needed!