SOUTH AMERICA BLOG #5
5 December 2008
The last couple of days, before entering the Strait of Magellan, our shipboard daily schedule included a number of lectures and slide shows on Magellan, his exploits and his discovery of the Strait of Magellan. Ferdinand Magellan (1480 - 1521) was a Portuguese soldier that left the service of his King after an incident and offered his services to the King of Spain who wanted to find a quicker route to the Spice islands of Indonesia and the cloth that Europe desired. The Spanish crown provided five ships and 270 men to accompany Magellan on his expedition. One speaker described the largest of Magellan ships as about 75 tons or the size of a large tug boat.
Magellan’s crew was changed before he left so that the crews of his ships were made up of Spanish rather than Portuguese sailors. His expedition was the first known successful attempt to circumnavigate the earth and to prove that the earth was really round. He was the first person to lead an expedition sailing westward from Europe to Asia and to cross the Pacific Ocean. He was the first European to reach the archipelago of what is now known as the Philippines. Arab traders had established commerce with the Philippines centuries earlier.
Magellan was fatally wounded in a battle with the islanders of the Philippines. Upon his death, Sebastian Elcano completed the voyage as commander of the King’s fleet. Of the five ships that left Spain, only one returned. Of the original 270 crew members only 18 made it home. Even with such losses, the cloth brought back to Spain from Indonesia made the expedition profitable.
Magellan, like Columbus, was not sailing blindly on a hunch. It was reported that maps and charts from the travels of Marco Polo and other Arab and Asian travelers provided much of the information that was used in their respective quests. Magellan’s expedition searched for weeks along the southern tip of South America, exploring each inlet and bay, until they found the passage that ultimately was named for Magellan. The Strait is the most important natural passage between the Atlantic and the Pacific Ocean. It was considered a difficult route to navigate by wind powered ships because of the inhospitable climate and the narrowness of the passage. The 350 mile long passage is two to fifteen miles wide. Chile took possession of the Strait in 1848 after libertador Bernardo O’Higgins feared that England or France might occupy the territory. Until the completion of the Panama Canal, the Strait of Magellan was the main route for shipping between the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans.
Our sailing of the Strait of Magellan was piecemeal because our ship was too large with too deep a draft to sail through safely. We managed to sail through most of the Strait during the day with escapes to the safety of the Pacific Ocean at night. We sailed into the port of Punta Arenas where we were “tendered” into town due to the lack of deep water docking for our ship.
Punta Arenas likes to call itself the “largest” city closest to Antarctica in the world. It is the largest city of its size but Ushuaia and even smaller Puerto Williams are actually closer to the South Pole. With that caveat, Punta Arenas plays an important role in the government of the region and as a focal point for the management of mining and sheep ranching operations. We went ashore and wondered through Punta Arena finding the kind of shops that people who live in such a remote area need. The people on the streets and the limited number of cars we saw didn’t suggest the 130,000 population we were told about. We did find a marvelous tour that took us out to the coast where we could see nesting penguins by the hundreds. The penguins return to the particular cove we visited for about four months each year to give birth to babies and raise them until they are old enough to go to sea. The penguins then spend the best part of eight months living in the sea away from land. Our visit was on a cold and rainy day but the source of a lot of fun and a few sneezes.
The next day our ship spent about four hours creeping through the dozens of glaciers on the south side of the Beagle Channel. We dutifully snapped dozens of pictures as we glided by one after another of the icy slopes heading eastward. The Beagle Channel gained its name from its discovery by an English expedition sent by the English King in mid nineteenth century to explore and map the tip of South America named Tierra del Fuego by earlier explorers. Charles Darwin accompanied the HMS Beagle as the ship’s naturalist. In the process, he wrote voluminous notes on his observations and collected thousands of specimens for further study upon returning to England. Darwin later wrote his notable book, “Origin os the Species” based on his study of his collections and observations.
The Beagle Channel took us to Ushuaia which also likes to call its self the world’s “southernmost city”. Whatever it might be called, Ushuaia is certainly the capital of Tierra del Fuego and a jumping off place for explorers and visitors to Antarctica. The 30,000 square mile land mass at the tip of the continent was named Tierra del Fuego in 1520 by Magellan who observed huge bonfires built by the local Yamana Indians who populated the area. Some believe the Indians set the fires to scare away the unwanted visitors but the fires were probably maintained to keep the locals warm in the extreme climate of the area.
Developing Ushuaia was slow due to its remote location, pirate attacks and extreme weather. A whaling station was established in the area and a prison colony was located at the site. The prisoners gave the town its name Ushuaia which means “the end“. The prisoners were eventually used to build the infrastructure of the town and a railway to transport forest products. The railway continues to run and is a popular tourist attraction called “El Tren del Fin del Mundo” or The End of the World Train.
The Norwegian Sun next took us to the Falkland Islands; an “Overseas Colony of the United Kingdom”. Stanley, the capital of the Falkland Islands, is a popular stop for cruise ships with 37 different companies including the stop in their itineraries. We were lucky that our ship was the only one visiting Stanley during our stop. The Falkland Islands include two large islands and over 740 smaller ones. Nearly all of the smaller islands are not populated. The Falklands are home to 2,478 with 2115 living in Stanley, not including the military personnel stationed in the islands.
The Falklands were sighted first by English navigator John Davis on board the “Desire”. The first recorded landing was by British Captain John Strong aboard the “Welfare” in 1690. The British administered the islands continually from 1833 until 1982 when Argentina invaded the islands and took control. A few months later the British defeated the Argentine forces and once again restored British control.
Tourism and sheep ranching provide the primary source of income for island inhabitants. We chose to walk around Stanley rather than take another shore excursion to visit with penguins. Our stroll was on a beautiful sun shiny day with the temperature somewhere in the forties accompanied by a 20 knot wind. Our first stop was in a souvenir shop to buy an extra shirt to ward off the chills. We walked a little over a mile through the local homes to a museum that was touted in our literature. The museum displayed artifacts from early settlers, seafaring gear, whaling tools and a small display of memorabilia from the 1982 war with Argentina. The latter display contained an Argentine land mind similar to the thousands that still remain where they were planted to discourage the landing of troops. Fortunately the British avoided landing in the mined areas but, unfortunately, the mines still remain where they were planted in 1982. With the exception of an occasional sheep that trips a mine, no lives have been lost. The mined areas are all well posted.
After our museum visit, we decided to call a cab rather than walk back to town in the chilling wind. One of the museum docents called a cab for us with the report that the cab would be at the curb in five minutes. Forty-five minutes later, the docent noticed us patiently waiting. Instead of making another call she offered to take us back to town in her car. Along the way, Dottie’s conversation revealed that the good Samaritan lady had lived all of her sixty or so years in Stanley with only one brief visit to the mainland for needed surgery. She was pleased with the wonderful weather we were experiencing noting that the previous day the wind was raging at over 50 knots with rain squalls……usual Falkland Islands weather.
A two day sail from the Falkland Islands took us to Puerto Madryn, Argentina. The shore excursion listings included a number of day long trips where passengers could see more penguins, herds of sea lions, beached seals, all kinds of birds and an example of local forestry. The length of each of the trips encouraged us to spend our day ashore exploring Puerto Madryn. The port is the largest serving Patagonia and a sizeable fishing fleet according to our shipboard information. From where are ship was docked, we could see none of these. We guessed that these activities are located in an adjacent bay out of sight of occasional tourists.
We were pleased with our choice for the day. The town appeared to us to be a “real” town serving real people, not just another tourist town. One had to look hard for a place to buy a postcard or t-shirt with the town’s name. The shops we strolled by were there to sell to the locals not the tourists. Our visit to the town’s Plaza revealed little of that which older towns display. The local Catholic Church was smaller than surrounding buildings so that one really had to look for it. We asked a vendor where the church was and he had to look in all four directions before he could spot it. The other sides of the plaza were filled with non descript shops rather than the expected government buildings and such.
The town is a recent addition with the first settlement by a group of 150 Welsh immigrants arriving in 1858. The Welsh moved inland but the city remained. Eventually a railway was constructed that connected Puerto Madryn with surrounding towns leading to the growth and importance of the town.
Today tourists seek Puerto Madryn as Argentina’s top scuba diving destination. Good visibility in the local waters and the presence of several shipwreck make it great if you like that sort of thing. The area is a sought after venue for ecotourists with one of UNESCO’s World Biospheres nearby.
As we write, we are headed for a day at Montevideo, Uruguay before disembarking in Buenos Aires. We’ll be busy most of the day repacking for our departure with just a short shore excursion to see the sights in Montevideo. After more than a month aboard the Norwegian Sun, we’ve tucked our things into every nook and cranny of our stateroom. The real challenge will be to try to find everything we’ve so expertly hidden from view. Wish us luck!
We’re looking forward to getting home and anxious to see each one of you. We send all our love.
Gram and Grampa Bill, Mom and Dad, Dottie and Bill
Friday, December 5, 2008
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
South America #4
SOUTH AMERICA BLOG #4
November 27, 2008
Buenas Dias a todos,
Our return to sea level was just a plane ride but our arrival in Chile was something to write home about. The landing was picture perfect, our deplaning nothing unusual except that the stewardess told us we would need to stop holding hands long enough to go single file down the rickety landing steps, but customs left us with a memory to write books about. We did our usual thing with our carry-ons x-rayed and our bodies scanned for contraband. We walked out of the terminal into a late morning sun that was pleasant for the first few minutes until we realized it was hot and muggy. We boarded our bus and sat in our seats for the next two hours as rumors of whatever spun as the clock turned. The final story came out that two of our fellow passengers had fresh fruit in their luggage. Apparently that’s a no-no in Chile. The two ladies in question were interrogated, threatened with arrest, guarded by policemen with rifles at the ready as probable monetary fines were received by phone from some one with authority. The threatened three months in jail diminished to a shaking finger and the proposed $500 fine for each apple was reduced to whatever the tour operator agreed to. The culprits were finally released with a tongue lashing in Spanish which neither one understood. They ultimately entered our waiting bus with heads bowed and we were allowed to return to our Norwegian Sun vacation home. With free fruit delivered to our rooms for the asking, it was beyond the rest of us why the ladies thought they had to bring a few apples and oranges from Cusco.
Our quick trip from the airport to our ship moored at Arica, Chile gave us a new insight into South America. We passed hundreds of homes and dozens of multiple storied apartments that looked as though they could be transplants from Arizona or any of our southern border towns. TV antennas and satellite dishes sprouted from roof tops and cars were parked in front of well tended houses. We quickly decided that Chile’s economy was world’s apart from that which we had observed on our travels through Central America, Guatemala and Ecuador. We couldn’t see them but we were informed that several chemical processing plants were in the area that prepared for export Chile’s unending supply of nitrate products. This part of the world was the primary supplier of nitrates used in the production of gun powder prior to World War II when Atlantic shipping was vulnerable to German submarine attacks and other sources were developed.
Our stop at Coquimbo and Valparaiso similarly impressed us with the apparent difference between Chile and the other countries we visited on this trip. Our shipboard view of Valparaiso showed us well tended hillside neighborhoods with passable streets. Generally, the rule is that in underdeveloped and developing countries, poor people live on the hillsides and the more fortunate live on the flats. Here it appeared we were looking at the opposite and that which we would expect at home.
A “city tour” at Coquimbo gave us a good opportunity to mingle with the real people of Chili. Our guide took us by bus into the center of Coquimbo where we hit the streets and walked through town on a busy Saturday morning. It was interesting to walk through crowds of people who looked just like us but all spoke a a different language. Our walking tour took us by stores that looked just like those we were familiar with at Stoneridge Mall. The brands advertised were the same we are used to. The fact that most of the clothing we buy is made in the far east somehow made it American rather than Chilean. That reasoning soon seemed not as plausible.
Our walk took us to a downtown museum that displayed artifacts from the Inca period. For some reason we were surprised to find the place packed with local families describing the exhibits to their children.
We had to change cabins at Valparaiso due to a “goof” by the online travel agent we used. The change was a pain in the neck but the crew was more than helpful. We were able to talk the travel agent into a $500 on board credit to make up for our discomfort. Our new cabin was a tad smaller but with a much larger balcony and we were satisfied.
The Norwegian Sun was less than full during the first 19 days even though outside cabins were selling for less than $50 a day per person. We talked to a few passengers that had signed-on just five days before the November 4 sailing. We were pleased that our accommodations were less than half of book value.
Our first stop after Valparaiso was Puerto Montt, Chile. Puerto Montt is interesting and different because the Chilean government in the 1850’s actively recruited Germans to colonize the area. The town was named after the President of Chile at the time, Manuel Montt. The German immigrants found a climate and terrain similar to Germany and immediately found success as farmers. A railway into the area in 1912 increased the areas importance as did the introduction of salmon farming in the decade before 2000.
Local museums chronicle the history of the German immigration. Although a devastating earthquake destroyed much of the town in 1960, many historic homes still stand beside the town’s oldest building dating back to 1856. We hired a cab for our private tour of the area. We drove to Lake Llanquihue, the second largest lake in Chile, and a favorite vacation venue for Chileans. The lake is surrounded by the Osomo and Calbuco volcanoes and is fed by several streams that wind through nearby Andes Mountains. Beside the lake is a small German town, parts of which look like the homes in California’s Solvang. Older farm houses in the area look as though they were transplanted from Germany. Our return trip took us through Puerto Varas that faces the Pacific Ocean on one side and a beautiful lake surrounded by vacation hotels on the other. The beautiful spring weather during our visit left little doubt in our mind that this part of Chile would be high on our list for our vacations if we were Chilean.
November 27, 2008
Buenas Dias a todos,
Our return to sea level was just a plane ride but our arrival in Chile was something to write home about. The landing was picture perfect, our deplaning nothing unusual except that the stewardess told us we would need to stop holding hands long enough to go single file down the rickety landing steps, but customs left us with a memory to write books about. We did our usual thing with our carry-ons x-rayed and our bodies scanned for contraband. We walked out of the terminal into a late morning sun that was pleasant for the first few minutes until we realized it was hot and muggy. We boarded our bus and sat in our seats for the next two hours as rumors of whatever spun as the clock turned. The final story came out that two of our fellow passengers had fresh fruit in their luggage. Apparently that’s a no-no in Chile. The two ladies in question were interrogated, threatened with arrest, guarded by policemen with rifles at the ready as probable monetary fines were received by phone from some one with authority. The threatened three months in jail diminished to a shaking finger and the proposed $500 fine for each apple was reduced to whatever the tour operator agreed to. The culprits were finally released with a tongue lashing in Spanish which neither one understood. They ultimately entered our waiting bus with heads bowed and we were allowed to return to our Norwegian Sun vacation home. With free fruit delivered to our rooms for the asking, it was beyond the rest of us why the ladies thought they had to bring a few apples and oranges from Cusco.
Our quick trip from the airport to our ship moored at Arica, Chile gave us a new insight into South America. We passed hundreds of homes and dozens of multiple storied apartments that looked as though they could be transplants from Arizona or any of our southern border towns. TV antennas and satellite dishes sprouted from roof tops and cars were parked in front of well tended houses. We quickly decided that Chile’s economy was world’s apart from that which we had observed on our travels through Central America, Guatemala and Ecuador. We couldn’t see them but we were informed that several chemical processing plants were in the area that prepared for export Chile’s unending supply of nitrate products. This part of the world was the primary supplier of nitrates used in the production of gun powder prior to World War II when Atlantic shipping was vulnerable to German submarine attacks and other sources were developed.
Our stop at Coquimbo and Valparaiso similarly impressed us with the apparent difference between Chile and the other countries we visited on this trip. Our shipboard view of Valparaiso showed us well tended hillside neighborhoods with passable streets. Generally, the rule is that in underdeveloped and developing countries, poor people live on the hillsides and the more fortunate live on the flats. Here it appeared we were looking at the opposite and that which we would expect at home.
A “city tour” at Coquimbo gave us a good opportunity to mingle with the real people of Chili. Our guide took us by bus into the center of Coquimbo where we hit the streets and walked through town on a busy Saturday morning. It was interesting to walk through crowds of people who looked just like us but all spoke a a different language. Our walking tour took us by stores that looked just like those we were familiar with at Stoneridge Mall. The brands advertised were the same we are used to. The fact that most of the clothing we buy is made in the far east somehow made it American rather than Chilean. That reasoning soon seemed not as plausible.
Our walk took us to a downtown museum that displayed artifacts from the Inca period. For some reason we were surprised to find the place packed with local families describing the exhibits to their children.
We had to change cabins at Valparaiso due to a “goof” by the online travel agent we used. The change was a pain in the neck but the crew was more than helpful. We were able to talk the travel agent into a $500 on board credit to make up for our discomfort. Our new cabin was a tad smaller but with a much larger balcony and we were satisfied.
The Norwegian Sun was less than full during the first 19 days even though outside cabins were selling for less than $50 a day per person. We talked to a few passengers that had signed-on just five days before the November 4 sailing. We were pleased that our accommodations were less than half of book value.
Our first stop after Valparaiso was Puerto Montt, Chile. Puerto Montt is interesting and different because the Chilean government in the 1850’s actively recruited Germans to colonize the area. The town was named after the President of Chile at the time, Manuel Montt. The German immigrants found a climate and terrain similar to Germany and immediately found success as farmers. A railway into the area in 1912 increased the areas importance as did the introduction of salmon farming in the decade before 2000.
Local museums chronicle the history of the German immigration. Although a devastating earthquake destroyed much of the town in 1960, many historic homes still stand beside the town’s oldest building dating back to 1856. We hired a cab for our private tour of the area. We drove to Lake Llanquihue, the second largest lake in Chile, and a favorite vacation venue for Chileans. The lake is surrounded by the Osomo and Calbuco volcanoes and is fed by several streams that wind through nearby Andes Mountains. Beside the lake is a small German town, parts of which look like the homes in California’s Solvang. Older farm houses in the area look as though they were transplanted from Germany. Our return trip took us through Puerto Varas that faces the Pacific Ocean on one side and a beautiful lake surrounded by vacation hotels on the other. The beautiful spring weather during our visit left little doubt in our mind that this part of Chile would be high on our list for our vacations if we were Chilean.
Saturday, November 22, 2008
November 22, 2008
SOUTH AMERICA BLOG #3
22 November 2008
Costa Rica is trying hard to become attractive to travelers. Our stop at Puntarenas (Sp = Sandy point) introduced us to some wonderful sandy beaches, typical Central American life style, a warm muggy climate and not much that would steal vacationers away from Cancun and Acapulco. We chose a shore excursion that would show us the exotic side of jungle bound Puntarenas.
Our tour entitled “Train, Bus and Boat adventure” did indeed feature all three forms of transportation as we explored the sea shore, the interior jungle and looked for crocodiles and exotic birds in a river flowing into the Pacific Ocean. Everything went smashingly well until we came to a wide spot in the road where we were to meet a train on a narrow gauge rail line next to the road. We left the bus and stood in the shade it created for the best part of an hour waiting for our train ride. A series of frantic calls by our guide finally determined that something had gone wrong with the track and the train couldn’t reach us. It was decided that if the train couldn’t come to us we would go to the train. Our bus rattled over country roads, past meager homes and small tilled fields as we fought our way deeper into the jungle. We found the train parked next to a small school in a village that featured a half dozen homes, a dozen or so smiling inquisitive kids and a beleaguered looking crew. We scrambled aboard the little train and began our ride through the Costa Rican jungle which looked something like Tarzan films minus hanging vines for dramatic tree to tree jungle travel. Our train whistled along for a while before slowing to a stop in the middle of nowhere. Looking out the opened window of our coach we watched a crew of a half dozen workers as they stared questioningly at a section of track as we crept by. Apparently a rain storm earlier in the day had washed out a small section that had just been jury rigged for our passage. Not a single one of the staring workers looked as though he believed our train could really make it through…but we did. We eventually popped out of the jungle at the spot where we had waited an hour for our train.
Our bus now picked up speed racing over rough winding roads to take us to our boat ride segment of the tour. The boat was a part of a local concession that promised sightings of alligators and rare birds, and maybe an iguanas or two as we explored the Tarcoles River. We began with an immediate sighting of a crocodile who appeared to be chained to the pier. We did see flocks of Macaws, at least that is what our guide called a bunch of birds that flew over, and a gazillion or so snowy egrets. We were a bit disappointed not to be introduced personally to a spoonbill or a jacanas that our advertisement had touted for the area. We did spot a number of crocodiles that seemed to smile in anticipation of dinner when we floated by. It surprised us to see a family of locals out for an afternoon swim just a couple of hundred yards up stream from the advertised meanies. The promised treat of local fruit while listening to authentic local marimba performers was shortened to a quick stanza or two while we off loaded the boat and climbed aboard our bus where we found a plate of fruit on each seat. Dottie found that Costa Rican fruit is kind of squishy as she sat down before realizing lunch had been served. The Norwegian Sun delayed its planned departure for our late arriving tour bus and our wonderful visit to Costa Rica ended.
Our visit to Manta, Ecuador left us with an entirely different feeling about Central America. Manta, a city of more than 200,000, is a bustling port community serving the sea going transportation needs of the country. The Pacific beaches of Ecuador provide breath taking views of the sea meeting the land. Manta beaches were selected for the sixth annual South American Wind Surfing Championship. Ecuador’s tuna fishing industry works out of Manta with literally dozens of tuna boats unloading tons of tuna around the clock. We were fascinated as we watched cranes lower nets into the holds of the boats and return with huge loads of fish that were dumped into trucks for transport to local canneries.
We learned that the area we now know as Ecuador was originally visited by a Spanish scouting expedition in 1526. Francisco Pizarro and his conquistadores invaded the country six yeas later. Following Pizarro’s death, his brother Gonzalo took over and led a rebellion against Spain. Gonzalo’s independent rule lasted until 1548 when the Spanish Crown defeated his small army.
The independence leader, Simon Bolivar, finally defeated the last vestiges of Spanish colonial rule in 1822 when several future South American countries formed the Republic of Colombia including what is now Venezuela, Panama and others. Ecuador withdrew from the the Republic in 1830 and has been a self governing country since.
The grand adventure of our cruise was our three day shore excursion to Macho Picchu, and ancient Inca city and a site that is now one of the “Seven Wonders of the Modern World. We began with a 6:00 AM ride by bus to the Lima, Peru International Airport. An hour long flight took us from sea level at Lima to 11,000 feet at Cusco, Peru. We had been warned to expect some difficulties with the sudden altitude change and we did. Just walking from the plane to a bus which would take us to our hotel was breath taking, like it took a lot more breath than we had to give.
Our hotel was as grand as we have ever known and our guide’s admonition to take a nap was followed by Bill as Dottie managed to arrange our few things for our two night stay. Our lunch and afternoon tour of Cusco introduced us to the local sights and Inca lore that pervades everything. During our visit to the Cathedral of Cusco our guide pointed out the many ways that Inca beliefs were woven into the Catholic ideology. Incas worshipped nature and their descendants have created a form of Catholicism that incorporates the ancient worship of Inca idols in small but observable ways. A prominent statue of St. Paul holding a large cross included an obvious sun carved in the middle of the cross to indicate the Inca worship of the Sun. Our guide spoke of the confusion that the mixing of beliefs has caused, especially among young people. It was suggested that although the country is basically Catholic, few if any of the younger generation attend church or refer to themselves as Catholic.
Our city tour took us to the Plaza Recogido, Plaza de Armas, Santo Domingo Convent and the winding ancient streets of the city of 400,000. All of the sites visited contained portions of previous Inca stone architecture. Along the way we learned that Peru, a country of 24 million has 19 million cell phones. The country is slowly growing out of a long period of inflation and lack of financial growth. We saw few cars outside the city indicating low income among a large part of the population. We did observe that everything seemed very clean as compared to other developing countries we have visited.
On our second day, we were up before 4:00 AM to catch a bus at 5:00 AM that would take us to the Macho Picchu train. During our first night at Cusco, Dottie was kept awake by a constant cramping and involuntary movement of her legs caused by the sudden change in altitude. The train ride took us from Cusco at 11,000 feet, across a pass at 13,000 feet, to Macho Picchu at 8,000 feet in the high jungle of Peru. Our train followed the Ollantaytambo River which flows down the eastern slope of the Andes into the Amazon River. The rapid descent of the river provided wonderful views of white water rapids along the way. Occasionally we passed small farms where corn and potatoes were being grown.
Macha Picchu was awesome, to say the least. The Inca city built in 1450 and abandoned in 1540 was never visited by the Conquistadors. There are several theories about why people abandoned the site. The most logical seems to be that the terraced fields were unable to feed a growing population. Another theory is that the Spanish gift of smallpox invaded the town through visitors from Cusco and drove the inhabitants away thru fear. Whatever the case, the site was soon overgrown by jungle and not known to the outside world until 1911 when an American professor/explorer, Hiram Bingham, visited the site after learning about it from neighbors. The site was subsequently cleared of jungle to display what is seen today.
Pictures of the site show huge buildings built Inca style with large limestone blocks amazingly shaped and fitted without mortar so that they have remained through the centuries’ many earthquakes. We climbed the many stone stairways connecting buildings until our legs were numbed. Even though the altitude difficulties we were experiencing told us otherwise, we couldn’t imagine not seeing everything there was to see. Our four hours at Machu Picchu left us with some marvelous memories of what the amazing Inca civilization accomplished
Our knowledge of the Inca Empire was enriched by each of the guides along the way. The Incas built one of the largest and wealthiest empires in the western hemisphere between 1100 and 1500 AD covering much of the region now included in present day Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Bolivia and Argentina. The empire was ruled by a king who was worshipped as a god. The empire disintegrated when the king and his brother fought for control.
The ancestors of the Incas are interesting people. They farm areas of the Andes as high as 19,000 feet. We saw productive farm operations at 13,000 feet. They continue to follow a conservative set of rules to live by that were written by some ancient Inca king. One king dictated that no couple would have sex during the month of November each year. To this day August birthdays are the most popular among Peruvians. Peruvians are friendly and outgoing with visitors, especially if the visitor appears to be in a mood to pose with a Llama for a photo or by some handiwork created by a semi-talented housewife.
We managed a few poses but avoided collecting Peruvian handicrafts. Even though we knew in our hearts that our family members would really be excited about receiving a hand made flute for Christmas, our luggage was overweight before leaving home and we simply are not using enough tooth paste and deodorant to make more room for such good stuff.
Smelling good with pleasant love you all
Gram and Grampa Bill, Mom and Dad, Dottie and Bill
22 November 2008
Costa Rica is trying hard to become attractive to travelers. Our stop at Puntarenas (Sp = Sandy point) introduced us to some wonderful sandy beaches, typical Central American life style, a warm muggy climate and not much that would steal vacationers away from Cancun and Acapulco. We chose a shore excursion that would show us the exotic side of jungle bound Puntarenas.
Our tour entitled “Train, Bus and Boat adventure” did indeed feature all three forms of transportation as we explored the sea shore, the interior jungle and looked for crocodiles and exotic birds in a river flowing into the Pacific Ocean. Everything went smashingly well until we came to a wide spot in the road where we were to meet a train on a narrow gauge rail line next to the road. We left the bus and stood in the shade it created for the best part of an hour waiting for our train ride. A series of frantic calls by our guide finally determined that something had gone wrong with the track and the train couldn’t reach us. It was decided that if the train couldn’t come to us we would go to the train. Our bus rattled over country roads, past meager homes and small tilled fields as we fought our way deeper into the jungle. We found the train parked next to a small school in a village that featured a half dozen homes, a dozen or so smiling inquisitive kids and a beleaguered looking crew. We scrambled aboard the little train and began our ride through the Costa Rican jungle which looked something like Tarzan films minus hanging vines for dramatic tree to tree jungle travel. Our train whistled along for a while before slowing to a stop in the middle of nowhere. Looking out the opened window of our coach we watched a crew of a half dozen workers as they stared questioningly at a section of track as we crept by. Apparently a rain storm earlier in the day had washed out a small section that had just been jury rigged for our passage. Not a single one of the staring workers looked as though he believed our train could really make it through…but we did. We eventually popped out of the jungle at the spot where we had waited an hour for our train.
Our bus now picked up speed racing over rough winding roads to take us to our boat ride segment of the tour. The boat was a part of a local concession that promised sightings of alligators and rare birds, and maybe an iguanas or two as we explored the Tarcoles River. We began with an immediate sighting of a crocodile who appeared to be chained to the pier. We did see flocks of Macaws, at least that is what our guide called a bunch of birds that flew over, and a gazillion or so snowy egrets. We were a bit disappointed not to be introduced personally to a spoonbill or a jacanas that our advertisement had touted for the area. We did spot a number of crocodiles that seemed to smile in anticipation of dinner when we floated by. It surprised us to see a family of locals out for an afternoon swim just a couple of hundred yards up stream from the advertised meanies. The promised treat of local fruit while listening to authentic local marimba performers was shortened to a quick stanza or two while we off loaded the boat and climbed aboard our bus where we found a plate of fruit on each seat. Dottie found that Costa Rican fruit is kind of squishy as she sat down before realizing lunch had been served. The Norwegian Sun delayed its planned departure for our late arriving tour bus and our wonderful visit to Costa Rica ended.
Our visit to Manta, Ecuador left us with an entirely different feeling about Central America. Manta, a city of more than 200,000, is a bustling port community serving the sea going transportation needs of the country. The Pacific beaches of Ecuador provide breath taking views of the sea meeting the land. Manta beaches were selected for the sixth annual South American Wind Surfing Championship. Ecuador’s tuna fishing industry works out of Manta with literally dozens of tuna boats unloading tons of tuna around the clock. We were fascinated as we watched cranes lower nets into the holds of the boats and return with huge loads of fish that were dumped into trucks for transport to local canneries.
We learned that the area we now know as Ecuador was originally visited by a Spanish scouting expedition in 1526. Francisco Pizarro and his conquistadores invaded the country six yeas later. Following Pizarro’s death, his brother Gonzalo took over and led a rebellion against Spain. Gonzalo’s independent rule lasted until 1548 when the Spanish Crown defeated his small army.
The independence leader, Simon Bolivar, finally defeated the last vestiges of Spanish colonial rule in 1822 when several future South American countries formed the Republic of Colombia including what is now Venezuela, Panama and others. Ecuador withdrew from the the Republic in 1830 and has been a self governing country since.
The grand adventure of our cruise was our three day shore excursion to Macho Picchu, and ancient Inca city and a site that is now one of the “Seven Wonders of the Modern World. We began with a 6:00 AM ride by bus to the Lima, Peru International Airport. An hour long flight took us from sea level at Lima to 11,000 feet at Cusco, Peru. We had been warned to expect some difficulties with the sudden altitude change and we did. Just walking from the plane to a bus which would take us to our hotel was breath taking, like it took a lot more breath than we had to give.
Our hotel was as grand as we have ever known and our guide’s admonition to take a nap was followed by Bill as Dottie managed to arrange our few things for our two night stay. Our lunch and afternoon tour of Cusco introduced us to the local sights and Inca lore that pervades everything. During our visit to the Cathedral of Cusco our guide pointed out the many ways that Inca beliefs were woven into the Catholic ideology. Incas worshipped nature and their descendants have created a form of Catholicism that incorporates the ancient worship of Inca idols in small but observable ways. A prominent statue of St. Paul holding a large cross included an obvious sun carved in the middle of the cross to indicate the Inca worship of the Sun. Our guide spoke of the confusion that the mixing of beliefs has caused, especially among young people. It was suggested that although the country is basically Catholic, few if any of the younger generation attend church or refer to themselves as Catholic.
Our city tour took us to the Plaza Recogido, Plaza de Armas, Santo Domingo Convent and the winding ancient streets of the city of 400,000. All of the sites visited contained portions of previous Inca stone architecture. Along the way we learned that Peru, a country of 24 million has 19 million cell phones. The country is slowly growing out of a long period of inflation and lack of financial growth. We saw few cars outside the city indicating low income among a large part of the population. We did observe that everything seemed very clean as compared to other developing countries we have visited.
On our second day, we were up before 4:00 AM to catch a bus at 5:00 AM that would take us to the Macho Picchu train. During our first night at Cusco, Dottie was kept awake by a constant cramping and involuntary movement of her legs caused by the sudden change in altitude. The train ride took us from Cusco at 11,000 feet, across a pass at 13,000 feet, to Macho Picchu at 8,000 feet in the high jungle of Peru. Our train followed the Ollantaytambo River which flows down the eastern slope of the Andes into the Amazon River. The rapid descent of the river provided wonderful views of white water rapids along the way. Occasionally we passed small farms where corn and potatoes were being grown.
Macha Picchu was awesome, to say the least. The Inca city built in 1450 and abandoned in 1540 was never visited by the Conquistadors. There are several theories about why people abandoned the site. The most logical seems to be that the terraced fields were unable to feed a growing population. Another theory is that the Spanish gift of smallpox invaded the town through visitors from Cusco and drove the inhabitants away thru fear. Whatever the case, the site was soon overgrown by jungle and not known to the outside world until 1911 when an American professor/explorer, Hiram Bingham, visited the site after learning about it from neighbors. The site was subsequently cleared of jungle to display what is seen today.
Pictures of the site show huge buildings built Inca style with large limestone blocks amazingly shaped and fitted without mortar so that they have remained through the centuries’ many earthquakes. We climbed the many stone stairways connecting buildings until our legs were numbed. Even though the altitude difficulties we were experiencing told us otherwise, we couldn’t imagine not seeing everything there was to see. Our four hours at Machu Picchu left us with some marvelous memories of what the amazing Inca civilization accomplished
Our knowledge of the Inca Empire was enriched by each of the guides along the way. The Incas built one of the largest and wealthiest empires in the western hemisphere between 1100 and 1500 AD covering much of the region now included in present day Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Bolivia and Argentina. The empire was ruled by a king who was worshipped as a god. The empire disintegrated when the king and his brother fought for control.
The ancestors of the Incas are interesting people. They farm areas of the Andes as high as 19,000 feet. We saw productive farm operations at 13,000 feet. They continue to follow a conservative set of rules to live by that were written by some ancient Inca king. One king dictated that no couple would have sex during the month of November each year. To this day August birthdays are the most popular among Peruvians. Peruvians are friendly and outgoing with visitors, especially if the visitor appears to be in a mood to pose with a Llama for a photo or by some handiwork created by a semi-talented housewife.
We managed a few poses but avoided collecting Peruvian handicrafts. Even though we knew in our hearts that our family members would really be excited about receiving a hand made flute for Christmas, our luggage was overweight before leaving home and we simply are not using enough tooth paste and deodorant to make more room for such good stuff.
Smelling good with pleasant love you all
Gram and Grampa Bill, Mom and Dad, Dottie and Bill
Monday, November 17, 2008
South America Blog #2
SOUTH AMERICA BLOG #2
17 November 2008
The Big Guy is looking after us!
Back in July on board the Norwegian Jewel, the crew told us that all one had to do to get married on board was to let the staff know. Later, in August on board the Norwegian Jade, the same message came across loud and clear. Just ask and it happens.
Just before sailing, Bill called Norwegian Cruise Lines to see if there was anything we had to do before boarding to have a marriage take place. We were told, for the first time, that requests had to be made thirty days before sailing! Yikes!
Hoping that rules were made to be broken, we made contact with the officer in charge of such things as soon as we boarded the Norwegian Sun on November 4. We found that 1) this captain did not do marriages and 2) there was no ship’s Chaplain on board on this cruise. We asked what options were open to us. Marvelous Claudia Lay, Group Services Coordinator, went to work on our behalf and look for ways to get us married. The best she could do was a civil ceremony at Manta Ecuador on November 15. Since this seemed like our only option, we asked that arrangements be made. We were required to furnish legal proof that Bill was not married. He emailed his attorney to have the document faxed to Manta. A few days later Manta reported that a copy would not do and that an original document was required. Since the piece of paper was locked in Bill’s safety deposit box Manta was scratched.
It next occurred to us that Bill’s brother Loran could fly down and join the cruise in time to meet our November 16 hoped for wedding date. Loran quickly agreed and Bill set about to rent a cabin for his stay on the Sun. Bill immediately found that NCL doesn’t allow passengers to join a cruise mid stream (so to speak). Bill called the NCL offices at Miami and talked to a line of supervisors who refused to budge on the issue. Brother Loran was scratched as an option.
We met with the travel company sponsoring the Machu Picchu shore excursion to see if he could arrange something at 8,000 feet during our visit to Cusco, Peru. He was quick to state that he knew of an Inca Shaman who regularly did “Commitment Ceremonies” and went to work making arrangements for us. We thought about the idea for a few days and decided against a ceremony squatted in the dirt while a brown skin native danced around sprinkling us with good luck potions.
We decided that the eggs in our basket had dwindled down to a final few that required that we find a passenger on board who could do the deed for us. For more than a week we had told everyone we had met of our lack of success in making our marriage a reality. We had half of the passengers saying hello to us and nodding their heads negatively to report on their searches. Bill offered our room steward $50 if he could find a minister among the 900 staff on board.
Finally, on Saturday November 15, we had two hot leads. A couple we had never met tackled us in the dining room and told us of a father and son they had met one of which had claimed to be a minister. At the same time, Denny, the man who bought Bill’s contracts for five cruises, reported finding a retired prison Chaplain he had met over the bridge table. Before we made contact, Claudia Lay called to tell us about the same man. Claudia met Reverend Joe Rigby when he asked if he could conduct a Sunday morning service on November 16 in the absence of anything planned by the ship. She suggested we go to the service and introduce ourselves.
On Sunday morning, November 16, we met Reverend Rigby after the service and arranged to have lunch with himnd his wife Shirley. Over lunch we found that Reverend Rigby would be pleased to marry us. We quickly contacted Claudia Lay who busted her buns making everything happen. Within a few hours, the Chapel was reserved, the Four Seasons Dining Room arranged a separate room for our wedding party dinner, Dottie called a number of our shipboard friends and invited them to our wedding and wonderful Claudia scratched up a handful of little flowers and arranged them in a small bridle bouquet.
A dozen couples arrived at the Chapel precisely at 6:00 PM and Reverend Rigby made us man and wife. Friend Marty Finver, the Bridge Director, was our official photographer providing a nice record of our big moment.
Our wedding dinner at the Four Seasons Restaurant was a masterful touch. New friend Roger Kent, who with his wife Anne served as our witnesses, offered the first toast as the one person in the room who knew us better than any others. Roger and Anne met us in the embarkation line at Francisco on November 4. The two dozen guests consumed nine bottles of ship’s wine that we provided as they enjoyed two and half hours of enjoying the moment with us.
When we had an opportunity to toast the moment, we thanked our new friends for making this big moment in our lives memorable. We also recognized that we had been blessed by our savior with a rich new future that we accepted with the realization that his expectation of us is that we would share with all we meet, through our example and actions, that love can be and should be a part of each senior citizen’s life. As two who have passed their seventy-fifth majority, we know that the richness of life found in a loving relationship can be possible if we learn to expect and work for the happiness that follows.
We love you all so very much,
Gram and Grampa Bill, Mom and Dad, Bill and Dottie Berck
17 November 2008
The Big Guy is looking after us!
Back in July on board the Norwegian Jewel, the crew told us that all one had to do to get married on board was to let the staff know. Later, in August on board the Norwegian Jade, the same message came across loud and clear. Just ask and it happens.
Just before sailing, Bill called Norwegian Cruise Lines to see if there was anything we had to do before boarding to have a marriage take place. We were told, for the first time, that requests had to be made thirty days before sailing! Yikes!
Hoping that rules were made to be broken, we made contact with the officer in charge of such things as soon as we boarded the Norwegian Sun on November 4. We found that 1) this captain did not do marriages and 2) there was no ship’s Chaplain on board on this cruise. We asked what options were open to us. Marvelous Claudia Lay, Group Services Coordinator, went to work on our behalf and look for ways to get us married. The best she could do was a civil ceremony at Manta Ecuador on November 15. Since this seemed like our only option, we asked that arrangements be made. We were required to furnish legal proof that Bill was not married. He emailed his attorney to have the document faxed to Manta. A few days later Manta reported that a copy would not do and that an original document was required. Since the piece of paper was locked in Bill’s safety deposit box Manta was scratched.
It next occurred to us that Bill’s brother Loran could fly down and join the cruise in time to meet our November 16 hoped for wedding date. Loran quickly agreed and Bill set about to rent a cabin for his stay on the Sun. Bill immediately found that NCL doesn’t allow passengers to join a cruise mid stream (so to speak). Bill called the NCL offices at Miami and talked to a line of supervisors who refused to budge on the issue. Brother Loran was scratched as an option.
We met with the travel company sponsoring the Machu Picchu shore excursion to see if he could arrange something at 8,000 feet during our visit to Cusco, Peru. He was quick to state that he knew of an Inca Shaman who regularly did “Commitment Ceremonies” and went to work making arrangements for us. We thought about the idea for a few days and decided against a ceremony squatted in the dirt while a brown skin native danced around sprinkling us with good luck potions.
We decided that the eggs in our basket had dwindled down to a final few that required that we find a passenger on board who could do the deed for us. For more than a week we had told everyone we had met of our lack of success in making our marriage a reality. We had half of the passengers saying hello to us and nodding their heads negatively to report on their searches. Bill offered our room steward $50 if he could find a minister among the 900 staff on board.
Finally, on Saturday November 15, we had two hot leads. A couple we had never met tackled us in the dining room and told us of a father and son they had met one of which had claimed to be a minister. At the same time, Denny, the man who bought Bill’s contracts for five cruises, reported finding a retired prison Chaplain he had met over the bridge table. Before we made contact, Claudia Lay called to tell us about the same man. Claudia met Reverend Joe Rigby when he asked if he could conduct a Sunday morning service on November 16 in the absence of anything planned by the ship. She suggested we go to the service and introduce ourselves.
On Sunday morning, November 16, we met Reverend Rigby after the service and arranged to have lunch with himnd his wife Shirley. Over lunch we found that Reverend Rigby would be pleased to marry us. We quickly contacted Claudia Lay who busted her buns making everything happen. Within a few hours, the Chapel was reserved, the Four Seasons Dining Room arranged a separate room for our wedding party dinner, Dottie called a number of our shipboard friends and invited them to our wedding and wonderful Claudia scratched up a handful of little flowers and arranged them in a small bridle bouquet.
A dozen couples arrived at the Chapel precisely at 6:00 PM and Reverend Rigby made us man and wife. Friend Marty Finver, the Bridge Director, was our official photographer providing a nice record of our big moment.
Our wedding dinner at the Four Seasons Restaurant was a masterful touch. New friend Roger Kent, who with his wife Anne served as our witnesses, offered the first toast as the one person in the room who knew us better than any others. Roger and Anne met us in the embarkation line at Francisco on November 4. The two dozen guests consumed nine bottles of ship’s wine that we provided as they enjoyed two and half hours of enjoying the moment with us.
When we had an opportunity to toast the moment, we thanked our new friends for making this big moment in our lives memorable. We also recognized that we had been blessed by our savior with a rich new future that we accepted with the realization that his expectation of us is that we would share with all we meet, through our example and actions, that love can be and should be a part of each senior citizen’s life. As two who have passed their seventy-fifth majority, we know that the richness of life found in a loving relationship can be possible if we learn to expect and work for the happiness that follows.
We love you all so very much,
Gram and Grampa Bill, Mom and Dad, Bill and Dottie Berck
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
SoAmerica Blog #1
South America BLOG #1
12 November 2008
Our South America adventure began wonderfully as Joy volunteered to drive us to Pier 35 on the San Francisco Embarcadero. Even though we arrived early we were greeted by several hundred fellow passengers waiting in line for the embarkation process. Within minutes we were well acquainted with a wonderful couple, Ann and Roger from Hawaii. We knew we would see them often during the next 34 days.
Our first port of call was Los Angeles harbor at San Pedro. As one of the world’s largest container ports, our landing had all of the characteristics of arriving in Chicago by train. We really didn’t plan to go ashore but our unpacking found a couple of necessities missing. Since walking anywhere from the port is 1)a long way and 2) not particularly safe, we opted for a cab to take us to the nearest Walmart or whatever. The cabs that were available were choosing passengers that wanted their $75 quickie tour of LA highlights and not particularly interested in short hauls. After waiting patiently for the best part of an hour, we found another couple with a similar need and decided to share a rented car. The car rental turned out to be a godsend. It was cheaper by far than a local cab and gave us an opportunity to make some new friends; Debbie and Trevor from Texas.
Arrival at Acapulco followed three great days at sea as each day became warmer and longer. We took the city tour that included a stop at the famous Mirador Hotel where Mexican divers have been diving off a cliff into 12 feet of water for forty years to entertain guests. After a quick Marguerita we were treated to the famous spectacle of normal looking men diving 110 feet into a rising tide to make us happy. Since the divers do their thing five times a day, seven days a week they must know how to do what they do. We enjoyed the dives and a ten minute folkloric show and we were on our way.
We learned a lot about Acapulco from our seasoned guide who still smiled after telling the same jokes for the twelve years. The wonderful bay was home to the Nahua tribe for 2000 years before they were conquered by the Aztecs a hundred years or so before Hernan Cortez and his sailors took the port in 1521. Acapulco ultimately became the jumping off point for later Spanish exploration of Mexico and points south as far as Peru. Later it became the only port authorized by Spain to receive Spanish galleons from the Philippines and China. Legend has it that the first foreign visitor to Acapulco was a Chinese monk named Fa Hsien sometime around 417 AD.
Our ship parked just below the Spanish Fort San Diego constructed in 1616 and rebuilt in 1776 after a great earthquake. The fort is now a national museum that we decided not to visit.
J Paul Getty recognized the resort potential of the area and built the first major hotel, the Pierre Marquez, in 1957. In the fifties an international airport was built and the Mexican government encouraged the development of more resort facilities. Today the bay is surrounded by luxury hotels that attract visitors from all over the world. Acapulco is the major vacation spot for Mexicans. Just a four hour drive from Mexico City, many Mexicans frequent the area annually. Today, the older area, known by locals as Acapulco Traditional, has hotels available for as little as $10 a day per person.
Our tour took us by the “Black Lagoon”, the site of many movies including the African Queen, Tarzan, Papillon and the Creature from the Black Lagoon. We drove by the Acapulco Princess Hilton and the Pierre Marquez all near the little neighboring town of Puerto Marquez.
After our tour, we set out on foot to explore the Zocolo, the town square, and strolled along the waterfront where local fishermen were selling the catch of the day.
Another day at Sea brought us to the Guatemala port of Puerto Queztal. The temperature had now reached the mid eighties accompanied by a humidity of 95%. We opted to go ashore and visit the small group of merchants who live off of the cruise ship tourist trade. Some fellow passengers took excursions into Guatemala City and/or Antigua, an hour’s drive away.
Our stroll ashore gave us an opportunity to be confronted by the usual aggressive merchants of all kinds of handicrafts, watch mothers teaching their kids how to weave the wonderful stuff that folks like us will pay big bucks for, tour a “Jade Museum” where we learned a lot of stuff about Jade and it’s many colors, listen to some marvelous marimba music played by eight marimba players working two huge marimbas and see a staged fashion show where lovely ladies and handsome gentlemen modeled Guatemala traditional clothes that one would never see on the street.
The next few days we will be visiting ports every other day with days at sea in between. As we creep closer to the Equator it gets warmer and muggier; but not inside where the ship’s air conditioning system keeps all at a marvelous if not a bit chilly 70 degrees.
We’ve had some interesting moments during our first week at sea that we will tell about later. For now, we’re happy as clams, we are well and smiling, life couldn’t be better….unless maybe if we could spot one of those giant sea turtles that people keep seeing pass our ship.
We send our love to all……
Gram and Grampa Bill, Mom and Dad, Dottie and Bill
12 November 2008
Our South America adventure began wonderfully as Joy volunteered to drive us to Pier 35 on the San Francisco Embarcadero. Even though we arrived early we were greeted by several hundred fellow passengers waiting in line for the embarkation process. Within minutes we were well acquainted with a wonderful couple, Ann and Roger from Hawaii. We knew we would see them often during the next 34 days.
Our first port of call was Los Angeles harbor at San Pedro. As one of the world’s largest container ports, our landing had all of the characteristics of arriving in Chicago by train. We really didn’t plan to go ashore but our unpacking found a couple of necessities missing. Since walking anywhere from the port is 1)a long way and 2) not particularly safe, we opted for a cab to take us to the nearest Walmart or whatever. The cabs that were available were choosing passengers that wanted their $75 quickie tour of LA highlights and not particularly interested in short hauls. After waiting patiently for the best part of an hour, we found another couple with a similar need and decided to share a rented car. The car rental turned out to be a godsend. It was cheaper by far than a local cab and gave us an opportunity to make some new friends; Debbie and Trevor from Texas.
Arrival at Acapulco followed three great days at sea as each day became warmer and longer. We took the city tour that included a stop at the famous Mirador Hotel where Mexican divers have been diving off a cliff into 12 feet of water for forty years to entertain guests. After a quick Marguerita we were treated to the famous spectacle of normal looking men diving 110 feet into a rising tide to make us happy. Since the divers do their thing five times a day, seven days a week they must know how to do what they do. We enjoyed the dives and a ten minute folkloric show and we were on our way.
We learned a lot about Acapulco from our seasoned guide who still smiled after telling the same jokes for the twelve years. The wonderful bay was home to the Nahua tribe for 2000 years before they were conquered by the Aztecs a hundred years or so before Hernan Cortez and his sailors took the port in 1521. Acapulco ultimately became the jumping off point for later Spanish exploration of Mexico and points south as far as Peru. Later it became the only port authorized by Spain to receive Spanish galleons from the Philippines and China. Legend has it that the first foreign visitor to Acapulco was a Chinese monk named Fa Hsien sometime around 417 AD.
Our ship parked just below the Spanish Fort San Diego constructed in 1616 and rebuilt in 1776 after a great earthquake. The fort is now a national museum that we decided not to visit.
J Paul Getty recognized the resort potential of the area and built the first major hotel, the Pierre Marquez, in 1957. In the fifties an international airport was built and the Mexican government encouraged the development of more resort facilities. Today the bay is surrounded by luxury hotels that attract visitors from all over the world. Acapulco is the major vacation spot for Mexicans. Just a four hour drive from Mexico City, many Mexicans frequent the area annually. Today, the older area, known by locals as Acapulco Traditional, has hotels available for as little as $10 a day per person.
Our tour took us by the “Black Lagoon”, the site of many movies including the African Queen, Tarzan, Papillon and the Creature from the Black Lagoon. We drove by the Acapulco Princess Hilton and the Pierre Marquez all near the little neighboring town of Puerto Marquez.
After our tour, we set out on foot to explore the Zocolo, the town square, and strolled along the waterfront where local fishermen were selling the catch of the day.
Another day at Sea brought us to the Guatemala port of Puerto Queztal. The temperature had now reached the mid eighties accompanied by a humidity of 95%. We opted to go ashore and visit the small group of merchants who live off of the cruise ship tourist trade. Some fellow passengers took excursions into Guatemala City and/or Antigua, an hour’s drive away.
Our stroll ashore gave us an opportunity to be confronted by the usual aggressive merchants of all kinds of handicrafts, watch mothers teaching their kids how to weave the wonderful stuff that folks like us will pay big bucks for, tour a “Jade Museum” where we learned a lot of stuff about Jade and it’s many colors, listen to some marvelous marimba music played by eight marimba players working two huge marimbas and see a staged fashion show where lovely ladies and handsome gentlemen modeled Guatemala traditional clothes that one would never see on the street.
The next few days we will be visiting ports every other day with days at sea in between. As we creep closer to the Equator it gets warmer and muggier; but not inside where the ship’s air conditioning system keeps all at a marvelous if not a bit chilly 70 degrees.
We’ve had some interesting moments during our first week at sea that we will tell about later. For now, we’re happy as clams, we are well and smiling, life couldn’t be better….unless maybe if we could spot one of those giant sea turtles that people keep seeing pass our ship.
We send our love to all……
Gram and Grampa Bill, Mom and Dad, Dottie and Bill
Thursday, September 4, 2008
BLOG #15
5 September 2008
Hello to all……………we’ll be home this evening.
Rome is one spot in the world that everyone ought to experience at least once in a lifetime. As a matter of fact, it seemed as though everyone was doing exactly that during our one day visit. The Norwegian Jade was just one of eight large cruise ships that we could count in the harbor at Civitavecchio, the harbor that serves Rome. We knew for sure that everyone was trying to meet the above goal when we taxied to Trevi Fountain to toss a few coins. Our estimate was that there had to be at least three or four thousand picture takers in the Piazza Trevi during our visit. We got our pictures but it took a lot of elbowing and determination to get close enough to see if there was actually water in the fountain. There was.
We signed up for a shore excursion that promised a bus ride around Rome to see the really good stuff and three and half hours on our own to do what we wished. Our guided tour took us to the Coliseum, the Roman Forum, the Circus Maximus, the Spanish Steps, several dozen of the more than 700 churches in Rome, the seven hills of Rome, and a whole bunch of other stuff that was interesting at the time. After riding on a bus for three hours we wished for something to eat which we found at a nearby local. Then we were off to see the Vatican up close. We joined a two block long line leading to St. Peter’s Basilica, the largest religious building in the world. The line moved quickly as we were carried first to the tombs of the Popes that took us past the last pope’s beautifully lit niche and then to that of St. Peter, the first Pope. Upstairs we joined the awe struck as we gawked at the beauty of Michelangelo’s marvel that took the best part of a hundred years to complete. As a part of a crowd into the thousands, we reverently viewed the wonderful art work and statuary that makes St. Peter’s what it is. Finally we worked our way to Michelangelo’s “Pieta”, the white marble sculpture of Jesus laying across Mary’s lap that has entranced millions of visitors with its simplicity and fullness of meaning.
We couldn’t do the Vatican without experiencing the Sistine Chapel so we followed much smaller crowds out of the Basilica and around the Vatican Wall to the Vatican Museum. We found that one just doesn’t visit the Sistine Chapel. The path to the Sistine Chapel takes visitors through fifty-four separate chapels before entering the Sistine. The trek was more than worth it. The Sistine Chapel certainly lives up to its reputation for beautiful paintings created by Michelangelo and reverence. Even though several hundred people stood with us with necks bent back to look upwards, the silence was unbelievable. For a moment a little chatter began. A loud clap from an attendant was all it took for silence to return.
Once back on the street we reevaluated our plan to walk through the Roman Forum and Coliseum. The temperature had grown into the nineties and muggy. We already felt a little crisp from sun burn while standing in lines. Instead, we hailed a cab and headed for Trivi Fountain and the apparent primary focus of interest for Rome visitors.
We found the fountain, managed our way through the throngs of picture takers, pick pockets and men dressed up as Roman Centurions ready to pose, whip in hand, for the picture sure to thrill those back home who would feel obligated to look at everyone of your gazillion pictures from your Roman holiday. We managed a couple of snaps and decided that the lunch we hurriedly consumed several hours earlier hadn’t met our needs. We found a nearby sidewalk café where we could get a panni and cup and watch the hordes of tourists passing to and from the Piazza Trevi. They were all smiling and so were we.
Our stop at Livorno, Italy provided a jump off point for passengers who wished to do the great art museums in Florence, or the history and leaning-ness of Pisa, or to traverse the glorious Tuscany countryside and sample the famous wines of the areas. We chose to visit Pisa and its famous leaning tower. On the way we learned that Tuscany is one of Italy’s twenty regions and perhaps its most famous. The rolling hills reminded us of the foothills growing eastward out of San Joaquin Valley minus the oak trees.
Before we left Livorno our guide let us know that Livorno was the first major city in Italy to allow true freedom of religion. As a result, the city has had a more cosmopolitan population than is usual for the country. The city also hosts what was described to us as the United States largest military base in Europe. We drove along side the base for miles and were convinced she was right. She complained, in an off hand way, that the U. S. required all working on base to be able to speak English. This has been a thorn in the side of Livornoians for decades.
Pisa is famous for its “Leaning Tower” which actually leans fourteen degrees off of plumb. As a matter of fact, the other two 12th and 13th structures near the tower also lean. The tower was leaning before it was completed with dozens of adjustments made to keep it from falling over. Our guide told us that sooner or later it will fall but not for another century or so. As long as people are willing to pay fifteen euros for the privilege of climbing to the top, Pisa folks will find a way to keep it in place. The lean of the tower did make Galileo’s experiments with falling objects a little easier to manage and right there in the town where he grew up.
The Cathedral next to the tower was actually begun in 1053. It is unusual in that it exhibits elements of Romanesque, Gothic Moorish and Byzantine architecture. The result is a marvelously beautiful church. The Construction of the Baptistery next door was begun in 1152 and is of Romanesque style. The site is completed with a graveyard referred to locally as the Campo Sacre. Local lore insists that those buried in the “sacred field” turn to skeletons within the first twenty-four hours after burial. It struck us that they must have some very hungry termites in Pisa.
Our final cruise day took us to Villafranche and Monaco, the thirteenth country Dottie has visited in the past thirty-eight days (Her globe trotting total is now sixteen countries…and growing). We quickly decided after our visit that this must be the home of more wealthy people than any other two square kilometer space on the globe. Gas stations we passed posted prices of about $10.00 US per gallon. We learned that the smallest possible flat in town would cost well over a million dollars. The yachts rocking gently in the harbor spoke of great wealth. Even the run abouts tied up to the sea wall looked expensive.
Our tour took us past the houses of Princesses Caroline and Stephanie and to the castle where brother Albert now resides. We toured the Cathedral of Monaco and thought we were in a church serving millions rather than the 43,000 inhabitants. About 30,000 workers come into town each day to take care of the rich and famous and to sell baubles to tourists. Casino Square was bordered on one side by the world famous casino, a second side by a hotel where prices start at $1800 a night and a third by a huge sidewalk café where most people only sat in the shade rather than be subject to the pricey menu. Most of our tour group got off easy by buying little ice cream cones for about $6.00 a scoop.
Our guide reminded us that our tour bus was creeping along the hallowed lanes where formula I cars scream by at better than 300 Km and hour to entertain yacht-setters who come from all over the globe for the festivities. We tried to urge our driver to speed up a little going around hair pin turns but he only responded that he had a wife and nine children to feed.
Now we’re really in a hurry to get home and catch up on the Pleasanton side of our lives. Our bus from the ship will pick us up at the unfriendly hour of 7:00 AM with a travel plan that will have us home a little after 7:00 PM Pleasanton time. If it weren’t for the nine hour time difference it could be a restful bit of travel that included more than twenty thousand miles and a whole bunch of fun.
We love you all. We wished you could have been with us every moment of the trip…………….kind of.
Gram and Grampa Bill, Mom and Dad, Bill and Dottie
Hello to all……………we’ll be home this evening.
Rome is one spot in the world that everyone ought to experience at least once in a lifetime. As a matter of fact, it seemed as though everyone was doing exactly that during our one day visit. The Norwegian Jade was just one of eight large cruise ships that we could count in the harbor at Civitavecchio, the harbor that serves Rome. We knew for sure that everyone was trying to meet the above goal when we taxied to Trevi Fountain to toss a few coins. Our estimate was that there had to be at least three or four thousand picture takers in the Piazza Trevi during our visit. We got our pictures but it took a lot of elbowing and determination to get close enough to see if there was actually water in the fountain. There was.
We signed up for a shore excursion that promised a bus ride around Rome to see the really good stuff and three and half hours on our own to do what we wished. Our guided tour took us to the Coliseum, the Roman Forum, the Circus Maximus, the Spanish Steps, several dozen of the more than 700 churches in Rome, the seven hills of Rome, and a whole bunch of other stuff that was interesting at the time. After riding on a bus for three hours we wished for something to eat which we found at a nearby local. Then we were off to see the Vatican up close. We joined a two block long line leading to St. Peter’s Basilica, the largest religious building in the world. The line moved quickly as we were carried first to the tombs of the Popes that took us past the last pope’s beautifully lit niche and then to that of St. Peter, the first Pope. Upstairs we joined the awe struck as we gawked at the beauty of Michelangelo’s marvel that took the best part of a hundred years to complete. As a part of a crowd into the thousands, we reverently viewed the wonderful art work and statuary that makes St. Peter’s what it is. Finally we worked our way to Michelangelo’s “Pieta”, the white marble sculpture of Jesus laying across Mary’s lap that has entranced millions of visitors with its simplicity and fullness of meaning.
We couldn’t do the Vatican without experiencing the Sistine Chapel so we followed much smaller crowds out of the Basilica and around the Vatican Wall to the Vatican Museum. We found that one just doesn’t visit the Sistine Chapel. The path to the Sistine Chapel takes visitors through fifty-four separate chapels before entering the Sistine. The trek was more than worth it. The Sistine Chapel certainly lives up to its reputation for beautiful paintings created by Michelangelo and reverence. Even though several hundred people stood with us with necks bent back to look upwards, the silence was unbelievable. For a moment a little chatter began. A loud clap from an attendant was all it took for silence to return.
Once back on the street we reevaluated our plan to walk through the Roman Forum and Coliseum. The temperature had grown into the nineties and muggy. We already felt a little crisp from sun burn while standing in lines. Instead, we hailed a cab and headed for Trivi Fountain and the apparent primary focus of interest for Rome visitors.
We found the fountain, managed our way through the throngs of picture takers, pick pockets and men dressed up as Roman Centurions ready to pose, whip in hand, for the picture sure to thrill those back home who would feel obligated to look at everyone of your gazillion pictures from your Roman holiday. We managed a couple of snaps and decided that the lunch we hurriedly consumed several hours earlier hadn’t met our needs. We found a nearby sidewalk café where we could get a panni and cup and watch the hordes of tourists passing to and from the Piazza Trevi. They were all smiling and so were we.
Our stop at Livorno, Italy provided a jump off point for passengers who wished to do the great art museums in Florence, or the history and leaning-ness of Pisa, or to traverse the glorious Tuscany countryside and sample the famous wines of the areas. We chose to visit Pisa and its famous leaning tower. On the way we learned that Tuscany is one of Italy’s twenty regions and perhaps its most famous. The rolling hills reminded us of the foothills growing eastward out of San Joaquin Valley minus the oak trees.
Before we left Livorno our guide let us know that Livorno was the first major city in Italy to allow true freedom of religion. As a result, the city has had a more cosmopolitan population than is usual for the country. The city also hosts what was described to us as the United States largest military base in Europe. We drove along side the base for miles and were convinced she was right. She complained, in an off hand way, that the U. S. required all working on base to be able to speak English. This has been a thorn in the side of Livornoians for decades.
Pisa is famous for its “Leaning Tower” which actually leans fourteen degrees off of plumb. As a matter of fact, the other two 12th and 13th structures near the tower also lean. The tower was leaning before it was completed with dozens of adjustments made to keep it from falling over. Our guide told us that sooner or later it will fall but not for another century or so. As long as people are willing to pay fifteen euros for the privilege of climbing to the top, Pisa folks will find a way to keep it in place. The lean of the tower did make Galileo’s experiments with falling objects a little easier to manage and right there in the town where he grew up.
The Cathedral next to the tower was actually begun in 1053. It is unusual in that it exhibits elements of Romanesque, Gothic Moorish and Byzantine architecture. The result is a marvelously beautiful church. The Construction of the Baptistery next door was begun in 1152 and is of Romanesque style. The site is completed with a graveyard referred to locally as the Campo Sacre. Local lore insists that those buried in the “sacred field” turn to skeletons within the first twenty-four hours after burial. It struck us that they must have some very hungry termites in Pisa.
Our final cruise day took us to Villafranche and Monaco, the thirteenth country Dottie has visited in the past thirty-eight days (Her globe trotting total is now sixteen countries…and growing). We quickly decided after our visit that this must be the home of more wealthy people than any other two square kilometer space on the globe. Gas stations we passed posted prices of about $10.00 US per gallon. We learned that the smallest possible flat in town would cost well over a million dollars. The yachts rocking gently in the harbor spoke of great wealth. Even the run abouts tied up to the sea wall looked expensive.
Our tour took us past the houses of Princesses Caroline and Stephanie and to the castle where brother Albert now resides. We toured the Cathedral of Monaco and thought we were in a church serving millions rather than the 43,000 inhabitants. About 30,000 workers come into town each day to take care of the rich and famous and to sell baubles to tourists. Casino Square was bordered on one side by the world famous casino, a second side by a hotel where prices start at $1800 a night and a third by a huge sidewalk café where most people only sat in the shade rather than be subject to the pricey menu. Most of our tour group got off easy by buying little ice cream cones for about $6.00 a scoop.
Our guide reminded us that our tour bus was creeping along the hallowed lanes where formula I cars scream by at better than 300 Km and hour to entertain yacht-setters who come from all over the globe for the festivities. We tried to urge our driver to speed up a little going around hair pin turns but he only responded that he had a wife and nine children to feed.
Now we’re really in a hurry to get home and catch up on the Pleasanton side of our lives. Our bus from the ship will pick us up at the unfriendly hour of 7:00 AM with a travel plan that will have us home a little after 7:00 PM Pleasanton time. If it weren’t for the nine hour time difference it could be a restful bit of travel that included more than twenty thousand miles and a whole bunch of fun.
We love you all. We wished you could have been with us every moment of the trip…………….kind of.
Gram and Grampa Bill, Mom and Dad, Bill and Dottie
Monday, September 1, 2008
BLOG #14
5 September 2008
Hello to all…………Three more ports o’ call to go!
After 35 days afloat and/or roaming around the United Kingdom, our adventuring is almost over for a couple of months and then we’ll be off again.
Following our surprise visit to Gibraltar, we continued on to a planned stop on the Costa Del Sol at Malaga, Spain. The Andalusian coast of Spain and its phenomenal weather (at least 300 days of sunshine each year) has long been a mecca for European vacationers who choose to escape the bleakness of European winters for a tine in the sun. We were not disappointed. We had a number of shore excursions to choose from that would have taken us on tour of places the rich and famous maintain for their vacations. We chose to explore Malaga on our own focusing on a trek across town that would take us to the Picasso Museum - Malaga. We found Picasso and enjoyed over an hour soaking up this remarkable artist’s work. Work from his early years of remarkable skill, as he studied at his art teacher father’s school, and his later years was displayed. He obviously tired of doing portraits and found his unusual talent in an area yet explored by the art world. We decided it would take more than our brief visit to understand what he was trying to portray and a lot, lot longer to imagine one of his best hanging in our living room.
After a leisurely wandering around Malaga, we decided we would see the rest of “old town” the easy way. We hired a horse drawn carriage to fight the traffic and take us by the marvelous old buildings that give Malaga its character. We were amazed to note that the Malaga coach men have apparently trained their horses not to do their thing while on the job. None of the carriages we saw in Malaga used the “poop catcher” that we’ve seen used in almost all of the cities where we thought to look. We were treated to a not too rare heated verbal confrontation between our driver and a motorcyclist who apparently did something displeasing. Our diminutive octogenarian driver sounded seven feet tall as he shouted and shook his whip. We were impressed.
Reading about the history of the area we were impressed at the role the Moors played in developing the culture and infrastructure of Andalusia. In this day and age of concern about Muslims we were impressed that it was the Muslims that established schools and universities in this area, cultivating scholarship and scientific exploration. Muslim and Jewish scholars are credited with reviving and contributing to Western astronomy, medicine, philosophy and mathematics. Muslims and Jews working together? Maybe there’s some hope.
We imagined our stop on the island of Sardinia would be a fishy affair. It wasn’t. Sardinia is second only to Sicily in size as an island and boasts a special regional autonomy with Italy. The island’s history includes evidence that humans lived there as far back as 250,000 B.C. The earliest documented inhabitants are considered to be the Nuraghic people who lived there around 1800 B.C. The island is dotted with over 7000 nuraghi or stone fortresses used for protection by the early residents. Over the centuries, Greeks, Phoenicians, Romans, Pisans, Genoese, Spanish, Austrians and eventually Italians ruled the island.
Our tour of Cagliari, the capital of Sardinia, focused on a visit to the 13th Century Cathedral and the nearby 14th Century Elephant Tower named for the sculpture of an elephant on its ramparts. We found that past residents of Cagliari liked to put their important stuff on top of the highest hill in the city. Our climb to the top gave us wonderful views of the bay and the city, sore feet and sweaty undies. We found, however, that the old saw about “when at the top, there’s no place to go but down” is absolutely true. We followed a suggestion from a couple of young German tourists and followed our noses down hil toward the bay. Since the map we were using didn’t seem to feature the names of streets we found, we asked directions from several locals. The rapid fire Italian “help” we were given actually worked. Much to our surprise, after walking about five miles in all, we found our way back to the shuttle bus that returned us to our ship and a well earned nap.
Our stop at Naples, Napoli to our Italian readers, was on the low key side. Our ship became the eighth in port on a Monday and like half of the fleet, we unloaded before nine in the morning and left for anchorage a few miles off shore. We had signed-up for an afternoon “city tour” so we stayed with the ship as it repositioned. Our planned morning sun bathing session became the delight of the cruise. It seemed as though ninety percent of our fellow travelers left the ship when it was at dock. This left only the two of us interested in basking in the morning sunshine. Imagine if you will two napping souls in the middle of a sea of several hundred lounges, smiling and contentended in the morning quiet………with not a single kid splashing or carrying on in the pool set aside for other than adults. We decided that, at least when it came to cruise sun bathing, it doesn’t get much better.
After lunch we took a tender to shore and joined our afternoon tour. We discovered a bunch of stuff and saw some wonderfully old and historic buildings and such. What we learned was 1) Neopolitan Ice Cream, which must come from Naples or Napoli or maybe Neopoli, doesn’t come in three colors when they serve it in Naples, and 2) you mustn’t buy stuff from shop keepers in Naples because they like to switch your merchandise for an old newspaper when they take it to the back room to wrap and bag. Both of these treasured insights may be totally unfair but at least the latter came straight from our guide’s mouth. At least that is what we thought she said in her marvelous but Italian tainted English.
Our trip took us to the Piazza Plebescito, Naple’s largest piazza where our guide treated us to ice cream and we took a whole bunch of pictures. We witnessed first hand the daring driving that the locals exhibited, especially when we tried to cross a street when they were a hundred meters down the road. You could hear them change gears with a squeal of their tires as the bore down on poor us suggesting that we scamper rather than saunter when crossing their street. The Napoli sky was clear as a bell as we viewed Mt. Vesuvius towering above the city with its wide swath of lava flow from its last activity in the early forties. Our guide explained that what we saw today was not two volcanoes but the remains of Vesuvius after its big blow that blew away several hundred feet of its old crest. Even with its top gone, Vesuvius still stands 1,282 meters above sea level and the town.
Our tour, like any self respecting tour, took us to the nicest part of town where huge houses hang on steep hillsides over looking Naples Bay with marvelous views of the Isle of Capri. We quickly concluded that a lot of well heeled folks have found a nice place to live. We did see where some of the other folks lived and, because it was washday Monday, a whole bunch of laundry hanging from balconies to dry. At first glance we were sure that there must be a law about hanging family undies from the balcony but on closer inspection we found some undies to make things seem normal.
A whole bunch of hugs and kisses to all,
Gram and Grampa Bill, Mom and Dad, Dottie and Bill
Hello to all…………Three more ports o’ call to go!
After 35 days afloat and/or roaming around the United Kingdom, our adventuring is almost over for a couple of months and then we’ll be off again.
Following our surprise visit to Gibraltar, we continued on to a planned stop on the Costa Del Sol at Malaga, Spain. The Andalusian coast of Spain and its phenomenal weather (at least 300 days of sunshine each year) has long been a mecca for European vacationers who choose to escape the bleakness of European winters for a tine in the sun. We were not disappointed. We had a number of shore excursions to choose from that would have taken us on tour of places the rich and famous maintain for their vacations. We chose to explore Malaga on our own focusing on a trek across town that would take us to the Picasso Museum - Malaga. We found Picasso and enjoyed over an hour soaking up this remarkable artist’s work. Work from his early years of remarkable skill, as he studied at his art teacher father’s school, and his later years was displayed. He obviously tired of doing portraits and found his unusual talent in an area yet explored by the art world. We decided it would take more than our brief visit to understand what he was trying to portray and a lot, lot longer to imagine one of his best hanging in our living room.
After a leisurely wandering around Malaga, we decided we would see the rest of “old town” the easy way. We hired a horse drawn carriage to fight the traffic and take us by the marvelous old buildings that give Malaga its character. We were amazed to note that the Malaga coach men have apparently trained their horses not to do their thing while on the job. None of the carriages we saw in Malaga used the “poop catcher” that we’ve seen used in almost all of the cities where we thought to look. We were treated to a not too rare heated verbal confrontation between our driver and a motorcyclist who apparently did something displeasing. Our diminutive octogenarian driver sounded seven feet tall as he shouted and shook his whip. We were impressed.
Reading about the history of the area we were impressed at the role the Moors played in developing the culture and infrastructure of Andalusia. In this day and age of concern about Muslims we were impressed that it was the Muslims that established schools and universities in this area, cultivating scholarship and scientific exploration. Muslim and Jewish scholars are credited with reviving and contributing to Western astronomy, medicine, philosophy and mathematics. Muslims and Jews working together? Maybe there’s some hope.
We imagined our stop on the island of Sardinia would be a fishy affair. It wasn’t. Sardinia is second only to Sicily in size as an island and boasts a special regional autonomy with Italy. The island’s history includes evidence that humans lived there as far back as 250,000 B.C. The earliest documented inhabitants are considered to be the Nuraghic people who lived there around 1800 B.C. The island is dotted with over 7000 nuraghi or stone fortresses used for protection by the early residents. Over the centuries, Greeks, Phoenicians, Romans, Pisans, Genoese, Spanish, Austrians and eventually Italians ruled the island.
Our tour of Cagliari, the capital of Sardinia, focused on a visit to the 13th Century Cathedral and the nearby 14th Century Elephant Tower named for the sculpture of an elephant on its ramparts. We found that past residents of Cagliari liked to put their important stuff on top of the highest hill in the city. Our climb to the top gave us wonderful views of the bay and the city, sore feet and sweaty undies. We found, however, that the old saw about “when at the top, there’s no place to go but down” is absolutely true. We followed a suggestion from a couple of young German tourists and followed our noses down hil toward the bay. Since the map we were using didn’t seem to feature the names of streets we found, we asked directions from several locals. The rapid fire Italian “help” we were given actually worked. Much to our surprise, after walking about five miles in all, we found our way back to the shuttle bus that returned us to our ship and a well earned nap.
Our stop at Naples, Napoli to our Italian readers, was on the low key side. Our ship became the eighth in port on a Monday and like half of the fleet, we unloaded before nine in the morning and left for anchorage a few miles off shore. We had signed-up for an afternoon “city tour” so we stayed with the ship as it repositioned. Our planned morning sun bathing session became the delight of the cruise. It seemed as though ninety percent of our fellow travelers left the ship when it was at dock. This left only the two of us interested in basking in the morning sunshine. Imagine if you will two napping souls in the middle of a sea of several hundred lounges, smiling and contentended in the morning quiet………with not a single kid splashing or carrying on in the pool set aside for other than adults. We decided that, at least when it came to cruise sun bathing, it doesn’t get much better.
After lunch we took a tender to shore and joined our afternoon tour. We discovered a bunch of stuff and saw some wonderfully old and historic buildings and such. What we learned was 1) Neopolitan Ice Cream, which must come from Naples or Napoli or maybe Neopoli, doesn’t come in three colors when they serve it in Naples, and 2) you mustn’t buy stuff from shop keepers in Naples because they like to switch your merchandise for an old newspaper when they take it to the back room to wrap and bag. Both of these treasured insights may be totally unfair but at least the latter came straight from our guide’s mouth. At least that is what we thought she said in her marvelous but Italian tainted English.
Our trip took us to the Piazza Plebescito, Naple’s largest piazza where our guide treated us to ice cream and we took a whole bunch of pictures. We witnessed first hand the daring driving that the locals exhibited, especially when we tried to cross a street when they were a hundred meters down the road. You could hear them change gears with a squeal of their tires as the bore down on poor us suggesting that we scamper rather than saunter when crossing their street. The Napoli sky was clear as a bell as we viewed Mt. Vesuvius towering above the city with its wide swath of lava flow from its last activity in the early forties. Our guide explained that what we saw today was not two volcanoes but the remains of Vesuvius after its big blow that blew away several hundred feet of its old crest. Even with its top gone, Vesuvius still stands 1,282 meters above sea level and the town.
Our tour, like any self respecting tour, took us to the nicest part of town where huge houses hang on steep hillsides over looking Naples Bay with marvelous views of the Isle of Capri. We quickly concluded that a lot of well heeled folks have found a nice place to live. We did see where some of the other folks lived and, because it was washday Monday, a whole bunch of laundry hanging from balconies to dry. At first glance we were sure that there must be a law about hanging family undies from the balcony but on closer inspection we found some undies to make things seem normal.
A whole bunch of hugs and kisses to all,
Gram and Grampa Bill, Mom and Dad, Dottie and Bill
Friday, August 29, 2008
BLOG #13
28 August 2008
Hello all from “The Rock”,
The people who put cruises together know a lot about what their passengers need. Having a first day “at sea” was a great way for us to regroup and unwind after our whirlwind visit to London. We didn’t realize how pooped we were until we noted that it was almost eight o’clock when we woke up on our first day afloat. For the two of us early risers, eight o’clock is the next thing to noon on our sleep clocks. The extra winks did us good.
Our first stop at Vigo, Spain gave us an easy transition from merry old London into our new venue; the Iberian Peninsula. We chose to spend our day at Vigo strolling through the town which gave us a small insight into Galacia - the northwest corner of Spain. Parts of the city were 16th and 17th century but most reflected a relatively large city that was very much a part of the 21st Century. We spent a little time touring our first European cathedral, marveling at the stained glass windows and elaborate statues and woodwork. If it weren’t for the presence of worshippers we would have had difficulty defining what we saw as church. Our experiences with the churches we have attended in our lives certainly didn’t include such elaborate houses of worship. The history of Vigo fell into perspective for us when we learned that a nearby town on the Atlantic coast was the first to receive the news of Columbus’s discovery of the Americas when his first ship returned to Spain.
For our next port of call, Lisbon, we decided that rather than spending time seeing another big European town we would travel to Sintra to learn more about the history of Portugal. Our trip from Lisbon to Sintra included a brief stop at Casais, a marvelous little resort town on the Atlantic coastline. The huge homes near the water’s edge and the hotels that had five star written all over their fascades suggested that the wealthy folks in this part of the world had put their stamp of approval on the area. And it was definitely a beautiful spot. We quickly added Casais to the list of places to revisit when the lottery showers us with its favors. The Romans put their stamp of approval on the place in the 2nd Century and it stuck.
Sintra really grabbed our attention. The little town surrounds a palace built by King Charles I in the 15th Century to please his English born wife who found sewerless Lisbon too stinky in the summer time to suit her tastes. The Palace towers above the surrounding village and provides a glimpse of theAtlantic Ocean on a clear day. The queen apparently prospered in the mountain climate at Sintra giving birth to seven royal offspring one of which was Prince Henry the Navigator who made it into the history books with his exploration successes. We spent more than an hour walking through the palace hanging on our guide’s every word. Her commentary was so interesting Dottie lost count of the stairs to the highest tower (over one hundred) but with just enough silent time that Dottie could brag on her 222 step climb to the top of St. Isaac’s Cathedral.
Our guide reminded us that Portugal is a small country; about the size and shape of Northern California north of San Francisco. The country is democratically governed but not in the sense Americans would recognize until about fifty years ago. Before that, a Prime Minister controlled the country for almost forty years. A minor revolution over threw the Prime Minister and a new constitution was adopted that has given direction to the country ever since. A marvelous Bridge greeted us as we entered Lisbon Harbor. The bridge had been built during the reign of the forty year Prime Minister who had his name given to the bridge. When he was overthrown, the Prime Minister’s name was removed and the bridge renamed “Ponte 25 Abril”, the date the Prime Minister was overthrown.
Our next stop was back in Spain and the city of Cadiz. This area in the southwestern part of Spain is known as Andalucia. The history of Cadiz began in the 12th Century and later attracted the attention and ownership by the Carthaginians and the Romans. Today it stands as the oldest continuously inhabited city in the Western world.
The old part of Cadiz was just a short walk from our ship so we spent most of a day walking through the old narrow cobble stoned streets and peering into open doorways that allowed glimpse sized bites of how Cadizians live. We visited the Convento de San Francisco and found a quiet sidewalk café on the Plaza de San Francisco for our lunch. Someone on the ship must have announced our presence in town because the marvelous bells in the convent tower peeled exactly 76 times at noon in recognition of Dottie’s birthday a few days earlier. When we asked why all the bells, our waiter simply replied that it was a special occasion. We knew exactly what he was talking about.
We spent our afternoon wandering through the old parts of Cadiz and the Plaza Mina which seems to be the center point of the University of Cadiz. We finished our stroll back to the ship following the shore line and atop the old 18th Century City Wall. We stopped to chat with some student looking young men who understood that we were looking for our ship when we agreed that it was a “barca muy grande”. The students tried to get us to take a shortcut back to the ship and gave us that “loco viejos” look when we headed for the top of the City Wall instead.
Today the weather changed a bit foul and we loved it. We were scheduled to stop at the nothing little port town of Ceuta, Spain but the wind and “chop” made it inadvisable, we were told, to put us ashore by tender. Instead, the captain opted to take the Jade to the port of Gibraltar for the day. Ceuta was only going to be a drop off point for passengers wanting to take a ten hour excursion to Morocco. Since we weren’t interested in Morocco on this trip, we were pleased with the change of venue.
We shuttled from the ship to downtown Gibraltar and then walked the main street a couple of miles to the cable car that runs to the top of Gibraltar. The walk through town reminded us that Gibraltar is still a colony of Great Britain. Although cars haven’t driven on the “wrong side” of the road since 1927, everything else on “the Rock” is British. For generations the British have stationed around 7,000 soldiers at the site. In recent years, that number has been reduced to a couple of hundred whose job it is to maintain the army facilities for a time when they might be needed.
We spotted an English “Bobby” on patrol. After Dottie laid a hug on him he agreed to pose for a picture with Dottie at his side.
The British have controlled the site for several hundred years having defeated the Moors for the ownership of the Rock which effectively controls the Straights of Gibraltar, the entrance to the Mediterranean Sea. In the late 18th Century the Spanish, who have long questioned the British presence at Gibraltar, lay Siege to the fortress for four years. The British had already fortified the area and added greatly to the tunnels in the mountain to provide safe quarters for the defending troops. The Spanish finally gave up and left the British on their Rock and their control of the Mediterranean.
We opted to take a 90 minute mini-bus tour of the Rock rather than wait the estimated hour and a half in line to buy a ticket for a gondola ride to the top. After our tour, we decided we had made a good decision. The usual way to see the rock is to ride up to the top via gondola and walk down the side of the 350 + meter rock, stopping to see the several attractions in the park. Our taxi took us to the top and then stopped at all the special sites along the way. We saw enough Gibraltar Apes, actually Barbary Apes (without tales) to fill a dozen zoos. They are cute but sneaky devils that will steal the food out of your hand if you should decide to buy a snack at any one of the several stalls along the way. Our visit to the huge natural cave and the tunnels dug for military purposes impressed us that we were seeing something very unusual. The view from the top of the Rock showed a rapidly expanding island where shore lines are being filled in so that twenty story luxury apartments can be built for those who seem to think Gibraltar would be a wonderful place to live.
We concluded that Spain and Portugal have their really nice places to live if you like California like climate and old things to look at when you’re not busy with other stuff. On the other hand, Gibraltar impressed us as a fun place to visit but only reasonably suitable as a place to live if you’re a Barbary Ape and you like to eat things that humans throw at you and you enjoy having your picture taken when you’re scratching.
We celebrated our tenth anniversary last night by enjoying dinner at the best specialty restaurant on board. The servers sang “Let me call you sweetheart” to us and presented us with a lovely anniversary cake. Some of the guests dropped by our table to congratulate us on our anniversary which we didn’t tell a soul was a celebration of ten months since the fateful day last October when Dottie bought some records from Bill at his Garage Sale.
Life is great but we’re getting pooped. It looks like the only way we’ll get a recuperative vacation will be to come home…………..for a while.
Our love to our family and friends,
Gram and Grampa Bill, Mom and Dad, Dottie and Bill
Hello all from “The Rock”,
The people who put cruises together know a lot about what their passengers need. Having a first day “at sea” was a great way for us to regroup and unwind after our whirlwind visit to London. We didn’t realize how pooped we were until we noted that it was almost eight o’clock when we woke up on our first day afloat. For the two of us early risers, eight o’clock is the next thing to noon on our sleep clocks. The extra winks did us good.
Our first stop at Vigo, Spain gave us an easy transition from merry old London into our new venue; the Iberian Peninsula. We chose to spend our day at Vigo strolling through the town which gave us a small insight into Galacia - the northwest corner of Spain. Parts of the city were 16th and 17th century but most reflected a relatively large city that was very much a part of the 21st Century. We spent a little time touring our first European cathedral, marveling at the stained glass windows and elaborate statues and woodwork. If it weren’t for the presence of worshippers we would have had difficulty defining what we saw as church. Our experiences with the churches we have attended in our lives certainly didn’t include such elaborate houses of worship. The history of Vigo fell into perspective for us when we learned that a nearby town on the Atlantic coast was the first to receive the news of Columbus’s discovery of the Americas when his first ship returned to Spain.
For our next port of call, Lisbon, we decided that rather than spending time seeing another big European town we would travel to Sintra to learn more about the history of Portugal. Our trip from Lisbon to Sintra included a brief stop at Casais, a marvelous little resort town on the Atlantic coastline. The huge homes near the water’s edge and the hotels that had five star written all over their fascades suggested that the wealthy folks in this part of the world had put their stamp of approval on the area. And it was definitely a beautiful spot. We quickly added Casais to the list of places to revisit when the lottery showers us with its favors. The Romans put their stamp of approval on the place in the 2nd Century and it stuck.
Sintra really grabbed our attention. The little town surrounds a palace built by King Charles I in the 15th Century to please his English born wife who found sewerless Lisbon too stinky in the summer time to suit her tastes. The Palace towers above the surrounding village and provides a glimpse of theAtlantic Ocean on a clear day. The queen apparently prospered in the mountain climate at Sintra giving birth to seven royal offspring one of which was Prince Henry the Navigator who made it into the history books with his exploration successes. We spent more than an hour walking through the palace hanging on our guide’s every word. Her commentary was so interesting Dottie lost count of the stairs to the highest tower (over one hundred) but with just enough silent time that Dottie could brag on her 222 step climb to the top of St. Isaac’s Cathedral.
Our guide reminded us that Portugal is a small country; about the size and shape of Northern California north of San Francisco. The country is democratically governed but not in the sense Americans would recognize until about fifty years ago. Before that, a Prime Minister controlled the country for almost forty years. A minor revolution over threw the Prime Minister and a new constitution was adopted that has given direction to the country ever since. A marvelous Bridge greeted us as we entered Lisbon Harbor. The bridge had been built during the reign of the forty year Prime Minister who had his name given to the bridge. When he was overthrown, the Prime Minister’s name was removed and the bridge renamed “Ponte 25 Abril”, the date the Prime Minister was overthrown.
Our next stop was back in Spain and the city of Cadiz. This area in the southwestern part of Spain is known as Andalucia. The history of Cadiz began in the 12th Century and later attracted the attention and ownership by the Carthaginians and the Romans. Today it stands as the oldest continuously inhabited city in the Western world.
The old part of Cadiz was just a short walk from our ship so we spent most of a day walking through the old narrow cobble stoned streets and peering into open doorways that allowed glimpse sized bites of how Cadizians live. We visited the Convento de San Francisco and found a quiet sidewalk café on the Plaza de San Francisco for our lunch. Someone on the ship must have announced our presence in town because the marvelous bells in the convent tower peeled exactly 76 times at noon in recognition of Dottie’s birthday a few days earlier. When we asked why all the bells, our waiter simply replied that it was a special occasion. We knew exactly what he was talking about.
We spent our afternoon wandering through the old parts of Cadiz and the Plaza Mina which seems to be the center point of the University of Cadiz. We finished our stroll back to the ship following the shore line and atop the old 18th Century City Wall. We stopped to chat with some student looking young men who understood that we were looking for our ship when we agreed that it was a “barca muy grande”. The students tried to get us to take a shortcut back to the ship and gave us that “loco viejos” look when we headed for the top of the City Wall instead.
Today the weather changed a bit foul and we loved it. We were scheduled to stop at the nothing little port town of Ceuta, Spain but the wind and “chop” made it inadvisable, we were told, to put us ashore by tender. Instead, the captain opted to take the Jade to the port of Gibraltar for the day. Ceuta was only going to be a drop off point for passengers wanting to take a ten hour excursion to Morocco. Since we weren’t interested in Morocco on this trip, we were pleased with the change of venue.
We shuttled from the ship to downtown Gibraltar and then walked the main street a couple of miles to the cable car that runs to the top of Gibraltar. The walk through town reminded us that Gibraltar is still a colony of Great Britain. Although cars haven’t driven on the “wrong side” of the road since 1927, everything else on “the Rock” is British. For generations the British have stationed around 7,000 soldiers at the site. In recent years, that number has been reduced to a couple of hundred whose job it is to maintain the army facilities for a time when they might be needed.
We spotted an English “Bobby” on patrol. After Dottie laid a hug on him he agreed to pose for a picture with Dottie at his side.
The British have controlled the site for several hundred years having defeated the Moors for the ownership of the Rock which effectively controls the Straights of Gibraltar, the entrance to the Mediterranean Sea. In the late 18th Century the Spanish, who have long questioned the British presence at Gibraltar, lay Siege to the fortress for four years. The British had already fortified the area and added greatly to the tunnels in the mountain to provide safe quarters for the defending troops. The Spanish finally gave up and left the British on their Rock and their control of the Mediterranean.
We opted to take a 90 minute mini-bus tour of the Rock rather than wait the estimated hour and a half in line to buy a ticket for a gondola ride to the top. After our tour, we decided we had made a good decision. The usual way to see the rock is to ride up to the top via gondola and walk down the side of the 350 + meter rock, stopping to see the several attractions in the park. Our taxi took us to the top and then stopped at all the special sites along the way. We saw enough Gibraltar Apes, actually Barbary Apes (without tales) to fill a dozen zoos. They are cute but sneaky devils that will steal the food out of your hand if you should decide to buy a snack at any one of the several stalls along the way. Our visit to the huge natural cave and the tunnels dug for military purposes impressed us that we were seeing something very unusual. The view from the top of the Rock showed a rapidly expanding island where shore lines are being filled in so that twenty story luxury apartments can be built for those who seem to think Gibraltar would be a wonderful place to live.
We concluded that Spain and Portugal have their really nice places to live if you like California like climate and old things to look at when you’re not busy with other stuff. On the other hand, Gibraltar impressed us as a fun place to visit but only reasonably suitable as a place to live if you’re a Barbary Ape and you like to eat things that humans throw at you and you enjoy having your picture taken when you’re scratching.
We celebrated our tenth anniversary last night by enjoying dinner at the best specialty restaurant on board. The servers sang “Let me call you sweetheart” to us and presented us with a lovely anniversary cake. Some of the guests dropped by our table to congratulate us on our anniversary which we didn’t tell a soul was a celebration of ten months since the fateful day last October when Dottie bought some records from Bill at his Garage Sale.
Life is great but we’re getting pooped. It looks like the only way we’ll get a recuperative vacation will be to come home…………..for a while.
Our love to our family and friends,
Gram and Grampa Bill, Mom and Dad, Dottie and Bill
Thursday, August 7, 2008
August 7 2008
7 August 2008
Hello to all from the North Sea (again),
Our stop in Helsinki featured our first use of one of the ship’s “shore excursions”. Since Bill was more than familiar with the rest of the stops along the way, we chose to go with a “Pro” at Helsinki where the local sights are a bit more spread out than in the other Baltic capitals and not as walk able during a day’s visit. Our guide took us to Senate Square where we could take pictures of the marvelous church and government buildings and walk a short distance to an open air street market that was experiencing a dismal business day, what with the light rain and all. An other stop along the way was the Sibelius Monument, honoring Finland’s most famous son, the composer of “Finlandia”. The monument represented a modernistic impression of a pipe organ the pipes of which seemed to float above the ground. The park like setting had a half dozen busses parked at the curb with several hundred people filling their memory chips with pictures of the beautiful setting.
We also stopped at and toured Helsinki’s famous “Church in a Rock”, a modernistic chapel carved into a rock protruding from the ground in an otherwise residential setting. We were impressed with the effort someone had taken to create an unusual and beautiful chapel that was hard to recognize as a holy place with hundreds of people snapping pictures and young boys meeting the challenge presented by the possibility of scaling the rock outside to see what the world looked like from the top. Our three hour tour ended in downtown Helsinki with an invitation to all to extend the tour by shopping the downtown shops and then walking the two miles back to the boat. We were amazed that almost all on the tour accepted the invitation to shop and walk even though it was Sunday and ninety percent of the stores were closed. We chose to return to the ship and find some relief from the light rain that had followed us all morning.
St. Petersburg will probably be the high light of our cruise. Arrangements had been made months before to meet Bill’ Russian friends for a visit while we were in St. Petersburg. The friends, Andrey and Lena Kirillov and their twenty-four year old daughter Natasha, were the product of a student exchange Bill sponsored in the late eighties and early nineties. The exchange featured fifty sixteen year old Russian students visiting Alameda County for a month and fifty sixteen year old Alameda County students visiting Russia for a month. Students and adult advisors were housed in private homes, studied Russian and English and learned as much as possible about their new friends’ culture. Bill and Dee stayed in the Kirillov’s apartment home on two occasions and Andrey stayed in their home when he came to Pleasanton with Russian students as an advisor. Bill and Dee spent four days with the Kirillov’s in 2005 and Natasha spent a month with them in California in 2006.
We had managed to obtain the necessary visas to visit privately with the kirillovs. One isn’t allowed to travel independently in Russia without a visa. Most passengers on our ship who took tours were covered by the tour operator’s visa.
The Kirillov’s had been told that our ship would arrive at 9:00 AM on Monday morning and that we would be able to meet them at “The Gate” to the port at 10:00 AM. We went through passport control and found a free employees’ bus that took us to the gate; about two miles from our ship. We were in contact with the Kirillov’s by cell phone. When we arrived at the gate, accompanied by a guide that we had met who was returning home because her tour bus broke down, we learned by phone that the Kirillov’s would arrive shortly driving a black Nisson sedan. Our new friend, the out of work tour guide, was a godsend. We knew nothing about where we were going and she knew exactly where we needed to go and what we had to do. It took two passport control check points before we walked through the main gate allowing Bill to breathe easily after sweating a bit with the process. He had learned through the internet what restrictions applied on our travel and that we didn’t meet half the demands he had read about. Our visas worked.
Another call to the missing Kirillovs gave us the information that they had an accident and would be a little late. We found a tree to protect us from the light rain and waited. About 10:30 Andrey appeared out of no where carrying a huge bouquet of flowers. The flowers were handed to Dottie so Andrey and Bill could share an embrace that demonstrated their true friendship. Dottie insisted on getting into the greeting act and laid a hug on Andrey that he will tell his friends about at his hundredth birthday. We learned that their car was involved in a minor accident. They arrived at the gate twenty minutes early. While waiting for us, they decided that our arrival should be celebrated with some flowers. They left to find the flowers, found the flowers and then had their fender bender several miles from the gate. Andrey walked back to meet us leaving Lena and Natasha to deal with the accident reporting.
Somehow Andrey managed to hire a car that picked us up and drove us to the scene of the accident. The Nisson and a small truck were sitting where they had collided blocking traffic for miles. Apparently in Russia you may not move cars involved in an accident until the police arrive. It took more than two hours for a policeman to make the scene and an other hour during which Natasha managed to talk the policeman out of the 4000 Ruble fee (about $180 US) to write up the accident report. Natasha told us how the policeman insisted that he couldn’t feed his family on his $800 a month salary and he needed her help. Natasha, who has become quite a mature business person (she is in commercial banking), held her ground and left with the accident report she needed for her insurance company.
The Kirillovs drove to St. Petersburg from their home near Moscow on Sunday; an eight and a half hour drive over poor roads. When they met us they had planned to take us to breakfast. Breakfast passed, lunch passed but we did have an early dinner.
The first place we were taken was St. Isaac’s Cathedral in the center of St. Petersburg. Getting there taught us quickly that traffic is a big problem in Russia’s cities. During Bill’s visit in 1989 and again in 1990 he recalled that the busses that were used with the students could travel at sixty miles an hour on side streets without hindrance. On our visit, our excellent driver never reached fifteen miles an hour as he weaved through the traffic like a pro.
Dottie was treated to a Russian tradition when Andrey ordered the driver to stop. He hopped out and returned a few minutes later with paper cups and a bottle of cognac. As we drove we sipped making the absence of lunch bearable.
St. Isaac’s Cathedral is a popular tourist destination because one can climb a 220 step set of stairs and reach the base of the rotunda and gain a marvelous view of the city. We were all well into the first hundred steps before Dottie learned that we weren’t half way to the top yet. Her smile turned to that determined look we’ve all seen before and we raced to the top. The view was worth the effort. The day was clear and beautiful as we jostled our way through the crowd around the rotunda and headed down. We found the interior of St. Isaac’s as spectacular as the outside as we browsed around and admired the gothic architecture and the hundreds of religious paintings.
Our driver knew all of the special tourists spots in town and he managed to wend our way through the traffic to find each one for us. Ultimately we arrived at the apartment the Kirillovs were using. It was a large apartment by Russian standards but sparsely decorated. The visit to the apartment was a good opportunity for Dottie to see how the more fortunate of Russian city dwellers live.
At four o’clock our party met a couple who were friends that the Kirillovs had met on a recent vacation in Egypt. The man was a professor of psychology and his wife was a teacher of English. We met at a restaurant in a boat on one of the many rivers that course through St. Petersburg, We quickly decided the restaurant must be one of the finest in the city. Our four hour dinner featured a number of cold dishes of vegetables, meats and cheeses in forms we had never experienced. Dottie’s newest experience of the day was the Russian love of toasts and vodka. The first toasts were short speeches by each of the diners accompanied with vodka, and more vodka, and more vodka. She got in the spirit of the evening and presented her own toast accompanied by yet another splash of vodka.
We returned to the ship knowing that we had a very special day. Tuesday the Kirillovs picked us up again to take us to breakfast before they left for their return drive home. One thing led to another and we found that it was past 10 AM when we walked away from their apartment to find a place to eat. What we found was that most restaurants had stopped serving breakfast and had yet to open for lunch. We walked at least a mile or more before we found a 24 hour Sushi/Whatever chain where we had our meal. We ate our fill but didn’t find anything on the menu that looked like eggs and bacon or hot cakes. Breakfast with chop sticks was a new experience for all of us.
Our last port of call was Tallinn, Estonia. Estonia is a unique little country that has been a recognized entity since the eleventh century but rarely as its own country. The Swedes, the Danes, the Germans and the Russians have taken turns conquering and governing Estonia until the fall of the Soviet sixteen years ago. It is now a self governed country and doing quite well by European standards.
Tallinn has been an important port city for centuries. The old part of Tallinn was developed by the Germans in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The old town is still pretty much as it was originally built with winding cobblestone streets and quaint houses that occasionally display a chip in their exterior plaster to reveal walls built of stone rather than bricks. We taxied to the top of the town and walked around the town in a downhill direction allowing us to see much of the little town missed by the organized tours. We made our way to the town plaza where we stopped at a sidewalk café to watch the hundreds of tourists from the five cruise ships in the harbor as they pawed through the Estonian handicrafts in booths on the plaza. A short walk back to our ship ended our Baltic visits each of which gave us an interesting insight into this wonderful part of the world.
Our Love to all,
Gram Grandpa, Mom, Dad, Dottie and Bill
Hello to all from the North Sea (again),
Our stop in Helsinki featured our first use of one of the ship’s “shore excursions”. Since Bill was more than familiar with the rest of the stops along the way, we chose to go with a “Pro” at Helsinki where the local sights are a bit more spread out than in the other Baltic capitals and not as walk able during a day’s visit. Our guide took us to Senate Square where we could take pictures of the marvelous church and government buildings and walk a short distance to an open air street market that was experiencing a dismal business day, what with the light rain and all. An other stop along the way was the Sibelius Monument, honoring Finland’s most famous son, the composer of “Finlandia”. The monument represented a modernistic impression of a pipe organ the pipes of which seemed to float above the ground. The park like setting had a half dozen busses parked at the curb with several hundred people filling their memory chips with pictures of the beautiful setting.
We also stopped at and toured Helsinki’s famous “Church in a Rock”, a modernistic chapel carved into a rock protruding from the ground in an otherwise residential setting. We were impressed with the effort someone had taken to create an unusual and beautiful chapel that was hard to recognize as a holy place with hundreds of people snapping pictures and young boys meeting the challenge presented by the possibility of scaling the rock outside to see what the world looked like from the top. Our three hour tour ended in downtown Helsinki with an invitation to all to extend the tour by shopping the downtown shops and then walking the two miles back to the boat. We were amazed that almost all on the tour accepted the invitation to shop and walk even though it was Sunday and ninety percent of the stores were closed. We chose to return to the ship and find some relief from the light rain that had followed us all morning.
St. Petersburg will probably be the high light of our cruise. Arrangements had been made months before to meet Bill’ Russian friends for a visit while we were in St. Petersburg. The friends, Andrey and Lena Kirillov and their twenty-four year old daughter Natasha, were the product of a student exchange Bill sponsored in the late eighties and early nineties. The exchange featured fifty sixteen year old Russian students visiting Alameda County for a month and fifty sixteen year old Alameda County students visiting Russia for a month. Students and adult advisors were housed in private homes, studied Russian and English and learned as much as possible about their new friends’ culture. Bill and Dee stayed in the Kirillov’s apartment home on two occasions and Andrey stayed in their home when he came to Pleasanton with Russian students as an advisor. Bill and Dee spent four days with the Kirillov’s in 2005 and Natasha spent a month with them in California in 2006.
We had managed to obtain the necessary visas to visit privately with the kirillovs. One isn’t allowed to travel independently in Russia without a visa. Most passengers on our ship who took tours were covered by the tour operator’s visa.
The Kirillov’s had been told that our ship would arrive at 9:00 AM on Monday morning and that we would be able to meet them at “The Gate” to the port at 10:00 AM. We went through passport control and found a free employees’ bus that took us to the gate; about two miles from our ship. We were in contact with the Kirillov’s by cell phone. When we arrived at the gate, accompanied by a guide that we had met who was returning home because her tour bus broke down, we learned by phone that the Kirillov’s would arrive shortly driving a black Nisson sedan. Our new friend, the out of work tour guide, was a godsend. We knew nothing about where we were going and she knew exactly where we needed to go and what we had to do. It took two passport control check points before we walked through the main gate allowing Bill to breathe easily after sweating a bit with the process. He had learned through the internet what restrictions applied on our travel and that we didn’t meet half the demands he had read about. Our visas worked.
Another call to the missing Kirillovs gave us the information that they had an accident and would be a little late. We found a tree to protect us from the light rain and waited. About 10:30 Andrey appeared out of no where carrying a huge bouquet of flowers. The flowers were handed to Dottie so Andrey and Bill could share an embrace that demonstrated their true friendship. Dottie insisted on getting into the greeting act and laid a hug on Andrey that he will tell his friends about at his hundredth birthday. We learned that their car was involved in a minor accident. They arrived at the gate twenty minutes early. While waiting for us, they decided that our arrival should be celebrated with some flowers. They left to find the flowers, found the flowers and then had their fender bender several miles from the gate. Andrey walked back to meet us leaving Lena and Natasha to deal with the accident reporting.
Somehow Andrey managed to hire a car that picked us up and drove us to the scene of the accident. The Nisson and a small truck were sitting where they had collided blocking traffic for miles. Apparently in Russia you may not move cars involved in an accident until the police arrive. It took more than two hours for a policeman to make the scene and an other hour during which Natasha managed to talk the policeman out of the 4000 Ruble fee (about $180 US) to write up the accident report. Natasha told us how the policeman insisted that he couldn’t feed his family on his $800 a month salary and he needed her help. Natasha, who has become quite a mature business person (she is in commercial banking), held her ground and left with the accident report she needed for her insurance company.
The Kirillovs drove to St. Petersburg from their home near Moscow on Sunday; an eight and a half hour drive over poor roads. When they met us they had planned to take us to breakfast. Breakfast passed, lunch passed but we did have an early dinner.
The first place we were taken was St. Isaac’s Cathedral in the center of St. Petersburg. Getting there taught us quickly that traffic is a big problem in Russia’s cities. During Bill’s visit in 1989 and again in 1990 he recalled that the busses that were used with the students could travel at sixty miles an hour on side streets without hindrance. On our visit, our excellent driver never reached fifteen miles an hour as he weaved through the traffic like a pro.
Dottie was treated to a Russian tradition when Andrey ordered the driver to stop. He hopped out and returned a few minutes later with paper cups and a bottle of cognac. As we drove we sipped making the absence of lunch bearable.
St. Isaac’s Cathedral is a popular tourist destination because one can climb a 220 step set of stairs and reach the base of the rotunda and gain a marvelous view of the city. We were all well into the first hundred steps before Dottie learned that we weren’t half way to the top yet. Her smile turned to that determined look we’ve all seen before and we raced to the top. The view was worth the effort. The day was clear and beautiful as we jostled our way through the crowd around the rotunda and headed down. We found the interior of St. Isaac’s as spectacular as the outside as we browsed around and admired the gothic architecture and the hundreds of religious paintings.
Our driver knew all of the special tourists spots in town and he managed to wend our way through the traffic to find each one for us. Ultimately we arrived at the apartment the Kirillovs were using. It was a large apartment by Russian standards but sparsely decorated. The visit to the apartment was a good opportunity for Dottie to see how the more fortunate of Russian city dwellers live.
At four o’clock our party met a couple who were friends that the Kirillovs had met on a recent vacation in Egypt. The man was a professor of psychology and his wife was a teacher of English. We met at a restaurant in a boat on one of the many rivers that course through St. Petersburg, We quickly decided the restaurant must be one of the finest in the city. Our four hour dinner featured a number of cold dishes of vegetables, meats and cheeses in forms we had never experienced. Dottie’s newest experience of the day was the Russian love of toasts and vodka. The first toasts were short speeches by each of the diners accompanied with vodka, and more vodka, and more vodka. She got in the spirit of the evening and presented her own toast accompanied by yet another splash of vodka.
We returned to the ship knowing that we had a very special day. Tuesday the Kirillovs picked us up again to take us to breakfast before they left for their return drive home. One thing led to another and we found that it was past 10 AM when we walked away from their apartment to find a place to eat. What we found was that most restaurants had stopped serving breakfast and had yet to open for lunch. We walked at least a mile or more before we found a 24 hour Sushi/Whatever chain where we had our meal. We ate our fill but didn’t find anything on the menu that looked like eggs and bacon or hot cakes. Breakfast with chop sticks was a new experience for all of us.
Our last port of call was Tallinn, Estonia. Estonia is a unique little country that has been a recognized entity since the eleventh century but rarely as its own country. The Swedes, the Danes, the Germans and the Russians have taken turns conquering and governing Estonia until the fall of the Soviet sixteen years ago. It is now a self governed country and doing quite well by European standards.
Tallinn has been an important port city for centuries. The old part of Tallinn was developed by the Germans in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The old town is still pretty much as it was originally built with winding cobblestone streets and quaint houses that occasionally display a chip in their exterior plaster to reveal walls built of stone rather than bricks. We taxied to the top of the town and walked around the town in a downhill direction allowing us to see much of the little town missed by the organized tours. We made our way to the town plaza where we stopped at a sidewalk café to watch the hundreds of tourists from the five cruise ships in the harbor as they pawed through the Estonian handicrafts in booths on the plaza. A short walk back to our ship ended our Baltic visits each of which gave us an interesting insight into this wonderful part of the world.
Our Love to all,
Gram Grandpa, Mom, Dad, Dottie and Bill
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Traveler's Lament
The Traveler’s Lament………”Been There, Done That”
Marty and I are into our second day of our third circuit of the Baltic Sea and its marvelous ports of call. Marty has made these stops a half dozen times or more during his 54 cruises in the past three plus years. While I had stopped at these same destinations twice each in the past, our first circuit was still exciting for me. There was a certain degree of anticipation with each stop knowing the sights I would see and the experiences I would enjoy. It was fun.
A second time around took some of the luster off of the shiny side of the apple and my interest became one of looking for new sights and things to do. In most cases, such was hard to come by given the time restrictions of a one day port visit. Now that we’re into our third circuit, I can’t really suggest that the upcoming port calls find me with a lot of excitement and explorer’s interest. In the end, I will know that I will enjoy strolling the same streets and touring the same buildings again but it won’t really be the same. That is, it won’t be the same this time but next time, on our fourth circuit of the Baltic, my Dottie will be here to see all of this for her first time. I will be able to share her excitement and see all of these marvelous sights through her inquisitive eyes. For the first time. Our “second time around” is turning out to be loaded with good times and new experiences for both of us.
Travelers finding themselves in my situation need to be creative in making this cruise even more exciting than the last one.
For instance: Today Marty and I “crashed” the party that the ship’s Master (some call him Captain) threw for the “Latitude Club” members. This is an exclusive club limited to those who have sailed in an NCL ship at least one time before this cruise. As an enhancement staff person, Marty isn’t turned away from such gatherings and I walked in to shake hands with the Captain and his staff in Marty’s shadow. We drank the captain’s drinks, ate the Captain’s canapés, and listened attentively when the administrative staff of the ship were introduced, sans the captain. He was at the door to shake hands with supposed Latitude Club members and then disappeared; probably to keep the ship from sinking or something of that magnitude that Captains do on an hourly basis. While the music provided by one of the dance orchestras was nice (no one danced), it seemed the main reason for the gathering was to sell members on taking another cruise right away. A half hour pep talk was given by one of the cruise sales staff. In my opinion, it was like preaching to the choir. All present were veteran cruisers who will probably take yet another cruise anyway. I should note that of a reported 600 club members on board, it appeared that less than 100 chose to come to the party. They were probably enjoying themselves more bundled up on the wind swept decks trying to catch the little bit of sunshine that escaped occasionally through diminutive holes in the sky full of threatening looking clouds.
One of the officers came to our table and we invited her to sit down for a chat. Her name was Carolyn and I told her that her name would be etched on my Ginko stimulated memory forever because my favorite younger sister is named Carolynn. Her assignment was Chief of Housekeeping. Some ships call this position Hotel Manager because her staff includes the stewards that clean the staterooms, change the linen and keep clean towels in the loo. I told her that her crew was doing a great job down at the bottom of the ship on our floor. I didn’t add that often our room is not “done” until just before the late dinner service. None the less, the lady had a big job and one that all of the passengers profit from.
I was able to ask Carolyn Sir (she had two strips on her epaulets) how many passengers we had on board. She was quick to tell us that 2601 souls are on our current cruise. On asking my second obvious question, She new that exactly 2,830 passengers could be accommodated on the Norwegian Jewel. Marty and I figured that would mean that all of the fold up cots hanging on cabin walls, like in our cabin, would be in use. Since Marty and I fill our cabin to overflowing, I don’t think I’d like to sail as the third person in stateroom 5596.
Back to the role of the becoming disinterested traveler, one might suggest that there’s a ton of stuff to do on a cruise with something for every interest. Let’s see now; what might that be. Today the “Freestyle Daily” implored we passengers to try one of the following on for size:1. How about a Comedy Workshop for “Class Clowns” featuring the cast of “Second City”, an improvisational group entertaining onboard, as teachers. The announcement says that one should come ready to discover how naturally funny you already are. I’ve been called a lot of things over the years but never “funny”. Maybe that’s for someone else.2. Then there’s the “Grand Finale Art Auction with a last chance to collect “the art you really love.” There will be free champagne and a raffle for a $500 bid credit. I’m not into raffles but the champagne sounds like a possibility. I’ll keep that in mind. What do you want to bet there’ll be another “Grand Finale….” or the same thing with another name before the end of this cruise?3. Would you like to show off your talents on the main stage of the Stardust Theater. Come on down an do your thing with the stage band ready to back up your vocal, soft shoe shuffle or what have you. The thing that amazes me is that every cruise I’ve been on has asked for passengers to perform in “Talent Shows” and there are always people who clammer for the opportunity. I went to one of the “talent” shows once and was thrilled to hear a ninety-two year old retired school teacher read a poem extolling the virtues (?) of our current president. I don’t think I’ll go again.4. For you sports there will be a Texas Hold ‘em tournament at 10 AM Or while you’re in the sinning’ area you can sign-up for the qualifying rounds of the slot and black jack tournaments. It only costs $15 to register for the action. He who loses the most doesn’t win; it’s the other way around. Not for me I’m afraid.5. Athletes of the world, your attention please. At 8:00 AM in the Gym there will be a complimentary “Stretch Class”. I think that means for those who show up you will be complimented on how great you look in your exercise outfit (which may be a bit of a stretch).6. Did you know that you can attend a lecture on the finer points of playing the game of cards called bridge. If you pass the daily quiz you can come back in the afternoon and play the game. You don’t even need to bring a partner for the game. The management kindly provides fourths when needed (that‘s where I come in. You were probably wondering how I got this cushy job).7. At 9;30 AM there’s a “Review Dance Class”, with Jack and Carol. If you don’t know how to dance don’t come. I mean, what’s to review if you ain’t already got it? Now at 3:00 PM you can learn how to Cha Cha with Vlad and Alina. It sounds as though it might be and Eastern European version of the Cha Cha but if you don’t know it can’t hurt. Can it?8. Once you athletic types have stretched, you can go out an play tennis at 10:00 AM, Dodgeball at 11:00 AM and Basketball at noon.9. If that’s not enough, Professor Kinnaird will tell you all you ever wanted to know about “Why England is Protestant” . Or, an hour earlier he will let you in on the little known facts about European and Russian Religious buildings. Or, in private consultation, he is known to be available to tell you almost everything about anything you don’t know.10. And if that still isn’t enough to keep you occupied and your brain all atwitter, at 1:00 PM Matt Bloomberg will tell you all you need to know about buying your next camera. This will be especially relevant if you’ve noticed that everyone on the ship seems to have a fancier looking camera than the new one you just bought at Wal-Mart before leaving home.
In the afternoon, things really get exciting. We have “Piano Melodies with Vladimir”, a musician who plays by the hour without ever looking at the keyboard or stopping between songs; “Music Mania” with DJ Pedro; “International Dance Hits with the Ironics”. a great quartet with two very talented girl singers; “Smooth Melodies” with the Alambre Trio, three talented men who sing and make a wonderful sound; “Karoke Blast” with who ever shows up; and Singer/Guitarist RJ “Red”. It’s great if you like music. If you don’t, you can go to your cabin.
Come to think about it, which I obviously haven’t before sitting down to compose this too wordy epistle, being on a cruise ship is a nice place to be. Oh yes, and then there’s breakfast, lunch and dinner plus brunch, tea time and midnight buffet and a Frosty Freeze type ice cream machine that runs 24/7. And for the ever thirsty and/or those who aren’t having a good time yet, we have eleven bars that never seem to close. Happy cruising!
My love to all,
Grandpa Bill, Dad, Bill and Mr. B
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Marty and I are into our second day of our third circuit of the Baltic Sea and its marvelous ports of call. Marty has made these stops a half dozen times or more during his 54 cruises in the past three plus years. While I had stopped at these same destinations twice each in the past, our first circuit was still exciting for me. There was a certain degree of anticipation with each stop knowing the sights I would see and the experiences I would enjoy. It was fun.
A second time around took some of the luster off of the shiny side of the apple and my interest became one of looking for new sights and things to do. In most cases, such was hard to come by given the time restrictions of a one day port visit. Now that we’re into our third circuit, I can’t really suggest that the upcoming port calls find me with a lot of excitement and explorer’s interest. In the end, I will know that I will enjoy strolling the same streets and touring the same buildings again but it won’t really be the same. That is, it won’t be the same this time but next time, on our fourth circuit of the Baltic, my Dottie will be here to see all of this for her first time. I will be able to share her excitement and see all of these marvelous sights through her inquisitive eyes. For the first time. Our “second time around” is turning out to be loaded with good times and new experiences for both of us.
Travelers finding themselves in my situation need to be creative in making this cruise even more exciting than the last one.
For instance: Today Marty and I “crashed” the party that the ship’s Master (some call him Captain) threw for the “Latitude Club” members. This is an exclusive club limited to those who have sailed in an NCL ship at least one time before this cruise. As an enhancement staff person, Marty isn’t turned away from such gatherings and I walked in to shake hands with the Captain and his staff in Marty’s shadow. We drank the captain’s drinks, ate the Captain’s canapés, and listened attentively when the administrative staff of the ship were introduced, sans the captain. He was at the door to shake hands with supposed Latitude Club members and then disappeared; probably to keep the ship from sinking or something of that magnitude that Captains do on an hourly basis. While the music provided by one of the dance orchestras was nice (no one danced), it seemed the main reason for the gathering was to sell members on taking another cruise right away. A half hour pep talk was given by one of the cruise sales staff. In my opinion, it was like preaching to the choir. All present were veteran cruisers who will probably take yet another cruise anyway. I should note that of a reported 600 club members on board, it appeared that less than 100 chose to come to the party. They were probably enjoying themselves more bundled up on the wind swept decks trying to catch the little bit of sunshine that escaped occasionally through diminutive holes in the sky full of threatening looking clouds.
One of the officers came to our table and we invited her to sit down for a chat. Her name was Carolyn and I told her that her name would be etched on my Ginko stimulated memory forever because my favorite younger sister is named Carolynn. Her assignment was Chief of Housekeeping. Some ships call this position Hotel Manager because her staff includes the stewards that clean the staterooms, change the linen and keep clean towels in the loo. I told her that her crew was doing a great job down at the bottom of the ship on our floor. I didn’t add that often our room is not “done” until just before the late dinner service. None the less, the lady had a big job and one that all of the passengers profit from.
I was able to ask Carolyn Sir (she had two strips on her epaulets) how many passengers we had on board. She was quick to tell us that 2601 souls are on our current cruise. On asking my second obvious question, She new that exactly 2,830 passengers could be accommodated on the Norwegian Jewel. Marty and I figured that would mean that all of the fold up cots hanging on cabin walls, like in our cabin, would be in use. Since Marty and I fill our cabin to overflowing, I don’t think I’d like to sail as the third person in stateroom 5596.
Back to the role of the becoming disinterested traveler, one might suggest that there’s a ton of stuff to do on a cruise with something for every interest. Let’s see now; what might that be. Today the “Freestyle Daily” implored we passengers to try one of the following on for size:1. How about a Comedy Workshop for “Class Clowns” featuring the cast of “Second City”, an improvisational group entertaining onboard, as teachers. The announcement says that one should come ready to discover how naturally funny you already are. I’ve been called a lot of things over the years but never “funny”. Maybe that’s for someone else.2. Then there’s the “Grand Finale Art Auction with a last chance to collect “the art you really love.” There will be free champagne and a raffle for a $500 bid credit. I’m not into raffles but the champagne sounds like a possibility. I’ll keep that in mind. What do you want to bet there’ll be another “Grand Finale….” or the same thing with another name before the end of this cruise?3. Would you like to show off your talents on the main stage of the Stardust Theater. Come on down an do your thing with the stage band ready to back up your vocal, soft shoe shuffle or what have you. The thing that amazes me is that every cruise I’ve been on has asked for passengers to perform in “Talent Shows” and there are always people who clammer for the opportunity. I went to one of the “talent” shows once and was thrilled to hear a ninety-two year old retired school teacher read a poem extolling the virtues (?) of our current president. I don’t think I’ll go again.4. For you sports there will be a Texas Hold ‘em tournament at 10 AM Or while you’re in the sinning’ area you can sign-up for the qualifying rounds of the slot and black jack tournaments. It only costs $15 to register for the action. He who loses the most doesn’t win; it’s the other way around. Not for me I’m afraid.5. Athletes of the world, your attention please. At 8:00 AM in the Gym there will be a complimentary “Stretch Class”. I think that means for those who show up you will be complimented on how great you look in your exercise outfit (which may be a bit of a stretch).6. Did you know that you can attend a lecture on the finer points of playing the game of cards called bridge. If you pass the daily quiz you can come back in the afternoon and play the game. You don’t even need to bring a partner for the game. The management kindly provides fourths when needed (that‘s where I come in. You were probably wondering how I got this cushy job).7. At 9;30 AM there’s a “Review Dance Class”, with Jack and Carol. If you don’t know how to dance don’t come. I mean, what’s to review if you ain’t already got it? Now at 3:00 PM you can learn how to Cha Cha with Vlad and Alina. It sounds as though it might be and Eastern European version of the Cha Cha but if you don’t know it can’t hurt. Can it?8. Once you athletic types have stretched, you can go out an play tennis at 10:00 AM, Dodgeball at 11:00 AM and Basketball at noon.9. If that’s not enough, Professor Kinnaird will tell you all you ever wanted to know about “Why England is Protestant” . Or, an hour earlier he will let you in on the little known facts about European and Russian Religious buildings. Or, in private consultation, he is known to be available to tell you almost everything about anything you don’t know.10. And if that still isn’t enough to keep you occupied and your brain all atwitter, at 1:00 PM Matt Bloomberg will tell you all you need to know about buying your next camera. This will be especially relevant if you’ve noticed that everyone on the ship seems to have a fancier looking camera than the new one you just bought at Wal-Mart before leaving home.
In the afternoon, things really get exciting. We have “Piano Melodies with Vladimir”, a musician who plays by the hour without ever looking at the keyboard or stopping between songs; “Music Mania” with DJ Pedro; “International Dance Hits with the Ironics”. a great quartet with two very talented girl singers; “Smooth Melodies” with the Alambre Trio, three talented men who sing and make a wonderful sound; “Karoke Blast” with who ever shows up; and Singer/Guitarist RJ “Red”. It’s great if you like music. If you don’t, you can go to your cabin.
Come to think about it, which I obviously haven’t before sitting down to compose this too wordy epistle, being on a cruise ship is a nice place to be. Oh yes, and then there’s breakfast, lunch and dinner plus brunch, tea time and midnight buffet and a Frosty Freeze type ice cream machine that runs 24/7. And for the ever thirsty and/or those who aren’t having a good time yet, we have eleven bars that never seem to close. Happy cruising!
My love to all,
Grandpa Bill, Dad, Bill and Mr. B
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Wednesday, July 9, 2008
10 July 2008
10 July 2008
Swedes will tell you that Stockholm is Europe’s most beautiful capital. By my observation after three visits, they may be right. But then, I haven’t visited all of Europe’s capital cities. Stockholm is unique in that it is built on fourteen small islands. As the city grew over the centuries, the locals just built a bridge to another island and planted more homes and business buildings. Nearly a third of the city is devoted to parks. Squares and airy tree lined boulevards, along with water ways that seem to be everywhere, do make Stockholm different and quite handsome. Yet the city is a bustling metropolis with glass and steel skyscrapers everywhere but all within a five minute walk from twisting medieval streets and water side promenades.
The Gamia Stan district, situated on the island of Stadsholmen, is Stockholm’s old medieval town that emerged in the 13th century and is home to the present Royal Palace with areas open to the public and a ceremonial changing of the guard at noon on weekdays. The Royal Palace is one of the largest royal castles in the world. It contains 680 rooms and is till in use by the royal family. A Stone wall nearby, built in 1250 AD, gave the city its characteristic shape of a heart. The Stork Yrkan cathedral, located in the oldest quarter of the city, was built in 1279 and is used for royal weddings, baptisms and coronations and open to the public.
During our day in port, I gathered a map from the greeters on the dock and headed into town. Since this would be my first stop in four during the next month, I decided I needed first to find an ATM to get some Swedish Kronor, second find a post office to buy stamps and mail some letters, and third to find an internet café to catch up on whatever might be in my lap top. The first two were easy, the last impossible. I asked several people along my route where I could find each of my destinations. All were helpful with the first two but only one had a possibility for me to follow. The suggestion was made that there might be an internet café at the ferry terminal that I had past on my walk.
I returned to the ferry terminal to find no internet café. What I did find was a snack shop that displayed a beer I had never heard of before. The shop had some outside tables where I could watch the terminal traffic flow by so I sat myself down in a sunny spot and enjoyed my Swedish Beer, this time a half liter. The people flowing off of the Helsinki Ferry reminded me that a guide had talked about the advantages Swedes gained by taking the ferry to Helsinki, Finland to do most of their shopping. The cost of the one hour ferry ride was more than compensated by the significant difference in prices on almost everything imaginable. Everyone off loading from the ferry was loaded down with big plastic bags, ratty looking suitcases on wheels and push carts. One couple that stopped to rest in front of my table was pushing a heavy duty hand truck loaded with cases of canned goods and beer. The load was almost more than the mad could handle. The lady in the twosome had a thirty inch suitcase on wheels that bulged to the point that it looked like it might explode. By their antics and equipment I guessed that their quick trip to Helsinki was a common occurrence. I recalled that the guide also told us that laws regarding the public consumption of alcohol are very strict in Sweden. For that reason many folks use the ferry to Helsinki as a conveyance to party time.
The weather for the most part has been sunny and almost warm. I wore a wool shirt into town today and it would have been perfect except that I am a vigorous walker and I could have gone with something lighter. A brisk wind for the last couple of days has made it uncomfortable for my fellow passengers to sun bathe, but they do it anyway. After lunch today I stripped to my bathing suit and basked in the sun sans breeze. Luckily I woke from a short nap and covered up. The warm sunshine that lulled me to sleep was already beginning to do its work on my freckled skin. A few more quikies in the sun like today and I’ll look like a real sun worshipper.
Those who enjoy sunlight would really enjoy the Baltic Sea in June. Official sunrise today, according to the ship’s bulletin, was 3:37 AM with sunset scheduled for 10:04 PM. As we travel eastward and more to the north the days will be even longer. I recall the pleasure my Russian friends had during a trip in 1989 when they took me out on a river boat at Leningrad ( now St. Petersburg) at midnight to show me that you could read a newspaper by the “midnight sun”. I could.
The Norwegian Jewel sailed away from the Stockholm pier with no bands playing, no serpentines floating down from joyful passengers, as a matter of fact, not a single soul on the dock once the landing lines were released. In the silence of the moment, broken only by the ships deep horn sounding its farewell, a sky full of seagulls appeared as if on cue. The gulls soared, dived and squawked as if the local chamber of commerce had hired them to gull lull us back to the dock to spend some more money with local merchants. We’ve all seen the spectacle of gulls following fishing boats into shore knowing full well that the gulls were there to feed off of the remains of fish cleaning. I looked over the side of the ship to see if staff was feeding but saw nothing of the sort. I could only conclude that the gulls simply liked us……….they really liked us!
Helsinki, Finland was our next port of call. My vivid memories of my past visit to Helsinki was one that remembered a quiet water front scene with blonde teenagers hanging with friends all looking wholesome and neat. It was evident from this visit that my limited vision related to the area where Dee and I stayed following a visit to Russia in 1990. Actually, the visit was marred by the fact that our Soviet visas were not returned to us when we left Moscow for Helsinki. Our intent was to return to Moscow to catch our “paid for” flight back to New York. When we arrived at Helsinki we discovered our lack of visas and immediately tried to phone Troitsk for help from our friends. Soviet telephones were never known to work very well and we never made contact. I spent most of our three day visit scurrying around trying to find a way home. The consulate finally helped us obtain tickets but the only thing available was Business Class and the shock of the sticker price lingers on. We got home but our attempts to get Aerflot to return our money on our unused tickets was for naught. I guess we really didn’t have time to see much of the town on that visit.
A more recent cruise ship stop provided us with a tour of the countryside and we still didn’t see downtown Helsinki. This trip I took the shuttle into downtown and found just another large city that wasn’t very pretty. My search for an internet café took me to the train station where everything always is within a stone’s throw. A few well placed questions and a found the internet café; a free facility run by three young bright people who made using their machines the simplest thing since learning to brush your teeth. After I used the free time to clean up my overloaded email, I found a post office and mailed some letters, bought a few post cards and just wandered for a while. The city was bustling and noisy and not nice enough to recommend that it be made a high priority for visiting when in Finland.
The Norwegian Jewel tied up for two full days at St. Petersburg, Russia. Since I have visited St. Petersburg three times in the past and toured the big sites and a few smaller ones, I decided not to leave the ship but rather catch up on a writing project I’ve been working on. Most of the passengers left the ship at least once during our stay to visit The Hermitage, one of the world’s great, museums and art galleries, Peterhof, Peter the Great’s summer palace, The Ballet and the Opera. My visits in 1989 and 1990 took me to all of these places and I’m sure that the Kirillovs will want to take Dottie and me again when we visit in August. Incidentally, one still can’t wander around in Russia without a visa. Dottie and I have ours for our August visit but they are only good for two specific days. If you are with a tour group you are exempt from the Soviet era visa requirement.
Our weather has been changing by the hour. The mornings have started with a drizzle at dawn evolving into mid-day with warm sunshine and puffy white clouds yielding to overcast skies at sunset, which by the way will be at 11:20 PM tonight. The only thing that hasn’t changed is the marvelous ship board food that I have tried to experience in a selective manner. Imagine if you will being served all of your favorite foods and dishes all day long with an automatic ice cream machine around every corner with plates of cookies always within reach. All one needs to do is take a good look at the more seasoned of the travelers on board with broad smiles and girths aplenty and the allure of all these goodies diminishes a tad………but not completely!
Love to all,
Grandpa Bill, Dad, Bill and Mr. Berck
Swedes will tell you that Stockholm is Europe’s most beautiful capital. By my observation after three visits, they may be right. But then, I haven’t visited all of Europe’s capital cities. Stockholm is unique in that it is built on fourteen small islands. As the city grew over the centuries, the locals just built a bridge to another island and planted more homes and business buildings. Nearly a third of the city is devoted to parks. Squares and airy tree lined boulevards, along with water ways that seem to be everywhere, do make Stockholm different and quite handsome. Yet the city is a bustling metropolis with glass and steel skyscrapers everywhere but all within a five minute walk from twisting medieval streets and water side promenades.
The Gamia Stan district, situated on the island of Stadsholmen, is Stockholm’s old medieval town that emerged in the 13th century and is home to the present Royal Palace with areas open to the public and a ceremonial changing of the guard at noon on weekdays. The Royal Palace is one of the largest royal castles in the world. It contains 680 rooms and is till in use by the royal family. A Stone wall nearby, built in 1250 AD, gave the city its characteristic shape of a heart. The Stork Yrkan cathedral, located in the oldest quarter of the city, was built in 1279 and is used for royal weddings, baptisms and coronations and open to the public.
During our day in port, I gathered a map from the greeters on the dock and headed into town. Since this would be my first stop in four during the next month, I decided I needed first to find an ATM to get some Swedish Kronor, second find a post office to buy stamps and mail some letters, and third to find an internet café to catch up on whatever might be in my lap top. The first two were easy, the last impossible. I asked several people along my route where I could find each of my destinations. All were helpful with the first two but only one had a possibility for me to follow. The suggestion was made that there might be an internet café at the ferry terminal that I had past on my walk.
I returned to the ferry terminal to find no internet café. What I did find was a snack shop that displayed a beer I had never heard of before. The shop had some outside tables where I could watch the terminal traffic flow by so I sat myself down in a sunny spot and enjoyed my Swedish Beer, this time a half liter. The people flowing off of the Helsinki Ferry reminded me that a guide had talked about the advantages Swedes gained by taking the ferry to Helsinki, Finland to do most of their shopping. The cost of the one hour ferry ride was more than compensated by the significant difference in prices on almost everything imaginable. Everyone off loading from the ferry was loaded down with big plastic bags, ratty looking suitcases on wheels and push carts. One couple that stopped to rest in front of my table was pushing a heavy duty hand truck loaded with cases of canned goods and beer. The load was almost more than the mad could handle. The lady in the twosome had a thirty inch suitcase on wheels that bulged to the point that it looked like it might explode. By their antics and equipment I guessed that their quick trip to Helsinki was a common occurrence. I recalled that the guide also told us that laws regarding the public consumption of alcohol are very strict in Sweden. For that reason many folks use the ferry to Helsinki as a conveyance to party time.
The weather for the most part has been sunny and almost warm. I wore a wool shirt into town today and it would have been perfect except that I am a vigorous walker and I could have gone with something lighter. A brisk wind for the last couple of days has made it uncomfortable for my fellow passengers to sun bathe, but they do it anyway. After lunch today I stripped to my bathing suit and basked in the sun sans breeze. Luckily I woke from a short nap and covered up. The warm sunshine that lulled me to sleep was already beginning to do its work on my freckled skin. A few more quikies in the sun like today and I’ll look like a real sun worshipper.
Those who enjoy sunlight would really enjoy the Baltic Sea in June. Official sunrise today, according to the ship’s bulletin, was 3:37 AM with sunset scheduled for 10:04 PM. As we travel eastward and more to the north the days will be even longer. I recall the pleasure my Russian friends had during a trip in 1989 when they took me out on a river boat at Leningrad ( now St. Petersburg) at midnight to show me that you could read a newspaper by the “midnight sun”. I could.
The Norwegian Jewel sailed away from the Stockholm pier with no bands playing, no serpentines floating down from joyful passengers, as a matter of fact, not a single soul on the dock once the landing lines were released. In the silence of the moment, broken only by the ships deep horn sounding its farewell, a sky full of seagulls appeared as if on cue. The gulls soared, dived and squawked as if the local chamber of commerce had hired them to gull lull us back to the dock to spend some more money with local merchants. We’ve all seen the spectacle of gulls following fishing boats into shore knowing full well that the gulls were there to feed off of the remains of fish cleaning. I looked over the side of the ship to see if staff was feeding but saw nothing of the sort. I could only conclude that the gulls simply liked us……….they really liked us!
Helsinki, Finland was our next port of call. My vivid memories of my past visit to Helsinki was one that remembered a quiet water front scene with blonde teenagers hanging with friends all looking wholesome and neat. It was evident from this visit that my limited vision related to the area where Dee and I stayed following a visit to Russia in 1990. Actually, the visit was marred by the fact that our Soviet visas were not returned to us when we left Moscow for Helsinki. Our intent was to return to Moscow to catch our “paid for” flight back to New York. When we arrived at Helsinki we discovered our lack of visas and immediately tried to phone Troitsk for help from our friends. Soviet telephones were never known to work very well and we never made contact. I spent most of our three day visit scurrying around trying to find a way home. The consulate finally helped us obtain tickets but the only thing available was Business Class and the shock of the sticker price lingers on. We got home but our attempts to get Aerflot to return our money on our unused tickets was for naught. I guess we really didn’t have time to see much of the town on that visit.
A more recent cruise ship stop provided us with a tour of the countryside and we still didn’t see downtown Helsinki. This trip I took the shuttle into downtown and found just another large city that wasn’t very pretty. My search for an internet café took me to the train station where everything always is within a stone’s throw. A few well placed questions and a found the internet café; a free facility run by three young bright people who made using their machines the simplest thing since learning to brush your teeth. After I used the free time to clean up my overloaded email, I found a post office and mailed some letters, bought a few post cards and just wandered for a while. The city was bustling and noisy and not nice enough to recommend that it be made a high priority for visiting when in Finland.
The Norwegian Jewel tied up for two full days at St. Petersburg, Russia. Since I have visited St. Petersburg three times in the past and toured the big sites and a few smaller ones, I decided not to leave the ship but rather catch up on a writing project I’ve been working on. Most of the passengers left the ship at least once during our stay to visit The Hermitage, one of the world’s great, museums and art galleries, Peterhof, Peter the Great’s summer palace, The Ballet and the Opera. My visits in 1989 and 1990 took me to all of these places and I’m sure that the Kirillovs will want to take Dottie and me again when we visit in August. Incidentally, one still can’t wander around in Russia without a visa. Dottie and I have ours for our August visit but they are only good for two specific days. If you are with a tour group you are exempt from the Soviet era visa requirement.
Our weather has been changing by the hour. The mornings have started with a drizzle at dawn evolving into mid-day with warm sunshine and puffy white clouds yielding to overcast skies at sunset, which by the way will be at 11:20 PM tonight. The only thing that hasn’t changed is the marvelous ship board food that I have tried to experience in a selective manner. Imagine if you will being served all of your favorite foods and dishes all day long with an automatic ice cream machine around every corner with plates of cookies always within reach. All one needs to do is take a good look at the more seasoned of the travelers on board with broad smiles and girths aplenty and the allure of all these goodies diminishes a tad………but not completely!
Love to all,
Grandpa Bill, Dad, Bill and Mr. Berck
Thursday, July 3, 2008
July 4 2008
4 July 2008
Happy Fourth of July from the Baltic Sea,
The Norwegian Jewel has made her ports of call and is now headed back to Dover to disembark and pick up a new bunch of eager travelers. It’s amazing how slow twelve days can be for those of us who have it to do all over again and how fast they pass for those who are on their annual vacations. This cruise, to-date, has been a new experience for me. “Cruising Free Style” the new Norwegian Cruise Lines motto, seems to be successful because a whole new kind of traveler is evident on this cruise. For the past four nights in a row, Marty and I have been seated next to a couple with a child under the age of three. All of my cruising in the past has been void of small children with only an occasional teenage grand child on board. The average age of adults on board has dropped markedly as well, with literally dozens of young couples in their twenties ever present. The oldsters are still around but not as I’ve known before.
In fairness, regarding the babies next to our table at dinner, the dining room staff recognizes Marty and me as “enhancement staff” and not prone to complain about inconveniences as expected from people who pay the big bucks for the trip.
The younger passengers, especially those with children, very often are Europeans as defined by the voices overheard in elevators and dining rooms. There seems to be a large contingent of Spaniards on board and another large group from various South American countries. The Spanish is easy to identify and sometimes understand. I’ve encountered quite a few Eastern Europeans whose languages are more difficult to identify. Once again, my past travels have encountered many folks from the British Isles and a significantly large number from Germany but not any significant numbers from elsewhere.
Although the make-up of my fellow passengers has change, the ports of call are familiar sites that I have visited previously and the Norwegian Jewel is quite different from other ships I have known. Everything is bigger, or at least seems that way. Since most of my cruises in the past have been on smaller ships, like the Marco Polo now decommissioned, with a passenger maximum of about 800, this ship carries about 2000 more passengers. In the evenings there are always several hundred others heading in the direction I travel, or at least it seems that way.
The passenger make-up is not only younger but perhaps a little less sophisticated. I passed a man of about my age a few mornings ago who came to breakfast in his bib overalls and John Deere cap over a loud Hawaiian shirt. There seem to be more plump little ladies who wear their purse strap around their necks diagonally threaded between the bumps in their shirts and others who wear their over stuffed fanny packs around their middles in front creating a kind of extended front bumper handy in crowds. All of the above are wearing huge smiles and that’s what it’s all about. Most of the above seem to prefer eating in the buffet at some ungodly hour like 5:00 PM and rarely are they seen at any of the venues after dinner that serve up a variety of music and drinks to enhance the evening. They do help provide a full house at the early variety show each evening and clap loudly for the performers and laugh uncontrollably at the comedians.
Our last stop at Tallinn, Estonia was marvelous. Marty, who has made the stop a half dozen times, acted as tour guide as we walked from the ship to Toompea, the “old town” inTallinn. The old town is divided into Lower Town and Upper Town with the buildings in Lower Town dating back to the Middle Ages. A fire in 1684 pretty much leveled the top of the hill so things there are much younger. Both Upper and Lower towns feature winding cobblestone streets that provide a flavor that is hard not to enjoy. The Upper Town was traditionally inhabited by the German aristocracy while the Lower Town was home to burghers and artisans. The name Toompea is the name of the hill named after the Cathedral at the top of the hill. The Germans called the hill Boomberg or Cathedral Hill.
The Cathedral of the Holy Virgin was mentioned in writings as early as 1223 AD and is the oldest church in Estonia. Originally, the German aristocracy used the church. It was only in 1927 that an Estonian congregation was formed. After the fire of 1684 destroyed the church, the King of Sweden ordered that it be rebuilt and donated money for this purpose. The new church was completed in 1686.
So now I’ve mentioned Germans and Swedes and one might wonder what is happening to Estonia. The history of the country is one in which each of their neighbors from time to time decided to invade and conquer. The country and Tallinn, its capital, was first inhabited in the tenth century. Its excellent harbor and location made neighbors envious. In 1219 the Danish invaded and took control. After 100 years they got tired of constant rebellions and sold Estonia to the Germans. After a couple of centuries the Swedes came and then the Russians conquered the country. Estonia declared its first independence in 1918 which lasted until 1940 and the Soviet occupation, followed by the Nazi occupation the year after and the second Soviet occupation in 1944. The Republic of Estonia has enjoyed its freedom at the fullest for the past 16 years when the Soviet regime fell into pieces and a totally new future opened up for many ex Soviet Republics.
Side by side with the Old Town is the New Town with an active business community, an ultra modern mall and wide boulevards with bustling traffic, busses, trolley cars and all the accoutrements of modern life. As you can probably guess, I recommend Tallinn as a definite “must see” for the Baltic visitor.
The next few days “at sea” will provide some time for bridge, sun bathing, Sudoku wrestling, a newly acquired interest, and quality time in one of the many hot tubs on the twelfth floor. It’s a tough life, but somebody has to do it.
My love to all,
Grandpa Bill, Dad, Bill and Mr. Berck
Happy Fourth of July from the Baltic Sea,
The Norwegian Jewel has made her ports of call and is now headed back to Dover to disembark and pick up a new bunch of eager travelers. It’s amazing how slow twelve days can be for those of us who have it to do all over again and how fast they pass for those who are on their annual vacations. This cruise, to-date, has been a new experience for me. “Cruising Free Style” the new Norwegian Cruise Lines motto, seems to be successful because a whole new kind of traveler is evident on this cruise. For the past four nights in a row, Marty and I have been seated next to a couple with a child under the age of three. All of my cruising in the past has been void of small children with only an occasional teenage grand child on board. The average age of adults on board has dropped markedly as well, with literally dozens of young couples in their twenties ever present. The oldsters are still around but not as I’ve known before.
In fairness, regarding the babies next to our table at dinner, the dining room staff recognizes Marty and me as “enhancement staff” and not prone to complain about inconveniences as expected from people who pay the big bucks for the trip.
The younger passengers, especially those with children, very often are Europeans as defined by the voices overheard in elevators and dining rooms. There seems to be a large contingent of Spaniards on board and another large group from various South American countries. The Spanish is easy to identify and sometimes understand. I’ve encountered quite a few Eastern Europeans whose languages are more difficult to identify. Once again, my past travels have encountered many folks from the British Isles and a significantly large number from Germany but not any significant numbers from elsewhere.
Although the make-up of my fellow passengers has change, the ports of call are familiar sites that I have visited previously and the Norwegian Jewel is quite different from other ships I have known. Everything is bigger, or at least seems that way. Since most of my cruises in the past have been on smaller ships, like the Marco Polo now decommissioned, with a passenger maximum of about 800, this ship carries about 2000 more passengers. In the evenings there are always several hundred others heading in the direction I travel, or at least it seems that way.
The passenger make-up is not only younger but perhaps a little less sophisticated. I passed a man of about my age a few mornings ago who came to breakfast in his bib overalls and John Deere cap over a loud Hawaiian shirt. There seem to be more plump little ladies who wear their purse strap around their necks diagonally threaded between the bumps in their shirts and others who wear their over stuffed fanny packs around their middles in front creating a kind of extended front bumper handy in crowds. All of the above are wearing huge smiles and that’s what it’s all about. Most of the above seem to prefer eating in the buffet at some ungodly hour like 5:00 PM and rarely are they seen at any of the venues after dinner that serve up a variety of music and drinks to enhance the evening. They do help provide a full house at the early variety show each evening and clap loudly for the performers and laugh uncontrollably at the comedians.
Our last stop at Tallinn, Estonia was marvelous. Marty, who has made the stop a half dozen times, acted as tour guide as we walked from the ship to Toompea, the “old town” inTallinn. The old town is divided into Lower Town and Upper Town with the buildings in Lower Town dating back to the Middle Ages. A fire in 1684 pretty much leveled the top of the hill so things there are much younger. Both Upper and Lower towns feature winding cobblestone streets that provide a flavor that is hard not to enjoy. The Upper Town was traditionally inhabited by the German aristocracy while the Lower Town was home to burghers and artisans. The name Toompea is the name of the hill named after the Cathedral at the top of the hill. The Germans called the hill Boomberg or Cathedral Hill.
The Cathedral of the Holy Virgin was mentioned in writings as early as 1223 AD and is the oldest church in Estonia. Originally, the German aristocracy used the church. It was only in 1927 that an Estonian congregation was formed. After the fire of 1684 destroyed the church, the King of Sweden ordered that it be rebuilt and donated money for this purpose. The new church was completed in 1686.
So now I’ve mentioned Germans and Swedes and one might wonder what is happening to Estonia. The history of the country is one in which each of their neighbors from time to time decided to invade and conquer. The country and Tallinn, its capital, was first inhabited in the tenth century. Its excellent harbor and location made neighbors envious. In 1219 the Danish invaded and took control. After 100 years they got tired of constant rebellions and sold Estonia to the Germans. After a couple of centuries the Swedes came and then the Russians conquered the country. Estonia declared its first independence in 1918 which lasted until 1940 and the Soviet occupation, followed by the Nazi occupation the year after and the second Soviet occupation in 1944. The Republic of Estonia has enjoyed its freedom at the fullest for the past 16 years when the Soviet regime fell into pieces and a totally new future opened up for many ex Soviet Republics.
Side by side with the Old Town is the New Town with an active business community, an ultra modern mall and wide boulevards with bustling traffic, busses, trolley cars and all the accoutrements of modern life. As you can probably guess, I recommend Tallinn as a definite “must see” for the Baltic visitor.
The next few days “at sea” will provide some time for bridge, sun bathing, Sudoku wrestling, a newly acquired interest, and quality time in one of the many hot tubs on the twelfth floor. It’s a tough life, but somebody has to do it.
My love to all,
Grandpa Bill, Dad, Bill and Mr. Berck
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Baltic Cruise #1
24 June 2008
“The best laid plans of Mice and Men sometimes go astray‘, to quote someone from the past. My airline reservations to get to Dover and the beginning of my first cruise left the field of the almost perfect and slid into the oblivion of second best. For some reason known only to airlines folks, the flight I had arranged that would get me to Heathrow in the AM changed to land me around 2:00 p.m. on the day I had to be at Dover by 4:00 p.m. Since this didn’t work, the next best that could be arranged was a round about flight that would get me to Heathrow in time but had me leaving more than twenty-four hours earlier.
Dottie and Linda, who was spending some time with Dad to help with packing necessary for the big move in the future and to help Tim with an interim move at Santa Cruz, took me to BART late Thursday evening so that I could catch a red-eye flight to Detroit. A much too long lay-over in Detroit connected me with another “red-eye” to Heathrow delivering me in the promised land twenty-four hours before I needed to be. An airport hotel helped with the “catching-up” with sleep and the final route to Dover and the Norwegian Jewel, my home for the next forty-eight days.
Parting really isn’t “sweet sorrow”, as quoth the bard. It’s the pits. Dottie and I realized during that fretful moment that we really have become important in each other’s life. My daddy taught me that grown men don’t cry, but sometimes a tear creeps into being despite one’s determination. Dottie, on the other hand, was all smiles looking forward to having some space she could call her own during the next few weeks.
Flying from San Francisco to Detroit during the wee hours was a snap. I was asleep before the plane left the ground and woke only as the clunk of the landing gears beneath my seat announced our arrival at Detroit. I have heard tell that Detroit is a wonderful place but nine hours trapped in the airport terminal ain’t that great. The only interesting thing about my sojourn was found in the fact that a national convention of “Little People” was convening in Detroit and the airport was filled with more small people than I ever imagined existed. It was interesting to see a dozen or more families with two or three children that were all very small. And all appearing very much as everyone else as they wheeled their suitcases through the airport.
Our flight from Detroit took us around Lake Erie and through the familiar territory of Northern New York State. We skirted Ithaca to the south and Syracuse to the north as we headed into Vermont passing over Montpelier and Barre, cities that evoke some memory from the past that escapes me for the moment. I was pleased to learn through the pilot’s announcement, that the flight from Detroit to London only takes six hours; just enough time for another snooze. By the time we finished a marvelous pasta dinner accompanied by the usual shredded lettuce salad, cold roll, packaged cheese that was nearly impossible to open and the inevitable packaged cookies, we had left the coast of Maine and were over the North Atlantic heading for the British Isles. Oh yes, I must mention the marvelous little bottles (2) of Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon that helped make the meal palatable. By the time Nova Scotia and Newfoundland had slid under the belly our shiny cocoon, my eye lids were at half mast promising another restful night among the clouds.
I met Marty, my traveling bridge mentor, at Heathrow. After a night at a nearby Travel Lodge, we took the underground into London where we were able to catch a train to Dover. The underground route was inexpensive but not for sissies with heavy suitcases. All went well until we had to navigate a change of “lines” to reach Charring Cross Station where our train awaited. London underground is noted for it’s stairs and non working escalators. Carrying my two suitcases, loaded to the legal limit, up and down a half dozen stair sets convinced me not to repeat the thrill ever again. We made it to Charring Cross and our train and a two hour ride to Dover. At Dover we opted to walk, with suitcases in tow, to the ship. My memory was that the “easy” walk couldn’t have been more than three quarters of a mile. Marty thought it might be as much as a mile. Since both of us had walked Dover in the past, we each knew he was right. Actually, the walk turned out to be more like three mile and worthy of a good sweat by the time we reached the ship where a whole host of smiling faces and a flute of champagne greeted us. We were home.
The Norwegian Jewel is three years old and one of the larger ships in the Norwegian Cruise Line armada of pleasure. To satisfy the gastronomic needs (supposed or real) of the 2700 passengers, no less than eleven (11) restaurants are available. Seven of the restaurants charge an extra $10 to $25 per person for the special atmosphere and food specialties they serve. An interesting feature of the eating business is an electronic bulletin board system that lets passengers know how busy each of the venues is at a given time. If you want to avoid the inevitable queues caused by 2700 passengers wanting to eat at the same time, you have only to find one of the boards and select from the restaurants that are least popular at that moment. What won’t they think of next?
Our passage north toward Copenhagen was rough the first night and into the following day. At least that is what I’ve been told. Ship board sleeping has always been my long suit and the Big Guy’s hand rocking the cradle really takes me to “Z” land big time.
Love to all.
Grandpa Bill, Dad, Bill and …………………….
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