HOLYLANDS/CRUISE
BLOG #4
Ahhh Venice! We decided immediately that Venice must be one of the great places in the world. The Pacific Princess moored at the island port of Venice, the only place in town where we would see motorized vehicles, where we boarded a “water bus” which took us to the San Marcus “bus station”. A short walk behind our guide escort took us to Hotel Saturnia where we would stay for the next three nights. The Saturnia boasted four stars but would probably be awarded a maximum of two in San Francisco. None the less, it was comfortable, in the center of things and blended in well with the aged buildings in the neighborhood. After all, it wouldn’t be right to have a 30 story Hilton planted in the middle of a 15th and 16th century city.
Our first walk about the neighborhood was with the admonishment from the helpful desk manager that an unusually high tide was being experienced and the next day would be better for visiting the Piazza San Marcos. We were dying for a piece of real Italian Pizza so we headed out anyway. Sure enough, the tide was in and the large plaza in front of Basilica di San Marcos was covered with several inches of water. This was obviously not an unusual condition because platform walkways, about 24 inches high were in place so that the several thousand tourists in the area could take their pictures without getting their feet wet. Since it was about that time, we found a sidewalk restaurant facing the Canale Grande, and enjoyed lunch and an opportunity to people watch. We were immediately aware that Venetian footware is noticeably unique. Many of the ladies were wearing fashionable but obvious rubber or plastic boots so that they could walk through the tidal waters while keeping their tootsies dry. Very practical. After lunch we strolled across the Piazza di San Marcos on the raised walkways and noticed that the tidal waters were receding. Merchants surrounding the piazza were busily sweeping the remaining water out of their shops and from in front of their shops.
Our hotel hosts proudly announced that a complimentary tour of Murano came with our room. We knew we wanted to visit Murano so we signed up. Dottie’s Mother and Joe had visited Murano many years ago and brought home a chandelier that was a focal point in the entrance hall of their home. Our “taxi” driver arrived at the hotel and led us to a nearby water taxi that would take us to the island of Murano. On the way to the taxi, our guide stopped short and addressed us in Italian (we think) expressing concern that a large puddle left over from the high tide blocked our way. His look suggested that the whole gig was off because of the puddle. Bill quickly solved the problem by carrying Dottie “over the threshold” style walking through the almost ankle deep puddle. Dottie reacted with cool and aplomb as though such was an everyday occurrence, all the while knowing in her heart of hearts she was going to be dropped with each step. Venetian water taxi drivers each has his favorite short cut and our driver was no exception. He avoided the open sea by winding through Venice backroads giving us an eyeful of how the 60,000 residents of Venice live and where they work.
Our “free” tour of Murano consisted of a glass blowing demonstration as the only audience in a room with bleachers for fifty or sixty. We watched as a man attached a glob of molten glass on the end of a six foot pipe and then put the glob in a roaring furnace blowing through the pipe to form a lovely little vase. He added a couple of handles to the vase and cut it from the end of his pipe as a finished product. He then put another glob on the pipe and within 60 seconds or so fashioned a small horse complete with mane and flowing tail. Very impressive. Then we were led away from the furnaces to a show room of Murano glassware with some other stuff thrown in to provide a complete inventory. One room was full of marvelous chandeliers and various lighting fixtures while other rooms displayed beautiful crystal sets and objects of art made from glass. It was obvious we were expected to buy something which we didn’t. We knew that there were many similar shops on the island of Murano and we suggested that we would like to visit them. We were assured that we could but our “free” taxi wouldn’t be available to take us back to Venice. That’s the way it is with freebies. We decided that we had seen what we wanted to see at Murano so we returned to Venice. We were glad we went.
The coughing and sneezing of fellow passengers during our cruise finally caught up with Bill and Dr. Dottie “decided” that it was time to take a day off. She had already gone through the shared bugs earlier in our trip. We stayed in all day with food sent up from the kitchen below. It was a day well spent because we were both reenergized for our next day of touring in Venice.
It’s hard to believe that little Venice has 56 churches most of which date back several centuries. We decided we had to visit a few but not all. We focused on Santa Maria del Giglio, Santo Stefano and, of course, the Basilica di San Marcos. Each church had a unique story about its construction, funding and reconstruction. Each was beautiful in its own way. In most cases a wealthy individual put up the cash for construction to commemorate a special event or just to make certain that his family name wasn’t lost in history. The Basilica di San Marcos, St. Marks, was something else. It was impressive in its size and the considerable art work seemingly everywhere. We made our visit with easily a thousand or more tourists who took pictures with their digital cameras even though signs were everywhere prohibiting cameras and talking loudly even though “Silencio” signs were equally evident. We spent an hour enjoying the remarkable beauty of San Marcos. We paused for a while in a small chapel where we lit candles for loved ones in our lives that we have lost.
We (Bill) decided that we simply had to see the Ponte di Rialto, the famous bridge that was built in the 16th century. We found it after a good deal of meandering that took us by hundreds of shops whose intent that no tourist should leave Venice with any money left in the wallet. We window shopped but didn’t buy all that much. We finally found the Rialto bridge where we stopped at a nearby sidewalk café for a lunch next to the Grand Canal. Our final “to do” for the day was satisfied when we hired a gondola for two to take us back to our hotel, singing gondolier and all. We passed dozens of gondolas on our way some of which were loaded, maybe overloaded, with Japanese tourists who smiled and waved as they passed us looking a bit romantic and carried away with the moment.
At 5:00 am on our final day, a water taxi picked us up at the landing at the rear of our hotel and took us on the first leg of our trip home. A timely flight to Madrid where a long wait on the tarmac ultimately informed us that our bird wasn’t going to fly. American Airlines put us up in a five star hotel in a lovely suite readying us for our flight home a day later. We were really looking forward to stepping off the merry go round and the extra day left us totally exhausted. A good time and lots of fun can do that you know. And then, as we were waiting for our plane to take-off at Miami, we were told once again that our plane couldn't fly. We off loaded a sell-out crowd and boarded a second plane of the same maker. It only cost us an hour and we were pleased that our experience on Sunday wasn't repeated. Enough already! Granddaughter Andrea picked us up at 12:45 am and we were in our own bed for the first time in three weeks by 3:00 am. Life is good!
If you ever have an opportunity to visit this part of the world, don’t let it pass. We know, you can take a camel ride in lots of places but in front of the Pyramids of Giza is special.
Love to each and everyone,
Gram and Granpa Bill, Mom and Dad, Dottie and Bill
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Holylands Cruise Tour #3
HOLYLANDS CRUISE 2010
BLOG #3t
One should never read things written after the work is “completed”. A reread of the last two blogs led to the conclusion that fun writing should not be attempted when the TV is on in the room especially when the ability to multi-task diminished with the trip “over the hill”. All of which leads to the following correction. Ephesus and The Acropolis are NOT on the list of the “Seven Wonders of the Modern World”. These are great wonders of the past but they didn’t make the list. The Temple of Artemus at Ephesus was on the ancient wonders list but it didn’t make the new list. Sorry about the misinformation.
Our next stop at Port Said, Egypt did allow us to see one of the “Seven Wonders of the Modern World”, The Pyramids of Giza. We knew in advance that the shore excursion to see the Pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx involved a three hour bus ride from Port Said to Cairo and a three hour return trip. Our bus trip took us through the fertile fields on the west side of the Nile and the Suez Canal. Our well informed guide filled the hours of travel with a constant flow of facts about the history of Egypt and the development of civilization a long, long time ago. Somewhere in the discussion of Pharaohs and the reuse of some names by past Egyptian leaders, Ptolemy I,II,III………and so on, we were jolted from our state of polite listening by the announcement that there were actually nine ladies who used the name Cleopatra. The Elizabeth Taylor version that we know and love was actually Cleopatra VII and reported to have been adorned with an ugly hook nose and looks leaning toward the ugly. No mention was made of her significant measurements but she made the movies so they couldn’t have been all that bad.
Our visit to the pyramids was in the company of several thousand other folks who came out to fill their memory cards with pictures from all angles. To make our visit complete, there were several hundred camels with keepers named Ali waiting to pose for pics with tourists astride and maybe even to provide a short ride through the desert. We dutifully did both to keep the local economy rolling. Our guide warned us in advance about how much to pay for such privileges adding that some of the richest people in Egypt sell camel rides at the pyramids. Our new best friend in Egypt, Ali the camel man, almost had a heart attack when we offered him $4 US for our ride instead of the $50 he requested. We wanted to add a couple of bucks for the act he performed but in Egypt you just have to do what your tour guide says.
After a memorable hour in the sifting desert sands around the pyramids, our bus took us through downtown Cairo to a boat on the Nile hired to provide a boat ride and lunch. We apparently were very lucky that our tour was on Friday. Custom dictates that Friday and Saturday constitute the weekend in Egypt with schools and most businesses closed. Even on the “weekend” the Cairo traffic was unbelievable. Cairo is a city of 25,000,000 during work days and 22,000,000 at night. It seemed to us that each of the 22 or 25 million owned a car with most of them on the streets of Cairo as we passed through. We imagined our boat ride/lunch on the Nile would be on an open boat with box lunches. We were pleasantly surprise when our boat turned out to be a beautifully appointed floating palace with liveried waiters, live music and a marvelous Egyptian buffet luncheon. We guessed that there were about 200 tourists on board sharing a wonderful time. Our boat plied the waters of the Nile as it coursed through the most elegant and expensive part of Cairo. Ten story condo and apartment buildings lined the river with their expansive balconies adorned with all kinds of plants and trees. An occasional five star hotel was sandwiched in between where people lived adding elegance to the shoreline scene.
Following lunch we were treated to an Egyptian Folkloric Show that was billed as steeped in Egyptian tradition. The show focused on a group of musicians, playing mainly drums, and a beautiful young lady dressed in not much that displayed a lot of belly. She kept the attention of all for the best part of an hour doing some nice things that might be referred to as naughty in some fuddy-duddy circles. When she tired and left the room, presumably to take a cold shower, she was replaced by a Whirling Dervish who spun around in circles so long that many in the crowd were becoming borderline nauseas. As a part of her performance, the Belly Dancer person worked her way through the audience giving us a close-up look at her costume. She was followed by a photographer taking shots to sell as black mail. We were fortunate enough to have her come to our table and we dutifully bought the commemorating photo. The photo turned out so well we decided on the spot to use it for our Christmas Card this year. Unfortunately, we were so pooped when we finally returned to our ship we left the 8 X 10 photo on the bus leaving us back at square one regarding our Christmas greeting for 2010
Along the way we learned that of the eighty million people in Egypt, 25% cannot read or write. Two-thirds of the illiterate are over the age of 60. 40% of the population is under the age of 20 and the country’s population is increasing at a rate of over one million new citizens each year. The 25 public universities are currently creating more graduates than the economy can employee and out migration of Egypt’s educated young people is of great concern to the country’s leaders. 90% of the population is Muslim and 10% profess to be Christian. The vast majority of Christians are members of the Orthodox Church, an off-shoot of the Catholic Church.
The next day the Pacific Princess docked at Alexandria, Egypt. After three straight days of twelve hour tours we decided that Alexandria sounded like a great place to crash, do some laundry and catch up on our Sudoku. Alexandria, named after Alexander the Great, grew and flourished as a seaport and center of culture. The Romans made it one of their capital cities but as the Roman Empire fizzled out so did the city. However, during the Byzantine period the city once again came alive. When St. Mark brought Christianity to Egypt, Alexandria became a theological powerhouse and a center for theological debate. The Moslem conquest in the 7th century changed the character but failed to keep the commercial life strong. Only the rule of Mohammed Ali (not the boxer) in the 19th century began a revival of the city’s commercial life. The opening of the Suez Canal diverted some business away but Alexandria continues to reign as Egypt’s second largest city.
We looked forward to our stop at Dubrovnik, Croatia. At one time, Dubrovnik was a commercial competitor with Venice. With the disintegration of the Roman Empire, Dubrovnik suffered as many other cities in the region from the raids of barbarian tribes. For the next 1500 years or so, periodic attacks by various neighbors ravaged the city and then rebuilt it in our own image. In the process a wall w as built around the city in an attempt to make such attacks difficult. It wasn’t until 1991 when the country of Croatia became a reality that Dubrovnik gained a sense of the possibility of a secure future. We signed on to a tour that took us first to the small town of Cavtat, a few miles south of Dubrovnik, where we strolled through the small downtown area and visited the two churches in town. The architecture, as that in Dubrovnik, is Byzantine and quiet unique. Earthquakes in 1667 and 1713 devastated much of the area but we were told that the subsequent rebuilding was done with an effort to maintain the original style of buildings as they were repaired.
At Dubrovnik, we were treated to a folkloric show featuring dancers and musicians that displayed traditional music, dance and costumes. The Croatian dancers were quick on the feet and presented an amazing show that we appreciated. What we didn’t appreciate was the down pour we experienced when we walked from our bus to the folkloric venue. We were drenched the skin to the point that our only thought was to return to the ship and some dry clothing rather than take a twenty minute stroll through the walled city. Those who took the walk declared that they didn’t believe that it was possible fo become so wet so fast.
Our final stop before arriving at Venice was Ravenna, Italy. Ravenna is a good starting place for visits to Bologna and the small Principality of San Marino. We opted to do our own thing with a tour of Ravenna. As yet another walled Byzantine city, we enjoyed the narrow winding streets that surrounded an active downtown business community. The names on the shops were not familiar but the prices for stylish clothes and such suggested that there must be a lot of wealthy folks in Ravenna who can afford such prices….think Nordstrom’s or better. Ravenna boasts the fact that it was the last gasp capital of the Roman Empire just before its end. The Emperor moved his court to Milan and then Ravenna to be closer to the front lines in Rome’s battle with Gothic tribes under the leadership of Alaric. In 409 AD, Alaric, no dummy, bypassed Ravenna and the Roman army entirely to capture and sack Rome. From that day on, the days of the Roman Empire were numbered. The last emperor of Rome was disposed in 476 AD.
Tomorrow we leave our home for the past twelve days on the Pacific Princess and move into Hotel Saturnia in Venice, Italy for the remainder of our trip. One of the wonderful things about cruising is being able to unpack and put everything in the closet or drawers, just like home. The downside is that eventually you have to pack it all up again. Which is what we’re going to be all about for the next hour or so.
Trying hard to keep smiling……………………………………..
Love to all,
Gram and Grandpa Bill, Mom and Dad, Dottie and Bill
BLOG #3t
One should never read things written after the work is “completed”. A reread of the last two blogs led to the conclusion that fun writing should not be attempted when the TV is on in the room especially when the ability to multi-task diminished with the trip “over the hill”. All of which leads to the following correction. Ephesus and The Acropolis are NOT on the list of the “Seven Wonders of the Modern World”. These are great wonders of the past but they didn’t make the list. The Temple of Artemus at Ephesus was on the ancient wonders list but it didn’t make the new list. Sorry about the misinformation.
Our next stop at Port Said, Egypt did allow us to see one of the “Seven Wonders of the Modern World”, The Pyramids of Giza. We knew in advance that the shore excursion to see the Pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx involved a three hour bus ride from Port Said to Cairo and a three hour return trip. Our bus trip took us through the fertile fields on the west side of the Nile and the Suez Canal. Our well informed guide filled the hours of travel with a constant flow of facts about the history of Egypt and the development of civilization a long, long time ago. Somewhere in the discussion of Pharaohs and the reuse of some names by past Egyptian leaders, Ptolemy I,II,III………and so on, we were jolted from our state of polite listening by the announcement that there were actually nine ladies who used the name Cleopatra. The Elizabeth Taylor version that we know and love was actually Cleopatra VII and reported to have been adorned with an ugly hook nose and looks leaning toward the ugly. No mention was made of her significant measurements but she made the movies so they couldn’t have been all that bad.
Our visit to the pyramids was in the company of several thousand other folks who came out to fill their memory cards with pictures from all angles. To make our visit complete, there were several hundred camels with keepers named Ali waiting to pose for pics with tourists astride and maybe even to provide a short ride through the desert. We dutifully did both to keep the local economy rolling. Our guide warned us in advance about how much to pay for such privileges adding that some of the richest people in Egypt sell camel rides at the pyramids. Our new best friend in Egypt, Ali the camel man, almost had a heart attack when we offered him $4 US for our ride instead of the $50 he requested. We wanted to add a couple of bucks for the act he performed but in Egypt you just have to do what your tour guide says.
After a memorable hour in the sifting desert sands around the pyramids, our bus took us through downtown Cairo to a boat on the Nile hired to provide a boat ride and lunch. We apparently were very lucky that our tour was on Friday. Custom dictates that Friday and Saturday constitute the weekend in Egypt with schools and most businesses closed. Even on the “weekend” the Cairo traffic was unbelievable. Cairo is a city of 25,000,000 during work days and 22,000,000 at night. It seemed to us that each of the 22 or 25 million owned a car with most of them on the streets of Cairo as we passed through. We imagined our boat ride/lunch on the Nile would be on an open boat with box lunches. We were pleasantly surprise when our boat turned out to be a beautifully appointed floating palace with liveried waiters, live music and a marvelous Egyptian buffet luncheon. We guessed that there were about 200 tourists on board sharing a wonderful time. Our boat plied the waters of the Nile as it coursed through the most elegant and expensive part of Cairo. Ten story condo and apartment buildings lined the river with their expansive balconies adorned with all kinds of plants and trees. An occasional five star hotel was sandwiched in between where people lived adding elegance to the shoreline scene.
Following lunch we were treated to an Egyptian Folkloric Show that was billed as steeped in Egyptian tradition. The show focused on a group of musicians, playing mainly drums, and a beautiful young lady dressed in not much that displayed a lot of belly. She kept the attention of all for the best part of an hour doing some nice things that might be referred to as naughty in some fuddy-duddy circles. When she tired and left the room, presumably to take a cold shower, she was replaced by a Whirling Dervish who spun around in circles so long that many in the crowd were becoming borderline nauseas. As a part of her performance, the Belly Dancer person worked her way through the audience giving us a close-up look at her costume. She was followed by a photographer taking shots to sell as black mail. We were fortunate enough to have her come to our table and we dutifully bought the commemorating photo. The photo turned out so well we decided on the spot to use it for our Christmas Card this year. Unfortunately, we were so pooped when we finally returned to our ship we left the 8 X 10 photo on the bus leaving us back at square one regarding our Christmas greeting for 2010
Along the way we learned that of the eighty million people in Egypt, 25% cannot read or write. Two-thirds of the illiterate are over the age of 60. 40% of the population is under the age of 20 and the country’s population is increasing at a rate of over one million new citizens each year. The 25 public universities are currently creating more graduates than the economy can employee and out migration of Egypt’s educated young people is of great concern to the country’s leaders. 90% of the population is Muslim and 10% profess to be Christian. The vast majority of Christians are members of the Orthodox Church, an off-shoot of the Catholic Church.
The next day the Pacific Princess docked at Alexandria, Egypt. After three straight days of twelve hour tours we decided that Alexandria sounded like a great place to crash, do some laundry and catch up on our Sudoku. Alexandria, named after Alexander the Great, grew and flourished as a seaport and center of culture. The Romans made it one of their capital cities but as the Roman Empire fizzled out so did the city. However, during the Byzantine period the city once again came alive. When St. Mark brought Christianity to Egypt, Alexandria became a theological powerhouse and a center for theological debate. The Moslem conquest in the 7th century changed the character but failed to keep the commercial life strong. Only the rule of Mohammed Ali (not the boxer) in the 19th century began a revival of the city’s commercial life. The opening of the Suez Canal diverted some business away but Alexandria continues to reign as Egypt’s second largest city.
We looked forward to our stop at Dubrovnik, Croatia. At one time, Dubrovnik was a commercial competitor with Venice. With the disintegration of the Roman Empire, Dubrovnik suffered as many other cities in the region from the raids of barbarian tribes. For the next 1500 years or so, periodic attacks by various neighbors ravaged the city and then rebuilt it in our own image. In the process a wall w as built around the city in an attempt to make such attacks difficult. It wasn’t until 1991 when the country of Croatia became a reality that Dubrovnik gained a sense of the possibility of a secure future. We signed on to a tour that took us first to the small town of Cavtat, a few miles south of Dubrovnik, where we strolled through the small downtown area and visited the two churches in town. The architecture, as that in Dubrovnik, is Byzantine and quiet unique. Earthquakes in 1667 and 1713 devastated much of the area but we were told that the subsequent rebuilding was done with an effort to maintain the original style of buildings as they were repaired.
At Dubrovnik, we were treated to a folkloric show featuring dancers and musicians that displayed traditional music, dance and costumes. The Croatian dancers were quick on the feet and presented an amazing show that we appreciated. What we didn’t appreciate was the down pour we experienced when we walked from our bus to the folkloric venue. We were drenched the skin to the point that our only thought was to return to the ship and some dry clothing rather than take a twenty minute stroll through the walled city. Those who took the walk declared that they didn’t believe that it was possible fo become so wet so fast.
Our final stop before arriving at Venice was Ravenna, Italy. Ravenna is a good starting place for visits to Bologna and the small Principality of San Marino. We opted to do our own thing with a tour of Ravenna. As yet another walled Byzantine city, we enjoyed the narrow winding streets that surrounded an active downtown business community. The names on the shops were not familiar but the prices for stylish clothes and such suggested that there must be a lot of wealthy folks in Ravenna who can afford such prices….think Nordstrom’s or better. Ravenna boasts the fact that it was the last gasp capital of the Roman Empire just before its end. The Emperor moved his court to Milan and then Ravenna to be closer to the front lines in Rome’s battle with Gothic tribes under the leadership of Alaric. In 409 AD, Alaric, no dummy, bypassed Ravenna and the Roman army entirely to capture and sack Rome. From that day on, the days of the Roman Empire were numbered. The last emperor of Rome was disposed in 476 AD.
Tomorrow we leave our home for the past twelve days on the Pacific Princess and move into Hotel Saturnia in Venice, Italy for the remainder of our trip. One of the wonderful things about cruising is being able to unpack and put everything in the closet or drawers, just like home. The downside is that eventually you have to pack it all up again. Which is what we’re going to be all about for the next hour or so.
Trying hard to keep smiling……………………………………..
Love to all,
Gram and Grandpa Bill, Mom and Dad, Dottie and Bill
Monday, November 8, 2010
HOLYLANDS BLOG #2
HOLYLANDS CRUISE/TOUR
NOVEMBER 2010
BLOG #2
As the Pacific Princess sailed away from its Athens moorings, it headed into the Aegean Sea toward the island of Patmos. The Greek Parliament declared Patmos a “sacred island” in 1981 because of the island’s connection with Saint John. In the days of the Roman Empire, humble places like Patmos were often used as places to exile political prisoners which usually meant someone who had stepped on the toes of someone important. Saint John’s activities in Ephesus and elsewhere made him an excellent candidate for exile. In the year 95 AD, Saint John was sent to Patmos for 18 months where he lived in a cave from which he composed the dramatic book of Revelation, a prophetic work that speaks about the final times and encourages believers to hold fast under persecution. Visitors to the island today are taken to see the cave and the Monastery of the Apocalypse which marks the spot where John dictated the Book of Revelation to his disciple Prochkoros. We passed on a bus ride to see the cave and various churches in favor of a brief walk in the village of Scala where our ship was anchored. We window shopped the several jewelry stores and returned to the ship after a leisurely stroll.
Our next stop at the busy port of Kusadasi, Turkey began our visit to yet another of the “Seven Wonders of the Modern World”, Ephesus. Ephesus is considered the best preserved Roman city in the world. The Greeks first settled in this part of the world as early as the 10th century BC. The Romans later took over from the Greeks using Ephesus as one of its capital cities. The existing site of Ephesus dates to 600 BC and was once an important sea port. The river flowing into the bay and port silted the harbor in the 3rd century AD creating a large marsh land where the port once flourished. The marshland bred mosquitoes that caused malaria that led to the later abandonment of the city. Ephesus was buried in sand in succeeding centuries and wasn’t discovered until the middle of the 19th century AD. Excavation of the site began in 1869 and continues.
The city that once served approximately 250,000 is now about 80% excavated. The Library of Celsus, the temples of Domitian and Hadrian and the Great Theater (which is still in use) that seats 25,000 and hundreds of other buildings boggle the mind as one tries to imagine what life was all about 3,000 years ago. A sewage system and a public toilet that we visited give the city a touch of modernity that further stretches the imagination. There is good evidence that the Virgin Mary and Saint John lived their final years in Ephesus. We visited a house above the city that has been enshrined as a place where the Virgin Mary lived. Saint John likely wrote the New Testament chapter Ephesians while he was here. Saint John and the Virgin Mary are revered by both Christians and Moslems.
Our next stop at Haifa, Israel provided a jumping off spot for our first visit in the Holylands. Haifa was a fortress city, built by the Crusaders, that nearly vanished following the Crusades. During the 19th century German engineers laid out the port and the city, for their Turkish allies, that have grown steadily as a significant port city. Today, Haifa is Israel’s third largest city.
We took a tour from Haifa that visited the Sea of Galilee, more commonly known and referred to by the locals as Lake Tiberius. We learned quickly that the Sea of Galilee is 200 meters below sea level as our bus went around downward hair pin turns as we headed eastward from the Mediterranean. Our first stop was at the presumed site of the Sermon on the Mount where we visited the beautiful small chapel known as the Church of the Beattitudes. We were privileged to touch a rock that has been accepted as the place where Jesus broke the bread and divided the fishes to feed the 5000 who came to hear him speak. The church on the site was originally built during the 1st century AD with a second church built over the original in the 6th century. The current church was built in the 19th century.
A short drive took us to Capernaum and the remains of the home of Saul, later called Peter. Saul was a well to do fisherman who took Jesus into his home when Jesus left Nazareth to begin his life of preaching. The ruins of the old town are now in the care of the Catholic Church. We drove around the Sea of Galilee under the Golan Heights in Syria. Our path took us to the South end of the Sea of Galilee where the River Jordan drains the Sea of Galilee . We stopped at a place on the River Jordan set aside for baptism, supposedly at the site where John the Baptist baptized Jesus. We dipped our hands in the River Jordan and watched as some other visitors baptized themselves. A grand souvenir shop gave our fellow passengers an opportunity to support the local economy by purchasing greatly over priced treasures.
Our tour for the day ended at Nazareth where we visited a church that featured the home where the Virgin Mary lived as a child and a second church next door that displayed the remains of the home of Joseph where Jesus grew up. The density of the crowds and the length of the lines in these places left us with a less than reverential attitude. We did get a few pictures that don’t really do the experience justice. It was pointed out to us that the majority of Arabs living in Nazareth are Christian.
During this tour, our well informed guide gave us the history of Israel and the current political situation from her position as a Jew who had been born in Palestine. Israel was described as a small country only 350 miles long and less than 70 miles wide at its widest part. Historically, the area was a pass through for various warring countries. The River Jordan provided water and forage through an otherwise desolate area. Following WWI, the United Nations created Palestine (now Israel and Jordan), Egypt, Syria and Lebanon , the latter for Arab Christians. The French were given Syria and Lebanon to govern and the English were given Palestine and Egypt. Following WWII, the Brits drew a line at the Jordan River creating Jordan, east of the river, and Palestine west of the river. Egypt was given the privilege of self governance. In 1947 the UN provided for the creation of Israel in the area formerly known as Palestine and the immigration of Jews to their new home began. In the first year, over two million Jews immigrated to Israel. In 1967 neighboring Syria, Jordan and Egypt went to war against Israel. Within two days the Egyptians gave up turning Sinai Peninsula over to Israel. The Syrians gave up within two more days allowing Israel to occupy the Golan Heights . The Jordanians followed suit soon after but not before moving the border of Jordan well to the west of the Jordan River. Later, Jordan returned to its original border leaving their previously acquired territory to the Palestinians. The area now referred to as the “’West Bank”, provides for continuing concerns by the Arab Palestinians and the Israelis. The West Bank is currently divided into three areas; one area controlled completely by Palestinians, a second where the Israel Army comes and goes at will and a third controlled by the Israeli Army.
Our guide never missed an opportunity to let us know that the Arabs (never referred to as Palestinians) where the problem. To her, the question about Jerusalem was simple. After all, she told us, the Bible refers to Jerusalem as the center of Christian faith hundreds of times while the Koran doesn’t mention the city once. As we drove on a road separating Israel from the Palestinian territory our attention was called to all of the trees planted by Israelis and the desolate hillsides maintained by the Arabs. The Israeli tree planting focused on reforesting hills that had been stripped of all vegetation by firewood gatherers and over grazing. We did see numerous groves of olive trees that had been planted and maintained by Palestinians. We were shown schools and hospitals built by Israel for the Arabs, obviously to demonstrate the generosity of the Israelis, and the sub standard housing of the Arabs. It was easy to conclude, from our guide’s remarks, that the world would be better off if the Arabs would simply disappear.
On the following day, our ship docked at Ashdod, Israel, the port closest to Jerusalem. Our tour took us first to Gethsemane, the olive grove where Jesus spent his last night with the disciples. It was here that Jesus was betrayed and led away by his Roman captors. We were told that the word Gethsemane, which has so much religious connotation for us, actually means olive press in Hebrew.
The Mount of Olives provided a marvelous view of the old walled city of Jerusalem. Our bus quickly took us down the hill and to one of several gates into the old city. It took us an extra ten minutes to get through the gate because a Bar Mizha procession proceded us complete with the honoree covered by a canopy led by drum playing singers. We followed as a part of the family procession that followed. Once inside the gate, we found ourselves at the Western Wall, AKA “Wailing Wall”, where the men in our group donned little white skull caps and walked among men praying at the wall while other locals preyed on tourists offering to pray for them for money. The ladies in our group were allowed to visit the “wall” but in a separate and much smaller space. We found several Bar Mitzha groups, on the men’s side, continuing their celebrations. The smile on the faces of the honorees suggested the end of their ordeal must be near.
In the square near the West Wall we saw several groups of teen age looking soldiers; some carrying rifles. Some were male and some where female. We were reminded of being told that every young person in Israel is conscripted into the army at age 18. Army service can be avoided by volunteering in various ways but most go into the army. Boys serve for three years and girls serve for two. After military service, most young people begin their college studies.
Our tour took us through the winding narrow streets of the old city. We walked through the Jewish Section, The Moslem Section, The Christian Section and the Via Dolorosa on our way to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the “Site of the Crucifixion” and the “Site of the Tomb”. Our guide explained that these sites may or not be the actual sites but it is generally agreed that each occurred in the vicinity if not the actual spot. In any event, we were assured that the places we visited were high on the popularity list for tourists because we weren’t lonely. It was one of those “hands on your wallet and purse straps around the neck” situations that guide books talk about.
Our tour of the old city was followed by a brief tour of “New Jerusalem” and its sparkling white business and governmental buildings that reflected the presence of a modern western community. On our way out of the city, our guide, a British born transplant, explained that she could not accompany us while we visited Bethlehem. The rationale for her departure was that the Israeli government was trying to help the Arab community grow in its ability to profit from the tourist trade. For that reason, our guide in Bethlehem would be Arab and our shopping experience for the day would be limited to shopping in Arab shops. Our new guide, George, was probably new at the job because his handling of our group lacked the polish expected in such a situation. He began by walking so fast that only a few in our party could keep up. Cries for help from stragglers, including us, finally slowed our procession through the crowded streets. Once inside the venues we visited, George had us seated in restricted areas so that we had to move after being admonished by the priest in charge. Ultimately, at the end of our tour, members of our group had to force George to pass down the aisle of our bus to pick up tips before he departed. At least he left smiling.
In Bethlehem the “biggees” are located at the Church of the Nativity where we were privileged to visit the presumed site of the manger where Jesus was born. The Church of the Nativity, the latest edition of which was built in 1886, was under the control in various parts by Greek Orthodox, Catholic and Armenian church officials all of which suggested to us that even the most precious things in our lives can be the source of the continuing struggle by man for power over others. Since the current church is built over the site of an earlier church built in the 1st century AD, it is fair to assume that this is probably the actual spot. Whether the actual spot or not, it was a moving moment for both of us. The whole experience gave a renewed conviction and understanding of the hundreds of religious objects and crucifixes we saw later when our guide took us to his uncle’s souvenir shop for our promised shopping.
At this point in our travels we have decided that we need to add plaid walking shorts and black ankle socks, to be worn with black dress shoes, to Bill’s travel wear so that he can blend in with our travel companions. Whatever!
Our love to each and everyone………………..
Gram and Grandpa Bill, Mom and Dad, Dottie and Bill
NOVEMBER 2010
BLOG #2
As the Pacific Princess sailed away from its Athens moorings, it headed into the Aegean Sea toward the island of Patmos. The Greek Parliament declared Patmos a “sacred island” in 1981 because of the island’s connection with Saint John. In the days of the Roman Empire, humble places like Patmos were often used as places to exile political prisoners which usually meant someone who had stepped on the toes of someone important. Saint John’s activities in Ephesus and elsewhere made him an excellent candidate for exile. In the year 95 AD, Saint John was sent to Patmos for 18 months where he lived in a cave from which he composed the dramatic book of Revelation, a prophetic work that speaks about the final times and encourages believers to hold fast under persecution. Visitors to the island today are taken to see the cave and the Monastery of the Apocalypse which marks the spot where John dictated the Book of Revelation to his disciple Prochkoros. We passed on a bus ride to see the cave and various churches in favor of a brief walk in the village of Scala where our ship was anchored. We window shopped the several jewelry stores and returned to the ship after a leisurely stroll.
Our next stop at the busy port of Kusadasi, Turkey began our visit to yet another of the “Seven Wonders of the Modern World”, Ephesus. Ephesus is considered the best preserved Roman city in the world. The Greeks first settled in this part of the world as early as the 10th century BC. The Romans later took over from the Greeks using Ephesus as one of its capital cities. The existing site of Ephesus dates to 600 BC and was once an important sea port. The river flowing into the bay and port silted the harbor in the 3rd century AD creating a large marsh land where the port once flourished. The marshland bred mosquitoes that caused malaria that led to the later abandonment of the city. Ephesus was buried in sand in succeeding centuries and wasn’t discovered until the middle of the 19th century AD. Excavation of the site began in 1869 and continues.
The city that once served approximately 250,000 is now about 80% excavated. The Library of Celsus, the temples of Domitian and Hadrian and the Great Theater (which is still in use) that seats 25,000 and hundreds of other buildings boggle the mind as one tries to imagine what life was all about 3,000 years ago. A sewage system and a public toilet that we visited give the city a touch of modernity that further stretches the imagination. There is good evidence that the Virgin Mary and Saint John lived their final years in Ephesus. We visited a house above the city that has been enshrined as a place where the Virgin Mary lived. Saint John likely wrote the New Testament chapter Ephesians while he was here. Saint John and the Virgin Mary are revered by both Christians and Moslems.
Our next stop at Haifa, Israel provided a jumping off spot for our first visit in the Holylands. Haifa was a fortress city, built by the Crusaders, that nearly vanished following the Crusades. During the 19th century German engineers laid out the port and the city, for their Turkish allies, that have grown steadily as a significant port city. Today, Haifa is Israel’s third largest city.
We took a tour from Haifa that visited the Sea of Galilee, more commonly known and referred to by the locals as Lake Tiberius. We learned quickly that the Sea of Galilee is 200 meters below sea level as our bus went around downward hair pin turns as we headed eastward from the Mediterranean. Our first stop was at the presumed site of the Sermon on the Mount where we visited the beautiful small chapel known as the Church of the Beattitudes. We were privileged to touch a rock that has been accepted as the place where Jesus broke the bread and divided the fishes to feed the 5000 who came to hear him speak. The church on the site was originally built during the 1st century AD with a second church built over the original in the 6th century. The current church was built in the 19th century.
A short drive took us to Capernaum and the remains of the home of Saul, later called Peter. Saul was a well to do fisherman who took Jesus into his home when Jesus left Nazareth to begin his life of preaching. The ruins of the old town are now in the care of the Catholic Church. We drove around the Sea of Galilee under the Golan Heights in Syria. Our path took us to the South end of the Sea of Galilee where the River Jordan drains the Sea of Galilee . We stopped at a place on the River Jordan set aside for baptism, supposedly at the site where John the Baptist baptized Jesus. We dipped our hands in the River Jordan and watched as some other visitors baptized themselves. A grand souvenir shop gave our fellow passengers an opportunity to support the local economy by purchasing greatly over priced treasures.
Our tour for the day ended at Nazareth where we visited a church that featured the home where the Virgin Mary lived as a child and a second church next door that displayed the remains of the home of Joseph where Jesus grew up. The density of the crowds and the length of the lines in these places left us with a less than reverential attitude. We did get a few pictures that don’t really do the experience justice. It was pointed out to us that the majority of Arabs living in Nazareth are Christian.
During this tour, our well informed guide gave us the history of Israel and the current political situation from her position as a Jew who had been born in Palestine. Israel was described as a small country only 350 miles long and less than 70 miles wide at its widest part. Historically, the area was a pass through for various warring countries. The River Jordan provided water and forage through an otherwise desolate area. Following WWI, the United Nations created Palestine (now Israel and Jordan), Egypt, Syria and Lebanon , the latter for Arab Christians. The French were given Syria and Lebanon to govern and the English were given Palestine and Egypt. Following WWII, the Brits drew a line at the Jordan River creating Jordan, east of the river, and Palestine west of the river. Egypt was given the privilege of self governance. In 1947 the UN provided for the creation of Israel in the area formerly known as Palestine and the immigration of Jews to their new home began. In the first year, over two million Jews immigrated to Israel. In 1967 neighboring Syria, Jordan and Egypt went to war against Israel. Within two days the Egyptians gave up turning Sinai Peninsula over to Israel. The Syrians gave up within two more days allowing Israel to occupy the Golan Heights . The Jordanians followed suit soon after but not before moving the border of Jordan well to the west of the Jordan River. Later, Jordan returned to its original border leaving their previously acquired territory to the Palestinians. The area now referred to as the “’West Bank”, provides for continuing concerns by the Arab Palestinians and the Israelis. The West Bank is currently divided into three areas; one area controlled completely by Palestinians, a second where the Israel Army comes and goes at will and a third controlled by the Israeli Army.
Our guide never missed an opportunity to let us know that the Arabs (never referred to as Palestinians) where the problem. To her, the question about Jerusalem was simple. After all, she told us, the Bible refers to Jerusalem as the center of Christian faith hundreds of times while the Koran doesn’t mention the city once. As we drove on a road separating Israel from the Palestinian territory our attention was called to all of the trees planted by Israelis and the desolate hillsides maintained by the Arabs. The Israeli tree planting focused on reforesting hills that had been stripped of all vegetation by firewood gatherers and over grazing. We did see numerous groves of olive trees that had been planted and maintained by Palestinians. We were shown schools and hospitals built by Israel for the Arabs, obviously to demonstrate the generosity of the Israelis, and the sub standard housing of the Arabs. It was easy to conclude, from our guide’s remarks, that the world would be better off if the Arabs would simply disappear.
On the following day, our ship docked at Ashdod, Israel, the port closest to Jerusalem. Our tour took us first to Gethsemane, the olive grove where Jesus spent his last night with the disciples. It was here that Jesus was betrayed and led away by his Roman captors. We were told that the word Gethsemane, which has so much religious connotation for us, actually means olive press in Hebrew.
The Mount of Olives provided a marvelous view of the old walled city of Jerusalem. Our bus quickly took us down the hill and to one of several gates into the old city. It took us an extra ten minutes to get through the gate because a Bar Mizha procession proceded us complete with the honoree covered by a canopy led by drum playing singers. We followed as a part of the family procession that followed. Once inside the gate, we found ourselves at the Western Wall, AKA “Wailing Wall”, where the men in our group donned little white skull caps and walked among men praying at the wall while other locals preyed on tourists offering to pray for them for money. The ladies in our group were allowed to visit the “wall” but in a separate and much smaller space. We found several Bar Mitzha groups, on the men’s side, continuing their celebrations. The smile on the faces of the honorees suggested the end of their ordeal must be near.
In the square near the West Wall we saw several groups of teen age looking soldiers; some carrying rifles. Some were male and some where female. We were reminded of being told that every young person in Israel is conscripted into the army at age 18. Army service can be avoided by volunteering in various ways but most go into the army. Boys serve for three years and girls serve for two. After military service, most young people begin their college studies.
Our tour took us through the winding narrow streets of the old city. We walked through the Jewish Section, The Moslem Section, The Christian Section and the Via Dolorosa on our way to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the “Site of the Crucifixion” and the “Site of the Tomb”. Our guide explained that these sites may or not be the actual sites but it is generally agreed that each occurred in the vicinity if not the actual spot. In any event, we were assured that the places we visited were high on the popularity list for tourists because we weren’t lonely. It was one of those “hands on your wallet and purse straps around the neck” situations that guide books talk about.
Our tour of the old city was followed by a brief tour of “New Jerusalem” and its sparkling white business and governmental buildings that reflected the presence of a modern western community. On our way out of the city, our guide, a British born transplant, explained that she could not accompany us while we visited Bethlehem. The rationale for her departure was that the Israeli government was trying to help the Arab community grow in its ability to profit from the tourist trade. For that reason, our guide in Bethlehem would be Arab and our shopping experience for the day would be limited to shopping in Arab shops. Our new guide, George, was probably new at the job because his handling of our group lacked the polish expected in such a situation. He began by walking so fast that only a few in our party could keep up. Cries for help from stragglers, including us, finally slowed our procession through the crowded streets. Once inside the venues we visited, George had us seated in restricted areas so that we had to move after being admonished by the priest in charge. Ultimately, at the end of our tour, members of our group had to force George to pass down the aisle of our bus to pick up tips before he departed. At least he left smiling.
In Bethlehem the “biggees” are located at the Church of the Nativity where we were privileged to visit the presumed site of the manger where Jesus was born. The Church of the Nativity, the latest edition of which was built in 1886, was under the control in various parts by Greek Orthodox, Catholic and Armenian church officials all of which suggested to us that even the most precious things in our lives can be the source of the continuing struggle by man for power over others. Since the current church is built over the site of an earlier church built in the 1st century AD, it is fair to assume that this is probably the actual spot. Whether the actual spot or not, it was a moving moment for both of us. The whole experience gave a renewed conviction and understanding of the hundreds of religious objects and crucifixes we saw later when our guide took us to his uncle’s souvenir shop for our promised shopping.
At this point in our travels we have decided that we need to add plaid walking shorts and black ankle socks, to be worn with black dress shoes, to Bill’s travel wear so that he can blend in with our travel companions. Whatever!
Our love to each and everyone………………..
Gram and Grandpa Bill, Mom and Dad, Dottie and Bill
Saturday, November 6, 2010
HOLY LANDS #1
Holy Lands Cruise/Tour
October/November 2010
Blog #1
Being away from home for almost three weeks would be a lot more fun if one didn’t have to pack and plan on what to wear. With a week or so of worrying and deciding, we managed to get ourselves together in time and began our trip to the Holy Lands and their neighbors in the Mediterranean.
We have learned from past experience that we don’t want to miss anything on our travels if we can help it. Since our cruise on the Pacific Princess began in Athens, Greece and ended in Venice, Italy, we arranged our flight schedule so that we could spend several days in each of these wonderful places before and after our cruise.
Our flight took us through London’s Heathrow Airport where we had a longer than usual lay-over. Our upgraded status to Business Class allowed us the privilege of “camping out” in the American Airlines Ambassador lounge where drinks and food are always available as well as some wonderful recliner lounges; all of which we took full advantage. We arrived in Athens early in the morning and checked into the Hilton Hotel for a few hours sleep before we began an afternoon tour.
We chose a tour to Cape Sounion (pronounced by the locals as Sonya) that took us along the Aegian Sea coast south of Athens to the southern most point in Europe and the site of the the Temple of Poseiden. Poseiden was the Greek god of the sea and the temple was a place visited by sailors for centuries. The sailors visited the temple before leaving on a voyage to pray for safe passage and again at the end of a voyage to bring offerings of thanks for the safely completed voyage. An interesting story was told about the origin of the temple. Aegus, the King of Greece for whom the surrounding sea was named, had a son who was anxious to “get out of Dodge” and sought permission to sail to Crete where a beastly Minator needed to be slain. King daddy wasn’t to keen on the idea but the Prince finally got his way. The King provided the ship and crew and asked only that his son take two sets of sails; one black and one white. The prince was asked to sail away with the white sails and return with the black sails only if the mission was successful and the son was returning alive. The son sailed away, slew the Minator, and returned forgetting to change to the black sales. When the King spotted the returning ship flying white sails, he became distraught and threw himself off the cliff at Cape Sounion. The forgetful son built the temple to honor the memory of his father and the future safety of sailors. The current site is duly protected by fencing to keep tourists from adding to the ravages of weather over the intervening centuries. There is no record of when the fences were erectected but it was obviously not soon enough. Lord Byron, who loved to visit Greece, managed to carve his name in the temple stone some time in the early 19th century.
An all day cruise to three islands within a few hours of Athens sounded like fun so we signed on. We cruised first to the island of Hydras, about two and half hours from the Port at Athens. The quaint little island boasts no cars and a quiet place where vacationers can find some peace and quiet. There were several jewelry stores and art galleries to indicate that folks actually come to the island to do more than ride donkeys that provided the only means of transportation on the tiny island. Hydra is famous among travelers for it’s wonderful cats who seem to be everywhere. The cats are unique in that they have learned how to read the schedule posted for the arrival and departure of tour boats. A local shop keeper told us that a couple of dozen cats appear out of nowhere about fifteen minute before the arrival of each boat and cluster around the gangway so that visitors can pet them as they pass by. The cats again gather just before the boats leave. We decided it must have something to do with the effort made to bring the donkeys down to the warf just in case someone needs a ride our a load to carry. We wondered around and inspected the jewelry and art like we were prospective buyers before our boat loaded up and headed on to the next island.
The Soronic Gulf was more than just a bit choppy as we were served lunch at a table with four other passengers who spoke nothing but Russian. We tried to strike up a conversation but all we got in response were shoulder shrugs and wagging heads that we interpreted as “niet”. When we left the table after lunch, Bill smiled and offered a “bolshoi spiseba” (a thousand thanks) which gained an interesting reaction from our table mates who now had to wonder if we actually understood what they were talking about during lunch. The choppy sea continued as the staff scurried about distributing little white bags to colorless passengers.
We stopped at the island of Doros for forty-five minutes where our continuing search for cloth patches for Billl’s collection was fruitless. At Regina, the third island, we signed-up for a bus tour that took us to a monastery on top of a hill and through pistachio orchards to a pistachio processing plant. We were shown how the nuts are sorted, cooked and bagged and treated to a taste that left us unimpressed. On the way to and from we learned that the island supports about 17,000 people when all of the vacation homes are occupied. Most interesting is the fact that the island is known historically as the first place in the world where money was used.
On our final day in Athens we opted for a tour of the new (2009) Acropolis Museum, a visit to the Acropolis and a city tour. We were told that the new museum was the product of twenty years work on the part of Greek actress Marie Montouri (sp) who used her fame and the affection Greeks has for her to encourage donations and support for the construction of the Museum. The huge museum houses a great many original relics from the Acropolis and numerous copies, the originals of which are housed in museums outside of Greece. The British Museum in London currently has hundreds of pieces from the Acropolis that the Brits recently announced they would return to Greece. Parts of the museum are built over excavations of what was once Athens thousands of years ago. Where possible, these excavations are covered with glass flooring so that as you walk through the museum there are times when the floor is yet another display of the past.
We learned that the Acropolis is not a building but rather the hilltop site of the remains of several buildings. At one time there were more than a dozen hilltop acropolis’ whose primary function was to be a safe place for citizens to go during an invasion by a war party. The temples were built so that the god in whose honor the temple had been constructed could protect Athenians from harm.
Athens famed Acropolis site contained four buildings the largest of which was the Parthenon, the Temple of Nike (you know, the runner’s god), the Temple of Erestheonus and another whose name we missed. Today only the Parthenon and the Temple of Zeus are standing. The Acropolis site at present is covered with thousands of pieces of marble, in every shape imaginable, waiting to be set upright in their original positions once someone decides where they belong. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of tourists visit the site each year and provide an equal number of Athenians with a means of earning a living. Incidentally, most of those visitor folks were on the hill when we were.
Our tour of Athens took us by the Panathinaiko Stadium, the site of the first Olympics in 1896, Hadrian’s Arch, the Roman Temple of Olympian Zeus, the Herodioan and Dionysos Theaters and a whole bunch of younger stuff that passed by before our guide could tell us what she knew about each.
Our bus ride ended at the pier next to the Pacific Princess where we would spend the next couple of weeks without having to pack and unpack each day, our meals would be served without our needing to decide what to fix, the bed would be made each day and, best of all, we won’t have to clean up the dishes after a
Life is great and getting better by the day.
Our love to all,
Gram and Grandpa Bill, Mom and Dad, Dottie and Bill
October/November 2010
Blog #1
Being away from home for almost three weeks would be a lot more fun if one didn’t have to pack and plan on what to wear. With a week or so of worrying and deciding, we managed to get ourselves together in time and began our trip to the Holy Lands and their neighbors in the Mediterranean.
We have learned from past experience that we don’t want to miss anything on our travels if we can help it. Since our cruise on the Pacific Princess began in Athens, Greece and ended in Venice, Italy, we arranged our flight schedule so that we could spend several days in each of these wonderful places before and after our cruise.
Our flight took us through London’s Heathrow Airport where we had a longer than usual lay-over. Our upgraded status to Business Class allowed us the privilege of “camping out” in the American Airlines Ambassador lounge where drinks and food are always available as well as some wonderful recliner lounges; all of which we took full advantage. We arrived in Athens early in the morning and checked into the Hilton Hotel for a few hours sleep before we began an afternoon tour.
We chose a tour to Cape Sounion (pronounced by the locals as Sonya) that took us along the Aegian Sea coast south of Athens to the southern most point in Europe and the site of the the Temple of Poseiden. Poseiden was the Greek god of the sea and the temple was a place visited by sailors for centuries. The sailors visited the temple before leaving on a voyage to pray for safe passage and again at the end of a voyage to bring offerings of thanks for the safely completed voyage. An interesting story was told about the origin of the temple. Aegus, the King of Greece for whom the surrounding sea was named, had a son who was anxious to “get out of Dodge” and sought permission to sail to Crete where a beastly Minator needed to be slain. King daddy wasn’t to keen on the idea but the Prince finally got his way. The King provided the ship and crew and asked only that his son take two sets of sails; one black and one white. The prince was asked to sail away with the white sails and return with the black sails only if the mission was successful and the son was returning alive. The son sailed away, slew the Minator, and returned forgetting to change to the black sales. When the King spotted the returning ship flying white sails, he became distraught and threw himself off the cliff at Cape Sounion. The forgetful son built the temple to honor the memory of his father and the future safety of sailors. The current site is duly protected by fencing to keep tourists from adding to the ravages of weather over the intervening centuries. There is no record of when the fences were erectected but it was obviously not soon enough. Lord Byron, who loved to visit Greece, managed to carve his name in the temple stone some time in the early 19th century.
An all day cruise to three islands within a few hours of Athens sounded like fun so we signed on. We cruised first to the island of Hydras, about two and half hours from the Port at Athens. The quaint little island boasts no cars and a quiet place where vacationers can find some peace and quiet. There were several jewelry stores and art galleries to indicate that folks actually come to the island to do more than ride donkeys that provided the only means of transportation on the tiny island. Hydra is famous among travelers for it’s wonderful cats who seem to be everywhere. The cats are unique in that they have learned how to read the schedule posted for the arrival and departure of tour boats. A local shop keeper told us that a couple of dozen cats appear out of nowhere about fifteen minute before the arrival of each boat and cluster around the gangway so that visitors can pet them as they pass by. The cats again gather just before the boats leave. We decided it must have something to do with the effort made to bring the donkeys down to the warf just in case someone needs a ride our a load to carry. We wondered around and inspected the jewelry and art like we were prospective buyers before our boat loaded up and headed on to the next island.
The Soronic Gulf was more than just a bit choppy as we were served lunch at a table with four other passengers who spoke nothing but Russian. We tried to strike up a conversation but all we got in response were shoulder shrugs and wagging heads that we interpreted as “niet”. When we left the table after lunch, Bill smiled and offered a “bolshoi spiseba” (a thousand thanks) which gained an interesting reaction from our table mates who now had to wonder if we actually understood what they were talking about during lunch. The choppy sea continued as the staff scurried about distributing little white bags to colorless passengers.
We stopped at the island of Doros for forty-five minutes where our continuing search for cloth patches for Billl’s collection was fruitless. At Regina, the third island, we signed-up for a bus tour that took us to a monastery on top of a hill and through pistachio orchards to a pistachio processing plant. We were shown how the nuts are sorted, cooked and bagged and treated to a taste that left us unimpressed. On the way to and from we learned that the island supports about 17,000 people when all of the vacation homes are occupied. Most interesting is the fact that the island is known historically as the first place in the world where money was used.
On our final day in Athens we opted for a tour of the new (2009) Acropolis Museum, a visit to the Acropolis and a city tour. We were told that the new museum was the product of twenty years work on the part of Greek actress Marie Montouri (sp) who used her fame and the affection Greeks has for her to encourage donations and support for the construction of the Museum. The huge museum houses a great many original relics from the Acropolis and numerous copies, the originals of which are housed in museums outside of Greece. The British Museum in London currently has hundreds of pieces from the Acropolis that the Brits recently announced they would return to Greece. Parts of the museum are built over excavations of what was once Athens thousands of years ago. Where possible, these excavations are covered with glass flooring so that as you walk through the museum there are times when the floor is yet another display of the past.
We learned that the Acropolis is not a building but rather the hilltop site of the remains of several buildings. At one time there were more than a dozen hilltop acropolis’ whose primary function was to be a safe place for citizens to go during an invasion by a war party. The temples were built so that the god in whose honor the temple had been constructed could protect Athenians from harm.
Athens famed Acropolis site contained four buildings the largest of which was the Parthenon, the Temple of Nike (you know, the runner’s god), the Temple of Erestheonus and another whose name we missed. Today only the Parthenon and the Temple of Zeus are standing. The Acropolis site at present is covered with thousands of pieces of marble, in every shape imaginable, waiting to be set upright in their original positions once someone decides where they belong. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of tourists visit the site each year and provide an equal number of Athenians with a means of earning a living. Incidentally, most of those visitor folks were on the hill when we were.
Our tour of Athens took us by the Panathinaiko Stadium, the site of the first Olympics in 1896, Hadrian’s Arch, the Roman Temple of Olympian Zeus, the Herodioan and Dionysos Theaters and a whole bunch of younger stuff that passed by before our guide could tell us what she knew about each.
Our bus ride ended at the pier next to the Pacific Princess where we would spend the next couple of weeks without having to pack and unpack each day, our meals would be served without our needing to decide what to fix, the bed would be made each day and, best of all, we won’t have to clean up the dishes after a
Life is great and getting better by the day.
Our love to all,
Gram and Grandpa Bill, Mom and Dad, Dottie and Bill
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
AMAZON ADVENTURE BLOG #3
AMAZON ADVENTDURE BLOG #3
Our 28 day cruise to the Amazon was a planned circuit that took us from Fort Lauderdale to Manaus, Brazil and return. As a result, all but one of our stops on the return trip was a repeat visit. During our first two weeks we made mental notes of the things we wanted to do and see on our return visits. Our most favorite “return” was to Boca Da Valeria where we promised ourselves that we would take advantage of an hour long boat ride up the Rio Valeria in a fisherman’s boat. The boat ride was everything we had hoped for. The fisherman’s boat was one of several dozen that were beached near the village of Boca Da Valeria. The boats were brought in from surrounding villages to take advantage of adventuresome cruise ship passengers willing to pay $5.00 each for the privilege of riding in a skinny sixteen foot flat bottomed boat powered by a small outboard motor. We had seen literally hundreds of similar boats fishing on the Amazon and its tributaries during the previous week. The outboard motor was totally different from the outboard we have known and seen before. The engine looked like the kind of engine made for a lawnmower; probably three to four horsepower. A round pole two and half inches in diameter and about five feet long was attached to the motor which was mounted on a swivel hinge allowing the driver to lower the propeller on the end of the pole into the water and move it back and forth to steer the boat while adjusting the depth of the propeller. Since many of the rivers are shallow in places, the unique design allowed the boat to operate in just a few inches of water.
Our boat ride carried us up stream several miles where we saw dozens of well maintained houses on stilts each with its own vegetable garden nearby. Many of the houses had a few flowers planted near the entrance to the house but none had curtains or window coverings. None of the houses were painted but all were similar in the noticeable fact that no trash was to be seen anywhere. We passed several buildings, on stilts, that were obviously restaurants and/or bars but none had any signs describing their purpose. We passed a boat yard where it was obvious that the large boats under repair were brought to the scene during the flood stage of the river and repaired when the flood had subsided leaving the boats high and dry. Once the boats were repaired they waited for the next flood season to float them again. We passed one small village that was home to a small school that taught the compulsory grades one through eight to children in surrounding villages.
Our little boat was one of the few that we saw that was dry. Most had some water in the bottom of the boat while others had operators that spent a lot of time bailing to keep afloat. Ours was the only boat that offered us life preservers to wear which made us feel especially safe.
The boat we rode in is a significant part of life for “Riberenos”; the people who live on the river. The men in each family are fishermen and all fishing is done from a boat like ours. The staple of their diet is fish and manioc. For the major part of the year, this is the only thing that is eaten. Some wild fruit is gathered and eaten. Fish is dried to be eaten during the peak of the flood stage when fishing is difficult and dangerous. Some chickens are raised to be eaten during this period as well. We experienced some of the “danger” known during flood stage as our small boat constantly dodged floating material in the river; plant material, tree limbs and small islands of dirt and grass being washed downstream. We could imagine the challenge when the river is in full flood and moving much more rapidly.
Our return visit to Santorem gave us some time to walk through downtown shops and mingle with the local residents as they shopped. The downtown area was upscale by river standards with a wide variety of stores on the ground floor of multiple storied buildings. Stores had glass display windows with goods on display like old fashion main street stores in middle America. The major difference we noted was the groups of young men standing around passing time with their friends. Because at one time hundreds of thousands of slaves were brought to the Amazon by the English, nearly all of the people we saw were of African heritage. Once we had our fill of shopping and soaking up local atmosphere, we made our way to a cab stand for a ride back to our ship. We let it be known that we needed a cab and a smallish crippled man made his way out of the shade and motioned us to the most decrepit automobile we had ever seen. At first glance we became aware that every door was of a different color and all four fenders were left over from a destruction derby. Dottie was ushered into a back seat while Bill went around to the other side to join her. When he couldn’t open the door, the would be driver painfully pulled himself out from behind the steering wheel and came around to help. When he could do no better, Bill decided to slide in from Dottie’s side. When he opened that door, it seemed that it was about to fall off. A wise decision was made to select another cab and a move was made. Our new cab rattled, coughed and stuttered but we felt much safer as we made our way back to the ship.
Upon our return to “Devil’s Island”, actually Isle Royale, we made are way directly to where we knew we would find the monkeys. On our last visit we saw a few but we knew we could do better and we did. On our previous visit we forgot to take along the packages of crackers we had gathered at the buffet so we could feed the monkeys. This time we had our crackers and we found the monkeys; dozens of them. We duly fed our crackers to the cute little critters much to the envy of our shipmates who forgot to bring along the ship’s crackers they had gathered. We took dozens of pictures and left the area to return to the ship with smiles of fulfillment on our faces and joy in our hearts.
When we stopped again at St. Lucia, we spent our morning exploring the little town of Castres, the tiny nation’s capital. We found the local cathedral to be especially unique. The shape and size of the building, although small, matched that of other churches we have seen. What made it unique was the use of a variety of local wood in the walls and ceiling, much of which was simply stained allowing the texture of the wood to be prominent. A large manger scene attracted our attention because the usual figures of Joseph , Mary, wisemen and shepherds were accompanied by an oversize black baby Jesus and two additional figures from the middle ages; one a flutist and the other a bagpipe player. We continued our stroll past the town square that had been renamed to honor the first of the island’s two Nobel Prize recipients.
Our stop at Nevis (pronounced nee-vas) allowed us the privilege of visiting the smallest nation in the Americas. St. Kitts and Nevis, a formal English Colony, once was a valued sugar producing place that lost its value when the sugar market dried up in the 18th Century. We opted for a stroll around the little town and a visit to the birthplace of Alexander Hamilton, once the Secretary of the Treasury for our country. Hamilton grew up on St. Lucia when sugar was king and slaves did all of the work. The museum now located in Hamilton’ birthplace and home described the population of St. Lucia in the 18th Century as about 8500 slaves and 1200 Englishmen. Today the population is more like 8000 with descendants of slaves making up the large majority of the population. Today the two island nation caters to a growing resort trade and farming. The beautiful sandy beaches provide for a quiet get away for those who want peace and quiet with few crowds and fewer jewelry stores. We decided it was nice but not a place where we wanted to spend much time after we “grow up”.
Our good byes at the end of our 28 day cruise were difficult. For the first time in our travels we bonded with some wonderful people that we will not forget. Additionally, we found to our liking the meeting of new friends with whom we could share breakfast or lunch or cocktails. By the end of our adventure we found it pleasant to walk through the ship saying hello to literally dozens of people we now counted as friends. We liked that and look forward to another cruise in our future when we can share the joy in our lives with others.
Love to each and every one,
Gram and Grandpa Bill, Mom and Dad, Dottie and Bill
Monday, January 18, 2010
Amazon Adventure #2
AMAZON AD ENTURE BLOG #2
Anyone who remembers the marvelous film “Papillon” with Steve McQueen and Dustn Hoffman will remember the scene of Devil’s Island where the two were sent to serve their sentences handed down by the courts in France. We watched the movie again on shipboard before our tour of the island and the remnants of the once famous prison.
Navigation charts refer to the location as the Salvation Islands because the three island group was first populated by French settlers trying to escape the disease plagued jungles of French Guiana where they were trying to farm. The main island, Ile Royale, became the odious Devil’s Island where the French sent thousands of prisoners, few of whom ever returned to France. Sentences usually called for a number of years in prison with an equal number of years of work in the farms of French Guiana. Today we could visit the prison buildings and cells that housed the prisoners in a style that made Alcatraz seem like the Hilton. No one escaped except Papillon who later wrote a book about his experience. The book caused the French to ultimately close Devil’s Island in the 1950’s after 100 years of being feared by all who chose to “skirt” the law.
Today the island is a favorite stop for cruise ships that pass by. A small hotel is at the ready to put up visitors and the old guard’s family houses are now occupied by caretakers. One can hike around the island, walk through the decaying cells, watch the island’s playful monkeys and watch the weird little agoutis (pronounced a kwa tee) that bustle around the underbrush. If one chose to search through the small graveyard for the names of famous prisoners the effort would be for naught. The graves mark the burial of guards and such. Prisoners were summarily buried at sea giving rise to a large shark population the still exists today. Sharks live a long time and have good memories.
Another two days at sea and we finally reached the focus of our trip, Brazil. Our first stop in Brazil was at Santarem which lies 500 miles upriver from the Atlantic Ocean. Santarem is where the clear blue waters of the Rio Tapajos meet the muddy Amazon. The city has been a major river port since the glory days of the 19th century rubber boom. In the 1920s, Henry Ford carved the immense rubber plantations of Fordlandia and Belterra out of nearby jungles. These ventures ultimately failed. Sanatarem’s prosperity survived the boom’s eventual bust because it lies in an area rich in natural resources, including timber and major deposits of bauxite and gold. It remains the third largest city on the Brazilian Amazon with a population over 265,000. Santarem possesses American roots; more than 100 confederate soldiers and their families settled there after the Civil War and prospered.
In 1958 gold was discovered near Itaituba, a small town 60 miles upriver from Santarem. Suddenly Santarem became the supply post for thousands of gold seekers who flooded into the area by plane and riverboat. In 1969 the area was connected by highway to Brazil’s highway network increasing even more the importance of the city. The two million inhabitants of the Amazon Basin; river dwellers, rubber tappers, Indians, prospectors, nut gatherers and herb collectors eventually find their way to Santarem making it a colorful river city.
We chose a River Cruise for our shore excursion at Santarem. The first thing that caught our attention were the hundreds if not thousands of boats everywhere. Our guide explained quickly that the Amazon is the “highway” in this part of Brazil. The “Busses” that were most common were broad single and double storied boats that featured large open areas rather than seating that one might expect. The open areas were fitted with hooks all over their ceilings so that passengers can hang their hammocks for their trip. Some of the boats that seemed ready to leave were loaded with hammocks hanging everywhere. The openness allowed some air to circulate through the crowded deck. Given the every present muggy heat, the open nature of the boats is an obvious necessity. We were told that a two day trip “up river” cost $7.00 US. Of course. You had to bring your own hammock and whatever you needed to eat and drink.
Our guide described the Amazon as a place of two seasons; the rainy season and the dry season. The heat is over present. Our visit was at the beginning of the rainy season during which time the river rises twelve to eighteen feet. Since the river has done this for ever, everyone works around the inconvenience. We were told that the river had risen a couple of feet in the past week. Around the city everything was obviously built well above flood stage. Away from the city we saw most buildings built on stilts.
Our tour took us to the confluence of the Rio Tapajos and the Amazon. The differing temperature of the two rivers and the muddiness of the Amazon create an interesting picture as the two rivers run side by side before becoming as one in color. At the confluence we had an opportunity to see the fresh water dolphins of the Amazon as they did their dolphin thing. We continued westward and into the area surrounding Maica Lake. Here we saw the local farmers still using the land for grazing of their brahma cattle and water buffalo. In a few weeks, the farmers will begin transporting their live stock to higher ground as the river rises and eventually covers their land with several feet of water. We saw a number of men in small dugouts and boats fishing. Some houses had large screen “fish boxes” that they used to store their excess catch of fish until they needed them for dinner. Refrigerators are an unknown experience in this area. Along the way we spotted several iguana perched in trees along with an interesting variety of strange birds. We didn’t see any of the famous anaconda snakes that are found in the region. Our guide told us that the anaconda snakes, which prefer to live in the water, are very common and feed on all kinds of live animals including humans. Alligators are also prevalent in the area and are considered dangerous to humans and animals.
At the end of our tour we stopped for almost an hour so that passengers could fish for the Piranha that fill the local waters. Although we were told of an incident when a man was eaten by Piranha, such occurrences are rare. As a matter of fact, in several places we saw children swimming in the river where we later fished for Piranha. Although we fished in earnest for the little critters, we didn’t catch one. Bill had one on the line but it shook itself loose before he could bring it on board. Our fellow passengers caught a half dozen which were immediately cooked so that we could each say that we have eaten Piranha. We did and Piranha is quite tasty.
We stopped at a tiny Amazon village named Boca Da Valeria located at the mouth of the Valeria River. While our itinerary included places like Santarem, Parintins and Manaus, Boca Da Valeria was included as a stop to show us the kind of place where many residents of the Amazon Basin live. Boca Da Valeria is a village that is home to about 75 permanent residents. The small wooden houses surrounded a small church, a school, a bar and a restaurant. We were taken ashore by tender and allowed to roam at will through the town as dozens of small children followed grasping our hands and asking to be our guides. Residents posed for pictures in native ceremonial costumes while others held exotic jungle animals up for pictures. We saw baby alligators with their mouths tied shut with string, macaws, sloths, monkeys, parrots, small anaconda snakes, turtles, piranha and a host of other exotic flora and fauna on exhibition for photographs. We dutifully paid those whose pictures we took a dollar and enjoyed every minute of our visit
We noticed an obvious absence of people over 40 years of age. One of our shipboard friends told about seeing a man scoop up a hand full of river water to drink. Given the muddy water he was drinking, we quessed that life in the Amazon is destined to be short. The Amazon natives we met were quite handsome, the children beautiful and the teen age girls very pretty, especially when dressed in their ceremonial costumes. When we return to Boca Da Valeria, on our northward return trip, we promised ourselves that we would take an hour long boat ride that was offered. The ride will be in a sixteen foot boat that the locals use for their fishing in the Amazon. Our ride will be up stream on the River Valeria to see how people live on its banks.
Sailing westward, our next stop was at Parintins, about half way between Santarem and Manaus. Parintins is a city of 100,000 located on one of the islands at the mouth of the Valeria River. The city can only be reached by plane or boat but is a thriving commercial center with hundreds of small shops selling anything that can be bought in a Sears catalog. We took a one hour “pedi-cab” tour of the city that took us through the commercial center, by several schools and government buildings, in front of an impressive cathedral, past the soccer stadium and to a stop at a special venue for folklorical shows for cruise ships. We were able to watch the dancers and musicians set up for a show planned for some of our passengers from the Royal Princess but we didn’t stay for the show. On our ride we passed literally dozens, if not hundreds, of pedi-cabs carrying everything; passengers, freight, building supplies and groceries. There were hundreds of motorcycles buzzing up and down the streets but very few cars, trucks or busses.
Parintins is the site of one of Brazil’s great folk celebrations – the Boi Bumba. A colorful fusion of Portuguese and Amazonian folkways, the Boi Bumba has become the second most popular Brazilian festival after Carnival in Rio. The annual Boi Bumba Festival features two competing teams – theRed and the Blue. Each year in this “Bull Festival”, the two strive to outperform each other with colorful costumes, dance routines, and allegorical floats decorated with Amazonian flowers, tree barks and feathers. During the annual festival, the population of the city triples for the week long celebration.
Our next stop and most westward city on our tour, Manaus, is the largest city on the Amazon and the capital of the State of Amazonia. The State of Amazonia is huge; 600,000 square miles and larger by far than most European countries. While the population of Brazil is about 170,000,000, the population of Amazonia is slightly more than 2,000,000 with the large majority of the people in the state living in Manaus.
Manaus was founded in 1660 by the Portuguese who established a fort to monitor the movement of other foreign powers on the river. The town was a small backwater spot on the river until 1890 when the value of rubber was recognized. Overnight the town became fabulously rich as “Rubber Barons” made huge fortunes in trade. The rubber boom burst however just before World War I after an Englishman, Henry Wickham, managed to smuggle 70,000 seeds of rubber trees, each about the size of a walnut. The seeds ended up in Southeast Asia. In Manaus’s peak year, 1910, 38,000 tons of rubber was shipped. The same year 8,000 tons was exported from Asia. By 1915 the world’s rubber market was glutted and Manaus became a deserted city overnight.
The “Rubber Period” of Manaus was marked by severe practices by plantation operators. Many workers were imported from various parts of the world only to be treated pretty much as slaves. Workers were punished by the loss of an ear if they didn’t meet their imposed quotas. A second failure caused the loss of a second ear and a third called for death. When foreign workers refused to come to the rubber plantations, Amazon Indians were forced to work under even harsher conditions.
Sometime in the early 1800s, an Englishman is credited with noting that this new substance from the jungles called latex was effective in removing lead pencil marks, thus the name of “rubber” was created.
We hired a local tour guide to show us the sights of Manaus. We were impressed with his near perfect English, his state “guide” credentials and his agreement to our negotiate price. We had a list of specific things we wanted to see and he added more that he knew we couldn’t leave Manaus without experiencing. He was particularly eager to take us though the market areas where the locals did their shopping. The markets were unbelievably crowded with people, cars, trucks, hand trucks, motorcycles and motor scooters. He also took us “up town” where things were less crowded and the shops more genteel. We quickly concluded that Manaus was a city of haves and have nots like most large cities around the world. Our tour through the poorer neighborhoods left us with the feeling that there were a lot more “have nots” than anythingelse. Poor people tended to live in the lowest parts of the city with houses built on stilts to stay dry during the annual rise of the Amazon River. The river rises four to five meters every year during the rainy season (summer) and then drops back down again during the dry season (winter).
We also saw thousands of new looking houses that government has built to house the poor. We were told that in the late 50s the government of Brazil decided to revitalize Manaus. Hundreds of manufacturers were encouraged to locate at Manaus with tax incentives. People living in the Amazon jungles were invited to come to Manaus to work in the new factories. More people came than needed by the manufacturers leading to the development of huge areas of poverty level housing. The government felt responsible for the living conditions and ultimately provided some housing for those most in need.
Manaus is proud of its Teatro Amazonas, one of Brazil’s most famous attractions. The Teatro is an opera house that was built during the Rubber Boom and is an elegant example of European architecture of that period. The building was begun in 1879 and completed in 1896. It was rebuilt in 1929 after several decades of neglect and restored in 1989. One of the many stories involving the opera house involved a European group, including Enrico Caruso, who arrived during a cholera epidemic and refuse to leave their ship. They returned to Europe without singing a note. During our tour of the opera house the Amazon Philharmonic Orchestra was in rehearsal. We listened for a while before continuing our tour of the building. During our tour at the Opera House, three of our table mates at dinner walked in. They had walked across town from the ship in search of the opera house. We invited them to join us in the little car our guide provided. It was crowded but fun.
Another major stop on our tour was at the Amazon Peoples Cultural Center where we were treated to a display featuring the life style of the people who live in the jungles of the Amazon. Clothes, cooking utensils, dress and customs were on displayed and wonderfully described to us by a young docent with remarkable English skills. The two hour tour that we had negotiated ended up as a four hour plus tour of an interesting town.
During our second day in Manaus we opted for a river exploration west of Manaus. Our boat was built as a river “bus” complete with hooks in the ceiling for our hammocks. Lacking hammocks, we used plastic chairs just like the ones we have in our backyard. It rained like crazy during the first hour of our trip but we were dry inside and rather enjoyed seeing what real rain is like on the Amazon. Manaus is located near where the Rio Negro is joined by the Rio Solimoes; the place that purist insist the Amazon really begins as a river unto itself. The Rio Negro, as its name implies is black while Rio Solimoes is very muddy. It takes several miles before the dark clear water of Rio Negro becomes the muddy color that is associated with the Amazon. At the place where the two rivers meet, fresh water dolphins, famous in the Amazon, were seen gathering their dinner and fooling around. We saw a few but still didn’t get a good look at a Pink d that dolphin everyone else seemed to see.
Half way through our tour we changed from our “bus” to a smaller boat that was more than full when ten people were seated. The smaller craft took us further up stream past dozens of homes at the river’s edge. Many of the homes were on stilts high up in the air to avoid the river at flood stage. The remainder were houseboats built on a series of logs taken from the rain forest. Most of the house boats seemed liveable if not quite small. A few of the houseboats where people lived appeared to be on their last legs; tilted at crazy angles as the water soaked support logs rotted away.
The river people live pretty much on the fish they catch and manioc. They sell some of the fish they catch to provide for gas for their outboard motors and an occasional beer at one of river side floating bars. The river people live very simply and have lots of kids. The life is easy but hard on the health. We were told that someone was considered quite old at forty. Fishing becomes very difficult and dangerous during the flood season. Fish are hard to catch and floating trees and such make the river dangerous for the small boats used by the fishermen. During this time of the year we were told that people eat chicken instead of fish but we didn’t see any chickens running around the rain forest.
We were a little amused but more than interested in the number of “floating” gas stations we passed on the rivers we traveled. With the thousands of boats we passed there had to be somewhere for each to buy gasoline. We must have seen at least 50 near Manaus and there were probably more that we didn’t see. As we passed each station we saw boats of all sizes tied up for fuel. Little fishing boats vied for tie up space with water busses seven to eight times their length. Most stations seemed to have restrooms but we didn’t stop to check to see if they were well supplied with paper towels.
Tomorrow we begin our return trip back to Fort Lauderdale with an opportunity to see some of the things that we may have missed the first time through. About half of the passengers left the ship in Manaus and an equal number came aboard. We’ll have lots new folks to meet and we’ll miss the friends from the past two weeks that have gone home. We have their addresses and email addresses and promised to stay in touch.
Love to all,
Dottie and Bill, Gram and Grampa Bill, Mom and Dad
Monday, January 11, 2010
AMAZON ADVENTURE BLOG #1
AMAZON ADVENTURE – BLOG #1
6 January 2010
We celebrated our New Year’s Day with a leisurely flight from San Francisco to Fort Lauderdale via Dallas/Fort Worth. Each of our two connecting flights started with a Bloody Mary furnished by our smiling steward and stewardess on each flight thanks to our first class tickets courtesy of the frequent flyer miles we cashed in. After a relaxing night at a local Ramada Inn, we boarded the Royal Princess at noon on Sunday where we met our traveling companions Marty and Paul Zarcone.
Our first night at sea introduced us to the difference between our 30,000 ton Royal Princess and the 100,000 plus tons that were under us during our last several cruises. The Atlantic was unusually bouncy as we headed south. Dottie’s wonderful “seasick watch” kept her comfortable but Bill’s macho approach to the sea disregarded the affect of the moment as he succumbed to the first such discomfort he had experienced in twenty years. Once we were resigned to our `circumstances, we found that the rock and rolling made for the first deep and lasting night’s sleep we had known in months.
Our ship spent its first two days of our cruise “at sea” making time for bridge activities for Bill, sun bathing for Dottie and our first “formal night” of our cruise vacation.
Our ship’s first port of call, after two full days at sea, found us at the little Lesser Antilles island group called St. Barthelemy, named by Christopher Columbus in 1493 after his brother. Frenchmen from neighboring St. Kitts were the first to settle St. Barths; they arrived in 1648. However, until St. Barths became a part of the French owned royal colony of Guadeloupe in 1878, possession of the island was an ungoing issue as, at various times, England France and Sweden claimed ownership.
Our ship’s tenders put us ashore at Gustavia, the capital of St. Barths. We went ashore and wandered through the little town soaking up the atmosphere and peering into the windows of shops bearing the names of some of the most expensive clothing and jewelry lines in the world. St. Barths never attracted much attention as a place for farming and such but it came alive big time when a few of the world’s rich and famous decided to park their yachts in the great harbor after World War II. Today the harbor is home to literally dozens of Tiger Woods sized yachts with hundreds of smaller wannabes parked nearby. The expensive shops are obviously handy to provide shopping diversions for the well heeled owners and their friends to fill their hours between sunbathing and cocktails. We found a waterfront sidewalk café where we enjoyed a glass of wine as we ogled the beautiful people strolling by.
Our next Island stop was St. Lucia; a small island nation that gained its independence in 1979. Discovered in 1502 by Christopher Columbus, the island lived through an interesting history during which France and England vied for ownership. The two countries each ruled the island seven different times before England became the final governor. The island now is a democratic nation with elections every five years to determine who shall rule. The two parties seem equally represented in the government. The population of 160,000 is predominantly catholic. English is the language of the country but the largely black population speaks a unique “creole” that mixes French, English and a form of African that was brought to the islands by early slaves. As we drove through the countryside on tour, it seemed to us that mostly poor black people lived outside of the major towns. The houses we saw were very small wood structures crowded together on narrow streets.
Our tour took us to a marvelous hilltop home called the “St. Marks House”. The home was built in the 1940’s by the Bearubrum family; the wealthiest folks on the island. The family gained its wealth in sugar canes and later shipping. The widow Bearubrum was known to travel broadly and the home was decorated with souvenirs of her travels. The view of the bay and the town of Castries from the home’s balcony was breathtaking.
Our tour took us around the small island to a working banana plantation and an abandoned sugar mill. Our guide explained to us that the drop in prices for sugar in 1960 caused the farmers to stop growing sugar cane and start growing bananas and coconuts. Today the few fields of sugar cane are only gown to provide sugar for the rum brewers.
Our visit to the banana plantation introduced us to the fact that banana trees only produce one bunch of bananas in a life time. Once the bananas are harvested, the tree is cut down and mulched for fertilizer and a new tree is planted in its place. The new tree will produce a stalk of bananas in one year. The planting and harvesting is a never ending year round operation.
About forty years ago an earthquake caused a great deal of damage on the island. Most of the island’s schools were destroyed. A Banana Planter who had received special tax advantages from the government to plant bananas volunteered to rebuild the schools that needed rebuilding. Since the planter liked the colors green and white, he had all of the new schools painted green and white. All of the schools that were rebuilt at the time continue to be painted green and white to show continuing thanks for the unusual gift.
St. Lucia is proud of its two Nobel Prize winners. The town square in the capital city of Castries, formerly named Christopher Columbus Square, was renamed in 1992 the Derek Walcott Square to honor the island’s first Nobel Prize for Literature recipient.
While all is serene and beautiful on St. Lucia, it was interesting to note that the price of gasoline is more than $12.00 a gallon. We didn’t see a lot of cars.
And then came Trinidad & Tobago with lots of cars and gasoline selling for $1.00 US per gallon. Trinidad is less than 4 miles from Venezuela and shares the latter’s oil rich character. In fact, there are those who theorize the island of Trinidad once physically broke away from what is now Venezuela. Because of the oil resource, Trinidad/Tobago hasn’t been affected by the world wide recession. We were told that if someone wants to work in the country there will be a job.
We stopped at Port of Spain, the capital of the country of Trinidad and Tobago, and quickly found a taxi driver who was pleased to serve as our tour guide for several hours. He narrated our tour in perfect English and seemed to know everything there was to know about the places we visited. We felt very lucky to have found such a resource.
We learned that the country gained its independence from England in 1992 and has prospered ever since. The country of almost two million has numerous resources including oil, rich farmland and a number of minerals that are mined for export. About 800,000 of the country’s inhabitants live and work in the capital city of Port of Spain. More than 1.3 million people live on the island of Trinidad and 500,000 live on Tabago. Tobago’s primary products are agriculture and fishing.
Our tour through Port of Spain took us to the National Botanical Gardens, through the world’s largest “round-about”, past the Queen’s Savannah, a grassy park area of more than a square mile, past the various government buildings and a visual tour of the “Magnificent Seven”, a group of century old formerly British land owner mansions that border the Queen’s Savannah. Port of Spain has many parks and open green areas that make it a very pretty city. The Queen’s Savannah was once covered by Sugar Cane fields but is now set aside as a permanent open space.
Our driver described his city as a fun city with people who enjoy a party. We were told about parties that are occurring nightly at his time of the year in anticipation of Mardi Gras which is still a number of weeks away.
Trinidad is the birthplace of Calypso music and steel pan rhythms. A highlight of our tour was a stop at a spot that provided a panoramic view of Port of Spain and a calypso musician who quickly developed and sang a special song for us. We were disappointed that we didn’t have a recorder to save the music to share later.
Trinidad & Tobago are proud of their mixed heritage. Slaves were once imported from Africa and descendants still make up a large part of the population. Our driver was a fourth generation Indian whose family came to Trinidad as farm workers when slavery was abolished. The workers were encouraged by gifts of land to remain after their contracts were fulfilled. Our driver professed to be Christian although most of his family continues to by Moslem. The nation works hard to insure equality for all with a positive effort to minimize differences among its people.
Crime is minimal in Trinidad with most crime associated with drug trafficking from Venezuela. The proximity of the two countries makes travel between the two very easy. Trinidad residents often take the ferry to Venezuela to do their major shopping because of lower prices and greater variety of products.
We’re enjoying ourselves and are supremely well. We’ve met a number of new friends that have made our trip very special.
Love to all,
Gram and Grampa Bill, Dottie and Bill
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