April 19, 2008

We arrived in Cobh, Ireland this AM. We had very rough seas all the way from Lisbon and it has been cloudy and rainy. We have a tour this afternoon to Kensale, this is the town where off their coast the Lusitainia was sunk by a U-Boat. We are hoping it will warm up a little and the wind go down. We really didn’t expect winter, but it feels that way. We have one more sea day before going to Paris, our port is Le Havre and it is about 3 hours into Paris. That is our last day on ship before boarding the QM2 and heading back to the states. We have had a wonderful cruise and been to many places we had never dreamed of going. Think maybe Angkor Wat was our icing on the cake. It was really spectacular, a truly amazing place to visit.

The rumor around the ship is that the new Queen Victoria is next to us in Southampton along with the QE2

which is being retired. Dubai has bought it for a hotel. But the Queen Victoria is to be christened by Queen Elizabeth. So I imagine security will really be tight and mobs of people. Just as long as we can get off this ship and get on the QM2, I will be satisfied. When we don’t get current news around the ship there is always a lot of scuttle but and some is true and some is someone’s imagination.

This is probably my last message to all of you. We hope you have had a good winter and that you are all well and looking forward to Spring. We are looking forward to seeing all of you again.

At Sea

We have had a fast 4 days. Somewhat like a Marathon as we saw 4 ports in 4 days. Wonderful ports, but without a sea day between, we do get a little tired. We did Barcelona yesterday and I think that is our favorite. Would like to spend about a week there, too much to see in one or two days. Beautiful architecture and the La Sagrada Familia Cathedral is fantastic. It is still uncompleted after a century, but they are still working on it. We saw it 2 ½ years ago and it has changed some, but they have hopes of finishing it by 2026 which is 100 years since Antonio Gaudi the designer died.

Tomorrow we will be in Gibraltar for only about 5 hours before sailing for Lisbon. We have just two weeks left until we will be back in the states. Time is really flying by and we will be back and talking to you all son.

We are at sea today after a great trip thru the Suez Canal on Saturday. It takes all day for the passage and not too much to rest the eyes on except the desert, military installations and mosques. The mosques are even out in the middle of a desert with nothing else around. Egypt is very concerned about the security in the canal as it is not only vital to their economy but to the safety of the region.

Yesterday we took a tour to Cairo which is a 3 hr drive each way. It is a long drive, but interesting to see the farmer and their fields and homes. Some quite large Industrial parks along the way. All the signs are in Arabic, but did see one that said AVON. Otherwise you couldn’t read any of them.

While viewing the pyramids we were caught up in a desert sand storm, so were unable to see the three all in a line to take the famous picture. The vendors in this area were having their own problems keeping their wares battened down and the camel drivers were not selling to many rides. We never got out of the bus at this photo op point. Just took them thru the windows. At the Sphinx, he was almost completely out of view, so we were glad we had been here 7 years ago on a simply beautiful sunny calm day.

We had a wonderful lunch on a barge on the Nile, it looked a little like what you might think Cleopatra’s would have looked like. It was all decorated with hieroglyphics, a very interesting boat. Had some entertainment, dancers and musicians in the Egyptian style, quite interesting. All in all it was a very good day. We are a little tired after 6 hours on a bus, but today is a sea day, so it is catch up time.

Woke up to a rolling sea today, so we are hanging on to the railing around the ship. We will be in Athens tomorrow and then a day at sea before 4 straight days of tours. The Mediterranean ports are all very close together so will take advantage of the few sea days we have left to just relax. Doesn’t seem possible that we will be back in the states on the 28^th, time is really flying by.

March 28, 2008 At Sea

We are at sea for our 79^th day. Have 5 more days at sea before we get to Safaga, Egypt in the Red Sea. We do enjoy our sea days, lots of good lectures and special things to do. Bob & I have both been fighting a cold that has gone around the ship. So we spend a great deal of time on our Balcony in the fresh air away from the crowds. We are doing much better and since we have 5 more sea days, I am sure they will be gone shortly. We can watch the lectures on TV so really aren’t missing anything.

We were in Dubai UAE on the 26^th. What a marvelous tour we had. It is hard to realize that 40 years ago this was a sleepy fishing village on the banks of the Dubai Creek. They had no running water and no electricity. Today it is over a million people, skyscrapers everywhere and only about 13% of the population are Emeriates while the rest are Nationalist (immigrants’ we would call them) There is construction everywhere. They are constructing 2 more islands, one is tthe world which is something like 50 islands which look like the world from air and another palm island. All are only accessible by boat. We had photo op at the Burq Al Arab Hotel and also the Jumeriah Hotel(which looks like a huge wave). Both very beautiful, but suites are several thousand a night. We later stopped at the Jumeriah Mosque which is a huge sandstone building, here we were not allowed inside unless you were Islamic. But did take pictures of the building. The Dubai Museum was one of the Highlights of our tour. It is housed in the restored Al Fahaidi Fort which was built in 1799 to defend against invasion. It has also served as a palace and a prison. It includes displays of life-sized figures depicting Arab homes, mosques, and lifestyle of the time. The people were Bedouins and lived in the desert in tents and stuctures made from palm trees. It was a very well done museum. Our last stop was the Gold souk. This is hard to describe it is was 4 blocks crossed by 4 blocks of nothing but jewelry stores selling 18K, 22K and 24K jewelry. I have never seen anything like it. They told us they had the best prices in the world, but with gold at around $1000US on the market we were not so sure. We looked and almost bought, but decided not to buy. We enjoyed the opportunity, but a little voice told us NO. It was a fantastic tour and now we are just relaxing at sea before our next tour which we hope will be Luxor/Karnak temples. We are number 3 on the wait list, so there is some hope, but if not we will sail into the Suez Canal and go to Port Said and take a bus tour Cairo. Guess that it about it for now.

March 20, 2008

We have covered a lot of places since I last wrote to all of you. We had a marvelous trip to Angkor Wat and were away from the ship for 3 days visiting about 6 temples.Each one more spectacular than the previous one. Our accommodations ( Transportation, hotels and meals) were all 5 star. This was our first time to Cambodia and we found everyone very friendly and glad we were there. . It was quite warm and humid, but well worth the effort. Spent all day on a tour of Bangkok and viewed Buddhist temples and also the Kings Palace. Can’t imagine where all the gold came from that was on these Buddhas. One Buddha was 8.5 ton of pure gold. I finally got a picture of it, the crowds were really something to try and get up close enough for a snap. Singapore we had visited before, so went off in another direction and visited their Orchid Garden. We could have spent a lot more time there, it was beautiful and the variety was too many to name. Took lots of pictures there. We enjoyed Phuket, Thailand and our sunrise there was glorious. We went to their Cultural Center and watched the Thai dancers, boxers, and drummers. It was a lot of fun to watch them. The dancers are so graceful and very beautiful. Had lunch there also, very good Thai food. We visited their beautiful lighthouse early in the morning and then to one of their Buddhist temple complexes. There were about 8 buildings there and each more beautiful than the previous one. Also a small market along one side of the grounds. Tomorrow we will be in Cochin, India after 3 days at sea. Love the sea days, enjoy the lectures and time to relax and regroup for the next port.

We spent a whole day on tour of Hong Kong. Our weather was perfect and we enjoyed the whole day. One of the highlights was visiting the largest Bronze seated Buddha in the world. It sets upon the top of a mountain on Lantau Island, has 268 steps to the top. We were fortunate as our bus was able to drive up to the base of it. It was very impressive, just awesome. At the base is the Po Lin Monastery where we had lunch of a vegetarian Chinese Lunch. Not real sure what we were eating, but it was tasty. We visited the fishing village of Tai O and it was a step back in time. I don’t think it had changed in probably a couple hundred years. The houses were are on stilts, each having a common wall. The village is known in the area for it salted and dried fish. Shrimp, scallops, clams, oysters and all kinds of fish. The market had all of these out in the open, but there seemed to be no flies. The people were friendly and didn’t seem to mind if we took their picture, though our guide had told us to ask first as some don’t want their pictures taken. They had a very lovely Buddhist temple for such a small village. The Monetary we took a gondola ride over the mountains for about 6 miles to the new Hong Kong Airport. From there we boarded a bus back to Hong Kong, where we shopped a little at the Ocean Terminal right next to the ship. It was a great day, but we were weary at the end. Tomorrow we leave for 3 days to Cambodia to see Angkor Wat which should be very exciting.

March 2, 2008

We had a marvelous time in Shanghai yesterday. We had an 9 hr tour of the city and visited a beautiful Buddhist temple. It not only had 3 gold Buddha’s, but 2 Jade Buddha’s. We had been in Buddha temples before, but nothing like this. Very beautiful. Early in the morning we went to Old Town and the Yu Gardens. When we got off the bus, their was a large group people doing their Tai Chi in the park. I enjoy doing Tai Chi, but they were real pros at it. In Old Town, they have either preserved the old style Chinese buildings or renewed them. They were outstanding. The Yu Garden is centuries old and beautiful with it’s bonsai plum trees in full bloom. Huge iron lions, dragons and everything you think of as Chinese. It was a photographers field day. Visited a Children’s Palace which is a school for gifted children. They go to their regular school, but then after school and on weekends they go to the Palace. We visited a class where they were teaching Chinese Calligraphy, another painting, ballet and one where the little girls were learning to play a Chinese instrument somewhat like a zither. Shopped at one of their department stores, which was very nice and we enjoyed the exhibit of Jade (very expensive) the most. Ended up our day at the Shanghai Museum. This is building is fairly new 4-5 yrs old. We could have spent all day here rather than an hour, it was 4 floors of exhibit rooms, of Chinese textiles, porcelain, calligraphy, bronze drums, and too many things to mention. Ate lunch at a hotel on their 14^th floor. The best Chinese food I have ever had. There were 10 of us at the table with a very large lazy susan in the middle filled with all kinds of food. It was a very interesting and full day. Today we are playing catch up as we were exhausted when we got o the ship just in time to sail. We found the Chinese very friendly and our guide was excellent. Another wonderful and full day as we go Around the World.