Tokyo

March 17-20, 2024

As we compose this posting it is Tuesday afternoon.  We have been in Tokyo since Sunday morning.  Tokyo is a city of over 14 million people, its metropolitan area numbers 37 million.  It is huge in area.  Any excursion we take is a minimum 30 minute bus ride. Some longer depending on traffic. We have been pleasantly surprised at the the number of green areas we have seen. Large parks, large athletic fields big enough for 3 or 4 soccer pitches, and gardens.  We have also visited a Shinto Temple that is in the middle of a small forest, but still technically in Tokyo.  Tokyo is also an amazingly clean city.  Even in somewhat run down areas of town that we have bused through there is no filth.  After a series of terrorist bombings where the bombs where hidden in trash cans, the city removed virtually  every trash can.  The people of Tokyo have taken it upon themselves to take any trash they produce home with them.  Tokyo is also remarkably quiet considering how congested it can be. We have not heard one horn honked the whole time we have been here.  We have also not heard many sirens.  The nicest thing of all is that the people are friendly and considerate, even helpful at times. What a concept.

Sunday morning our ship arrived in Tokyo and we took a cruise excursion to a garden that was built by one of the Emporers who came into power after the Shogun dynasty, also know as the Edo period of Japanese history.  This was not a particularly large garden but was typical of Japanese gardens in that it had large water features throughout. Unfortunately, we are too early in the Spring to see much color in the gardens. This garden like the others we've visited is a walled garden. What may be of minor interest to some of you is that outside the walls of the garden is a domed baseball stadium that is home to the Tokyo Giants, the New York Yankees of Japanese baseball.  From this garden we were bused to the Tokyo Tower.  This edifice was modeled after the Eiffel Tower in Paris and stands over 1000 meters tall. It provides amazing views of Tokyo and on a clear day one can see Mt. Fuji.  Unfortunately, Sunday was a very warm day so there was a considerable haze in the sky meaning we will leave Japan without seeing Mt Fuji.

Early Monday morning we sadly disembarked the Seven Seas Explorer.  As we have mentioned we are doing a three day extension in Tokyo so that once we had left the ship and cleared customs, we were on a full day excursion.  Our first stop was another garden, this one created by one of the Shoguns of the Edo period. The same family of Shoguns ran Japan's feudal system for well over 270 years, well into the 19th century.  This garden was much like the one yesterday. It featured impressive water features and few plants in bloom. There was a large field of Canola flowers in bloom. This plant is used to make canola oil. After leaving this garden we drove to the site of a large Buddist Temple built by the the great, great, great, great grandfather of the present emporer of Japan.  The emporer who built this temple was the first emperor to begin to open Japan to western ideas. He was the first emporer to not wear his hair in a top knot and began to wear western clothing. On the walk back to the temple we passed a spot along the path where on one side of the road there were long, open shelves holding a large number of containers of sake wine.  Each year all of the sake producers in Japan donate a container of sake to the temple.  Across the road was an equal number of long shelves with barrels of fine french wine donated each year. The emperor obviously was anxious to sample western beverages. This is one of Tokyo's largest and most popular temples.  On the first, second, and third days of January, a national holiday for the country, almost 3 million Japanese buddists flock to the temple to prayer for a good luck filled new year. One unique feature to this temple is an area very much like a carport in that United States that one can bring their car to have it blessed for good health in the coming year. Evidently the Japanese don't trust their car warranties. 

Next on the schedule was a typical Japanese business luncheon. The only food on the lucheon menu we recognized was shasimi, rice, soup and tempura shrimp and vegetables. We were both pretty adventurous in trying the different dishes.  Some we liked and some we did not. The people from our tour at the next table thought it to be one of the worst meals they have ever eaten. They obviously don't understand the point of traveling. After lunch we stopped at a market that the Emperor in the late 1800's had built to attract foreign businesses. It worked so well the market ended up closing and now is maintained as a historic landmark. By this point in the day we were a weary group of travelers anxious to check into our hotel.  We are staying at the Tokyo Hilton which is very nice. We had the rest of the afternoon and evening to ourselves. 

Tuesday morning's  excursion started at the Japanese National History Museum.  Between the late start of the tour and the heavy traffic we ended up with only about 45 minutes to visit this museum.  All we saw were the highlights of the history of art in Japan and several rooms dedicated to the history of Samuari warriors.  From there we went to a very large and one of the first Shinto Shrines built in Tokyo. The large welcoming arches were very impressive. Because of the large crowds visiting on Tuesday we only got a quick glimpse of the shrine itself.  Just enough of a glimpse to be impressed with its beauty.  The best part of this shrine was the people watching. This week marked the end of the school year for Japanese students and they were out in full force at the shrine. Many of the young teenage girls were parading about in groups, all dressed in lovely kimonos. Our guide said this was a bit of a right of passage for young girls as it was, for many of them, their first time out in public in a kimono. This shrine also featured a large area of shops selling high end souvenirs. Again, between the large crowds and the delayed start of the day we did not have the time we would have liked to browse through these stalls. From here it was back to the hotel where we had the rest of the day to ourselves.  After a much needed rest from yesterday's long day and today's tour we set out on our own to a nearby area called "the scramble".  Technically it is called the "Shibuya Scramble Crossing".  There are 5 or 6 streets that all enter the large plaza in front of the Shibuya train station. What happens is all the pedestrians stand at the crosswalks around the plaza while the traffic miraculously negotiates its way through with all streets having a green light. When all the traffic lights turn red then all of the pedestrians flood across the plaza at the same time.  It is an amazing sight to see. Tim has posted a  minute long video of this "scramble" on his Facebook page.  Check it out.  Words cannot describe what a sight this is.  The vibe in the area was incredible so we just hung out a bit, found a place for dinner, and took a taxi back to the hotel.

Wednesday was also a bad day for the tour folks.  The first order of business was to drive out to the harbor area where we would see where Tokyo had reclaimed the land from the sea to make more room for business offices and apartment high-rises.  Today was also a national holiday in Japan celebrating the spring equinox. Because of the holiday there was very little traffic so we made our way out to the harbor area rather easily. The plan was to stop at the Fuji Television office building which has an observation deck on it's 24th floor that would give us a great view of the Tokyo skyline from this point of view.  What no one planned on was a large display of dinasaurs being held for young kids in the TV office building. Our guide had to completely rearrange the logistics for our entering the building and getting to the 24th floor.  We ended up spending an hour and half more at this stop then expected  with most of the time spent standing around. Fortunately, it was fun watching all the kids dressed up like dinasaurs.  We also were able to see a copy of our Statue of Liberty standing on the edge of the harbour.  Our tour guide claimed this was actually a replica of the original Statue of Liberty that France build and used as a model for the Statue of Liberty they gave us. France gave this one to Japan in honor of Japan hosting its first Olympic Games in 1964. We left the harbor area and quickly made our way to the Ginza. The Ginza is a famous shopping area in Tokyo that consists of only high end stores. Fashion stores know they have "made it" when they open a store on the Ginza.  Because of the holiday, about 4 or 5 blocks of the main street of the Ginza were closed to traffic so we could stroll down the center of the street taking in all of the high fashion.  After a nice lunch we braved the Tokyo Metro back to our hotel.

This is the last day of our trip to Japan and we have had a wonderful time.  Tomorrow morning we fly non-stop from Tokyo to Chicago and then a quick trip to Detroit.  We hate to rub it in but we are again flying business class, the only way to survive a 15 hour flight.  Thanks again to all of you who have followed along either on the blog or Facebook.  We have enjoyed your comments. And don't forget to check today's Facebook post with lots of Tokyo pictures.  We will be back again in July when we take Jil, Rob, Jeff and Heather on a 7 day cruise around Iceland to celebrate our 55th wedding anniversary.

Kagoshima

March 15, 2024

Our ship docked in Kagoshima sometime around 8:00 this morning.  As is Tim's want, when he awoke around 8:30 he immediately went out on the balcony to check the weather and the view.  It was a beautiful cloudless morning this morning except for a cloud just above a mountain top to the right of our view. Later at breakfast Tim confirmed with crew members that the cloud at the mountain top was definitely steam from a volcano. Tim posted a picture of the volcano on his Facebook page.

We had an excursion scheduled this morning but when we reviewed the tour yesterday it carried a warning of gruesome pictures of war atrocities.  Deciding that we had seen enough gruesome pictures in Hiroshima and Nagasaki we canceled our tickets on the excursion. Instead we left the ship about 11:00 and took a schuttle bus into the city center of Kagoshima. We enjoyed a walk about going into several different stores.  Tim made a brief stop  in a large golf shop. He saw a new driver he has been thinking about purchasing which was listed at 94,000 yen. That is the correct number of zero's.  Upon leaving the shop he had Lynda convert the price to dollars: $699.00, which is $100.00 more then in the States.  Tim is going home driverless.   We must have spent ast least 30 minutes wandering through a grocery store marveling at how different it was from an American grocery store.  There were many items in the produce section that we did not recognize, and we were very impressed with how good the produce we did recognize looked.  We were taken back at how little beef there was in the meat department and how much fresh fish was on offer.  As we passed through the shelves in the rest of the store we found very few American products on display. Coke products are very where in Japan and Korea but not much of anything else. We went into a Women's shop that featured intimate wear.  The bra and panty sets were very different and very beautiful compared to what we see at home.  Lynda thought the bra's were a bit expensive but the panties pretty cheap.  Tim suggested that as little material as there was in the panties they should be cheap.  We had planned to find a Japanese restaurant for lunch to enjoy real traditional Japanese food.  Unfortunately, the ones we thought looked interesting had no english menus and no one spoke English or had no English menus, no one spoke English but there were pictures of the dishes available. We decided to return to the ship for lunch. Despite this disappointment we still enjoyed our leisurely walk  around the city center.

We are nearing the end of our cruise.  Tomorrow we spend the day "at sea", arriving in Tokyo Sunday morning.  We have booked an excursion for Sunday and then Monday we leave the ship.  However, the adventure continues as we have also booked a three day extension in Tokyo so the Facebook pictures and blog postings will continue.  We return home next Thursday.  We will visit with you again in a couple of days from Tokyo.

Korea and Nagasaki

 March 13, 2024

We are in Busan, Korea.  Another country added to our list of countries visited. That makes 87. There were three stops on our excursion today.  The first was at a small theater where we were going to have a "cultural experience".  This "cultural experience" consisted of three  different performances of Korean folk dances and a drum duet.  All three of the dances were rather slow and descriptive although neither of us could figure out what they described. The music for all three all sounded the same.  Korea folk songs are generally writing using a penatonic scale which has only 5 notes which means it is rather limited in its variety.  The drummers used small drums with a drum head on each end, with the drum laying on its side so both heads could  be hit at the same time.  Each drummer used two sticks of different sizes. This resulted in them hitting one stick on one head and the other stick on the other head.  Again this was rather limiting so there was little variety in what they played and they quite often were playing the same thing at the same time.  Unfortunately, the whole "experience" became rather boring.  The second stop on our excursion was a duty free shop.  The shop featured a lot of cosmetics and ginseng.  Lynda bought a t-shirt for herself. The last stop was a fish market advertised as the biggest fish market in Korea. Lynda stayed on the bus for this stop.  Tim can confirm that is was "a damn big market." The building is 7 stories tall and we were led to believe that all 7 stories were part of the market with the caveat that the 2nd floor was mostly restaurants.  We visited only the first floor.  It had well over 100 individual stalls, each stall being about the size of the average bathroom. The interesting thing is that each stall was selling pretty much the same fish, practically  all of it alive.  In the past when we have gone into spice markets we have  commented that we wish you could smell how wonderful they smelled.  Not this fish market. Still,  at the end of the day Tim can brag that he has been in the largest fish market in Korea. Tim is sure you are all envious.

March 14, 2024

We are back in Japan but, unfortunately, in Nagasaki.  That means visiting the site of the 2nd atomic bomb dropped on Japan.  This was very similar to the visit in Hiroshima.  There was a very well done museum that described the Manhattan Project, had samples of clothing that was shredded by the shear power of the bombs blast, showed pieces of metal that had been twisted out of shape by the heat created, and pictures of survivors  showing the damage to their bodies by the heat and radiation. Unlike in Hiroshama, the Nagasaki museum had a life size replica of the bomb that was dropped.  There was also video of the bomb being loaded into the B-29.  The ground zero site and seperate Peace Garden were also equally well done. The Peace Garden in Nagasaki featured more statuary then the garden in Hiroshama.  Nagasaki has 6 sister cities and each sent a sculpture for the Peace Garden as did 7 individual countries  included the United States.  We are both glad that we visited these sites and have no desire to visit them again.  We also both agreed that all world leaders involved in nuclear arms treaty negotiations should be required to visit both of these museums to see the results of the use of these horrific weapons.

Here's hoping that the rest of our experiences in Japan will be much happier.

A Somber Day in Hiroshima

March 11, 2024

In the middle of Hiroshima two rivers converge to form one.  A vehichuler bridge crosses this river just above where the rivers merge. In the middle of the bridge another smaller bridge goes perpendicular to it allowing pedestrians to cross to the strip of land between the two rivers.  On the morning of August 6, 1945 this "T" bridge was the target for the crew of an American B-29 caring an atomic bomb. The bomb missed its target by about 600 feet, detonating about 2000 feet above a large domed building.  The bomb had the explosive power of an estimated 21,000 tons of TNT. The flash of the bomb exploding was estimated as 10 times as bright as the sun and the temperature  was around 3000 degrees celsius.  The people working the domed building were killed instantly as were thousands in the immediate area. Eventually almost  140,000 people died as a result of this bomb. Miraculously several of the walls and the superstructure of the domed building survived, and remain standing today.  Scientists believe that the walls remained standing because the force of the bomb came straight down.  Near the domed building is a statue commemorating this spot as ground zero. The statue is called the Goddess of Peace. This statue represents three religions.  The face of the statue looks like the face of Buddah, the belt around her robe represents Shintoism, and her angel wings represent Christianity. 

The large area below the "T"  is now known as the Peace Park.  Coming across the bridge the first thing we encountered was the Peace Tower.  Not far from the Peace Tower was the Bell of Peace.  This bell is similar to the bells seen in Buddhist Temples. The oblong shaped bell is about three feet long and next to it is a long rod, probably six feet long and at least 6 inches in diameter.  It hangs from two ropes parallel to the ground. A rope hangs from the rod that one uses to swing the rod into the bell. People are encouraged to ring the bell as they offer a prayer for world peace. Tim did this.

Continuing along the path we came to the Childrens Memorial to Peace. There is a tradition among children in Japan that suggests that if you construct 1000 small origami folded cranes you will have good luck.  A two year old little girl survived the bombing and started making these tiny cranes. When she was 10 she was diagnosed with leukemia and soon died not having completed her 1000 cranes. This story spread quickly all over Japan and soon money was raised for this memorial.  At the top of the memorial is a statue of a girl with her arms raised over her head. An origami shaped crane sits upon her hands. To this day elementary students all over Japan create chains of 1000 cranes and send them to be displayed in cabinets around the memorial.  Our guide had some individual origami cranes that she offered to us to place in one of the cabinets.  Lynda did this.

Further along the path we came to the Eternal Flame of Peace. It will only be extinguished  when there are no longer any nuclear weapons in the world.  The final memorial was a small gracefully shaped arch with a sarcophagus underneath it. This sarcophagus contains the names of everyone who's death was the direct result of the August 6, 1945 bombing. A ceremony is held ever August 6th and, if need be, names are added to the sarcophagus.  In 2023 over 3000 people were identified and their names were added.

At the end of the path is the Peace Memorial Museum. The first exhibit in the Museum is a circular map of the ground zero area of Hirosima. If you have been to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania and seen the map there that describes the Battle of Gettysburg you will understand what we are refering to. This map shows Hiroshima as it might have looked like in 1945.  Through the magic of modern technology  you suddenly see the bomb drop and hit the map at ground zero.  Smoke and light flare out from the center to the edges of the map. After the smoke clears one sees Hiroshima as it would have looked after the bombing. It is a very disturbing depiction of the bombing and is a fitting prelude to the rest of the exhibit. What follows are gruesome displays of shredded clothing of people killed in the bombing, pictures of the dead bodies laying about, and pictures of the people who survived.  There were many people going through this exhibit but you could have heard a pin drop. The silence was deafening.  The Peace Museum reminded us in many ways of the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C.

The crew on board our ship is very friendly.  At dinner the waiters always ask if you enjoyed your day.  Monday night it was very difficult to say we enjoyed our day when asked.  The day was a sobering reminder of the horrors of war.

A Grand Adventure and a semi-spectacular botanical garden

Friday, March 8, 2024

We arrived at the Port of Kobe at noon on Friday.  This is the closest port to both Osaka and Kyoto. As our ship was easing up to the dock, a small but talented and enthusiastic student band started to play as a way of welcome.  Tim was out on deck watching and was thrilled to hear the band, particularly when they played a great arrangement of Obla De, Obla Da by the Beatles.  Sure beats the heck of some scantily clad young women dancing to a steel band.  When we booked this cruise we were particularly excited about visiting Kyoto but, unfortunately, none of the cruises excursions met our desires. The travel advisors on board the ship advised us that in the terminal at the port  there would be travel consultants who would be better equiped to help us. So after lunch on Friday we left the ship to talk to the people in the terminal. They helped us plan an excursion of our own for Saturday.

Saturday morning we took the high speed bullet train from Kobe to Kyoto.  It is 44 miles between to two cities and we covered it in 27 minutes.  The engine of the train is very sleek in design and the ride is fast, smooth and quiet.  We had two stops planned in Kyoto, the first being Nishiki Market. The market is 5 blocks long and the walkway between the stalls is about the width of a one lane street. There are well over 100 stalls, all pretty much related to food.  There were stalls selling food products, meat, seafood, produce and baked goods, as well as restaurants selling Japanese food.  There are also stalls offering cookware as well as place settings, glassware, etc.  The restaurants were of particular interest to us as most offered take away type food made to eat while you walked about. Amazingly, it is considered to be extremely rude to walk about the market as you are eating.  Makes no sense at all.  The clever restraunteurs solved this problem by creating areas in there stalls where the diners could stand at small tables and eat. There were sit down restaurants as well but they were very small. Both types of  eating establishments were very crowded. The one we found probably sat 30 people at most. We enjoyed a small meal with Lynda having a Japanese omlette and Tim pork filled dumplings.  The omlette is different then what have at home. The green onions in her omlette (the only option)  were mixed into the eggs and then the omlette was rolled up instead of folded over.  The omlette was served cut up into 4 sections, along with a small cruet of soy sauce. Chop sticks were the only utensils. Lynda thought her omlette to be much lighter then the typical american omlette. Tim's dumplings were made with a very thin rice pastry.  Both were delicious.  Our planned second stop was an old section of Kyoto with lots of shops and restaurants on very narrow pedestrian only streets. This was to be a look at what Kyoto looked like long ago. Unfortunately it was cold and windy with occasional light snow which we were not prepared for so we cut short our trip. Still, we rode on a bullet train and visited the type of market that we love to visit on our many trips around the world. It is the kind of market we are only now seeing more of in the states. Neither the bullet train or market were included in any of the ships excursions.

Sunday morning we woke up in Kochi, Japan.  When we originally signed up for shore excursions we picked an excursion that visited a Buddist temple and a botanical garden.  We knew there was a lot of walking but thought Lynda would be up to it when we finally arrive in Japan.  Unfortunately she wasn't so we decided that Tim would go by himself and take lots of pictures for Lynda.   Today was the day for that excursion.  After the lousy weather in Kyoto, the weather today was lovely, sunny with temperatures in the mid 50's.  This particular Buddist temple was founded in 724.  The temple grounds were set in the side of a small mountain.  The grounds around the buildings were lovely in a zen sort of way.  The temple itself was spectacular in an over the top way.  All in all, a typical Buddist temple.  The Makino Botanical Gardens were another story. The gardens would have been spectacular in another month but there were still the early flowers of spring in bloom.  The thing Tim noticed immediately was the the daffodils, primulas, and frittalarias had much smaller blossoms then the variaties we have at home. What was spectacular was the conservatory.  The orchids were in full bloom and were stunning. There were other orchid-like flowers equally as beautiful. The conservatory made the visit worthwhile.  When Lynda saw the pictures Tim had taken she was disappointed  that she was unable to go but understood she could not physically have handled all the walking.  Sadly, that is our new normal right now.

Tomorrow will be a very somber day as we visit Hiroshima.  We will report back in a couple of days.

First taste of Japan

March 7, 2024

 One of the side effects of Lynda's stroke last February was her UAE doctor requiring her to have business class or higher seats on our return flight home from Dubai. Once Lynda's return to normal were confirmed Tim put down his foot and declared that any further travels of over 10 hours would be done in business class. Thus the 15 hour flight to Tokyo was done in relative comfort. It is still an arduous trip but much better then in economy. Once we arrived in Japan, the first thing we noticed that surprised us was that the Japanese vehicles are right hand drive similiar to England. We boarded the ship about 5:30 on Wednesday to discover that we were among the last passsengers to board. Once we unpacked and had dinner we were two exhausted travelers. We awoke Thursday morning much refreshed and energized. Our morning excursion was to visit Mt.Fuji. Our first stop was the Hagoromo no Matsu, The Hororomo Pine. The tree we saw was the 3rd iteration of this tree that grows in the Miho Shrine. This particular tree is over 300 years old and serves as the landmark for The Shinto Spirits desending to the Miho Shrine. It resides in a large, picturesque grove of pine trees that overlook a black sand beach on the Pacific Ocean. We walked from the tree to the Miho Shrine. We did not actually go into the shrine but our Japanese guide showed us how she bows before the shire two times and then claps her hands together two times and then offers a prayer of thanksgiving to the Shinto deity. After her prayer she bows once more, no hand clapping this time. Near the shrine was a fount where shintos use a dipper to pour water over their hands and then drink water from the fount as an act of cleansing themselves of evil spirits. There was also a box where one could have their future told. You made a monetary offering and then reached into the box where you pulled out a slip of paper that indicated your future was either "high", "medium" or "low". Next to this box were two posts with ropes strung between them where you hung this paper. Tim, being the smart-ass that he sometimes is, asked if he could get a second slip of paper if you didn't like your first one. Our tour guide, showing great patience, gently told Tim "no". From the Miho Shrine we took a very scenic drive up a large hill where we were to get spectacular views of Mr.Fuji. Unfortunately Mt. Fuji was shrouded in low hanging clouds so our only views of Mr.Fuji were the large pictures of this famous site that our tour guide showed us. We were very disappointed. 

Thursday afternoon we attended a cooking class. Our ship, the S.S. Explorer, was the first ship in Regent Seven Sea's fleet to have a teaching kitchen built in it. Two other ships have since also had this feature included. There were 20 of us in the class, each having their own cooking station. We prepared three different dishes, each recipe individually sized, during the two hour class. For each dish we would gather around the chef's station as she demonstrated how to prepare the dish. While she was doing this, two assistants would place all of the pre-measured ingredients on our station in the order we were to use them. All of the dishes were reasonably easy to prepare. The first was a duck confit and watermelon salad served in a small martini style glass. We were shown how to cut the slice of watermelon at our station into like size cubes and how to dice our fresh herbs, mint, basil, and cilantro leasves. The duck confit was seasoned with hoisin sauce. The salad also included cashews. Chili-infused honey was drizzled over the top of the assembled salad. We were each served a small glass of wine while we sampled our dish. It was an easy and tasty way to ease into the class. Our next recipe was B'stilla Domes. B'stilla Domes are basically a moroccan chicken pie done in puff pastry. The chicken had already been cooked but we had to cook the grated onion and add the many spices as well as almonds and pine nuts, raisins, and a bit of ginger juice. This was all added to the chicken. Using puff pastry cut in a circle we put the pastry in a small glass bowl and pushed the pastry in place as you would pastry in a pie pan. The chicken filling was placed in the pastry filled bowl and then the edges of the pastry were folded over to create a seal. While we watched a demonstration of our last dish, the assistant put an egg wash on our domes and put them in the oven. The recipe was for prosciutto-wrapped prunes. This was also an easy dish to prepare. We took four halves of dried prunes and created a bit of a saucer effect in each. A ball of gorganzola cheese mixed with diced walnuts and sherry infused dried cheeries was placed in one of the prune halves and capped with another prune half. This "oreo" like ball was then placed at the end of a thin slice of prosciutto and rolled creating a wrap. A tooth pick was put through the wrap to hold it together and then placed in a small saute pan with a bit of olive oil and lightly seared on both sides. We then ate these with a small glass of prosecco. Elegant and delicious. By this time our B'stilla Domes were done. We dusted them with a mixture of sugar and cinnamon. There were three different dipping sauces we could try with each bit of the pie. One was a green sauce made with parsley, cilantro and mint leaves, garlic, grilled serrano pepper and grapeseed oil mixed in a food processor. The second was a sultana sauce made with rehydrated raisons, butter and lime juice pureed together. The last was a walnut mint labneh containing greek yogurt, chopped walnuts and chopped mint leaves. It was a wonderful two hours, plus we have a small book of recipes including the three that we made.

Greetings from Dubai

February 14, 2023 We flew out of Detroit Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. on what we knew would be an arduous two day journey to Dubai, United Arab Emirates that included 13 hours of flying, a 5 hour lay over in Paris, across 9 different time zones arriving in Dubai at 11:30 p.m. on Wednesday. There was actually one highlight to the two flights we were on. Many of you know that Paris is one of our favorite cities in the world. We don't feel like we are in Paris until we see the Eiffel Tower. As we were landing in Paris at 7:30 a.m. Paris was shrouded in a light fog but there rising elegently above the fog was the Eiffel Tower. We were excited. Thursday morning while Lynda was preparing for the day Tim went to the rooftop of our hotel, the Canopy by Hilton Al Seef, to get his first daylight view of the Dubai sky line. We knew it was going to be spectacular and Tim was not disappointed. The first order of business was meeting with rest of our tour party. This tour is run by AHI which also ran the wonderful tour that we took to South Africa. That trip was nearly all MSU grads. This tour is a mixed bag with grads from the University of Michigan, Notre Dame, University of Chicago, University of Missouri, University of Chicago, Iowa State University, Stanford University and San Diego State University. Everyone introduced themselves, there are 21 of us, and our tour director outlined some basic protocals that we are to follow during the entire tour. After this meeting we headed for the first stop of Thursday's itinerary. At this point a brief history lesson is in order. The United Arab Emirates did not come into existence until 1971. Before 1971 the land that became the U.A.E was mostly inhabited by bedouins who lived a nomadic exsistence in the desert. Dubai and Abu Dhabi were nothing more then fishing villages. Everything changed in the late 1960's when oil was discovered. After this discovery the sheiks of 7 tribes/emirates met to form a new nation and government knowing this was the only way they could peaceful exist together. Fortunately they elected Shiek Zayed bin Al Nahyan as the first president/prime minister. He was a visionary who deftly led the 7 Emirates through the difficult job of forming this new nation, investing oil revenue into healthcare, education and infrastructure. Dubai had gained some prosperity in the early 1900 hundreds with a thriving pearl industry. When the Japanese came up with a way to make cultured pearls the rug was pulled out from under the Dubai pearl industry. Today Dubai's main industry is business and tourism. During the 2000's Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum has been responsible for the rapid expansion of Dubai. Archtects have been given free reign in Dubai resulting in the amazing skyline mentioned earlier. All of this history means that there is an old section to Dubai and a new section. Thursday was our day in the old section. The Dubai Creek seperates the two sections. We first visited an area along the river where the style of the old Dubia was recreated. This recreation included a display of what a typical Bedouin campsite would have looked like. From here we were bused to the Dubai History Museum where we saw a well produced film of the development of Dubai from its very humble origins to the amazing city that it is today. We also saw interesting exibits of historical artifacts. Our next stop was the Center for Cultural Understanding. This is where we had lunch and had a Q&A session with a young Islamic women. Our private dining room had no table. An open area had a large rug in the middle with all the food layed out for our buffet. We were asked to take off our shoes and sit on the pillows surrounding the rug. Our guest speaker was intrducted and she took us through a typical dinner that her family would host in their home. We were served a small cup of arabian coffee, a much lighter coffee then we usually drink. This was followed by each of us being given a date. This is the traditional welcome. She then described each of the dishes on the buffet, all of it traditional Arab fare. Our children and grandchildren would have enjoyed watching us trying to fill our plates from serving dishes sitting on the floor. After our wonderful meal she talked briefly about her culture including the woman's place in an Islamic family. That was followed by the Q&A session. Interestingly most of the questions were asked by the women in our group, asking further questions of our guest about the treatment of women and her personal views. Our guest was very open and honest in her responses and showed no resentment in regard to this issue. Nor did she dodge any questions. It was a calm, open discussion about how women are treated in two very different cultures. Quite refreshing for a change. Our finally stop was to take water taxiss across the Dubai Creek where we visited spice and gold souks and then were given free time to wander about the souks. Lynda bought a beautiful pashmina after bargaining the clerk down from his initial asking price of 185 dirhams to 70 dirhams. Our granddaughter Jocey would have been proud. We also walked through a utensils souk. We were a bit disappointed as it was mostly cookware and utensils much we use now. We were looking for something that reflected the Middle Eastern culture. Thursday evening we had a welcoming banquet in the hotel which featured a set menu served familiy style. It was all Spanish cuisine, the seafood paella probably being the highlight of the meal. The true highlight of the evening was getting to know our fellow travelers. Friday was devoted to the new Dubai. Our first stop was the Palace of the President of the Emirate of Dubai. We are sure it was quite palacial inside because all we saw was the spectacular entrance where we had a group picture taken. Our next stop was at "The Dubai Frame",a structure built for the 2020 World Expo. It literally looks like a picture frame standing up. It is 492 feet high and 311 feet wide. The entire frame is covered with 3500 square yards of gold plating. Two sides of the frame contain elevators, one side up and the other down. The top of the frame is an observation deck. Down the middle of the deck is glass thick enough to walk on that shows the ground below. We both did walk on the glass although we were a bit timid at first. Obviously, the views from the observation deck were spectacular. From "The Frame" we took a 2 hour panoramic bus ride along the coast of the Arabian Sea. It was an interesting drive seeing many different businesses and enjoying the different type of archetecture. We stopped at a public beach where we could take pictures of the Burj Al Arab Jermeirah Hotel. This hotel is shaped like a sail and is probably one of the most expensive to stay in in the world. It is built 200 meters off of the coast. At the top on one side is a heliport and n the other is a restaurant that sticks out of hotel like a folded newspaper. It really is quite stunniing. Further down the coast we came to The Palm. This is an island that was manmade; the road that goes over the causeway and through the middle of the island is the trunk of the Palm tree. The roads that go off this road are the fronds of the Palm tree. At the top of the trunk is the Atlantis Hotel that we are sure you have seen pictures of. The hotels and homes on the island scream money. From The Palm we drove back to the Grand Sheraton Hotel Dubai for an over the top buffet lunch. There were stations for Chinese, Indian, and Italian food plus a carving station with chicken and salmon. The bread station was fabulous. Unfortunately, the dessert station was just so so. After dinner the scheduled stop was the Dubai Mall which contains over 1000 stores. We are not mall people so we got permission to leave the tour and booked a trip to the top of the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world. Burj is Arabic for tower and Khalifa is a famous Emirati sheikh. In addition to being the tallest building in the world, 2,716.5 feet, it is the tallest free standing structure, has the highest number of floors, the highest obsevation deck and the tallest elevator in the world. There are two observation decks, one at the 124th floor and the other at the 169th floor. We opted for the 124th deck. We didn't think the view be much better 45 stories higher plus it was more expensive. The 125th floor has windows completely around the building plus a gift shop. The views were unbelievable. Buildings that looked so tall from ground level were dwarfed by the Burj Khalifa. There was a winding stairs that took us to the 124th floor where there was an outside terrace on one side of the building. There was a railing plus a very high glass wall that keep us from tumbling to the street below. It was an amazing experience. The Dubai Fountain was right next to the Burj and was advertised as a spectacular dancing fountain show with music. We found a bar with an excellent view of the fountain for a drink while we watched the show. What a disappointment. It lasted two minutes. The fountain show at the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas is way better. After the brief show we took a cab and turned in for the night, both of us too tired to do anything else. . Saturday was a free day so we relaxed, had a late breakfast before taking a cab to The Miracle Garden. This garden was unlike a Botanical Garden where the flowers are all growing like they would in your garden and all properly identified. When we first entered we were greeted by two gigantic topiary's green plants in the shape of horse's heads. There was a peacock hanging off of the neck of each horse with it's tail featheres, completely done in flowers, hanging to the ground. There were also two larger then life Elephant topiarys and an actual Emirates Airlines plane also covered in flowers. Like everything else in Dubai, it was over the top. The colors were breathtaking. We took a cab back to the hotel where one of us is relaxing while the other is composing this blog. Tonight we take our bus out into the desert for dinner and a belly dancing display.