Dakar, Senegal and Banjul, The Gambia

 Saturday, November 16, 2024

We arrived Saturday morning in Dakar, Senegal, population 4 milllion, and crashed head first into a third world country.  The best word to describe our experience in Dakar is chaos. It was at times exilerating and other times maddening.  Our excursion was entitled "Highlights of Dakar" which was an apt description of what we saw.  Unfortunately, it appeared no one took the time to arrange the tour in a logic sequence.  We seemed to travel back and forth across the city, passing some of the "highlights" several times. Our guide told us we were lucky to be in Dakar on a Saturday as the traffic wasn't as bad as on a weekday. You could have fooled us.  Traffic lights seemed more a suggestion then a requirement. Several times our bus driver drove through red lights. Once our driver approached a busy cross street with the green light but the traffic from the cross street continued into the intersection. Tim noticed that the stop light for the cross street traffic was also green. Lane markings, when they existed, were also observed rather nonchalantly. At some point late in the tour the person sitting across the aisle from Tim said something to Tim about the driver constantly blowing the buses horn. Tim answered that he thought the driver figured by honking the buses horn he was releasing himself from any liability to what happened next. If there was an accident with a pedestrian or other vehicle it was that persons fault because our driver had honked the buses horn as a warning.  The traffic chaos was not helped by the many motorcyclists that fearlessly weaved through the traffic. Among the highlights were a visit to the Catholic Cathedral of Dakar which we were able to go inside.  It was of a contemporary design. Not as stunning nor as large as the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona but beautiful none the less. We did a drive by of the main Mosque of Dakar that was large and picturesque but no where on the scale of the Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca. Do you see a pattern here?  In all of the previous cities we have visited in Africa on this trip there was a main shopping street with the usual high end stores with several markets or suaks somewhere nearby.  In Dakar these markets were everywhere. They were the main economy of the city which seemed to work. We visited several of them.  We attended a short concert that consisted of six African drummers and a dance troup that numbered four men and four women. This was a different style of dancing then we had seen previously on our trip. Probably the most impressive site was an emmense sculpture called "The Renaissance."  It depicted a man and woman with the man holding a small child up above him.  This was to represent the rebirth of Africa on the worlds stage. The tour was exhausting and lasted five hours, an hour longer then advertised. It had an appropriate ending. As we turned into the one lane entrance to our pier, the entrance was blocked by a lone traffic cone. The driver honked his horn several times (!) with no response.  Our tour guide finally got out of the bus to locate the people in charge. When he returned to the bus we were informed that the guards for the entrance to the pier where having lunch and would remove the traffic cone when they finished eating. Meanwhile there were five or six large delivery trucks lined up behind us waiting to also enter the port. Finally a gentlemen who looked very important walked up and removed the traffic cone and motioned us to enter. Only then did any one come out of the lunch room.  The day came to a festive end as our ship hosted us at a large BBQ style dinner held outside on the pool deck. It was a beautiful evening to be outside and the food was excellent.  

Sunday we arrived in Banjul, The Gambia. If Ohio State can call themselves The Ohio State University, then we suppose that Gambia can call themselves The Gambia. The Gambia is a small country of just two million people. It is also a poor country that our guide assured us was also a happy country.  The guide also described The Gambia as a republic that changed Presidents when the people seemed to feel the need for change. We interpreted that to mean that there were coups that changed the government. Our excursion today was "A lazy cruise down the river" which is exactly what it was. We cruised on the Gambia River that was lined on both sides by Mangroves. We were told that oysters grew on all of these mangroves.  We saw some interesting birds.  We stopped once along the way for any one who wanted to swim.  We had a delightful lunch of several different types of salad, a cottage pie, which is like a shepherds pie only made with beef instead of lamb, and a fish dish.  We stopped again after lunch for anyone who wanted to fish. And that was it.  No Markets or churches or mosques. Just a quiet, relaxing boat ride with pleasant conversation with Australian and Canadian fellow passengers. 

We have another two days of "at sea" so you probably won't hear from us for another two days.

Mindelo, Cape Verde

 Thursday, November 14,  2014

Monday evening we sailed out of Arrecife in the Canary Islands, spent Tuesday and Wednesday at sea, arriving Thursday morning in Mindelo, Cape Verde. The two days at sea were a nice break from four straight days of excursions.  We slept in, read, napped, played cribbage, and drank when we wanted to.  The weather was great, the sea was reasonably calm; it was delightful. We were awake when the ship arrived in Mindelo and we were greeted by stunning scenery.  Cape Verde is made up of 10 islands.  We sailed between three of them as we arrived at the Mindelo port. As always, Tim will post pictures on his Facebook page. Our tour this morning was titled "Mindelo - the Cultural Capital".  The word, Cultural, was used rather loosely in this case.  Our first stop was an outdoor market of about a dozen stalls.  Each was selling the same products; cheap t-shirts, colorful womens clothing, and all sorts of carved wooden items. Some of the stallkeepers were more aggressive then others. Tim had a very difficult time extracting himself from one.  She spoke very little english but made it clear she would starve to death if Tim didn't buy a t-shirt. Next we stopped at the Old Square of Mindelo. At one end of the relative small square was a catholic church built in the 1860's. Eighty percent of Cape Verdeans are catholic. The church was very plain looking on the outside and we did not go inside so we were not sure of the point of the visit. At the other end of ths square was an indoor market. This market sold primary fruit and vegatables. After walking through the market we climbed to the second floor and had a great view looking down at the stalls. There was also a small store on the second floor selling higher class souvenirs and clothing including crocheted bikinis (!). From the "Old Square" it was only natural that we next stopped at the "New Square". This square was even smaller and featured statues of the Prime Minister who ended slavery in Cape Verde and a famous poet. Of more interest was the National Center for Art and Design at one end of the square. There were a few interesting art works and a display of guitars and drums. The drums were said to be made in 2019 but looked a century older.  They featured goat skin heads and used rope to provide the proper tension for the drum head. Very strange. The final stop of the day made up for the first three.  We were taken to a restaurant where we enjoyed typical Cape Verde snacks and Cape Verde rum while watching a young man and women present a thirty minute dance performance. They were accompanied by a guitar player and violin player who also provide vocals. The vocals were sung in one of the seven languages of Cape Verde so we did not understand the words, but we got the gist of the songs from watching the dancers. It was very entertaining.

Tomorrow we have another day at sea before arriving in Dakar, Senegal Saturday morning.

Agadir, Morocco

 Sunday, November 10, 2024

The pier at which our ship docked is on the outskirts of Agadir.  From the ship Agadir looked considerably more inviting then Casablanca, particularly considering that it is a city of 3 million people. Also from the ship Morocco looked more like we expected; lots of hilly, brown sand/dirt mixed with scrub brush.

The first stop of our excursion was the Kasbah. We learned that Kasbah means fortress in arabian.  The Kasbah had a commanding view from atop a large hill.  Stopping here was basically a photo op.  We must say the views were stunning.  Leaving the Kasbah, we drove into the city of Agadir.  Agadir was a cleaner, more modern and vibrant city then Casablanca. We made the required stop at the principal Mosque of Agadir.  It was not as large or impressive as the Hassan II Mosque. However, Tim conveniently forgot that he was not to enter the Mosque and slipped inside for a quick picture. Needless to say, Lynda was terribly proud.

In 1960 there was a powerful earthquake that destroyed a portion of the old town of Agadir. We passed through this area where we saw much empty property that had not been rebuilt on.  Our guide also pointed out a cinema where many people were watching a movie and survived the earthquake because the cinema was not destroyed. We then arrived at a Medina, which is a small walled city.  This particular Medina was abandoned and then purchased by an enterprising entrepreneur and now has many high end craft and clothing shops.  There is still an open Mosque in the Medinda. The archetecture was also very interesting.

Our final stop was the Suak Al Hab. It is one of the largest suaks in all of Africa with some 6000 shops in it. We had been looking forward to this stop as we have loved visiting previous suaks in this part of the world. We were very disappointed. One of our fellow travelers refered to  it as a large flea market, an apt description.  Like most suaks, each shop was selling only one particular product but in the Suak Al Had there was actually more of the product then could reasonably fit in the small area, thus most shops were uninviting. Another big difference was the big diversity in products.  We walked through areas of shops with brand name electronics, followed by lots of shops with high- end, attractive rugs. Another area was full of furniture of a reasonable quality. If the shopkeepers were not waiting on a customer they sat on a stool with a very bored expression. There was none of the loud hawking of shopkeepers.  Absolutely no energy at all in the suak. It was like a large K-Mart with poorly displayed merchandise. 

The excursion was not a total loss.  We did have the beautiful views from the Kasbah and our tour guide was the most entertaining we have had so far.

It is Monday, November 11 and we are docked at Arrecife in the Canary Islands.  We had booked a tour that took us to a shop where we would learn all about Aleo Vera.  We have decided to cancel this excursion.  Tim may  take a shuttle bus into Arrecife and wander about a bit.  The next two days we are at sea so there won't be anything to blog about. We will return in a couple of days.

"Here's looking at you kid" Humphery Bogart "Casablanca"

Saturday, November 9, 2024

Yes, we are in Casablanca. Lynda has been having some mobility issues. When we walk any distance at all she needs a cane, so we planned our excursions off of the boat accordingly.  This mornings excursion was another drive by like yesterday so we figured there would be no problem. What we did not plan on was the very long walk from the ship to the terminal where we boarded the bus. Lynda took one look at the distance and told Tim "have a good time, I'm going back to the cabin."  So this blog is from Tim's perspective. 

I'm not sure what I expected in Casablance but it wasn't a city of four million people, at times falling apart, other times elegant but poorly maintained, and other times modern shopping areas.  But there were highlights.  The first was the Hassan II Mosque, the largest mosque in Africa and third largest in the world. 100,000 people can pray in this Mosque at one time; 25,000 inside the  Mosque and another 75,000 in the huge open area court outside the Mosque.  Very beautiful and impressive.  Our guide seemed quite impressed with the beaches along the Atlantic Ocean.  I did not find them nearly as nice as the beaches and ajoining restaurants and hotels in Cadiz.  We did walk through an area built about a century ago for people moving from the nearby mountains into  Casablanca that was interesting. There was a large government building with a number bookstores on the same street.  Our guide kept referring to them as a library.  We then walked through a small market area with shops of leather goods, clothing, mostly kafkas (think hajibs but worn by both men and women) and metal works. There was also a small market dedicated to olives, at least 11 variaties, in large open containers that were purchased by the pound or the metric equivalent.  The final stop on this brief walking tour was the Kings Palace.  We only saw the outside entrance which was only semi impressive. Our last stop was free time to shop for souvenirs. Our past experience has been that this was a shop the cruise line had a deal with. For the novice traveler this was a good deal as it was safe, the goods for sale were of a reasonably good quality and prices were not outrageous. I made a brief tour through this shop and then went across the road to the old town area where the more traditional shops were.  Two different men tried to force me to their shops off the street where I probably would have been taken advantage of. I strongly refused both offers. But, on the other hand, this was more authentic and fun to walk through then the place our guide had taken us..

Our ship has too upscale restaurants that, while there is no upcharge, reservations are required. We ate tonight at the steak house agreeing to share a table with two other people. We expected to greet another couple at our table but instead met two English women, one a divorced women our age from the Essex area of England and the other an older woman, either divorced or widowed, from Guernsey Island. Both were delightful dinner companions and we enjoyed an excellent meal. After dinner we attended out first show in the theater.  It was a Hollywood Movie Musical review. The singing, dancing, costumes and choreography were all top draw.  Tim's only complaint was the music was all prerecorded and over amplified so the singers had to wear microphones which, of course, made the whole production too loud.  Still, it was excellent and a wonderful way to end an enjoyaable evening.

Cadiz, Spain

 Friday, November 8, 2024

We can't believe we have already been gone a week on this grand adventure. It will be the longest single trip we have ever taken.  Thankfully, we have nine days left on our itinerary where we are at sea the whole day to give us a chance to rest our weary bodies.

Today we are in Cadiz, Spain, located in Andulusia in the very south of Spain. Cadiz has a fascinating history.  It was first conquered by the Phoenicians who were then driven out of Spain by the Roman Empire.  Sometime around the 6th or 7th centuries, the Moors came across the Straits of Gilbraltar and occupied much of Spain.  In the 15th century the Spaniards finally drove the Moors back to Africa.  Ever since, Spain has been left to fight among themselves.

We have been in Spain several times and this may be the first time we have taken time to appreciate Spains unique archetectural style. Cadiz has passed laws that when buildings are torn down and rebuilt or even just renovated the building must retain the same archetecture.  Our cruise line refers to Cadiz as "the Gateway to Seville".  Other cruise lines probably do the same.  The Cadiz Chamber of Commerce should be angry about this. Cadiz deserves to be celebrated on its own.  This morning we took a bus tour around this city of 150,000 people. We saw a nine kilometer long beach along the coast of the Atlantic Ocean that tourists flock to ever Spring and Autumn.  We drove by a large, beautiful Cathedral that sits next to a lovely Mosque built by the Moors that is now also a catholic church. We saw a bridge that the locals call the "hanging bridge" because it looks like it hangs in mid-air without any support and is the longest suspension bridge in Western Europe.  We heard about the locally produced Sherry Wine that is so loved the citizens of Cadiz think water is only used for showers. And finally, if that weren't enough, we saw the beach where Halle Berry walked out of the ocean in a stunning orange bikini to be met by James Bond with a mojito.  You get the picture.  We liked Cadiz.

Barcelona Pt. Dos

 Monday, November 5, 2024

Today's itinerary was a bus tour of Barcelona.  Our first stop was the Sagrada Familia. This was to be only an outside tour of the Basillica, that being the reason we came to Barcelona a day early. Yesterday we sat in pious silence in awe of its stunning beauty. Here are a few interesting facts we learned today.  Sagrada Familia means "Sacred Family"   While not as obvious as older cathedrals, the interior is in the traditional shape of a cross. Four towers of spires form a semi-circle around each end of the cross, a four more do the same at the top end of the cross.  The 12 towers represent the desiples. At the point where the two pieces of the cross intersect, four spires in each corner representing the four apostles; Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. There is 17th spire that rises higher than these 16 and has a large star at its top. This spire respresents Mother Mary. Finally, there is an even larger spire, as yet uncompleted, that will be higher then all the others which, of course, represents Jesus.  The Basillica is situated so the top of the cross faces toward the north. Gaudi planned this so as the sun rises it shines on the eastern entrance to Sagrada Familia above which is statuary that represents the birth of the Christ child and then sets over the western entry above which is statuary representing His crucifixtion.

It began raining as we toured the Basillica and by the time we boarded out bus it was a full blown thunder storm with heavy rain. Our next stop was to be a one hour walking tour of the Grotto/Old Town section of Barcelona but after a quick consultation among our tour guides, it was decided to cancel this part of the tour.  This did not bother us because seven years ago we rented an Airbnb apartment in the grotto so we were very familiar with this area.

This desicion made, we traveled on to our last stop of the day, Mt. Jiuc. That is probaby an overstatement, but is easier to say Mr. Juic then Very Large Hill Juic. On the way to Mt. Juic we passed through the venue for the 1992 Summer Olympic games.  Our destination was a building originally intended for a Worlds's Fair that was never held because of the Great Depression. It is now used as a cultural site where examples of archetecture from the differenct regions of Spain are on display.  There are also many small shops of various kinds. This were not the typical souvenier shops but sold authentic crafts and jewelery, etc.

Tuesday night we had dinner at the roof top terrace of our hotel, The Majestic Hotel and Spa. This hotel was built in the early 20th century and, after many upgrades over the years to keep up with visitors expectations, still has the same "old world" charm that the first visitors experienced.  We had a wonderful meal of traditional Tapas, basically fancy appetizers.  One of the culinary traditions of Spain is to spend an evening going from Tapas bar to Tapas bar enjoying a never-ending variety of different Tapas.  We enjoyed our meal of Tapas with wonderful views of Barcelona encluding the Sagrada Familia bathed in light.

Wednesday was our final day in Barcelona with our bus tour ending at the pier for us to embark the Regent Seven Seas Voyagor.  In the late 1800's Spains labor movement was in total disarray which, of course, was having a negative impact on the Spainish ecomony.  An influential businessman named Guell, as in Park Guell, sought to create a colony where he could provide his workers homes, schools, stores, restaurants, all the basic amenities people need, thus ensuring a happy, productive work force.  This was called Guell Colonia and was our first stop of the day. Guell's colony also needed a church and Guell hired a young, unknown architect named Antoni Gaudi (!) to design his church. Unfortunately the church was never finished but the crypt still remains and is still in use. Gaudi used this commission to test his archetectural theories, many of which he later used in designing the Sagrada Familia. He believed the straight line was man's invention and instead used nature as his guide.  The columns used for the entry to the crypt were shaped like trees branching out to hold up the canapy over the entrance.  This is hard to describe  so check out the pictures on Tim's Facebook page. Just like the Sagrada Familia, this crypt was stunning.

Our last stop may have been our favorite stop in Barcelona.  At the very least, the most fun. We visited the Friexenet Winery, makers of the world famous Friexenet sparkling wine. Wines have many various appellations.  For example, in Italy for a wine to be called a chianti, it must come from a certain area of Italy and meet the requirements of that appellation. In Spain the same thing holds true. In order to be called a Cava wine it must meet the requirements of the Cava appellation.  During our tour we learned of how modern technology has changed the wine making process. The best part of the tour was the luncheon after the tour where we were able to sample several of the Cavas.

It is Thursday morning as we finish this blog enrty.  We are cruising along the east coast of Spain heading for the Straits of Gibralter and then sailing on to Cadiz, Spain, arriving there Friday morning.  Unfortunately,  we believe we will be sailing through the Straits in the middle of the night so we probably won't see the Rock of Gibraltar.  It is a beautiful day with calm seas. A perfect day for relaxing.

Welcome to Barcelona

November 3, 2024

Over our 40 years of traveling we have never had a piece of luggage not arrive at our destination until yesterday.  We arrived in Barcelona with no problems until luggage claim where one of our pieces was not there.  We reported our missing luggage to lost luggage and were told through the magic of the internet that said piece of luggage was still in Frankfurt.  It is Sunday evening as we compose this blog post and we still have not received our lost bag. Fortunately our cruise does not leave until Wednesday so there is time for it to arrive. 

A quick aside.  As Lynda naps, Tim is composing the blog in our hotel's bar enjoying a gin and tonic and a wonderful Spanish tradition.  Instead of nuts being served as an accompaniment to the drink, there is a small dish of olives.  Excellent, unless you don't enjoy fresh Spanish olives.

We booked a 3 day  pre-cruise tour of Barcelona which starts tomorrow.  We came a day early on purpose.  Today was Antoni Gaudi day.  Gaudi was a late 19th century Spanish architect and designer.  He designed both Park Guell and Sagrada Familia which we visited today.  We started our visit at Park Guell (pronounce Park Well) and then continued on to Sagrada Familia (pronounce Sagrada Familia),  both designed by Gaudi.  We were in Barcelona seven years ago and visited Park Guell but did not do it justice. Today we discussed this faux paux and could not come up with a reason for it occurring.  The park is located on a high hill over looking Barcelona.  Our primary destination in the park was a large open area that featured stunning views of Barcelona, including the Sagrada Familia. The main feature of this open area, aside from its view of Barcelona, is  a large semi-circular concrete bench enbeded with beautiful, colorfully contemporary, mosaics. Check out Tim's Facebook page for pictures. As we were walking about the park we heard and saw many wild parakeets in the palm trees.  Tim commented that thep poor birds probably never learned to talk.  We also walked past several artists displaying their work.  One caught our eyes.  A small depiction of the towers of the Sagrada Familia. You will see it on the wall in the lower level of our house providing us a beautiful memory of our time in Barcelona.

Leaving Park Guell, we took a taxi to the Sagrada Familia.  Before leaving home we had reserved tickets at specific times for both venues.  We arrived at the Sagrada Familia well ahead of our reserved time and were lucky to find an outdoor table at a small bar/restaurant directly in front of this magnificent Catheral.  We visited the Cathedral seven years ago, but because our tour tomorrow only does a drive-by visit, we wanted to go inside again.  As we sat at our table having lunch we noticed many changes from our previous visit.  Seven years ago there were very few restaurants  in the immediate area.  Now there are many that, unfortunately,  include McDonalds, Five Guys, and KFC.  Building the Sagrada Familia began in 1886 and is still not complete.  Our time sitting having lunch  enabled us to spend time observing all that had been done to the exterior since out last visit. We both remarked that seven years ago we had not taken enough time to immerse ourselves into the intricacies of the exterior of the building. The next surprise was when we entered the Cathedral.  Seven years ago we also needed a timed ticket to enter but we just went through a gate where our ticket was checked and we went into the building.  Today we went through a very involved security procedure that would put airport security to shapme.  Besides the usual removing every thing from our pockets, we were also required to remove watches.  We have visited many of the major Cathedrals of Europe.  From a classical point of view, our favorite cathedral exterior is Notre Dame in Paris.  Our favorite classical interior is St. Peters Basilica in Vatican City. But because we love contemporary art,  the Sagrada Familia is our favorite inside and out. We spent an hour inside the Cathedral just sitting and absorbing the stunning beauty of this immense edifice.  Again, check Tim's Facebook page for pictures.

Today was a wonderful start to this great adventure we are pursuing. Tomorrow we begin our pre-cruise tour.