Voodoo, Moonscape, and Table Top Mountain

 Throughout our trip down the west coast of Africa we have had trouble with inconsistent internet access. The cruise line claims each country has different laws regarding the internet. We believe the cruise line is telling us the truth but we additionally believe that the infrastructure in many of these countries in no way measures up to what we are use to back home. Combine this with your bloggers continuing to have "senior moments" when dealing with technology and you will understand why some of our postings have not been timely.

Saturday, November 23,  2024 found us in Lome, Togo. Our excursion had one stop, a Voodoo Ceremony.  We once again faced the unfortunate circumstance where there was only one guide for 4 bus loads of tourists. We were again at the back of the pack so we did not hear the description of the ceremony we were about to see. When we finally arrived at the site of the ceremony all of the seating had been taken. Fortunately, we found a seat for Lynda in another area which gave her an excellent view of the festivities. Tim found a place to stand that was close to the action for the taking of excellent pictures.  There were about a dozen dancers and the usual compliment of Africa drummers. The dancers would dance about and then suddenly one would start dancing so fast it appeared the dancer was having a seizure.  Several other dancers immediately surrounded the dancer and hold him or her until they had calmed down. This happened regularly during the ceremony. There was an older male dancer, obviously the "grand pooba", who slowly circulated trying to maintain calm. He even succumbed to a seizure and was calmed and led away. About two thirds into the ceremony a single male dancer ended up kneeling on the ground. Another dancer approached him and sprinkled a while powder in a circle around the kneeling man, eventually sprinkle the powder on his head. Then two dancers, holding sticks with gourds attached started dancing in  front of the kneeling man and would touch the man with the gourds on his head, chest, and legs. While this was occurring  a live chicken was placed on the kneeling man's head.  At this same time, a woman dancer had a seizure in front of where Tim was standing. She was tackled by three other women, all of whom fell into the spectator standing in front of Tim causing him to fall backwards into a cactus plant.  Without going into all the gory details, probably a hundred half inch needles were removed from Tim's arms, back and legs. One of the cruise lines Destination Consultants was on this excursion and talked briefly with Tim explaining that she would need to file an "incident report" when she returned to the ship. Back on board, a nurse from the medical staff visited Tim in our suite and removed about 20 more needles. Tim has recovered and, other then some residual embarrassment, has recovered nicely.  He looks forward to intense teasing from family and friends.

After several relaxing days at sea, we arrived on Thanksgiving Day in Walvis Bay, Namibia. Our excursion was an hour long drive in the desert to visit Moonscape Valley. Lynda has always complained that on our many cruises, we spend too much time in cities and not enough time seeing the countryside.  In a "be careful what you wish for " moment, Lynda enjoyed an hour of virually the same view of desert nothingness. The Moonscape Valley made up for this. We approached the Valleys from the top. The valleys were all stone, no sand and very stark and foreboding.  We drove down a road into one of the valley's and discovered they were equally impressive looking up as looking down.

We had heard from fellow passengers that the main restaurant on board our ship was going to having a Thanksgiving meal for us.  Thanksgiving  night, among the entre items on the menu, was Roasted Thanksgiving Turkey with Stuffing, Mashed Sweet Potatoes and Cranberry sauce. Dessert included Pumpkin Pie. All of our meals on the cruise have been excellent. Tonight's Thanksgiving meal was no exception.  But something was missing.  After much discussion we solved the problem. Thanksgiving is family coming together with love, to fix the meal using family recipes and then the family gathering together to enjoy the meal and being together. We knew we would miss this but didn't realize how much.

On Saturday the 30th we arrived at the terminus of our cruise, Cape Town, South Africa. From our ship's balcony we enjoyed a fantastic view of Cape Town against the backdrop of Table Top Mountain.  In January, 2020, just before the pandemic, we were in Cape Town. One of our excursions then was a trip to the top of Table Top Mountain.  Because of weather we were not able to make that trip. This time we did. Table Top Mountain gets its name bacause, wait for it, the top is flat, like a table top. We discovered that Table Top Mountain is one of the "new" 7 Natural Wonders of the World.  The top of the mountain is 3500 feet above sea level.  We rode a gondola that held 65 peoplemjnto the top.  It was a 7 minute trip, at the end was quite steep.  To add to the thrill,  the inside floor of the gondola slowly rotated. Waiting in line for the ride up, the temperature was in the mid to upper 70's with no wind. At the top the temperature was probably 20 degrees cooler with a high wind. But the views were breathtaking. It bares repeating. Check Tim's Facebook page for pictures.

As we compose this post we are sitting in the business lounge at Cape Town International Airport awaiting our arduous trip home. Some final thoughts.  This is the longest trip we have taken. The good news is we our still talking and snuggling regularly.  We have thoroughly enjoyed the trip and have added 9 new countries to our list of countries visited.  We now claim to have visited over half the countries in the world. While we enjoyed our cruise, West Africa has little to offer for the tourist. At the end of the trip most of the ports of call all seemed the same and we cannot, unfortunately,  remember each one seperately.  Most of the places we visited were ill prepared to handle a large number of tourists at the same time. On the other hand, every where we went the locals were very friendly.  Tim has a bit of a negative point of view because he had few preconceived ideas of what we would see. Meanwhile, Lynda, having thought more about the trip ahead of time, realized we were visiting third world countries and knew what to expect. Finally,  Tim still can't figure out how, in a predominantly black culture, all of the mannequins in the womens shops were white.

As always remember the words of Michael Palin of Monty Python fame. Once the travel bug bites there is no known antidote, and I know that I shall be happily infected until the end of my life.

You do that Voodoo that you do so well. Lyrics from a great old song, "You do something to me"

 November 23, 2024

To begin today's blog, we need to apologize 

Abidjan, Ivory Coast and Tokoradi, Ghana

 November 20, 2024

We docked this morning in Abidjan, Ivory Coast and immediately noted that this was the dirtiest harbor we have ever seen.  We could not believe all of the waste floating around our ship.  By the time we returned from our excursion early afternoon, the temperature was in the mid-80's and all that trash was beginning to smell.    

As for our excursion.  We left the pier at 11:00 in a seven bus convoy escorted by six motorcycle police officers. The traffic was horrendous but our escorts expertly cleared the traffic so we cruised right along to our first stop which was the Abidjan Botanical Gardens. On the way to the Gardens, Tim asked our guide if the clearing of traffic for us created animosity on the part of the locals toward tourists. He admitted it did. Then one of our group asked how many ships docked in Abidjan.  The guide answered about three a month. When we arrived at the Gardens three of the buses had left us for a nearby site. That meant that our four buses, probably 130 of us were at the Gardens. If was at this point we realized it was going to be a long day; Ivory Coast tour people were rookies at the whole tour thing.  The Botanical Gardens were going to provide the guides for our tour of the gardens.  They provide one!  This solo guide had a bullhorn which he never used and when he stopped to explain something he never waited for everybody to catch up. Lynda quickly decided to sit at a picnic table near the buses while Tim took the tour.  By the time Tim got Lynda situated he was hopelessly behind the guide.  There were few flowers in bloom and the only other plants of interest were large groups of bamboo.  Tim soon gave up on the tour and returned to where Lynda was sitting. There seemed to be little enthusiasm among our returning passengers about the visit. Our next stop was an orphanage.  All of us were ushered into a room much too small for a group our size. The building we were in was a beautiful old building. The room we were in was a large rectangle with probably a twenty foot ceiling.  This meant poor accoustics which, combined with a poor sound system resulted in no one really understanding what was said during the 15 minute speech. They obviously weren't looking for donations because there was no collection bucket out. Kind of made us wonder what was the point.  From the Orphanage we went to the Museum of Civilization. What an overstatement.  In 1962 an artist by the last name of Combes opened a school of art and the applied arts. The "museum" was a display of wood carvings by Combes showing how women's hair style changed during the 60's.  Admittedly, these carvings were very well done. The museum also displayed art created by the students, also excelllent. Check Tim's Facebook  page for pictures. The next stop was the St. Paul Cathedral in Abidjan. The Cathedral was just completed in 2023 and is quite contempary. Not like La Sagrada Familia but still stunning.  Two interesting features; the Cathedral is not built in the shape of a cross and the back of the building is about 15 ft tall, floor to ceiling, and then sweeps up dramatically towards the alter.  Again, to understand what we are trying to explain, check Tim's Facebook page.  The last stop was the d'reguer stop at a market. Like all of the previous markets that our cruise has actually let us browse, this was a high end market.  Unfortunately, because of the general lack of organization in the tour, we were given ten minutes to spend in the Market! Really!  The Cote D'Ivoire will not be among our favorite stops.

If this is Thursday, November 21, 2024 this must be Takoradi, Ghana. As our loyal readers know,  Lynda invariably finds a day where she decides: "Not for me today. Have fun Tim". Today was the day.  The excursion started with drive-by's that Tim won't even begin to describe, they were that boring.  Monkey Hill anyone?  The first actual stop was a major fishing port in Sekondi, right next to Takoradi. They are considered the Twin Cities of Ghana.  While not exactly Minneapolis/St.Paul, we'll give them some slack.  There had to be at least a hundred fishing boats in this port. Today happened to be a day when they were not fishing. It turns out this "fishing village" has a conscience. They do not fish two days a week and take the whole month of August off from fishing in order to maintain the vitality of their fishing grounds. Today was one of the non-fishing days so there was a party like atmosphere around the docks. First we were shown how the large blocks of ice that each fishing boat needs to keep its catch fresh are made. It is an amzing process.  Tim can't explain it clearly enough (he's had two G and T's while writing this blog) the process but in a matter of minutes they took a large steel ice tray, for lack of a better description, and froze ten large blocks of ice.  Again check the Facebook page for pictures. From there we wonder around the docks where people were selling stuff including fresh caught fish. There were a number of women wondering among everone, balancing containers on their heads, selling fish, food products, etc.  Tim even saw one woman balancing a container that contained women's bras.  Tim never saw anyone trying on any of the bras. As we left the docks we stopped briefly for a photo op at the place where the fishing boats are built. The rest of the tour was the usual. A stop at a Market and a stop at a "Cultural Experience".  More African drums and dancers. It was a very hot and muggy day, temps and humidity in the mid-80's. None of us were disappointed to get back to the ship.

Tim was suprised to arrive back at the cabin on board ship to find Lynda dressed and ready to go to lunch, which we did. After lunch we went back off the ship to where many stalls had been set up on our pier, selling the usual souvenier clothing, art and crafts. We actully bought each other  a matching shirt, for Tim, and dress, for Lynda. Our children/grandchildren will be embarrassed. 

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.

The End of an Exceptional Cruise

July 26, 2024

This trip would have been an overwhelming success just because we were with our children, Jilayne and Jeffrey, and thier spouses, Rob and Heather. The fact that we all were entralled with the whole week in Iceland made it exceptional. Unfortunately, we all fly home tomorrow and reality will set in on Sunday.

Thursday we were in Djupivogur,  the only bad weather day we had on the trip. It rained, at times hard, during our entire excursion.  The good news is that we were on a bus the whole time except for two stops for photo opps.  The first was along the fjord, again with breathtaking scenry.  This time it was enhanced with the low hanging clouds.  The second stop was in the "valley of the waterfalls".  The waterfall we stopped at was the most impressive of the many we saw.  This is another opportunity to suggest that you visit Tim's Facebook page for lots of pictures.  We had a particularly good tour guide on this tour. He was both informative and humorous. Previous tour guides  had pointed out fish farms in the fjords, but our guide on Thursday was only one to explain that the farms were owned by Norwegian companies and these farms were creating an enviromental problem.  Fish farms are cages in the fjords where mostly cod and salmon are raised. The problem is that some of the fish escape the cages and infect the wild fish with  a desease called skin lice. We asked why the government didn't do something about this. He said tour guides were not to speak badly of the government or even talk about Icelandic politics, but he was able to vaguely suggest  that the government was not trying hard enough to solve this problem. He also told us that all the myths and lullabies in Iceland ended with someone dying. He read us the lyrics of a particularly popular lullaby and then sang it in Icelandic. The words were very sad and, in fact, had the baby dying at the end. It was  beautiful when sung in Icelandic. There is actually a very good reason why the lullabies are like this.  In the 17th century when these lullabies were created most everyone lived in turf houses with poor heat and little food. It was a very hard life and many parents thought their babies would be better off in the after life.

Friday turned out to be the best day weatherwise; temperatures in the upper 50's with abundant sun.  We are in Heimaey in the Westland(?) Islands.  Tim and Lynda did not signup for an excursion today.  The children are on an ATV excursion. There was an excursion Tim wanted to sign up for, an e-scooter trip to see a Puffin colony. Tim was outvoted 5 to 1 from taking the excursion. He did go into the village and enquire about a taxi taking him out to the Puffin colony.  It was reasonably priced but the driver would not wait for Tim to take some pictures and bring him back to the boat.  He would drop Tim off and return later. Tim wasn't wild about the thought of standing among the Puffins waiting for the taxi and watching our ship sail off toward Reykjavik. 

Usually our blog is full of many references to the fine meals we have had during our travels. A quick word about the food onboard the Viking Mars. The food was excellent in all three of the restaurants on board.  The only disappointment was Manfredi's, the Italian specialty restaurant.  While the food was very good, the service was no where near the quality of service in the other restaurants.

Thanks to  those of you who have read our blog and to all of you that responded on Facebook to our pictures as they were posted.  We look forward to having you join us vicariously on our next adventure.

Two Quaint Icelandic Villages

 Wednesday, July 24, 2024

Tuesday morning we docked in Akureyri, the second largest city in Iceland. Like yesterday, when we opened our cabin's drapes we looked out on  spectacular scenery. Most of the mountains are covered in green vegetation and if you look carefully at times we can see blue artic lupines in bloom. One of our guides told us that erosion is a major problem in the mountains so the government had small planes fly close to the bottoms of the mountains, literally throwing large quantities of artic lupine seed out of the plane. Where the lupines have taken hold they help control the erosion as well as look good.  We can also see many small streams flowing down the mountains created by the melting snow that is also in view. 

The first of our two stops on our excursion in Akureyri was to a botanical garden. We were a bit unsure of how nice the garden could be in such a northern climate, but it turns out the gulf stream flows along the west coast of Ireland moderating the climate. The garden was beautiful with abundant  flowers in bloom.  Many of the flowers we recognized such as foxgloves and dahlias. The foxgloves were particular impressive with several varieties we've not seen before.  We saw several other flowers we really  liked and noted their names so we can research them at home as to whether they will grow in our flower zone.

Once back on the bus we went up the mountain to a large ski resort that contained 17 different ski runs. The sole purpose of this stop was for us to get out of the bus and admire the scenry  from the top of the mountain as opposed to the bottom. It was every bit as spectacular from the top as it is from the bottom.

Akureyri is only 62 miles from the artic circle.  During dinner as we were sailing towards our next port of call, we were informed that we had actually crossed over into the artic circle. We will receive official certificates as proof of this accomplishment.

It is Wednesday as I (Tim) sit on our veranda writing this blog posting.  It is taking some time to write because I can't stop looking up the mountains along the fjord. As much as we love the setting of our house with the beautiful flower beds we've created and the woods and meadow surrounding us, it will look pretty boring compared to this.  We are docked in Seydisfjordur, a tiny village of 700 people. Despite its diminutive size it has several claims to fame.  Many, many years ago it was one of the three finalists for the honor of becoming the capitol of Iceland. In the 1800's a very wealth entrepreneur built a dam across the river in the village that allowed Seydisfjordur to become the first village in Iceland with electricity.  The same gentleman also paid for the first telephone cable that was laid between Europe and Iceland. Unfortunately, most of the excursions offered were too physically demanding  for us, so we opted for the walk around the village with a tour guide that ended with a very professional concert by a male and female vocalist. He did not tell us much more then what we have already related to you in the blog  (!!!) Just thought of an interesting fact that is applicable to all the small towns in which we've have been .  Most of the houses in these towns were built in Norway, dismantled and shipped to Iceland and rebuilt here.  This is because there are very few trees in Iceland.

We will be back in a couple of days for the conclusion of our trip.

Welcome to Iceland

Monday, July 22, 2024

We discovered very quickly that it never gets dark at night this time of year in Iceland. So we have added another unanswerable questions to the list that includes "What is the meaning of Life?"  What is the exact time that dusk becomes dawn?

Five years ago  we took our children, Jil and Jeff, and their spouses, Rob and Heather on a cruise in the Caribbean to celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary.  Grandchildren were not included and our children were thrilled. They enjoyed so much that at the end of the cruise they asked if we could do it again for our 55th aniversary.  Last fall we told them our 55th was coming up so we needed to plan the next cruise and where we were going to go. They surprised us by quickly responding "Iceland".  So here we are.

We were scheduled to fy out of Detroit last Friday evening. Of course we woke up Friday morning to find the airline industry in chaos. When it was time to leave for the airport United Airlines still had our flight listed as leaving on time.  By the time we arrived at Detroit Metro our Chicago flight was now delayed 2 hours which was not a problem because our flight to Reykjavik was also delayed.  The only problem we faced was Tim and Lynda being re-introduced to the joys of flying in coach. Our last cruise in March had business class airfare included.  We finally boarded our ship about noon on Saturday.  We were lucky. We were told there were about 150 passengers who's flights had been canceled.  After lunch we spent the rest of the day unpacking, napping and exploring the ship.

We had an afternoon excursions scheduled, so Lynda, Tim, Jil and Rob, took the cruise schuttle bus into Reykjavik  to explore the old town section.  It was the only opportunity to see any of Reykjavik.  Sunday morning Jeff and Heather wanted to sleep in and enjoy their first morning without teenagers in the house. Our first stop was the beautiful and somewhat contemporary appearing Lutheran Cathedral. The outside facade was everything we expected and the interior was a very simple, but impressive design as one expects in a country with Scandinavian roots.  In front of the cathedral was a statue of Lief Ericksson that was given to Iceland by the United States in celebration of the 1000th anniversary of the Iceland parliment.  From the cathedral we were walking toward the main pedestrian shopping street of Reykjavik. Unfortunately Lynda became ill so Tim and Lynda found a taxi and returned to the ship.  Jil and Rob reported many interesting shops including a photographic art gallery where they bought a couple of impressive prints for their home.

Besides volcanos, Iceland is famous for the many geothermal hot springs that occur all over the country.   We were told that geothermal springs provide 90 percent of the energy for Iceland.  Our excursion on Sunday was to Sky Lagoon where a large pool built out of the lava stone is filled with water from one of these springs.  The pool is only 4 feet deep and has a long infinty wall right on the edge of the Atlantic Ocean.  The temperature is a toasty 100 degrees.  Convienently there is also a walk up (doggy paddled up?) bar.  The Lagoon also has a program called "The Ritual"  which we all took.  It starts with a plunge into a pool of cold water, followed by sitting in a sauna. We sat in the sauna for about 10 minutes and then went into a room called the "cold water mist" room. From there you picked up a bowl containg salt and essential oils and rubbed it all over your body, except your face and then went immediately into a steam room to melt the salt off of you and open your pores.  The last stop was the cold plunge again but I don't think any of us did. We spent some more time in the pool before we returned to the ship. We all felt very refreshed but also felt in need of a nap.

Sunday evening our ship left Reykjavik  and Monday morning we woke up  anchored in a fjord off of Isafjordur. Don't ask us to pronounce it.  It turns out that Isafjordur is a fishing village and is the worlds largest producer of medical grade fish skin. Fish skin has been found to significantly shorten the healing time after surgeries. We also visited Bolungarvik where we visited the Museum  of the fishing industry.  It basically was a group of old buildings and an old boat that was used for fishing in the time before the cumbustion engine. A young man did give an interesting and humorous brief lecture about what fishing was like back in the day. The other stop was at a small but beautiful waterfall cascading down a mountain.  Our guide had a plastic pitcher that he dipped into the stream and offered us a drink of the water.  It was cold, clear and delicious. Probably the highlight of todays excursion was the fantastic scenery we saw.

Due to technical issues beyond our understanding we are not posting pictures on the blog.  Go to Tim's Facebook page for pictures.

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.