Last two days

 March 22, 2026

We anchored off of Komodo Island, part of Indonesia, this morning. We had not signed up for an excursion at this port of call so Tim went down to the destination desk to see if there was a village at the end of the pier where our tenders dropped us off that we could visit. Turns out the entirety of Komodo Island is an Indonesian National Park, meaning at the end of the pier were only hiking trails. But there was an excursion that was a 2 hour hike through the park hoping to see Komodo Dragons. So while Lynda enjoyed "alone time" on the ship Tim went Dragon hunting. Komodo Dragons are the largest of the Molitor Lizard family.  They grow to be 10 to 12 feet long and are quite viscous.  After about 20 minutes of hiking we came to a water hole where we saw our first two Dragons. Our guide did not out and out admit it, but the National Park keeps this water hole filled with water so that chances are very good that there will Komodo's at the water hole waiting other animals to approached the water hole and become the Dragons dinner. One of my fellow passengers, observing that the Komodo's were not moving much, cynically suggested that the park was putting something in the water to sedate the animals.  The Dragon did basically just lay there. Tim did see the Komodo blink its eyes a couple of times. At one point it even raised up a few inches on its front legs and growl which caused all of us to quickly back up a few steps. While not able to categorically deny the presensence of a sedative in the water, Tim hopes that is not the case. We moved on about 20 yards to a large mound of dirt just off our path that was probably 4 or 5 feet tall. A bird or birds about the size of a turkey built this mound. The Komodo's then tunneled into the mound to lay their eggs. When the baby was ready to leave the mound it peered out the hole looking for mom and/or dad. If niether were present it scurred up a nearby palm tree where it would live for the next five years, surviving on any lizards, reptiles, or birds that unfortunately came its way. Komodo Dragons are known to eat their young. The rest of the hike was uneventful, meaning no more sightings of Komodo Dragons. As we came back to the clearing at the end of the pier, before dismissing us, our guide pointed out a large deer sitting in the grass nearby close to the harbors shore.  This buck had an impressive rack of antlers.  We were then directed down the path toward where a small number of tents were set up with locals selling t-shirts and various sizes of Komodo Dragon statues.  While walking along this path Tim pointed out two Komodo Dragons playing around a tree about 20 yards from where the deer was sitting. This resulted in another frenzy of picture taking.  Several of us did admit this sighting seemed more "real" then the previous sighting at the water hole.

Monday, March 23, 2026

Our ship entered the beautiful, bustling harbor of Benoa, Bali about 11:00 this morning, finally docking about noon. It was a sunny but hot, 87 degrees, muggy day.  We could see at least three large religious structures rising above the neighborhood we overlooked from the ship. Tim also saw the nearby Black Stone Yacht Club. A quick internet search showed that the Yacht Club had a restaurant. We decided to get off the ship and have lunch there for a change. The setting was ok but the food was a disappointment.  On the way back to the ship we went into a small Market where Lynda bought several articles of clothing for herself.  The afternoon was spent packing our luggage for tomorrows flight home and reflecting on the wonderful trip we had experienced.

Tuesday morning we had to be out of our suites by 8:00 so that ships staff could prepare them for the next passengers arriving today.  For those departing passengers like us who had flights later in the day, Regent Seven Seas arranged a four hour tour around Benoa before taking us to the airport. For many people, the mention of Bali brings to mind luxury resorts on beautiful beaches with gently swaying Palm Trees. There are probably a lot of those resorts and beaches in Bali, but we did not see them. The streets our bus took us on were lined with small store fronts broken up by the occasional house. Some of the stores were clean with nicely presented products. Most were dirty with poorly presented wares.  In the neighborhoods behind the main streets we traveled we did find some interesting galleries. The first stop was a large house that was a combination workshop and gallery for local artists. Some of the artists were producing traditional Balinese art that has been the style for several hundred years. Others were producing a more contemporary form of art.  All of these paintings were for sale. Lynda sat while Tim walked about the gallery. Interestingly,  a member of the gallery staff followed Tim all around the gallery.  If Tim stopped for a moment to look at a particular piece, the staff member was quick to point out that he could offer an excellent discount on the price of the piece and also pointed out other similar paintings.  This has happened on previous trips we have taken. At any store we visited, art, jewelry, gold and silver products, someone was with us to encourage us to buy.  Today, as many times previously, we were able to resist the salesmanship. In fact, our next stop was a gold and silver shop with many articles of jewelry as well as small art pieces that again had someone following Tim. Our last stop was a clothing store where the fabric was made on site.  It is a distictive tropical style called Batik. The design on the fabric is created by hand drawing a design using wax on the fabric or by using large stamps dipped in wax that is applied to the fabric creating the design. Different colors are applied to the fabric and where there is wax the color does not get to the fabric. Men's and women's clothing is made with the fabric. The more colorful and complex  the design the more expensive the final pieces are.  Even though we did not purchase any goods at these three shops we enjoyed visiting them and found them very enjoyable

We are now home. We flew home on Tuesday night, arriving Wednesday morning.  Our total flight time from Bali to Detroit by way of  Seoul, South Korea was 20 hours. We are composing this last blog post on the Sunday after our Wednesday arrival. It has taken us three days to even begin to recover from the flights home. But, as always, it was worth it. We again added to our store of wonderful memories traveling about the world together. We hope you have enjoyed reading about our adventures. 

A brief visit to Darwin, Australia

 March 19, 2026

We docked in Darwin at 6:00 p.m., right when our captain told us we would. It was hot and muggy but the sun was shining.  This evening the ship had a BBQ for us on the pool deck. It was a beautiful evening and the pool deck was festive with boating pennants flying, strung up lights sparkling and three ice sculptures on display. The buffet was fit for a king, or at the very least, for your intrepid travelers. There was roast pig, beef, chicken breast, and KANGAROO STEAKS. Also on the buffet were several different sliced melons, sushi, and a variety of salads. Tim tried the kangaroo and thought it tasted a lot like beef. We shared a table with two couples from England, both couples were delightful to talk with. Unfortunately, there were two bands that alternated entertaining us while we ate, that were so loud we had to shout to be heard. Once we were finished eating we all agreed we would love to enjoy another drink and continue the conversation but all agreed it was too much of a hassle to enjoy talking over the bands.  Later in the evening we ran into the cruise director and voiced our disappointment in the over amplification of the entertainers. The cruise director agreed it was too loud and had already expressed his concern to the bands. Since doing that he told us he had heard many complaints such as ours and would to addressing the situation further.

On Friday Tim awoke at 7:30 to the good news of a Spartan victory in the first round of the NCAA men's basketball tournament. After breakfast we took an historical tour of Darwin.  Darwin is an old/new city.  It was founded in 1869 but any significant architecture from that time was destroyed by multiple bombings by the Japanese during World War II. What was not destroyed by the Japanese was destroyed in 1974 by Cyclone Tracey, a deadly category 5 typhoon that made a direct hit on Darwin on Christmas Eve. Modern Darwin features the typical architecture of a thriving 21st century city. Ever since it's founding, mining, particular gold and uranium, has been a primary industry.  It is also a major shipping port for oil.  We can see at least two storage facilities from our balcony.  There is also a tourist site near our port that features tunnels built into the hill to store oil during WW II. Our first stop on our tour was East Pointe which is basically a scenic lookout for taking pictures of Darwin across the bay. Of more interest to us was seeing multiple groups of  wallaby's, a cousin of the kangaroos.  Before leaving on this trip we both agreed we hoped we would see kangaroos but, this was the closest we got other then the kangaroo steaks Tim had on the ships BBQ one night. The next stop was the Darwin Museum and Art Gallery. The Art Gallery was of little interest but there was an excellent exhibit featuring original film and interviews from Cyclone Tracey's destruction of Darwin in 1974. The Darwin Botanical Gardens was next. Neither of us was physically up to a long walk about the gardens, particularly given the fact it is autumn in Australia so flowers are pretty much done blooming. So Lynda found us a table in the cafe while Tim found a few flowers nearby in bloom to prove we were here. Our last stop was the Darwin Gaol (pronounce jail). This gaol was open from 1883 to 1979 when it was determined to be too inhumane for use. It was pretty grim. There was much discussion on the bus after the visit about gaol, or jail. Was it suppose to be a punishment or not. How cushy should it be? An answer was not agreed upon. At any rate, that was the end of the tour. We are back on board the Mariner and we leave tonight for Komodo Island just in time to miss a typhoon that hit the east coast of Austrialia just above Cairns today. It is predicted to go just south of Darwin on Monday so we are all good. Believe it or not, we have another at sea day tomorrow.

Go Green!

It rained in the rain forest. Who would have thought.

 March 16, 2016

Cairns main claim to fame is that it is the major access point for the Great Barrier Reef. On our round the world trip in 2009 we took an excursion to the Great Barrier Reef, one of the many highlights of that trip. We decided on this trip to visit a near by rain forest.  The visit was done in a gondola that traveled over the tops of the trees. There was one stop where we changed gondolas and a second stop where we took a short walk to a look out point over the spectacular Barron River Falls.  It did, in fact, rain the entire 60 minutes of our gondola ride. This greatly hindered picture taking because of all the rain on the windows. On the other hand, the ride was enhanced by traveling occasionally through low hanging clouds. At times we could see nothing but the cables disappearing ahead of us into the cloud.  The vegetation was so thick that we seldom saw the ground. We would occasionally get a glimpse of a small stream below us. We saw one bird, a beautiful while cockatoo. We were told that most wildlife in the rain forest only comesut of hiding at night. Despite the weather we thought it a wonderful excursion. 

Our gondola ride ended in the small town of Kuranda. We were assured by our guide that there were excellent shopping opportunities in this town, but with the persipitation still falling, a creperie/bar about 20 yards from our drop off spot looked more appealing. Many of our fellow travelers agreed and we literally took over the restaurant for over an hour and a half enjoying excellent crepes, good drinks and entertaining conversation with our compatriots.

We are back in our suite now, drying out and napping and waiting for the daily late afternoon arrival of our butler with today's assortment of canapes. Unfortunately we once again face two and a half days sailing before arriving in Darwin Thursday afternoon. We will be back then.

long time, no blog

 March 15, 2026

At the end of the last blog we informed you that we would have a day at sea and then dock in Mooloolada. We arrived in Mooloolada on time but faced two problems.. 1. As planned we were anchored in the bay where Mooloolada is located. 2. It was determined by the powers that be that the sea was too rough to safely transport the guests to shore by tender. Therefore, it was decided  we would have a day at sea. Having just had a day at sea and then knowing we had a day at sea to get to Airlie Beach, our next port of call we realized we were going to have 3 days at sea in a row. The only highlight of the 3 days at sea was our dinner at Chartreuse, the French speciality restaurant  on our ship.  We actually spent one day totally  in our suite. Lunch and dinner were ordered from room service Our rooms mini fridge was already stocked with gin, whiskey, vodka and mixes so we were good to go. As we type that last sentence it occurs to us that we could embark directly to our suite and not come out again until we disembark. For all you know, the blogs for the rest of the cruise will be total fabrications.

Sunday, March 15, we arrived at Airlie Beach.  Our ship was anchored among the Whitsunday Islands just off the coast. Once again we were tendered to shore.  Tim opined that the sea was just as rough if not rougher then what we  encountered at Mooloolada.  He figured the cruise line did not want to skip two ports in a row.  We survived a reasonably rough crossing to Airlie Beach where we discovered a lovely little village. It reminded us a bit of Mackinac Island, but smaller. There was one street with three blocks of shops. There were only one or two souvenier shops, lots of nice clothing stores, and a nice choice of bars and restaurants.  There were also several tatoo emporiums that we ignored. But the highlight was a night club called "Paddy's Shenanigans".  Unfortunately, it wasn't open. On a culinary note, Tim has rediscovered deep-fried calamari.  At each of the lunches we have had on shore, Tim ordered calamari. Coincidentally, each restaurant overlooked the ocean. It was another lovely day on shore.

Tomorrow we will be in Cairns and according to our itinerary we will be docked, so no skipping this port. We have an exciting excursion tomorrow but we will leave you with that tease.

Sydney, Australia

 March 10, 2026

We were scheduled to dock in Sydney this morning at 10:30.  Tim set his alarm for 8:00 hoping to be up to see us sail by the Sydney Opera House before docking at our pier. We were awakeneed at 7:00 with the Captain on the speaker announcing that do to a medical emergency on board the ship had increased its speed and would be arriving early. Tim hopped out of bed and went to our balconey and got his first sighting of the Opera House. Tim spent 20 minutes on our balcony taking pictures and admiring the beauty of the building. Like the Guggenhiem Museum we saw in Bilboa, Spain last fall, great architecture can be a work of art  to be savored. After showering and dressing Tim discovered we were docked and our bacony  looked out over the Opera House. Tim is in seventh heaven.

Our excursion this morning was a leisurely  bus tour of Sydney. The first half hour or so the bus drove around Sydney's  city centre. Sydney  was built on land that was primarily sandstone, thus most of the buildings were made of sandstone.  In the mid 1900's as the city grew many of these original buildings were torn down to make way for larger more contemporary buildings. By the 1980's a few visionary politicians realized the historical significance of the destruction of these old builldings and passed laws preserving  these old buildings.  As a result Sydney is a clean, vibrant city with a pleasant mix of the old and the new. The bus continued east into the suburbs where the homes became larger and more expensive with the views over the ocean more impressive. Along the way we stopped at a lookout on Watson's Bay where we had a photo op of particularly spectacular views. Our last stop of the tour was Bondi Beach, a beautiful and popular beach on the eastern coast of Australia. Unfortunately, Bondi Beach was also the site last December 14 of an antisemitic attack of a large gathering of Jews celebrating the start of Hanukkah that resulted in at least 16 Jewish deaths. Our drive back to our ship was through a decidedly more middle class area of Sydney that still remained clean and vibrant.

Wednesday  morning's excursion was one we were really looking forward to, a tour of the Sydney Opera House.  Unfortunately,  bus parking near the Opera House is impossible so we ended up with a long walk to the venue. We were unable to keep up so Lynda told Tim to go ahead and we would meet after Tim did the tour. When Tim's tour group entered the Opera House, it was a zoo. It took a while, but our tour guide got us hooked up with the Opera House tour guide. From there everything went well. First, a brief history lesson. In the mid to late 1950's several movers and shakers decided that for Sydney to grow as a world class city, a world class concert hall was needed. With a friend in government offering help, a call was made for archetectural drawings to be submitted. Over 200 drawings were submitted with the winner, a Danish archetech, Jorn Utzon being named. With land for the facility acquired progress was slow in the building of the Opera House. While the design was spectacular actually realizing the concept was problematic.  It did not help that government interference not only slowed down progess but also led to changes in the plans. Also, a change in the party in control of the government  not only led to further delays but ultimately the firing of Utzon. Three Australian archetechs who had been working with Utzon were given control of the project. They secretly continued to confer with the Dane and the project was finally completed. Queen Elizabeth II attended the first concert in 1973 but Jorn Utzon was not invited.  Sadly, he never saw the finished building in person. Ultimately the venue consisted of two performance halls under the outer skin of the building. The sail like outer skin is supported by concrete and cable. The two concert halls are built with wood that is indigenous to Australia and provide excellent acoustic properties. The Concert Hall is the largest of the two with a capcity of 2000 people. The Opera House holds 1500. Tim's tour group visited both performance facitities but was unable to take pictures as there were workers setting up the Concert Hall for a performance and there was a rehearsal for an upcoming opera going on in the Opera Hall. The two halls are very different.  The Opera Theater has a Percenium stage. That means there is an arch that defines the stage while the front of the stage curves out into the audience. This provides a more intimate setting for both performers and audience. The Concert Hall stage is much more open and provides greater flexibility for more diverse preforming groups. It was a fascinating tour with Tim being mesmerized the entire time. Pictures will be posted on Tim's Facebook page.

We have just left Sydney. Tomorrow will be another day at sea. Our next port of call is Mooloolaba where we will take a bus into Brisbane. We'll post again on Friday.

Our trip to New Zealand begins in chaos.

 Tuesday,  March 3, 2026

For the first time in recent memory we had problems at the airport, Detroit Metro specifically.  We walked up to the check in counter and presented our passports. As we watched the agent checking us in, we noticed a questioning expression on her face. She finally told us that she could not find our flight from Detroit to Los Angeles in the system. Tim showed her our paper work from our long time travel agent, Lora Helfer, that had us scheduled to fly from Detroit to LA at 5:50 p.m and then fly on to Auckland, New Zealand to 10:50 p.m.  She looked again at her computer and finally told us we were scheduled on an earlier 12:30 p.m. flight to LA. We asked if she could schedule us another flight to LA that would get us there in time for our flight to Auckland.  She then asked if we had made our reservations through Delta or a third party.  We responded that we had scheduled through a third party. That elicited her reponse that she was unable to alter third party bookings. We needed to call our agent to have her rearrange our flights.  Tim immediately called Lora.  She didn't understand how the change in flights had been made. Lora's fault. She asked if we had checked in 24 hours ahead of time where we would have caught the change and been there on time. Our fault.  She said she would try to change our booking but we were under time restrains in regard to how early before a flight we can book the flight. Our Delta agent asked us to step aside so she could check in other customers but would check us in as soon as we heard from our  agent. Lynda went to sit down as Tim waited impatiently for Lora's call.  When Lora finally called she had bad news. She could only rebook our flight at what we considered a prohibitive cost. The only other choice was for Tim to beg with the Delta agent to get us rebooked.  Bottom line, after much respectful begging on Tim's part and with the help of the Delta agent confering with her supervisor, we were booked on a flight to LA that got us there in time for our flight to Auckland.  When we finally settled into our seats, cocktail in hand, on the Detroit to Los Angeles flight it was like the weight of the world had been lifted off our shoulders. The total flight time of our two flights was 18 hours but we made it to Auckland with us back on schedule.

Enough drama. It's Thursday and we are in New Zealand wondering where Wednesday went. The islands that make up New Zealand were all created by volcanoes.  There are thirty one volcanoes in the Auckland area, thirty of which are extinct.  The other one is dormant and has not erupted in 600 years. We like are chances of not being affected by this volcano.  Because of this the only animals in New Zealand were brought here by immigrants.  Thus, there are no dangerous animals or poisionous reptiles and snakes.  The  result is a very strenuous customs process coming into the country. Lynda brought a box of protein bars that she had to declare thinking they would be confiscated. She must have smiled sweetly at the customs agent because he gave the box back to her. We found it refreshing to be in a country that takes protecting its environment so seriously.

Having arrived at our hotel around 10:30 a.m. we were not surprised that our room was not ready. Regent Seven Seas had a welcoming area where we were able to hang out untl we finally got into our room around 1:30.  After our long flights we were more then happy to spend the afternoon napping and resting in bed.  We hate to admit that after much discussion about dinner, Tim ended up going across the street to a Pizza Hut and bringing a small pizza back to the room. He should have gotten a medium size pizza but the measurement chart was in centimeters. Another bad on Tim. After a quick dinner we were both back in bed by 8:00 and asleep shortly after.

Friday morning we had booked a half day tour around Auckland through a tour company named Viator that serves tourists worldwide. The brochure advertised this as a small tour of 8 to 10 people on a minibus.  In fact, our tour ended up being a private tour in a very comfortable Tesla.  Our first stop was one of the extinct volcanoes named Maungauika which is Maorian for North Head. More about North Head in a moment. To get to this site we had to cross the Auckland Bay Harbor bridge. The original bridge was built in the 1850's and was two lanes in each direction.   It was the shortest connection to the City Center from the other side of the bay.  Once cars became common place, it saved travel time by 40 minutes each way.  This resulted in a housing explosion on the north side of the harbor.  By 1950 the bridge could not handle the amount of traffic occuring and a plan was made to expand the size of the current bridge.  New Zealand reached out to Japan for help with financing the expansion.  Japan agreed to help in exchange for preferred treatment in the exporting of Japanese cars to New Zealand,  Read no tariffs. Two lanes were attached to the existing bridge and eventually were called the "Nippon Clip ons."  Because of this nickname older New Zealand drivers did not trust these clip ons to remain in place and refused to drive across the bridge. The other result of the bridges expansion was Japanese cars being the predominant cars seen on the streets of Auckland. Now, back to North Head. After WW II, Auckland, watching Russia's expansion into new territories,  worried about a Russian military invasion.  They installed seven large canons into the side of the small mountain in a way that they could not be seen. In case of an invasion they were mechanically lifted out of the ground .  Of course, they were never needed so that North Head now is a wonderful place to hike, have a picnic and enjoy the fabulous views of the Auckland skyline across the harbor.  Another example of New Zealand's protection of its environment is that all houses over 100 years old go onto a historical registry and are protected from being torn down or drastically physically being altered.  A small rod that looks like a small steeple is attached to the front peak of the roof as a designation of Historical status.  We saw many of these lovely, well preserved houses on our way to and back from North Head.  Our next stop on the tour was actually a drive through Cromwell Park, the largest of the many green spaces that Auckland maintains throughout the city.  We asked if the park was named after Oliver Cromwell, the famous British General. Our tour guide, who was of Indian (the country) decent, had not heard of Cromwell so we have no answer for you. About half of the park is made up of well maintained fields for rugby and football (soccer). The other half is alive with an abundance of trees and flowering plants designed as, again, a nice place to walk and picnic.  What a concept.  From Cromwell Park we drove to Maungaeton Mountain. Mount Eton is the tallest and largest of the extinct volvanoes. There is a visitors center at this mountain that shows how the volcanoes erupted eons ago to create theseis mountains that dominated the landscape of Auckland.  Finally, on our way to board our ship our guide drove us by the Auckland Grammer School which leads to a short discussion of schools in New Zealand.  Primary schools are similar to our elementary schools. Intermediate schools are similar to our middle schools/junior high schools.  Secondary and Grammer schools are similar to our high schools. The difference is that Secondary schools are a combination of our high schools and Junior/Community  Colleges.  Grammer Schools are solely prep schools for University.  It is a highly competitive admission process to get into a Grammer School.  The more prestigious the Grammer School the more competitive the admission process. The campus of the Auckland Grammer School was very much like the campus of a small college in the states.

The afternoon was spent going through the whole boarding the ship process, unpacking, and reconnoitering our way around the ship.  We have sailed on Regent Seven Seas SS Mariner before, however, after booking this cruise we discovered that Mariner would be in dry dock during January and February for a complete refurbishment. That refurbishment resulted in various venues on board were in different places.

Overnight Friday we sailed to the Bay of the Islands, still part of New Zealand.  We had not booked an excusion at this port of call thinking Tim might take the tender from the ship to the island explore on his own.  When we discovered that there was a craft market at the villiage where our tender docked, Lynda decided to join the trip. We landed in a small village named Paitia where Tim went to the information point to ask directions to the market.  Tim discovered that the craft market moved from village to village each day and this day was located in Russell. This was not a problem as there was a ferry leaving in the next ten minutes for the 20 minute trip across the bay to Russell.  We enjoyed watching a parasailor and a group of sailboats as we made the short trip. Upon arrival there was a small cafe at the end of the dock that had outdoor seating overlooking the bay.  We had a delightful lunch in a picturesque setting making us consider why we would ever want to leave Russell, New Zealand. The craft market was in the town hall.  There were  5 or 6 local artisans displaying their crafts. We saw many lovely pieces of jewelry and beautiful crafted bowls.  After leaving the craft show Lynda was quickly tiring  and we still had about 20 minutes before the next ferry back to Paitia so Tim found a bench in the shade for Lynda and continued exploring. Russell, even with just 700 inhabitants, was bigger then Paitia and had much more shopping opportunities that Lynda would have enjoyed wandering through. Guess we will have to come back. Saturday night we attended a concert in the ship's theater presented by a talented trio of Irish musicians. They were backed by 4 members of the ship's house band. It was a good ending to a good day.

As we create this blog post, it is Sunday and we are sailing across the Tasmanian Sea towards Sydney, Australia. We dock in Sydney tomorrow morning and will be docked there overnight. We have two shore excursions that we are looking forward to including a visit to the Sydney Opera House which we will report on in a couple of days.

G'day for now.

Florida, January 2026

 Florida   November 23-31, 2026

November 23rd we flew from Detroit to Tampa, Florida.  We left Detroit in cold,   snowy conditions and arrived in Tampa to abundant sunshine and 70 degree weather. We rented a trailor in Gerry and Cathy's park in Palmetto, Florida south of Tampa. The next two days were spent with Gerry and Cathy.  On Friday we spent some time shopping in a mall in Sarasota.  After the shopping we drove out on Anna Marie island where we found a park on the ocean and played cribbage and munched on cheese and crackers and sipped wine. We dined that evening at a nice ocean side restaurant overlooking the Gulf. Saturday  we slept in and met Gerry and Cathy at their trailor for a light lunch.  After lunch, Gerry and Tim went to a sports bar to watch the second half of the Michigan State basketball game.  After the game the four of us took a short drive to Ryan and Anna's house where we played a raucous game of 6 handed euchre, boys against the girls.  After the boys thorough drubbing of the girls we all went out to another oceanside restaurant for dinner. Ryan and Anna's children, Olivia and Austin, joined us for dinner and were as well behaved as 6 and 4 years can be.

A great find in Palmetto was a local restuarant called Poppi's that served a wonderful breakfast.  We ate there both Friday and Sunday morning.  After breakfast Sunday we drove to Kissimmee, a suburb of Orlando. Friends we have traveled with in the past, Lyn and Don Johnson invited us to join them in their time share. We spent the week with them. There were two relatively brief shopping trips but otherwise we chatted, played cards, napped and drank. We also participated in two activites the resort offered. Notably, we won the trivia contest. The weather was ok.  Temps in the 60's and two days in the 50's, but compared to what we were hearing about Michigan weather it was great. We flew home late Saturday afternoon. We arrived home shortly before midnight. The outside temperature was -6.  We questioned why we left Florida.

Last day; again more wine

 Saturday, November 15, 2025

When we left you yesterday we were headed out to find a nice french restaurant.  We ended up eating Italian. Let us explain.  As you all know Lynda is having some mobility and fatigue issues.  We ended up having to walk farther then Tim thought to find a restaurant.  We went by several nice looking bars and a pizza shop before finding a restautant.  Lynda said enough walking, lets eat here. It turned out to be reasonably busy, always a good sign, and it had a nice local restaurant feel.  The final plus was the food was good and it was nice to eat off the ship anyway.

Saturday morning was our last excusion.  It was another vineyard but in a totally different area southeast of Bordeaux. This wine maker was famous for his sweet white wines, mostly sauternes, French dessert wines. There was one unusual  discovery we made from all the other vineyards we visited.  This appellation was located near the confluence of two rivers, one of which was consistently cool water and the other warm water.  The result of this was that in August, as the grapes were finishing ripening, there was fog over the vineyards every morning.  This resulted in a good fungus that damaged part of the grapes on each vine. These damaged grapes remained on each bunch of grapes harvested and resulted in a characteristic taste that made sauternes distinct from other white wines It also added more sugar to the wine.  We tasted three different vintages from the same grapes. The nose (smell), color and taste was different in each.  The youngest wine was a pale yellow, the next oldest almost orange and the oldest almost brown.  They were also sweeter the older they were.

Saturday evening we enjoyed a bittersweet meal with two other couples we had become friends with on the cruise. In an unusual coincidence, one of the other wives was also named Lynda Carol, causing some confusion all week.  And, fittingly, our final meal featured Coq au vin, a very traditional dish of whole chicken cooked slowly for hours in red wine. It was delicious.by 

Sunday  was a long day of travel.  We flew from Bordeaux to Paris to London to Detroit. We had a 6:00 reservation on the Michigan Flyer bus from Detroit Metro to East Lansing. We arrived early enough in Detroit we thought we might be able to catch the 5:00 bus. Then disaster struck. The plane pulled up to the gate but neither of the jetways worked. After setting at the gate for an hour our plane moved to a new gate. Now we were scrambling to make our 6:00 bus. Fortunately we made it. It's Monday as we write this blog posting.  We are both tired after a strenuous day of travel but still have great memories of our time in Spain and France.

More Wine

 Friday, November 14, 2025

We have discovered over our many ocean and river cruises that there were ports of call that had little to offer but provided a place to land between point A and point B that did have interesting sights.  Blaye (pronounced Bligh as in Captain Bligh) was one of those ports. It's only site of interest was a massive citidel built by the "Sun King", Louis XIV.  This citidel gaurded the entrance to one of the largest estuaries in Europe. It served two purposes. It protected Bordeaux's burgeoning wine industry that was shipping more and more wine aboad and  it also protected this area of France from those pesky British that always seemed to want to take over France.  About the only thing of interest in the citidel was an 11th century castle that the citidel was bult around.  Even in the 18th century there was little interest in the castle and there is no interest today.  The castle is pretty much collapsing upon itself.

Thursday was a different story.  We were docked in Pauillac on the left bank of the estuary.  Pauillac is situated in the middle of the Medoc region of Bordeaux wine production.  There are 8 appellations in the Medoc each with a different name. For wine connoisseurs, the appellation name indicates specifically where the wine is made.  The wine from each appeellation will be slightly different in both taste and quality.  The Margaux appellation produces some of the finest wines in the Medoc region.  The more famous wineries, think Lafitte Rothschild, will have imposing Chateu's  on their property. We spent almost two hours driving throughout this region seeing nothing but vineyards with the occasional magnificent Chateu. We finally stopped at one of the best, the Pieure Lichine winery, for a lesson in wine making and a wine tasting.  Grape vines typically last for 80 years. Many last longer but after about 80 years the vines produce fewer grapes and the quality of the grapes begins to deteriorate. Vines between 50 and 80 years old produce the best grapes and the wine produced from these grapes is bottled as a "Chateu" wine.  In this case, the label on the bottle says "Chateu Pieure Lichime". These wine's are usually aged for 10 years before selling and will continue to age well for another 10 to 15 years. The 20 to 50 year old vines produce a less complex wine and are bottled under a different name, in this case, Confidences de Pieure Lichine. The younger grapes are sent to cosmetic companies. 

After this tour we drove to the Kerwin estate where we were served a sumptuous four course diner with a different wine pairing for each course. The meal began with Lobster Bisque. This was followed by a plate with pork pate, chicken turine and a vegatarian quiche. The main course was fillet of beef with a porcini mushroom sauce, potato gratin and asparagus and carrots. Finally, chocolate sponge cake with chocolate sauce and a pear was the dessert course. When the kitchen staff was introducted after the meal they received a standing ovation, and rightly so.

While we are talking about food, we have had several memorable meals on our Viking ship.  All the meals have been excellent, but these two stood out. One started with onion soup, followed by quiche Loraine and a Parisian flan.  The second was a goat cheese souffle, followed by duck confit and crepe suzzane.

It's Friday afternoon as we write this post. This morning Lynda decided to sleep in so Tim went solo on the excursion; a tour of Marche des Capucins guided by one of our ships chefs. This is a historical market that has long provided fresh meats, seafood, and produce to the restaurants of Bordeaux as well as cruise ships happeining by.  Our chef took us to the vendors that he frequents where we were able to sample cheeses, ham, 18 month aged prosciutto,  fresh pear, and delectable pastries. He explained that he talked with each vendor about what he was looking for and the vendor would direct him to his freshest options which were then delivered in a day or two to the ship. Tonight we are docked overnight in Bordeaux.  We  have been told there are several nice restaurants within a couple of blocks of our ship.  We are going to try to find one of them.

Tuesday, November 11, 2025

Last night we docked in Libourne, pronounced Leebourne. The city is named after an English Lord who founded the city during the 300 years that England controlled this part of France before they were driven out of France at the end of the 100 years war.  Libourne has a population of about 25,000 people and is a typical french city.  At one time Libourne was a major river port for shipping wine to Bordeaux. There was not much to see other then the Market in the city center plaza.

The star of the day was St. Emilion which is situated about 35 minutes from Libourne. It sits among some of the most famous wine producers in the Bordeaux region. Petrus has produced wines that have sold for as much as $6000.  In the wine shops we saw several different bottles of Petrus bordeaux's priced at $650. Tim went into a wine shop where the wine merchant helped him pick out a very nice 2016 bottle of bordeaux priced considerably less.

At one time St. Emilion was home to around 1000 people. Only 200 live there now.  The church dominates the city.  It was built in two sections.  The first section was built during the 11th century.  It has a fairly plain design and a lowish ceiling that is rounded in shape.  When the second part was built in the 14th century flying buttresses were in vogue allowing a higher roof. The interior was more ornate. Our guide said there was a quirk to one of the stain class windows. This window featured a bishop wearing eye glasses that had not been invented yet. The older section of the church featured a small mural most likely from the 11th century that had been discovered in 1890. She had no explanation for how it was discovered.  There is a beautiful cloisters off of the church with a lovely courtyard in the middle. In 2018 a french artist was commissioned to paint a mural on one of the walls facing the courtyard.  It is said to represent the Book of Revelations and is very contempary in design. The finished mural received mixed reviews when first revealed. 

We thoroughly enjoyed St. Emilion and thought it might be a wonderful place to rent an apartment for several weeks of quiet contemplaction and wine tasting.

 Monday, November 10, 2025

Bon Jour from aboard the Viking Forseti. There are two rivers that converge in Bordeaux, neither of which we can pronounce or spell.  We know that's been said before and it will probably we said again.  We will sail up and down each, visiting all sorts of interesting sites.  We have just left Bordeaux, sailing upstream on one of those rivers.

An interesting story from our last night in Bilbao.  Saturday afternoon Tim attempted to make a dinner reservation at a nearby steakhouse that both our tour director and fellow passengers had recommended.  The restaurant was fully booked for Saturday night so we decided to stay in the hotel and eat at its restaurant. Tim made a reservation. When we arrived at our appointed time we discovered: 1. there were only maybe 10 tables in the restuarant and 2. the only person in the restaurant was the waitress.  We were the only diners the entire time we were there.  It was a fun and unique experience dining in a private room with the one waitress. A plus was the excellent meal.

Sunday we left Bidbao by bus and were transported to San Sebastian, Spain. We had a two hour walking tour that took us along the Bay of Biscay and then on into the old town area of San Sebastian.   San Sebastian was the finish line this day for a marathon run that started just inside the border of France, hence, San Sebastian was crowded and in a festive mood. While we enjoyed our time in Bilbao, we found San Sebastian to be, architecturally, a more beautiful city.  Lynda sat in a cafe enjoying a coffee as Tim took the two hour walk. He particularly enjoyed watching the runners being greet, ed by family and friends at the end of the race.

We reboarded our bus and continued on to Bordeaux where we boarded our ship. That turned out to be an adventure.  We had been informed a couple of days before our cruise that our ship would be docked in a different place then was published in our itinerary.  Our tour director and bus driver, despite having GPS, had trouble finding where our ship was docked. Once there we were blocked by barriers to our pier. Hilarity ensued among the passengers as we watched our director and bus driver try to get us past this barrier.  They were both a bit embarrassed but also saw the humor in the situation.

Monday, November 11, 2025

This morning our tour was entitled "A Panoramic Tour of Bordeaux".  It started with a bus tour around the city. The bus would stop in  front of some important  site and our guide would explain its inportance. We finally arrived at the central plaza in Bordeaux. There we began a 45 minute walk about the central shopping area and then were given some free time to explore (shop) on our own. Again, Lynda was not up to the 45 minute walk and when Tim returned from it we found a delighteful little cafe where we enjoyed coffee and Tim told Lynda about his walking tour. Both of our tour guides were long time residents of Bordeaux and were enthusiastic in their praise of the city.   We could not match their enthusiasm.  We look forward to seeing what tomorrow brings.

Guernica, Spain

 November 6, 2025

Remembering Tim's Dad on what would have been his 105th birthday.

Once again Delta Airlines transported us safely to to our destination of Bilbao, Spain.  Since Lynda's stroke several years ago any overseas travel is done in business class. It reminds us what a joy airplane travel can be.

In 14th and 15th centuries Bilbao was one of the major ports of Europe.  As its importance in shipping faded, fishing continued to thrive. In the 18th century a rich deposit of iron ore made Bilbao one of the world's largest producers of stainless steel. Unfortunately,  in the 1970's Bilbao suffered the same fate as the rust belt of the U.S. Today, the city depends on tourism as a source of income.

Our first stop on Thursday morning was a small winery on the ourskirts of Geurnica. Itsasmendi produces a high quality white wine from a grape we can neither spell or pronounce that is grown in this area of Spain.  We may have found our favorite "breakfast wine".  Nearby is the Roija region of Spain. It is famous for it's roija red wines. Much like chiant's in Italy, a roija must come from this region to be truly considered a roija. We sampled a very nice roija at our first get together meeting at our hotel.

Guernica, Spain became famous in the 1930's  due a spectacular painting by Pablo Picasso. In the lead up to a large 1935 art exhibition in Paris the democratic government of Spain, under siege from Franco's forces, felt the need to bring to the world's attention the danger it was in. They commissioned Picasso at the princely sum of $3000 for a painting for this exhibition which he accepted. While considering ideas for this painting, Guernica was heavily damaged by Franco bombing. The bombing coalesced his thinking resulting in his remarkable painting, Guernica. The plan was to bring the painting back to Madrid at the end of the civil war.  However, when Franco became the dictator Guernica was sent to the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.  When the Franco government was overthrown in 1975, the newly installed democracy quickly moved to have the painting returned.  MOMA responded that they did not know where the painting was.  Three years later, after intense negotiations, MOMA suddenly discovered the painting in the basement of the museum rolled up very tightly. Guernica was returned to Spain in this rolled up condition and when it was unrolled it was found to be badly damaged.  Restoration work was unable to totally restore the painting to its original condition so it was ultimately hung in the Queen Sofia Gallery in Madirid in this damaged condition, Despite many requests from the most famous art galleries in the world, Guernica has not left Madrid. We saw an outside mural reproduction of Picasso's work in Guernica.  We also saw the original in Madriid  a few years ago.  Guernica was one of the earliest democracies in Europe. The first Congress met under a large oak tree. The next year they met again under the same tree, thus a tradition was born.  When the first Congress building was  constructed, the original oak tree was moved to a protected position near that first building.  When it was obvious the original tree was going to die an acorn from that tree was planted and nurtured to replace the original. This practice has continued to the present day so the oak tree that stands today outside of the Parliament Building can trace it's linage to the original of 1000 years ago. A large meeting building that stands next to the Congress building today features a spectacular glass ceiling, the most prominent feature being a large oak tree.

We traveled from Guernica to a picturesque seaside village for lunch. The lunch itself was not memorable but we very much enjoyed the opprotunity to get to know some of our fellow travelers a bit better.  Our return trip to Bilbao was a scenic drive along the coast. We stopped along the way at a turn off for a particularly stunning view.  The main feature was a small island a very short distance off the coast.  A church sat atop the island.  Our tour guide explained a bit of the history of this island and closed by saying the island had been featured in several episodes of the TV program, "Game of Thrones," He went on to say that the church was not seen in the episodes. A computer generated castle was superimposed where the church stands. Still, it caused thousands of fans to flock to the site.  There is a small man-made walk way built for hikers to visit the island.  It is a very long hike over rugged terrian.  For the safety of the hikers and the environment, the government stepped in and limited the number of hikers each day to just 500.  There is a very involved procedure for booking a time slot for a hike. Not having ever watch Game of Thrones, we were only impressed by the natural beautiy of the island.  It was a wonderful, but exhausting first day of our trip.

November 8, 2025

Today we stayed in Bilbao. We started with a brief bus trip around the new part of Bilbao. It was mildly interesting.  The real highlight of the day was a visit to the Guggenhiem Museam. The archetecture of the building is stunningly modern. Frank Ghry was the archetech and has always had a facination with titanium, but because of its expense was never able to use it until this building.  The Museum sits next to a river that is at this location actually and estuary of the Atlantic Ocean so is very salty.  That fact combined with the high rain fall Bilbao experiences would lead to the quick corrosion of a stainless steel shell.  Ghry convinced the Museum it would be cheaper in the long run to start with titanium, which is corrosive resistant,  then to have to replace the stainless steel shell every five years.  The original budget for the building was 68 billion dollars.  With the titanium shell it shot up to 96 billion dollars.  Ghry's fascination with titanium is due to the fact the metal changes color based on the angle at which the sun hits the surface. There were paintings by Rothko, Lichtenstein, and Worhol along with a number of artists we never heard of.  There was a room of huge metal sculptures that were designed to be walked through. They were cleverly designed to physically throw you off balance as you entered and left the sculpture, There was one painting that was a performance piece. A large blank canvas was layed out on the floor and then two naked women were covered in blue paint and then moved about on the canvas. There were nearby pictures of the event.  Tim found the pictures of the event more interesting then the painting itself.  Many of the works showed amazing imagination while others were a bit outlandish. The name Guggenhiem Museum is actually a brand name. The Museum in Bibao actually pay a fee to the Guggenhiem Foundation every 20 years for the name. There are actually 3 Guggenhiem Museums around the world.  The other two are in New York City and Venice, Italy.  We are proud to claim having visited all three.

The final stop of the day was a walking tour of  the Old Town area of Bilbao. We walked about the original three main streets.  They were very similiar to the Old Town sections of other large European cities we visited. There were few, if none, of the very upscale named brand shops we see in the newer sections, i.e. tourist sections, of the city. They were the shops that the locals frequent.  These are also the streets where we could sit at an outdoor cafe with a glass of wine people watching. We have enjoyed being in Bilbao. I don't think we had any preceived ideas of what we would see but were in no way disappointed  in being here. Not that we ever are anywhere else in the world.

Tomorrow  we leave to embark on our Viking cruise.  There will be a three hour stop in San Sebastian,  Spain on the way. Our next blog post will be from aboard our ship in France.  We understand it is to snow in Michigan tomorrow. We have had lots of precipitation the last two days, but it doesn't need to be shoveled.

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.