November 25 - Safaga, Egypt

I’m moving a little slowly today; we were up dancing until very late.  We’re docked in Safaga, Egypt, the Red Sea port which is the jumping off place for a visit to Luxor.  The last time I came here, the ship stayed overnight and we took a tour which allowed us to stay in a hotel along the Nile in Luxor.  This time we’re only here for the day so the tour to Luxor involved leaving at 6:30 AM, 8 hours in a bus and only a few hours in Luxor.  I originally booked it, but after getting on the ship I canceled because it really didn’t seem worth it.  The ride from Safaga goes through the Red Sea mountain range which is nothing but rocks and sand with only an occasional scrubby bush.  If you can picture the Israelites wandering through the wilderness after escaping Egypt, you’ve got a pretty good idea of the terrain.  Also, and rather importantly, there are no bathroom stops until you arrive in Luxor.

You can see what I mean about being desolate

So today I’m going to cheat and I’m going to write about Luxor and post some  photos from my last visit here so you can get an idea what it’s like. Luxor was the ancient city of Thebes and the capital of Upper Egypt.  The Egyptian god Amun was the patron of Thebes and after a rebellion in the 16th century BC, Amun became fused with Ra, the Sun god.  Amun-Ra became essentially the king of Gods in the Egyptian pantheon.  The city lies on the Nile River about 130 miles downriver from the Aswan Dam. It was an important city as far back as 2100 BC. Luxor is the site of the Temple of Karnak, which is the largest one in Egypt. It covers an area of 250 acres and incorporates hundreds of columns, statues and, at one time, over 100 obelisks.  Now there are only a few left and the most impressive is the one dedicated to Queen Hatshepsut.  It’s 100 feet tall and weighs 350 tons.  I always marvel at how these ancient people were able to build such massive, beautiful buildings.

These are in the Temple of Karnak

The Temple of Karnak is connected to the Temple of Luxor by an avenue called the avenue of rams because of the statues along the way, each with the body of a lion and the head of a ram.  They look like small sphinxes, except the Sphinx has the head of a human.  The entrance to  the Temple of Luxor is flanked by two massive statues of Ramesses II and an obelisk.  There were originally two of the latter but one was taken by the French and now stands in the Place de la Concorde in Paris. (Everyone always thinks of the British as having taken lots of ancient artifacts like the Elgin Marbles from Greece, but they weren’t the only ones.)  The Temple of Luxor over the ages had a Roman temple within it, followed by a church and finally a mosque which still lies within the temple boundary.

The Avenue of the Rams

The entrance to the Temple of Luxor with RanessesII on either side of the gate

That's the miinaret of in the mosque in the Temple of Luxor

It’s worth telling a little about the Nile which has always played a big part in Egypt’s history.  The Nile actually begins as the Blue Nile, whose source is in Ethiopia, and the White Nile, whose source has long been disputed but it’s either in Rwanda or Burundi. The two Niles join together around Khartoum, the capital of Sudan.  As I wrote earlier the countryside you ride through on the way to Luxor is truly desolate until you approach the Nile and then you come to lush fields with the main crop being sugarcane.  Along the way there were lots of houses built of mud bricks with roofs of thatched sugarcane.  Riding through places like this makes you realize how fortunate we are to have the conveniences we have, and it hits home how many people there are who live in a manner in which our forebears did.

A couple of scenes from the Nile

Well, that’s a little about Luxor as I remember it from nearly ten years ago.  I’m sorry I don’t have new things to tell about it.  I think the temples are still as they were then so the pictures should give you some idea of the place.  The one different thing I can see from the ship is the city of Safaga.  Last time we were here the streets were packed with people waiting to get on ships in the port to take them across the Red Sea  to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia.  There were literally thousands camping out on the streets and we figured it must have been the time for the Hajj that many Muslims make to Mecca.  They aren’t in evidence today.

November 24 - Red Sea

It’s time to play catch up now. After leaving Rhodes on Tuesday evening we had a full day sailing south to the Mediterranean entrance of the Suez Canal.  It was a sunny day with calm seas. Now that the port intensive part of the cruise is over, we have many more activities going on during the day. There are two art instructors, a bridge instructor and several lecturers talking about everything from birds and other wildlife in this part of the world to all things historical, from Egyptian to modern day politics and events in the middle east. There are enough things going on that the days seem to zip by and I can feel exhausted in good kind of way.

Just a few of the ships waiting to transit the canal with us

By late afternoon Wednesday we had arrived at the anchorage for the canal.  I should tell a little about the Suez Canal.  Over the millennia small canals were dug by civilizations occupying this area including Egyptians and Persians. None of those connected the Med to the Red Sea which is what the modern Suez Canal does.  The prime mover behind getting this one built was a Frenchman named Ferdinand de Lesseps in the mid-19th century. Prior to its construction trade between India, the Spice islands and other parts of Asia had to either go overland or go around Africa, De Lesseps envisioned a sea level canal with no locks which reduced the transit between the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean by approximately 5500 miles.  He had a cousin who was well-connected, Eugenie, the wife of Napoleon III and she helped him to persuade some of the authorities to give permission for the project and to get investors to help fund it.  Interestingly, the British government was fundamentally against building a canal.  In part it was due to traditional rivalries between France and England and in part because the British with their large colonial empire in  south Asia  (India, e.g.) had a monopoly on trade even if it took longer. Egypt at the time was part of the Ottoman Empire with a local sultan acting as a representative for the overall ruler in Istanbul. De Lesseps befriended the local sultan Sa’id and got his approval.  Only around the time that construction was beginning was the man in Istanbul told about it.

Construction was begun in 1859 and carried on until 1869. The canal was officially opened in November 1869.  As I mentioned earlier the Suez Canal is a sea level passageway with no locks. Consequently, it didn’t present the challenges that building a canal across Panama did years later.  It was initially a one-lane passageway with a place for  south and north bound ships to pass in the Great Bitter Lake, which is sort of at the mid-point. The canal was owned by the Egyptian government but the operation was owned by a concessionary company owned by mainly French and British shareholders. The Suez Canal is about 120 miles long and divided Africa from Asia, specifically the Sinai Peninsula.  In 2014 the Egyptian government under el-Sisi began construction of a 22-mile bypass section in the northern part of the canal so that two-way traffic can occur and the capacity of the canal has been increased to nearly 100 ships per day.

In 1888 a treaty called the Convention of Constantinople was signed which essentially granted all countries the right of passage through the Canal in times of peace and war. Without going into a whole lot more history of events in this part of the world, Britain maintained a military presence here from about 1882 to 1956.  As a result during WWI and WWII it denied access to its opponents in those wars. (So much for treaties.)  In 1956 Gamal Abdel Nasser, the president of Egypt, nationalized the Suez Canal, causing what the world knew as the Suez Canal Crisis. For a period of nearly  a year the canal was closed and you can imagine what a monkey wrench that threw into world trade.

In the subsequent years conflicts between Israel and the Arab countries have caused some problems but for the most part the canal has remained open.  A couple of years ago a container ship called the Ever Given ran aground and blocked traffic in both directions for six days.  Can you imagine the back up that created?  Lawsuits are still flying because of that.

So what do you see as you sail through the canal?  The first time I came through nearly 10 years ago we saw sand, sand, and more sand.  The last time I went through on Al’s and my last cruise there was a lot of construction going on on the Sinai side which is the one we faced.  A large city was being built.  This time I’m on the Sinai side again and the city looks well-populated.  Apparently the other side is also grown up and ferries run back and forth. About midway along the northern half of the canal is a big bridge officially known as the Egyptian-Japanese Friendship Bridge. We passed under it as we made our transit and I couldn’t see many cars on it but it was impressive.

A little compound along the canal

This city was under construction last time I came this way

Looks pretty lived in now. See the laundry hanging. I wonder what happens ina sand storm.

The man in the archway was watching us intently and making a shrill whistle which at first I though was some kind of eagle calling

One of the many ferries taking people, cars and trucks across

A statue commemorating something along the shoreline

More bridge pictures than you ever wanted to see

And another one

And then there was sand, but no Lawrence and no camels

About our transit.  We were supposed to begin at 4 AM on Thursday, the 23rd.  We finally got underway around 11:30 AM on that day.  The official story is that the northbound convoy (ships go through in convoys) was delayed.  I’m going to be a little of a conspiracy theorist here and say that I think maybe we were delayed because the friendly Houthis down in Yemen fired 8 attack drones at ships in the Red Sea and one of our US Navy ships took the drones out.  That sounds far more exciting than that someone feel asleep at the switch on a freighter heading north.  Whatever, we did as a result do most of our transit in daylight.  

I’ve always loved the movie Lawrence of Arabia and I can remember how disappointed I was the first time we sailed through here because I fully expected that on the Sinai side I would see white-robed men riding along on camels with their rolling walk.  No Lawrence, no white floaty robed men at all and not a single camel was in sight. So much for girlish dreams.

I guess I’ve bored you enough.  I’ve been to a couple of lectures and I’ve played trivia.  I’ve danced in the evening and those have been my accomplishments for the last few days.  We’re in the Red Sea now heading to Safaga, Egypt.   That’s all for now.

November 23  -  Suez Canal, Egypt

Happy Thanksgiving!

Lots of things going on here today so I'll write more tomorrow.  I just wanted to wish everyone a wonderful Thanksgiving. 

November 21 - Rhodes, Greece

I was here last year in the spring and I wrote a lot of the history of the island which I am going to include again so that maybe I’ll remember it.  If you read it before skip over it.

Rhodes is the largest of the Dodecanese Islands and has been inhabited since the Neolithic period but there are only a few remnants of that time. In the 16th century BC the Minoans came from Crete which lies to the south. A century later the Mycenaean Greeks arrived.  Homer mentions that Rhodes participated in the Trojan war. It wasn’t until the 8th century BC under Dorian Greeks that some substantial settlements arose. The legend was that the island was created by the union of Helios, the sun god, and the nymph Rhodos so the three major towns were named for their three sons.  

The island was conquered in subsequent centuries by the Persians, Athenians and Alexander the Great.  Following Alexander’s death in 323 BC his empire was divided among his three principal generals. Rhodes formed a strong trading alliance with the Ptolemies in Egypt (Ptolemy I was one of Alexander’s generals and the last member of his dynasty was someone everyone has heard of – Cleopatra.)  Another of the generals, Antigonus sent his son to lay siege to Rhodes to break the alliance. The son brought catapults, battering rams and a huge siege tower, but after a year he signed a peace agreement and left, leaving behind all his war materials.  The enterprising Rhodians took all the armaments and melted down the metals, sold the rest, and used the proceeds to build the Colossus of Rhodes to celebrate the peace.

The Colossus was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.  It was constructed around 280 BC of bronze over an iron frame and was around 108 feet tall. It represented the sun god Helios.  The exact location on the island is unknown because the Colossus was destroyed in an earthquake in 226 BC.  Everything we know about it is from fragments of writings by ancient authors.

I know I'm writing a lot of history but perhaps this way I'll remember it (and who knows it may help in trivia one day 😃).  Over the ensuing centuries Greeks came and went as then did Romans, both western and eastern (Byzantine).  Then we come to the age of the Crusades.  The Knights Hospitaller (AKA the Knights of St. John) who built the castle in Bodrum, also had a stronghold in Rhodes, the walled old city. They left Rhodes after Suleiman the Magnificent overran them in Bodrum and moved their headquarters to Malta.

Since I’d taken a tour of the island last time, I decided today to visit the old town of Rhodes.  We were docked right next to it; in fact from my veranda, I looked right out at the city walls.  I’ll digress for just a moment to say that as I was having breakfast a huge NCL ship came into the dock next to ours.  It was like watching an apartment building slide by.

These were views from my veranda and the dock

Just a slight difference in size

It wasn’t a long walk to get to the first of the old gates to the city. I had heard how lovely the old town is and it didn’t disappoint.  The streets are very narrow and many are paved with cobblestones.  I’m not sure what the rules are but apparently a few people can have cars inside the walls and motorbikes are definitely okay.  There were lots of stores selling those floaty, gauzy Greek dresses like something you’d see in Mamma Mia, and much as I’d like to have one, I just don’t think they would look quite the same on me as on Meryl Streep.  I went in to one of those shops and a Greek lady who was no Twiggy herself told me the dresses look “beautiful on everyone.”  I noticed she wasn’t wearing one so I just smiled on went on my way. 

These are some street scenes from inside the walls

I went in a tiny jewelry shop that had things which looked Greek and handmade and found out it’s owned by a family.  The Papa is a jeweler and goldsmith; the Mama reminded me a lot of the mother in “My Big Fat Greek Wedding.”  The son is the moneyman and the daughter Theodora is a jewelry designer and goldsmith who also does design work for museums in Rhodes and in Athens.  They invited me to sit down and Mama insisted I have some coffee and cookies. You can guess the rest; I did buy something. When I’d finished the friend who also works in the shop pulled her car around and Theodora hopped in the back seat, I was in the front and they drove me around the narrow streets so I could see the Knights’ Castle,  the beautiful trees and flowers around it; we drove through the covered gateway where the portcullis must have been across what used to be the moat.  There was a lot of Greek floating around by my two escorts which I think was “turn here, no there.”  We did a lot of horn-beeping to get tour groups out of our way on what I really thought  were pedestrian only streets. But then what do I know.  Anyway, eventually we went outside the walls and back to the dock.  A big conversation ensued with the guards there because cars weren’t supposed to enter, but they let us pass.  We pulled up to a customs office and Theodora raced in to get some form stamped so I could get the EU VAT tax refunded.  We drove back inside the walls to the shop, where Mama fixed me another cup of coffee and gave me a cookie (I must look poorly fed) and they proceeded to give me back the tax money. We zipped back in the car and they drove me back to the guarded dock and took me nearly to the gangway. Even if I didn’t like what I bought, the experience was worth it just to watch this Greek family in action. 

Me and my new Greek friends

The Knights' Castle

The old town looked quite magical as it got dark

It was mid-afternoon by this time so I stayed on board. We played trivia (didn’t win) and then it was time for oysters, caviar and champagne by the pool.  It was chilly and windy and I didn’t stay long at all because I was shivering.

Before dinner I met my two new dancing friends for a drink and then we went off to our respective hosted tables.  There was a show with a British Motown group who were so-so, and then of course we went down to dance until the music stopped.  I had to work off the extra cookies I had along the way.  And that was my day.  I know I’ve gone on too long, but it was a really fun day and I hope I’ve conveyed that.  The next several days we’ll be at sea as we make our way to the Suez Canal and then into the Red Sea.  I need some days to rest. 

I don't know why they loaded down here; they were supposed to be by the other street scenes. The last is to show they're getting ready for Christmas.

November 20 - Agios Nikolaos, Crete, Greece

Today is a bittersweet day, a liitle more bitter than sweet. On one of our first Seabourn cruises Al and I stopped here. We took a tour of Knossos, King Minos’ palace in Heraklion.  That’s the one in which the king had a labyrinth built to restrain the Minotaur, a monstrous creature that was half man and half bull. It was on this island that the Minoan civilization flourished more than 4000 years ago.  The king’s palace had running water in both baths and toilets and parts of it were five stories tall. Following the big volcanic eruption at Santorini in about 1600 BC a huge tidal wave swept away Knossos and it was never rebuilt. Instead Mycenaeans, Ionians and other people from mainland Greece arrived and they were more war-like and spent their money and effort on that endeavor.

Agios Nikolaos from my veranda

Back to why this was a little sad day.  On that first visit here after our tour we had lunch in the boat harbor and when we walked back to the ship we passed a little jewelry shop and Al bought me a pendant that was a double bee, the symbol of the Minoan civilization.  The shop was owned by a couple; the man was a goldsmith who made most of the jewelry sold there.  We came here again on my last cruise with Al and the shop was still there so we went in.  The lady told us that her husband had passed away not long before.  Al bought me another pendant and he got a set of cufflinks.  Last year I stopped here and wore one of the pendants that came from her shop. The lady recognized it, and she said she recognized me as well – who knows, and we sat and had coffee and I told her my husband was gone too.  I bought a very pretty Greek meander ring.  Well, today when I passed the shop, it’s no longer in business.  Many places are closed because the tourist season is over, but the little jewelry shop had the windows all papered over and signs saying everything was 30% off and something in Greek which I think was “store closing.”  They say you can never go back and I guess that’s true.

My jewelry store that is no more

You can see how empty the streets and sidewalks look

There was more than just the jewelry store though.  The little harbor where we tendered in used to have lots of small fishing boats tied up.  There was one that was very derelict and half sunken that was in the same spot for a couple of visits.  They’re all gone; I don’t know where they moved to or maybe they all sank. There are more apartments being built and it just isn’t the same place anymore.   Well, no matter.  That’s progress and we all just have to get on with things.

This man was the only fisherman I saw along the way.  I passed him as I walked back to the tender dock and asked him if he'd caught his lunch yet. He hadn't.

I didn’t stay ashore long.  If I stop here again I shall have to arrange for a drive out to some other part of the island or perhaps visit Knossos again.   This afternoon trivia starts again.  Only three of us are left from the last leg.  We’ll have to find some new teammates.  Perhaps we should interview them to see if they can help our previous very unimpressive performance.  After all, everyone wants to win a coffee mug or a fake leather passport holder. 

It's tomorrow morning now.  We recruited a new team and, wonder of wonders, we won!  After dinner I had a drink before dinner with two ladies I met the night before.  We had dinner at separate hosted tables. Mine was a lovely table which I really enjoyed.  After dinner the two ladies and I went to the show together and then the night really started.  They’re both widows too and both from the UK but one is originally Canadian. That lady is an absolute live wire who dances every dance.  We went to the club and actually didn’t leave until the bartender came over to tell us she was closing down for the night.  We danced, laughed, talked with several of the staff members and had an absolutely wonderful time.  It was a little after 1 AM when I got back to my cabin. At home I often have trouble falling asleep but here I’m out almost as soon as my head hits the pillow.  I can’t attribute it to drinking because I have maybe one drink so it must be that I’m expending lots of energy.  Whatever it is, it feels great and I in the morning I’m rested and recharged.  I’m going ashore now at our next port and I’ll tell you more about it in my next entry.

November 19 - Athens (Piraeus), Greece

Here we are in Piraeus, the port for Athens,  on a beautiful but chilly Sunday. I slept in a little this morning since I had said my goodbyes to my friends last night.  My intention was to stay on the ship today since I’ve been here several times, and after climbing up to the Acropolis a few times already, I didn’t feel a need to do it again.  After breakfast I decided I ought to at least go and take a ride to Athens, so I went ashore and   negotiated a ride with a taxi driver.  He spoke limited English and of course my Greek is non-existent except for good morning and thank you, but we managed to communicate. As usual I sat in the front and we went off to the Acropolis so I could take some photos.  

It turns out that my driver used to be a striker for one of the big football (soccer) teams in Greece. He showed me a couple of photos of himself as a young man in his soccer uniform with Pelé, the great Brazilian player.  He evidently had to retire after getting a massive injury to his left leg.  He wrote his name down for me but it’s in the Greek alphabet and I’m not sure what it says.  I'm going to see if one of the staff can transcribe it into English letters.  I believed him because he looked to be in his late 50's or 60's and he reminded me of a couple of old US football players Al and I encountered in our travels.  Years ago ball players weren't making the fantastic sums of money they do now and from my conversation today I gathered the same thing is true here.  Anyway, when we got to the area below the Acropolis he parked in a no parking zone and put a note on the dashboard  with his name and phone number and assured me people would recognize his name and leave his car alone. We walked to the park below the Acropolis so I could take some great pictures.  When we got back to the car a little later it was there as he said it would be.   

This one is just to prove I was really here

One of the many musicians playing at the Acropolis.  I'm not sure what the instrument is he's playing.

I should tell the story about the olive trees around the Acropolis.  According to legend Poseidon and Athena were competing for the favor of the people living in this place.  Poseidon smashed his trident against the ground and brought forth a salt water spring. Athena, the wiser of the two gods, planted an olive tree on the Acropolis and Athens chose her.  The trees on the hillside are still olive trees and of course, the city is named after her.

I didn’t want to see anything else but he was very insistent that we needed to go and have coffee at a  marina in Piraeus so off he went.  Because it’s Sunday there isn’t a lot of traffic and we drove at breakneck speed.  Along the way we passed the football stadium and he told me that was where he used to play.  True to his word, it was a beautiful marina lined with cafés along a promenade. The cafés were crowded with locals out for a Sunday walk and coffee.  The street ran right along the dock and my driver parked half on the dock and half on the narrow street, put his note  back on the dashboard, and we walked to a place for a coffee and some sparkling water.  His was literally the only car parked there because it was obviously not a parking place. In fact when I opened my door to get out I  pushed over an orange traffic cone.   This marina had the kind of yachts you see in magazines with stories about celebrities partying on the Riviera.  We sat for perhaps a half hour watching people go by.  My driver told me he has four grown kids and showed me a picture of his dog.  Somehow despite our lack of a common language we had a conversation of sorts.  He treated me to the coffee and then we drove back to the port.  It was a nice couple of hours interlude.  I got his phone number so that the next time I come back to Piraeus, I can call him to drive me again.  I know I haven't said his name and that's because he told me the nickname he's called and it sounded something like"Kringa" but I'm not sure of that.  He was a nice man whatever he's called.

My coffee companion

I heard this morning that we were picking up about 380 new passengers today which means we won’t have a full ship. (The Encore holds 600 passengers when fully booked.)  It’s easy to tell who the new people are because they wander around looking a little lost.  In a couple of days they will know their fore from their aft.  

I haven’t written much about some of the dinners I’ve had.  As usual I’ve gotten invitations to hosted tables every night and I’ve accepted a few of them.  Hilary and I were invited to the same ones every night. I guess the staff knew we were friends and tried to put us together.  Two nights ago we had one of the nicest evenings I can remember in a long time.  Among the guest entertainers this past week were two pianists who perform playing one piano.  When they’re playing they sit side by side and there are four hands playing at the same time, with their hands crossing over each other. It’s hard to describe but they were absolutely fantastic and they are also hilariously funny.  There were five of us at the table and I think we laughed the whole time.  Some hosted tables can be very dull, especially if they are ones with eight or ten people  but this one was a lot of fun.  One night I sat next to the officer in charge of security which was very interesting given where our voyage goes next. As we sail down to the Suez Canal, the Red Sea and onwards there are extra precautions taken. 

 

We've set sail on our way to our next stop in Crete tomorrow.  Today we were the only cruise ship here, something I've never seen before. The season is really over. Here's a photo of the sunset we're sailing toward.  I've rambled enough for one day and it's time to get ready for the evening.  There's a dance party but I'm not sure my knee will cooperate.  Hasta mañana!