Rome

Hi again. We are waiting to go to the airport. I forgot to tell another funny..Monday I wanted to change money? We kept seeing banks..finally went in. there was a tube like a revolving door without the inner thing. I got in...there was a message in Italian...someone else in the Libby said I had to get out and put my camera ,etc in a locker? We'll, I couldn't get it!to work??thankfully there was a nice nun there? she showed me I needed a euro to put in...once I did this, it worked. after all of that, I went in and they didn't change money!!! I did get my euro back when I undid the lock.later I found a cam bio and made a major mistake???I didn't ask what rate he charged...15%!!!!AWCKKKK I should have changed more the day before in sorrento after seeing Pompeii. In sorrentomi sawmthembiggest lemons I have ever seen???they were even bigger then grapefruit???the bellhop is here so better go. Barb. Once I get home I will post photos.

Getting around on 1.5 Euro!

this morning we wanted to go to the Pantheon. I stopped to ask the man at the desk on how to get there. he told me to go to the newsstand  and buy the ticket.then proceed to the bus stand near the Hard Rock Cafe. This we did...it was a very small bus...we didn't know exactly where to get,off..we had some walking to do. I wonder how the ancient Romans hauled those huge stones up to creat these buildings! Next we had to fine the museum with the Davinci machines. this was so neat. they had life size copies of Davincis designs ...he was absolutely incredible..a bicycle, the idea of a helicopter, etc.I don't know how much longer it will be on exhibit.
while we were leaving the area of  the Pantheon we walked down a street that had many shops selling the robes ,etc. Needed by Catholic priests....beautiful things...beautiful robes...also the silver and gold chalices, etc. Needed for the service.
eventually we found a bus stop...it wasn't the bus we had arrived on but we recognized different buses went to the metro stops we had used yesterday. when we finally got to the metro stop we finally used our ticket. We're watched people getting on the buses and didn't see them swiping them so we had gotten all around the city on one ticket!!!
We found a place on our way home to eat..Small, open face sandwiches and blessed water!!!
we had to buy another suitcase yesterday..so after taking a nap, we have packed. Wee get picked up at 8ish tomorrow morning..our flight leaves about noon...we get back to Tucson at 9:30 or so....been a long trip but incredible!!!

Country bumpkins in Rome

Hi all. we left the ship about 7:30 min. Am and we're in a car with driver heading to ROME by 8!
our hotel is near the American embassy....nice area? we left out luggage with the bellhop and got a map and headed out. We found a hop on,Hop off tour bus...stayed on for the first cycle..next time around we got off at the colleseum...wanted to see the lower part but would have to wait three hours formate guided tour so just walked around the second level. The weather was,perfect..not hot, with a little breeze. by the time we finished that and got back to our area it was after 3.
Now our bumpkin-ness showed itself!  We got the key to our room and headed up. We could not see a slot for it and had to wait for the bellhop with our luggage...turns out you just lay the key on the thing and it reads the code and opens the door! Duh!  So now we want to shower to get ready to go to dinner..we have this incredible shower...there were three jets coming straight at Joe???he got those disabled and was able to get!water coming out of the hand-held thing but never out of the over-head faucet!!! (The Clampetts hit the big city!). At least the water was nice and warm. We found out that our friends from church, Dee and john Sundby, were close by so just walked to meet them for dinner. we compared cruises, etc. they are leaving tomorrow for Florence and Venice.
yesterday we also went to St. Peter's  to get the lay of the land .
today we found the subway and went to ST. peters square...am so happy we had the Skip the Line Vatican tickets? the line was three long blocks long, four wide.UGH. We were early so went and had some coffee. We spent several hours in the Vatican museum ANG finally the Sistine chapel. a man on the ship had given a lecture about the Sistine chapel???was really glad I had gone? Nothing to say but incredible. when we got out we got to see the changing of the guard by the Vatican guards...neat. We then got in line to see St. Peter's basilica???and the Pieta...also incredible. by this time I was unending out of steam...on the street bought a "knockoff" Prada bag..?Making sure it was spelled right first!!!
We also had to buy another suitcase as I had shopped more then I expected,on the cruise.
Camemback and took a nap...knee was hurting. Went to dinner and met a really nice British couple...spent a lot of time talking to them. they were heading to Sicily. We told them our friends had been there two days ago and got snowed on!!!
best close. Barb

Jerusalem

Hi, we are on our way toBehlehem..just ate a very late lunch. We have seen the dome of the rock, the
via de lorosa, the wailing wall, garden of gethsemenae..really pretty.
Two day ago we transitted the Suez Canal...that was really neat.. We started about 4 am by getting in s convoy ...we were the fifth ship with 20 more behind us..each ship pays about $90-120,000 to transit. The canal has been n service for over 100 years so it is bringing a boatload of money to Egypt. We got into the Med. about 4 pm.

Yesterday we went to the Dead Sea and also Masada. also saw Qumwran where the Dead Sea scrolls were found. Boy, was it hot !!!
We had bought our swim suits and went into the Dead Sea. The water looked normal...I was expecting it to look different. It is really a funny feeling...you back in and then sit down...your legs flip up and you are floating..talk about salty tasting!!!I put a drop on my tongue...I could taste it for a long time.

Back to the canal...there were quite a few towns along the way with ferries taking cars and peoplE
across.  We were so close to the shores on both sides...everyone was on deck 10 sitting an watching. The poor servers had to refill the large coffee urns several times.

Today there are quite a few tourists..I can't imagine doing this during Easter or Christmas..it must be packed solid.
Tomorrow we are coming back to Jerusalem on our own..will probably take the train in...I will keep you posted!
Barb

Jordan

Hi all, We were most excited about this stop. It has been 45 years since we were here and there is nothing that is the same. The Jordanians have made this an economic free zone and there is much construction going on. |Lots of big hotels, apartments, etc. The sheik from AbuDhabi has a big project going on. In a few years this will be another Monte Carlo.
Yesterday we took the shuttle bus to town and hired a cab to take us around. There are lots of tourist shops mixed in with regular stores. We went to several gold shops but the price was too expensive for my taste. ||Our driver was really nice. The weather was nice .overcast and not terribly warm. However  it warmed up after we ate lunch and it started to bother me. We did a little shopping , drank tea, ate lunch and went back to the ship.
Today we took a bus to Wadi Rum..we had never been in Wadi Rum..always just had ridden past it. It has really been built up as far as little villages, etc. The Bedouins have the monopoly on the tours, etc and have done quite well with it.
Soon we were all in the back of pickup trucks with benches in the back. We drove off into the desert to various places. We stopped at a total of 4 Bedouin camps...most were permanent structures with a half-wall with benches and a tent over the top. Some of them were selling things besides giving us tea. We saw no women...many men in the kafeeya on their phones. The Cunard line Queen Elizabeth pulled into berth right behind us last night and dwarfed our ship. This morning there must have been 30 tourist buses out in front of their ship. Anyway, there lots of pickup trucks in the desert but it worked out well so there weren't a lot of people at each stop. The rock formations are really incredible.The sand is something else to walk in...very slippery and hard to walk in. At one of the camps there must have been 20 camels..I got on and rode it around for a few minutes..can't imagine doing that for days.

In town there are many woman the chador...we never saw that when we lived here. The woman were wearing their traditional dress that had lots of embroidery on the front and sleeves ...they may have had several layers of clothes on underneath that. They had a scarf on their head but not covering their faces...really different now.
\yesterday at the restaurant we had tabbouleh, hummus, and fried kefta....good. also a lemon-mint tea...really good.
Today in the camps we had tea that also had cardamon in it. good but different.


Tonight we eat in the Polo Grill...then in two days we eat in the Tuscona..one more day and then we go through the Suez canal..then three days in |Jerusalem.
Will keep you posted. Barb.

Yemen

Hi All, it is Easter Monday and we are going through the Sea of Aden and we are within swimming distance of Yemen. We have passed Somalia  and are now between Yemen and Djibouti ..there is an oil rig out here also. really a narrow passage...can see why and how the kidnappers worked. more later.Barb

In the Aden Sea

Hi all, just finished team trivia...we finally came in for first [place!!!Right now we are 70 miles from Yemen and 70 miles from the Somali coast...neither one likes us very much. All of the fire hoses are out on deck. i found out after we got on the ship that this ship was attacked  by the Somali's 3-5 years ago and someone was killed for not moving fast enough.!

We are seeing lots of tankers. Maybe ships go through in bunches
Yesterday we were in Salaha, Oman. Quite a change as up to now everything has been very tropical and lush. Oman is strictly desert. They are on the ocean .They are actually a fairly new country. Up until 1970 they had no infrastructure., no hospitals, no schools, etc. The health care is free, i am not sure about the schools. all of the buildings look new.
This is where you get frankincense...smell it burning all over. We went to see a majestic mosque..very beautiful but they wouldn't let us in if we didn't have a scarf to cover our head and neck. So  had to wait until someone came out.
They then took us to a tourist shopping area...my barginning skills re-surfaced and I cam away with some bargins. I was unhappy as we didn't see the real local market l saw two woman selling things in the market and they let me take photos.

Did I tell you that some people were offered $12,000 to down-grade their room? Apparently on these long cruises people want the higher decks. One couple was first offered, $3000, a cruise in August and something else. They deferred..they were called back a little later and were offered a flat $12000 and took it!
I have gotten the names of websites to arrange tours on so will pack those away. also got a lesson today at the brunch(Easter) on negotiating for a few things. I will try that sometime also.

We still have one more day at sea and then we are in Jordan!!! Will keep you posted.
Barb

Hi again, i forgot to tell you that we saw part of a very up-scale wedding in Bombay two days ago. /we were coming down from an upper floor.. Both of the couple were beautiful to look at as were their friends. They all arrived via BMW's. etc. The clothing they were all wearing was incredible. There was a lady who was late arriving had a photographer running ahead taping her moves. I asked the guide if she was a movie star- (Bollywood is located in Bombay) The guide said no.. probably a socialite.

Life aboard ship..well, they make up your bed twice a day. They serve coffee,tea, juices and rolls up on the 10th deck from 6 am on... regular breakfast buffet goes from 7 on...I guess they also have breakfast at the grand dining room but we have never been. Yesterday there was another cooking demo.l They hand out recipes and do the actual cooking in front of you. They also have lectures often about things in the area.

They have team trivia,. I am on a team of 8..Joe declined. there are now 18 teams of 8. We generally meet just in the late afternoon. Because of this we have not been to high tea.Talk about out of the world  questions!

Tomorrow we should land in Salah, Oman. I am really looking forward to this. Then we will have 4 more sea days before we get to Aqaba.

the meals are incredible. for breakfast they have all of the juices, fresh fruit, eggs made to order, omelet, oatmeal, croissants, plus other fresh bread, eggs Benedict  etc.They also have sardines, cheese, herring, etc that other people eat. There are lots of Europeans on this trip. Whatever gave men the idea that wearing speedo swimpants was a good look!!! Yuck!


the needlepoint ladies meet at 9:30, they have putting contests, bean bag throws, etc. People read a lot. Many people have iPad and even use them to take pictures on the tours. people sit out by the pool and the pool boy will bring you a drink. it is  rough life. We have been eating at the grand dining room at night. We always share a table of six..have really met some interesting people. We never get back from that until about 8:30-8:45.. Joe isn't happy but he does enjoy the company./By then our room is cleaned again, they have the 'newspaper' on the bed with the chocolates.

i will write again after tomorrow...should be interesting. Barb

Travail and tours

Hi. I have finally gotten to post. Joe has been using up the minutes taking care of the visa card business. The ship has not been very helpful. They won;'t take Paypal, or bill pay. They will only accept a money wire transfer. We have had Larissa drawing money out of our account and then will have her wire that from her bank to the Ociana hdqrs in Florida. what a mess. I don['t know what we would have done if wasn't around. Anyway, we are hoping this will work.

A few days ago we saw pods of dolphins... neat. We stopped in phuket. it is on the western side of Thailand up from Singapore. We went to a cashew nut factory. There is on nut in each fruit. very hands on..can't believe we can buy them for such a low price considering. later we went to a sea shell museum...saw some of the most beautiful shells i have ever seen. i was frustrated. We have always done all of our touring with OAT where you get a fair amount of free time to explore on your own. Here we were on a bus and we went where the bus went. i will know better next time and arrange our own tour ahead of time. Lots of people are doing this.

After Phuket we were in Burma. it was exciting. Tourism has only been open a few years. the guide says it grow by 20% each year. In Rangoon(Yangon) all of the building were old and very dirty. If you had the power wash company you would be a rich person. We went to the major temple  The Shwedogon.. there was a novitiate program going on for the new monks. Most of the young men of the country are a monk for a short period of their life. Some stay as short of time as three days or up to two weeks. Others stay longer. This ceremony involved all of the family members. The noviates were all dressed up as were the families. lots of picture taking. I asked and the guide said that everyone goes through this (probably expensive) ceremony whether they are going to stay 3 days to 5 years!

It was really hot and on the second day we were doing a lot of walking  i had had enough..the humidity was really getting to me. i think they said the temp was 101 and the humidity was 65%. After our walking we rode a small cart pulled by a horse. Then later we rode on a seat that was attached to a bike.. one person to the bike. Some of the tourist on this ship are quite large so don't know how they did.

There are lots of stupas and temples all over Burma  many more then even in Thailand. Even when were were in the capital we didn;t see any new buildings, especially like in Singapore.

The food on the ship has been incredible...have to take it easy. The time seems to just fly by. There is a retired Brit. army officer on board who gives lectures on all sorts of things. Today he did one on the Railway to Damascus. All of his lectures have slides so they are very interesting. There is also a guy on board who gives talks on photography and architectural.

Today we had a mandatory drill on evading kidnappers. We are to go to the inside hall and sit on the floor. Later in an elevator there was one of the main officers of the ship. I said something to the effect that i didn'[t think anything would happen as the Somali's haven't done anything for a long time. He agreed and said they also had extra security on board. Someone on the ship said he had heard they used Mossad from Israel.
Tonight we eat in one of the special restaurants  At night we try to shard a table..really meeting some nice people. yesterday afternoon i was stitching and waiting for a lecture to start. the team quiz program started while I was waiting. I gave them some answers and they invited me to join their team. Probably a good think as the team had only one American,. ..

the servers on the ship are from all over .Bulgaria, Ukraine  Phillipimnes, Burma, etc. No Americans. The servers work 11-12 hours per day....all are very nice and always greet you. it just be a tough life. I hope they get paid enough.

The sea has been relatively calm although Joe said when he gopt up today all of the water had sloused out of the pool during the night. This is our third sea day in a row. We are just noe rounding Sre Lanka. When we hit Colchin we will have four days of tours...Colchin, Goa and Mombai...I am missing one place.

Better close for now. Hope Larissa send the money soon. As you know when you take a cruise you have to present your credit card at the end to pay for your expenses on ship....We may be on here for life!!!
Love Barb

Almost in Phuket

Hi all, to day is the 4th. We spent yesterday in Singapore...poor Joe missed the tour we signed up for. He was busy canceling our visa card and all that that entails. I went on a tour. Singapore is very pretty and clean..remember, this is the country that bans chewing gum! We saw the old cricket club..been here since the 1880s..also stopped outside of Raffles...that is on my bucket list. we will have to go back. We went to the orchard gardens..incredible orchids..hundreds of kinds  We also went to tthe highest peak..hard to take photos because of all the trees. They have some beautiful building.s There is a three tower hotel that has what looks like a ship on top...the 56th floor, I believe  Up there is has trees and an infinity pool!  Will go back to see that !! There is lots of construction. They are a huge container port, similar to HongKong. The guide says a container ship arrives every 2-3 minutes.'
The meals have been great. Tonight we eat at the Polo Grill. There was a talk and slide show this morning about Burma. Tomorrow we are in Phuket and I think in Burma the next two days after that.Bye until later. Barb

Second day

 we had great flights ...got to LAX in time to see UA lose...so sad. April 2nd...had to ask yesterday as I was all confused. we are 3/4 the way down the Malaysian coast. Our flight from Hong Kong to Bangkok was delayed 3 hours,. /when we got on the flight from LA to Hong Kong they started feeding us. it was after midnight. I had a salad with roast duck and THE wall. could n ' stay awake..so missed steak with truffle sauce. You know how hard it is to raise truffles in Tucson .much less trying to find a trained javelina to snuffle them out! alas.alak!  In Bangkok Joe lost all of id  drivers license, visa card, atm card, house key...we can't close out the visa card as I have one also and they are the same  number.

I think we have both finally caught up on our sleep....today I went to the stitching area for a short time.  Then Joe came and got me and we went to a cooking demo....great! Have recipes. There are 650 on the ship with 800 staff..... it seems to both of us that there are quite a few older people then when we cruised last time.
We have met some really nice people....I imagine we will meet more in the coming weeks.
Tonight is the captains cocktail party so we dress for that. Then tomorrow we go on a tour.
Nos that I know how to log on, I will write more. Barb

I tried to post something while in the airport in Hongkong but all the instructions were in Chinese. When we were on the first Cathay Pacific light I tried to watch a movie..the instructions were in Chinese and German!!!

Getting ready

Getting ready. We are packing and weighing suitcases...and i am trying to decided what to take to stitch. We are also trying to remember to take all of the chargers for the electronics...fun stuff. I guess we will re4lax once we get on the plane..we don't leave LAX until midnight...we are both wearing our heavist shoes . usually i get new bills and couldnt this time. The banksaid they only have new bills at the holiday time. We did get Baht...it is worth about .03  so $100 produced two envelopes of money! The India rupee wasn't any better...about .02.I couldn't get any money for Myanmar and Visa said we can't use our card there...interesting. We are busy emptying the frig...makes for some strange meals...pot stickers, mexican hotdish and salad.!