Category Archives: Uncategorized

“We travel not to escape life, but for life not to escape us.” – Anonymous First, I would like to apologize to all who have been waiting for the final post of this blog. I had good intentions of completing … Continue reading →

We arrived in Ponta Delgada, The Azores, Portugal early Wednesday morning. The weather forecast was for rain, but we again enjoyed another two beautiful days in port. We had arranged for a tour through Cruising Excursions. It was a “small … Continue reading →

Cadiz is a city and port in southwestern Spain. It is the capital of the province of Cádiz. Cadiz is the oldest continuously inhabited city in Spain and one of the oldest in Western Europe and has been a principal … Continue reading →

Malaga, Spain. Our second of three stops in Spain and the last on in the Mediterranean Sea. Malaga with more than 3000 years of history including being the birthplace of Pablo Picasso turned out to be a very surprising stop … Continue reading →

This first photo is actually from day 101, at sea. Cruise Specialists sponsored another cocktail party for their clients (which compromise about 25% of the passengers). I made a point to get a photo of Henk and Lucia Barnhorn our … Continue reading →

Someone had to remind me that today was Tax Day in the U.S., almost spoiled my day… One day in this port is so little time it was almost tempting to not even try to go into the city but … Continue reading →

We arrived in Naples a little earlier than scheduled. We were docked and cleared to debark around 7:30 AM. Today we had scheduled an excursion through Cruising Excursions, headquartered in London. It was described as a small group tour, between … Continue reading →

I am so far behind in posting, that this one will be brief! We arrived in Messina, Italy on the island of Sicily, Italy Monday morning. Messina is the third largest city of Sicily and lies on the northeast corner … Continue reading →

We were again up early for breakfast and on the bus by 8:00 for our travel along the southern Greek coastline on our way to Olympia for the Easter Festival Feast. The first thing I noticed this morning when I … Continue reading →

We arose early, ate breakfast and were on our way south toward Delphi by 8:00 AM. It was another long bus ride, but again with beautiful scenery. Due to the Easter Holiday, we had to arrive in Delphi as soon … Continue reading →

Today starts a very busy six straight port days with one sea day followed by another 3 port days! With so many port days and activities, I am not sure when or how much delay there will be between my … Continue reading →

We arrived about 7:00 AM in Kusadasi, Turkey, a coastal city of about 100,000 people located on the country’s western coast. The first human settlement at Ephesus occurred during the Neolithic period, c. 6000 B.C.. The area is famous for … Continue reading →

Today is Easter Monday of Passover week in Israel. We were out early again for an 8:00 AM tour which lasted 10 hours. Since we have already gone through face to face with immigrations in Ashdod, the procedure was much … Continue reading →

We arrived is Ashdod Port before dawn and the Israeli face to face immigration went smoothly. We had a Holland America tour to the famous mountain Fortress Masada on the Dead Sea. We went to our meeting area in the … Continue reading →

Itineraries are made to be broken! Our Suez Canal transit which was originally scheduled for Monday April, 6 was changed several weeks ago to Saturday the 4th, due to the cancellation of all Egypt stops and the addition of Israel. … Continue reading →

We arrived in Aqaba, Jordan just before dawn. We had a full day excursion to the loss of city of Petra. This blog is long with a lot of photos, so I apologize ahead for any spelling or grammar errors. … Continue reading →

Happy April’s Fools Day! This is our fourth day at sea since leaving Salalah, Oman last Saturday evening. The trip has been uneventful and the weather has been great. The temperatures have been in the low to mid 80’s until … Continue reading →

Salalah, Oman – an interesting port. Located on the western extreme of the Omanian coast, not too far from the contentious country of Yemen. Growing from a small town of only a few thousand to a city of a few … Continue reading →

Wednesday, At Sea After two full days in Dubai my respiratory symptoms which have been an aggravation since Mumbai become much worse, leaving me with a deep chest cough. Since there was very little of interest scheduled onboard for this … Continue reading →

Our second day in Dubai started at 8:30 with a tour scheduled with our travel service Cruise Specialists. After spending 2 days in Dubai, if I had to describe the city in one sentence it would be “Over the top!” … Continue reading →

Our second day in Dubai started at 8:30 with a tour scheduled with our travel service Cruise Specialists. After spending 2 days in Dubai, if I had to describe the city in one sentence it would be “Over the top!” … Continue reading →

We arrived in Dubai about 11:00 AM, having passed through the Strait of Hormuz around 3 AM moving from the Arabian Sea into the Gulf of Oman and down to Dubai in the UAE. We passed only a few miles … Continue reading →

This is our second day at sea since departing Mumbai, India. We will arrive in Dubai, UAE around noon tomorrow. We had a time change for 1 hour back on the night of the 21st and then another half-hour back … Continue reading →

Our second day in Mumbai started out a little better. First, we didn’t have to go through immigrations on the ship before leaving, second our tour today was with our travel service, Cruise Specialists, and finally how bad could it … Continue reading →

As I begin my blog postings for Mumbai, it is actually Saturday morning and we have completed our two day stay in the city. We are now sailing for an additional two and one-half days toward Dubai, UAE. I will … Continue reading →

We arrived in Cochin, India about dawn. We had been previously made aware that immigration procedures in India were more stringent than any previous port we had visited. What’s more, the procedures are subject to change at any time: even … Continue reading →

We arrived on time in Sri Lanka. This was a result of the captain maintaining an almost constant speed of 20 knots for two and a half days. As you recall our departure from Myanmar was delayed by almost a … Continue reading →

We 2 ½ days at sea before reaching Colombo, Sri Lanka. There are not many of the shipboard activities which interest me, so I have spent the time organizing my photos, cleaning my camera equipment and catching up of 5 … Continue reading →

Since all aboard today is 12:00 Noon, we have a shorter tour. It is for about four hours and will take us to a nearby village where we will be able to interact with the local people, visit their market … Continue reading →

Second day in Myanmar was a full day tour with Cruise Specialists to Bago – The Ancient Mon Capital. Unfortunately to reach Bago, we had to again travel through Rangoon with its unbelievable traffic. On the plus side, this gave … Continue reading →