Back Home 27th April

A sad day - the end of our 107 day voyage in which we travelled 38,000 miles and visited 23 countries
:- America, Grand Cayman, Costa Rica, Mexico, Fiji, New Zealand, Australia, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, India, Dubai, Oman, Jordan, Egypt, Greece, Italy, Portugal. It really was the trip of a lifetime and we have some great memories, plus some new friends.

Docked in Southampton

Queen Mary

We arrived in Southampton early in the morning and were off the ship by 10.00 am.  Nick came to meet us and we had a good journey home, meeting the rain when we got near Knebworth.  We started unpacking but it was only later on that we realised we were one suitcase short.  So far the baggage handling company hasn't found it but we are keeping our fingers crossed - particularly as it contained most of Keith's shoes including his brand new green brogues!

The Queen Mary was already in dock and some lucky people were going to transfer to her and carry on cruising.

A sad farewell

Thank you for following us on the blog - it was nice to have that link to you back home.  I hope I didn't ramble on too much, I notice the entries got longer towards the end!

Anyway we look forward to catching up with everyone now we are back. and I am looking forward to finding out what it is like to be at home and not working!

See you soon!

Lisbon, Portugal – Tuesday 24th April

Our last port of call before Southampton – and we loved it.  Lisbon is an ancient town on the banks of the River Tagus and has been a settlement for over 3000 years – some legends state that it was founded by Ulysses.  The Romans were there, and the Moors ruled for 300 years until 1147 when it was recovered and named Lisboa.  The route to Lisbon up the River Tagus is very picturesque – they have the second longest suspension bridge in Europe, modelled on the Golden Gate Bridge and their own Christ the King statue resembling the one in Rio de Janeiro.

City from River - St George's Castle in background

The city is built on a series of hills – the central part (the Baixa), which is in a valley, was destroyed by earthquake in 1755 and has been rebuilt on a grid system with many stunning unspoilt buildings and a large central boulevard,  whilst the neighbourhoods to either side are up steep hills.  To the west is a fashionable shopping  area known as Chiada and the Bairro Alto district of cobbled streets with lots of small bars and restaurants.  The area on the eastern side houses the original citadel containing St. Georges Castle as well as some very old houses, some of which are rather dilapidated.  However, the overall impression is of a city in a good state of repair that is virtually unspoilt by modern developments.  We found one small modern shopping centre but the streets are crammed with small shops with original frontages.  They look expensive, but on closer inspection we found there were bargains to be had.

Lift from Bairro Alto to town centre

We took the ship’s shuttle into the centre of town and started the day in a historic coffee house with coffee and a local speciality of custard tart – these come in melt-in-the-mouth puff pastry cases – absolutely delicious!  For 5 euros we bought a one-day transport pass and took the tiny ancient one-car tram up to the castle.  This was an adventure in itself as the tram had just enough room to squeeze past parked cars up the winding hill, and in places we had to stop for delivery vans to carry out their business – this was great for us as we could look in all the shops without the trouble of walking.  The castle has been restored and is fantastic  - there are no safety rails and it would be quite easy to fall off the ramparts, but that adds to the charm.

We managed to find another tram  which took us back across the centre of town up to the Chiada on the other side.  This houses some of the more well-known shop names plus lots of tourist-oriented cafes and bars with umbrellas outside.  A short stroll away is the much older night-life area with small bars, cafes and traditional shops.  We opted for a small café for lunch and weren’t disappointed – particularly at the price of the excellent red wine (3,60 euros for 50cl).  I had seen a lift marked on the map and was fascinated at the idea of taking a lift from one part of the town the other.  It turned out to be a rather splendid structure, recently restored, which must date back to at least the early 20^th Century.

We took the lift to the central part of town and finished the day with a walk down to the waterfront and around the theatre area and main shopping streets.  There is much more to explore further afield (not least the many seaside resorts which are a short train ride away) but this was a good first-time taster.  Another place we want to come back to!

We have two days at sea before arriving at Southampton.  We will have travelled 38,000 miles since setting out on 10^th January.

p.s.  be careful what you wish for.  I have been saying it is a pity we have had no rough weather since the Tasman sea because a lot of people on the ship have no idea what it is like.  Well, we woke up this morning (Wednesday) to huge seas  - 8 metre waves – and I have not been feeling too healthy, despite not having been affected previously – probably depends on the roll of the ship.    The captain promises it will get calmer by tonight.

Thank you for reading the blog – it is nice to know that some of you have stayed with us throughout.

Rome – Saturday 21st April

This is the birthday of Rome  - presumably of the Republic in 509 BC rather than the founding in 753BC by Romulus, as that date doesn’t seem very certain..

We docked at Civitavecchia, for centuries it has been the port for Rome, which is about 50 miles away.  The port has a beautiful fort designed by Michelangelo, but otherwise is mostly a modern town, so we decided to take the Cunard bus into Rome and arrived at St. Peter’s square around 8.45 am.

The cupola of St Peter's which we climbed

View from the Top

We have both been to Rome before so we worked out a schedule of things we wanted to do or re-do in the 6 hours we had there.  Our first task, which was new to both of us, was to ascend the Cupola of St. Peters.  There is a lift which takes you up the first 200 steps onto the roof after which there are 300 steps to a small outside platform on the cupola.  There is also an inside gallery on the way from which you can view the lovely ceilings.  The view from the top is stunning and it is particularly nice to look down into the Vatican gardens which you can’t see very well from ground level.  Back down on the roof there is a café, souvenir shop and toilets so you can spend your time wandering round admiring the huge statues and watching people in the square.

We had a quick walk round the interior of St. Peter’s before making our way down to the River Tiber, past the Castel St. Angelo and over the pedestrian bridge into the old Renaissance part of Rome.  The guide on our coach told us that the dark chocolate ice cream in Tre Scalini on the Piazza Navona was the best ever and I think she could be right – especially when mixed with a scoop of vanilla. 

The Pantheon

We were heading for my favourite building in Rome, the Pantheon, built by Emperor Hadrian on the site of an earlier monument erected in 27BC by Marcus Agrippa, and still intact after 2000 years – because it was made into a church and not plundered for building material like so many of the other buildings.  It had until the mid 20^th Century the largest concrete dome in the world – with a hole in the middle.  The building is massive and has a real atmosphere inside – particularly if viewed near dusk when there are not many visitors.  The photograph doesn’t do it justice – you need to walk round and feel the solidity of the pillars and view the very unusual architecture. 

Trevi Fountain

Next was a visit to the Trevi Fountain to throw coins over our shoulders (so that we will come back to Rome).  We had a quick stop for a beer and pizza then we made our way down to Trajan’s Column (beautifully carved depicting scenes of Trajan’s victories)  and Trajan’s Market.  The market was famous when it was built around 2000 years ago as a Roman Shopping Centre and the booths look good enough to be used as a market today.  I was surprised that all the wild cats who lived in the ruins outside seem to have disappeared.  Opposite Trajan’s Market is the Roman Forum which leads up to the Palatine Hill.  The Forum has impressive ruins of the centre of old Rome whereas the Palatine Hill contains the houses of some of the noble families .  We didn’t do it this time, but you can walk across the Palatine to view the site of the Circus Maximus where the chariot races used to take place.  At the end of the Via Imperiali which runs alongside the Forum is the Coliseum – we took a photo then headed back towards the river.

Trajan's Market

Our final stop was at the Napoleonic Museum.  We had seen this on the map, and as Keith is interested in the Napoleonic wars we decided to visit.  Actually Napoleon Bonaparte never visited Rome but his family were allowed to settle there after he was taken into captivity, and the museum houses artefacts from their homes  - some fine paintings, sculptures, porcelain and furniture.  The museum is right by the Umberto bridge so we re-crossed the river and headed back to our meeting point at St. Peter’s  by some of the quieter streets, stopping for a glass of wine on the way.

Napoleon in his Museum - this one is for Paul and Nicole

This was a very pleasant trip, the weather was perfect and Rome wasn’t too busy – if we had arrived the day before as originally planned we would have had rain all day and traffic congestion as there was a train strike!

Piraeus, Greece – Wednesday 18th April

I woke up at 7 am and wondered why I was falling out of bed.  The ship was listing heavily to the port side and there was a storm raging outside.  In the Lido restaurant Keith saw crockery smashing onto the floor and he struggled to bring my morning tea back to the cabin in one piece.  It was actually quite difficult to walk up the cabin to open the door!  All this because the captain was trying to get into Piraeus harbour and a 70 knot wind was making us keel over.  He came on the tannoy to tell us that there was nothing to worry about but we would have to go back out to sea and wait out the storm with our head to the wind.  About 4 hours later, with the help of two big tugs we managed to get to the dock, but we had to have the engines going and two tugs pushing at our side to hold us against the quay.

The Marina

Piraeus is the port for Athens and most people were either booked on tours or planning to go in on their own.  It was disappointing for them that tours had to be cancelled or curtailed, but they still managed to see the main sights.  I was not too keen on Athens, having been mugged there last year, so we had planned to stay in Piraeus.  We made our way down to the Marina hoping to visit a bar or two and then walk along the coast, but we hadn’t really bargained for the stormy weather which made walking anywhere near the seafront very unpleasant – also most of the bars were shut.  We wandered through  the main shopping area  but it was noticeable that several shops were abandoned – the result of the recession I guess – and the others didn’t have many people in them.  It was all a bit depressing so we came back to the ship early.

We were supposed to sail away at 5pm but the strong winds meant we couldn’t leave until about 10 pm – and then only with the help of three tugs.  This, plus continued high winds meant that we couldn’t reach Rome by Friday morning so today (Thursday) the captain has told us that he has cancelled our call to Monte Carlo on Saturday so that we  can have a full day in Rome instead.  We are quite disappointed as we wanted to explore Monte Carlo  - now we will have an extra day at sea on Friday – I suppose we can start packing!  We have certainly left the good weather behind, it is only about 13C now – breaking us in for the homecoming no doubt.

Alexandria – Monday 16th April

Alexandria is Egypt’s second largest city and leading port – with a population of 4.1 million, it was founded by Alexander the Great in 332 BC because he wanted a capital nearer to his homeland of Macedonia.  It was famed in ancient times for its Pharos, the great lighthouse, unfortunately no longer there, and its Library, the centre of knowledge for the ancient world (with 500,000 books), accidently burned down by Julius Caesar when he razed the palace next door (or so we were told).  Cleopatra lived here when she was Queen of Egypt from 51-30 BC – she and Mark Anthony committed suicide after being defeated by Octavian when Egypt came under Roman rule.  The city went into decline and by the time Napoleon captured it, it had only 5,000 inhabitants.  The French didn’t stay long, but the city appears to have flourished in the 19^th century  and came under British influence from 1882 until 1954.

View from the docks

We didn’t know anything about the city so opted for a one-day sightseeing tour.  It has a fabulous waterfront stretching for 20km, and looking out from the city it was idyllic with sandy beaches to the eastern end, a bright blue sea with rolling waves and lots of little boats offshore.  We were there on their Easter Monday (Coptic calendar calculates Easter differently) – although this is a predominantly muslim country, Easter is still a national holiday and the Monday is the day for families to go out together and enjoy themselves.  It was nice to see so many of them picnicking on the beach or in the parks and towards evening there were huge crowds on the promenade.  Everywhere we went people waved and smiled at us – some said ‘thank you’.  Our guide said that we were only the second cruise ship to come in this year and that everyone was pleased to see tourists again.  Must admit in the whole day we didn’t see anyone else who looked like a tourist.

Qait Bey Fort - on the sight of the Famous Lighthouse

Along the seafront there is a mixture of buildings – at the Western end some that are mid to late 19^th century that were once grand but now empty, and some terrible apartment blocks that are crumbling – we were told that rents are fixed for generations so many people  pay only 1 dollar a month and the owners can’t afford renovations!  Further along there are modern hotels and restaurants, but interspersed with slightly less terrible apartments and occasionally a shining beacon of a modern or renovated block.  Inside the city the story is the same, I felt quite sad looking at some beautiful buildings that seemed to be holding each other up and hanging on whilst yet more stucco fell to the ground  and balconies collapsed,  in the hope that a renovation might be forthcoming, but given the state of the economy I am not too hopeful.  On our tour we did of course visit some of the best sites…

Montazah Palace

First the Montazah Palace and gardens  - this was the summer residence  of King Farouk until he was deposed in 1952 and it is now used by the presidents.  The gardens are open to the public and were full of picnicking families. Nearby is a 5 star hotel built in the 1960s to provide accommodation for the Arab states and Israelis during peace talks. 

Next we visited the new library - Bibliotecha Alexandrina, built in 2002, with a UNESCO grant and Egyptian money, on the same site as the original – about 2300 years later.  It has a fabulous design and represents the sun with the earth (a planetarium) at its side – unfortunately we don’t have a photo.  The interior is equally impressive with hundreds of stations, all equipped with free internet.  They pride themselves on their multimedia collection – they have masses of books online and many of them are available for free download – including Napoleon’s Description of Egypt (many volumes of superb drawings of all of the antiquities which he commissioned in his brief stay from 1798 to about 1800).  We also saw a super 9-screen interactive ‘Culturama’ demonstration which depicts the history of Egypt and allows exploration of many of the monuments – would be fabulous to use if you were planning  a tour of Egypt.

Roman Theatre

We stopped at a restaurant for a very acceptable lunch before visiting the National Museum of Cairo which occupies the house once belonging to Omar Sharif’s family.  Amongst a selection of antiquities it had some artefacts rescued from the sunken palace of Cleopatra which is in the bay – it was destroyed by an earthquake.  There are plans to retrieve more and also to set up a tourist attraction allowing visits by glass-bottomed boats.

National Museum

Our next stop was the Roman amphitheatre which is still being excavated –  the site also includes a bath-house and other buildings. 

The most exciting visit was the last – the Catacombs of Ko el-Shogafa.  I was expecting some tunnels and a few holes in the wall with maybe some bones but this is so much more.  A spiral stairway leads down 99 steps to a magnificent Egyptian tomb (first century AD) complete with carved pillars and reliefs on the walls, plus some wall paintings (though damp has destroyed most of them).  It is thought that it was built as a single family crypt but then expanded for public use, and about 300 burying chambers have been uncovered so far.  There is a whole lower level that is under water and more tunnels have been discovered quite recently  The catacombs were first discovered when a donkey fell down a hole in 1900 – they are obviously taking their time with the excavations.

The catacombs are in one of the poorest parts of the city and as the traffic was very bad we had plenty of time to view the streets from the luxury of our coach windows.  It did feel a bit uncomfortable being a voyeur but even in this poor area people were smiling and waving at us.

The coach drove through streets like this

Alexandria has definitely got something to offer the explorer, but probably not as a Mediterranean holiday destination  - particularly if they don’t clear up the rubbish which was almost everywhere.  Quite a few people from the ship said they walked to the port gate, took one look  at the rubbish-strewn road and went back to the ship! 

Transit of Suez Canal – Sunday 15th April 2012

This tells us we are nearing the end of our voyage – travelling from the Red Sea into the home waters of the Med.  I was awake by 5.30 am but had already missed the start of the journey – we must have arrived at the convoy marshalling point in the port of Suez at about 4.00 am, and Queen Elizabeth was selected to lead the convoy of 27ships, so embarked the pilot and then started out immediately with two accompanying tugs.  The canal operates a one-way system with three convoys a day going south and two going north.  It is not just a straight canal – there are two lakes - called the Little and the Great Bitter Lake –  and the convoys collect to pass each other at the Great Bitter Lake which is at the Suez end and also  in the Ballah by-pass which is about half way.  There are no locks on the canal.

Al Qantarah Bridge

We didn’t have to stop at all but passed a southbound convoy in the Great Bitter Lake.  We watched from the front deck nearly all day  - it was quite exciting to be sailing through the desert.  There were regular military outposts along the length, although in parts the left bank was irrigated and there were some residential dwellings, including the town of Ismailia at the half-way point.  The right bank – or Sinai desert – was very bleak. The whole passage took about 10 hours.

French War Memorial (WW1)

A bit of history for those who want to read further (most of this is from memory, so apologies if I have got things wrong, but cost and speed of internet prevents me from looking it up!):  There were two canals built in ancient Egyptian times and they were used for a time before silting up.  The current one was completed in November 1869 after 10 years of construction work.  It was the brainchild of a French man, his statue used to stand at the entry to the canal but the Egyptians have removed it to a backwater.  The canal is 193 km long, 24m deep and 205m wide. It is crossed by a Railway Swing Bridge and a Road Bridge (called Al Qantarah Bridge).  The height of the bridge means that some of the largest container ships cannot use the canal.

When the canal was first built it was not the money spinner that was expected so the King of Egypt sold  shares to the British who snapped it up using a loan from the Rothschilds, so it was then under the control of the British and French.   In the 1950s the Americans were due to give 2.5 million dollars to Egypt to help with the building of the Aswan damn but they withdrew because they thought the Egyptians were getting too friendly with the Russians.  To raise money President Nasser decided to take control of the canal and use the revenue.  This forced the Suez crisis when the British, French and Israeli combined forces took back the canal. However international opinion was against them there was a vote of something like 65 to 5 in the UN for control to be handed over to Egypt (with the Americans teaming up with the Russians to vote against us).  There was a first use of UN peacekeeping forces in the area.  Israel was banned from using the canal and in the 1960s (6 days war) they took the Sinai desert including the coast where Sharm el Sheikh was built.  Nasser sunk ships to block the canal and it was out of use for several years – 8 cargo ships were stranded in the canal, I have no idea what became of them!

Peace was established in 1978, and the canal is now owned and maintained by the Suez Canal Authority of the Arab Republic of Egypt with an international treaty allowing its use “in time of war as in time of peace, by every vessel of commerce or of war, without distinction of flag”

Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt – Saturday 14th April

Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt – Saturday 14^th April

Sharm is at the foot of the Sinai Peninsula and it was developed for tourism by the Israelis when they occupied the Sinai from 1967 to the early 1980’s (after the Camp David agreement in 1978).  Perhaps because of the Israeli influence, or maybe because it is much more established,  it has a much different feel from Hurghada  and a nice holiday atmosphere – it helps that there is no rubbish and most of the buildings are occupied

The Marina at Sharm el Sheikh

We docked in the Marina which is close to what is now known as the Old Town of Sharm, though it probably dates from the 70s.  This has a beach and one or two hotels, but the main resort is  at Na’ama Bay which is about 4 miles away.  Here the whole resort area is traffic free and most of the hotels are only two or three storeys high – most of them are separated from their own private beaches by the promenade which runs the length of the resort and gives access to a range of restaurants and bars.  We were worried that we would not be allowed on the beach but as soon as we arrived by taxi we were approached by a young man selling a trip in a glass-bottomed boat which meant we got access  to the beach where his stall was set up between the beaches of two hotels.  Actually I think you can go on most of the beaches but have to pay if you want to use their sun loungers. 

Beach at Na'ama Bay

Coral Reef from glass-bottomed boat (fish are hiding)

There were a lot of boats in the bay which meant you had to keep very alert when snorkelling, but there were also a lot of fish to watch and the water is very clear.  The best bits of reef were a bit further out and we thoroughly enjoyed our trip in the glass-bottomed boat, though disappointed we didn’t get any good photos.  We finished our visit with a walk along the promenade to view the different hotels and a couple of drinks in the happy hour at one of the bars on the beach.  We met a couple who were on their seventh visit to the same hotel – the Jolie Ville – which did look quite luxurious.  I can see it could be quite pleasant for a few days sun, swimming and snorkelling, but there’s not a lot else of interest.

Keith liked the look of this

Tomorrow we are transiting the Suez Canal, will have to be up early to see the start.