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Stromboli

One of the many wonderful things that traveling on The World offers, is exposure to "experts" from the areas we are approaching.  We are now off the coast of Italy in the Aolian Islands.  Yesterday, we were treated to a lecture and slide show, which prepared us for our arrival on the island of Stromboli tomorrow.  This island is the home of the Stromboli crater which houses 5 active volcanic sites about 5,000 years old, located at approx 3,000 feet above sea level. This particular volcano is only 1/3 out of the water and 2/3 below the surface. There are said to be many, many more active volcanoes in this area that are completely submerged.  The inhabitants on this island mostly lived off the land, raising crops such as figs, capers and grapes.  In 1930, there was a huge eruption and Sunami, which caused the people to leave the island quickly, leaving most of their belongings behind.  Many of these people ended up in Australia.  Today, there are still houses standing abandoned with dishes on the table and clothing on shelves, mostly built into the mountain.  There are eruptions in this volcano, spewing flame, or what appears to be dark smoke billowing into the air, filled with ash.  There is so much ash on the ground that people ski on it as if it was snow......I have seen some absolutely amazing photos!   This volcanic island sits in the deepest part of the Mediterranean Sea. The ship is offering hikes up the mountain to view the activity at close range......sounds like another incredible day!  This has been designated as a World Heritage Site.

Croatia/Sicily

Just spent a few days sailing in Croatia.  Both the port of Rob and Novalja were charming and extremely clean.  They looked like movie sets, with even the streets paved with limestone and the architecture somewhat interesting.  But, then we arrived at Split which besides being charming and clean also had alot more going on.  Had a nice dinner at Bota Sare, overlooking the water.  We tasted the local cheese, which was pungent but delicious and their local white wine which was also enjoyable.  The trick here was ordering the prawns which were priced by the kilo.  It was pure guesswork as to how many were how much, as only very scantily spoken English was our means of communication.  But then again, we were in Croatia.......there were a couple of cute shops, and the people were very friendly.  The water was very clear and clean, it was lovely.

 

Now we are in Sicily, having spent yesterday at Sea.  Before I tell you about my brief exposure , so far, to Siracusa, I wanted to share with you what one does when the ship is "at sea".  In addition to having the ability to just sit on a lounge by the pool, there was a very lively cricket game on the tennis court, bridge in the card room, followed by a class on Sodoku puzzle solving.  We also have a book club, the Plato Society which studies and reports on various topics of interest (this latest subject was the investigation of world religions, and was fascinating), and a full fitness club and spa area.  That is to name just a few of the options we had yesterday.........

 

We arrived in Siracusa late yesterday afternoon, and went ashore to see the ruins of the Temple of Apollo, which were much less impressive than many of the other Roman sites we have visited.  It is however, always surprising to see ruins in the middle of an otherwise fairly modern city, with it's traffic issues and hustle bustle.  Sicily is known for it's Baroque architecture, but the buildings were not in the pristine condition that we just saw in Croatia.  Many of the exteriors were blackened by what appeared to be a build-up of dirt and mold, which distracted from the detail of the distinctive architecture.  There were many name stores ie Gucci, Prada, Beneton, Zara but not much  shopping"of the region" that we have discovered so far.  We ate onboard last night but will venture out to a local restaurant for dinner with some friends from Los Angeles who will be joining us onboard this afternoon.  Sicily is said to have written the first cook book and much of it's cuisine centers around Sardines.  I'm sure it will be interesting......more later. Ciao......... 

Marmaris, Turkey

OMG!  The ports get better and better.......this one is the major vacation destination in Turkey.  And I can see why.  It is a major yacht harbor with more huge sailing yachts than either of us have seen in one port, ever.  We arrived at 6PM, disembarked and had another lovely dinner portside as the lights were coming on and the sun was going down.  We toasted to" the good life"with some local Merlot and remembered again how lucky we are!  There is yet another fabulous shopping bazaar with over 2,000 stalls/shops open until midnight.  Bought some fun things.  Yesterday, we went on a tour to Turtle Beach, which is a nature conservation area, with the sea on one side and a lake on the other, connected by a very picturesque river with 10 foot high reeds, spotted by little fishing villages and restaurant areas.  This area is a refuge for giant loggerhead  sea turtles, with shells 3-4 feet wide, and their prey which are very large blue crabs.  We boarded a small launch and proceeded to the area where these turtles come at night from May-Sept to lay their eggs.  They return to the place of their birth each year, even though they may have gone to completely different areas, sometimes miles away,  to swim and feed. Science has not yet figured out how they find their way.  They go out on the sand by moonlight, dig a hole and lay 80-150 eggs.  Thee ones at the bottom of the nest, in the cold sand, come out girls and the ones at the top of the nest which has been warmed by the sun, come out boys........go figure!  Anyway, when these little critters are born, their little legs are too short to reach the ground so they kind of move side to side to transport themselves into the water.  This is a slow and arduous process, fraught with danger of being eaten by local feasting birds and foxes who come to the area for lunch.  Only about 10% of them make it.  The public is barred from the beach area during the nesting months, as well they should be.  We stopped our boat next to a local fisherman who was catching these blue crabs.  He passed one over to our boat where we saw them up close.  Their shells are 6-8" big and they have bright blue legs....they are stunning.  Our playful tour guide put the live crab around my neck like a necklace!  The fisherman then put a crab on a fishing line and dangled it in the water and sure enough a fabulous turtle began chasing it and fully surfaced in his pursuit.  It was thrilling!  Next the fisherman cooked some crabs and we dined on them......they were sweet and delicious.  On our way back to our starting point, looking at the mountains next to the river, we were treated once again to view more monuments and kings graves which were huge structures carved into the sandstone which have been there since 5,000BC.  Our guide explained that the elaborate ones were for kings and the less elaborate down to small holes in the rock were for less important people and finally more recent deaths where the bodies were cremated and the urns with ashes were in the smallest of holes.  When kings were buried they were mummified, put into boats and brought down the river, and then carried up wooden ladders high onto the mountain for their final resting point.  Today, traditionally, Muslims are buried without caskets, covered with only a piece of white cloth, placed on their right sides and buried facing Mecca.  Another magical experience, followed by more great shopping and another lovely dinner on shore.  Like I keep saying, don't anybody pinch me........we are now at sea, about to pull into another Turkish port called Fethiye and the adventure continues.

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Crete

Well, I have always wanted to go to Greece and now I am here! And it is everything I hoped it would be.  Chania, Crete is a darling little Mediterranean port, reminiscent of St Tropez with all of the little cafe's and bistros portside.  There are all of these quaint little cobblestone streets lined with shops of all kinds.  Did some fun shopping for all of you.......Last night we had a traditional Greek dinner with local wine, stuffed grape leaves and on and on for 21/2 hours.  We were with Lauren and Elsa so we were in good hands.  The girls had taken a local cooking class at an organic farm and picked, cooked and ate a delicious lunch.  Wilf and I began a 2 hour walking tour this morning with an English speaking guide but went off on our own about 1/2 into it.  So, this morning, back on shore and another lovely Greek salad for me while being serenaded by some local children playing very recognizable Greek music on their accordions.  It couldn't have been more perfect, unless you were all here to share this with us.  You would never know that there was anything unusual going on in Athens.  Everyone is cheerful and friendly and speaks enough English to make themselves understood.  I love it here!!!!! We sail for Turkey tonight.....and on to a new adventure.

Egypt 2

Well, yesterday was the day to drive 31/2 hours to Giza to see The Pyramids  and The Sphinx (The head of a man and the body of a Lion).  No matter how prepared one thinks one is to see these things that we have been admiring in books for years, it is in fact surreal to be standing next to them. How and by whom they were constructed is still a mystery.  We were offered the opportunity to actually go inside the Pyramid but it required crawling on your tummy for a distance and we decided to pass.

 

We then proceeded to The Mena House Oberoi Hotel for a lecture and lunch.  It is an old building which has been restored and is quite wonderful to see.  It is covered with marble and onyx and is dark but very grand with crystal chandeliers and high ceilings.  Many of the rooms look out over the pyramids.  In the evenings they do a light show which is highly touted but our timing wasn't right.

 

We then drove to the Egyptian Museum of Antiquities which was no less than fascinating!  It houses the most important collection of Egyptian antiquities from 2700 BC to the 6th century AD  There were several original pieces from the tomb of the young king Tutankhamen, who became king at the age of 9 and ruled until he died at the age of 19.  The reason for his death has been explained by he fell from a carriage and bled to death or he was murdered or he died of Malaria or any number of other stories. Among his treasures is the original gold mask found on his mummy in a complete state of preservation.  The explanation as to why the gold is still shiny is that Egyptian gold is mixed with silver to insure it's non tarnished sheen.  We saw many tombs which were carved out of stone and inlaid with lapis lazuli and turquoise and other precious stones and others that were carved out of Cedar brought from Lebanon, which was also highly valued.  (Fascinating to me as I was born in a hospital named Cedars of Lebanon in Los Angeles.}  There were no diamonds, rubies, emeralds etc used in their vast collection of decorated items.  Those stones existed here but were not recognized.  There were also many real mummies which was a first for me.  In the beginning, bodies were mummified in a fetal position but later were outstretched on their backs.  Kings had their arms bent at the elbow and crossed over their chests  Queens had one arm bent at the elbow and placed over her chest but the other was at her side..  I also discovered that in the same time frame these clever Egyptians had invented hinges.  There were examples of folding beds and thrones that were transported to be used when traveling .  Remarkable!

 

On our trip back to The World we passed through many small towns where all of the female heads were covered, open carts pulled by horses were used for transport and goat herds were being fed in the very dirty and garbage strewn streets.  It was explained that the towers we saw next to houses that had a series of holes in them were for raising pigeons, which they eat.  These were all newly constructed because when the "bird flu" scare occurred the government destroyed all of the ones that existed.  It was represented to us that the Egyptian people are very angry with their government and that there is alot of unrest.  Back to the ship.....and no matter how fascinating the day has been I am always so happy to be back in our world!  We look forward to a day at sea and then on to Crete.

RE: Egypt

Linda,

Wow.  This is the area for the birth of life.  I realy enjoy the update.

Thanks,

erik

Egypt

Wow!  We have had a couple of incredible days of touring in Alexandria, Giza and Cairo.  When we arrived in Alexandria we headed straight for a catacomb which had been unearthed right in the center of town.  It is so odd to see these ruins surrounded by modern day life.  It causes one to believe, as the Egyptians do, that under all of these newer buildings and roads lie past civilizations.  Our tour director let us know with no uncertainty that Egypt is a Suni country, there are no Shia or Sufi here.  She also said that although 80% of the people are Muslim, 20% are Christian and that there was a large Jewish population who did a mass exit, mostly to Morroco and France and then eventually to the US in 1956 when Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal. Her estimate is that there are now approx. 150 Jews in Egypt, 35 of whom reside in Alexandria. She reminded us that the Muslim religion recognizes both Jesus and Moses as Prophets but, of course Mohammed is the one to whom they pray 5 times a day. 

 

A catacomb is a multi-person underground burial site.  We walked down a fairly tight winding shaft of 90 stairs to the burial area.  This was the site of an important, but not Royal man and his wife, buried on opposite sides of "a room" which was decorated with carvings. In adjoining rooms there were may empty compartments where the bodies of their servants had been placed, so they could continue to serve them in their next lives. All of the mummified bodies had long since been either stolen or removed to the museum.  It reminded me of the Asian tombs we had seen in China, where the rulers buried statues of whole armies to protect them in their next life (The Terracotta Warriors in Xien).  The similarity in beliefs, then and now, is much more striking to me than the differences.  To think of all of the spilt blood over these vagaries continues to mystify me.  As we were leaving the catacomb we were told that we had only visited the 1st floor of a 3 floor burial site.  The bottom 2 floors were flooded as the water table continues to rise.  I am sure that is one of the reasons for the urgency in unearthing all of these "treasures" while it is still possible to retrieve them.  We were told that we could use restrooms before we left the area.......there was an old woman selling toilet paper sheets outside the toilet area.  No money, no paper.  When I went inside and saw their disgustingly filthy toilets I decided to pass.....It did occur to me that unless your legs are strong enough to successfully "hover" over toilet bowls or holes you really should not be a world traveler.  Carrying tissues with you is also a good idea.

 

Our next stop was the famous Biblioteca of Alexandria.  This was a very modern Library structure housing thousands of books in several languages.  There is also a section for children and for the blind.  One real dichotomy that jumped out at me, was a woman completely covered in black garments, including her hands and face.  There must have been a translucent piece over her eyes because she was sitting, using a computer with her cel phone on the table in front of her. So, it is not possible to believe that these "poor" women don't know that they are dressing differently than the rest of the world.  They are either choosing this lifestyle or it is being forced on them by their families or husbands.  Which brings me to a very important observation. There was a photo of Sadat, maybe 30 years ago, giving a speech to an audience in a square and there was only 1 female head covered.  Today, I saw hundreds of Egyptian women and not 1 had an uncovered head.  When I discussed this with our friend on The World who was educated in Egypt, he said that I was absolutely correct.  There is a resurgence in the religious behavior of both young and older Muslim women and men in Egypt that he feels will continue for the next couple of generations.  That thought made me very uncomfortable.  

 The most interesting thing in this structure is the Sadat Library which housed his personal papers and belongings.  Among them were the uniform he wore when he was assassinated, replete with bullet holes and his still bloody watch and cummerbund holding his medals.  Nearby was a photo of the assassination scene.  The Army was marching by all of the dignitaries including Sadat and Mubarek among others in the front row.  Some of the troops opened machine gun fire on Sadat and his men, and low and behold, all were killed except Mubarek! (The current President!)  An odd coincidence.......The military was unhappy with Sadat for brokering peace with the Israelis. Fascinating! 

Leaving Jordan

Hi, everyone!  So, I am going to do this backwards.  At this moment we are leaving Jordan on our way to and through the Suez Canal.  Just before the ship pulled out we were hosted by our friend and ship board neighbor, His Royal Highness Gasson Shaker (otherwise known as Gus) for a lovely lunch by the pool.  Tea sandwiches, blinis, foie gras, sweets and champagne.  After working out and having breakfast  this AM, we decided to go and see the town of Al Aqaba.  So, we took the shuttle bus in and found that there was nothing worth seeing or buying but we now know we haven't missed anything!  Last night we had a nice dinner at The Royal Jordanian Yacht Club.  The view over the Red Sea was very nice but the sounds of intermittent "fireworks" kept sounding, and although we saw an occasional flash of light there never was anything that we saw in the sky.  It was a little unnerving.  We had spent the day just doing personal maintenance (hair, nails, etc) and paperwork.  But, the day before that we went to Petra, which   is one of the 7 Wonders of the World, and deserves that accolade..  There stand the most majestic and magnificent mountain formations which were at one time under water, but now soar over 140 feet in the air.  The stone is multicolored, in hues of red, green, yellow, white and black , depending upon the mineral content.  It really appears to have been painted by some gigantic brush......I have not seen the Painted Desert in the US, but maybe it is similar.  Here, you walk for miles on partly paved, partly sand paths that have been traversed for thousands of years by Bedoins, armies, camels, horses, it is easy to let your mind try to picture it's history.  Over the years temples and over 600 monuments have been carved in these walls.  The largest of these monuments is called The Treasury.  It is 140 feet high and about 90 feet wide. This is where Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade was filmed.  It is really breathtaking!   Tomorrow we are at sea....more later!. 

Jordan

Well, The World is now in Al Aqaba, Jordan.  Now I look across the Sea and see Israel.  Talk about seeing things from both sides.  Anyway, we had quite an adventure today, the tour was described as "seeing Wadi Rum by 4 wheel drive".  For those of you who do not remember (I didn't), that was where Lawrence of Arabia and his men travelled by camel for 20 days, carrying their own water.  We did it a little differently......a comfortable airconditioned bus drove us 11/2 hours to the Wadi Rum area.  We then were assigned to the 4 week drive vehicle to begin our tour. Much to our surprise, instead of the airconditioned SUV we expected, we were herded into the back of some ancient, rotting, glued together pick up trucks, with torn sheets of fabric tied to poles over the truck bed to protect us from the sun.  There was seating of sorts......so it sort of worked.  It is true that Wadi Rum has some of the most impressive rock formations in the world, and it was a treat to see them in person.  We also stopped at a couple of Bedoin camps where they had set up shops with their wares for sale and tea and dates to offer.  At one of the camps there were camels available to ride or use as a photo op.  I had been on a camel's back in China at the Great Wall, but it wouldn't stand up!  So I climbed onto this Jordanian camel with a somewhat better attitude, and lo and behold it stood up!  Doesn't sound like a big thing! Right?  Well it feels like a big thing when you are that high off the ground and this very tall animal stands first only with his hind legs, pitching you way forward and then brings up his hind legs after a pregnant pause.  Again, doesn't sound like much, but it was challenging and exciting enough for me to decide that this would be perfect!  I didn't need to go for a ride........bought some really pretty beaded scarfs in their shop instead.  You know the beautiful, expensive Persian carpets that we put on our hardwood floors?  They use them directly on the sand as floors in their tents! Duh.....sorry, I just hadn't thought about this before!  Next our "limo" driver decided to drive up to the top of a very steep sand dune and then race down it much faster than was comfortable for me. I wear seat belts in every taxi we take and this would have been a bad scene had it turned over!  But, the good news is, it didn't and we ended up glad we had this whole experience.We won't need to do it again though!  More tomorrow after our 10 hour tour to Petra........

Jerusalem

This morning I went to the Holocast Museum here in Jerusalem.  It, of course, continues to be shocking and terribly sad!  The most shocking part to me was being reminded again how the rest of the world stood by and allowed this to happen!  It is unimagineable!  Also, I guess I wasn't clear on how wide spread this horror was and how many death camps there were.  All of the photos and interviews from survivors which were on film were horrifying enough, but the thing that effected me the most, and made tears spring to my eyes was a pile of hundreds of pairs of shoes that had belonged to some of the victims......they had all been worn by real people, people who were somebody's mother or father or child!  It was truly unbearable!  The museum was packed with people, from all over the world....lest we forget!  As strange as I find this country my heart goes out to each and every person who lives here.  They have gone through so much to have this land and this tenuous freedom....it makes me fearful for them.  That's it for today.  Tomorrow is Shabat again and everything grinds to a halt.  Sunday is a walking tour of The Old City, looking forward to that.

Israel

I am sorry to have neglected all of you for so long, I will do better in the future.  After rejoining the ship in Dubais we had some incredible experiences there and in Oman and Qatar.  The World was then embarking on 9 days at sea, so I decided to spend that time on a first visit to Israel.  I traveled on Royal Jordanian Airlines to Jordan and then on to Tel Aviv.  While looking out the airliner window en route, I noticed a bright orange haze that prevented my seeing the ground. I was told that we ere flying over Saudi Arabia and that they were having such severe, but not unusual sandstorms that their airport had been closed.  We landed at Ben Gurion Airport, and the Israeli authorities did not stamp our passports but only a piece of paper.  It was explained that other countries in this region would not allow us to enter if our passports showed that we had been to Israel.  I was shocked.....well, the surprises continued.  On the taxi ride into Tel Aviv I felt like I was riding through a ghetto!  The buildings were run down, paint peeling off and graffiti everywhere!  I'm not sure what I expected,  but after all these people have gone through to get to their "promised land" I would have thought I would see clean streets and buildings where a pride of ownership was evident.  I didn't see it anywhere!  I hate to admit that I knew so little about Tel Aviv that I thought it was in the desert.  Well, I was very pleasantly surprised to find out that it is on The Mediterranean Sea.  The climate is lovely and the beaches clean and beautiful.  We stayed at the Intercontinental Hotel, which was highly recommended by American Express but was in fact not great.  We happened to be there during Shabat, Memorial Day and Independence Day when nothing was open, but we found one great shopping street full of Israeli designer's creations and had one full day of very interesting touring.  Our tour began in Caesaria, one of the oldest ports in the world, where King Herod built a fabulously preserved amphitheater and several other structures, including a vast water system made up of aqueducts and trenches which directed water to his fortress.  This is the same area which exports Caesar Stone, a wonderful building material.  We then went on to Acre, the home of the Crusaders and walked through their ruins and tunnels.  We experienced a local Arab market, with stall after stall of spices, fish, fruits, vegies, nuts and cheeses.  It was filled with locals making their purchases and was very interesting.  After 5 days in Tel Aviv it was time to go on to Jerusalem, only one hour's drive away.  We arrived at The King David Hotel, which was head and shoulders above the Intercontinental.  One of the interesting things about this elegant hotel is it's "walk of fame".  It consists of a series of large white tiles which are autographed and dated by the various famous people who have stayed here.  Randomly placed were the tiles from Ralph Lauren next to Richard Burton, Menachim Begin, The Black Eyed Peas, Pres Obama and Yascha Heifetz, among others. The weather in Jerusalem is much cooler than Tel Aviv, as we sit 3,000 feet above sea level. Both our hotel in Tel Aviv and here in Jerusalem keep kosher, which takes some getting used to. When I asked the Concierge about finding some Israeli designed clothes I was told that unlike Tel Aviv, the people here are very poor and religious and don't care about those kinds of things.  OK So, we took another car and English speaking driver and did some incredible sight seeing.  We began our day at The Masada.  It sits majestically on a hilltop overlooking the Dead Sea.  It was King Herod's fortress that was to be used in case of emergency. It is very well preserved and very impressive, with again a vast amount of aqueducts, trenches and sisterns as a water collection and distribution network .Although The Masada was under the control of many different factions over the years, it is most famous for the action taken by a Jewish sect called The Assyrians.  When they were under siege by the Romans, approx 1,000 Assyrians killed their wives and children to keep them from being imprisoned and tortured by their captors and then killed each other.  They drew straws to see who would be the last one to fall on his own sword as it is a sin, in the Jewish religion, to commit suicide.  The whole thing was incredible to see!  Quite a few Israeli planes flew overhead, each tipping it's wings in salute to The Masada and it's fallen heroes.  Quite impressive!  Our next stop was the Dead Sea, the lowest place on earth.  It is very famous for the healing qualities of it's mud and waters.  So, needing to experience this miracle I proceeded to wade into this murky, rocky, yucky,muddy water and could not imagine that anyone would of their own free will submerge their bodies into this mess.  The waters of the Sea have receded a lot since the construction of The Aswan Dam.  The center of this body of miraculous water is the boundary between Jordan and Israel, and the hills of Jordan were clearly visible from the shoreline. Next we proceeded to Jericho, another familiar biblical name.  I was very uncomfortable as we proceeded through a gate controlled by the Palestinians.  But, we proceeded without incident and saw the ruins of The Walls of Jericho, and were reminded by our guide that this was the location where Christ is said to have been faced with his three temptations.  I was happy to return safely to our hotel, and looked forward to our visit to The Holocaust Museum in the AM.  More later......

T

Doha, Qatar 2010

Well, not as exciting as Dubais, by any stretch of the imagination! but interesting none the less.  It turns out that Qatar has more natural gas than any other part of the world, so there is alot of money here.  The skyline is also very attractive, with the same sort of mirrored high rises in every shape imaginable.  I started the day at the jewelry show presented by the Jordanian woman I told you about yesterday.  I bought a necklace that displayed a silver disc saying something in Arabic that means that I am grateful for all that I have been given.  And, I most certainly am, so I felt that it was appropriate.  Then we took a shuttle bus to the local Souks which were all together and were housed by a meandering collection of buildings and stalls, selling everything imaginable. My favorite part was The Live Souk which had more incredible birds than I have ever seen in one place.  Gorgeous parrots of all colors, cockatoos, lovebirds, finches and BABY CHICKS DYED HOT PINK, GREEN,BLUE AND PURPLE!  Poor babies! (See picture on the right).  It was 95 degrees outside and all of the large birds were chained to their perches.  A few steps more and there were bunnies, some of whom had been dyed pink, and the most adorable long haired kittens which had blue eyes and came in tones of white and beige.  They were all crying at me! For those who know me well, you know that in addition to children my weaknesses are fish, birds and kittens.  ( I guess that is better than diamonds and chocolate).  By the way, the milk chocolate here is made with Camel's milk!  In some adjacent stalls they were selling gorgeous fabrics by the bolt.  For $5 you could get a piece 2 meters long which is long enough to use as a shawl......at that price they were impossible to resist!  That evening we decided to have dinner at Bice Restaurant (yes, the same group as in New York, Milano etc) which is located on another man made island of sorts, called The Pearl, connected to the mainland by an auto bridge.  This restaurant was located up 4 flights of steep stairs (no elevator) in a very upscale, completely empty shopping center.  The food was good, New York prices, and only one other table was occupied in this huge restaurant!  Weird!  Happily back to our home on The World.

Dubais, 2010

After wonderful stops in Los Angeles and Old Greenwich, spending time with my loved ones, I enjoyed 2 days and nights in New York!  Then, off to London for a week of delightful shows (Don't miss Love Never Dies, the sequel to Phantom of the Opera!)  wonderful restaurants, and great shopping.  We stayed at The Jumiera Carlton Tower, which prepared me for my upcoming trip to Dubais as it seems that many of the monied people from that region come to London to escape the heat.  It was surprising to me to see so many Arab women in western clothing.  This hotel has the best gym in London called The Peak.  Not only is it well outfitted with equipment but also has a view looking out over London that is breathtaking! At the end of our time there, we headed for Heathrow Airport and The Emirates Lounge which served not only the usual cocktails and snacks but full meals with nice wines on tables with cloths.  This was a perfect introduction to our 6 hour Business Class flight to Dubais, which was very comfortable and well attended, including PJ's and dop kits. 

    

Then we arrived in Dubais!!!!! The airport was both magnificent and very well organized.  Everything is white and chrome and dramatically lit, with very high ceilings and interesting architectural shapes all around.  Everyone who worked there  (all men)  were dressed in starched white robes with black head bands......it was quite a sight!  The bags were there as we approached the carousel (that was a first!) and the Range Rover and driver were at the curb to meet us.  Off to the Raffles Hotel where for a VERY reasonable price we had a 2,000 sft. suite which was elegantly appointed and came with a butler.  The ship arrived in Dubais the next morning and we were anxious to get aboard!  It is always wonderful to be greeted by the now familiar staff and to be "Welcomed home" by our friends onboard.  We spent that entire day just organizing, unpacking and enjoying the lay back ok attitudes of all around us.  We dined on board at our wonderful Asian restaurant called East.  We hired a car the following day, with an English speaking driver to make traversing Dubais much easier. 

 

Our first stop was to a beach with white powdery sand and warm, translucent pale aqua water.  If I've seen a more beautiful beach, I don't remember when.  I put my feet into The Arabian Sea for the first time, and shuttered with amazement when the guide informed me that I was only 100 miles from Iran, just across the sea. Wow! Next we proceeded to the famous 7 star Burj Al Arab Hotel for lunch.  You will only be admitted to this Versace designed hotel if you are a registered guest or have a reservation for dining.  We were escorted to the Al Mahara restaurant where our table was next to the glass enclosure of the largest aquarium in the world.  As I sat there with my glass of Crystal I thought that this was about as close to heaven as I could get!  I feel head over heels in love with a vibrant blue and green Parrott Fish which was about 3x4 feet big and lingered in front of our table throughout our magnificent lunch.  I began with a Foie gras topped with mango gelee and continued on from there....OK it doesn't get any better.  From there we went to the largest indoor ski area in the world, replete with chair lifts, toboggan runs and a snowman!  I was ready to go home to The World to digest not only this exquisite lunch but all that I had experienced today.  more later.....

Next stop New York, then on to London!

My visit to Greenwich has been wonderful.  Getting in some great family time before setting off on my next adventure!