I logged onto the blog for the first time while in Rome. No clue as to where the 6,000+ hits are coming from. It looks like “way too much information” to me. But it has been a big trip. Anyway, my contribution is ending now, during the run from Southampton to New York. Comments on final European ports are below, followed by some final observations on this voyage and cruising. Athens, Rome, Barcelona and Lisbon are four great European cities. The Dollar keeps hitting new lows against the Euro, presently bouncing along at around $1.60. That makes for a severe barrier between the US tourists and Europe. Europe depends on tourism, more than the US. So, the Europeans will feel that pain until it turns around.
Tourism is Greece's biggest source of revenue. The ancient structures in Athens are interesting and easily accessible. The technologies being used in the ongoing restorations is interesting. Iron bracing is being replaced by titanium bracing. Titanium will last longer than the granite, and generates no rust marks. A Trimble GPS system was seen being used to plot everything in 3D. Beyond that, things Greek are too voluminous to get into on this blog. Suffice to say that if you want to see the remains of buildings and understand the settings where essential parts of modern civilization began, it is a fine place to do it. The country is modern, clean and, again, way more prosperous than anticipated. Cabs are mostly big Mercedes. Urban trains run through the city. There is waterfront absolutely everywhere around Athens. There are big and small marinas, boat construction facilities, fishing fleets, bareboat charter fleets, etc. We didn't see the 2004 Olympic sailing venue, but we did many other competitive sailing facilities. The usual stuff: 10 - 20 Optis, some Lasers and 420s. While we were at one of the local yacht clubs, there was a fleet of 420s, with spinnakers, coming back to shore after racing.
Rome: We took the advantage of getting off of the Queen Vicotria in Naples, taking a train to Rome, overnighting there, and then re-boarding her in Civitavecchia. So, one rushed day was turned into two easy days.
Cars and driving in Italy: Game over. Italy has the best cars, and Italians are the best drivers. The Italians may be the last 1st world country to still have something on China when it comes to manufacturing. Presently, they are competitive when manufacturing things -- from Harken winches to the cruise ship that we are on.
In the US there are places where large ceramic items are molded, fired, and placed for sale on outdoor lots along a busy roadways. These products can be items like lions, dolphins, Madonnas, bird baths, etc. In Rome, there is a difference that is easy to forget. The difference is that they are one-of-a-kind, one-at-a-time, sculptures, sculpted from mostly pure white marble. They've been using the same marble quarry, north of Florence where Michelangelo got his marble for the Pieta, David, and all the rest, for a couple of millenniums. You see these sculptures in the 'old city', at every corner you turn It is easy to forget the difference between the cheesy cast versions along the roadside in the US, and these perfect pieces that took many people years to sculpt. The worst cherub, hanging in some dark corner, in one of the 700 Catholic churches in Rome, probably has a replacement cost of $10,000.
The Pantheon in Rome is a favorite. It refuses to degrade, much less die. It is almost 2,000 years old, which is old, even in this neighborhood. Except for being a bit soiled, it looks like it's not more than 50 - 75 years old. It began life as pagan temple, and has been used for every religion that has passed through town. The reason that it doesn't die is that it was built too well to be destroyed. When new religions come to Rome, the first thing they do is destroy existing worshipping sites & structures and build new ones. Michelangelo said that the angels made the Pantheon because he couldn't figure out what technology was used to construct it. The only plausible method was to pile dirt inside, making a male mold. Concrete was pouted over it, and then the dirt was dug out from under the cast concrete dome. There are no stress cracks in it. Unlike the Coliseum, and every other famous structure, all of which have deteriorated over time, this one stands as it was from the day it opened. The wall of the Pantheon is 25' thick at the bottom, with a tapering thickness up to the top of the dome. The filler in the cement changes as you go from bottom to top. For example, the filler at the top is volcanic pumice, the lightest of all the fillers. The oculus, aka hole-in-the-top is ingenious for providing the light inside, and for the very slight daily expansion and contraction of the concrete.
Last but not least, are the columns of the Pantheon. When you walk around any ruins, you begin to pick-up on the columns. The impressive ones are 1 piece. The ho-hum ones are sections that are stacked-up. The columns of the porch of the Pantheon are about 70' tall, solid granite, and still perfect. They came from Egypt. The story is too long. Suffice it to say that these are kick-ass columns in a city with a lot of great columns.
I got up at 1:00am to view the passage we made between Corsica and Sardinia, which are the two large islands off the west coast of Italy. The Melges 24 Worlds are being held at Porto Cervo, Sardinia in a few weeks, so jumping-ship crossed my mind.
West of that passage, we began to have seas in the Med. We had Force 10 wind, head on, while going about 20 knots. The breeze on the ship was exceed 65 knots. There were no swells, but there was 12' - 15', relentless, chop. It continued all the way through the day that we left Barcelona.
You never think that Barcelona is going to be such a great city until you show-up and immerse yourself in it. A phrase that is overused in my narratives applies again - it is a clean, prosperous, safe and enjoyable place to hang-out. Just getting off of the ship -- it is far-and-away the nicest cruise ship dock in the world. It's beautiful, clean, functional, and close to Las Ramblas.
The Med, from Barcelona, was calm while rounding the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula, passing through the Strait of Gibraltar, and entering the Atlantic Ocean. Some of us got up for the passage through the Strait of Gibraltar, at 4am. It was a bust, as it was cloudy, windy, no moon, no early sunrise -- couldn't even see a silhouette of the rock. I kept waiting for the swells to begin after entering the Atlantic, but that didn't happen until after Lisbon, Portugal.
Cascias, Portugal is a suburb of Lisbon, located about 15 miles north on the Atlantic coast. It was the 2nd runner-up to Valencia, Spain for locating the America's Cup competition. It would have been a great venue as well.
The Latin-based Portuguese language has 1,500 words mixed in it from the Arabic that the Moors brought along. The Portuguese ruled the seas, and therefore the world for some time. There are great reminders of that time in their history. For instance, there is a building that is about ½ mile long, very old style, but in perfect condition. It is where they made the sails and rope used on their ships.
All cruises end with a big party. Cunard went over-the-top for ours. They rented Lisbon's bull-ring for a sit-down dinner for 800+. The turf/gravel was covered with a carpeted floor. There was a 25 piece orchestra that played everything. They actually had people tending the massive candle holders on the tables. When the candles burned down, this guy would come around and replace them with new candles. I guess that must have been a common thing to have to do during a party before there was electricity.
Southampton, England. Cunard's three queens were in port, and in combination, they had quite a presence there. We took a 20 minute cab ride through the English countryside, complete with narrow, curving, hedge-lined roads to see Beaulieu. Lord Montague's Beaulieu is too big to call it an estate, and a too small to call it a castle. It has a 250 car museum, beautiful manor house, a monastery, and more. It was the place where the English army trained their spy service people during WWII. Suffice to say, it was the quintessential tourist destination for anyone with one day to spend near Southampton. The cars were all first-rate collector cars, including Karl Benz's first car from 1889. Modern cars included a Ferrari Enzo, 245 Dino, and other great cars.
We arranged with our cab driver for the return trip back to the ship. We stopped at a marina, where everyone was bustling to get their boats in the water. Cab drivers are great for getting the local pulse. From that conversation it became unanimous among all first world western countries visited during the past few years - that we have all lost the ability to manufacture to the third world, non-western countries, mostly the Chinese; that governments, to the not-subtle objection of citizens, are indifferent to illegal immigration; that immigrants from third-world countries soak up the dole, mostly subsidized health-care, send cash home, eventually returning home; that health care is slowly, but definitely, becoming unattainable; that even though there is a significant amount of new, unoccupied residential units, property values everywhere are such that young people will live a less prosperous life than their parents; that the countries can have the above unrelated items in common, including the complicated task of crashing simultaneously.
Closure on the cruise. After we return to FtMB things are going to get busy, so it's time for some general comments on the cruise:
One reason to cruise around the world is to do in lieu of sailing or driving our own boat around the world. After seeing the extreme challenges of the seas, the difficulty in finding reasonable places to put-in, and the hassles of dealing with regulatory issues, shipboard cruising has been a great substitute.
Intellectual stimulation was anticipated by me to be a potential problem. It was found in lectures, correspondence, the library, port destinations, non-stop movies, books that I brought onboard, newspapers purchased on-shore, and the passengers.
108 days onboard: This is obviously different than a week of umbrella drinks while floating around the Caribbean. I didn't feel settled-in until about 3 weeks into it. These mega-liners are beautiful. It is a spectacular way to live. What's not to like about 2 - 4 star service, day-in and day-out, for months on end. On the surface, that sounds great, and it really is great. Everything from church service to exercising with a view is steps away from where you sleep.
Downtime can mean fast, free, wonderful room service and never leaving your cabin. Up-time can include any and all-time activity outside the cabin in the spectacular public rooms. Communication with the rest of the world is good enough to make it seem like it is never far away. For instance, our taxes were filed on-time. We have an inside cabin, meaning no windows. And we're on the lowest deck. It was the right choice for our cabin. Light in the cabin is ours to control. During rough seas, we've had the better ride.
Cunard is excellent, but in a general sense, not hugely special --- meaning that other cruise lines likely provide a similar experience. One thing that I believe that Cunard does better than other lines is their selection of lecturers. The good news/bad news thing there is that you never know what's coming. However, most of the surprises have been positive. For instance, recently we had the current ambassador from Afghanistan to the US. Young guy, going places. After his last lecture, during the Q&A I asked him about the movie, “Charlie Wilson's War”. Among other things, he said that Wilson was a friend of his, and that the movie under-exaggerated Wilson's party animal image ;-) Lastly, one thing that I like very much about Cunard is the British influence.
Security -- the Gurkha thing: Spell-checker didn't recognize “gurkha”, which is the way they would probably want it. There are about a dozen of these people, men and women, that are the security people on-board. Their ethnicity is not recognizable, and they are not big, nor intimidating in any way. Like all of the staff, they are extremely polite. But their politeness is never a contrived. They are always extremely focused and pleasantly happy. Until yesterday, I always wondered what the deal was with these people. In the 1860s, when the colonial empire was being constructed, the British came across some legendary, renowned fighters in the small Nepalese village of Gurkha. If they wanted to kick the sh*t out of anybody, anytime, these were the men and women that they would hire to do it. To this day, these villagers contribute to British armed forces, high-level security. They train beyond any extreme that any conventional armed service trains, go to work for mostly the British, and go back home whenever they can. So, it came up that one of the Gurkhas was going home upon arrival at Southampton. “Going home” means returning to their ancient village. According to ship's staff, this person will fly to Katmandu, take a 2 hour train ride up into the mountains, then walk(!) the last three miles to reach the village and spend time with family.
Health while onboard. I've been sick more days on the ship than I would normally have been on-shore. A week-long flu, twice; an upper respiratory thing, twice; and a few times when I didn't want to get too far from the head. Obviously it's due to always being in close proximity to other people - even though we all are extremely careful. We have not needed any of the ship's medical help, but have heard good things about it.
People: Many people come and go, being part of the turnover at the end of each of the 5 or 6 different “segments” of the world cruise. But we made many friends with people on the segments. Luckily, most went on more than one segment, so they were on-board for a while. Bob Macomber, Stirling & Clare, John and Petie, Jo & Greg, Bob & Cathy, Diana & Margaret, Val & Denise, Max & Ann, Bill & Jee, Elaine R., and Roscoe. There is no one who enjoys cruising more than Stirling. Some of his enthusiasm has rubbed-off on me.
There are about 800 of us doing the whole world. A special bond has developed with many of them. Dave & Paula, Darryl & Marty, Rick & Bonnie, Tom & Sandy, Chris & John, Kazzie, Lesley, and many others. There are Cheeseheads, similar in age, with similar experiences. There are former shrimpers from FtMB. There are real-live swells from the US, Europe and Australia. There are working class Brits who saved throughout their lives, for which this trip is a culmination of their life experiences. In short, an amazing and delightful array of people.
Some unique cruising situations: There is a couple from Michigan that, rather than own a winter place in Florida, cruise around the world every winter. This is their 12th trip. Like many snowbirds, they leave Michigan after the Holidays and return in late April. There is a couple that has arranged for different family members to visit them during the different partial segments. There is the woman who has been actually living on the QE2 for 13 years. She keeps the same, modest cabin. She negotiates the price every year with Cunard. We were told on the q/t that this year she paid about $70,000. Do the math on that one --- it's not a terrible deal. Cruising junkies have spent as much as 8 years worth of total time cruising - and there are many people on-board this ship who would like to be those people. I asked the onboard future cruise sales person whether she thought that some of these people should be recommended for therapy. She smiled.
Cruising mania could be described as living inside the cruising bubble. There are people who identify with cruising as being a really big part of their lives. They have acquired great history over the years, and can speak in amazing detail about the minutia regarding cruise lines, cruise history, cruise ships, cruise destinations, cruise staff, cruise menus, and on and on. When they get together, stand-back -- or at least I do. I'm glad for these people that they enjoy cruising to the extent that they do. For me, I have a good time, but I'm not in the bubble.
Recommend: I would recommend this voyage, or one like it to almost everyone I know. I'm not a tourist, and I hate to travel. A cruise ship gets around almost all of the things that I hate about traveling. One goal I had while going into this was to hire a personal trainer and learn how to do stretching exercises --- true. I haven't done that, but through continuous use of 9 flights of stairs, I have strengthened a bad knee into shape that it hasn't seen in 30 years. Anyway, in my opinion, this is an experience worth suffering a bit more than moderate financial pain. It has been special.
The above withstanding, we'd likely not do it again, at least not for a long time. First off, we, or at least I, like to think that there are other things that I need to be doing. Next, in terms of traveling, going around the world is a sort of singular accomplishment. We're going around the world, but we're skipping lots of it, including entire continents such as South America, Africa, and Antarctica. We likely would not have aimed for Southern Asia, but it was interesting. Our preference in the future will be to focus more on specific areas.
Roll the Credits:
Many, Many Thanks:
First off, thanks Liz for spending time to help plan parts of the trip, and for constructing and maintaining this blog. It has made a big difference in documenting the voyage for friends to follow, and for our future reference.
Next, thank you Cheryl H. for forwarding our mail, helping us stay current with Waterside, and all of the rest of the stuff that you have done.
Thanks to Errol H. for the help on forward placement of our luggage in Fort Lauderdale and helping at Waterside as well.
Thanks to Vince & Debbie for coming to Ft. Lauderdale to help us get our luggage aboard, and also for putting us in contact with Vince's Welsh cousin, Bob and his wife, Cathy.
Thanks to Mary B. for holding things together at Sandarac and Waterside.
Thanks to Cindy H. for keeping things in order and on time.
Thanks to Sharon B. for keeping me literate and for her stunning performance of: “Concierge Improv”
Thanks to Andy G. for the individual attention regarding Waterside.
Thanks again to Dan and Lois for the sport coat.
Thanks to Steve & Alice, Betsy, Carl & Carla, Jo & Greg, Tanya and Joel, Sandra, and Roscoe for the great times while in port.
We're looking forward to seeing Steve and Alice again in NYC.
Last but not least is a saying that has been shamelessly stolen from Stirling, “The best cruise in your life is the one that you are on.”
Cheers!
