Tourists in Florida

That is what we were today. The commuter rail service between West Palm Beach and Miami, Tri-Rail had a "Dump the Pump Day" making all rides free today in an effort to increase use of public transportation. It sounds like a good idea to me.

J and I had never ridden on Tri-Rail so at 1:05 pm we decided to take the 1:30 train from Delray Beach as far as we felt like riding - maybe all the way to Miami. The train was punctual and crowded - free rides all day in an air-conditioned train. There families using it as entertainment for their children and with schools already closed here there were lots of them. But everyone was well-behaved and quiet by American standards. In Europe the trains are pretty quiet, in Japan and China the people were silent.

After 45 minutes we reached the stop at Dania Beach for the Fort Lauderdale Airport and decided we had had enough. We got off the train and walked a short distance toward the I.G.F.A. Fishing Hall of Fame. We walked on by it into the large building housing the Islamorada Fish Company Restaurant and a Bass Store. A quick tour around the store and we were headed to the train station and our ride back to Delray Beach.

The return train was exactly on time and we spent a few hours riding the on the upper level of the train and watching the other passengers.

Jerusalem

We have been home nearly a month now and I am just finding the time to post some of the photos I could not get uploaded from the ship.

We docked at the port of Ashdod in Israel and had a wonderful tour provided by Ofer from Guided Tours Israel. From the ship we traveled to Bethlehem and then to Jerusalem in a van that comfortably held the 16 of us. We encountered some closed churches in both Bethlehem and Nazareth, which we visited the next day. The city of Jerusalem was very crowded because it was a holy day for all three major religions sharing the city: Passover, Easter weekend and also for Moslems. Nevertheless, our guide managed to keep us all together and get us to all of the sites on the itinerary.

Dome of the Rock, a Moslem memorial, and the old wall of the city of Jerusalem taken from the Mount of Olives.

The Garden of Gethsemane, where the core of these olive trees are said to have existed during the time of Christ.

One of the gates into the Old City, note the vendor with bread in the right foreground. We weren't sure if we wanted to eat a loaf of bread, so we ended up paying twice as much by the time we reached the place we stopped for lunch.

We walked Via Dolorosa, the Way of Suffering, with the Stations of the Cross. We visited the first nine, but the remaining five are inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which was closed because of the holy days.

Many of the first nine stations are now inside of churches. As is this one at Station II.

This bread, which we seasoned with zatar, ( spice made of dried sumac, thyme, sesame seeds and salt) given to us in a little packet of paper, was well worth the price we ended up paying. Obviously in the Arab quarter because there was no leavened bread in the Jewish quarter because it was Passover.

Also inside a church, Station III, Jesus falls.

Shopping area between Stations. It was very, very crowded, but the weather was a perfect temperature for tourists and everyone was considerate, polite and careful.

The Western Wall/ Wailing Wall where men and women pray at the Wall separately. I went with the women and Jerry went with the men and we each managed to get through the crowds up to the wall to leave messages in the cracks between the stones. The security was very tight, with everyone's belongings getting screened. It was so crowded at the wall that it was necessary to take turns. Several of us talked about having concerns about the lack of any escape route if anything bad had happened. But nothing bad did happen - it was a wonderful day.

Katakalon, Greece

Emergency alarm blast

One blast from the emergency alarm.

I jump up from the bed, saying to Jerry, “This is not a drill.”

Maybe the alarm is an accident.

No. There is another blast. I turn on the light.

The light works. How many blasts was that?  I think we are supposed to count.  Six short blasts, one long one means go to the muster station. Oh, God.

I walk to the window and look out. It is still dark night and there is nothing to see, Good sign. I look at my watch and see that it is 6:20 am.

Jerry heads to the bathroom. I walk to the cabin door.  I listen and hear nothing.

Remember your CERT (Community Emergency Response Training.) Don’t burn your hand on a hot door because you might need to use your hand.

I brush the back of my left-hand hand across the door and then the door handle. Cool to the touch. I open the door a crack. No smoke. I step forward a little and see normal light in the corridor and nothing else.

How many blasts was that? I don’t think the last one was long. It must be a fire and not muster stations.

“Jerry, where are the things?” I wave my hands up and down over my torso unable to remember the words life vest.

Jerry says, “The life jackets are under the bed. We have to get dressed.”

I go into the closet and get underwear, socks, and my athletic shoes. I put on my wedding band and watch.

Dress warmly. If we end up in lifeboats, it could get cold and we are halfway across the Atlantic so we could be in the lifeboats for days. Why doesn’t the Captain say something? How bad is this? What am I going to put on?

Then the familiar voice from the bridge comes on. “We had a strong indication that there was a fire in a section of the ship.” He explains that the procedure is to sound the alarm. However, it has turned out to be a false alarm and we should all go back to sleep.

Relief. Joy. No fire. No lifeboats.

Jerry does manage to go back to sleep, but after an hour, I give up and turn on the computer. I am very happy that I am sitting here in the darkness, listening to Jerry’s even breathing, and wishing my son a very happy birthday.

Funchal, Madeira

Another port in which we expected nothing and were pleasantly surprised.  Funchal is on the island of Madeira, a small island in the Atlantic off of Portugal. The city is renowned for its flowers, which were not only in bloom everywhere, but there was also a competitive event underway. In the island in the center of the main street, people were laying “carpets” of flowers on a background of cedar branches with a judging taking place the day after we left.  The aroma of the flowers and the cedar makes the display doubly appealing.

There is some road construction between the dock and the center of Funchal, so there was a shuttle provided. While technically it would be an easy walk, the road construction had turned it into an unappealing trail. We were pleased to take the shuttle that dropped us off a block from the flower carpets and the Hop On/Hop Off bus. We often use the HO/HOs because they are an easy way to cover a large part of a city in a day at a reasonable price and see the important things for tourists to see.

We chose the Yellow Bus, although we usually choose the Red City-sightseeing line. The Yellow Bus has two routes, one around the city and another that travels a bit out of town as far as Camara De Lobos. You may have heard of that town because Winston Churchill spent time there and painted the charming houses built into the hillside.  We rode the shorter in-town route in the morning, returned to the ship for lunch, and went back on the shuttle again to ride the 90-minute out of town route. There really was not time enough for us to do hopping, so we just rode both routes round trip, enjoying the sunshine on the open top deck and the ride.

Not only flowers are growing everywhere, there are also banana trees in big farms and in little yards. There are many hotels and restaurants because Madeira is such a popular vacation destination.  It is clearly a prosperous place and one that looks like a place to visit more than once. Even if I return, I will not be taking the famous basket ride down the mountain or the gondola ride up and down. The bus ride was adventure enough for me.

Piraeus for Athens

We have lost track of how many times we have been to Athens but it is enough so that we no longer feel a need to visit ruins. It is enough to see them in the distance while we are enjoying the city. So without the pressure of sight seeing, we left the ship late in the morning and headed for the Piraeus Train Station. We can never remember exactly where the station is, but we know the general direction. We walked along the harbor past ferry terminals until the neighborhood began to look like an area where the train station would be. And then we asked a few people which way. It took about 30 minutes to reach the station and buy tickets. (And for those of you who know the story, we did it without screaming at each other in the middle of the street.)

In 17 minutes the train took us to Monastriaki  Square, which looked familiar right down to the fresh strawberries for sale at the first cart outside the Station’s entrance. We walked to the right toward the Acropolis and turned at the first street that took us past Hadrian’s Library and the Tower of the Winds. We strolled among the shops and restaurants in the Plaka for a while, sitting on a stone wall to watch a crew filming a scene on a side street. We ended up by the entrance to the new museum.

Our main purpose in visiting Athens was to return to Scholarhio Restaurant at 14 Tripidon Street for lunch in the Plaka and we easily found it. Lunch was even better this time even though it was too cold to sit on the outside balcony. We sat inside and chose six out of the 12 dishes on the vegetarian tray and enjoyed a wonderful feast.

Bodrum

Sometimes the best ports are those for which we have low expectations. Never having heard of Bodrum before seeing the name on the itinerary for this voyage, I expected very little. What we had was another wonderful day.

Expecting nothing, we took our time, had a leisurely breakfast, and slowly made our way ashore. Thom, the Cruise Director, had announced that there was a complimentary shuttle boat to the Castle of Saint Peter, an ancient fortress overlooking the harbor and we headed to the embarkation area. The ferry was just the right size for a 15-minute ride across the harbor from Prinsendam’s dock to the Castle dock. The sun was bright and temperatures were in the low 70s with a light breeze. We rode on the open deck on the upper level of the ferry.

At the Castle, we had intended to be diligent tourists and walk through the structure, admiring the history and archeology of the site. At the entrance, however, we found out that only Turkish Lira were accepted for the admission fee of around US$14. (Had we been properly motivated, we could have walked to the money changer and received the exact amount of money to pay in Turkish Lira.) So we were off the hook for the diligent tourist thing. Instead, we admired the scarves, jewelry and trinkets being sold along the dock beside the Castle. There was one tent filled with about eight women making thin bread, filling it with seasoned potatoes and cooking it on skillets heated by bottled gas.

At the end of the dock, the city center began. The city center shopping area is clean, safe, with wide sidewalks lined with shops selling more jewelry, leather goods, artwork – a variety of merchandise, as well as cafes and restaurants. The menus sounded appealing and the cooking food smelled really good. We looked at leather vests and jackets, rings, necklaces and had fun not buying anything.

We could have had lunch in Bodrum, but it is so much easier for me to eat on the ship that we walked back along the beaches and ate in the Lido. After a quick lunch, we were back in the City Center at a café with wi-fi, so Jerry had a cup of Turkish tea to get the password for the wi-fi. With the seven hour time difference, we had to wait until close to time to be back on board before we could start using Skype to call our kids. This time we were able to talk to the two we missed the last time and two others and my three grandsons. Talking to our family makes us very happy.

Now the ship is under way with an early arrival tomorrow in Kusadasi and Ephesus.