Cairo Advancing Towards the Pyramids--Note the Rebar Sticking Up, Ready For the Next Storey.

View of Cairo--Why Is All That Junk On the Roofs?

The Suez Canal is a Busy Ditch!

We entered the canal at three in the morning, I woke up at seven,  just as we were about to pass under our third great suspension bridge, this one connecting Egypt proper with the Sinai Peninsula.   I  just managed to get out on my balcony in time to get a few photos.   The air outside was thick and warmish (for the hour), and saturated with the unmistakable "odeur d'Egypte".   It's petrochemical at it's base but there's more to it for sure.   Haven't exactly put my finger on what,  but it's there.    Quite a few oil refineries are located in the Nile delta, as you head south the air gets cleaner.   The canal was dug by the French and British, opened in 1869, and was operated by them until 1956, when President Nasser kicked them out.   It now provides Egypt with some three billion dollars a year in income.    QM2's transit cost Cunard  3/4 of a million dollars and took twelve hours.  I found it endlessly fascinating.  First off it's just plain weird to have land so close on both sides of the ship.   The Sinai side is pure desert the whole stretch--think sand dunes, big ones and lots of them.   The other side is cultivated, quite green,  with villages  and people and traffic and finally the city of Suez.    All along the way, people waved and called out,  we must be quite a site-- I wished I could hop off to check the big girl out!     Ships travel the canal in convoys at eight knots,  in one direction only, and meet in the middle at the Great Bitter Lake.     We were a southbound convoy of 15,  at the lake there were 31 ships, all either container ships, car carriers or oil tankers, waiting for us to clear.   All of this is rehearsed the day before on computer, and can be viewed online at suezcanal.com.,  per the Commodore.  As we exited the 60 mile long canal at Port Suez there were crowds lining the shore, waiving us on.   Really a cool day!

The Sinai Desert

Good Morning From the Gulf of Aden!

The days are flying by, yesterday marked the halfway point in terms of days.  We've spent an entire day transiting the Suez Canal,  a day in Cairo,  a day in Luxor-- each of which I'll cover in a separate post,  steamed down the Gulf of Suez into the Red Sea (it's blue), and last night (ship darkened, decks closed) though the Strait of Bab el Mandeb (there's one you didn't know about, did you?) into the Gulf of Aden.    It's 2000 nautical miles from our last port, Safaga, Egypt to our next which is Muscat, Oman, giving us four days at sea.   Yay!   I love days at sea.   By the way, no problem with seasickness.   With the exception  of one day crossing the Atlantic and one day on the Bay of Biscay the sea has been very calm.   Those two rough days didn't bother me (I loved them), but you could tell some people were a bit green around the edge.  This ship has a deep draft (32 feet),  a very streamlined bow and hull, and four stabilizers-- she really is built to handle whatever the sea might have in store.   Of course we've seen nothing like the worst that can be dished out, 20-40 swells, or the occasional rogue (out of nowhere) wave, which can reach 90 feet in height.    The QE2 took one that high once, a lot of broken crockery etc., but she righted herself and just kept on ploughing through.    Another by the way-- a nautical mile.   It's the equivalent of one degree of latitude at 45 degrees,  and equals 6076.12 ft.   Yet another by the way,  use of the word steaming, it's not technically correct, we run on diesel generators, but the Commodore uses it so I feel free to take the same liberty.   Several things of note have occurred since Safaga.   We entered the tropics, defined as crossing the Tropic of Cancer, 23 and 1/2 degrees north latitude.   The ship's officers switched from their dark uniforms to their whites, all bright and crisp-- you could tell they love it, me too!   Then yesterday afternoon a US Navy destroyer was spotted.   She came abreast of us and did a 360 degree turn (on a dime), coming right along our starboard (right) side, with all the ship's company (some 300) lining the decks at attention.    Big cheers went up from all of us crowding along the railing of the promenade deck.  It was a thrilling sight!     The two ships blasted their whistles repeatedly, and the destroyer (USS Ferragut, number 99) peeled off hard to starboard.   Off it went, wonder what it's top speed is!    By the way,  a ship's horn is called a whistle and the Mary's is a deep A note, two octaves below middle C, and can be heard for ten miles.     Just now, as I write,  passing westward on our port side is a convoy of ships being escorted by a warship from the Indian Navy.  The officer of the watch on the bridge just announced that, mentioning as well that in the early hours we passed by a US warship escorting a sensitive cargo of weaponry.   Busy place around here!   We're coming up on a Turkish Frigate and soon after that a Saudi warship called Mecca.  They are being very chatty from the bridge today!    Yemen is 60 miles to the north and Somalia is 100 miles to the south.   We are now 1050 miles from Muscat and running at 26 knots, per the Commodore's noontime announcement.        We are following the IRTC, or Internationally Recommended Transit Corridor, and as you can see, it's well patrolled.   Gorgeous day out there. 75 degrees, time to go snag a deck chair.    Cheers!         Oh, by the way,  will someone who has Gabriel's email forward the blog to her and Tim,   I don't think I did.    Thanks.

Our Route Across the Med

Ah Rome, Thankfully Sunny, Always Glorious!

Took the train from the port of Civitavecchia (Ancient City in Italian).    It takes about forty minutes to the first stop in Rome which is very conveniently St Peter's.   It's about the only bargain in Italy at nine Euro round trip (about thirteen dollars).   Went up with one of the piano players from the ship and and a former purser from the QE2 who also remembered my dad and me.   The station is just behind the great basilica and your first view is of Michelangelo's magnificent dome.   We walked into the piazza and there to my surprise was the biggest nativity scene set up in the middle,  just under obelisk (genuine Egyptian--stolen) and an enormous Christmas tree.  I liked it!   The goal of the day for me was to climb to the top of the dome, which I had last done when I was 15, traveling to India with my aunt and cousins.  We went into the Basilica first where Mass was underway, what a treat to hear the great organ, while taking in the beauty of it all.  The Pieta of Michelangelo is just inside to the right, now behind the most invisible sheet of glass.   The scale of the entire basilica is epic--cherubs, frescos, mosaics, cupolas, saints, no doubt a few sinners--it's all a feast for the eye and the soul!   There was also inside the most over the top nativity you could imagine.   Then it was back outside to queue up to climb the cupola--short line, 5 euro fee and up you go.  It's really cool, just as I (barely) remembered.   It's double walled, you're right in between and it slants more the higher you go (of coarse).   You start thinking this is 400 years old, and then you think well,  Michelangelo did design and engineer it's construction.  And then you  think besides that he carved the Pieta, painted the Creation of Man and the Last Judgement (Sistine Chapel)-- don't forget David and Moses and everything else he did, and all I've done for the last 20 years is work on my silly (well beautiful) house and you feel really small, and then all of a sudden  you emerge into the sunlight at the very top and all of Rome is at your feet!   All you can say is wow!    Hung out up there as long as I could , then down to the crypt under the main alter where the Popes are interred, including of course John Paul II.   Then just time for lunch-- lasagne and a side of spinach,  mmm,  a walk along the Tiber and a dash back to the station and back to the ship.  A great day!

The Nativity at St Peter's, with Waterwheel, and James the Brother of Jesus, Perhaps?

Michelangelo's Pieta

The View From the Top.

The Dome, Notice the People Up There.

Ready for Departure From Civitavecchia

The Rock of Gibralter, It's Made of Limestone.

The Commodore took us in  for a close look.   Notice the different colors of the water.   The evaporation rate of the Mediterranean is greater than net inflow of all the rivers feeding the Med resulting in the Atlantic being constantly sucked in.    The Atlantic is grey-blue and the Med is blue-green, the lines where they meet and mix are very visible.    Interesting, eh?

Reboarding in Lisbon,  My Cabin is Just Under the Second Lifeboat , Went Straight to the Hot Tub!   Note the suspension bridge we passed under.

A Very Rainy Lisbon, Got Soaked To the Bone, Had Fun Anyway!