Happy Sea Day to me! It was needed that’s for sure. We slept in a little this morning. Meaning I set the alarm for 9:00am, which was 8:00am to my body after last nights time change. We didn’t even want breakfast this morning. I didn’t want to miss Project Linus and catching up with all my crocheting friends after not seeing some of them for five days. I had the chance to chat and am in the homestretch of wrapping up my nest blanket. We only have a few sea days left even though we still have 30 day left in the cruise. There are lots of busy port days ahead of us and I feel like the Project Linus group is wrapping up prematurely. I’ll miss my time with them most of all. After Linus time Megan and I went to the Lido and grabbed something for lunch since we had skipped breakfast. After lunch Megan had tutoring and I kept working on my blanket. At 2:00pm I went to the acupuncturist and Megan went and played volleyball. After my appointment I went and spent some time poolside, getting some fresh air, and watched the sea sail by. It was relaxing and restful. I really needed this down day very much and I am definitely feeling refreshed after having taken today off. Megan and I went to the Canaletto specialty restaurant this evening for a special Italian dinner. I brought a nice bottle of red wine I was saving from our wine tasting excursion on Kangaroo Island and we toasted to what would have been my late husbands 56th birthday. He’s watching over us from heaven and is always with us every where we go. As I am writing this blog I am watching the sun setting and it 8:50pm. It seems very weird. Tomorrow we will be in our next port and we have another adventure planned. But first we will sleep. No photos from today. But I am sure I will rectify that tomorrow. Sweet dreams all.
Good morning from Lisbon on this Monday after Easter. It is still national holiday here today as part of the holy week celebrations and there were three ships in port today so that definitely made for some big crowds. We thankfully didn’t have to meet our excursion group until 10:30am this morning so were able to get little extra rest before getting up. We grabbed breakfast in the Neptune lounge before heading off to the Rolling Stone lounge to meet our group. Today was a Cruise Specialist excursion and there were around 80 passengers going so we were split up into two buses for the day. We took a bit of scenic drive around the downtown Lisbon area and got to see some of the historical buildings. They had a lot of hills, cable cars, and a giant red bridge spanning the water. Sound familiar to you? Except for the centuries old buildings and architecture, it definitely felt very reminiscent to San Francisco. Next we drove to Sintra and visited this quaint village. It’s largest draw in the Sintra National Palace. But before we visited the palace we had lunch at a cafe directly across the street. By the time we were done eating we were given the option to walk through the palace or enjoy some free time to walk the cobblestone streets, visit the shops and the hands-craft stores, and look through the wine shops. After visiting several grand palaces over the last few days and keeping up a crazy pace behind a tour guide we opted for the later. We had about 90 minutes to go where we wanted and to do what we wanted. It was lovely! We walked through several shops, got our souvenirs, Megan enjoyed a chocolate croissant, and we just absorbed the day to day life of this village in Portugal. I know it was exactly what my soul needed. We did visit the palace gift shop as well and bought a book with lovely photos and the history of the palace so we can read all about it at our leisure. Instead of taking the freeway back to Lisbon, we traveled all the way back along the coast line. We made a stop at the Cabo de Roca. It is one of the most famous places in Portugal, it has a beautiful lighthouse and it is the westernmost point of Europe. So we have now been to the “end of the world” in Ushuaia and now to the western “end of Europe”. As we traveled back along the coast we saw many beautiful villas, I would have called them mini castles, that were hundreds of years old. The people who lived along the coast had an undersanding with the military that at any time needed, their homes could be taken over to be used for a fort to protect Portugal. We saw lots of young people enjoying the beaches, surfing and lining the coast line to watch the sunset as the day came to a close. I definitely felt some pangs of homesickness today. So many sights reminiscent of California today that it made me miss home even more. As we got back into Lisbon we were able to make a few more stops so we can get photographs of the 16th century Jeronimos Monastery. Right next door was the famous Pasteis de Nata (Also known as Pasteis de Belem) where they originally started making a custard tart that can now be found all over Portugal. We were told that this was the original bakery that made them with a recipe from the monks at the monastery. We opted for the photos of the monastery and as it turned out a hand made Pina Colada. Made from a fresh pineapple that I smelled before I even saw them. A taste of Hawaii!! Lucky for Megan and I, a fellow passenger was kind enough to bring a couple of pastries back to the bus for us. Thank you Rodger!! So it was a definite treat stop in more ways than one, history, alcohol and sweets. One of the best 10 minute stops I have ever had!!! We then visited the Monument of the Discoveries depicting many heroes of Portuguese history. As we drove back to the port we got to drive right along the waters edge and we learned that they usually don’t let tourist buses come this route, but due to some road construction, we were allowed to and it was a special treat that we enjoyed very much. Our 7 hours excursion turned out to be about 9 hours instead with the extra stops we made along the way back, but they were not as stressful or hectic as the last few days so it made for a wonderful experience. We got back to the ship around 7:45pm and we went to the Lido to grab something to eat from their specialty themed buffet this evening “Portuguese Food”. Megan went off to play cards and I spent some extra time just looking out the window from the Lido, going through all my photos from today, and then suddenly I looked out the window and realized we were moving. So I hauled home and out onto my patio so I could get some photos as we sailed under the bridge and past the Tower of Belem again. They were both so beautiful lit up at night. I am going right to sleep tonight as I am tired and we have to set the clocks ahead an hour again this evening. Boy are we looking forward to our sea day tomorrow. 5 days straight of 10 thousand plus steps and so much information and culture absorbed over that time I am mentally and physically exhausted. I wouldn’t trade this opportunity I am having for anything in the world, just wish all my loved ones were here with me. We are nine hours ahead of California again and we have a couple of more back and forth’s before we start only losing time again. Enjoy the photos everyone! Hugs.
Feliz Pascua from Spain. Happy Easter. We started our morning with the knocking on our door again this morning. In my defense alarm was set for 6:45. Room service was scheduled for 7:00 and they can come 15 minutes anther way. They were there around 6:40. At least I heard them knock on the door this morning. Reminder to self, make sure I wear pajamas on days we order room service for breakfast. Lol!! I had my “dyed”hard boiled eggs this morning in true Easter tradition. We had an hour to get ourselves ready to meet our excursion group at 8:15 am in the main stage. Cadiz is the oldest city in Spain and was founded almost 3,000 years ago by the Phoenicians. This is Holy Week here is Spain and over the last two days there have been many parades and processions through the streets of town as they carried large statues in honor of the holiday. Today, being Easter, the town was quiet as most people don’t have to work today (unless you work in the tourist business and there is a ship in port). As we left Cadiz we drove over the Puente De La Constitución De 1812, the largest bridge in Spain. It was designed to allow large ships to pass under it. We had a two hour bus ride to the city of Seville. We had a comfort stop about halfway at a rest stop where there was a market and coffee shop. Megan and I got some caffeinated beverages cause we were dragging our wagons a little. Not really sure how we made these choices when booking our excursions, but the way I look at it is, in the future when I come back here, I’ll be able to spend more time in the port cities and less time on a bus. As we came into Seville we drove by the the soccer stadium and then got off the bus at the Maria Luisa Park. In 1914 it was decided that the friendship between the Americas and Spain needed to be celebrated and honored. They decided to hold a grand world’s fair but it took ten years to raise the money to have the celebration. In 1925 they started to build the park and all the trees, imported from America, then the two main squares and the hotel. It took 4 years and 10k men to complete the project. A wall was made with bricks, marble, and stone to surround the park. There are 58 benches all along the wall of the square to represent the 58 providences in Spain. They are all covered in painted tiles. Those tiles are all made in Seville. There are many pavilions (buildings and castle like structures) representing different countries. Spain’s is the biggest. Once we got off the bus, our first stop at the park was to see a large statue erected in honor of Christopher Columbus and his discovery of the Americas. Christopher Columbus sailed from Seville to Cadiz and then on to Americas. The navigators all came back to Seville with the gold and silver that they brought back from the Americas. They used their fortunes to bless this community. Columbus is actually buried here in Seville, a fact I learned today. As we walked through the square there were flamenco dancers performing in the streets and I wish we had had more time to stop and watch them. Our next stop on our walking tour was to the Visita Real Alcazar de Sevilla. This Castle originally started as a Moorish castle in the 10th century. The King of Spain renamed this area the Santa Cruz district in the 13th century. Also, known as the district of the holy cross. In the 15th century the Kings of Spain lived here. The kings loved this castle so much they added to it a little at a time to construct the grand structure we saw today. It is still a royal residence when the kings of Spain come here today. They close it to the public when they are here. This entire area was a Jewish community with the typical Jewish quarter with very narrow streets, winding streets small squares. It is very easy to get lost and we were strongly encouraged to stay with our guide and not wander away. There are three UNESCO world heritage sights all in the square here. The Visita Real Alcazar de Sevilla, the Cathedral de Santa María de Sede la 1929, and the Archivo de Indias. We could not visit the cathedral because it is Easter and there are services being held today. But we got to see and hear the bell tower. It has 25 bells that ring in scheduled sequence. At 12:30pm the bells rang with joyous jubilation. They marked the end of Lent, the end of Holy week and the start of the bull fighting season which officially starts today. It is their “Super Bowl” of bullfighting days. It was overwhelming to hear those bells ringing while standing in a centuries old castle, on Easter, in Spain. I was moved to tears and it was another moment of imbedded memories for me for this trip. After we left the castle we had a chance to walk through the alleyways and see shops and cafes. We were also given about thirty minutes of free time to do some shopping. Megan and I had a lot of fun running back to shop where they were making toffee coasted almonds and the smell drew us right back. They were still warm and they were delicious. We then headed to the bus for a five minute drive to the restaurant where we had lunch. The dessert was the best part of lunch to write home about, cream puffs with a hot chocolate dipping sauce. Megan and I each had an espresso and we were zinging for the rest of the day. After we left the restaurant we walked across the street to The Plaza de España. It has been used as a filming location, including scenes for Lawrence of Arabia(1962), Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones(2002) in exterior shots of the City of Theed on the Planet Naboo and it was also used in the movie Night and Day. This Plaza was our second WOW moment of our time here in Spain. Again, my photos do not do it justice. The buildings are exquisite. There is a beautiful water fountain in the middle and moat of sort with boats you can rent a trip in, much like Venice There are multiple walking bridges that take you over the water way and in the center there is a round about where the horse drawn carriages circle the fountain. It was one of the most romantic places I have ever been. Absolutely breathtaking. We had a bout 30 minutes of free time here to take photos, visit the street vendors and buy our magnet and keychain. Then we were back on the bus for our roughly two hour drive back to the port and the ship. We got back to the room and were welcomed by some Cadbury chocolates and note from the ship wishing us a Happy Easter. We dropped off our purchases from the day and headed up to the sail away party. In true Spanish tradition I had to have a Sangria as we toasted our farewell to Spain. It was a wonderful visit here. First and foremost I felt safe. We enjoyed every opportunity we had to soak up the culture, the food, the traditions, the history, the music and the people. I would absolutely come back here again. After the sail away party I headed home and got my blog revised with the photos from yesterday, got today blog and phots all completed and Megan went off to play cards with Gail and Marty. We get an hour back as we roll the clocks back an hour tonight. AND bonus, our excursion doesn’t meet till 10:30am tomorrow so we are sleeping in. I am currently awaiting a FaceTime call with my family who are all getting together back in California in celebration of Easter this afternoon and I can’t wait to “see” them all around 11:30pm my time. May you all be having a most blessed Easter Sunday wherever you are.
This morning we woke up in Malaga Spain even before the sun was up. Last night we moved our clocks ahead TWO hours and that 7am wake up call felt like the 5am it was to our bodies. It’s a good things we ordered room service because my alarm didn’t go off, I didn’t hear him knock on the door, so they called and woke us up. We had an hour to get ready before we had to be at the Main Stage to meet our tour group at 8:00 am. Today we took a brief driving tour around the town of Malaga and saw the fountain, the kasbah, the soccer stadium, the bullfighting stadium (where they have actual bullfighting, in Morocco they’ve deemed it inhumane so they are all shut down), a couple of churches and some historic building before we headed to the freeway. We took a two hour drive to the city of Cordoba. Along the way we passed through miles and miles of olive trees and then vineyards. The olive trees are actually called “The Sea of Olives” and spans 1.3 million hectares (3212369.959 acres) and over 180 million olive trees and are between Jaén and Estepa. This area is currently under candidacy for being registered as UNESCO World Heritage sight. It would be Spain’s 49th sight if approved. Once we arrived in Cordoba, we had a great walking tour all around the old town section of Cordoba. We first visited the old Jewish quarter and the Mudejar Synagogue. This synagogue had been covered over with plaster and paint and was discovered during a renovation of the building that was at that time a hospital. We found a Starbucks and had a brief break so, Megan and I took a quick run over to enjoy our first “home” treat in a long time. The highlight of todays trip by far was the Great Mosque of Cordoba also called the Mosque-Cathedral of Cordoba. They started construction in 785 and continued to add on to it for centuries. It was used as a temple, a Catholic Church and a Mosque. The building was so rich in religious artifacts, symbols, statues and paintings. I kept catching myself saying WOW. It is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen before. There are two pipe organs and multiple alters. The brick-and-stone striped arches are supported by 856 granite and marble pillars. There is a bell tower in the courtyard that stands over 150 feet tall. It is the largest urban center declared World Heritage Site by the UNESCO. I took so many photos and they pale in comparison to what we actually saw. After our visit to the church we walked through the narrow passages, walkways and alleys to a lovely restaurant where we had lunch. We were served a chilled tomato soup, meat and potatoes, and frozen dessert. We were also served bottled water and red wine. It was a very traditional Spanish lunch and it was delicious. After lunch we had quite a long walk back past the Mosque through an ancient gate and across a Roman bridge to where the bus awaited on the other side. We then had a to hour drive back to the port and our ship. We had a few moments to do some quick shopping at the shops at the port, I got a magnet, Megan got a keychain and we had the opportunity to sample and then purchase some Spanish Iberico ham that was freshly carved off the leg in front of us. I will be enjoying that soon. We got back on the ship around 5:30pm and decided to go to the Main dining room for a quick dinner. Again, I wasn’t very hungry after a large lunch so I ate light. After dinner I changed into my cozies and headed to an acupuncture appointment. I am happy to say my hip is better today. Three days of almost 10k steps every day and lots of sitting on a bus and I am happy to report that I am not in pain this evening. I am writing my blog so I can go to bed, because with these crazy schedules I know if I don’t do it now I will forget everything I did today by this time tomorrow. Such busy days, such little sleep, and so many blessings in everything I am getting to do and see. Again, another day of an overwhelming number of photos. Please enjoy them. I encourage you if you get a chance to look up the Mosque we visited today and learn about it and all of it’s wonderful history.
Hello, from our last port in Morocco and our final stop on the African continent of this adventure we are on. Last night when we were pulling out of port we noticed a Semester At Sea Ship with the saying “The World Is Your Campus” written on the side. Megan is getting that same experience currently but it is definitely something we will have to research later. We sailed into the Mediterranean Sea this morning as we crossed over from the Atlantic Ocean. We slept fast last night as we were exhausted from yesterday and had an early morning again today. We grabbed our breakfast from the Lido and headed to the Main Stage for our 8:15am meeting time. Our journey started today with a short drive into Tangier, which means the white pigeon. We saw the Grand souks here, the kasbah (fort), the walled old town area, St. Andrew’s Catholic Church and the American Legation Museum. We did a lot of walking today. Up and down hills, across cobblestone streets and up and down many steps. I had no problem reaching my step goal for the day. We saw so many new and wonderful things again today. Much like yesterday it was a fantastic visual variety of old, new, colorful, bustling, poverty, history and grandeur. There is so much tradition and history here in Morocco in complete contrast to the length of our own history in the United states. I wish we had more time here to experience more. Next, we boarded the bus and took an hour drive over the Reif Mountains into Tetouan. There we visited their walled souk (marketplace), the Royal Palace at Hasan II Square (so yes, if you are counting that’s three palaces belonging to the same king in two days), and finally we went to the School of Traditional Arts and Crafts. Sadly, since it is Friday and we are in the Ramadan there was no one there working on their craft, but we got to see some beautiful completed works and works in progress. I also need to mention that Morocco is the land of a zillion cats. Megan and I saw more cats then we could count. My camera is filled with photos of Megan and her feline harem. As tempting as it was to sneak one back onto the ship, we decided against it. After that we boarded back onto the bus for the hour long ride back to Tangier and the pier where the Zuiderdam was waiting for us. These three days were barely a taste of what Morocco has to show us and I look forward to returning here at a future date. I think today’s port of Tangier was my favorite. I never felt unsafe and the food again was fantastic. We had a delicious traditional Moroccan meal with vegetables, couscous, beef, rice, cookies, and mint tea for dessert. We got back to the ship just before 4:30pm and headed to the Aft pool deck on 9 for the sail away party. They had drink specials, served hummus and pita, and had live music. We stayed and enjoyed the sun for while until the wind just got too cold and we headed back to the cabin. We are winding down our evening now. We skipped dinner again after having such a filling lunch. We are hydrating and getting ready for another long day tomorrow. It will be long excursion three of five tomorrow as we are back at sea now and heading for Spain. We anticipated this month as being busy with a lot of “on the go.” We will go to sleep early and get as much rest as we can. Our excursions will drop down in length of time after this week as well. These just all ended up being about 8 hours each for multiple days in a row. We are anticipating some high winds for the evening and I’m sure we will be rocking and rolling along. Hopefully it will lull me right to sleep and keep me resting throughout the evening. Enjoy all the photos. I know there are a lot of them again. But it is so hard to decide what to share and not to share. These are my favorites from the hundreds I took. I hope you again feel like a little part of you is here, if only in my heart!. Hugs.
Good morning from the port of Casablanca. Today is a long one and we were up early and ready to tackle the days adventure. The alarm went off at 5:45am and breakfast was delivered at 6:00am. We ate in our room as we got ready and then headed to the Main stage to meet our excursion group at 7:15am. We wore our new pants we bought in the Canary Islands today and we got so many compliments on them. I wish I had bought more! They also made for great photos. There was a large group going to Marrakesh today on a 12+ hour excursion and our group was four buses going to Casablanca and Rabat on a 10 hour excursion. We left the pier and got stuck at the gate before even leaving the port. I guess our bus driver made an illegal turn and had to pay a $40.00 fine before we could even leave delaying us another 30minutes. Luckily, that was not an omen of the things to come for the rest of the day. In Casablanca we stopped at The Hassan the II Mosque. It is the third largest Mosque in the world. King Hassan the II had this built in seven years and ordered the workers to work around the clock until it was finished in 1993. He wanted to see it done before he died. Ironically, it was finished six years before he passed away. Ahhhh, it’s good to be king right? We saw the only Catholic church still offering services in Casablanca, the Mohammad the V Mosque, and the Mohammad the V square. Today was the day for uniquely beautiful doors with hand made knockers, tile mosaics and arches in every shape and size. Some we barely passed through in our bus and several we walked though. The architecture was so unique to Morocco and will forever be embedded in my memory. We had an absolutely wonderful time feeding the pigeons (flying rats as my mom calls them) in the square. We have such joyous memories of doing this in multiple places around the world and today was no exception. The man charged $1.00 for bird food and we gave him $5.00 and told him to keep the change. He kept filling our hands with more food until it was time to get back on the bus. I finally had to say no thank you, no more please. It always feels wonderful to bless another human and sometimes something so small means so very much. From Casablanca we drove to the Capitol city of Rabat, about an hour away. The King arrived in Casablanca yesterday and we saw the palace there, but he lives in Rabat normally and today we visited the palace there as well. Then we went to the Mausoleum of Mohammad the V and saw the architectural marvel that is an unfinished Mosque. It has 360 granite pillars the were erected to support the Mosque, but it was never completed so all that remains are its ruins. There is an unfinished spire here and we were lucky enough to be standing in front of the spire at noon when the call to prayer came to pass from the speaker on top of it. We could hear the announcement being echoed throughout the city from the mountain top we were on and it was quite a moving experience. From there we went to a local restaurant and had a traditional Moroccan lunch. We were served a salad or marinated vegetables, followed by Chicken Tangine and stewed beefed over couscous with cooked carrots, cabbage, zucchini, and potatoes, lastly, the brought a large bowl of fresh strawberries, oranges and Loquat. I had never had Loquat before and a passenger showed us how to peel it and eat it. It was delicious and I am excited to have tried something new. After lunch we boarded the bus and had one last stop at the Kabash Oudaya. It was once used as military base and it now alleys of shops, homes and restaurants. The view from the top of the wall looking out over the Atlantic Ocean was beautiful and a fabulous spot to take photos. After we left the Kabash we had a scenic drive along the coastline for a bit before getting back on the freeway and heading back to Casablanca and the port. Today was also the day of a 100 cats. Megan had fun loving on cats all over Morocco today. Every shape and size imaginable. There are so many photos we took today but there are already 66 photos attached below so I will save those for another time. We were back on the ship by about 5:30pm. We had a large late lunch and opted to just order some light bites from room service around 7:00pm and stayed in for the rest of the night. We have another long excursion and adventures ahead for us tomorrow so we are heading to sleep and hope to sleep fast. Enjoy all the photos, oh and the sunset photos is compliments of a fellow passenger, it’s so beautiful. I will “see” you tomorrow. Hugs.
Today was one of the few sea days we are going to have this month, we have five ports days in a row starting tomorrow. It’s going to be a busy month. I was up early as we were pulling out of port around 7:00am this morning after our overnight in Agadir. The storms and winds finally died down around midnight last night and the captain announced he was happy we had opted to stay in port like we did. There was a beautiful double rainbow as we were pulling out this morning as Agadir said goodbye to us. I went and had breakfast this morning at the Neptune Lounge and I let Megan sleep in. I headed to Project Linus after and Megan came and met me there later in the morning. We spent about two hours working on our projects today. Knowing our sea days are already limited Marty is making sure everyone has all the supplies they need because Project Linus is not set up on port days. We have enough yarn to finish our current projects and a one more so we’re good to go. After Project Linus Megan went to tutoring and I went to acupuncture. We met back at the cabin around 2:30pm and then headed to the Lido poolside for an ice cream social party. They had the lido area all decorated, had drink specials like brandy Alexander and Mud slides and had an ice cream area set up with every topping you could imagine. The line lasted almost an hour with passengers coming through to make their own sundaes (some had two). I did not have any but we enjoyed sitting and watching. After the social we headed home to get ready for dinner. Tonight we had dinner in the Main Dining room at our normal time and place and had Catalin, the shopping concierge from the Effy Shop as our guest this evening. His time on the ship is coming to an end in a couple of days and we wanted to have a chance to say goodbye. There is going to be a staff and passenger turn over when we conclude the third segment of the world cruise (there were four) in Amsterdam as well. The majority of the passengers were/are on for the entire duration but there is about 50 passengers that rotate throughout the cruise. So if you ever want to do a part of the world cruise know that is an option for you. My understanding that on next years World Cruise they are breaking it into nine different segments to make it easier for travelers who can not be away for long periods of time. After dinner we took a walk around the ship, walked through the shops, and then headed home. We placed our room service order for breakfast tomorrow with a 6am delivery time. We have a 7:15am meeting time for our excursion tomorrow morning. This will be our longest excursion (not counting the safari) of this trip. 10.5 hours long as we will travel all around Casablanca, Morocco. I am excited to see all the new sights and to experience new and exciting things. I will be sure to take lots of phots and share my adventures with you as always. Have a wonderful nights rest and stay safe all!! Hugs.
Hello from Morocco. Last night we sailed across the Atlantic Ocean from eh Canary Islands back to the continent of Africa for our next three port of call in Morocco. The winds reach storm classification last night at a speed of 50 knots. We could hear it whistling through the seal on a balcony door. So not a great nights sleep, but not absolutely horrible. We awoke this morning still making our approach into the pier. We had a later arrival then planned and therefore it delayed our excursions as well. Megan and I headed to the Pinnacle Grill for breakfast. We hadn’t eaten in there in a while. As it is predominantly Muslim here in Morocco and especially since it is in the season of Ramadan, we are dressing out of respect to the religion and culture while we are here. Originally, we were prepared to do it on days we were visiting churches, but we decided this morning we will do it the whole time we are here. So no bare shoulders, no mid drifts shirts and no bare knees. We met our excursion group on the Main Stage around 10:00 for our tour of Agadir and the Berber market. We had a scenic drive around the town and so many beautiful things. Our first stop was at the Kasbah that is being rebuilt on the original sight of a 16th century structure. In 1960 an earthquake destroyed the entire city of Agadir and they have been rebuilding it ever since. During the reconstruction human bones were discovered and the renovation work stopped. There was a lovely panoramic view of the city from this mountain top which is 700 feet in elevation. There were locals there with Camels, baby goats and snakes all urging us to take pictures for a price. After we left the Kasbah we drove into the city and visited an Argon oil manufacturer. This particular collective is run by women. We purchase some Jasmine infused Argon oil. They told us the history of Argon production here in Morocco as it is one of their largest exports. It is also a Unesco Biosphere Reserve (like the Volcanic Park from yesterday). I had never heard of one before yesterday and now I have been to two in as many days. From there we walked to the Sundy Berber market. What an establishment this is. Over 6000 vendors and stalls of sellers inside a wall structure. You have to take picture of the entrance you use so you can make sure you leave the same way you came in. Our guide stays with us the whole time and we mostly just walked through the shops. We had about 15 minutes to shop and he gave us a small “boundary” we had to stay in do that no one wandered too far and got lost. High pressure sales is an art form here and “No” means harass me more and try and break me down to them. We bought a magnet and I bought a pair of sunglasses because I left mine on the ship. Lastly, we had a stop at a beachside cafe for a light snack of cookies and I had an apple soda and Megan had a coke. We learned a lot of information and facts about Morocco and Agadir today and I will summarize the most interesting ones I learned.
Agadir is the 10th largest city in Morocco. It has rained just seven days here in the last four years. Men are allowed many wives, but the King has set a new law in place that limits them to no more than 4. He made a joke about bring his new wife home with him from California (me), I told him I don’t share well. Here the women do all the work in the fields. Children are required to go to school from about age 7 only until about age 14. But many children are pulled from their education sooner to help their families by working. 42% of the population is illiterate. When it is time for an election since the locals cannot read, each political party is assigned a symbol and they just place their vote next to the symbol of their political party. There are three words written in Arabic on the side of the Atlas Mountain here in Agadir. They are the words God, Country and King. The words are illuminated at night. In the summer time the temperatures here run around 107 degrees. They are extremely lacking in their health care system. You can only have insurance or go to the hospital is you are employed and 70% of the population do not qualify. The current king, King Mohammad the 7th is changing this now and trying to better his country. They are going though a major renovation and revitalization of Agadir and hope to have it a mecca of tourism and industry by 2025. We drove by the Mohammad the V Mosque. It had two separate entrances, one for men and one for women. There are several photos I took today of the things we saw on our adventure. After our refreshment stop the bus took us back to the ship.
We were back on board by about 2pm so I had time to write most of this blog for you. Tonight we had dinner at the Pinnacle Grill with Gail and Marty at the Tamarind specialty pop up restaurant again. We enjoyed it so very much. We also got to sign up for a special themed Indonesia dinner coming up in a few weeks. Tomorrow is a sea day so it will be nice to have a down day and prepare for two more stops coming ahead in Morocco as well. Wishing you all a wonderful rest of today. No time changes tonight!! YEA!!
Just as an after note. We are still in port. They have changed our all aboard time several times today. Originally 4:30, than 5:30, than midnight and currently 10:00pm. We are having an unexpected overnight here due to the storms and winds that plagued our crossing last night. We hope to set sail tomorrow morning around 7:00am and then head north to Casablanca. We are at the mercy of the seas and we are rolling along. Hugs!!
We did not see this personally.Mc Donald’s Billboard “MoDo”
Good morning all. Today we are visiting our second of the Canary Islands of this cruise. Megan and I were up early this morning. Thee was a majestic sunrise this morning and I am so blessed that I got a great photos of it. Sunrises and sunsets are even that much more beautiful when you are at sea. We grabbed a quick breakfast at the Lido market and then headed the Rolling Stone lounge to meet our 8:30 excursion group with Cruise Specialists. They had three buses in our group today all going to the same places, but slightly staggered. We left the port first so we got to take the lead. We received a very educational talk today as we drove across the island to our first stop. We learned that there are 8 main islands that make up the Canary islands and five smaller uninhabitanted ones. The smallest of the inhabited islands only has 700 residence. Tenerife is the largest and the island we visited yesterday. This island measures only 43 miles long by 12 miles wide. We learned that this island is 25% covered in lava fields. We drove across the island to the Timanfaya National Park first. Here there are over 20 inactive volcanoes and 35 craters. The most uniques novelty here is that there is still many geothermic anomalies occurring. In fact it is one of only 302 Unesco Biosphere Reserves in the world. Only 30 cm below the surface we were given stones to hold that were about 175 degrees. 10 meters down, the temperature measures about 662 degrees. They demonstrated the heat by throwing some straw into the pit and a short time later it bursts into flames. Lastly, a ranger poured a bucket of water into one of the flumes and a short time later a huge geyser of steam burst up from the earth. It was very cool to see. There is a restaurant on site here called El Diablo, The Devil, and there is a pit where they are using the geothermal heat to actually cook the food here. We re-boarded the bus and took a tour through the National Park where we got to see the lava flow “rivers”, caves and craters all created by the lava flow and stalagmites and stalactites. The landscape looked like being on the moon. Very other worldly. There were some narrow winding roads and some sketchy hairpin turns and our bus driver was phenomenal. As we left the park we saw the queue of cars waiting to get into the park. We arrived about 20 minutes before opening and as we left we were told that the people waiting to get in were now in for about a 2.5 hour wait. So I encourage you to arrive early. We got to see an area where you could have taken a camel ride but that was not included in our excursion for the day. We had the opportunity to ride camels on the beach outside of Cabo a couple of years ago and that would be hard to top. From there we drove through some agricultural lands on our way to a winery. There is no well or ground water on the island. So they use the volcanic ash that was left here from the eruptions to attract the moisture in the air. The plants are planted down into hole so the roots reach the ground soil and stone walls are built to protect the plants from the trade winds. The ash attracts and holds the moisture and it in turn waters the plant. A wonderful solution to a major problem here on the island and a definite nod to human ingenuity. We did get to stop and sample one wine and I did purchase one bottle, which sadly had a fate worse than death…as I boarded the ship today I dropped the bottle at the gangway and it shattered. Not my finest moment and a sad ending to my bottle of wine. Our last stop was the geographical center of the island where a statue and a replica of a town honors the farmworkers who fought through the absolute adverse conditions this island has to provide life for the community here. It was a beautiful memorial and a lovely way to show the determination of the human spirit. A lot of this island has been built and designed around the artistic design and specifications of César Manrique. They buildings on the island are predominantly white, very reminiscent of Greece, and they are only allowed to paint their doors, green, blue of brown. There are also no buildings on the island over three stories except for one 17 story hotel in the downtown area. No building is allowed to take away the view of the island from another. We returned back to the ship and the pier by around 1:00pm. We had a chance to grab some lunch at the lido and ran into Gail and Marty and we had a nice chat about our days and each of our adventures. Then we headed home so I could write this for you all and we could relax. We are both pretty tired today. Must be the sun, the fresh air and the time change. We set the clocks back again this evening an hour making us back to the seven hour time difference to California. We went to the dining room for dinner tonight at our normal 5:00pm dining time. I had my favorite, Peruvian Chicken!! Since we had lunch we weren’t very hungry this evening. After dinner I headed to the Salon for a hair appointment and Megan hung out with me for about an hour and then went and played cards with Gail and Marty. I had my roots tricked back into being brown, not ready to go gray gracefully, had some highlights added and took about 4 more inches off. I officially have all my hair the same length. It was a journey letting my bangs grow out over the last couple of years and I intend on growing it back out now that it is all the same length. Photos to come later. My appointment didn’t end till about 9:30pm so when I got home all we did was crawl into bed and crash out. We had a delay in departing from the port this evening, about three hours later, and our arrival tomorrow has now been delayed but we don’t yet know by how much. They will let us know in the morning. Now it is time to sleep. We are at sea and will wake up tomorrow in Morocco. Excited to visit some Souks!! Spice shopping here we come. Love and hugs, enjoy all the photos from today. There are several again, but I want to give you a good sampling of what we saw and did. Want you to feel like you are here with us on our journey. Hugs!!
Good morning from Tenerife in the Canary Islands. It is a new country, Spain, a new climate, about 75 degrees, and a new and welcomed sense of security as we pull into a new port. Of course we are always aware of our surroundings and others around us, but I do feel like a weight has been lifted. We started our morning off rough. We didn’t get much sleep after last nights festivities and I have a bit of a headache this morning. (And it has wine written all over it). Also somehow our phones self changed the time last night so we woke up later then we had hoped to cause the alarm went off an hour later then we had planned. We grabbed a quick bite from the Neptune lounge and ate it in the Main stage while we awaited our number to be called for our excursion. A little bit about the Canary Islands. They all have a rare Micronesian climate that is controlled by the trade winds that usually blow from the North. There are varied microclimates throughout Tenerife alone that changes between northern and southern Tenerife. You can experience all four seasons in a 2.5 hour drive. They have no hurricanes on the Canary Islands. But due to the climate here and the and mountain ranges that form the island, the Canary Islands actually create them and from here they hear to the Caribbean. There are other islands in the distance but we were unable to see them due to the Calima which carries the fine particles of sand from the Sahara desert here to the islands. This is a phenomenon we experience the other evening and I didn’t even know it existed till now. The desert is about 90 miles from where we are now and the sand has been known to cover the entire town with a light dusting periodically. Our first stop was the pyramids. They are actually a giant macro calendar where the sunset is aligned perfectly during the summer solstice and the sunrise is in perfect alignment during the winter solstice. There are legends as to how they came to be here and we were told all the possibilities and then we were left to make a decision for ourselves. There was a lovely cafe in the property and Megan and I had a recommended leche leche coffee drink. It was so delightful. Next, we took a drive to Candelaria to visit the Basilica there. They are known for their black Madonna. Every year on Augusts 15th, Dia de La Candelaria, the statue is carried through town in a procession to the fishing dock where she sails around the bay before returning to the dock and then carried back to the Basilica here. It was Palm Sunday today but the services had ended before our arrival. The church and altar was decorated beautifully for the Holy Week ahead. We had some free time after to walk through town. Megan had an ice cream and bought some Oreos. We both purchased some wide legged pants, they actually look like skirts. We will be visiting some churches in our upcoming ports and there is a dress code that says we can not show bare shoulders, mid drifts or knees. We only have shorts and jeans with us. So these will be cool and can be worn alone of thrown over our shorts. We drove through the downtown area on our way back to the ship and some of our highlights were the Bull Fighting Stadium, which is no longer used and anticipated to be torn down soon. Beautiful blooming Orchid trees, a statue called the Fallen Angel and the theater building (that reminded me of the Sydney Opera House). We were back to the ship by 1:00pm. There were some shops at the pier but we had already grabbed our magnet and our keychain so we opted not to go back out. I changed my evening massage appointment to this afternoon and enjoyed some time pampering my body. Megan went and played Volleyball. We had dinner in the main dinning room this evening. We saw a change in the menus as promised and there were some new items and the menu set up is now reminiscent to how it was on the previous world cruise. It was comforting to see it back. Due to the time change after dinner the sun was still quite bright in the sky so Megan and I put on our swimsuits and went for a swim and then a soak in the hot tub. Then it was home to shower and get ready for bed this evening. I am pooped after our late evening last night and our lovely day today. I absolutely loved this island. I had been reading about other people’s vacation here for years. It is a regular vacation destination for Europeans especially from the UK. I can most definitely understand why. I would come back here for an extended stay in a heartbeat. Enjoy thumbing through all my photos from today. Hugs!!
Live Vicariously Through Debra 