Two More Days at Sea

Sunday, April 17, 2011 and Monday, April 18, 2011

Since we left Ravenna on Saturday, we have sailed a generally southeasterly course during that night and the following two days.  We slipped through the Strait of Otranto, between the heel of Italy (we think we saw a blister) and the island of Corfu about midday on the 17th.  Late that day we saw some of the small island off the coast of the Peloponnesus of Greece and by midday on the 18th we had rounded the SW point of Crete and were directly north of the Libya/Egypt boundary.  From there it was a straight run to Alexandria.  The seas have varied from smooth to a “corkscrew action”.  It was cloudy and dreary all of Sunday, but today is bright and sunny, although cool.  We expect the weather to warm considerably once we arrive in Egypt.

                              

Our Captain put our minds at ease by explaining that this part of the Mediterranean Sea is now a “no fly zone” and any planes which fly over are NATO planes and are ”on the same side we are on”. He also explained that the Libyan forces were incapable of reaching us anyway.

We attended Mass on Sunday morning and chuckled as Father Bruce lamented not having palms for Palm Sunday.  He said he really wanted something to “wave around”.  It would be so much more meaningful as we anticipate being in Jerusalem on Holy Thursday and Nazareth on Good Friday.  A lot of the locations will have limited availability but we will be thrilled with whatever we experience.  We had planned to offer to have Father Bruce accompany us on the private tour, but we just found out that someone has paid for a shore excursion for him.  No plans for the Easter celebration have been announced as of yet, but we expect an early morning Mass on the deck. 

The ship is having a Seder dinner tonight at 5:30.  Since we will be on shore in Israel during the Passover holiday, no bread is allowed to leave the ship.  We are expecting that since Passover and Holy Week occur at the same time this year, the crowds may be even larger than predicted.  We have instructed our driver/guide to use his discretion to allow us to visit as many sights as possible.  Numbering only five will certainly give us an advantage over a busload of 50. 

We retrieved our passports from the ship’s front desk today. We are required to carry them with us in Egypt and in Israel. We surrendered them to the ship in Ft. Lauderdale and have not needed them until now. This small change in procedure is a very obvious indication of the different level of personal security (and comfort) in Egypt and Israel. Of course we are not concerned for our safety while we are under the care of our ship or its sanctioned shore excursions.

Patty has filled these sea days with lectures on the Windows program that came on our new laptop. She has learned some “tricks” to use in organizing the many photos we have of our travels to date. I attended a lecture on the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. It’s interesting to note that passengers on this cruise will have the opportunity of visiting the sites of five of these Wonders. We have seen three: The Great Pyramid, The Theatre of Ephesus, and the site of the Faros lighthouse in Alexander. We will see the site of the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, near Bodrum, Turkey, and the site of the Temple of Zeus at Olympia, in Greece, both on this cruise. We will be very near the island of Rhodes, the site of the Colossus of Rhodes, (a giant statue of Helios) but our ship does not stop there. If you’re interested, the remaining “Wonder” is the hanging Garden of Babylon, near present day Baghdad.

We’ll probably go to dinner again tonight at the Lido Grill. Seems like a lot of people on the ship have colds, etc. and we are just trying to stay our distance. The good news is - no malaria for us. Of course, we haven’t heard of one case even in those guests who chose not to take the malaria medicine. You can never be too cautious.

Today is the 138^th birthday of Holland America Line…cake and ice cream for all.

We did not want you to go into photo withdrawal so we are including a few shots from around the ship.