TWO WEEK MARATHON

Sunday, February 28, 2010 Judy and I returned home late last night from our two week tour of the Mediterranean. It was centered around a twelve day cruise. Thursday the eleventh we flew to Houston, Texas and stayed overnight with Chris and Lynn at Lynn’s house. The next day, Friday the 12th, we flew first class on Continental Airlines to Paris, France. Lynn and Chris were working the flight. They are both flight attendants. Chris will have been working for Continental for twenty years this April. From the Paris Charles De Gaulle Airport, Judy and I took a bus to the Arc d’ Triumph and from there a taxi to the hotel the Continental crews stay in. it is just a half a block or so from the Eifel Tower. We couldn’t ride on the crew bus since it picks them up on the tarmac and Judy and I had to go through customs. After sleeping for a few hours, we walked to the Musee Jacquemart Andre; a public museum located at 158 Boulevard Haussmann in the 8th arrondissement of Paris. The museum was created from the private home of Édouard André (1833 - 1894) and Nélie Jacquemart to display the art they collected during their lives. There was a lot of nice Italian artwork and the house itself was unique. We then took the Metro to another area of Paris where Lynn met us and Chris and Lynn bought us a nice dinner for our anniversary (13 Feb). We took a cab back to the hotel. Paris was cold and it had recently received snow but we didn’t see any on the ground. Then next morning, Saturday, the 13th, Judy and I took a taxi to Paris’s Orly Oest Airport, bought a ticket and flew on Vueling Airlines to Barcelona. We took a taxi from BCN to the Marriott Renaissance Airport Hotel where we met Bev (Judy’s mother), Sandy (Judy’s uncle) and Mary Lou (Bev’s friend), had a bite to eat and hit the hay. We saw a few snowflakes at the hotel. The next day, Sunday, the 14th we took the Hotel Shuttle to the port where we boarded NCL’s Norwegian Jade for our twelve day cruise. Judy and I were in stateroom 9120 which had a balcony; our preference. The next day, Monday, the 15th was a sea day. The day after, Tuesday, the 16th Judy, Uncle Sandy and I took the Angels and Demons tour of Rome, Italia. Bev and Mary Lou had been there before so they stayed on the boat. Judy and would probable have done the same since we have been there before too, except we felt it was better that 87 year old Sandy shouldn’t do it on his own. It was cool but not too bad since we wore plenty of warm clothing. We saw the Trevi Fountain and the Vatican including St. Paul’s Cathedral as well as other sights. Wednesday, the 17th was another day at sea. Thursday the 18th the five of us found a driver with a large Mercedes minivan who drove us around Athens for hours pointing out the sights including a changing of the guard. Again because of all the older people (including myself I sometimes feel) we didn’t climb to the Acropolis or any of the other hillside sights but we did get some good camera shots of them. The weather in Athens was sunny and fairly warm though we were dressed properly. The next day, Friday the 19th we landed in Izmir, Turkey where Judy had arranged a tour of Ephesus. (The Turks call it Efes.) for the two of us. We both felt that this was one of, if not the highlight of the trip seeing where the apostle Paul spent time and were we saw all the Roman ruins. Very impressive! The other three saw Ephesus on a different tour arranged through the boat. Saturday the 20th we were at sea. The next day, Sunday the 21st we landed in Alexandria, Egypt, North Africa. The five of us took a bus tour which took us to Cairo/Giza where we stayed overnight and went back to the ship the next afternoon. The part of Egypt we saw was very dirty and rundown but we had fun riding on camels, standing on the bottom steps of the Great Pyramid and going down into a catacomb. I was the only one that did the catacomb. It was hot when we got off the bus at the pyramids but almost immediately the sun went behind the clouds and the weather was perfect. We ate at a very nice restaurant called Cleopatra’s Palace if I remember correctly. That first night we took a two hour dinner cruise up and down the Nile River. On the cruise there was a very good looking and talented belly dancer as well as other entertainers. The next day was at sea. The following day, Wednesday the 24th we took a jeep safari around the island of Malta which was fun. One of the stops was at the village that was erected for the 1980 move, Popeye. The set which include many homes and shops etc, is still standing and maintained and for the tourists there are live characters in the streets singing and dancing and so forth. We didn’t get to go into the village but looked down from a ridge above and took pictures with the zoom on. We had another day at sea and got back into Barcelona the next morning Friday the 25th and took the hotel shuttle back to our hotel and checked it. We weren’t able to get into our room until later, so, Judy and I took the city bus into town, got on the sightseeing bus and rode it around then got off and had lunch at Casa Joan on the Rambla. We took the Metro (subway) to Espania Square (Plaça d' Espanya) where we caught the city bus back to the hotel. The next day Saturday the 27th, since the Barcelona to New York flight was canceled, we bought tickets to Madrid on Air Europa. From Madrid we flew first class on Delta to Atlanta, connected to Dallas/Ft. Worth and made another connection to Salt Lake. I was in my own bed around ten o’clock after getting up and flying for about twenty-four hours. Obviously I left out most of the detail. My brain is frazzled from the trip, especially the coming home portion. My memory is not that good anyway. I may have also made some errors in this telling.