Segment 8 - The last one!

And then Egypt (at least to the west of us…Saudi continues east of us) and our first call there, Sharm El Sheikh. 

This was the longest bit of time we have spent at sea on this trip (five days) but it was spent pleasantly: walking (plus going to Zumba which was started after Mumbai…very much like home except for Ave Maria strangely accompanying cool-down), lectures (esp those by a fellow from the British Museum talking about the seven wonders of the ancient world and related topics), classical music, meals, movies and reading…and regularly seeing the ship’s doctor whom Bill and I are virtually dating as the diverticulosis which Bill has developed has led to some doubling over/knife stabbing attacks of pain.  He continues on antibiotics and (as needed) pain meds.  It is definitely time to head home but we are trying to get as close as possible to the US before heading for an airport to limit the amt of time in the air.

We docked at the foot of the Sinai Peninsula, between the upper reaches of the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aqaba, in Sharm El-Shiekh, Egypt...at the junction between Africa and Asia.

The Sinai Peninsula has been a point of contention between Egypt and Israel and it has gone back and forth between them.  Israel most recently gave it back after the Camp David Accord in 78…the conditions of which (the recognition of Israel) did not sit well with all Egyptians and probably provided the final impetus for the assassination of Sadat.  Bill stayed on the ship as tour offerings were a grueling bus ride (6 hours) to visit the Monastery of St Catherine near Mt Sinai where Moses was given the Commandments , a beach resort/coral reef in Na’ama Bay (brimming with luxury hotels which account for the quantity of expensive yachts in the marina)), OR camel riding.  I chose the last option, having not been on a “ship of the desert” (Bill spent a week on one in northern India years’ back, at the end of which he said he and the camel smelled exactly the same).

We drove through three serious check points, and after the last one, left the highway, watched for the occasional small group of camels ambling about, and peeled off into the desert (we were in 4 wheel Jeeps).  The desert of the southern Sinai is mountainous with sand vs the northern section which is mostly sand and dunes.  We passed small enclaves of very poor looking dwellings, rag-clad children, goat herds and an incredible amount of non-biodegradable rubbish; garbage collection and recycling is clearly not the done thing here – the luxury hotels and everybody else just toss their stuff in the desert.  Sooner or later, if they want to keep attracting tourists, something will have to be done on a massive scale but right now it is all about making money at the local level – and about pressing political concerns at the national one.  (Many camels die from eating plastic bags – and we saw many skeletons and carcass parts.)

After more off road driving, we came to a Bedouin encampment…or at least their camels (the Bedu apparently live in their tents in an even more inaccessible spot and they disappeared completely before we left several hours later).  Amazingly, the temperature was delightful tho the sun was hot (this was mid-day).  After we had been shown how to board our camel, we more or less did so while the camels were lying down…it was a giddy feeling when they rose and then started off in their peculiar rolling motion.  It was great if somewhat unsteady fun, acting very briefly like T E Lawrence.

We rode long enough to hear from our thigh muscles, to a large tent with carpets and pillows strewn about under shade provided by palm fronds.  Once settled like pashas, we were served sugared hot tea made from a yellow flowered slightly minty plant.  (Very little grows out here except for the odd acacia tree which produces a yellow fruit looking exactly like a tennis ball…and from which an oil is squeezed said to be good for arthritis…I bought some for Bill.) 

Hot flat bread was made while we drooled and was given to us along with huge slabs of fantastic goat cheese.  Really YUM…after he had watched me consume a goodly portion of the cheese, a fellow traveller asked if I wasn’t concerned about the safety of doing so – too late! 

And then the Bedu got on their camels and took off...and we got back in our Jeeps and did the same, in the opposite direction.

Back on the ship, we started the roughly 100 mile transit through the Suez Canal after sunrise the next morning.  The anti-piracy LRADs were back out for the trip, not for pirates but just for additional security in this unsettled country.  The Canal is not nearly as interesting as the one in Panama but was something neither of us has done.  Sand dunes on the starboard side, strips of settlements on the port side.

The story of the Canal is more interesting than the Canal. Adding to the wonder of all the early Egyptians accomplished, an early link between the Nile and the Bitter Lakes (half way between the Mediterranean and Red Seas) was dug in 1400 BC! Obviously the desire to quicken the transit from the Mediterranean to the East has existed since the concept of trade emerged.  Enterprising individuals from many nations gave it thought, including Napoleon before he was trounced by Nelson and quickly departed Egypt (his engineers also thought the Sea levels were different, which they are not). Then a very clever and obsessed Frenchman, de Lesseps, got the money together any way he could from France and Egypt (England did not participate and tried to get the project scuttled). 

The Canal opened to great acclaim in 1869 (having cost about 1.5 billion BP in today’s money and the lives of roughly 25,000 Egyptians mostly forced into unpaid and ill provisioned labor).  Britain was not happy with all this and came to realize that the Canal was now essential for reaching its colonies of India and beyond (as it was to the French with their interests in the Indochina); the Canal cut 4000 miles off the trip to India and beyond as it was no longer necessary to go around Africa.  Having heard that the Egyptian ruler was in dire need of funds (Egypt had gone way out on a financial limb for the Canal), Disraeli got Rothschild to help with the British purchase of Egypt’s shares and after civil unrest in Egypt, Britain stepped in and took over.  As the Egyptians increasingly got their act together, the British presence became more and more oppressive and Nassar (who needed money for the Aswan Dam project before the Russians came up with the money for him) nationalized the Canal in 1956. Egypt is now the beneficiary. (Nasser was the first Egyptian ruler since the pharaohs – the Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Persians, Muslim Arabs, Ottoman Turks, the French, the British all had their turns, and finally, one of their own.)        

About a third of the way through the 12-hour transit we came to the Bitter Lakes – which allow ships going the other way to pass each other (in the rest of the segments, it is one way traffic only, all going the same speed and about two miles apart).

War memorial about half-way through broke up the monotony.  Why the sign says Welcome to Egypt at this point in the Canal we cannot imagine.   

And then a RR swing bridge…with the ship just ahead of us right in the middle of the Canal.

Port Said finally appeared in the afternoon and we were left on shore briefly to stretch our legs and be set upon by souvenir sellers; by nightfall we were out in water more familiar to us – the Mediterranean Sea.  An odd factoid we were just told: the Statue of Liberty had originally been intended to sit here at the entrance to the Canal!  And now on to Cyprus.

Limassol used to be glorious…and probably outside the city limits it still is but inside it has been overrun with tourists and accompanying detritus. Construction along the beautiful beaches of expensive condos and hotels, hawkers of bad souvenirs, and in your face taxi drivers certainly were off putting. The weather tho was magnificent…it is soooo nice to be in cooler climes again.  I walked around the old part of the city and stumbled through the castle where Richard the Lion Hearted may have married Berengaria, who had either been insulted and/or kidnapped by the Byzantine ruler here; Richard and the Knights Templar seized the island and the latter stayed here until most retreated to Rhodes.  I thought a far more interesting job could be made of the castle and said as much to two extremely nice tourist travel agency people who let me use their wifi connection for the blog; they rightly parried that this was  a poor country with larger concerns…there are many historical sites and the budget is meager.  For a small place, there is much history, BC and AD.

After the Crusaders departed, the Venetians took over, followed by the Turks; Britain purchased the island which won its independence in 1960 (the Brits kept two bases, still functional).  Then more trouble in a place that has had more than its fair share. The UN peace keeping force arrived but eventually the Greeks tried to take over the whole island and the Turks rallied against them; the island was then separated into two uneasy camps – North and South, Turks and Greeks.  At least now, travel is allowed between the two but there is still an unsettled feeling (I was told).

During the Crusades, this was the jumping off place for the Holy Lands…and that is exactly what we did as our next port was Haifa, Israel.  

Israel…we are wearing out the Atlas in the suite and are increasingly embarrassed by our meager grasp of geography.  We spent some time staring at Israel and the three main areas of dispute – in addition to Israel itself of course.  The Golan Heights to the NE – annoying to Syria but surely they have their hands full right now (it is odd to be so close to this trouble); the West Bank (so called because it is the west bank of the Jordan River) which is also claimed by Jordan; and Gaza which Egypt would like back.   Having been raised in a Jewish neighborhood and having spent as much time in a synagogue as a church as a child, my sympathies are fully with the Jews.  Having said that, I was still surprised at how taken I was with Israel.  If for no other reason than what the Israelis have done with this land, they deserve to keep it. 

The scene of many battles between Muslims and Crusaders, Haifa is now Israel’s major port and has boomed since the country’s independence in 1948.  There are sights to be seen here (Elijah’s Cave, for one) but since Bill was not feeling well enough for any tour (we had planned on going to Galilee, relatively nearby), I went to Jerusalem and Bethlehem…a killer to try in one LONG day…especially this close to Holy Days for both Christians and Jews.

The drive south to Jerusalem – one of the world’s oldest continually inhabited cities AND the “cradle of all three monotheistic religions – partially along the sea, was lovely – farming going on everywhere possible and everything quite green and tidy.  At a rest stop, we saw a closed McDonald’s – everything shuts on the Sabbath, even American fast food.  Our first view of the city was from the Mount of Olives.  Free range sheep were safely grazing among the olive trees.   

In the distance, the walls around the Old City (created by King David around 1000 BC) and the Old City itself were visible.   The gold dome is the Dome of the Rock, said to be the site of the Jewish Temples (starting with Solomon's) several times destroyed, where Abraham almost sacrificed his son and also where Mohammad ascended into Heaven possibly on his horse and/or with the Archangel Gabriel (which is why the Muslims built the Dome of the Rock). 

The Garden of Gethsemane, where Judas led the police to Jesus, was our first major stop. (We have just seen another fascinating documentary, this one on the Gospel of Judas, one of the 30+ gospels that did not make it into the New Testament.)  The old olive trees were doing well, along with some spring flowers. 

Then on up into the Old City, past the cemeteries (Jewish and Muslim as one could not be buried inside the city walls) and into the Jewish Quarter (checkpoints, lots of security, automatic cameras sweeping the scene). 

The West Wall of the Herod's temple (aka the Wailing Wall) still stands and is sacred to the Jews, many of whom were here praying today, the men to the left of a partition, the women to the right.  All visitors are allowed to approach the wall and to pray, so I did too (for those of you who know the trouble we are having at home, you can guess the source of my heaven-sent plea).  The dress of the devout was varied and amazing – but, quite correctly, no photos allowed (it is to the left of the photoed wall above).

Then into the ancient streets of the Old City, truly rabbit warrens, stuffed with people, eating, selling, shopping, yelling, playing.  Or completely empty.

The current ground of Jerusalem is about 10 ft higher than it was in Jesus’ time, so while we walked the stations of the Cross on the Via Dolorosa, it was not at the same level.  

The last of the stations are at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the site of the crucifixion, burial and resurrection.   I have never seen so many people in so small a place…some armed with fronds, others with crosses, some with lit candles.   I mostly tried not to trip over the uneven stones, whack my head on the passages, or get set alight.   

For doubting Thomases questioning how anyone can be sure these are the right spots, there is an ironic answer.  In attempting to destroy Christianity and its holy places, Hadrian built pagan temples on Calvary and the sepulchre  here and on the site of the Nativity in Bethlehem, thus marking the places for posterity.  Some 300 years later, when Helena (the mother of Constantine, the Roman Emperor who made Christianity the official religion) wanted to erect churches on the relevant places, she had little trouble finding them.   The Muslims destroyed the Church around 1010, thus (along with other less noble factors such as an interest in land and expansion) providing the impetus for the Crusades. 

Crusaders rebuilt it in 1149.  Absurdly to us, there is a great deal of upset around the maintenance of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre because the Greek Orthodox, Armenian Christians and other interested Christian parties cannot agree on anything!  It is in poor condition, some parts even a safety hazard for the public. 

We then walked out of the Old City, passed many citizens dressed for the sabbath, through one of the gates, the Jaffe Gate which guarded Herod’s Palace.   (For history buffs, this is the one that British Allenby, arriving after the city had fallen from the Turks after WWI, rode – but then remembering that Jesus had walked – got off his horse and did the same.) Note how well armed and protected the Israeli soldiers are who are just trying to hoist a flag.

Then on to Bethlehem, just five miles away.  Much to my surprise as I hadn’t realized this, the city is encircled by a modern wall.  This is to keep the Palestinians in…along with the various Christian sects who watch over the holy sites. 

The point of coming here was to see the largely Crusader-built (on top of the earlier bits) Church of the Nativity.   Again the haggling among Christian sects is an impediment to preservation as well as utilization (there was audible wrangling going on while we were there).   The spot (now below ground) where Jesus was born is marked by a silver star…photo was difficult, lots of jostling. 

The Shepherds’ Fields surround the town…which we drove through after the check point to get back on the road to Jerusalem and then the ship. It was a grueling day and would have been greatly improved if I had known more beforehand!  Insufficient homework strikes again.

Turkey was our next destination…an easy sail northwest into the Aegean Sea.  Izmir (formerly Smyrna) was the first port but just for the morning; other than probably being the birthplace of Homer or going to the several good museums (all closed today GRRR), the reason to be here was mainly to get to Ephesus (past visitors included Anthony and Cleopatra, Saints Paul and John – the latter writing his Gospel), and Hadrian; the Virgin Mary came to the area with St John, and spent the rest of her days here.  However, slipping and sliding and falling down around the ruins of Ephesus in the rain held minimal appeal (of course the sun came out right after the excursion left). 

Instead we rambled around the city for a short bit and chalked it up (Bill was pretty much done in by our two hours out).  Like much else in these parts, the conquerors who have come and gone are legion – the Persians, the Greeks, the Romans, the Turks, the Byzantines, the Crusaders, then the Turks again…then the Greeks (because the Turks were on the losing side in WWI)…then the Turks in 1922 pushed the Greeks out under Mustafa Kemal – the Father of the Turks/renamed Ataturk – and achieved an independent Turkey.  

Admittedly I have some misgivings about Turkey – for the 1.5 million Armenians killed in the early part of the 20th C. and the aftertaste of the movie, Midnight Express.  However, I spent one of the best days of the whole trip in Istanbul, our other Turkish port, an overnighter.  We are docked on the Bosporus, with the Old City just on the other side of a bridge over the water of the Golden Horn, wonderful name, a natural harbor.  Istanbul sits on both Europe and Asia, against the Bosporus and Marmara Seas.  Since the Black Sea is on the other end of the Bosporus, Istanbul has a very strategic position re trading; as a result, everyone has wanted it and it has passed through many hands.  Beginning life as Byzantium, it was controlled by the nearby Greeks. 

The Old City is where the really good stuff is.  Since Bill is still not up to excursions (the scooter does not have any suspension system and the cobblestones and uneven paths take their toll), I picked the one that packed the most into the allotted time, and set out.  A lovely little domed structure, not esp old but with a wonderful ceiling and in the middle of what was the old Hippodrome (racing track).

And bread sellers:

And then one of the highlights of the City.  Built in the early 1600’s, the Blue Mosque (named for the mosaic tiles) is cavernous – and stuffed with tourists.  

Absolutely breathtaking interior and courtyards.

Then a short amble away, St Sophia! Hagia Sophia was built in the mid-500’s (Emperor Justinian), with pillars liberated from Ephesus. First a church, then a mosque, it has features of both and has survived, minus much of its gold and silver (sacked by the Crusaders).  It is now a heavily visited museum. ..and jaw dropping.  The colors – a bit faded but beautiful – are yellow and blue for the interior, rather red outside.

Next was the Topkapi Palace (remember the movie with Peter Ustinov trying to steal the jewels?), the HQ of the Sultans and the Ottoman Empire.   They (the Sultans and their close circles) lived exceedingly well!  First the Imperial Gate.

The first courtyard (Gate of Salutations) had the execution stone where miscreants were beheaded and also a fountain where the blood could be washed off the sword.  (Severed heads were displayed on the walls – then, that is.)

In another courtyard, the sultans received guests (or just listened to them talk while hidden behind a gold screen).  The ornamentation was dazzling.

The final courtyard houses the Treasury and its unbelievable collection of precious stones…covering daggers, water bottles, head pieces, rings, writing cases, anything one could cover.  The 83 carat diamond was certainly a sparkler.  Sadly, no photos and a lot of guards (at night, the guards are supplemented by Anatolian dogs which are immense and probably not especially friendly to interlopers…Anatolia as well as Asia Minor being old names for Turkey).   There is also a collection of clothing, not as interesting, and a separate Pavilion of the Holy Mantle…also no photos inside.  This is the sumptuous entry.

The interior rooms were especially intriguing due to the contents – the staff of Moses, the turban of Joseph and the saucepan of Abraham (honest, that is what the signage read).  (In Islam, the notables of the Old Testament are revered prophets, as is Jesus.)  This is a very well- guarded and holy site because also on display are a piece of hair from Muhammad’s beard, one of his teeth, and some of his garments.  There was also a live Imam chanting/singing the Qur’an and doing so in a superb voice and with passion; this goes on round the clock.  Whether live or recorded, the five times a day call to prayer in Muslim countries is quite fine to listen to…if not at a blaring level.  The harem was not open for our visit and neither were the huge kitchens (celadon was the favorite material for dishes as it was supposed to change color in the presence of poison) but the roof line was worth a photo, as was this one among many.

The schoolroom/library was of great charm and had luxurious detail.

We were starting to get beyond hungry and the scent from the roasted corn and chestnuts was hard to ignore.

The Grand Bazaar – looking a lot like the mosques – was our last stop…too much on display to even think about buying anything.  A fellow was selling peeled pistachios from a highly decorated three-wheeler.

 

Checking back in with Bill, serving his tea and gobbling down a pre-dinner lunch, the lure of a Turkish bath overcame my exhaustion.  The Cagaloglu Hamam is listed in 1000 Places to See Before You Die and I liberated this photo from their brochure.

A gift to Istanbul by the Sultan in 1741(when most people did not have bathrooms at home), it was exactly as imagined.  Fortunately, women only in the women’s section – including the staff (death used to be the penalty for any man caught here). Everything was marble, very wet and warm marble.  Water spilled out of the marble sinks onto the marble floors and ran off in little marble channels.  After being shown a small lockable cubicle and changing into what looked like a red and white checkered tablecloth (leaving clothes and any thought of modesty behind), I was led through another warmer chamber and then into the center room…where I could see nothing as my glasses continually fogged. 

As the photo shows, there were benches lining the wall; the center of the chamber was an immense flat area, about table height and on it were laid about a half dozen untableclothed women of various ages and pulchritude looking like a variety of topographic maps being washed, scrubbed with something like a cloth sand paper mitt, washed, massaged and washed…and then led like sleepwalkers back to the entry point/cubicles.  There is not a real bath for soaking; hot and cold water is intermittently sluiced over one from small handheld tubs.  The staff did not speak English and hand gestures indicated – with a push – what to do (lie down, sit up, turn over).  The masseuses/workers’ treatment of us was somewhere between that found in a Russian clinic and a carwash.  Once again clothed, the desk called me a taxi and I was back to the ship to join Bill for a late dinner.

Then a folkloric performance aboard ship!  Anatolian instruments and music, a belly dancer, and Turkish students doing folk dances. 

Not surprisingly, I slept incredibly well and that helped as we got up ridiculously early to take a cruise on the Bosporus.  As I was scurrying around I heard the very loud noises that accompany the ship’s departure and thought that was odd.  Then the Captain came on the PA to say we were about to get underway!  Wait!  I still have Turkish money and NO MUG! 



Apparently bombings in Istanbul during the night (seen from the ship’s Bridge) led to a decision from the ship’s home office to get the hell out of Istanbul.  Rats. We were disappointed as were many of the passengers and there was a lot of grumbling on the top deck as we sailed away…but no mutiny.

These photos were taken on our sunrise departure…right past the area explored yesterday: the Topkapi Palace on the left, and the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia on the right.  Note too the walls that encircle the Old City, started by the Romans at the end of the 2^nd C and extended by Constantine in the next century at which point the name changed to Constantinopolis/Constantinople.  It subsequently became the capital of the eastern half of the Holy Roman Empire when it divided.  Additional fortification brought the walls to their current four miles…we like walled cities so these are prominent in the photos.  Anyway, the city prospered so much that it eventually was attacked by the army of the envious 4^th Crusade in 1204 (they never got to the Holy Lands) and then fell to the Muslims in 1453. As part of the Ottoman Empire and now known as Istanbul, it became even richer.  Thus the glories we saw yesterday.

The issue behind the bombings appeared to be the start of the trial of two of the top generals who were part of an attempted coup in 1980.  There was a recent article in the NYTimes about the current autocratic regime (as opposed to the former autocratic military regime), their human rights record (or rather the lack thereof) and the disappearance/torture of civilians. 

However, this did mean that we got to see the Dardanelles in the day time, passing from the Marmara Sea and into the Aegean thru what was formerly called the Hellespont.   Interesting Turkish structure.

Just as I was typing this, the Captain came on the PA system to say that there was a Turkish sub off our port bow – so we rushed out (with the speed of a 1000 gazelles) and by gosh! There was a submarine…along with Turkish navy vessels steaming along.  We have had quite enough excitement for today. 

The Captain provided a half-assed narration as we proceeded through the Dardanelles.  This brought us past Gallipoli, one of the worst of the WWI battles and a major defeat for Churchill (massive number of casualties from Australia and New Zealand and India…and of course, among the Turks) and the monuments to them. 

At the end of the Straight, we passed where the city of Troy was, the scene of another earlier bloody contest.   (While sailing thru here, we watched a good documentary on Schliemann’s Gold, an entrepreneurial German “archeologist” from the late 1800’s who found what he felt was the gold from Troy.  He gave the bounty to the Berlin Museum – one can imagine how pleased the Turks were, and a curator in Berlin as it was falling to the Allies in WWII, to keep them from being looted or destroyed, gave them to the first army contingent he saw – the Russians even tho this was the British sector, who immediately flew them home where they disappeared into the Pushkin Museum.  Decades after denying their presence, they were put on exhibit.  And now there is a fight over them – involving the Turks (my vote), the Germans, the Russians (who have them), the Greeks (who are still fighting for the return of the goodies Lord Elgin appropriated) and the Brits.  In any case, it has now been documented that these pre-dated Troy by about 1000 yrs.  Great story.   

Then into Athens, or rather its port city of Piraeus…and cold rain.  Bill is in no shape to go much of anywhere and I have contracted yet another miserable cold.  So, we packed up all the souvenirs into a large box and just molted.  Nice sunset as we sailed off thru Greek Islands.  

It is very clear that all we want now is to get home!  However, we rallied for our last three days at sea while sailing past Sicily, Malta, the Tunisian coast, the snow covered mts of southern Spain and Gibraltar before turning north to our debarkation point, Lisbon…and a flight back home.  All in all, we sailed something like 30,000 nautical miles (having flown the first 3000 to board the ship in San Francisco and the last couple of thousand from Lisbon to Newark/Pittsburgh).  Around the world with Tarquin – c’est fini!