MESSINA SICILY

MESSINA SICILY – 3 May 2009 Sicily, of course, is the football being kicked by the “boot” of Italy on a map of Europe. Messina is the part of Sicily closest to the toe of the boot and is separated from Calabria by the Straits of Messina which are only about 5 miles wide. The area is know for high winds and strong currents. Here is Clyde looking across. We had a brief tour in the morning that took us into some nearby suburbs and ended in the main square by the cathedral. We stopped along the way for a granita for me (a kind of lemon slushie) and a cappuchino for Mary. Messina has had a long string of invaders and conquerors – Greeks, French, Arabs, etc. The main cathedral dates back to the Normans and was mostly reconstructed after an earthquake around 1900 destroyed Messina. The clock tower was a present from the French people after the quake and is the worlds largest mechanical clock they say. See pics below. We included a couple video clip too – A short one showing the inside of the cathedral. I didn't narrate it since a Sunday service was underway in the front of the church. I wanted to show a clip showing the clock striking noon – a lion roars, a rooster crows, Jesus rises from the dead, there is a parade of angels and saints; the cycle of life is illustrated – all part of the clock – and everything moves verrrrry slowly. But the video was too long --- 11 minutes. A crowd of several hundred people had assembled in the piazza to view it.
This fountain was also in the square and was carved by Michelangelos top assistant. This is Messina’s original church and you can see how far below street level it is – the rubble from the earthquake and WWII bombardments raised the overall street level. We had a lunch of Sicilian pizza (not much open on Sunday but there was wine of course) and later stopped for some gelato. Clyde likes espresso flavor. A major claim to fame for Messina is a visit by St Paul in which he brought a letter to the people of Messina from the Virgin Mary. Our Lady of the Letter is honored by a large gilded bronze statue at the entrance to Messina’s harbor.

VENICE AND MURANO

1 MAY 2009 – VENICE AND MURANO – Mary was on a mission to purchase a Venetian chandelier for our dining room so that was how we spent the day. Clyde enjoyed the Vaporetto ride out there and the island itself is very picturesque.













We had intended to return to one of the glass stores that we visited last time and where Mary spotted the chandelier that had stuck in her memories all this time. As it turns out there are 3 Vaporetto stops on Murano and we got off on the wrong one. No problem though – there is no shortage of great glass shops there.
We went through 4 of them an looked at hundreds of chandeliers until we were starting to get confused about which ones we had liked at which shop and decided that we had seen enough. We settled on a style we liked in the last shop we visited – happily it was also among the least expensive. They did not have exactly what we wanted in stock so they made it and shipped it to us. Since I am writing this after the fact the chandelier has been delivered and hung in our dining room. Assembly effort was significant – it had to be wired and there were about 40 odd pieces to be assembled. The colors and style is very similar to the candelabra below. Here is also a pic of Clyde checking out the furnace in the back of the shop where it was made.








Clyde, of course, continued in his role of good will ambassador to small children. It was interesting to note the trend toward pretty young mothers accompanying these children – hmmmm.

ATHENS

ATHENS 28 APRIL 2009 --- We took a bus into town with our friend Delores and went out on our own. We did not have an ambitious agenda: Walk to the Parthenon; have a nice lunch; go back to the ship. Well, as it turned out, the walk to the Parthenon was more ambitious than we thought. The Acropolis is a pretty big hill as you can see below. Clyde was the only one not breathing hard when we got to the top. Did I mention that the sun was beating down on us?



But it was worth it. The view from up there was great.



The Parthenon (Temple of Athena), of course, is only one of the structures up there but it is the biggest. It and two other structures are undergoing extensive renovation and you can see where the new marble (white) contrasts with the old (tannish). It was impressive but after seeing what the Egyptians had done thousands of years earlier…… Clyde was philosophical about it though. He said that the ancient Greeks and Romans contributed a lot more to our civilization than those Egyptians in the long run.








It was a bit crowded with school kids. They take them there prior to when the real crush of the tourist season sets later.


There were a lot of miscellaneous pieces of marble lying about. (See Pics)





We walked down a different way and passed the ruins of the old Agora (marketplace) where a lot of wild poppies were blooming. See the mosaic tile floor that was along the path.




We ended up in an area of cafes where the “hipsters” hang out according to our guidebook. Clyde said that sounded right for him. The food was so-so, but the wine was pretty good. Oh and Clyde thought the waitress was very cute.



We walked back to catch the bus through an area of flea markets and shops of all kinds. Mercifully we did not buy anything of significance.

U CAN'T GO BACK TO CONSTANTINOPLE

ISTANBUL – 26 APR 2009 – I don’t know where we got our ideas about Istanbul. We expected hot, dirty, and loaded with beggars. Were we ever wrong! This is a beautiful city on the same parallel as New York City. The temp was in the 60s and there were tulips in bloom all over the place. It looks quite prosperous (no beggars) and there was very little litter.




There were some fairly aggressive street vendors but they were fairly easy to ignore with our experience with the really tough ones in India and Saigon. As we were bussing into the city we noticed lots of people fishing into the Golden Horn River from the bridge we were crossing and elsewhere. The guide said they were probably fishing for smelt this time of year.



Our tour started with the famous Blue Mosque. The sultan who built it wanted the biggest, most beautiful mosque in the world. While every mosque has at least one minaret, this one has six. The sultan told the architect that he wanted a golden minaret. Since the Arabic word for gold is similar to the one for 6 there was a bit of a mistake. The sultan ended up liking the result. However since 6 minarets was more than the holiest mosque in Mecca there were riots among the people and the sultan paid for the construction of additional minarets in Mecca where there are now 7. It is still an active mosque and very beautiful on the inside.




The faithful wash their faces, hands and feet at these outdoor fawcets before entering for prayers.



The floor of an active mosque is covered in carpeting – here a huge and beautiful one.



Topkapi Palace is also famous as the palace of the sultans of Constantinople for many years – and their large harem (1000 women or so). It turns out that harem is the Turkish word for private and the harem here was the private family quarters.


The women’s quarters was tended to by black eunuchs and white eunuchs served in many other capacities in the palace, some eventually rising to high office. We got a lot of grisly detail about how eunuchs are created (there are several methods varying in severity and effectiveness you will be happy to know). Pashas were the highest officials such as generals. The sultan’s mother had a powerful role in their society – she oversaw a lot of the palace activity and selected candidates for wives with an eye toward assuring lots of princes to be candidates to succeed the sultan (since many kids died early then). Here is a picture of her private courtyard.


There was a system of selecting highly intelligent girls who would be educated by various tutors and then would be brought to the palace as candidates for becoming a wife of the sultan.
The palace is huge and the grounds cover acres. The decoration is elaborate and some is quite beautiful. Here are of few of the ceramic tiles than seem to be everywhere in all kinds of designs.





Clyde especially enjoyed the sultan’s bath room. He imagined himself being bathed by some of the women of the harem.

Here is the Sultan’s private family room where he met with only the closest members of his family.




Here is where the sultan’s heir apparent lived in splendid isolation to protect him from palace intrigues. Many lower ranking wives conspired to eliminate the oldest son so their own son might someday become sultan and they, of course become the sultan’s mother.



We enjoyed visiting the treasury where the crown jewels are on display. . . emeralds as big as eggs and a diamond twice as large as the Hope diamond. Many fancifully decorated crowns, swords, medals, etc. No cameras allowed however. They also had a display of sultan’s garments from the 15 and 1600s which were in remarkably good shape.

We had lunch in a restaurant on the palace grounds overlooking the Bosporus. A selection of Turkish appetizers with an entrée called Sultan’s Delight – veal cubes in a spicy sauce served over pureed roasted eggplant. They had dishes of additional spices to add - mint, crushed red pepper, paprika, and oregano. It was delicious. They also served a drink they called sherbet – pomegranate juice with rosewater – great stuff. Clyde enjoyed the strong Turkish coffee but did not drink the sludge in the bottom of the cup.



Here is the view across the Bosporus to Asia. Istanbul is 60% on the European Continent and 40% on the Asian Continent.



We went to the Saint Sophia mosque. This was built in about 330 BC by the Roman Emperor Constantine as the first legal Catholic church in the Roman Empire. It had the largest unsupported dome in the world for 1000 years until St Peter’s was constructed in Rome. They kept it from collapsing by wrapping chains around the base of the dome – something new then, but still used today. It is now operated as a museum. Clyde inspected some of the Roman ruins outside before we went in.


It was converted to a mosque later after Turkey was converted to Islam. No images (humans, angels, etc) are allowed in mosques and you can see where angels were painted out into abstract forms on the ceiling. The light fixture shown below is an original oil lamp that has been electrified. As is often the case in ancient buildings some of the pieces get recycled from other buildings. The column shown is one of four massive green marble columns that were originally in one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world -- The Greek Temple of Artemis at Epheses. The altar in a mosque must face Mecca. The altar in St Sophia faced Jerusalem so you see it was shifted off center to satisfy the needs of Islam.






This cat is inside St Sophia. It befriended Obama during his visit and is now called “Obama” of course.



We ended the tour with some shopping and a rug-making demonstration in, of course, a rug sales room. Mary said prior to entering “I definitely don’t want a rug”. To show the power of Turkish rug salesmanship, this later changed to “We need that rug for our bedroom in Savannah”. We now have some additional baggage to tote.




But Instanbul is now on our go to again list.

ISRAEL

ISRAEL – 23 Apr 2009 --- We landed in Ashdod and were signed up for a tour to take us to Masada and then to swim in the Dead Sea.

The port security was evident, but not sure why they needed a telescopic sight.

Out in the countryside we were surprised to see forests. They have had a campaign in Israel to plant trees and the desert is being pushed back as a result. Everywhere you look there are green farm fields and tree-covered hillsides. There is still plenty of desert here, but they are shrinking it. Along the highway they had monuments to the war they had right after independence. Jerusalem was cut off and they attempted to bring convoys of supplies there most of them were destroyed. Some of the remnants have been turned into monuments along the highway.




We stopped at a highway rest stop with restaurants and shops. This camel was there giving tourists camel rides. His owner was using him to rest on while phoning. Security was in evidence here as is was near to Jericho (Palestinian).




We went via Jerusalem. Just stopped on the outskirts for a photo stop, but did not go into the city. The guide pointed out many historic features -- dome of the rock, western wall, etc. Here we are with Clyde overlooking the city.



Masada was originally built by Herod as a Roman fort. Although it was out in the desert near the Dead Sea, it had a palace and a Roman Bath. The walls were covered in stucco and the interiors had frescos. Jewish zealots (about 1000) holed up there to avoid becoming Roman slaves. They held off the roman army for 6 years and finally killed themselves rather than surrender. The Israelis have turned it into a National Park and it is high enough up that you take a cable car to reach it although the hardiest can take the “snake path” up to it. (see pic).




The Romans put the place under siege but the Israelites had enough food and water to last indefinitely while the Romans were living in tents at the base of the mountain with limited food and water. Here is what remains of their main camp.


The Romans built a wall all around the mountain so no reenforcements could get throught, but after a siege of 3 years they finally built a ramp all the way up (that took another 3 years) and attacked with a huge battering ram. There is a movie starring Peter O’Toole about it that we will have to rent when we get home. The Israelis have restored sections of it but were careful to highlight the difference between what is original and what is restored. This is what remains of the ramp.


Clyde enjoyed visiting the former commandant’s quarters and pretending he was on the lookout for Romans.




The Dead Sea was an interesting experience. It is 36% salt while regular sea water is 3% -- so you really can’t sink in it. It is shrinking every year however since less and less fresh water reaches it. This is a picture of a resort that 20 years ago was right on the shore – now they use a tram to take guests to the water.

There is an area with many resort hotels on the Dead Sea and that is where we went to go swimming. This picture is of Mary and our friend Doris floating.


There was sand on the beach up until about 2 feet from the water then there were salt crystals (see pic) and the bottom was covered with salt pebbles. It was like looking into your water softener. It was so buoyant that if you were out deeper than knee deep and were floating you could not stand up. When you pushed a foot down the torque from the effort turned you over. If you wanted to stand up you had to paddle into shallower water first.

EGYPT DAY 4

EGYPT DAY 4 – EGYPTIAN MUSEUM AND THE PYRAMIDS OF GIZA
EGYPTIAN MUSEUM -- None of the stuff that was once in the tombs and temples (furniture, jewelry, pottery, etc.) is there anymore. Anything that wasn’t looted by grave robbers or taken to foreign countries is in the Egyptian Museum. It is a beautiful old rose-colored building of two floors.


It is filled with ancient statues, sarcophagi, furniture, jewelry, pots, and decorative items. Most of the second floor is devoted to the items taken from King Tut’s tomb. Since this is the only tomb discovered intact it has provided a wealth of beautiful items and information for historians. They started working on a pharaoh’s tomb as soon as they were crowned and continued until they died – making it more elaborate as time went by. Tut did not reign very long so his tomb was relatively small. Makes you wonder what was in Ramses II’s tomb since he reigned for 67 years. Brian paid the extra fee to go into the “Mummy Room” where about 10 mummies are on display including some famous pharaohs. Ramses II is in there as is Hatshepsut. Mary felt sorry for Hatshepsut as her mummy was described as “the mummy of a fat woman” before it was identified as being her. 3500 years later she is the fat chic pharaoh.

What does a mummy really look like? They are wrapped in brown cloth strips about 6 inches wide that look a lot like Ace bandages. Some also had a few flower garlands (dried and brown of course). Most had their heads exposed. Some had their hands exposed. The skin was dark brown and pulled back from the teeth. The nose was still erect (they put peppercorns in there to keep it that way). The eyes were closed and there was no fat under the skin so the skin was very tight against the bone. Some also had hair. Surprisingly Brian did not find it at all creepy.
We had only a few hours here and would definitely like to go back someday.


GIZA – Although Egypt has some 200 pyramids, these are the most famous. Located just outside Cairo, they can be seen from the city. The biggest is the Great Pyramid of Cheops, and the next biggest is that of his son. They are both about 4500 years old – 25 centuries before Christ! Cheops’ son built one slightly smaller than dad’s but on higher ground so he was able to appear to honor his father but have the most noticeable pyramid (the one with some of the limestone outer covering still intact). You are not allowed to climb on the pyramid but are allowed to go inside. Our guide told us you had to walk bent over; it was hot as the devil in there; and there was no decoration – just plain walls. We decided we would be content staying outside.






There were hawkers everywhere and one became Brian’s new best friend and gave him a traditional head scarf, then took his picture. Naturally he wanted a big tip for this service. There are tourist police here to control the most excessive vendor and camel-driver behavior. Here is a picture of one on camelback.



Go to Egypt and not ride a camel? Not us! You have to lean way back as the camel gets up or you will fall forward over his neck since his back end gets up first and those legs are long. Getting down is the same drill. We got a 5-minute ride and had some great pics taken. Clyde could not decide which camel he wanted to be on. Brian learned to ride like an Egyptian.








This was followed by a great lunch at a nearby hotel and then back to the ship. The Mena House Oberoi Hotel was historic as it was built for Queen Eugenie of France to stay at when she came to open the Suez Canal in 1869(?). Quite a beautiful place and a great meal with great service.



One interesting sidelight. As we listened to our guide Nisham describe the religious beliefs of the early Egyptians we were struck by some similarities to stories in the Old Testament – but remember that the Egyptians were many centuries earlier. Instead of Adam and Eve, they had four original people, two men and two women (brothers and sisters). One of the brothers killed the other ala Cain and Abel. Later the earth was destroyed in a great flood. After you die there is a judgment day where your heart is weighed against a feather of justice to see if you can go to heaven. A heavy heart indicates bad deeds in your life. (I wonder if the expression “heavy hearted” comes from there). And there are other similar themes.

EGYPT DAY 3

EGYPT DAY 3 – ABU SIMBEL AND CAIRO
We flew from Aswan to Abu Simbel on Egypt Air. Got to sleep in since we did not have to leave for the airport until 0730. Clyde met Feder Bear in the Aswan airport as were leaving for Abu Simbel. Feder is from Canada and his very friendly owner whipped him out of concealment in her carryon upon seeing Clyde.

ABU SIMBEL – This is a complex of two tombs that were carved out a mountain and were going to be flooded as Lake Nasser filled. An international effort was mounted to fund their rescue and relocation. Since these tombs extend far back into the mountain and are heavily decorated with paintings and carvings internally, the engineering effort required to move them was daunting. It took two years to do it. They basically cut the tombs out of the mountain in pieces and reassembled them in a safe area on the shore of Lake Nasser creating two small mountains in the process. This is where it reached 115 f and there was no shade except inside the temples.




The smaller temple is the Temple Hathor dedicated to Queen Nefertari who was the favorite wife of the Great Ramses II. The larger temple is the Great Temple of Ra-Harakthe fronted by 4 colossal statues of Ramses II. (who built both temples.) The interiors of these temples were very lavishly decorated and the colors are still strong after 3500 years.



Clyde enjoyed meeting some security guards here. Unfortunately the picture does not do justice to the Kalashnikovs they had on their laps. He also got to hold the key to one of the temple’s great doors – it had the shape of an Ankh (the symbol of life).



We flew from there to Cairo where we spent the night at the Semiramis Intercontinental Hotel.

CAIRO – Clyde enjoyed the view from the cocktail lounge of our hotel where he shared a bottle of wine with us.

Later we went on a dinner cruise on a lavish river boat called the Nile Maxim. A good meal and great traditional entertainment. A whirling dervish and two belly dancers all accompanied by an Egyptian band.
Clyde wondered what was so special about a belly dancer’s belly. Luckily she did not mind his having a close look.






Our friend Linda joined Clyde on deck for a respite from the smoky atmosphere inside. It was about 70 outside and the lights of Cairo were only outdone by the many small party boats cruising up and down with wild displays of multicolored lights flashing in weird patterns.