Cultural Landmarks of Egypt and India Days 9 to 12

I know we are all relieved Teddy has made it onto the cruise and here he is positioned in bed by the room maid reading

Day 9

Time is flying by, and Brian is worried about getting institutionalised, but I'm quite enjoying it.

Yesterday was our second formal night, where I think people were more glitzy than the first one. I had maximum glitzed on that one though I still had plenty of sequins.

Jackies finished cat

I finished my cat, we went to the cookery demonstration. We learnt a new sequence dance, I did Pilates while Brian went to a talk on the Suez canal which he said was interesting, but he has not tried to educate me, so I can't really comment. He dashed in late, just in time for the circuits class. Not often I do more exercise than him. Not sure it did me much good, I've got a bit of a cold and it did seem to knock the stuffing out of me.

One of the daily cookery demonstrations in the Auditorium

Day 10

Another sea day today, lectures on the Egyptian Ports and a strange nostalgia trip of adverts and all sorts. Obviously the 60's were a bit before my time, but the 70's and 80's were good.

Another formal night and another outfit

We went to lunch in the waiter service restaurant where we have dinner. It's a lovely place for lunch, quieter and with a view. Met a nice couple and got chatting so we missed the end of the ballroom class, not that Brian wanted to go to the tango lesson, he just wanted to know what figures she'd taught. We also missed name that tune but that's the nice thing I guess. If you meet interesting people you can stay and chat, and if you want to get away you always have somewhere to go!

Dinner suit for Brian

Tomorrow is Alexandria and our first organised tour. We'll see how that goes 

Day 11

The City of Alexandria was somewhere Brian had felt was missing from our Egypt trip last year, so he was very pleased that it was on this itinerary. In truth though, there weren't many sites to see. It would have been a slog through walk between them though so we did our first tour.

Inside the fort at Qait Bay on the site of the Pharos lighthouse. Originally built in 1477-9 by Muhammad Ali Pasha, restored in 1805 after the British bombed it with cannon almost to rubble and restored again in 1984

First stop was the Fort of Qait Bay, a 15th century fort, overlooking the entrance to the eastern harbour which was built on the foundations of the Pharos lighthouse, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. It was an interesting enough building, but we've seen forts before and there was not a lot of information which actually was probably as well, as if Brian had had stuff to read we would have taken longer than our allotted 25 minutes. There were some good views as we walked around the walls though.

View from the fort over the harbour at Alexandria. The white sloping building on the right is the much talked about library

Second stop was the Roman Amphitheatre, recently discovered while the ground was being prepared for a new tower block. It's not a big amphitheatre but is just a small part of the excavations that include baths, mosaics and other buildings.

Cat break

The third stop was the library, a new building that they are obviously very proud of. Interesting architecture, a few displays of pottery, crafts, art and a museum on Anwar Sadat underneath the lovely reading room, but it was, in truth, a library!

Alexandria traffic and parking. All those cars on the right are 'parked'

Traffic was normal for Egypt, so we didn't get back to the ship till just before 14.30, the end of lunch, we rushed to get upstairs, but as there was our bus, and three other full tour buses all also late, they were serving lunch late. They must hate that as they still had to do afternoon tea at 15.45 and the normal dinner sittings.

A drive by of an attractive mosque in Alexandria

There were no standout cats, but i did get a cat fix, so it was a good Day.

The Roman amphitheatre in Alexandria

Day12

Port Said, right on the very start of the Suez Canal was our stop for today. Despite being the start of the Canal it has little else to offer for itself. The long day here is mainly for the four hour each way trip to see the pyramids, which fortunately we didn't have to do, having only seen them last year! If we hadn't seen them we'd probably feel duty bound, but as it is we don't. We did go out for a couple of hours, along the beach, a few mosques, some very grubby streets. Lots of hassle from taxi drivers, though we did leave them behind quite quickly, and a couple of friendly cats. We did our steps and got a cat fix, but I'm not sure there is much more to be said about Port Said. See our short Relive video of our short walk here: click here

Apparently some of these relics by Jackie were part of the destroyed Pharos lighthouse recovered from the sea. The lighthouse was built shortly after Alexander The Great founded the city in 331BC

WiFi sadly was not available anywhere we could find, yesterday or today, so we've bought another 24 hours. Hopefully this will all work as we are not sure you can use three devices and we need both phones and the laptop to get everything together!

Remains of the old Roman baths at Alexandria

This is a model of the library. Its constructed on the site of the ancient library destroyed by fire and is a cutting edge design opened in 2002. Apparently the first translation of the Bible from Hebrew was made on this site

Inside the library. Its on 11 floors of which 4 are below ground. The windows in the roof are supposed to look like eyes and there are eyelashes partially covering the outside!

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Looking the other way those are the top floors up there

This must be where all the Ladas remaining in the world go to die and here they are all taxis

Here's our current position in Port Said at the mouth of the Suez canal ready for our transit through tonight and tomorrow

In Port Said and there's our ship moored behind that statue

Port Said is a fairly scruffy town with little to interest the tourist, having been constructed only during the building of the Suez Canal in 1869, but there are a few lovely buildings like this one, the Al Salam Masjid

And this one, The Bank of Egypt

But a lot of it is like this one, really quite tatty and sad

A walk along the beach wasn't much better

But it did have some friendly cats

And this was favourite cat of the day looking lovingly into Jackies eyes

This little kitten wouldn't allow Jackie anywhere near

A Hoopoo scavenging through rubbish

The lighthouse of Port Said, built by François Coignet in 19th century and featuring a time ball on the top

We walking a long way through scruffy streets with few pavements and lots of traffic to see this. Its the railway station of Port Said, pleasant enough but not sure it was worth the effort

In amongst the many mosques were a few Christian Churches like this one

Back on our ship I wanted to take a few photos of our position at the entrance to the Suez Canal. This one is looking out to the Mediterranean Sea and you can see the breakwaters stretching out

This is from the forecastle on the ship looking down the first section of the canal 

And this is Jackie doing her 'Titanic Pose' at the pointy end

Looking from the ship back over the town and you can just see the statue from which we took the photo of the ship from earlier

This is a photo from the ship looking down towards the gangplank. You can see the little welcoming party with wet towels for cleaning our hands and drinks on the little table. With cheery smiles from the staff it's a nice touch

We arrived at Port Said at 6:00am this morning and won't be leaving until 9:00pm tonight. It was to allow for tours to be made to the pyramids at Giza. Its a 12 hour day for them so they set off at 6:55am this morning. Glad we saw them last year, its a long day of driving from here. It does mean that the first section of the canal will be in the dark and while we sleep tonight, but we'll have a full day through tomorrow with commentary from our on-board expert. Looking forward to that

Cultural Landmarks of Egypt and India Days 6 to 8

Cruising through the Mediterranean Sea at sunset accompanied by many other ships

We were very pleased to get the last blog done using the port WiFi which was very fast, possibly because we seemed to be the only people who could connect to it!

Gibraltar in the distance

We think there are just over 800 people on a ship that takes 1250 which means we all have plenty of space to relax. Though we were very pleased that after lunch on our return from Tangier, Morocco (see our Relive video of our Tangier walk: click here), we managed to get one of the comfy sofas by the pool ready for the going away party. A band we haven't managed to catch before who were well worth a listen were playing, very entertaining . Our focus has been on the ballroom dancing music that alternates between recorded and live and in two different locations. We've been doing a lot of dancing!

Cocktails by the pool as the band played on leaving Tangier

Day 6

Yesterday Brian attended a lot of lectures, flags of the world, the origins of Egyptian writing, both of which I thought a bit heavy, so I went up to the crafting studio to begin making a Maltese Cat. It is a beautiful space to sit in, and it's nice just to have a bit of a chat with people when you have another focus.

View from above the pool as the band played. Tangier in the background

After lunch we did 7 laps of deck 3 which in theory is 2 miles. Amazingly while out Brian's phone rang from a number we managed to identify as our conveyancer. As today is house completion perhaps we'd better buy some WiFi! Nothing to worry about, we have completed, but despite having sent them two emails with where we want the money paid, and despite them knowing we are in the middle of the ocean, they want to confirm bank details by telephone! Thank goodness for WhatsApp calling. So pleased that that is all over, though we are looking forward to checking the bank, to confirm the balance on Sunday, in Malta when we have secure WiFi!

Not a formal dinner suit night, just a regular night out

Another lecture on ballooning across the Atlantic, by the BBC producer. A couple of scones in afternoon tea, the crossword and a G&T. Shower and change before an hour and a half of dancing before dinner.... It's all go!

This was the forecast for tomorrow. This shows expected sea conditions. The top left shows 7.2m swell, confirmed later by our captain. We'll be coming in from the left just off the coast of Algeria and Tunisia, right in the thick of it. Force 8 winds the captain told us

Day7

The captain had warned yesterday of increasing wind and waves, and he wasn't wrong so today has been very lumpy. Fortunately forewarned is forearmed and Brian took a pill before getting out of bed this morning and has been absolutely fine. Wish the same could be said of the piles of crockery and cutlery we heard crashing to the floor in the buffet restaurant and what has hit the deck in the kitchen is anyone's guess, but there's been a lot of noise. Everyone just gets on with it though. 

The forecast was correct. See the wine in the glass and that was not a bad wave, the big ones were accompanied by loud crashed from the kitchen and serving tables

An introduction to our next three ports before I went to craft and B stayed for the astronomy lecture. He's just gone to one about Romans in Alexandria. Fortunately I have a blog to write!

Photos never do it justice but the sea was rough

Tomorrow is Valletta, Malta, where we should get regular data, so this might get posted after we have had an explore of the town 

Day 8

Our ship The Bolette in the long natural harbour of Valletta, Malta. Our captain managed to turn the ship completely around in that width, quite a feat I thought 

Nothing much happened yesterday after I wrote the blog, so today was Valletta. It appeared a very compact town, so again we were planning on exploring on our own. I was expecting much of the cats of Malta, having made one, because apparently there are many. Yes there were some, and yes, they had been built hotels and feeding stations on waste ground, but we didn't see many and those we did didn't want a lot of fuss. So Tangier cats rate a lot higher!

Two cat hotels we passed in Malta

Thoroughly enjoyed our 5 hours and 6 miles in Valletta (see our Relive video: click here). Not a good ratio I know, but we did go to the war museum which had a reenactment for the best part of an hour, and then, lots to read. I didn't let him read everything, but selected stuff we followed through with was very interesting and very well laid out. The reenactment, was quite entertaining, and all in English, but in the shade in a wind tunnel! We were both cold till we got back to the ship.

The City Gate allowing entry to the old (16th C) UNESCO walled city of Valletta

The rest of Valletta, that we saw, was very attractive, and quite enticing to return to. That has to be the plus of cruise port visits, you can decide whether you fancy a proper visit or not.

The Triton Fountain as seen over the very thick city wall

We arrived back just after 14.30, just in time to miss Sunday lunch, but there is always food available at the pool bar! And then afternoon tea, nibbles with pre dinner drinks, dinner and the midnight feast, which we've never even considered going to! It's impossible to be hungry!

St Catherine of Alexandria Church

I'm now trying to write today's blog, while Brian is posting the last couple of days and a quiz has just started. Talk about multi tasking. I shall also be pleased if I can make it to the cookery demonstration later as they've all clashed with other things .

This may be the last post for a while, it all depends on port WiFi through Egypt and on

Inside the fort of St Elmo with its cannons protecting the entrance to the harbour

This is the WWII siege bell monument, but beyond it, if you look, is a big cargo ship entering the harbour. All shipping has to turn hard left after entering, going past this monument and then hard right into the harbour behind. Its quite a tricky manoeuvre, hence tugs are frequently hovering there ready to provide assistance 

Spotted him enjoying the sun

This was inside the war museum at St Elmo and these people were reenacting a parade of the Knights of St Johns who are very famous here. In 1565 they successfully held of a several days long Ottoman Turk invasion while grossly outnumbered. Had they been defeated it would have opened up Italy and Spain to an Ottoman attack, so perhaps they changed the course of history. The excellent museum here tells the story of this plus WWI and WWII heroics very well. Well worth a visit here

The man in black is the Grand Master  of the order. Not sure if they are still an active organisation or they are all just actors recreating the scene

Whatever was happening it finished off with a sword fight and some old guns being fired, apparently to show off their prowess

Looking across the harbour to the buildings opposite. Apparently they are being used as the backdrop for Gladiator 2 currently being filmed (now the Hollywood strike is over)

This city is full of interesting buildings with fabulous architecture, its well worth a visit

Last photo. This is the old city walls on our walk back to the harbour. The new structure on the left is a lift that elevates people from the harbour to the city but, on the right is a lone cannon looking our over the harbour. Hope they don't get a strong wind! That's it for now, must sign off, we'll be setting off again within the hour. Not sure when the next entry will be, possibly from India in a week or so