Yesterday morning we docked in Southampton, England at around 7 A.M. and by late morning, we had transferred to the Queen Mary2, a ship we like as much as the Queen Victoria, although it is a couple of years older. Here is an interactive website for the Queen Mary 2: Tour the Queen Mary 2 Both ships are really quite spectacular. This morning early, 7 A.M. we were notified that we had turned back toward England to meet a medical helicopter, which was coming out to pick up one of our passengers who had a serious medical problem. The helicop [View Full Entry]

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Easy pin location and our next to last stop on the Queen Victoria. We got off the ship here and Granny Lynne took me to a lovely waterfront restaurant to celebrate my birthday. The celebration was a week early but we will be on the Queen Mary in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean when my birthday arrives. Since she was paying, I had a wonderful cold lobster salad and some nice Spanish wine. The photos are of the area we visited. Like so many other places on this trip, we have been here before so we didn't need to go [View Full Entry]

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The capital of Italy and another beautiful city built amidst the ruins of the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire lasted 400 years. At its height there was a saying: ´All roads lead to Rome, and it was true. This morning Granny Lynne and I went into Rome with a car and driver and went to the Vatican, the world headquarters of the Catholic Church. We had been there before, but the Sistine Chapel was closed for renovations, so we missed it on that earlier visit. Today we had a wonderful guide who took us through that beautiful Chapel covered up with [View Full Entry]

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No pin problem here. Athens, the capital of Greece, is at least 3000 years old and widely referred to as ´the cradle of western civilization. We had a lovely private tour of the city, and I have included a couple of photos; the first is of the Parthenon on the Acropolis, one of the most famous landmarks in the world. This photo was taken from a pretty outdoor restaurant where we had coffee with our guide. Another photo is of one of the guards at the Palace (now the President?s Residence as Greece no longer has a ruling monarchy). Lastly, there [View Full Entry]

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HAPPY EASTER!!! Not sure you can find a place for a pin on your map for this stop. Our daily program describes Mykonos as follows: “A Greek Island and a mass tourist destination renowned for its cosmopolitan character and its intense nightlife.” We arrived here at noon and are leaving tonight at 7 P.M. We have to use the ship's tenders here, the weather is cool and windy and the sea is rough, so Granny Lynne and I opted to stay on board. The one photo shows you what we missed by not going ashore. Tomorrow we are in Athens, Greece, [View Full Entry]

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Should not be any problem to find Istanbul for a pin. We had a private tour with driver and a wonderful English-speaking guide named Attila. We have been here before, but Granny Lynne had a “flu bug” then and she didn't get to see the famous Blue Mosque, so that was our first stop. Then we did another Mosque, the Hippodrome and the palace. Mosques are churches of the Islamic religion, which is the principal religion of Turkey. They are all domed and have one or more tall towers called minarets. After the tour Atilla took us to lunch in a [View Full Entry]

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Can you find a place for a pin? This is a pretty Turkish coastal city with lots of hotels and resorts which are frequented by European vacationers. It is best known for the nearby Greek/Roman city of Ephesus, a city built originally by Alexander the Great before the birth of Christ and rebuilt after earthquakes by the Romans in 6-7 hundred A.D. Nearby is where supposedly the Virgin Mary lived and I am enclosing a photo of her house. Other photos are of Ephesus ruins which are only 10% excavated. The pictures are of the Library, the Coliseum, which seated 40,000 [View Full Entry]

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Yesterday we were in Alexandria, the capital of Egypt when the Greeks and then the Romans ruled Egypt. This is Cleopatra territory. It is the second largest city in Egypt after Cairo. I went on a lengthy bus trip to El Alamein, the site of one of the great battles of WWII. Granny Lynne went shopping in the local stalls at the pier, but as usual, she didn't buy anything. Only picture is of QV at her dock in Alexandria. It gives you a rough idea how big the ship is. We are at sea again as I write this on [View Full Entry]

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Aqaba, Jordan. The principal reason for stopping here is to get off and ride a bus for 2 and a half hours to see Petra. Petra is a fantastic underground city carved out of stone. There is no way to describe it - you have to go and see it for yourself. For now, the best thing to do is Google it and look at the photographs. Do not ever miss the opportunity to see Petra, one of the seven wonders of the world. We did see Petra in 1996, so we merely rode into the small Arab city of Aqaba, [View Full Entry]

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Today we are going through the Suez Canal which connects the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. Google it and see what it looks like from the air. It is 101 miles long and at its narrowest, less than 400 yards wide. Traffic is one way and in convoys. Each day, early in the morning, two convoys depart north to south and one departs south to north (Us today). Unlike the Panama Canal, there are no locks needed to raise and lower ships as the sea level at both ends of the Suez Canal is nearly equal. There is a lake [View Full Entry]

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