The weather improved today for our port visit to Alexandria, Egypt. We had partly cloudy skies and a temperature in the mid 70s. This is a big sprawling city of perhaps five million persons was named after Alexander the Great, and is a thriving container port for the country. In the summertime it is a favorite beach resort for many Egyptians wishing to get away from the desert heat. The city is a little tough around the edges, but has a marvelous university and medical dental school and many parks and building from many different cultures and styles. At noon, three [View Full Entry]

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Today was the second of two sea days onboard the Pacific Princess. Our entire group is adapting to the rhythm of the ship. Naps are being taken, more reasonable meals are being eaten, and folks are taking advantage of various shipboard programs. A little discussion about the Pacific Princess. This ship was originally one of the Renaissance Cruises “R” series built in the mid-1990’s.(Renaissance went bankrupt by trying to sell directly to the public and bypassing travel agents—good riddance) It’s relatively small at 30,000 tons with about 660 passengers&mdas [View Full Entry]

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Our group in on its way to Alexandria, Egypt. The Pacific Princess set sail from Naples under cloudy skies and headed south and east so we can reach Egypt in two days. The weather is about 70 degrees, but we had showers all day long. Folks got into the rhythm of a day at sea. Everyone had the opportunity of taking advantage of this very nice floating resort. Linda gathered most of the group in Sabatini’s restaurant at 10:00 AM for a class on various aspects of the bible and our next stops in Egypt and Israel. Dr Ray Vath explained [View Full Entry]

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The Pacific Princess’ Captain decided to dock in Naples instead of anchoring in the bay outside of Sorrento, Italy due to possibly difficult weather conditions. To visit Sorrento the ship must use its tenders to go ashore, and water conditions were questionable if the offloading could take place. So we docked in downtown Naples instead. Naples is famous for inventing pizza and for its traffic which rivals that of Rome. It’s the third largest city of Italy with a population in excess of a million. From the size of the container shipping port where we docked, it’s obvi [View Full Entry]

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Rome experienced a major rain fall in the early morning hours as a cold front came into the area. Some of the group, not yet time adjusted to the local time decided to arise early and make the most of the morning in Rome before we departed to catch the Pacific Princess in Civitavecchia. Rich found a coffee bar across the street from the hotel at the Esquilina Market (similar to Seattle’s Pike Place), with wonderful displays of fresh vegetables, fish and real butchers waiting to custom cut meats for customers. Two tasty cappuccino’s later, the day was off to a [View Full Entry]

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What a difference a good night's sleep can make! Linda and I rose to a warm and sunny Roman day ready for a great adventure. The hotel was nice and quiet and the morning breakfast was very nice. Our modern bus arrived right on time along with Mauro our guide. By 9:00 A.m. we were onboard for a trip through downtown Rome at rush hour. Talk about a lot of smart cars and motorbikes, the bus seemed like an elephant surrounded by fleas. Passing by many antiquities we learned that of the many church's in Rome 35 are all dedicated to [View Full Entry]

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Arrived in Rome 19 hours after leaving our front door. It was a long series of flights and many adventures. When we arrived at our hotel we found that everyone had arrived safely with all their luggage and were eating dinner. Thank you Lord for gettting us and all our luggage here. We had a wonderful meal at Trattoria Cecio - the food and drink were delicious and the service was excellent. After sleep. Yes, blessed, horitzontal, in a bed sleep (what a glorious thing sleep is) we are up and off to the Vatican at 8:45 am. Will report back [View Full Entry]

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