Advertisement
Published: April 25th 2016
Edit Blog Post
Our Cabin
With Fran doing yoga Since I haven’t been on a cruise since 1968 (SS Rotterdam, NY to Rotterdam, Heineken 5 cents), I wasn’t sure what to expect and I still am not sure. We scoped out the other passengers. They are mostly our age, really old, maybe older. But our cabin is really nice. We put everything away. Fran’s being a good sport and soon, we’ll leave the dock. In the meantime, we’ve had lifeboat drills, drinks, snacks, drinks snacks and a performance of Fado, music almost unique to Lisbon. There was a singer and two guitar players, one electric and one acoustic. The music is a bit sad and very emotional. The singer is sad and emotional and happens to be beautiful which helped me enjoy the sad, emotional music sung in a language that I don’t understand. I listened carefully and between the pain and the struggle in the music I know what it reminds me of, Hebrew. In fact I’m sure I heard mishpokah more than once. As part of the National Geographic expedition, there’s a staff member on board, an ethnomusicologist who talked about this music and he was great. He went to the second best college in Ohio, Oberlin. But
it’s a great music school. Pretty cool performance with the color by Jacob.
There are also a couple of professional photographers on board, one of which, Massimo Basso, Fran had met at Maine Media Workshop several years ago. Massimo needs a shower badly. Nothing more to say about that.
Dinner was and will be a group affair except for a couple of nights ashore. DOES ANYONE KNOW A GOOD RESTAURANT IN CADIZ? We sat with two very nice widows traveling together and a retired nuclear engineer and his wife. This might be a pattern. Maybe I’ll learn things from my elders. I’m glad that I have Fran to talk to, even if she just pretends to be interested in what I say.
The food was good and the wine plentiful. As the evening wore on Orion began to rock and roll but it was not too bad. The stabilizers slow the roll. For those of you who fish, it’s like an easy day off of Isla Mujeres, a very, very, easy day off St. Thomas, and a moderate day off Los Suenos in Costa Rica. Sleeping is as easy as it is on land after drinking too much wine. We are on the port side of the boat and since we are heading south and then east, the shoreline is normally always in sight. This morning is clear and a little chilly. The boat is surrounded by gulls and I’m not quite sure why. My hypothesis is that our wake churns up plankton and small fish follow. The birds are feasting on small fish. Another possibility, less likely, is that stuff is going overboard. And one more possibility, we are in an incredibly rich marine environment and the sea birds are out here anyway. I sort of doubt that though. They are hanging around us. Breakfast was on the aft deck by the big lounge. There, a cook was making omelets and eggs with eggs that had yolks the color of orange juice. The coffee’s good and all is well.
Lecture this morning was by our resident historian. It was entitled The Moors in Iberia. Lots of maps and charts and Arabic names I’ve never heard of. It was not political but then again it was not an indictment of the Quranic mandate of creating Caliphate. It was mentioned that Christianity also invaded Muslim territories and demanded adherence to Catholicism, a religion foreign to the Arabs and North Africans. Point made. Apparently there were a series of Caliphates, some tolerant and some not. Some of the conquering tribes were out of Black Africa and some out of Baghdad. The Moors were, as in Othello, Black. The ruins we are going to visit are from the periods where the tolerant versions of Islam ruled. The more orthodox rulers destroyed everything. The beautiful designs and ornate palaces were from a version of Islam that no longer exists.
This afternoon we get off the boat in Portimao. We’ve signed up for a 3 hour hike and bread tasting. I likely will break my gluten free regimen today, but just for a taste.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.178s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 12; qc: 55; dbt: 0.0892s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb