Part 48: A brilliant vacation

We still don’t know when we are coming home, but at one point along the spectrum of unpredictable events, I was told we would be moving home in Q2-2009. With this in mind, Amanda and I decided to make the most of Q1 and try to end our experience with a final blowout vacation: the Mediterranean cruise.

We planned it for March to be sure (as if that is possible) to still be in Europe for the trip. I know my Father-in-Law will disagree, but we believed we earned another vacation for enduring two and a half years in a foreign country. I think his official response was “Wow, that’s different! You guys are going on another vacation.” Whatever… We did it anyway.

The planning for this trip actually got started after I casually pitched the idea to Jason and Terri (two friends from Illinois) on Skype. They are big travelers (been to more places than us) and are tons of fun to hang out with. Little did I know that our conversation would hit jackpot. Not only did they immediately jump on board, by the following Monday they had already researched all the options and found the winning cruise. We were set – no work, good company, and a great vacation planned - just 48hrs after pitching the idea.

The core vacation basically consisted of an 11 day cruise starting and ending in Barcelona. We decided to extend it a bit by arriving two days early and J/T extended even further by coming to our house (in Holland) 5 days prior to the cruise start. To give an idea of J/T’s first few days in Europe, by the time we reached Barcelona, they had been in four countries in 4 days. Ahh, travelling Europe Americano style.

The cruise itself was a completely new concept for Amanda and me. I had been on one about 20 years earlier, but to be honest, not many of the details are still with me. Jason and Terri are cruise experts and they guided us through the process.

Days 1-3: Holland, Germany, and Belgium, oh my!
Jason and Terri arrived on schedule and fulfilled their expected schedule with perfection. They carried Rick Steve’s to each spot and didn’t let sleep deprivation get in the way. Amsterdam was first, with special stops at Anne Frank, Dam Square, Canal Tour, and the Red Light District. They made it home at around 7pm and still had enough energy for Amanda’s homemade pasta. Up early the next day, they borrowed our car and headed toward Germany. They followed our advice and hit the Cologne Cathedral in the morning and Burg Eltz in the afternoon. Again with our car on Friday, they rounded out the schedule with a jolly trip to Brugge for a great Flemish meal and Belgium waffles and even made it back in time for a fine dine at Noony’s in Voorburg.

We purposely scheduled our Saturday flight to Barcelona in the evening in order to give everyone enough time to mentally and physically relax and prepare for the 2-week trip. It turned out to be a good idea because we all had a few last minute “must-do’s” to finish up that morning. The most complicated of which was optimizing our baggage weight to the airline’s prescribed limitations – remember RyanAir to Stockholm? I wasn’t about to get caught in that fiscal gauntlet again. Before we did anything though, we headed out to the morning market to pick up some breakfast and lunch. As expected, J/T were huge fans of the appleflaps and stroopwafels.

Day 4: Getting to Barcelona – the trek begins
At 3pm we headed off to the bus stop to make our public transport trek to Schiphol. I suspect it was a little nerve racking for J/T to (1) take public transport to the airport, and (2) rely on us to get them there. Nonetheless, we managed fine and got there in record time. For me, it was a unique experience to get to the airport in enough time to not be worried about making the flight (remember Berlin?).

The flight went off as expected; all cattle were herded into the plane and packed like sardines into the seats. We did arrive on time, with all baggage, and Jacob behaved marvelously (as always --- mostly).

The last time we ran off to Barcelona with the Giddings, we opted to take the public transport system to the hotel. It was one of those “penny-wise, pound-foolish” moments. As it turned out we saved 10 Euros on the cab fare, but wasted 2hrs navigating the subways with four bags. I don’t know what it is about the subways in Barcelona, but I personally think they are the worst… Most people disagree with me, but there are more ups / downs in that system than anywhere else in Europe.

Needless to say, we happily spent 20 Euros / per family to cab it over to the hotel.

The hotel location turned out to be perfect. It is located just off the square in front of the big Barcelona Cathedral and minutes from Las Ramblas. Terri did a great job with that recommendation. Upon arrival around 9pm, we freshened up in the hotel and then headed out for dinner – perfect timing for the Spanish. I guess we chalked this one up as a cultural learning experience, but no restaurant even thinks about starting dinner until after 8:30.

We opted for Tapas (gotta do it in Barcelona) and Jason found a good spot just a couple blocks from the hotel. It was very busy, very loud, and very good. It looked like the waiting line was long, but the slug of people turned out to be smokers banned from the restaurant from new Spanish legislation (I love that law). After ordering, we knew it was going to be a good trip because everyone shared samplers off of their main selection. We ended dinner at 11pm and headed home for the night. By the way, Jacob lasted the entire evening without any problems. He is truly remarkable – I don’t know how we got so lucky, but he is the most flexible baby of all time.
Day 5: The calm before the vacation
We met the next morning and did all the stuff you’re supposed to do in Barcelona: Las Ramblas, the harbor, and Gaudi. We started with Las Ramblas and followed the Rick Steve’s walk exactly.

We saw the birds (Jacob especially liked this area), the flowers (more for Amanda), and ended at the Columbus monument. The weather was beautiful (Amanda and I have had great luck in Barcelona both times) and it was a great people-watching walk.

At the harbor, Amanda and Terri found a common attraction to flea market shopping where they both picked up some cool jewelry that neither will likely wear… I also banked a few points by discretely picking up a trinket that complimented Amanda’s formal night dress (it was given before the formal dinner and, by the way, matched her dress perfectly).

We ate on the harbor at a joint that cost way too much money. But, the view was nice and the food was good. We topped it off with crepes and ice cream for dessert (while we didn’t know it at the time, desserts would become a common theme / event on our cruise).

After lunch we found our way to the Gaudi Cathedral to see what had been completed in the last 1.5 years. Hmmm, not much more. It was still nice to walk through the cathedral to reacquaint ourselves with the unique genius of Gaudi’s creation and to gawk at its perfunctory color. It shocks me that they are still building this to his detailed specifications… Amazing!

After the church we headed over to Gaudi’s park: a new one for Amanda and I. It was highly recommended by a work colleague as “better than the cathedral”. He was wrong. The park was okay and there were some nice features, but like most overbilled events, it disappointed me. We did have a great view of the city – a perfect photo op.We grabbed a cab back to the hotel around 6pm and relaxed for a couple of hours prior to dinner at Amanda and I’s favorite from the last trip, Origins. This place was great because it specializes in Catalonian cuisine and gives a story around each dish: where it is from, how it was invented, who started it, etc. We made our reservation at 8:30pm and had a great meal. Jacob lasted through the entire night without any problems and the meal perfectly capped a great day.

Day 6: Almost there, almost there…
Monday started with the expectation that we would be loading on the boat by 10am.

Unfortunately, the boat didn’t open up until 3pm. This basically gave us an extra day in Barcelona that we didn’t expect to have. Under normal circumstances, this would be a good thing --- however, for Barcelona, all tourism basically shuts down on Monday.

So, to kill time prior to loading, we decided to make our way to Olympic park. If you recall, Barcelona hosted the 1992 Summer Olympics and like any city with that responsibility, they spent a ton of money building an Olympic park. What sets Barcelona aside from most is they dedicated an entire hill inside the town to the park. So, while it does seem a little abandoned now, it is still cool to wander through and see all the old venues. We also took a few minutes to check out an old fortress overlooking today’s city. And to our surprise, while at the top of the hill, we also got our first glimpse of our Cruise Liner, the Brilliance of the Seas.

It took us longer to visit the fortress and Olympic park than we expected so we had to rush a bit to get lunch and back to the hotel in time to catch our cab at 2:45pm. Our lunch stop still turned out to be a cool “pay by the toothpick” tapas joint where you walk through the buffet line and pick as many appetizers as you want, collect the toothpicks during the meal, and pay 2 Euros per toothpick at the end. It was good. After lunch we walked back to the hotel, snapping pictures along the way, and just enjoyed our final hours in Barcelona. Ironically enough, I like Barcelona more now, after our second trip than I did after the first. It must be like coffee and beer; it just grows on you. The weather was beautiful, it is a great walking city, and the food is delicious.

Day 6 continued (Day 1 of cruise): The boat – first impressions.
Before Terri shared her research with us, Amanda and I knew absolutely nothing about cruises. We talked to a few folks about it, but until you have actually cruised, you don’t really know. So, for us, this was a completely new experience.

When the taxi first pulled up to the port, I was in awe of size of the ship. I swiped a few ship stats from the web to put it into perspective. It includes: Length 962ft (293m), width 106ft (32m), and draft 27ft (8m). It can hold 90,000tons, 2500 people, and run 25 knots (29mph). There are over 10 restaurants on board, one services 24hrs / day, and room service is also always available. Tons of sporting events are available to everyone including volleyball, basketball, ping-pong, wall-climbing, shuffleboard, checkers / chess, miniature golf, virtual golf, and billiards. There are also two heated pools (indoor and outdoor) and one non-heated outdoor water park, a fitness facility, sauna, and running track. This ship is decked out.

The staterooms are bigger than we expected and offered plenty of space for 2 adults and 1 kiddo. Shoving 4 adults into one room would have been tough, but this was very manageable.
It is amazing how nice the ship still looks. Imagine a new group of 2500 people coming into your house every 11 days with no days in between for down time. Our house would be a disaster, but this ship looked very clean and very new on the first day we arrived. They even made time to wash every window in the ship --- now that is impressive. It literally shined like it was new.

But that’s not the best part. Royal Caribbean spends twice as much time on creating the right atmosphere as they did in building the boat. When you arrive everyone has a smile and is ready, willing, and working to make your life easy. They take your pictures all day long, change your room over twice a day, and schedule a wide range of events where everyone can find things to do. I felt genuinely welcome on their ship. I really think RC has their act together. They create a wonderfully organized week with an emphasis on elegance and casual comfort. I don’t know if everyone feels this way about their first cruise, but our first 6hrs were great.

Day 2: Full day at sea
Days at sea are relaxing. You wake up late (as late as Jacob will allow), you evenly spread your time between eating, napping, reading, gambling, and playing games. It is a good way to spend a couple of weeks.

We were just getting used to the boat so our judgment wasn’t quite fine tuned yet. As such, we spent way too much of our time “filling-up” in the restaurants. Seriously, it is impressive the amount of food they make available to you. You get three full-square meals and each one has multiple courses. I think we had desert 5 times the first day.

For the times in between eating, we spent our time swimming in the morning with Jacob and napping in the afternoon with Jacob. I entered a Texas Hold-em tournament and won (first ever). Jason, Terri, and I entered a volleyball tourney and brought home the silver medal (ok – there were only two teams). We watched a live “broadway” musical in the Pacifica theatre in the evening. It was a great day.

Day 3: Palermo
Sicily was our first excursion and highly anticipated because of the opportunity to get some Italian food. It was also a test to see if we needed to book excursions through Royal Caribbean or if we could do it on our own.

We left the boat around 7:30am (as soon as the gangway dropped) and started walking through the town. At first we brushed off the first impressions because it was too early in the day – probably fair. But then, after 2-3 hrs of walking around, we were totally fed up with the town and wanted to leave.

The town is filthy. Not only is there dog crap everywhere, graffiti on every site worth seeing, and gobs of traffic on narrow streets with single person-wide sidewalks, but the crime presence is suffocating. On every big street we thought we would be hit by a car and on every small street we thought we would be mugged by the mafia.

At one point, while wandering, we ran across an open-air market. Cool right? Well yes and no. There were some cool fruit and veggie stands, but they stood right next to the butchers carving up the morning’s kill. At one point we saw a guy filleting beef intestines and organs next to a guy with skinned goat’s heads on display. Gross.

There were a lot of verbal disagreements and so we got out pretty quickly. After leaving though, we ended up walking through an area that looked reminiscent of Afghanistan or war-torn Iraq. I think Terri summed it up by saying, “we need to leave now”.

The day wasn’t a complete bust as the Palermo Cathedral was really good. It was well-decorated on the outside and, according to a tour guide that we eavesdropped on, had a few good stories too. Also, after chatting with a few locals we picked up a couple of decent lunch recommendations, chose one, and had a good meal.

In the end though, the magnet we purchased was of a mafia gangster. It was the most fitting representation of Sicily that we found in our first excursion. We also decided that we wouldn’t waste anymore days without organized tours and booked excursions for Rhodes, Cyprus, and Malta that night.

Day 4: At sea again
After Palermo, I was beginning to wander if we should ever get off the boat. After all, our first excursion was a complete bust and when you stay on the boat you get tons of food and opportunities to win medals and money.

Our second full sea day was great. We hit the swimming pool in the morning, the blackjack tournament in the afternoon, and the show at night. I won the ping-pong tournament that day, Jason won the hot shots basketball competition, and between the two families we pulled down 6 medals.

Day 5: Athens
Outside of Egypt, this stop was the most anticipated of all. When I checked with colleagues at work, they indicated Athens was a good city to visit, but not even close to Rome. And, that one day would probably be enough to get a sense of everything. I won’t tell any of my Greek friends that.Before the cruise we booked a tour called Taste of Athens. It was a simple excursion which focused on the Acropolis and shopping. We left the boat around 8am and had a decent, not great, tour guide for the trip. Like most, she gave us the cliff notes version of Greek history on the bus. Traffic was pretty heavy so getting to the Acropolis took around an hour. But, once we got there it was pretty empty since it is still off-peak season.

The Acropolis is a pretty impressive site. It is the 2nd tallest peak in the city and holds the most well-known and best preserved ancient Greek archeological sites. You have to climb about 200 stairs to get to the top, but when you get there you find a forum of ancient buildings that included a Temple to Athena and an Ionian temple of Apteros Nike. The structures were built during the 5th century BC, the so-called Perikles Golden age. As far as sites go it was very reminiscent of the Roman Forum / Coliseum area and in really good shape. There is still a lot of reconstruction going on in the area and we actually got to see the workers reinstall a newly restored original block at the entrance. It was a good stop and we got a lot of good pictures. We didn’t have a ton of time here, but enough to see and do.

On the way to the shopping area, we made a stop at the track and field stadium used during the 2004 Olympics in Athens. It is also the site that hosted the first modern Olympics in 1896.

We reached the Placa shopping area around 11am. This area consists of narrow streets with lots of little shops. We browsed for some souvenirs and a lunch stop. We hit the jackpot at lunch. We were coerced into one of the restaurants with outdoor seating (mainly because Terri and Amanda paused a bit too long in front of it). The Greeks tend to be a little pushy but with good humor. The food was superb. We loaded up on gyros and tzatziki (Amanda’s favorite). We roamed through more stores on the way back to the buses and were on the boat by the 4:00 departure time.

We laid Jacob down for a late nap and met Jason and Terri back in the dining room for dinner at 6pm. Three courses later we headed to the theater for another show. I think the shows were the highlight for Jacob. Every day we heard about how the show was closed, but at night when the door opened, Jacob informed everyone that the “shows open”. Athens was a great stop. It really is amazing to see buildings from 2,500 years ago still standing in the middle of a modern city.

Day 6: Rhodes
When you sail into Rhodes it takes your breath away. This is one of those movie set looking places whose charm and history just bubbles over.

This was day 2 of our 4 excursions in a row, and we were ready for it. For the history buffs out there, Rhodes is the famous location for the Colossus. This is the giant statue that looked over the boats coming into the harbor and was considered as one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. When we arrived, we thought were going to find the foot of the Colossus for pictures (as indicated by all available online research), but quickly learned that the rendition was completely made up. The actual Colossus fell in 200AD(?) and was later bought and sold as scrap metal by an enterprising merchant 500 years later.

The tour guide for this one was great. He was a dry kind of guy that knew a lot and told the stories with a clever wit. By looking at him you would think he would put you to sleep, but then unexpectedly captured and held your attention.

Our first stop was an old monastery overlooking the capital below. It was made famous by holding a painting of the Virgin Mary that one of the disciples supposedly painted. However, after Rhodes fell to the Ottomans in 1523, the Knights of St. John took the relic and moved it around the world. It moved through Malta, Russia, and was lost for a couple of hundred years before turning up in Montenegro 15 years ago. While the Knights refuse to return the original, they did donate a copy to the site.

Today the site is largely just a tourist attraction with a great view. It is cool to see the site and get the pictures, but that was about it for me.

The next stop was going into the old downtown of Rhodes. This is where the fun really began.

Our guide took us through the streets and gave us the history of the town. There are still great buildings standing and 3 impressive moats surrounding the city. The best story he told was about how 300 Knights actually held 120,000 Persians outside the walls, convinced the Persians to retreat after several very costly failed attempts, but then fell when they were betrayed by someone on the inside.

When they fell, the Knights left the city and moved to Malta. This was very unfortunate for Rhodes because with their move so went the acclaim and a lot of future tourism money. Still though, the people of Rhodes are very proud (and should be) of their history.

We walked through the city for about 90 minutes and learned a bit more history about the place before going on our own for lunch and shopping. This town is normally completely deserted at this time of year until the tourist season jumps up into full gear, except when cruise ships come in. When the cruise ships dock and 2500 people descend on the city with bull’s-eyes on their backs, the shops open and start picking people off. For us it was great. While we didn’t particularly like the stuff to buy, it was still good to get the first class treatment.

There is a downside to it not being peak season. When a 15 minute rain storm moved through and washed most of the tourists back to the boat, the shops immediately started closing. We had to rush to get our trinkets and had only 20% of the original selection. And, when we sat down for lunch, we found the restaurant completely unprepared to serve; it was like they opened only for the afternoon.

It was still a good stop and aside from the 15 minute shower, we had great weather. We ended the excursion by walking around on our own and taking a few great pictures. That night we followed our normal routine of eat, game, eat, show, eat, game, sleep… Ahhh, you gotta love cruises.

Day 7: Cyprus
Cyprus is getting really deep into the Mediterranean. It is closer to Israel, Syria, and the West Bank than it is to Italy and closer to Africa than it is Athens. The deeper you get, the more dangerous it feels. And, while our chief concerns still center on Egypt, our feet were getting close to the fire with this excursion.

It turned out to be worthless worrying. Cyprus was tame.

As excursions go, this was a relatively short one. It was planned to start at 9:15am and end at 2:30pm. So, that left only five hours to see, do, and learn the country. Hardly enough time, but ok, that’s what we had. Our excursion took us to an archeological dig in Kourion, a 2500 year old temple to Apollo, and the small village of Omodos.

This was the third excursion in as many days and our schedule had kept us awake until nearly midnight every night. Needless to say, we were tired. As such, Amanda and I missed most of the historical backdrop to the tour by snoozing on the bus ride to Kourion. Lucky for us, Jacob stayed awake, so maybe he can fill in the details.

We arrived with military precision and started pushing our way toward the sites. It was a good stop as they had a fully functional original Greek amphitheatre, live excavation sites, and a great view of the sea. While we were there, a modeling shoot was going on. We have no idea who she was, but Amanda stole some poses from her that you’ll see in later pictures.

What is most interesting about places in this region of the world is the scale of “stuff” they find. There are literally thousands of active sites and even more that they know about, but haven’t started uncovering yet. Cyprus actually leaves the sites covered because they don’t have the money to (1) dig them up or (2) preserve them post-dig.

After Kourion, we headed to the Temple of Apollo. This was a lot more of the same, except it was over 4 thousand years old. Dude – that’s crazy. We learned a bit more (not worth mentioning) and had some good times for pictures. The highlight from this stop was the photo shoot pics from Amanda and Jacob. They were made for the camera.

Our last stop was at Odomos. This place houses the Church of the Holy Cross which contains two relics donated by Saint Helen (see Rome blog): a piece of the cross and a piece of rope that bound Christ’s hands. Neither was on display. We spent a little more time walking through the town for souvenir shopping, but didn’t find anything worth buying (that is a really bad sign too – everyone wanted to buy something to say we had been there). We did manage to buy their local bread (recommended by our guide) --- it was fresh baked and had a sugary top that was very tasty. That basically ended our excursion and we headed back toward the cruise ship.

The success of these excursions largely rises and falls with the tour guide. Unfortunately, in this case, we had an opinionated, nationalistic, loud-talking lunatic. Ok – that may be going a little too far, but if you listened to her exclusively, you would think that (1) all Turks were worthless barbarians, (2) the Brits polluted all the natural resources with their offensive military bases, and (3) the Russians were capitalistic pigs looking to put all Cyprusites into poverty. Give me a break – someone needed to tell the lady to stick to the facts and leave her opinions at the door. I think the British lady sitting behind me did just that.

I know there is a schism between most Greeks and Turks. It is there. You may as well accept it and move on. For me though, I know people on every continent and in hundreds of cities. The difference between a friend and foe has nothing to do with their race, religion, color or nationality and everything to do with the quality of their character. In general, if we could forgive the past and look toward the future, we would all be much happier.

Day 8: Egypt
Two weeks ago a bomb went off in an Egyptian bazaar in Cairo. Two days after that an angry local stabbed an American tourist in the face. Now, we are not ones to back away from an adventure because of rumors or the potential, hypothetical, or “could-be” events, but I admit my nerves were on edge the morning of our Egypt excursion.

For most, probably all, this was the main reason for booking this trip because the pyramids remain as mysterious today as they did 1000 years ago. We booked the day trip called “Classic Cairo”. This was a highly ambitious tour that started at 7:30am and ended at 9pm. It required ~6hrs in a bus and too little time at each stop, but you got to see 12 pyramids (including the three big ones), the Sphinx, a papyrus exhibit, and the fabled Cairo museum.

As luck would have it, our tour started by learning our guide was a PhD in Antiquities and passionate about her country’s history. She was the polar opposite replacement to our Cyprus tour guide and a very welcome teacher for the day.

As the busses promptly started toward our destination, Tina (the guide) started with the history lesson. Like most good guides, she totally reeled us in and had us hanging on every word. I believe I learned more in those first two hours than countless hours prior on the Discovery Channel and world history classes. I don’t want to (nor can I) retell the stories with the same detail and vigor that she did, but I want to give you a flavor for the types of things we learned.

Tidbits – about pyramids, royals, and other antiquities
(1) Pyramids were built to house only royalty. They started out as stacked blocks, but then transformed into what we see today. They used to be covered with limestone to smooth the edges, but that was taken during later building projects.

(2) Most pyramids were robbed shortly after being built. King Tutankhamen’s grave was only left untouched because the grave above caved in and blocked the entrance. By all accounts, King Tut is a very, very minor king. He is only the most famous today because his tomb was left intact.

(3) Non-royals are buried in square tombs.

(4) All pyramids are on the west side of the Nile. The west side was for death and the east for life. Everyone lived on the east side. This is because the sun rose from the east and set in the west.

(5) Pyramids were later replaced by underground tombs in the Valley of the Kings in Luxor. This was an attempt to hide the treasures - it didn’t really work. Queen’s pyramids are built right next to the King’s pyramids. They are notably smaller. I don’t know how they choose which of the queens to bury. Afterall, King Remises II had 176 children; I doubt it was from the same queen.

We arrived at the pyramids around 11am and the tour guide said we had 45 minutes to mill around. Forty-five minutes? You have got to be kidding me. It takes me longer to wake up in the morning, let alone sufficiently tour the 3 great pyramids. Nevertheless we were off and made the best of it.

45 minutes remaining.

Upon exiting the bus we were slammed with a great wave of capitalist proprietors. They hit us with everything: camel rides, papyrus bookmarks, authentic Arab headdresses, etc. Everything that could be sold, was sold. They played a few tricks too. They say, “no pay, no pay, is gift”, but then tell you, you took the service and must pay. They also offer to put on the headdresses for “no charge” and then say, “You opened the package and you must pay”. Thank goodness our guide warned us prior to arrival. We did notice quite a few suckers, though.

41 minutes remaining.

We avoided all of the marketers and headed (ran) to the north side of the biggest pyramid for pictures because we noticed a lot of people actually climbing on the pyramid. We made it there in 10 minutes and probably snapped 200 pictures between the two of us. A bit of an overkill, but when the time is short and memory is long, you snap, snap, snap.

31 minutes remaining.

We made it there and did climb the pyramid. It was surreal. I mean you know going in that the pyramids are huge, but when you actually see them, stand by them, and climb them they get even bigger. Each block on the pyramid is at least 3 feet tall, 5 feet wide and who knows how deep. When you get up 2-3 layers and look down, it is a little haunting. After all, there weren’t any guard rails and one slip could lead to a quick end.

25 minutes remaining.

While on the pyramid, one of the Arab kids (16-18 years old) asked to take Jacob’s picture. We obliged. He also asked to hold Jacob. We declined. Without asking, he and his girlfriend each managed to sneak in and kiss Jacob on the cheek. Weird. I guess a blond haired, blue-eyed, cutie-pie like him is unusual in this area of the world.

20 minutes remaining.

We then sprinted toward the second pyramid (the one with the limestone still on the cap), dodged a few more salesmen, a corridor heavily soiled with camel poop, and snapped more pictures. It was a mad dash. From the bottom, the second pyramid looks just like its bigger cousin, but is distinguished by the remaining limestone cap at the top. When the pyramids were first completed each was completely covered with limestone; we can only imagine what it looked like, but I bet it was cool.

12 minutes remaining.

We headed to the end of the 2nd pyramid trying to remember if there was a 3rd. There was; it was just shielded by the 2nd as we navigated between the first two. We rattled off another 50 pictures with every imaginable angle and zoom and posed for few final family shots.

8 minutes remaining.

We were still at least 5 minutes from the bus (brisk walk) and didn’t really know a good way to get there. I took Jacob and started hustling. Amanda and Terri followed me while posing a time or two more for Jason. Jason eventually split from A/T and found an alternate route back to the bus. Tick, tick, tick.

3 minutes remaining.

I made it to where the bus was supposed to be, but it isn’t there.

2 minutes remaining.

Amanda, Terri, and Jason all converge and inform me I am standing right by the bus. Safe.

1 minute to spare.

We loaded into the bus and quickly drove over to the post card shot station where everyone stops to get the perfect picture of the 3 pyramids. Amanda stayed behind to change JT’s diaper and J/T and I moved out. Jason and Terri pushed through another aggressive salesman while I posed for the security squad; I think they have done this before.

After we left the site we drove another 3 minutes down to the Sphinx for another 30 minute stop.

Honestly, for me, this was too much time. I would have rather stayed longer at the pyramids and done a “drive by” of the Sphinx. Nonetheless, we stopped, got our pictures (Amanda stole inspirations from the security team), and bugged out on time.

It was too short, but still a really cool stop. I think it hit me on the way home how unique of an experience this was and how lucky we are to be able to afford this lifestyle. At one point, I turned to Amanda and said “you know, life is pretty good right now… I hope it stays this way”.

We then drove off for souvenir shopping at a “guide recommended” locale. It was ok, but the stuff sold by street vendors was a lot cheaper. I suspect they organize it this way to keep people better on schedule during the mad dash through the pyramids. At that same stop we also hit a papyrus institute which was a paper making seminar and papyrus shop. This was really cool. Our teacher was fun and we found a great souvenir for the wall back home.

Tidbits – Other

(1) Egyptians believed that when they faced judgment their heart would be weighed against an ostrich feather. If the heart was heavier (heavy with sin), they would go to the “underworld”. If the heart was lighter they would go to heaven.

(2) Pigeon (flying rats as Terri likes to call them) are an Egyptian delicacy and they have pigeon houses erected all over the country for breeding. Yes, it is true. Egypt actually wants more pigeons in their country.

(3) Unfinished buildings – there is a tax rule in Egypt that says you don’t have to pay property taxes until the building is finished. Therefore, everyone leaves the buildings unfinished indefinitely. Throughout all of Egypt you will see buildings with rebar still sticking out of the top.

Tidbits – about Arabic culture
(1) Traditional Muslims require woman to wear the headdresses. When a woman is married (i.e. taken), they are required to wear only black when in public. You see less veils in the big cities.

(2) Unless work or school moves them away, most Egyptians live at home until they get married. It isn’t uncommon to live there until 30-35 years old.

Tidbits – about papyrus

(1) Paper process consists of pealing the papyrus, cutting into strips, soaking to remove the sugar, beating (with a hammer), rolling (with a pin), weaving (like a basket), and pressing. The result is a flexible piece of paper that will last thousands of years.

(2) Papyrus was chosen because of the triangular stem (symbolic reasons) and the flowery top.

Our final stop was the Cairo museum. This was one that Jason and I were really excited about because it had the artifacts from King Tut’s tomb. When we arrived, however, we were scared. We entered through heavily secured gates and multiple guards were standing behind movable, bullet-proof riot control stations as secondary stops. We also saw several “heated arguments” on the ride over. We couldn’t tell if this was their way of communicating or if they were fighting, but one involved a man slamming a woman’s head into the hood of his car. I doubt that one was a casual conversation. We made it into the museum without incident and started the tour. This is clearly our guide’s element because you could see her face light up when she started talking. She gave us a quick rundown of the museum and hit the highlights with good stories and details. Jacob was sleeping so it made it much easier to navigate the crowds.

What surprised us the most was the layout and quality of the museum. I normally judge a museum by the quality of artifacts. Example: Compare the Louvre to Luxembourg City and the artifact quality will be obvious. You know immediately why the Louvre is the Louvre. This is where it got weird for us. When you judge the quality of the artifacts in Cairo, it is awesome - probably second to none on Egyptian history. But, the museum itself was disgraceful. The organization was non-existent, there was no air conditioning, only 10% of the pieces had descriptions, only one item had security sensors, there weren’t any audio tour guides, and the gift shop was very small and disappointing. The museum was literally falling apart.

I asked the guide about this and she agreed, but defended it by saying it was over 100 years old and a new one is being erected by the pyramids. I also asked if she thought that more countries would return the artifacts when the new building is complete and she said “probably”.

In each country we visited on this trip, there were side-line disparaging remarks made by each of the tour guides. In this trip, she mentioned several times how countries should return what is rightfully Egypt’s. In one sense, I agree. Why shouldn’t Egypt get the prized possessions back from previous battles lost? On the other hand, why should the Louvre or British and Berlin museums give back the exhibits when (1) the artifacts won’t get as much traffic and (2) they won’t be as well-looked after? If Egypt wants to seriously contend with the major museum circuit (which they could and should), they need to shape up their infrastructure.

We left the museum around 6pm and started our trek home. We were happy to have had the opportunity to see, but also glad to be getting back. So 2.5hrs and countless songs/games (for Jacob) later, we arrived to the cruise ship in time (18 minutes prior to the ship leaving) for sailing.

Day 9: A day at sea…
Since we just completed 4 excursions in 4 days and we were completely wiped out, so for Tuesday, we decided to take it easy. So we spread the time fairly evenly between eating, sleeping, sports activities, and gambling.

Amanda, Jacob, and I hit the pool in the morning. Jason and I won the 3-on-3 Basketball tournament. Jason got second in the Texas Hold-em tournament. We all went to the evening show to watch the Graffiti Classics group (watch for them next year – Oprah just sponsored them) and then played Euchre until 11:30pm. Then Jason and I capped it off with a little more Texas Hold-em in a cash game.

Do days get better than this?

Day 10: Malta
We experienced the full gamut of highs and lows with excursions on this cruise. And, with only 4hrs at this port, we didn’t have high expectations for Malta. We were completely, totally, shockingly surprised. Malta is a paradise.

We actually didn’t dock until 2pm for this one, so the entire morning was spent on the ship. We met for breakfast at 9am and then headed off to the Hot Shots Basketball Tourney where Jason schooled the ship and took the gold medal and I stunk it up and finished 4th (I blame my poor shooting on my bad ankles). We then played our luck at bingo and lost $44 per family in 30 minutes flat (nice). Afterwards, we headed up for an outdoor grill on deck 11, lost Terri, and watched Malta roll in. Everyone was on the deck (including Terri) to watch the Captain dock the boat and take pictures; the blue sky against Malta’s magnificent coast was marvelous.

I must admit that before we started the excursion I was nervous about the pick. It seemed a bit lame now after seeing Valletta from the boat and rereading the description. This one was dubbed as a “handicrafts village shopping” tour, so we expected the shopping to be good. But, we weren’t going to get any time in Valleta --- disappointing.

Our tour guide was a nice enough chap, but he didn’t really fit the bill as a tour guide. Something seemed missing. I don’t know if it was the long pauses between comments or the highlights on non-important sites like the new hospital, psychiatric unit, and recreation centers that turned me off. I later learned that he was only doing this part time to supplement his income after semi-retiring from a 36 year banking career. Still though, it didn’t matter. The excursion was good enough on its own.

The first stop was for handmade jewelry and a glass blowing factory. These shops were clustered together like an outlet mall, but were actually renovated out of old British Airforce (RAF) barracks. The glass blowing factory sounded cool, but the jewelry shop seemed boring. Afterall, when on vacation in Europe you are constantly bombarded by people selling cheap, normal, crappy jewelry. We were dead wrong.

This jewelry surpassed all expectations. For some reason when looking at this work, it just screamed stunning. One of the jewelers was working a few pieces when we got there and showed us the intricacy with which it was built and several sales people were very helpful (as expected) in finding the right pieces. Amanda (after some encouragement) found a couple of pieces and made the purchase. And Terri, without encouragement, did the same. Since we only had 25 minutes to see, learn, and buy, the purchase did feel a bit like a pressure buy, but looking back, we think we made the right call.

From there we went next door to the glass blowing factory. Amanda and I haven’t ever seen this done and we were impressed. All activities centered around a red hot kiln in the middle of the room and 5 or 6 men each performed specific tasks to create the glass works. While one was heating up the glass, another was blowing the glass, a third was setting the design, and the final workers were shaping and cutting the glass. It was like a symphony; each action was carefully, or routinely, organized to make it work. I snapped about 20 pictures to try to capture the event and none of them did it justice.

The shop was also nice and the designs were unique; although, to be honest, we probably couldn’t look past the impressive manufacturing to give an objective opinion. Nonetheless, we picked up a couple of trinkets and loaded up in the bus.

Our next stop was Mdina (pronounced M-Dina, not Medina) for a walking tour of the city. Our tour guide didn’t really teach us anything about the city, but it was okay because just gazing at the buildings was enough. This was an incredible city. A few things jumped out right away: (1) Surgical cleanliness – seriously, aside from the wrappers Jacob dropped on the ground, we didn’t see a single piece of trash in the city (yes – we did pick them up), (2) Architecture – It was mostly baroque, but the limestone used made the entire city gleam with an off-white radiance, and (3) City Plan – absolutely crazy planning – it was like this city was made to be invaded. The streets wound around in a maze an each one housed 1 or 2 more hidden alleyways.

We walked around for about 45 minutes, toured a church, viewed the coast from a perch inside the city wall, and then headed back to the bus. The guide couldn’t remember (or find) the number to the bus driver, so we sat around for an extra 20 minutes waiting. That is a lot of wasted time on a 3hr excursion, but we made the most out of it by playing with Jacob in the park.

Our final stop was Mosta where we were supposed to stop at the 3rd largest freestanding dome in the world. However, since several passengers couldn’t keep to the schedule and we lost the bus driver for 20 minutes, we had to skip the stop. That was really too bad because the building was beautiful and we had already been to the top two – San Pietro in The Vatican and St. Paul’s in London.

It didn’t matter though because the shopping and the walking tour made the excursion extremely worthwhile. Plus, Amanda and I agreed to return in 18 years with Jason and Terri to celebrate our 25 anniversary (J/T were married on 7-April one year minus one day before us). We relaxed the rest of the night away with another 3 course meal (my case 5 course), the nightly show, and Euchre with J/T. Another really, really great day.

Day 11: The final day at sea.
Royal Caribbean knows how to do it. They take you into their home for 11 days, treat you like kings, and then leave you fat and happy to go home. Perfection. The schedule is very organized as well. We started slowly with the days at sea, then hit the excursions hard for four days, and finished again with a day at sea.

Today we rolled through our normal routine of eating, gaming, eating, gaming, sleeping, eating, gaming while eating, show, gaming, and sleep. Our cruise director said it right, “Don’t worry about closing your suitcases tonight; just sit on them. The extra 11 pounds will come in handy for packing”. It is true. We probably gained 50lbs as a team during this vacation.

Today started with a nice swim in the Solarium before lunch. I won one ping-pong tournament and took silver in the other. I also placed 4th in my last Texas Hold-em tournament (not in the money) and attended an “unleash the author inside of you” lecture. Amanda and Jason competed in a Sudoku competition and got smoked, Terri hit the gym (she is a machine) and played video poker. Both Jason and I did a bit more rock climbing; Jason broke a nail (poor baby). And, we all played Euchre before and after the show; Jason and I destroyed Amanda and Terri --- seriously, Amanda was about to cry and Terri was filling the room with more profanity than I have ever heard – it was great. That might have been a slight exaggeration.

Somewhere during the day Amanda found time to pack the bags and we set them out just before bedtime for the crew to take care of. Cruises are so nice.

Day 12: Coming home.
Disembarking is complex. Imagine trying to take 2500 people and two week’s worth of luggage off of a boat through one door by 9am. Then imagine bringing the boat back to cruise quality (room cleaning, window cleaning, food and water inventory replenishment, etc.) in time for the next 2500 people with two week’s worth of luggage to load at 3pm. It is amazing and they do it really, really well. Not once did we feel rushed or pushed or nervous about time. They made us feel completely at ease the entire time.

It was still a long day. We woke at 5:30am and were at breakfast by 6:15 (couldn’t miss our last meal). Then we disembarked at 7:15am, had our luggage by 7:30am, and were at J/T’s hotel by 7:55am. How fast is that? We spent the rest of the morning walking around, relaxing, and talking. We grabbed lunch at McDonalds around 11am and then spent the final 1hr playing Euchre at McDonalds.

We said our goodbyes around 12:45 and headed to the airport. These were tough goodbyes to say. Over the three weeks we (me, Amanda, and Jacob) all bonded with Jason and Terri. We feel like we gained a great set of friends in a short two week span. Before we left Jacob preferred to hold Jason and Terri’s hands when “out and about”. And, since we parted ways, Jacob has asked “where Jasn and TerTer go” about 50 times. This is the first vacation when I really wasn’t ready for it to end. In fact, when we were walking the gangway all of us said we would have enjoyed another week on the boat. We will never forget this vacation.