26. On the Way Home

The early wake-up call on Friday was necessary to get a taxi and make our way to Fiumicino and the Leonardo Da Vinci Airport. It was an easy drive with little traffic so early in the morning. On arrival, there was already a long line for check-in, even though we were more than 2 hours before our departure time. We realized the reason when we made our way to the head of the line. Everything was delayed, since all the planes coming from the Northeast of the US were still being impacted by Hurricane Sandy. Our flight was expected to be four hours late, due to delayed arrival from New York. Actually it was 6 hours late by the time of our departure, so we had to be rescheduled for our New York to Richmond flight. Then we arrived at Newark after that flight had departed, so we were re-scheduled again for a late night flight to Richmond. However, the flight crew for that plane had not arrived from New Orleans, so we were delayed again. However, we were able to make it to Richmond, just before midnight. So we did arrive the same day we left from Rome. All is well that ends well. Krista met us at the airport, and had a cd of “Jerusalem, the Holy City” cued up and ready to play for us, as we exited the airport. A nice touch to keep the magic of the trip alive for us as we returned home! There was no trouble sleeping this night, as we were finally back in our own bed again! So our adventure winds down to a close. But surely the sights and memories will linger with us for the rest of our lives. Thanks for following along with us.

25. Last Day in Rome

For one last time, we slept in with no wake-up call in the hotel. Then we enjoyed a wonderful buffet breakfast in a bright, garden-view first floor restaurant in the hotel. We then rode the hotel shuttle bus to the Vatican drop off point. Then we rode a city bus to the Plaza Venezia, the national monument with the Italian Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. It was a bright, sunshiny morning, so our pictures are some of the best of any of our scenes in Rome. We walked through several Roman ruins on the way to San Pietro in Vincoli, or the Church of St. Peter in Chains. It is a church that claims to hold the actual chains that bound the First Century Disciple of Christ. The chains are displayed in a central place near the altar of the church, and the paintings all around the front of the church are huge and impressive frescoes, in a style reminiscent of Michaelangelo. The paintings are not his, but the notable larger-than-life sculpture of Moses is one of the more famous sculptures by Michangelo. While the Moses is positioned to one side of the front of the church, the line of visitors seems more crowded in the area of the sculpture than near the reliquary containing the chains located in the center of the church near the altar. The chains are believed to be from Peter’s imprisonment in Jerusalem, and were passed on to various notables until they came into the possession of Pope Leo I, in the mid-400s AD, finally coming to rest in the church that bears the name of St. Peter in Chains. We had lunch at a sidewalk café, before walking across the downtown area to the Fontana Trevi, or Trevi Fountain. It is amazing to me that there seem to be hundreds of visitors crowded into the viewing area around the fountain, day and night. So we braved the crowds once again, and had some great pictures near dusk, as the lighting shifted from daylight to dark. It is a beautiful fountain, and not surprisingly, is a major tourist attraction. We continued stopping into many shops and boutiques on our way to a subway station. We rode the subway back to the area near our hotel, then transferred to a bus that appeared to be going in the direction of the Crowne Plaza. I asked the bus driver if she went near the hotel, and she nodded yes. She kindly stopped us from getting off too soon, but indicated when we were at the closest bus stop to the hotel. It was only one block away. So we finished up our tour, weighed our suitcases and rearranged the contents to satisfy the weight requirements for the airline the next day. Then we crashed with a request for a 5 am wake-up call.

24. Return to Rome

The Norwegian Jade docked at the Port of Rome before daylight on Wednesday morning. The port city is actually the small village of Civitivecchia, which is a full hour’s bus ride into the center city of Rome. NCL had arranged for a local guide to ride with us on the motorcoach and provide us with an informative narrative all the way into Rome. As we entered the city, she gave us an expert guided tour of the many major landmarks across the ancient and modern city. The bus dropped us off at the Plaza Popolo, in the heart of the upscale shopping district for a 2 hour block of “free time.” Unfortunately, it was raining throughout the two hours, so Cynthia and I strolled past several stores, such as Cartier, Gucci, Armani, Tiffany, Louis Vitton, etc. (yes, I said we walked past them!). We then decided to have lunch at a sidewalk café nearby, asking for an inside table. After our rainy free time, the bus finished our city tour by dropping some of us at our hotel, the Crowne Plaza, St. Peters. Then the bus proceeded to take the others on to the airport to meet their departing flights. Fortunately, our airline tickets gave us an extra couple of days in Rome, so we were not stressed like many of those who were heading into the troubled aftermath of the massive storm that had just hit the Northeast of the United States. Once we were settled into the hotel, we re-organized our bags from the ship, used the hotel business center to check our email from home, and then had dinner and crashed for our first night in a bed on terra firma since last 11 nights. Hopefully, tomorrow will not be so rainy and we can enjoy one last day in Rome, before returning home on Friday.

23. Straight of Messina and Volcano Island

The main attraction of Tuesday, our 2nd Sea Day, was the mid-day passage of the Strait of Messina. The narrow passageway between the boot of Italy and the island of Sicily is so narrow that it requires a harbor pilot to come aboard major vessels to navigate the sea lane between the two countries of Italy and Sicily. It was explained that the area is so narrow, and the tides of the Mediterranean are so powerful, that it is a treacherous passage especially for small boats. In the forward lounge of the ship, with a wonderful panoramic view to the front of the ship, a lecturer gave an interesting presentation on the history and the physical characteristics of this passage. A series of huge whirlpools is evident between the ship and Sicily. An ancient tradition held the belief that these areas of troubled waters provided an entryway into the underworld, likely a reflection of the fear that was elicited by the natural, and actual dangers of this very treacherous passageway. The bright sunlight and clear skies are giving us beautiful pictures of this Sea Day as we spend our last day on the ship sailing up the western coast of Italy toward the Port of Rome. The late Fall cool temperatures and the stiff breeze are bringing out the jackets and scarves for walking on deck. Still, our cool breezes are of little comparison to the news of Hurricane Sandy that we continue to follow on our cabin TV. Later in the afternoon, we sailed between the coast of Italy and their only active volcano, Stomboli Island. We will leave the ship on Wednesday at the Port City of Civitivecchia and be transported by bus into the central city of Rome and dropped off at our hotel near the Vatican. We will then have another free day in Rome before our flight home on Friday. It’s hard to imagine that our travel adventure is drawing to a close.

22. Sea Day - Monday

With a Sea Day, everything slows down, and there is a more relaxed mood all over the ship. Often it turns out to be good day for the swimming pools and Jacuzzis, but as we steamed northward across the Mediterranean, at the end of October, it was cool and breezy on the pool deck. But I had discovered an unexpected surprise in the ship’s Library, which is located inside just forward of the pool deck. The Library on the Norwegian jade was named and dedicated to the ocean liner SS United States. This is the ship built at the Newport News Shipyard from 1950-1952. My father worked on the construction of the vessel and spoke often of the opulence built into the ship as it represented the pinnacle of American shipbuilding in the 20th Century. Of all the ships he worked on during his career at the shipyard, he always considered this one his “Pride and Joy.” In the days when ocean travel was the Only Way to Cross, this ship was America’s answer to the ocean dominance of the British with their Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth. On the maiden voyage of the SS United States in 1952, it captured the speed record for crossing the Atlantic from New York to England, and then claimed the westbound record on its first return trip back to New York. The ship still holds both records to this day. The title trophy is called the Blue Riband, and is displayed in a maritime museum in New York. NCL purchased the ship in 2003, with plans to put it back into service as part of its new division, NCL America, which was created to manage its Hawaii operations. Since then, NCL has sold the ship to a Conservancy which is actively seeking to restore the vessel and position it as a hotel attraction somewhere on the East Coast of the United States. But the SSUS Library remains on the Norwegian Jade and has a large scale model of the ship, with its distinctive Red White and Blue funnels, attractively displayed in a glass case in the center of the library. The hallway photographs, and those on the walls inside the library, show several different views of the ship, including some under full power at sea, or with the New York City skyline in the background. One of them shows the ship at a pier in the shipyard at Newport News, possibly during its construction period. Of course, I could imagine one of the shipyard workers shown in the picture to be my father at work on “his ship.”

21. Alexandria, Egypt

We awoke on Sunday to the blaring siren of a police boat which circled our ship for several minutes as we approached the Ship Terminal at Alexandria, Egypt. It was such a small boat, compared to our huge vessel, but its mission of police security was evident to all who were within earshot of of that screeching sound. It was a beautiful, sunny morning to begin our second day in Egypt. The busy harbor area has a very industrial appearance, and the Norwegian Jade is the only cruise ship in port today. The terminal building is a huge and very modern building, but it has absolutely nothing inside, except the security checkpoint for passengers going and coming to the ship. Just outside the terminal building, the port has erected a long row of vendor shops. So we did not have to go far to find a wide variety of Egyptian souvenirs and other products. But we did decide to walk into town to find an internet café several blocks from the entrance to the harbor. As my coffee arrived (Egyptian, of course), I became aware that my computer had refused to boot up. I assumed that the battery had failed, even though I had charged it overnight. The rest of the story is that the hard drive had crashed, and I only had a black screen when I turned on the laptop. So we packed up the dead computer, finished my coffee, and Cynthia’s bottled water, and walked across town to the waterfront area of the city. Alexandria offers a beautiful, crescent shaped beach, with many people enjoying the sand and the water. We had a wonderful view of the castle, a Mosque and the Library, all positioned along the beautiful crescent coastline. This harbor is also the location of the once-famous Pharos of Alexandria lighthouse, one of the classical “7 Wonders of the Ancient World.” Many of the passengers from our ship had taken the all day excursion to the Pyramids of Giza and the city of Cairo. Those pyramids are the only remaining landmarks of those 7 Ancient Wonders of the World. Since we had seen them fairly recently, we passed over that tour and just waked around the port city instead. From the waterfront, which was a hefty walk from the harbor, we hired a taxi to take us back to the ship. At the time for sailing away, the Captain announced that we would have a 3 hour delay, due to a medical emergency with one of the passengers. So we went to dinner in Le Bistro, a French restaurant which is one of the optional restaurants on the ship. I had arranged for reservations on Cynthia’s birthday, so it would be a more memorable dinner meal. The Cruise Director, a multi-lingual, very talented former Las Vegas entertainer, had announced that he would be singing French songs in Le Bistro that night, accompanied by a quintet from the ship’s orchestra. While we were eating, we both had a delightful surprise when he turned in our direction and began singing Happy Birthday, in FRENCH, including “dear Cynthia,” in English. What a total surprise! He came over to our table afterwards and spoke to us and wished Cynthia a more personal Happy Birthday. Later, as we made our way back to our cabin on Deck 9, we opened the door and were surprised again to see a room full of streamers, and balloons, and confetti sprinkled all over the bed and the floor. What a nice surprise for NCL to arrange such a memorable celebration of Cynthia’s birthday. I was aware that she would celebrate a birthday aboard the ship, but had no idea it would be like this. Thanks, NCL!

20. Port Said, Egypt and Suez Canal

We awoke Saturday with the requirement to proceed to the gangway for the Egyptian Immigration officials to stamp our passports, in order to go ashore in Egypt. Since several vendors had set up their souvenir stands adjacent to the gangway, we went outside to the pier and browsed past several of them before returning to the ship for a late morning breakfast. Later, we walked ashore to find that most of the stores were closed for their end of week Sabbath. We fund a hotel (Panorama Hotel) that was open and they allowed us to buy some internet time so I could update this trip summary and upload some pictures from our travel so far. They had no American coffee, so I enjoyed Egyptian coffee while Cynthia had a soda, as we checked our e-mail. Since Cynthia had picked up a hacking cough, we found a pharmacy near the hotel and bought a bottle of cough syrup. We were quite surprised at the price: 4.20 Egyptian Pounds, or 65 cents in our money. As we walked back toward the ship, a house and carriage driver offered us a tour of the city and a ride through the Old City as well. The area of the Old City of Port Said reminded us of the Khan neighborhood of Cairo, with its crowded streets and all kinds of merchandise hanging on display outside the stores. It was indeed a colorful sight. Then a brief stop at a jewelry store gave us a few minutes to pick up an Egyptian cartouche for Cynthia to remember the Egyptian portion of our trip. We ended up at the street bordering the Suez Canal and followed that street back up to our ship. Our departure was not until well after dark, so we were able to watch the lights of the city as we sailed out of the Suez Canal on our way to the nearby port of Alexandria. The ship had actually entered the Suez Canal from the Mediterranean Sea, gone far enough into the canal to arrange a turnaround, and then docked adjacent to Port Said, facing the entrance of the canal. So with this development, we can now say we have sailed both the two major, most significant commercial canals in the world. Tomorrow gives us one more day in Egypt as we dock in Alexandria at 8 am on Sunday morning. Although it will be 1 am at home, we will be remembering our friends and family attending worship at home later on the same day, while we take our last steps on these Bible Lands that have come alive in a profound and meaningful fashion during these days of our travel.