day 105, HOME AGAIN!!!

Well, we're finally back in Mechanicsburg, PA. Had to stay an extra day in NYC to get the power steering fixed. Susie drove the truck 60 miles without it! Don't know how she did it.

What a wonderful cruise. Hope all of you enjoyed the blog. (Jess and Kate are wearing their t-shirts we bought for all the grandchildren in Hong Kong).

day 103, at sea

Our last day! It is 6:15am and Mom is starting to pack.

The big news today is HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY SISTER, Susan. Hope you have a great day.

day 102, at sea brrrrr

day 102, at sea

HAPPY EASTER, everyone.

Thanks for your comments and emails Katie, Caroline, and Cliff. The bandaid is to try to keep from biffing a scab on my head. I think we have heard of Jillian, Katie but have not tried it. Sounds wicked.

I read your story, Caroline and enjoyed it. Had not heard that one before.

We will  go to the Easter Service today and then think about packing.

day 99, at sea

Thanks for your comment, Susie. You are right on all counts. But we are getting very excited!

day 97, final Southampton videos

day 97, leaving Southhampton, videos

Trying to upload videos. Met some nice new people in the Churchill Lounge and at dinner.

day 97, leaving Southampton, UK for the USA

Thanks for your comments Katie, Ashley, and Sarah. The only reason I took videos of Trivia was it was our last ame together so it was very lucky we won.
Sorry we won't be there for Easter, Sarah. Good luck with the orchestra.
Right now, 6pm, we are in the English Channel on our way.1700 people embarked today. The QM2 is doing the whole 9 yards as if  it were a brand new cruise.
I'm having trouble posting videos so will try again tomorrow morning.

day 96, at sea

Thanks for your comment, Susie. That makes it all worthwhile!
Love, Mom

day 96, at sea, Trivia

                                            Sandra        Ellen        Mom       Drew         Dad

This is the last trivia game with the "Cruisers 5". Two of our team are leaving in Southampton tomorrow. They are from Scotland.

day 94, Gibraltor

day 94, at sea, just before we left Barcelona

day 94, at sea, last vid of Barcelona

day 94, at sea, more vids of Barcelona

We just passed close to Gibraltor. Will post videos later.

day 94, vids 1 and 2 of Barcelona

Sorry, videos didn't upload on last blog. I'll try again.

day 94, at sea, pic and vids of Barcelona

day 94, at sea, last 2 Nice videos

day 94, at sea, final Nice videos

day 94, at sea, oh yeah, more Nice videos

day 94, at sea, almost done Nice videos

day 94, at sea, ho hum, more Nice videos

day 94, at sea, still more Nice videos

day 94, at sea, even more Nice videos

day 94, at sea, even more Nice videos

day 94, at sea, even more Nice videos

day 94, at sea, more Nice vidoes

Well, we exercised again today. Trying to get back in the saddle. We are going to be busy the first few days back home. Talk about trying to get back in the saddle! We will email our schedule so you will know where we are.

day 94, at sea, more Nice videos

Thanks for your comment, Ashley. The cruise does seem to be just about the right length. As Mom pointed out to me, however, maybe our thinking is trying to match the fact that the cruise is coming to an end.

day 93, Barcelona, Nice videos

What was different about Nice was you could sort of understand the language. So, if you got lost, you could do something about it. Try that, for example, in China.The next day in Barcelona has been fun. Lovely day, walked around a bit, nice lunch at a sidewalk cafe, and some shopping.

Thanks for your comment, Cliff, and the trivia info. Tonight, believe it or not, we head for our next port ... Southampton, England, and then New York City (no stop at Gibraltor but we will see it and maybe Morocco on the other side)! We can hardly believe it. Getting VERY excited to see everyone.

By the way, the Nice videos loaded a little bit out of order (3,4,1,2 instead of 1,2,3,4)

day 93, more pics of Nice

This is from our tour of Nice.

day 93, Barcelona, pictures of Nice and Monaco

Today we are in Barcelona ... ole!!

day 92, Nice and Monaco, more Civetavecchia videos

day 92, Nice and Monaco, Civetavecchia videos

Thanks for your comment Katie. We missed your comment or email about Rhys Bowen! Will tell Mom. I just woke up (it's midnight) so will upload a few videos before I go back to bed. It does seem like the cruise is winding down  now that we are in the Mediterranean. Tomorrow we are in Barcelona. Had a wonderful day in Nice today.

day 92, Civetavecchia pictures

day 92, Moaco,Monte Carlo, Nice

Thanks for your comment, Katie. That sounds VERY exciting. Who's your publisher, do you have a new agent?
Interested to know how you are changing the plot. How does James Ridell work into it. Are Alan and Harriet still in it the same way? Many questions.

We are touring Nice and the Little Train today. We'll post some pictures of Civetavecchia later.

day 91, Italy, final Suez video

day 91, Italy, Suez videos 4 (cont'd)

day 91, Italy, Suez videos 34(cont'd)

day 91, Italy, Suez videos 4 (cont'd)

day 91, Italy, Suez videos 4 (cont'd)

day 91, Italy, Suez videos 4

Now it's getting sunny so maybe we will go ashore this afternoon. We have to get our passports stamped in about 45 minutes.

day 91, Italy, Suez videos 3 (cont'd)

It is too windy to dock at the port so we are circling for a while.

day 91, Italy, Suez videos 3 (cont'd)

day 91, April 13, Civitavecchia, Italy, Suez videos 3

Thanks Ashley and Cliff for your comments. They make doing the write-ups worthwhile!

We arrive in Italy this morning and will spend some time in the town of Civitavecchia. We have been to Rome before and are a bit tired of big cities (plus it is an hour away) so will not be "touring" there.

We are getting excited to see everyone! Mom has gone through our 2 suitcases of souvenirs for everyone and started organizing it. At least they don't have to be wrapped up in Christmas paper! She did think of a poem or two, like "We hope these gifts don't fail ya, Cause we bought them in Australia". Shakespeare would be proud!

We have been playing Trivia a lot and have a pretty good team of 6 (2 from Scotland and 2 from NY). Altogether we have won 3 times. The prize is a little ticket which can be turned in for prizes.

Yesterday, a helicopter flew by the window as we were sitting in the Churchill Lounge. It was from a Greek warship as we passed by Cyprus or Crete.

More Canadians on board  than at the beginning, most of the Australians have left, and more British got on at Dubai.

 Can't wait to start packing up ... ugh! 

day 90, at sea, suez vids 2

This is a summary of the three videos I had to leave out because they were too big to upload.

Something interesting is that the Suez Canal splits Africa and Asia.

The French under Napoleon were the first to survey how the canal might be built. Originally the thought was to connect the Red Sea to the Nile but this was later abandoned. Anyway, the French engineers concluded that there is a 10 m difference between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea and so the idea was scrapped. Later, British engineers proved that they were wrong and that there was no difference. The French got permission and built the Canal with Egyptians for 57,000,000 pounds. The British focused their efforts on an overland route and a railroad and initially ignored the canal because they didn't think it would work.

Later when Egypt got into financial trouble, the British bought the canal for 4 million pounds so maybe things worked out finally for the British. They kept it until 1955 when Egypt nationalized the canal and triggered the Suez crisis. The British people never forgave Prime Minister Anthony Eden for losing the canal.

Asmalea is a city halfway along the canal on lake Tisman or Crocodile Lake. Also something interesting Mom heard is that the water goes north for part of the year and then south for part of the year.

day 90, at sea, more Suez Canal videos 2

Thanks for your comment, Katie. The trip has definitely been life-changing. Now, we have to figure out how!
By the way, I've just left out 3 videos because they are too long. Next blog, I'll try to summarize them for you.

day 90, at sea (3pm, just passing Sicily thru the Strait of Messena)

Tuesday, April 12.

Thanks Ashley and Sarah for your comments on yesterday's blog. In a way, Sarah, the time has gone really fast and in another way it seems like ages since we have seen all of you. We found after a month or so we have lost some of the excitement we had it first. I am getting a bit tired of having to get all dressed up for dinner. I don't think I will ever wonder where my long formal dresses again! I think granddad is tuxedoed out.

Ashley, I was shocked to learn there are three pirate attacks a week, too. I know it would be impossible for them to board the Queen Mary because the distance from the sea to the deck is huge but when you see guards standing all over the place you can't help but feel there must be some danger. Perhaps they were just there to help some other little ship that got attacked (I hope). Just the presence of armed guards is a bit disconcerting. The other day we were on a tour (more about that later) and there were six of us in a jeep-like vehicle plus a driver and a guard with a machine gun! You can't help but think, "why exactly do we need this?" When we heard days ago there were 20 Gurkhas on board we believe did at first and later thought that it was just a rumor but have just found out it is true. They are, however, permanently employed-not just for dangerous waters. I guess a big cruise ship, especially one as well known as the Queen Mary, is always a target for terrorists.

Now for Egypt. A few weeks ago, when we were both sick with bad colds and in a very hot and humid place we looked at the tours coming up and decided we really would not be up for a 14 hour trip to see the Valley of the Kings, so we canceled it. Ira grabbed this a bit now because when the time came we felt fine and the weather was lovely also, all the people who went on the tour said it was fantastic (the guide even spoke English you can understand). We, however, played hookey from educational pursuits and went to a posh hotel for a lovely day at the pool and a great lunch. We had a very relaxing day with Karen and Jim and felt we had been debriefed from all the different cultures we had experienced-a different one every day. Probably dad's pictures tell the story better than I can. Unfortunately, the video I took of him going down the big waterslide can't be put on the blog (actually it is on the blog) because it is too long (I forgot to turn the camera off).

The next day we had one of the most interesting experiences of the whole trip. We started out on the Jeeps with the guard with a machine gun. There were about 20 Jeeps-six passengers per jeep. The tour was described as "an exciting ride on the dunes in the desert". It wasn't at all what I expected. We went really really fast on a flat surface with rocky hills on either side. The Jeeps were all over the place and it seemed like dragracing. It was really fun for about 10 min. but then lost its appeal (very bumpy and no seatbelts). We stopped for about 10 min. and it was very weird to realize we were in the Sinai desert with armed guards all around. I think we got some good pictures.

Next thing on the agenda was the main attraction-camel riding. If you ever get a chance to do this be sure to do it because it is absolutely HORRIBLE. Very glad to do it once but you couldn't pay us enough money to do it again (well that's not exactly true but you know what I mean). Everyone with this feels the same so it is not just that we are big wimps. Not too many pictures or videos because you absolutely cannot let go once you are on the camel. You get on the camel when the camel is sitting down but it stands up with its hind legs first so you're almost catapulted over its head! Little children leave the camels. At first, dad's camel's head was right against my leg which frightened me because they are known to bite and spit. Dad told me later that his camels mouth was tied shut but I was too traumatized to notice this at the time. The little children let us (slowly thank goodness) for about half an hour-25 min. too long. Many people-especially the man found this very very uncomfortable but that was not my problem. I had to hold on so tightly to avoid falling off that my wrists and arms were killing me. The little girl leave my camel led me away from the group and at first I liked this because it meant I was not going to be bitten by someone else's camel but then I had a terrible suspicion that I had been chosen to be separated from the group to become an Al Qaeda hostage-or worse! Fortunately dad was finally able to communicate with his camel leader that he wanted to turn around and right beside me.

After getting off the camel-almost as difficult as getting on-we arrived at the Bedouin's camp (some pictures I think). We were served an interesting sweet tea and flatbread with goat cheese (very tasty). I guide spoke to us about the Bedouin culture and their religion (Moslem). You could also try a water pipe and a few people did but we decline for two reasons. One-what are you smoking? And two-everyone was using the same thing you put in your mouth. Yuck!

They had a table selling jewelry they had made and I bought six things for $10 but it got lost on the ride back if they had been selling bumper stickers saying "Death to Camels" I would've bought one!

Altogether it was a wonderful day and we arrived back at the ship tired, sore, but happy!

Next time I will write about the Suez Canal but dad's videos do a great job so I don't really have much to say.

day 90, at sea, Suez videos 2 (cont'd)

These were BIG uploads!

day 90, at sea, Suez videos 2

Thanks for your comments Sarah and Ashley. You hit the nail on the head, Ashley. One of the things this cruise has done is made us realize that the news involves real people. We have been talking with Karen and Jim about this cruise ending. In one sense it seems like we have been on it forever. But then it seems to have gone by very quickly. All of us are ready though to go home and very excited to see everybody.

day 89, at sea, suez canal 1 videos

day 89, at sea, Suez Canal videos 1

day 89, at sea, Suez Canal videos 1

day 89, at sea, Mom's write-up of Dubai and sea-days to Red Sea

Haven't written anything since my long saga about Cochin but I know dad has pretty much kept you up on things.

After Cochin we had a few relaxing sea days before Dubai and as you know dad went to the dentist. Thank goodness he could do this because he had lost a crown on one side and a big failing it came out on the other side so he really couldn't chew at all. The dentist put a temporary filling in but it is over DK so must get back to Dr. Harle if auto water as soon as possible-probably mid-May.

I went shopping with Bob and Kathy (the people who run the mariner club). They gave us the video camera. We went to the gold souk and although my shopping was successful (not telling what I bought, Eliza, but I think someone I know is having a 12th birthday soon). I was a little disappointed in the souk itself as it was just a shopping center and I expected something more exotic. If you go back and look at pictures I think you can see a big brown arch that says gold souk-that was it! Inside it is just stores. They do come out and harass you so I guess you could say that is a bit exotic!

Karen and Jim took the big tour of Dubai and told us they saw I huge indoor ski center. Can you believe it? This is a hot climate and the hills were big-even an expert Hill.

After Dubai we had several sea days again and we had to exciting things happen one was the pirate drill when I know dad took some videos. The other thing was a little more startling. We had just sat down for dinner when the Commodore came on over the loudspeaker and in a very calm voice said that there had been a report that a large object the size of a person had been seen going over the side. We were instructed to immediately returned to our state room and remain there with our door open until further notice. The funny thing was that after a few seconds of stunned disbelief we were the only ones to follow instructions.

Once all the passengers were accounted for, the crew had to go to their gathering place and be counted. Meanwhile the ship had turned around and there were searchlights scanning the sea. Fortunately nobody was missing and we never did find out what happened. Dinner was delayed a couple of hours so we certainly enjoyed it when we got it!

The trip from Dubai to Egypt was on eventful-thank goodness! We felt very well protected but it was disconcerting to see lookout guards on each side of the ship and probably in other places that we couldn't see. We were very close to places we have all heard of in the news-Persian Gulf, strait of Hormuz, gulf of Oman, gulf of Aden (pirate area, Yemen on one side Somalia on other). Then into the comparative safety of the Red Sea. By the way there are three pirate attacks per week!

More later on Egypt and Suez Canal.

day 89, at sea, last sharm el sheikh video

day 89, at sea, final sharm el sheikh videos

day 88,sharm el sheikh videos

day 88, suez canal, more vids of sharm el sheikh

The Suez Canal was fascinating. We left the Canal and went into the Mediterranean about 3 pm and are now heading for Rome. Noticeably cooler. I got up at 3am to watch the whole thing. Will post videos in the next day or two.

day 88, suez canal, sharm el sheikh videos.

day 88, suez canal, sharm el sheikh videos.

day 88, suez canal, sharm el sheikh videos

day 88, Suez Canal, Final Sharm el Sheikh pics

day 88, Suez Canal, Sharm el Sheikh pictures

day 88, suez canal, finnal Safaga vids

day 88, Safaga vids

day 88, the Suez Canal

day 88, Suez Canal

day 87, Safaga vids

Camel riding today!!

day 87, Sharm el Sheikh, videos of Hafaga

Day 87, pictures of Safaga

day 86, Safaga, Egypt

Many thanks Ralph and Helen, Sarah, Ashley, Pete, and Sophie for your comments and good wishes. They are much appreciated! ... and I DID luxuriate, Pete.

We arrive in Safaga early this morning. Going on a tour with Jim and Karen to a beach about 40 miles away. I heard there are Stone Fish in the water which can kill you in a few minutes. Don't think we will be swimming in the Red Sea!!

day 85, at sea

Many thanks to Cliff, Ellie, Susie, Katie, and Ashley for your birthday wishes.I had a wonderful day with a bottle of wine from Jim and Karen and a surprise birthday cake at dinner. Couldn't have been better. We even managed to exercise again today. A bonus was we won at Trivia!

day 85, at sea

Thanks for your comments Susie, Ashley, and Cliff.

We're sore this morning from exercising but will keep trying!

Well into the Red Sea. Mom told me the red-colored mountains near the Red Sea caused early sailors to call it the Red Sea. Who Knew?

day 84, at sea

Thanks Sarah, Katie, and Cliff for your comments. We are going ashore at Safaga, Egypt with our friends Karen and Jim to the town and maybe go to the beach. Then  2 days later we are going camel riding and will meet some Bedouins in the desert.
Tonight on the way to our cabin we met a woman passenger dressed up sort of formally in a pirate outfit! I should have said, "Aaargh!". We're still trying to figure that one out.

day 84, at sea

It's a beautiful day and we are now in the Red Sea. Goodbye to the Gulf of Aden!! We arrive at Safaga, Egypt  on Friday. Trivia, Bingo, and more Trivia today. We are now 7 hours ahead of you.

day 84, at sea

 The big news today is HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ELLIE!! Hope you have a good one.

Thanks for your comment, Katie.Today we pass through a narrow strait into the Red Sea.
We went to a lecture by the Naval Commander who liaises with the war fleet and found out we are going much too fast and the sides of the ship are too high for pirates. Also, there are lookouts around the ship and help could be here within 30 minutes ( a helicopter gunship). So, it sounds pretty safe.
Will let you know when we are in the Red Sea.

Finally, after many weeks, we restarted exercising!

day 83, at sea

Thanks for your comments, Ashley, Jess (funny!), Sarah, and Sophie. We are in the hall to stay away from any outside windows in case somebody starts shooting. The Arabian Sea goes into the Gulf of Oman, then through the Strait of Hormuz to Dubai (close to Iran). Now, we are going through he Gulf of Aden toward the Red Sea.

day 82, at sea

I misspoke. We are going through the Gulf of Aden tonight and tomorrow - Somalia on one side, Yemen (in the news today!) on the other. Uh, oh. We went through the Gulf of Oman yesterday.

day 82, at sea

Thanks for your comments, Katie and Rachel. We knew about the Wave bldg but didn't see it. As far as doing this cruise another 10 times (can you believe it?) ... not likely.

We'll let you know when we're out of the Gulf of Oman.

day 82, Pirate Drill

We just had our Pirate Drill. Here are some videos.Tomorrow morning, April 5, we head into the Gulf of Oman for one day, "pirate country" (Somalia). There is a British naval officer on board who is liaising with warships in the Red Sea.

day 82, Dubai videos

day 82, at sea, pirate drill at 10:30am

Some comments about Dubai. There is smog, it looks like a foogy day. The store people reach out for you to get you into their store ... and they bargain. The Gold Souk, which sounds exotic, is just a bunch of stores selling gold stuff (a lot of it!), it could be any big city. Except don't hug anybody or you will get arrested! Most people were wearing western clothes. Mom thinks you would see more women wearing Burkhas in NYC! But she was just in a tourist area. Mom, Bob, and Kathy took the shuttle to a shopping center but wanted to go to the Gold Souk. They took a taxi and it practically brought them back to the ship! Interesting because in  most other ports because of the size of the QM2 we docked far away at a container port. Some people had to take a water taxi for their Tour.

My dentist was great. All modern equipment and he went to NYU!