Happy Birthday to Fred Chan and Chris Kelley!

As you might imagine, returning back to the office after such a long time away there was a lot of correspondence to catch up on and many meetings with most of the administrative team to be brought up to date on events since being away. Today I met with Don Judges who is chairing our strategic planning committee to get an update on the status of that group’s activities and to think about the survey that we will be sending out to a sampling of our alums and bar leaders. We will be working with the Survey Research Center on campus to accomplish this and to ensure a sound survey both in substance and sampling.

Prof. Flaccus stopped by to visit about the status of the courtyard gardens and we walked around to see where new plants needed to be ordered or plants needed to be replaced. We thought about additional plantings around the east side of the building and where the funding might come from to pay for those additional plants. Meanwhile on the home front, my air conditioning went out and I had to get home a little bit early to meet the air conditioning service technician to find out whether the news was bad or very bad. As it turned out, the unit which was the original unit in the house when it was built, was completely caput. That meant I was looking at replacing the entire unit. When the tech looked at the furnace he pointed out that it was also the original furnace. It had some pretty serious deficiencies, so it was best to replace it too, the idea being that the new units would help to pay for themselves in terms of energy efficiency over time, even though it was going to be an expensive proposition. Sigh. That was Monday.

Thursday morning I got up early. My flight was leaving at 9:00 a.m. or so and as part of her 75^th birthday gift, I was taking my mom with me to Torrey Pines. She’s such a big Tiger Woods fan and she really wanted to see Torrey Pines and she had never been to LaJolla, California. I had to leave a little bit earlier because I had to stop and pick her up before we headed to the airport. We arrived at the airport in time but both our flights were delayed. In fact when we got to Dallas it was such a close connection that we had to make a “run” for it. I ended up sort of pulling mom a little bit through the airport. She and I both were winded by the time we got to our gate only to arrive there and find out that that flight was also delayed. We arrived so late at Torrey Pines that the other board members and the staff of the NALP Foundation had left for dinner before we got there, so we missed the arranged transportation. We checked in, took our luggage to our rooms, freshened up a bit and caught a cab into downtown LaJolla for dinner. The weather was beautiful in San Diego. I still felt a little bit tired, but I was glad I had napped on the flight from Heathrow and gone to bed right away when I returned home or it would have been pretty hard to make it Thursday.

The next day, Wednesday, July 16, it was time to return to Fayetteville. Carol and I had a flight that left at 1:00 p.m., so we were pretty much at the end of the cue for disembarkation. Our tags required us to meet in the Colony Lounge, but that wasn’t until 9:00 a.m. which was really late, at least in terms of the disembarkation procedure. We had a leisurely breakfast in the dining room and headed up to the Colony Lounge to wait to be allowed to disembark. Let me digress a bit. One of the things that happens the night before disembarkation is that you must take care of your tab. At the beginning of the cruise you provide either a credit card or a cash deposit for all your expenditures on the ship. Your door key card acts as a charge card. There are no cash transactions on the ship other than exchanging U.S. currency (for in our case, Euros). All the accounts are run the night before disembarkation and the bill slipped under the door. Those with an outstanding balance had to clear it up before being allowed to disembark. We were all fine with that. Back to the narrative, we got off the ship eventually and found that the Royal Carribean disembarkation process (at least on the Brilliance of the Seas) was very efficient.

I forgot to mention earlier that the last evening of the cruise was the time to tip the staff who served you during your cruise (i.e., your cabin steward, waiters, etc.). The cabin steward put envelopes in the room for the steward, the waiter, the assistant waiter, the head waiter (who we never met, so we didn’t know why we should tip him). There were suggested amounts for each of those crew members. Royal Carribean has an option to prepay your tips (so much per day), and we’d selected to do that so we were in good shape. We put a little bit of cash in the envelopes to give the people who had been good to us an extra tip. Our waiters, Navin and Vicky, had been very good to us for the duration of the cruise given that you might imagine we were a rowdy table. The way it worked if you prepaid was that you got a voucher and you put the voucher in the envelope that you handed that to the appropriate party.

We got off the ship, went to the baggage carousel and easily found our luggage. Our problem was not being reunited with our luggage, it was obtaining transportation to the airport. We waited in line for an hour and twenty minutes for a taxi because everybody gets off the ship that morning and the queue was incredibly long. One alternative would have been to take the cruise ship’s transportation to the airport. The problem with that was you went on a huge bus and you had to wait until everybody who was taking that bus gets on. In other words, it was like an airport shuttle that left once it was full. I’m not sure, but it seemed to me that it might be six of one and half a dozen of the other. I waited in the line and Carol stood up front with our luggage. Once I got to the front of the queue we hauled our luggage over and got in the taxi to the airport.

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The last day of the cruise was spent at sea which meant that there were a lot of activities on board. One of the main focuses of the newsletter that day was the disembarkation procedures which you don’t think about when you get on the ship, but it can make a great deal of difference at the end of the cruise when you have to make your flight connection and find your luggage. We found the disembarkation procedure on this cruise was very efficient. Each cabin received luggage tags of a certain color. Each color was assigned a place to go (to the lounge or theater or wherever) to wait to disembark the ship. Marjorie was leaving early so she had special colored tags. She was allowed to get off the ship early and her luggage was the first unloaded from the ship. Since Carol and I had a late flight the next day we weren’t very worried about that, but we had previously experienced before the pain of trying to find luggage once it was offloaded. On a previous cruise it was put in the luggage area in no certain order, but we were to find out the next day that Royal Carribean was very organized. The luggage came out on the same kind of baggage carrousels as at the airport. It was offloaded corresponding to the time you got off the ship. You put your luggage outside the door by (depending on the cruise line) 11:00 p.m., midnight or 1:00 a.m. It’s always late in the evening, so you have to be thinking about what things you can leave for your carry-on and what clothes you want to wear, otherwise all your stuff will be gone. Since you know that you’re going to be reunited with the luggage once you get off the ship, it doesn’t matter if you keep your toiletries overnight because you can put them back in your suitcase when you get off the ship. It’s the same thing with pjs. You just need a carry-on bag that is big enough to hold everything until you get off the ship and get reunited with your luggage. Since it was a day at sea we looked forward to relaxing. We fortunately had started packing earlier, a couple of days before the end of the cruise, knowing what it was like to try to get it all done at the last minute. I digress.

In preparation for returning to the real world, we all spent time checking e-mail, but afterwards we were determined to have one last relaxing day before we had to return to reality. I made my last walk around the Promenade Deck looking at the ocean and being very grateful for the opportunity to have had such a wonderful experience. We ate breakfast in the formal dining room as you might have guessed. There were a number of activities that day. Let me give you a sampling of them. There was a fitness class, rock climbing, miniature golf, tai chi, a caricaturist, a belly dance class, a beginner’s karate class, beginning piano lessons, an historical lecture on artists and musicians of Catalan, Barcelona, and a towel folding demonstration. Let me explain that last one. Every day in the room the towels would be folded in the shape of various animals. The towel folding demonstration was to explain how to do that, which was not very exciting to us. There was also a dollar origami class, Argentine tango dance class, and beginner Spanish class. That gives you an idea of some of the activities on board that last day of the cruise.

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The next morning we woke up docked in Naples, Italy. Our newletter described Naples as: “Not only picturesque, but one of the world’s greatest cultural centers filled with extraordinary works of art and architecture in the classical Greek and Roman styles. While here you will want to visit Pompeii, one of the most famous excavation sites in the world.” And in fact, that is exactly what we had opted to do on our excursion which was entitled “Taste of Sorrento and Pompeii.” In case you’re thinking “there seems to be this real food thing going on here,” you are absolutely right. We did pick several excursions that had tasting experiences. Our excursion booklet had this to say about Sorrento: “Sorrento is a popular resort destination due to its charming atmosphere, breathtaking location and local cuisine. Combining a visit to Sorrento with the moving archeological ruins of Pompeii makes this tour an unforgettable experience.” We were looking forward to it.

Specifically, one of the things that drew us to this particular excursion was that once we got to Sorrento we were to visit a local farmhouse nestled in the hills. There a family produced mozzarella cheese, fresh vegetables, olives and lemons, and that sounded pretty promising to us. We were to enjoy some demonstrations and a taste of mozzarella cheese, fresh tomatoes, salami and bread in a peaceful setting of lemon and olive trees. It turned out to be as good as we expected. This was a long excursion, about nine hours. As we later came to find out, it was a good thing we started with a leisurely morning because the end of the day was well, not so much. Now I know that Naples had been described as a center of culture and art, but the view that we saw upon arrival was not one that would encourage me to return, I’m sorry to say. It looked pretty bleak and sad. It had the feeling of a neglected port city. I don’t think the weather helped much either because it was overcast the city had a feeling of real gloominess. It also had a hard edge to it. Maybe that first impression was not an accurate one, but it certainly was striking and memorable.

Our route to Sorrento from Naples took us via the Autostrada and the Campanian coastal route to Sorrento. This was a really lovely drive and we stopped several times for photos looking down at the Amalfi Coast. The Amalfi Coast is a stretch of coastline on the southern side of the Sorrentine Peninsula of Italy in the province of Salerno. It extends from Positano in the west to Vietri sul Mare in the east. For a little bit more about the Amalfi Coast, see the website http://www.amalficoast.com. We stopped at several outlooks to take picture of the beautiful coastline. Afterwards, we wound up the hills through the town of Sorrento where our tour guide pointed out our future meeting point after our visit to the farmhouse. We then wound through town up to the farmhouse. It was exactly as it had been described, a peaceful little farmhouse nestled amidst olive and lemon trees.

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Sunday was a nice quiet day at sea and our Cruise Compass (the newsletter for the ship) said: “A day at sea can only mean one thing – big fun!” Well, we weren’t looking for big fun, we were just looking forward to a relaxing day on the deck, reading and visiting with each other. We took some time that day to check our e-mails because we were reminded that we would soon be going back to reality and it was better to find out what was going on than to wait until we returned.

The day got off to a leisurely start. I walked around the Promenade Deck in the morning and met Carol and Marjorie for breakfast in the main dining room. As you know from the earlier postings, we were very glad to be able to eat in the dining room rather than in the buffet line. Because it was a day at sea, there were a number of activities scheduled. We went to a few of them but, as I said, we really were looking for a nice quiet day. One of the things we did go to check out was the Olympic Belly Flop Competition. I guess I should clarify when I say we, Marjorie wasn’t interested but Carol and I thought it would be pretty funny and it was. Some of the other activities that day included a yoga class, a tai chi class, a beginning Spanish class, the movie “Evan Almighty,” digital camera tips, a ping pong tournament, a secrets to a flatter stomach class, “who says you can’t cook” cooking demonstration, family bingo, beginner piano lessons. That gives you a sense of the many activities offered that sea day.

It was a wonderful day spent reading, dozing, chatting, and just enjoying the beautiful ocean view and quiet down on the Promenade Deck. Not many people sat there because most people tended to sit up by the pool area. The pool area tended to be noisy with a band and the bars, but there was a pretty regular group of folks who came down to the quiet areas. Everyone respected the fact that we were all there for the quiet. It was a very, very relaxing afternoon.

That evening dinner was formal and we took a formal portrait together, the three of us. There were a number of evening activities, including a mini rumba dance. The show that evening was entitled “Tango Buenos Aires” and it was very fiery, sensual dancing. It was great. We really enjoyed that performance. The movie, “The Bourne Ultimatum” was also showing that night, there was a Texas hold ‘em poker tournament, and the disco had the Rat Pack music hour.

We didn’t attend any of those other things, but we did go to something called the “Battle of the Sexes” game show in the Colony Club. The Cruise Director’s staff solicited people from the audience (men against women) and we thought it was going to be a battle of wits. I was tempted to go up but I’m glad that I didn’t because it turned out to be cheesy things like having to sit on a balloon or pass a balloon to somebody else or a spoon or those kinds of silly games like that. We watched, but didn’t participate. Later that evening we watched the karaoke superstar search. I think I told you before that karaoke on the ship was no different than karaoke locally, that is it can be pretty awful and pretty amusing but there were some surprisingly talented singers. That was a lot of fun. After that we turned in because we knew the next day we had an excursion in Naples.

Day 9 we arrived at Piraeus, the largest port in Greece and the main port of Athens. The night before we watched the preview show and learned that one of the highlights of Athens was shopping. Since we hadn’t done too much serious shopping on the trip so far, we decided to shop in Athens. In fact, we had selected an excursion entitled “Ancient Athens, Plaka and Shopping.” Our excursion book described it as: “Designed for guests who would like a more leisurely visit to Athens, your city drive will take you from Piraeus to Athens covering the main points of interest (both ancient and modern) as your guide provides interesting commentary. First stop will be the pedestrian zone of the Acropolis where your guide will give you a short explanation of the Acropolis and Parthenon (exterior only). From the scenic view, you will be able to photograph the famous Acropolis which stands in the distance on a rocky hill high above Athens. From there you will re-board your coach and go see Hadrian’s Arch, the Temple of Olympian Zeus, Constitution Square, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier Parliament, the Academy, the University, and the National Library. At the end, at the conclusion of your orientation drive, you will arrive at the most suitable point for entering Plaka. Plaka is a maze of cobblestone pedestrian streets with shops, boutiques, souvenir stands and flea market stalls.” We were to have about an hour and a half to shop and that sounded just fine to us. Because our excursion was only four hours long, we each had time that morning to check e-mails, and I completed my morning walk around the Promenade Deck again. Carol and Marjorie stretched out for a little while and read a book. There was a nice leisurely pace to the day.

At lunch time, we went up to the Windjammer Café because unfortunately the formal dining room was not open. As I may have mentioned before, our preference was to go down to the main dining room for meals because there was much less chaos and it was much quieter. We liked the service rather than having to elbow our way through the buffet. We didn’t have that option, so our tactic was to go in to the buffet area, grab a light salad and then go out and sit in the quietest area adjacent to the buffet dining hall.

After lunch we went ashore and boarded our bus for our excursion to Athens. Driving through the city of Athens, I was taken with it. I’m not really sure what it was, it just felt very comfortable. I felt at ease in the city and it seemed somehow oddly familiar even though I had never been there before. It’s certainly somewhere that I’d like to return to visit. It was nice, frankly, to sit on the bus and get a tour of the city. Our route wound up and around a hill with beautiful views of the Saronic Gulf. Suddenly we came around a corner and there was our first view of the Acropolis. It was from a distance, but it still was a magnificent site. I know I’ve said this before in the previous blog entries for this trip, but it’s very difficult for me to express how amazing it was to see all the many sites on this trip that I had read about in books and seen on television or in movies. Each port reinforced the feeling that we truly picked a fabulous vacation for our joint 50^th birthdays.
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We arrived at Santorini, Greece, another of the Greek Isles. Now I’m going to give away the punch line up front here. Santorini for us–not so much. Neither of us would return there, but more on that later. The description of Santorini from the Daily Cruise Compass (which I mentioned before was our little daily magazine) said, “Black sand beaches, crystal clear waters and white washed villages that cling to volcanic cliffs make the island of Santorini a wonder to behold. Santorini’s spectacular caldera is a vestige of what was probably the biggest volcanic eruption in recorded history, believed by some to have been caused by the disappearance of Atlantis. Make sure you stop at a Santorini wine producer and enjoy a glass of wine” (that part looked promising). We were excited about Santorini, but as I said, “Hmm, Santorini for us, not so much.”

We tendered over to Santorini where we boarded our excursion which was entitled “Pyrgos Village with Mezes and Wine.” It was to be a three hour and thirty minute excursion and we thought that was great because that way we had time to explore on our own afterwards. The night before, we watched the video and it told us “whatever you do, don’t take the donkey path.” The donkeys go from the bottom by the dock up to the top (Fira Town) where the shops and hotels are located. The donkeys have been doing this for centuries and they “own” it… it’s theirs. Apparently, the path was very smelly and slippery and the donkeys play with each other along the cliff. That’s all we needed to hear. We’re not risk takers. One of the passengers on the ship was a little girl whose family decided they did not want to wait for the cable cars to come down, so they walked. As she walked down the donkey path, her sandal got stuck in donkey… well you know. And as she took the next step forward, her foot stepped into… yep you guessed it. She was still crying when we later came across her and her family. We decided that the video had, once again, given us very good advice.

So back to our excursion . . . we boarded a bus and it took us up to the village of Pyrgos, which was a small village that had once been the capital of the island. The view of Santorini from the bus as we climbed the hill and arrived at Pyrgos was really beautiful. The climb up was a little hair-raising though, because the roads are very narrow and twisty-turny and as the bus turned a corner it would cross over into the other lane. The other traffic would stop and let us by, but we thought, “One of these times somebody’s going to come around that corner and cream us.” Fortunately everybody knew the rules of the road. We were very glad that we hadn’t opted to do it on our own, for example by renting a car, because neither of the three of us could have handled that driving or would have wanted to.

Remnants of a Venetian fortress overlooked the village. I have to say that was very, very beautiful. There was also a historical monastery in the Profitis Illias area. The excursion book said that it was closed to tourists, but in fact when we got up there we were able to get in. We took a little time to explore it and it truly had the feeling of a sacred space. Coming down from the monastery, the views of the caldera, our cruise ship and the villages below were spectacular. Once we came down from Profitis Illias, we went back to Pyrgos, a traditional village with old houses and the remains of the Venetian Capital.

It was a hot day again and on our walking tour we climbed up, up, up, but the views were worth it, with the white-washed buildings, the blue sky, the various colored Bougainvillea and all the small churches. It was a postcard picturesque and a photographer’s dream. Our guide explained to us that there were small little chapels all over the island because many of the men who live on Santorini had been or were sailors. They would build these chapels to pray for safe travels and for their safe return. Many of the families owned small, private family chapels and they were beautiful. As I’ve said, it was very much postcard picturesque. I was surprised because it was not at all how I had pictured the Greek Isles. I’d pictured them as fishing villages with boats and nets– more quaint– not bright white with the blue roofs.

After that walking tour we indulged in one of our favorite activities, eating and drinking. We went to a place called Pyrgos Tavern, appropriately named after the city of Pyrgos, where we had a delicious snack. Now I have to point out it was a bit early in the morning, maybe 11:00 a.m., but that didn’t stop us from indulging. We had tomato fritters, fava puree, cheese pies, meatballs, local cheese, tomatoes, and olives. Our cheerful waitress also provided us unlimited wine. It was early, but what the heck, while on vacation, might as well enjoy. It was a nice place, clean, with excellent service, and unlimited wine. Need I say more?

We returned to the bus which headed into Fira Town the shopping district which housed a beautiful cathedral. Rather than shop, we decided to walk around and take pictures because there were so many beautiful vistas. After that because of the heat, we decided to stop and have a little bit of lunch. We went to a restaurant with a great view of the ocean, but terrible food and terrible service, which began our issues with Santorini. It started when couldn’t even get anyone to come to our table to take our order. Once they’d done so, it took a very long time for our food to come. No one never once came back and asked us if we needed anything and our servers had an attitude about collecting our money. That was not a good start.

But more than that, as window shopped the stores in Fira Town, the shopkeepers acted as though they could care less that we were there. They were very disinterested in asking us if we needed anything or if they could help us. Our experience was very, very negative, but what we were later told is that the shopkeepers were very upset because of the number of cruise ships docked there all at once. They preferred it when tourists are spread out over the week. Whatever the issue, the three of us decided that Santorini would not be on the top of our list of places to return. The incident that capped our feelings about it, even though it was beautiful and even though we got great pictures, was this. As we were waiting in the hour and twenty minute line to board the cable car to go back down the hill, we got some cool drinks. There was a pile of garbage and so Marjorie added her cup to the pile of garbage. Well, a shopkeeper came out and yelled at her to remove her cup because that was his pile of garbage and he had the right to have his own garbage, which we thought was, well, garbage. To make a long story short, Santorini, no thanks. We found it to be snotty and unfriendly based on our experience. Maybe we caught it on a bad day.

We were very happy to get up to the front of the line to take the cable car back down to board a tender to the ship. Even I, who have a pretty strong fear of heights, felt it was worth it to experience the cable car. The cars seated six people and I kept thinking, “I hope we are not over the weight limit with our six people.” We invited two skinny people to get in to make sure that we would be fine with the weight limit. I faced backward looking up the hill rather than looking down and that was fine. It was over sooner than you knew. Carol, the engineer in the group, was very calming for the lady sitting next to me also had the same anxieties. Carol talked us through the wonderful engineering feats of the cable car and why we were safe, and that helped a lot. From there, we stood in a thirty-minute line to board a tender. When we got up to the front of the tender line, we saw a table with cool bottles of . . . nope, they had run out. It was torture because we thought there was an oasis, but it was dry. We asked them about it and they said, “Oh, we’re bringing some more cups from the ship,” but by that time, we had boarded the tender.

After dinner, I don’t think there was a big show in the theater. From 8:00-9:00 p.m., the Royal Caribbean singers performed an evening of jazz. That was awesome. If you’re like jazz standards, you would have enjoyed that performance. It was very relaxing after a long hot day in Santorini (never to return). Later that evening we went to watch the “Love and Marriage Game Show” which was a hoot. The activities crew selected newlyweds, people who had been married 10-20 years, 20-30, all the way up to 50 years to participate in a game show similar to the newlywed game. It was hilarious. The couple that won had been married more than 20 years. The questions were quite personal. I can’t believe that people went on stage and shared their business like that, but we were glad they did because it was very entertaining.

Some of the questions were things like “What’s the most unusual place you and your partner made whoopie?” The winning couple’s son was in the audience and he looked to be about 12. The husband said, “Yikes, I don’t want to answer this because my son is out there, but it was on the balcony of our cabin,” The crowd went wild and the son stood and jumped up and down. It was pretty funny. The couple who had been married 60 years was asked the same question. The husband said “in the hammock” and when the wife returned to the stage she said, “That wasn’t me. That must have been somebody else,” and the crowd went wild again. I have to admit, it was pretty funny. It was surprising how much personal information those passengers shared, but we were really glad they did because we really enjoyed it. Following the game show there was a pool side toga party, but we decided “Hmmm, not so much,” and we went to the disco for a little while but then turned in early. That was o.k.; we’d had a pretty full day.

We were already in Kusadasi because we docked there the night before. The exciting thing about Kusadasi (besides being Turkey, which I think is an absolutely fabulous place to visit) was the fact that we would get to go into Ephesus, which has a lot of significance in the New Testament. It was really exciting to be able to go there and to walk the streets that the Apostle Paul walked. We were pretty excited about that. Our excursion was entitled “Highlights of Ephesus with Lunch.” You might have noticed that we tended to favor the excursions with food. What can I say? Our excursion departed first thing in the morning, so we got up early and went to breakfast in the formal dining room (because what fabulous girl turns 50 without being pampered?!) Enough said.

The description of the excursion was a, “tour designed to offer two major sites, the House of Virgin Mary and the City of Ephesus, with lunch. Driving from the pier through the Turkish countryside, you will arrive at the House of Virgin Mary where the blessed virgin is reputed to have spent the last years of her life. The site became famous after the travels of Pope Paul VI, Pope John Paul II, and Pope Benedict XVI. Outside is the fountain of our lady, providing the faithful water from the holy fountain, then you’ll take a 20 minute drive to the entrance of the ancient city of Ephesus that was built on a small hill with the entrance located at the top of the hill and the exit at the bottom.” So, off we went and were looking forward to it.

Our tour guide that day was great. On our ride up to house of the virgin, there were lots of olive groves. There was a little restaurant as you entered the area and a well that was fascinating because the opening of the well was dug in the shape of a key. I later learned that actually it wasn’t a well, but a baptistery with a keyhole shape. From there we walked uphill and saw a statue of the Virgin Mary climbed to what is reputed to have been her last home. Currently, a very small chapel occupies that space.

Outside of the house, there was a wire mesh wall in which the custom was to stick tissues and to say a prayer, which would be granted. We each took out a tissue and stuck it in the wall. Afterwards we walked to the Fountain of Our Lady, the water from which was said to be holy. Our tour guide gave us each a bottle of water, a map, a little Roman coin from the time when Ephesus was thriving, and a little clay water canteen. The idea was to take the canteen and fill it with water from the fountain. I just thought, “There’s no way I’m going to get that water home in my luggage and blah, blah, blah.” But I have to say that my friend Marjorie filled up her little clay jug and did just that. I felt really bad that I hadn’t done that because now I have an empty clay jug that really doesn’t mean anything to me. It would have been pretty nice to have water from the fountain. Anyway, I digress.

We headed back down the hill from the Virgin Mary’s house and then proceeded to the City of Ephesus itself. To walk in Ephesus where St. Paul once walked was a surreal experience. Now, I need to tell you it was incredibly hot that day. There was no shade and everything was dusty and dry, but it didn’t matter because to me it felt like reliving or at least experiencing what the folks who had once lived there might have experienced. It was pretty amazing. Our tour of Ephesus was quite long. Our tour guide was smart, she had an umbrella. Needless to say, we hadn’t thought about protecting ourselves from the sun in that way, but we did have sunscreen on (all three of us) and our bottle of water and with that we ventured forward.

As we entered the City of Ephesus, our tour guide told us that it would be a long, long walk and that was fine. As was true of an earlier excursion, we had the earpieces that were synchronized with her. She had a little microphone, the kind that you wear around your ear that wraps around front of your mouth. With that we could hear her even though there were many other tour groups around us. The first thing I noticed was how even though we were looking at ruins, it was clear that there had been a thriving city. We came to a rather large amphitheater and we were told that it was the place where the elite met to discuss the issues of the day. Right after we passed that, we saw a group of nuns and I thought, “If we’re hot in our tank tops and shorts and skirt, they must really be hot!” But we knew why they were there, too. We walked along with our tour guide and we could clearly discern the streets, including the columns had once served as street signs. Every now and then our guide would stop, let us take photos and catch our breath, and look out over the hillside. We saw the carvings on the pillars, written at street level to identify the business and houses. The long view of them was striking. Ancient walls covered with vegetation showed the tenacity of life as well and the tenacity of man’s creations. The walls still stood after all of those years. As we approached the library of Ephesus, we caught our breath. Even though there were throngs of tourists there, they did not detract from the amazing view coming down the hill towards the library.

On the way to the library we were able to see colorful mosaic tiles in the floor. The reason they hadn’t faded in all these thousands of years in the sun is because the tiles were made out of different types of material so that it wasn’t painted, but in fact the material itself held the colors in the mosaic. We saw homes from long ago as we continued our walk to the library, and the pillars along Hadrian’s way. As we continued walking, we came across a latrine and it’s pretty clear what it was designed for. We were able to take pictures of the long view of one of the main streets of Ephesus.

At last we arrived at the library of Ephesus. What an amazing site!. The library at Ephesus was one of the largest libraries of the ancient world. There were between 12,000 and 15,000 scrolls housed there in the Grand Library of Celsus in Ephesus. It was designed by the Roman architect Vitruoya and it was built in the memory of Celus Polemeanus who was a Roman Senator, Governor of the Province of Asia, and a great lover of books. He was buried beneath the ground floor in a lead container inside a marble tomb. A corridor behind the North wall leads to the vault. If you want to read more about the library of Ephesus, take a look at http://architecture.about.com/library/weekly/aa082201a.htm .

From the library, our tour continued past a very large coliseum . Unfortunately some of the members of our group got lost in there for a little bit including two teenagers who were with us. Our tour guide told us that there are still concerts held in that space and I thought how amazing it would be to be there in the evening with a cool breeze watching a performance there. Pretty amazing.

At just about at the end of our tour, we went to, what I would call an incredibly cheesy staging of supposedly Roman fighting or something. It was super corny. I felt a little bit of sympathy for the actors in their very hot costumes, but not too much sympathy as we had to stand there and pretend to be interested. Quite frankly they held up our tour since most of the folks in our tour group watched, while the rest of us were ready to leave and to get another bottle of water or get out of the sun. The “play” was there for tourists and that was great, but definitely if you’re there without a tour group, I would say it’s on the “skip list.” We exited Ephesus shortly after that cheesy show. Near the exit there were all kinds of vendors and we all stopped to buy some souvenirs. Then it was back on the bus to return to Kusadasi.

Once we arrived in Kusadasi, it was time for- well, yes, foodies- lunch and we were thrilled about that. We ate lunch in what looked like a train museum. It was called “The Wagon” and right next door was a minaret form which you could hear the call to prayer from the mosque. Lunch was absolutely fabulous. If you like Mediterranean food, you would have enjoyed this – fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, olives, cheese, grilled chicken, very well seasoned grilled beef patties, all kinds of wonderful salads, and cool bottled water. It was delicious. Afterwards we had Turkish pastries. After lunch the bus dropped us off at the area right near the docks in Kusadasi. We had the rest of the day until the ship departed to wander around, so we went shopping. This was our first real shopping outing, but we were a little bit hot, so we weren’t the power shoppers that we usually are. We did manage to do a little bit of damage to our pocketbooks.

A couple of funny stories about our shopping spree. First of all, when we got off the bus we were very dusty because, as I told you, it was very dry, windy and dusty in Ephesus. I had some very flat plain black walking shoes on that were covered in the white dust of Ephesus and as we were walking past a shoe store, a vendor said to me, “Oh lady, your shoes, they are so ugly and they are very dirty, too. Please let me sell you some shoes.” We started laughing like, “Wow, that is maybe not the best approach to selling shoes,” – to tell a customer that their shoes are ugly and dirty, but we got a pretty big chuckle out of that. Then later, as I was by myself (my two compatriots had wandered off to look in different stores), I had meandered down a very narrow shopping passage and the vendor came out and saw me looking at shirts and said, “Hello lady, you don’t like that color? No problem, no problem. We have 1X and 2X. We have every size, every color.” Again, it really tickled me because it’s just not quite the flattering thing to say to someone who is thinking of themselves as “Fabulous at 50.” But he was so enthusiastic that it really tickled me. The last story about our shopping excursion is that the vendors targeted Marjorie and I saying, “Oh Beyonce’s soul sister, hey, come see what we have.” We enjoyed goofing off with them.

From what I’ve seen of Turkey (very limited I admit), I love it. I love the people. They’re warm, funny and colorful. I just love it. After shopping a while, we decided “Whoo, we’re pooped,” so we headed back to the ship. Walking back, a fish vendor offered me a ride on the back of his motorcycle. Our ship wasn’t leaving until 11:00 p.m., so he said, “Oh, come party with me. I’ll bring you back to the ship,” but I just didn’t think it was the wisest choice to make. I did get to take a picture in his fish stall. My friends teased me saying, “You can go with him if you want to, but you’re going to come back smelling like fish,” which again was not the most enticing thought.

We found a lovely little restaurant right by the water with a lovely view and there we ordered Turkish beer and appetizers. It was a great way to cool down and relax after a fun day in Kusadasi and Ephesus. Back on board, we headed down to dinner. This was our second formal night on the cruise. For each of the formal nights, we also took a formal night picture. As we ate our fabulous meal for “Fabulous at 50 women”, we looked out the window and said goodbye to fabulous Kusadasi. It had been a fabulous day. After dinner we went to see Bernard Waltz. He was described as Australia’s winning entertainer and he played a lot of classical piano music. I’m not going to call any names, but I’ll just say that two in our party nodded off during Mr. Waltz. They found him more than very relaxing. After his performance we headed up to the casino (believe or not) with Marjorie and she tested her luck there. Later, there was a nostalgia trivia game (we passed on that) followed by dancing to the hits. We went up to the disco and not much was happening, so we called it an early evening. That was day seven of our cruise and it dawned on us that day that we were more than half way done and we were very sad about that. But we all agreed that we were absolutely fabulous at 50 and that we made a very wise decision to take the our fabulous cruise.

To get to Mykonos, we had to tender over. Mykonos is a Greek Isle with a beautiful blue sea, blue sky and white-washed houses. However, when we arrived at Mykonos, the wind was so wild and high that the tenders were banging against the ship. That morning, I walked, Marjorie played bingo, and Carol read a book. We all met for lunch in the formal dining room because our Mykonos excursion was an afternoon one.

When we looked out the window and saw the tender banging against the ship and I said, “I don’t care what is going on, I don’t want to see anything that badly. I’m not going out there and I’m not getting on that ship.” And in fact, that morning, the Captain had warned us about how high the wind was. There was complete agreement within our group, “Nope, we don’t want to see anything that badly,” and we decided we would stay on the ship. Well, about that time, the Captain came on the intercom to say to all the passengers that we would not be going to Mykonos because the conditions were too dangerous to board the tenders, the winds were too high. He’s decided that it was just not worth the danger to the crew and the passengers. That was fine with us because that meant, “Woo hoo!” another day at sea to laze around and do well, not too much.

So, after lunch we put on our bathing suits, stopped and got some pina coladas, and went up to the top deck with our books. But the wind was too high so we left the top deck and we went downstairs to deck 5 (the promenade deck) which had an overhang. We were able to sit out there for the rest of the afternoon, reading, dozing and watching the sea. It was absolutely fabulous. We later learned that apparently a number of passengers were completely outraged by the fact that they couldn’t go to Mykonos. Our thought was to put all of them on a tender and let them go, but of course that’s not very nice to say.

The Captain came on a little bit later in the day to say that he had worked out an arrangement for us to go to our next port early to make up for the fact that we wouldn’t be able to go to Mykonos. Our next port was Kusadasi, Turkey. For those of you who’ve been blog readers from the very beginning, you might remember that one of the earliest positing detailed my trip to Istanbul, Turkey. I have very warm feelings about the Turkish people and Turkey as a country, and have to say that I was very, very sad about the bombings that occurred in Istanbul this summer. I am keeping the people of Istanbul in my thoughts and prayers as they weather the storm of that horrible tragedy.

Back to Mykonos and not being able to dock . . . the Captain came on board and said that he had obtained the right to enter the port of Kusadasi, Turkey early that evening so that folks who were stir crazy, not including the “Fabulous at 50” crew, could get off the ship and go into Kusadasi that night. Opting to stay on board the ship and enjoy the extra day at sea, we got dressed for dinner. After dinner, we went to the evening show, which was entitled “Now and Forever.” It was songs from Broadway and it was pretty fun. I really enjoyed that show. The show featured the Royal Caribbean singers and dancers and I tell you, they went through all the different Broadway shows. I have to confess, and I know some are going to poke fun, my favorite was the songs from Mama Mia. We were dancing, singing and having a good time! Welcome to middle age, you’ll be there one day, too.

After that we went up to the request hour at the disco, danced a bit, requested a few tunes, then we went down to catch a game called “Name that Romantic Tune.” We weren’t very good at it, but that was o.k. because there were a many current songs about which we had to say, “o.k., I don’t have a clue.” We were thinking (I was at least… I won’t speak for my two compatriots) that the game would focus on the old standards, but there’s romance from every decade and well, I have to admit, we didn’t do too well on the recent decade. We needed the help of a youngin’ to win. The waiters, who were much younger than us, had mercy on us and gave us hints, and in fact answers, but we didn’t want to cheat, so we didn’t yell them out. After that humiliating experience ;-), we went to Karaoke Star Search which was quite remarkable, for a number of reasons. Then we walked out on the deck and watched all the people who were going into Kusadasi and coming back and that, in itself, was a very entertaining site.