I am typing this while we are traversing the Panama Canal. It is very hot today but I spent some time in the shade aft where there is a good breeze. This is my fourth time through the canal.

We were at Cartagena, Columbia yesterday and I did do a walk about but didn’t try to get to the old walled city since all aboard was 1:30 pm and it was quite hot. I did keep up the tradition of the local beer.

Monday we will be in Puntarenas, Costa Rica, then Corinto, Nicaragua which is a new port and I have a tour planned. After that we hit Puerto Vallarta and Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, then San Diego, Vancouver and off in Seattle. Rich and Jo Ann are scheduled to visit me and the ship in San Diego and I am quite excited about seeing them.

It was very bad on our formal night at least in the Queen’s Lounge. A man sat next to me in Bermuda shorts and a Hawaiian shirt and I looked across and there was another man in a T shirt with some sort of logo. There were a lot of people who did not dress for a formal occasion.

The average weight of the people on board; men 250 and women 200. It is also very crowded even though I don’t believe there are that many more but how they use their time. On the World Cruise many more are taking their time in their cabins or going to the lectures and reading not all milling around at the same time. I had problems getting a seat at the Lido for breakfast at 7:00.

These are not just my sentiments but others who are remaining on board agree with me. It is amazing how the officers are becoming my best friends as they also feel the vacuum of seeing known faces. I have actually taken Barbie’s place in the Crow’s Nest talking to Peter the Purser. At the Captain’s cocktail party I had an officer chat with me for several minutes who I recognized but hadn’t chatted with before and I don’t even know his name. I think with these observations you will get a feel for what I and other holdovers are feeling.

I probably will never do a transition like this again. I am sure it is ok for couples but there is not much for a single to do. All the staff try their best to fill the void and I do enjoy special benefits. Made, Robby, Rex, Larry, Jerry, Renado and all the rest keep me company.

The world cruise is over and I am typing this on the 2nd day. In other words the day after Fort Lauderdale. What a difference and quite sad that there are so few I know on the ship. Only 33 passengers continued and I have seen about 11 of them. A lot of staff are the same but there are a lot of new ones.

The crowd is a little younger but mostly couples. I have not seen that many singles. I was exhausted and losing my voice so I went to bed right after dinner and did not go to the single event. The Barrys were at our table and a new couple who are very nice and quite witty. I will get their names soon.

Before dinner I met a gay couple Craig and his friend and enjoyed talking to them. A couple of Aussies. We have about 600 Canadians. I also met a Canadian couple who are fun names Paul and Ann. So I am meeting new people. I also met a young man who is traveling with extended family including aunts and grandparents.

Tonight is a formal night so it will be interesting to see if everyone dresses. We will have four formals. In all.

I received a bottle of champagne, chocolate dipped strawberries and two dinners at the Pinnacle so I combined them and will invite someone to join me.

I have lost my voice again and hopefully will have it back soon.

Funchal, Madeira, Portugal is a magnificent place. I could easily live there. Very picturesque and , of course, Tony acted as our guide since he is originally from Portugal. Tony, Shirley and I walked the town. There was a big market and these fish were the longest fish for their size that I have ever seen. They almost looked like an eel.

The streets are paved in small stones and these are some of the workers doing the paving. Hard to walk on but helps to make the city charming.

We did stop for a Portuguese coffee and pastry and later got an excellent local beer. Dolly, one of the oldest ladies on the ship, stopped by and this is a photo of Tony and Dolly. Dolly is a legend but mainly in her own mind.

This afternoon I plan to pack up two of my bags which I will send home from Fort Lauderdale since I have free shipping The sea is rough today and it just seems like something to do since walking is out of the question.

We had an exciting event in Cartagena, Spain, when our Amsterdam met the New Amsterdam. We did take a tour of the new ship and it is beautifully appointed but it is big. Our ship looks like a baby ship. The New Amsterdam holds about 2200 passengers. My favorite bartender from last year, Ogie, and his wife, Lea, were coming over to visit friends and we were able to talk for a few minutes.

Since we were in Cartagena for such a short time we were not able to see much other than the new ship but we did get a local beer.

We had another CSI party and it was fun as usual. And we had the roaring 20s formal. Peggy and her daughter, Judy, are always dressed for the occasion.

In Cadiz, Spain Joan, Joe and I took the hop on hop off bus on Palm Sunday. There were processions but unfortunately our bus couldn’t go near one because of barriers. Everything was closed so Joe and I spent an hour at the beach watching the people on the promenade. We did have lunch by the Cathedral and Joe got the accordion player to perform for us.

In 1976 I spent a lovely day on the Isle of Capri so my main goal when we got to Napoli was to revisit Capri. The hydrofoils were close to the ship so we walked over to them. Ellen and Barbie left a little before us on the 9:30 and we caught the 10:00 boat. Another Ellen and Sue were on our boat so when we got to Capri Ellen and Barbie were waiting. They found Mossimo and a convertible taxi so we all piled in after much negotiations and off we went. The weather was gorgeous at about 72 degrees. Many photos of the beautiful scenery and much flirting with the local gents. I had Vongole(?sp) and spaghetti for lunch and some had pizza. Capri has built up but it hasn’t lost its charm. This is the old mission in Ana Capri.

The next day was cold and overcast but James and I did walk into town for awhile until it started to rain. It did pour for some time and drizzled for most of the day. Joan and I walked to the port mall as they had some good shops. I did not see much of Napoli but it is not my favorite Italian city. We did want to get some pizza but with the rain we passed.

Because of the rain we had sail away up in the crows nest. At that time it was pouring so we couldn’t see much at the sail away.

The next day Joan and I went to Civitavecchia which is the port for Roma. Along the way we picked up John and Shirley who joined us. I recently did the train to Roma and opted to go to Civitavecchia instead. I have spent days in Roma at different times. There was not much in Civitavecchia but we did go to the local open air market and had wonderful pizza and a local Chianti. The place we chose turned out to be a favorite for a lot of the ship staff and fellow cruisers.

I have been to Athens before but I wanted to see more of the city so I took a tour of Athens and the Acropolis. Unfortunately they have changed the entry to the Acropolis to about 150 stairs until it reached the old path. I got half way up the stairs and my asthma kicked in. I opted not to continue.

These guards protect the tomb of the unknown soldier and the reason they do a little routine every hour is to make sure they keep their circulation moving. They were quite comical in some of their moves.

It was my turn to go to the Captain’s dinner and I was lucky to get picked for his table. I didn’t sit next to him but it still was cool being at his table. The routine of announcing the courses with the whole staff standing behind us around the table was fun and we had a separate alcove which made it quieter. We received a silver wine stopper as our special gift from the captain and when I got back to my cabin we got a muffler, gloves and hat set.

Kusadasi, Turkey is a port where my daughter and grandson visited on a Mediterranean cruise a couple of years ago but I was not able to book a tour of Ephesus because they were filled. By the way Kusadasi is pronounced Kushadasi. Ephesus is one of the best preserved BC cities and the Great Theater after being expanded by the Romans is one of the largest. The Celsus Library is the best-preserved structure of its kind. They recently found terrace houses and are in the process of piecing them together so we were able to see all this work being done on site Alex, our young archeologist , was again so excited with these ruins that as soon as he got to the ship he started to go through his photos.

We also went to the museum and this well preserved statue of Artemus was one of the most valuable pieces there.

Our guide in Israel probably would rate the House of the Virgin Mary as a B site. It is thought that John, who Christ entrusted his mother to as he was being crucified, brought her to this area and because he was being pursued by the Romans he built this house for Mary way up on a hill a bit away from Ephesus. No solid evidence but a lot of pointers toward that conclusion.

The second day we went to the Basillica of St. John where he was buried and the Isabey Mosque constructed in the 14th century. We then went to a little village up in the mountains called Sirince. We were able to do a little shopping.

We have had marvelous weather, not too cold and not too hot both in Turkey and Greece.

I was so thrilled when the Captain announced we were going to Israel because of the Egyptian problems. Ellen and a couple of her clients went to work to put together a private tour since they knew about this one guide. A van which held 12 of us comfortably picked us up at 8:00 in the morning and we returned at 9:30 at night. We went as fast as we could go to see as many sites as possible. As you know I don’t try to do a travelogue but let everyone know what I am doing.

We viewed the Old City of Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives overlook, walked down Sunday Palm road to the Kidron Valley to the Church of Gethsemane and visited the Garden of Gethsemane. Then we walked the old city Via Delarosa and visited both the Arab section and the Jewish section and had a great lunch at the Jewish Quarter Café. We went to the South and Western Wall and the tunnels , the Museum of all the archaeological digs and the Shrine of the Book. We visited the Pool of Bethesda and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher where we sang Amazing Grace to test the acoustics. The acoustics actually made us sound good. We visited the Garden Tomb and then dinner at Olive and Fish Restaurant for a wonderful dinner. Both the lunch and dinner were served family style so we could taste everything.

The experience was wonderful and I fell in bed exhausted but it was worth every tiring step. Our guide, Nir, explained everything with humor and clarity and from a historical prospective. A was absolute evidence and 100% sure. B lots of indications that it is true but not conclusive. C call it tradition.

April 4th was Ellen’s birthday. Every sea day Ellen and Tom have a chat time in a particular spot for CSI cruisers. I was delivering my comments regarding tours and Her son’s wife was being induced. The next I heard she gave birth to a little girl at 12:04 pm on April 4th. Ellen was in seventh heaven that this new grandbaby was born on her birthday.

I was surprised at how many of the men dressed for the Arabian night. Here is Paul in his Arab garb and this is our little cocktail group all decked out.

I was watching all the scenery go by as we were sailing through the Suez Canal and a man I met a month or so ago stopped by. This is Joe who is over 85 and is fitter than most men 20 years his junior. He had joined Peggy and us at our cocktail group the night I first met him. He saw me dancing with a couple of guys and he asked me to dance. It was quite a fast number and I asked him if he wanted to wait for a slower dance. He said hell no and we proceeded to clear the floor and got applause when we were through. The applause was not for me but for a man his age that could swing the way he did.

This photo shows the contrast between the Sinai Peninsula and Egypt on the other side. The other photo is of Port Said. If you watched the Sinai Peninsula side you would see all the old tanks and other armaments from the six day war with Israel. Also you can understand why Israel gave it back to Egypt. It is one giant sand pit. There are no locks in the Suez Canal but interesting just the same.

We docked early in Aqaba, Jordan and they cleared the ship as fast as possible so we could get to our tours. Most of us were going to Petra., the Rose Red City. It was lost for 1000 years and only recently visitors were permitted to visit the site. The walk was over a mile just to get to the Treasury and it was downhill. From that part on, there was no cart service back so I had to stop as I cannot go up hill because of my asthma. Our guide didn’t tell us that I could have ridden a camel up that portion where carts were not allowed to go. I found out about that on the ship. I just wish I could have seen the entire city.

Alex, who is an archeologist was with our CSI tour and he said he actually shook looking at the various buildings. He felt it was one of the most spectacular discoveries in the world. I don’t know much about archeology but I agree it was spectacular.

There were many Bedouin camps, camels, donkeys and goats along our way through the desert. One camel caused our driver to hit the brakes as he took his time to get out of the road.

I am sitting in my cabin typing this post because if I don’t get these next two done I will be behind. Tomorrow we go through the Suez Canal and the next day I have a private tour in Jerusalem for 14 hours.

The State Department raised the no travel orders for Egypt so rather than change the new itinerary the Captain stopped at Safaga. Egypt to allow those people who wanted to go to Luxor, Valley of the Kings or Karnak. Safaga is a nothing port so if you didn’t want to do the long tours (total 7 to 8 hours on bus) you just stayed on the ship.

When we pulled into port around 8:00 there was utter chaos on the dock. At least ten big trucks and 200 Egyptians trying to get their goods together to go through customs. They had been in Kuwaiti and just coming home after their contracts ended. By 10:30 the dock was cleared. Just amazing that the chaos was actual order.

On March 3lst I stayed up until 12:00 so the Station Band had been told that it was my birthday so they played Happy Birthday at 12:01 as their last piece of the night.

My birthday was on April Fools Day and they had the pajama party the same day. A blast upstairs in the crow’s nest with lots of drinking and dancing.

Andy and Judy (Peggy’s daughter) stayed in Dubai a week before boarding the ship. American Airline lost one of their bags so they had to do a lot of shopping. These are their Arabian outfits they wore for one of our formals.