Today is Good Friday and I thought I would tell you about something good. Holland America has done a number of charitable projects during the course of this Grand World Voyage. The first thing was the Walk for a Cause in which Holland America gave everyone a T-shirt for a donation to support cancer research… Continue reading Charity at Sea

The first photo shows the famous Sagrada Familia, the basilica designed by Antoni Gaudi in honor of the Holy Family and the most visited site in Spain. Even with cranes in place for restoration, the view was stunning and photos fail to capture the awesome beauty. Every feature was chosen with a special meaning. Studying… Continue reading Barcelona, Spain

Yesterday, we arrived in Naples, Italy. It seems a bit backwards, more like coming to fall after a hot, humid summer, but instead we came to a beautiful spring day with flowering trees from a hot, humid summer in the Southern Hemisphere and the heat of the tropics. Naples and Pompeii, where we spent most… Continue reading Naples, Italy

On Saturday, we crossed the Suez Canal from the Gulf of Suez into the Mediterranean Sea. It took most of the day as did the crossing of the Panama Canal. Like in Panama, there is a large lake between the narrow passages and there was an expansion in the early 2000’s. There the similarities end.… Continue reading Suez Canal

Petra was built around 700 BC on the trade route from Mesopotamia to Egypt by a civilization called the Nabataeans. The city thrived even after it surrendered to Rome when the Romans learned how to cut off its secret water supply. In 363 AD a large earthquake destroyed much of the city. That combined with… Continue reading Petra, Jordan

Wadi in Arabic means valley. Yesterday, we bused past the movie set for the new Matrix movie into Wadi Rum, part of the Rift Valley in Jordan. Ariz, our 4X4 Bedouin driver, lived in a nearby village and spent his summers in a tent deeper in the desert. Twenty percent of Jordan’s people are Bedouin… Continue reading Fun at Wadi Rum, Jordan

This Sunday, in the middle of five days at sea, has seemed the most like Sundays at home. It started with light breakfast, followed by church, a short time crocheting with the Sit and Knit group, then too much lunch at the Sunday brunch in the dining room. You get a set menu. First came… Continue reading Sunday at Sea

With all this glitter from sari night, one might think that cruise ships would be pirates’ first choice of victims, but cargo ships and oil tankers have that honor. They have valuable loot and they move slower. Early in the twenty-first century, piracy off the coast of Somalia became a real problem with at least… Continue reading Pirates

We spent today visiting Muscat, the capital of Oman. This photo, taken as we came into port, shows the arid, rugged mountains that cover the coast of Oman, making it the most alien-looking place I have ever visited. I have seen the desert in Arizona, but I had never seen desert mountains. Rarely, a brown… Continue reading Muscat, Oman

Mani Bhavan is one of India’s important Gandhi memorial museums and a house where he lived from 1917 to 1937. The middle balcony opens into the room where he lived and worked and is the site where he often prayed. The second photo shows the simple interior of that room preserved as it was when… Continue reading Mumbai – Mani Bhavan