Sailing the Suez and beyond

We sailed from Rome's Civitavecchia cruise terminal aboard the Celebrity Constellation. We stopped first in Messina, Sicily and then Athens, Greece before heading south towards the Middle East.

In Messina we took the hop-on hop-off bus and in Athens we took a taxi from the dock to the city and enjoyed a few hours just wandering through the Plaka.

 

The Messina Cathedral, built in the 12th Century and restored in 1920 following an earthquake in 1908. We arrived just in time for the noon 'performance' from the belltower, which tells the local history in music and dancing.

 

 

Other scenes around Messina

 

 

The Acropolis from the Plaka

 

Medieval church in the Plaka

 

Coffee with the Grays at Ydria, a taverna Jim and Penny found on their last trip to Athens

 

 

One of many beautiful churches in Athens

 

Parliament House in Athens with its iconic guards

 

We began our sail through the Suez, unaware of just how fascinating it would be; to our right civilisation, and to our left sand, and lots of it. We passed small military outposts, villages and large towns which stretched inland for many kilometres, mixed with hundreds of palm groves and the odd resort or two. A high fence stretched the whole way along the canal and there were guard towers every few hundred metres. Our 'crossing' along with 26 other ships in convoy took about 15 hours.

These are barges which can be linked together to form a bridge across the canal when needed

Plantations

 

One of many gigantic container ships which formed part of our convoy

 

We arrived in Aqaba, Jordan early the next morning and joined our bus tour to the ancient city of Petra. It was fascinating to finally see the desert up close - lots of sand, rock, cement (buildings) and palm trees, but not a blade of grass in sight. All buildings have small water tanks on their roofs and residents can only access their water twice each week. Jordan is the second driest country on Earth.

From the gates of Petra we walked down towards the old city for a couple of hours. The high cliffs on either side of the well worn path were littered with holes; burial sites for the ancient peoples. And we were on constant watch for horse-drawn vehicles and camels! It was through these cliffs that threatened to close us in entirely, that we finally glimpsed the magnificent 'Treasury' synonymous with Petra. But the city spread even further down and so we ventured on.

 

 

 

Soldiers dressed in authentic ancient uniform

 

What goes down must come up... as we found out on the two hour walk back UP the hill to the modern town, where we enjoyed a delicious buffet luncheon at the Petra Palace Hotel

 

 

For four days, whilst the ship was passing through the Gulf of Aden between Somalia and Yemen, we were on pirate alert. Passengers were trained on what to do in the unlikely event of a pirate incursion, our cabin curtains had to remain closed and LOVE (Lights Out Virtually Everywhere) was applied each evening at 6pm until 6am the following morning. This certainly added some excitement to the journey.

Our next port of call was Muscat, Oman, a very old city with a modern 'feel' (free internet). The souk (market) down by the waterfront kept us busy for a couple of hours as we wandered past the overcrowded stalls and tried to avoid hawkers as they thrust pashmina scarves in our faces. We did buy one souvenir - a jewel encrusted golden camel - he's fake of course, but beautiful anyway. After a walk through the backstreets we lunched with the Grays at a local café and enjoyed delicious chicken kebabs with salad and the best hommus we've ever tasted.

 

Muscat, Oman

 

The Souk

 

'Modern' shopping mall

 

Renovations: this gentleman was using a large mallet to break up the concrete on the roof of this building and cast it into the street just metres from passing pedestrians... including us!

 

And now our journey takes us to adventures in the United Arab Emirates!