Suez to Greece

Cruise 2 Day 11 – Suez Canal

A canal was originally excavated between the Nile River delta and the Red Sea around the 13^th Century BC but was neglected on and off for centuries before being re-excavated in 1859. The current Suez Canal opened on 17 November 1869 at a cost of $100 million. An international convention signed in 1888 allowed all nations to use the canal, without discrimination, in peace and in war, but this didn’t stop nations quibbling over it for decades. However now, around 7.5% of the world’s sea trade is carried via the canal which is 163 kms long.

Today we are second in a convoy of 21 ships heading north and 11 ships are heading south on the first of two passages - all in all, 58 ships will traverse the canal today.

The land on the port side of the ship is fenced in brick along the canal just metres in from the water’s edge. Among the green vegetation, properties consisting of flat-topped mud-brick looking homes are surrounded by healthy crops. Every few kilometres a cylindrical-shaped sand-coloured watch tower breaks the fence line and in the distance brown sandy mountains so synonymous with the Middle East stretch the length of the canal.

Then there are the towns with their modern homes and high-rise apartments as well as the odd mosque and luxury resort. We sail past one densely populated city, half of its hundreds of multi-storey brick buildings appearing unfinished or empty. Now and then the canal breaks into two lanes to allows ships to pass and then we see banks of sand on both sides of the ship, and along with the enormous barges and container ships we are literally ships in the desert.

During our 10 hour voyage up the canal, cruising at 8 knots, we pass two large lakes, the Little Bitter and the Great Bitter. And we sail under the Al Salam Peace Bridge, at 3.9 kms long, the longest single-span bridge in the world with a top height of 70 metres. On the starboard side of the ship the sand stretches on forever. Occasionally there are buildings, even the odd town, but mostly there is desert, and it is all so fascinating!

The city of Suez

The channel with ships heading south

Memorial in the shape of an AK47

The halfway mark

Al Salam Peace Bridge

Still using horse and cart

One of many cities we passed

Port Said, the entrance to the Mediterranean Sea

Cruise 2 Day 13 – Piraeus, Greece

Today we chose to see Piraeus instead of the capital, so we took a ‘train’ to the city and walked the old port area. Unfortunately it was Orthodox Easter Monday so most businesses were closed but there were plenty of coffee shops and tavernas open. We discovered Piraeus has some lovely homes and apartments, and some very expensive boats moored in its harbour.

After an hour or so we stopped in at the very modern Gazi College café for a very strong Greek coffee. We followed this up, after a walk through the city, with calamari and taramasalata whitebait, and a delicious glass of Greek wine in a lovely outdoor setting at the Belle Amie taverna.

Around Piraeus

 

The very modern Gazi College Cafe

Bell Amie Taverna

Our transport for the day

Celebrating Kevin's birthday back on board the ship at QSine Restaurant

Cruise 2 Day 14 – Katakolon, Greece

Having seen the ancient city of Olympia previously we decided to stay in Katakolon, and what a great decision. We walked with Terri, John (and Kevin) into the village, one of the most picturesque we’ve seen since the Greek Islands. Right on the water, it is packed full of interesting well-presented shops selling a huge variety of reasonably priced goods.

A visit to the Museum of Ancient Greek Technology was a must and what a fascinating place it was. The ancient Greeks used all manner of pulleys, gears and chains with water and fire to create cutting edge technology like clocks, wine pourers, music boxes, measuring instruments, farm machinery and even defence weapons. Fascinating.

We lunched at a taverna right on the water and were serenaded by a guitarist and piano accordionist as we enjoyed outstanding local Greek food and wine. Then we shopped ‘til we dropped and came back to the ship carrying bags of goodies.

The weather in Greece has been amazing; around 21 degrees with blue skies and lots of sunshine, perfect for getting out and mixing with the friendly locals. And we couldn’t leave Greece without adopting one of their beautiful little donkeys so Dionysius (Dion for short) now joins Caramel on our journey.

The Museum of Ancient Greek Technology

Enjoying coffee in a quirky coffee shop

Around Katakolon

Caramel with Dion (Dionysius)

and with Kevin!

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!