Quick note!  Prior to our arrival in Naples we were in ports where the temperatures were in the 90s with high humidity.  Starting with Naples we’re now in the 50s and 60s and wearing jackets. In a couple of weeks we’ll be in Oslo where they just experienced subzero temperatures!

We arrived in Barcelona around 7:00 am but had to wait outside the wharf until the huge MCS cruise ship was docked.  Looking at ships that were docked you can see just how small we are (we are the far right ship) compared to the modern giants.  The MCS ship has over 8,000 passengers while we have 1,400!

Last month during the silent auction our friend Lynn won a free excursion for two to visit a food market and sample tapas around Barcelona.  She invited Ron to go with her, so again we went on different tours.

Paul’s excursion was a visit to the “Montserrat Monastery” officially called the Santa Maria de Monserrat Abbey.  The name “montserrat” means serrated mountain from the jagged peaks of the mountain range that overlooks the Catalan region of Spain.  The bus ride wound along mountain roads near steep drop offs.  When the monastery was established in the 11th century, the trip up the mountain must have been challenging, especially trying to transport materials to build a monastery.

The favorite saint of the region is the The Virgin of Montserrat and dates back to the year 880.  We were told that two young sheepherders saw a light coming from an area on the hillside that turned out to be sunlight reflecting from a Madonna statue.  These children told the priest.  The statue was to be taken down the mountain to the village, but all attempts to remove the statue from the mountain ended in failure.  A chapel was built on the mountain to house the statue instead.  Later the Benedictine monks formed a monastery on the mountain.  The original Madonna has been lost.  The current statue, called The Black Madonna, has been around for over 800 years.  The Madonna is enshrined above the altar in the basilica next to the monastery.  Pilgrims and tourists can wait in line to see/touch the statue.  We visited the monastery during Easter week, so the line was too long for us to join the line.

We were able to see a beautiful majolica ceramic of the Madonna where the people come down after seeing the statue and traditionally light candles to honor the Virgin.

The other patron saint of Barcelona is St. George.  This modern statue has a face that follows you as you pass by.  The abbey museum has a significant collection of artwork donated over the years including works by Caravaggio.

The monastery has twice been burned down and sacked by Napoleon’s troops in 1811 and 1812.  Many of the abbey’s treasures were lost.  The Abbey was violently suppressed during the Spanish Civil War.  During Franco’s rule, the abbey was seen as a sanctuary for scholars, artists, politicians and students.  Franco’s men were often waiting for wanted people a few miles down the road.

From the 1940s onward, Santa Maria de Montserrat Abbey was often seen as a symbol of Catalan nationalism.  The publishing house that is part of the abbey has a printing press that is still working and its oldest book dates back to 1499.  In defiance of the Franco government’s language policies, books were published in the Catalan language and prayers at a mass held on April 27, 1947, to celebrate the Enthronement of the Virgin of Montserrat and attended by over 100,000 people were publicly said in the Catalan language. The abbey and basilica have been rebuilt with art and statues by 20th century artisans.

We had a nice view of Mt. Vesuvius from the ship.  On the way to Herculaneum, we passed a cafe with the same name.

Both Pompeii and Herculaneum (Ercolano) are near Mt. Vesuvius, but while Pompeii was covered with ash, Herculaneum was covered with a hot mud like flow that turned to rock (a pyroclastic flow). The layers of rock that covered this city can be seen in the tall wall that borders the excavation.  Some of the carbonized wood remains in place but the entire city had to be dug out of solid rock making the excavation of Herculaneum a slow enterprise.

Additionally, while Pompeii was discovered in the country, Herculaneum is located in a current city, so the excavated portion is only the size of a large park.  Much of the ancient city is still buried.

Herculaneum was a residential rather than an industrial center.  The residences are larger and were originally nicely decorated with mosaic floors and frescos on the walls.

There was no source of fresh water in the early residences so a central atrium was important to capture rainwater through a window above a pool.  Later, Romans introduced aqueducts which allowed the home builders to add gardens, larger rooms, and sometimes balconies inside and out.

The roads were large cobblestones and the lack of ruts made by ancient carts indicates that these roads were traveled by foot or perhaps people on horseback.  You can also see in this photo how the modern city borders this excavation.

Work to restore and continually excavate this site continues.  We saw a group working in The College of the Augustales on a shrine depicting mythological scenes involving Hercules.  The area in the back probably housed a statue of the emperor, but the statue was never found.

A dramatic portion of the city is the row of boathouses that were originally near the beach.  Skeletons (mostly women and children) were found in these enclosures.  These were families waiting for the men to bring the boats to escape the eruption.  The bones we see are reproductions made of fiberglass.  Our guide said that these people probably died of the poisonous gases that preceded the pyroclastic flow that preserved the bones. 

Once we left Aqaba, there were four sea days before reaching Naples.

On the 2nd sea day we transited the Suez Canal to reach the Mediterranean Sea.  There have been several attempts at building a canal but all ended in failure until the French attempt led by Ferdinand de Lesseps.  Until recently there was only one-way traffic e.g. Southbound ships had to clear the canal before the northbound ships could enter.  That all ended in 2015 when a new channel opened next to the existing one so traffic can now flow in both directions.  

Our ship led a convoy of 24 ships northbound starting around 5:30 am. We met the southbound convoy in the canal about 11:00am.  Most of the time you could only see the top part of the ships due to the tall sand dunes between the channels.  Most of the car traffic use ferries to cross from mainland Egypt to the Sinai Desert side.  There is one tunnel under the canal today and another 6 tunnels are being built.

We reached the Mediterranean around 4:30 pm, and, two days later arrived in Naples, Italy.  Naples is the 3rd largest city in Italy.  It is a short distance from Sorrento and the Amalfi Coast. However the two sites we were interested in were Pompeii and Herculaneum both destroyed by Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD.  The volcano still looms ominously over the city.

Since there were two sites to visit we decided to split up. Paul visited Herculaneum while Ron went off to Pompeii.

POMPEII

At the entrance we stopped to view a map of the Pompeii site.  From the entrance (red dot lower left corner) to the Coliseum on the right was 7-1/2 miles.  From the entrance to the other side is five miles. The city was buried under 13 to 20 feet of ash and pumice in the 79AD eruption.  Over 75% of the city has now been excavated.  Our walking tour distance was 3-1/2 miles.

One of our first stops was at a bakery.  Huge stone mills ground the grain and made into bread that was baked in the ovens next door.  Loaves of bread which had been buried in the ash were found at many of the bakeries.  At the entrance to the bakery you could see metal rails on which sliding doors once stood.

While there were many commercial buildings throughout the city it was the residential buildings that were the most decorated and interesting.  

Several of the homes had beautiful mosaic floors at the entrance to the home as well as plaster reliefs decorating the outside walls.  There were even homes with beautiful fountains inside.

But most amazing were the decorated interior rooms.  They would have been spectacular to see.  Today we can only get a glimpse of their beauty.  They have been carefully excavated and left in their condition as found.  In some places they look like new.  The details were amazing.

Of course the destruction of the city caused a terrible loss of life (some estimates say over 16,000).  Here are two of the examples we saw: a man stuck down by ash, gases, and stones falling from the sky; and, and a child. Most researchers believe that the majority of people were killed by heat from pyroclastic flows that reached 482°F.

It was an awesome site to see.  There’s a lot more to say but we’ll talk more about it in our presentation when we get back.

After fending off pirates in the Red Sea (just kidding), we arrived at the port city of Aqaba in Jordan.  Sailing into port, we could see four different countries, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Israel and Jordan.  Jordan has only one seaport and that is Aqaba.  We have been looking forward to this port because we have an overnight excursion “Wadi Rum & Bedouin Camp Overnight” where we travel to the Wadi Rum desert and stay overnight in a Bedouin tent.

We left the ship at about 12:30 p.m. and did a short city tour before heading off to the desert.  One of the city stops was at the Aqaba Fortress.  This building was the headquarters of the Ottoman Turks during WWI.  It was here that the Arabs captured Aqaba during the famous camel attack from the desert as portrayed in the film “Lawrence of Arabia”.

On our way to the Sun City Camp where we were staying, we stopped at a visitor’s center to view the huge rock formation known as the Seven Pillars of Wisdom which is also the name of Lawrence of Arabia’s autobiography.  Five of the pillars are obvious and the other two are off to the right of the formation.

When we arrived at the camp, we had a chance to sit in a Bedouin tent and enjoy a beverage… Turkish coffee, American coffee, or tea.  Surprisingly, the WiFi was amazingly good.  We updated our apps and checked our emails in record time.  Hotels are not allowed in the Wadi Rum desert because of the damage they would do to the environment.  Instead, there are Bedouin camps that provide overnight lodging and meals.  Our camp had three areas, the space dome dining hall (popular after the filming of The Martian), the communal Bedouin tent area, and the individual tent cabins.

We had heard stories of large communal tents where the animals wandered in and shared the sleeping spaces and viewing the stars through the holes in the goat hair tent fabric was possible.  Luckily, our camp had rather luxurious tent cabins with a nice bathroom and shower.  I guess we would have to call it “glamping”.  We had time to check into our tent before we met up with the group for the moment we had been looking forward to/dreading… riding a camel to view the sunset.

A sitting camel is low enough to straddle and the saddle had a post to grab onto.  You mount and lean back because the camel raises up on its hind legs first then quickly lean forward as it rises to its front feet.  When it gets up on its front feet, you are way up in the air and find out whether there is enough padding between you and the saddle or not.  Our camel ride was about two hours long, so an uncomfortable saddle was no small concern since it was almost impossible to adjust your seating while moving (no stirrups).  

The ride through the desert was slow and the scenery was spectacular as the sun dropped lower in the sky and the interesting rock formations became more pronounced.  After about 40 minutes, we arrived at some craggy rocks, dismounted the camels (scary reversal of the mounting process) and waited for the sunset.  At this point, we had different feelings about our “ships of the desert” and took pictures of their cute faces and long eyelashes.  The sunset was pretty spectacular.

We remounted our camels (no problem by now) and headed back to the camp for dinner.  Our camel drivers must have brought us in a great loop, because the trip back to camp only took about fifteen minutes.  What an adventure to ride a camel in the Wadi Rum desert.  This is a great memory although at this writing, we are still feeling the sore thigh muscles from the camel ride.

Dinner was cooked in pits in the ground and consisted of lamb, chicken, seasoned rice and various dishes suited to a variety of tastes.  Our tour group was only 14 people and we lingered over dinner discussing the day’s adventures.  

After dark, we met in front of the dining hall and strode off into the darkness for a stargazing lecture from the Rum-Sky astronomy association.  A short way from the camp we had clear viewing of the night sky.   Our astronomer guide explained the constellations that were clearly visible in the sky as well as how they moved on a daily and yearly basis.  As a finale, a time-exposure photograph was taken of the group.  It was interesting that the camera stayed open to capture the light of the stars.  We all had to stand still for ten long seconds.

After the lecture, we all headed off to bed.  Although we were expecting the desert to be hot, after sunset the temperature dropped and the thick comforter on the beds were very welcome.  

Next morning we awoke at 6:00 a.m. for a 4×4 trip to watch the sunrise.  Our transportation this morning was by Toyota trucks seated on benches bolted to the truck bed.  After the sunrise we visited three more stops.

Our first stop was a Bedouin camp. Here we viewed several carvings made into the rock over 100 years ago (1917) of Prince Faisal, T. E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia), and Auda Abu Tayi (Bedouin Chief) probably the most famous of the leaders of the Arab Revolution.

After we drove on a little more we viewed some petroglyphs carved around two thousands of years ago.

Our last stop was the top of a sand dune overlooking the area where the movie “The Martian” was filmed.  It certainly looked like Mars to us.  After we snapped a few pictures it was back to camp for breakfast!

Sadly after breakfast we headed back to the ship.  Our next port of call is Naples, Italy, in four days via the Suez Canal.

We have five days of sea travel to get from Muscat, Oman to Al’Aqabah, Jordan.  Our time on these days is divided among lectures, cooking demonstrations, watercolor classes, movies, reading, stage shows, and of course, eating.  We are currently in the Red Sea and will be out of the high-risk waters by this evening when we get to about 15 degrees above the equator.  As passengers, we will notice very few changes in the running of the ship except that the outside lights will be turned on at night again and the curtains in the dining room will not be closed at sunset.  

It has been some time since we’ve done an update on Paul’s watercolor projects, so here are several of his efforts.  For most of these, all that remains is a photo, since they were sold in the charity auction. 

In the watercolor class, our instructor, Carol, designs projects utilizing various painting techniques or media.  The subjects of the projects often relate to the places we visit.

A class like this is valuable because each student artist has opportunities to expand his/her techniques and move outside normal comfort zones.  This has certainly been true for Paul.