Cruising on the Red Sea

E

El and Bill

New member
El and I leave Colorado tomorrow for a small ship cruise on the Red Sea. We will be up at the northern end, and hopefully, far from the pirates operating out of Somalia. Our trip will begin with a few days ashore in Alexandria, then Cairo and Luxor before boarding our ship and cruising to Sinai, Saudi Arabia (with a trip to the interior to Hejaz Province to visit the nomadic peoples), and then on to Jordan. We return just before Christmas.

We traveled on this small ship in Greece last winter, visiting the ancient sites of the Peloponnese. We wrote about it on our Halcyon Days, and (I just noticed) didn't quite finish writing it. You can see it at: http://www.geocities.com/bill_fiero/greece.htm

It was such fun following Byrdman and Roger with SPOT on their driving trip west these past few days, we thought some of you might enjoy "coming along" on our Middle East trip. Click on this site:

http://share.findmespot.com/shared/face ... f7qNvruhsj
 
El and Bill,
Oh wow! This will be very cool. Have a wonderful trip, I will be following along. Thanks.
Byrdman and Roger led the way, but this beats I-90. :wink:

Robbi
 
El and Bill,

Thats great but you messed me up. I was going to get you that for a Christmas present. Insdead you got us all one. Its going to be great to be able to track you guys. Have fun but keep an eye out for those bads guys.

Roger and Mary Jo
 
Have a great trip. Ironically, my mother just returned from a Greece/Turkey cruise. They toured the New Testament ruins like Ephesus, Corinth, etc. Great way to travel and tour!!

-Greg
 
Bill & El,
What a fabulous life you guys lead. I am sure generations in future will be reading about your travels. It will take several books ,I am sure. Hurry and get them written so I can brag to my grandkids how I got to cruise a short distance with the Fieros.
Enjoy and stay safe.
Captd
 
Bill & El - We wish you a pleasant and safe trip to the middle east. For sure we will check the web-site you referenced to tag along. Wouldn't it be wonderful if you happened on to a C-Dory along the coast over there?Any chance of finding some super sized M&Ms at some port, El?
John & Edna
 
Looks like they're safely in Egypt this morning. Hope they have a lot of fun! How much does it cost to pack a CD22 if it costs $15 for just one bag!?? :?: :lol:

Charlie
 
We took the train today from Cairo to Alexandria - interesting trip through the delta. All's fine.

Now for a few days of Greco-Roman structures (or what's left of them, and a trip to this world famous library). The SPOT site follows the route, if any are interested. We plan to send messages (for the grandkids to learn some ancient history) from famous sites (like the pyramids or amphitheaters) that can be seen from Google Earth space photos. If interested, you can click on an individual SPOT message and then zoom in if you wish to follow along with the detail of visually 'seeing' the sites.

http://share.findmespot.com/shared/face ... f7qNvruhsj
 
Bill and El,

You are BRAVE SOULS.

I would not go near that area of the world without the Sixth Fleet as an escort.

Good Luck.

Fred
 
Read "Pirates fire at cruise ship near Somalia" in todays LATimes.
As a long,long time world cruiser, sooner or later this will happen. Zelpha
 
El and Bill don't need any negative vibes. They are on another of their wonderful adventures. Not many choose to do the same, but we can go along knowing exactly where they are (if they get that spot working) and enjoy the tales of their adventure right from the comfort and safety of the easy chair. We plan on thoroughly enjoying their present trip knowing without risk there is no adventure.

We would just love to be with you El and Bill and was so glad to hear you were still going with all the present economic troubles. Am so looking forward to seeing you guys again and listening to your tales. For once maybe I can keep my mouth shut and just listen to the real adventurers

El and Bill remind me so much of that quote " boats are safe at the dock, but thats not what boats are made for." Just substitute El and Bill for boats and it sure fits.

Jay
 
El & Bill,

This looks like a really neat trip you re on. Do hope all is going well. I noted the message from early this morning and when checking the SPOT site via the link here Message #5 was still the most recent one posted.

0-7367814ESN :0-7367814
Type :Ok
Latitude :30.5356
Longitude :31.1461
Time :Saturday, November 29, 2008 11:46:39 PM
Click to expand...

from the OK SPOT message posted at the specified time, lat/long and date, just SE of Minshat Sabin, maybe from a hiway vehicle.

Here's wishing you a great time, safe travels and many fun posts.

Harvey
SleepyC :moon
 
The Spot now shows them in Alexandria. Looks like there is quite a few hours delay between location uploads. We will probably continue to be just a bit behind El and Bill just like here at home.

Jay
 
Yes - we flew into Cairo and took the train (and sent a SPOT en route) to Alexandria. Yesterday we visited a Roman theater and sent a SPOT. No SPOT today since we have been visiting the incredible library and museum here and they aren't SPOTworthy from space. Tomorrow we hope to head to El Alemain, to the west of here, and then back to Cairo for a few days of museums and such. Then up the Nile a bit to Luxor and the Valley of the Kings (and the Valley of the Queens, El reminds me). Then to the small boat for the cruising on the Red Sea). We'll send SPOTS whenever we think there is something worth looking at (for you) from satellite Google Earth. Enlarge by scrolling in and you will (hopefully) see the pyramids or whatever.

Alex is amazing - Cleopatra messed around with Julius and Mark Antony here and once it was the largest library on earth and the seat of learning for the Roman Empire. Today we also went down into a necropolis underground and saw some amazing statuary from 200-300 BC.

The food is marvelous - especially the sea food. (Of course we don't know 90% of what we are eating). And El has become well known amoung all the young ladies we meet - they all want a picture with her, and one who met her yeasterday searched until she found her today - she had bought a picture frame as a gift for El to mount the picture of the two of them and we gave her a gift calendar (this afternoon) of the beaches in US so she can compare them with the beautiful beaches here on the shore of the Med. El bought a beautiful scarf this evening so perhaps I will lose her in the crowds of scarfed women around her. (PS - the women here dote on her and ignore me - I might have to buy a scarf also).

We may not have email as we continue on, but will try to write when we can. Thanks for the good wishes and comments, folks. Oh, and the crossing of the Atlantic (should I pretend in the CD-22?) was a piece of cake but the Med was a little rough this morning.
 
Some clarification of the last two SPOTS - SPOT 5 is from the train heading to Alexandria. SPOT 6 is at a Roman theater - if you zoom in from sat view, on the right of the spot you can see the semicircle of the recently excavated theater and all the dug up archeo site to the north of the spot.

Then continue scrolling up to the Med shore, just to the north. Follow the shore to the west of the enclosed bay. At the north end of the breakwater on the west side of the bay (near all the small anchored fishing boats (dare I say they are C-Dorys and then you can doubt all our reports?) and you will see a large structure. That is the 15th century Citadel, a fortification that occupies the site of one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient world - the Pharos lighthouse. The Citadel is made from the ruins of the lighthouse (largely destroyed by a tsunami that was the result of the volcanic explosion of Santorini in the Greek Islands). This giant wave destroyed most of the shoreline towns of the eastern Med.

Enough of this - but with the SPOTS we will try to share some of the history and sights on this travel through parts of the MidEast. (Oh, with luck, we hope to come ashore in Saudi Arabia) (one of the few tourist visas granted by the kingdom) and travel inland to visit with our nomadic brothers).
 
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