Random thoughts from the sea
Day 1, South Pacific, Australia and New Zealand Cruise Sunday, Oct. 2, 2022; Seattle, Washington, USA As an act of faith, I set off Friday for Seattle to board the MS Westerdam. After more than two years on land, the disappointment of eight canceled back-to-back cruises this summer and the
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Cruise Flashback; Galveston to Dubai 2013 Dubai, United Arab Emirates; May 21, 2013 APRIL 8, 2021, DALLAS – My strongest take-away from Dubai is that there must be lots more people than I thought with money who have the interest and financial resources to live in modern skyscrapers. As I
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Cruise Flashback; Galveston to Dubai 2013 At Sea; May 15-20, 2013 MARCH 25, 2021, DALLAS – As we left Aqaba, Jordan, in 2013, my cruise was nearing its end. I would get off in our next port, Dubai. It is on the Persian Gulf on the other side of the
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Cruise Flashback; Galveston to Dubai 2013 Petra/Wadi Rum, Jordan; May 14, 2013 MARCH 5, 2021, DALLAS – When I first saw the film Lawrence of Arabia decades ago, the desert environment captivated me. Sure, there was romanticism to the epic story, but I wanted to see the real places where
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Cruise Flashback; Galveston to Dubai 2013 Safaga/Luxor, Egypt; May 13, 2013 FEB. 19, 2021, DALLAS – Among my lasting memories of Egypt are seeing buildings, tombs and monuments that are thousands of years old; evidence of societies that are in some ways very different than my own; and sobering effects
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Cruise Flashback; Galveston to Dubai 2013 Suez Canal, Egypt; May 11, 2013 FEB. 12, 2021, DALLAS – There are two great Canals cutting through continents – the Panama Canal and the Suez Canal. They are very different. To cross between the Caribbean and the Pacific through Panama, you must go
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Cruise Flashback; Galveston to Dubai 2013 Cairo, Egypt; May 10, 2013 FEB. 9, 2021, DALLAS – Only one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World still stands – the Great Pyramid of Giza. I feel so lucky to have visited it up close in 2013. Our timing was fortuitous.
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Cruise Flashback; Galveston to Dubai 2013 Barcelona, Spain; May 6, 2013 FEB. 5, 2021, DALLAS — Eight years ago our Barcelona port call held significance for two reasons. It was the midway point of the 30-day cruise from Galveston to Dubai, and it was the last of the familiar ports
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Cruise Flashback; Galveston to Dubai 2013 Alicante, Spain; May 5, 2013 FEB. 1, 2021, DALLAS — Somehow my innate sense of direction failed me in Alicante. I could see the Santa Bárbara castle above me, but where was that darned elevator that would spare me the long climb to the
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Cruise Flashback; Galveston to Dubai 2013 Gibraltar; May 4, 2013 JAN. 28, 2021, DALLAS — Many years ago at my mother’s urging, I read Paul Gallico’s novel “Scruffy.” Goodreads describes it as “the hilarious fictional account of the infamous apes of Gibraltar during World War II.” Legend has it that
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