2017 Cruise & Safari

April – May 2017
  • Valerie Eisler
A 40-day adventure by Valerie Read more
  • Valerie Eisler

List of countries

  • Tanzania Tanzania
  • Kenya Kenya
  • Switzerland Switzerland
  • France France
  • Italy Italy
  • Morocco Morocco
  • Spain Spain
  • Show all (10)
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  • 45.8kkilometers traveled
Means of transport
  • Flight26.9kkilometers
  • Walking-kilometers
  • Hiking-kilometers
  • Bicycle-kilometers
  • Motorbike-kilometers
  • Tuk Tuk-kilometers
  • Car-kilometers
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  • Swimming-kilometers
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  • Motorboat-kilometers
  • Sailing-kilometers
  • Houseboat-kilometers
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  • Cruise ship-kilometers
  • Horse-kilometers
  • Skiing-kilometers
  • Hitchhiking-kilometers
  • Cable car-kilometers
  • Helicopter-kilometers
  • Barefoot-kilometers
  • 51footprints
  • 40days
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  • Leave Aguascalientes April 12th

    April 9, 2017 in Mexico ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    Flight from Leon was perfectly on time leaving.
    3+ hour wait in Houston. Plenty of time for lunch 😀.

    Heard from Wentzeks that after they dropped us off (2-hr drive) they went to the leather district to do some shopping, got back to their car to find their license plates missing. Cost them $140 pesos and I really hope not too much hassle to get them back...Read more

  • Republic Restaurant. Houston Gate E20

    April 12, 2017 in the United States ⋅ 🌧 24 °C

    Good food for decent prices. Not busy so they were very accommodating. We had a 4 hour layover and spent it here with a nice view of the tarmac and a power outlet to charge our devices. IAH provides adequate free internet.Read more

  • Day 1 - Frankfurt layover

    April 13, 2017 in Germany ⋅ ⛅ 13 °C

    Safely landed after our 10-hr overnight flight (8400km). Should be in Barcelona at 3pm. Not feeling too bad despite only a little nap or two. Pleasantly surprised that we neither had to pick up luggage nor go through any security check here. Just hoping our luggage gets there with us!Read more

  • Grupo Gravina Hotel II. Gravina 12

    April 13, 2017 in Spain ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C

    Nice little centrally located hotel. We were given a room with a nice-sized private terrace. We were upgraded to a larger room, can't imagine a room much smaller than what we are in!

    Notes:

    Clean but corners, etc. a little grungy. Lots of hot water and water pressure is great. Poorly designed shower, we can point shower head right or left and move it up and down on a slider, but we cannot change the angle and it comes straight out. There is a door that stops short of the end of the enclosure, so water almost pours out onto the floor. Later: Figured the shower head out Friday morning.

    A/C working great.
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  • Day 3

    April 15, 2017, Western Mediterranean ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C

    Somewhere out there.

    Had my alarm set for 7:30 and room service and coffee arranged for between 7:30 & 8..... The steward woke me up by knocking on the door at 7:10. 😴😩😭

    Lovely dinner at Cagney's tonight. Wondering if our foursome has enough oomph tho make it to the show at 9:30? ..... Nope, no one would go with me.Read more

  • Day 4 -Tangier Morocco

    April 16, 2017 in Morocco ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

    This was a good day.

    Got off to a bit of a Rocky start. We were told to meet our guide on the pier as we got off the ship. He was to be carrying a sign with your name on it. When he got off, there was no one there from our tour company.

    In general, we try to get a consensus of at least 3 people when getting directions or finding out information. Two of the people we spoke to said that we were at the only place the tour buses came. So we waited patiently. When we talked to the third person he said, of course Said tours are not here, he meets his groups outside of the port entrance. So off we headed. There we saw our group guide with our sign. In the end they were only half an hour late getting started.

    Our tour started off in the Medina or Old City. We walked in small streets that were more like alleys and small alleys that were more like pathways. We also saw the Casbah or Citadel, and the souk or Marketplace. We probably only covered about 3 city blocks, but on our own it would have been a challenge to know where we were. We then had lunch at a restaurant owned by the tour company owner. Was quite delicious consisting of a vegetable soup/stew and chicken served in a tajine.

    We then drove out of the city and stopped to have a short little camel ride and then on to the Hercules cave. The legend said that this was where Hercules divided Europe and Africa from each other. The channel at that point - where the Atlantic is to the West and the Mediterranean is to the right, is about 18 kilometres wide. The historical explanation is that the caves were carved by the Romans 1000-2000 CE. In the cave there is small niche in the rock where spring water is collecting. The local Legend says that if a woman looks like she is becoming an Old Maid she goes to that spring, washes in the water, and soon will get married.

    Then back into the city and we did a little shopping. The first stop was the top floor of the handy Co-op. We were given a sales show about carpets. No one was interested, and to give credit where due, the salesman did not push. (Much better than the stop in North Africa - Egypt - where the sales people were very pushy and very rude when we were not buying) The Moroccan salesman were very polite and nice. After the first one, we went to one other shop where Troi was able to get new jellaba and the others were able to buy some other trinkets.

    Back to the ship well in advance of sailaway at 5.
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  • Day 5 - At sea

    April 17, 2017, Arctic Ocean ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C

    9 am. This was my first 'catch up on the jet lag day'. It's 4 ok and not much has happened other than catching the special talk we missed yesterday. The streaming is such a nice addition to our banquet of well oiled dishes.

    While breakfasting looking out over the bow of the ship we saw a pod of dolphins or porpoises cross under us. There were maybe 20 or 30.
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  • Day 6 - Las Palmas

    April 18, 2017 in Spain ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C

    Was a beautiful day. Sun was warm but a steady cool breeze blew in off the ocean. We were thinking about taking the double decker hop-on-hop-off bus for 40 Euros but decided to try the local bus. Was comfortable and fast. Cost us about 5 Euros leaving us enough for a beer and Nachos :-).

    Getting off and back on the ship has been far easier than it has on other trips. No dealing with visas, passports, nor even picture ID. No lineup to get off or not the ship. We were asked to carry some form of government issued ID in case the local security wanted to check it but we have not yet been asked. Makes getting off the ship for a couple of hours much easier.
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  • Day 7 - Arrecife, Lanzarote, Spain

    April 19, 2017 in Spain ⋅ 🌙 17 °C

    So our day in Lanzarote went very well.  We took a half day coach tour to see the north of the island. It's a volcanic island, so it's quite barren. Very little water, there are no mountains higher than 650m, so not enough condensation to cause rain.  There are prevailing winds and to combat the harm they can do, the farmers build little shelters around the plants (ie. grape vines) using volcanic rock.

    The tour guide, Dolores, told us there are two seasons, spring and summer. Much is grown…potatoes, corn (not sure if maiz or sweet), onion. The soil is rich, a reddy brown colour. In order to keep the plants and roots from burning, they plant, then cover the soil with crushed volcanic rock a few inches deep.  The effect is that it keeps the soil and plants underneath cool, plus evaporation from the soil condenses on the lava and the moisture then is delivered again to the plant.

    Much of what we see, the architecture, the art, the town squares, remind us of Mexico, just nicer and cleaner because there is more money available.

    Population? 144000😋

    Each year 4 million tourists visit.  Our guide knew Spanish, English, German at least and I’m guessing a few others.

    One very interesting stop was the Jameos water cave. It's an ocean-fed lagoon in a cave. It has been developed into a tourist attraction with a restaurant and swimming pool.

    “The Jameos del Agua - like the Cueva de los Verdes - are part of a 6Km long lava tube which formed about 4,000 years ago when the Montaña La Corona erupted.
    Molten lava continued to flow as the surface hardened, which in turn led to the formation of the tubes, which run down under the Atlantic.
    The word Jameo is used in this context to refer to the large openings in the tube which formed when parts of the roof collapsed due to a pressure build up caused by the volcanic gases.
    It is these open-air caves which Manrique used as the centrepiece for the attraction and which have given it a name.” (Online Lanzarote tourist page)

    A beautiful place to visit and one that we would definitely want to go and spend a day enjoying.

    We were only off the ship for 3.5 hours, getting an early start and back on board to enjoy a little quieter time around the pool.  Note to self:  Next time I will make sure to check more carefully when European spring break is – there are so many kids onboard that things get a little crazy.
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