Sorry to be delaying in postings but the port at Gilbraltar turned out to by an internet blackout zone imposed by the British military. We had adventures, saw the famous apes, and more. i have pix but have not been able to successfully upload any for several days. more later, its sleepy time because we must be off the ship before 8 a.m, tomorrow morning to go see the Alhambra


A Barbary ape, sitting on the rail of the obervation platform atop Gibraltar. He just attacked a guy in an attempt to get the guy's cup of coffee.

Do you know about Trilby, Svengali, and the experiments of Mr. Messmer? I scanned an english version of the novel in Lisbon while awating the shuttle to return to the ship. i didn't buy it but I now know the gist of the story, i think. Details to follow.

Yesterday we were in Lisbon. I hadn’t expected too much because the guidebooks were a little bit down on the city. Actually it was wonderful. As we left the ship for some reason there were mimes on stilts at the terminal gate. We started with a tour of “Monumental Lisbon.” Those who recall the history of religion and philosophy remember the impact the earthquake of Lisbon in 1755 had on Western thought. Until the quake, then modern thought, perhaps similar to our new age thought, was that we lived in the best of all possible worlds, and God was not just good, He was the goodest, because that was the nature of perfection. So, he made sure that the world was good for humanity, the good flourished, and innocents were protected. But Lisbon was destroyed in an earthquake and tsunami with enormous loss of life, the good and the innocent along with the sinners, and this proved to be a reality check on all that. It was a watershed in Western thought.

It remains a watershed event in Lisbon guide talks. Guides are always oriented to the past, for some reason, and we were looking at the older elements of Lisbon, so the earthquake came up often. For one thing thing, when the city was rebuilt it was done so on “modern” plans. This meant the streets were laid out in a grid, straight, and relatively wide. Many cities are thus now. But we visited a bit of old Lisbon that survived the earthquake. The streets were narrow and winding, the buildings close and high, it has a certain charm, but you can’t drive there, which makes everyday life difficult.

We got off the bus at Rossi Square at the heart of the rebuilt city, now the business district and wandered about for an hour or so. The city is built on hills and to get from one level to another there are large elevators. The one we saw was built by an apprentice to Eiffel, of the tower fame. If we’re lucky here’s a picture of it.



After a pastry and some caffeine it was off to the monastery. It’s to conceive but Portugal was once the leading light of civilization, their ships made new discoveries or lands and routes routinely, and brought back great wealth, novel animals, and vegetables. Like corn and pineapple. It was at the high point of this, say the 16th century, that the monastery was built (to house the body of the king when he died) and it was decorated with emblems of the new worlds and sources of wealth, like corn and pineapples. Vasco de Gamma’s tomb is there, too.

I don’t know why the Portuguese fell from their position of leadership of the Western world, but I suspect it was from having a government which was ignorant of the conditions that had created the wealth, which wasted the money on foolish wars. Luckily that couldn’t happen in the 21st century because we have learned from the examples of the Portuguese, the Greeks, the Romans, the Spanish, the French, and the English, all of who have flourished before us, and all of whom have fallen.

You really don’t get to have a long time in ports on a cruise. We had about 6.5 hours for Lisbon, and it was not time enough. After the tour we took a shuttle bus back to the Rossi area to try and find a meal of salted cod for Mary Alice who said she had long wanted to be in Lisbon eating salted cod. Fortunately, Lisbonians have the same desire, and despite a complete lack of each other’s language, we were able to communicate with the waiter in a small café and before you know it, my sweetie had salt cod and I had roast beef. A bit of a walk around town, and it was time to leave.

What I have not told you is about our adventures in the many excellent museums of Lisbon. I didn’t mention seeing the Rembrandt, or spending hours before Hieronymus Bosch’s Temptation of Saint Anthony. Or of our visit to the new modern art museum. That’s because we didn’t do any of these things. Next time its fewer old stones and more old paint.

If you are not a stamp collector, the name Ponta Delgada probably doesn’t mean anything to you. It’s the main city in the Azores Islands, not all that far from Horta. Philately aside, spending a day in Ponta Delgada was not on my life list of must dos. In fact I’m amazed that it happened at all.


How many times have you wanted a sign like this? It means no unauthorised people can enter the museum while it's under construction.

But when you get on a cruise ship you go where the ship goes. We’re destined for Barcelona, but 1000 miles east of the Iberian Pennisula, there are the Azores. They’ve been a stop for trans-atlantic traffic since the 1500s, and who is the Norwegian Jade’s captain to defy tradition? So after 6 days at sea and 2800 miles, we docked at Ponta Delgata this morning at 8 a.m.

The Azores were discovered by the Portuguese in the days when they were the most important explorers in Europe, and the colonization of these islands was the start of what became the first world-wide Empire. Not a lot is left these days, except the Azores. The islands are volcanic, and volcanic lava is a main building material. The islands are essentially farming areas now, and export beef and greenhouse grown pineapples, among other things.

Of course, they have great seafood. So we stopped at a Café for lunch and Mary Alice ordered the calamari (below) while I had beefsteak with an egg on top, boiled potatoes, and a tomato and lettuce salad. It was all really good. The vegetables were fresh – it’s so nice to have tomatoes with flavor – and the beef & calamari cooked well. I washed mine down with a small coke from an aluminum bottle.

Mainly we wandered the narrow streets of old town, window-shopped. Found an interesting punk store, looked at stuff. The ship was only here for 7 hours, and we could only be ashore 5.5 of them, so the day went fast and now we’re at sea again.

For many years Mary Alice has hosted the Tuesday night knitting group at our home in Alderpoint. A couple of days ago she rounded up some knitters and asked the ship to give them a space and time for knitting, and to list them in the day’s schedule. The ship was surprised, but accommodating, and the Knitting Club met for the first time two days ago. There were 16 of them. Today there are more. Here’s what it looked like:



Meanwhile the sea has gone from waves that are “rough” to wave that are “very rough” (12-18 foot waves) and the wind from a gale with 45-knot winds, to a storm with 51-knot winds. When you look at the sea it’s scary. There are huge waves rolling towards ship, one after another. As far as you can see there is nothing but ocean, and on it nothing but waves, white caps breaking and near the ship spray flying up many feet. The promenade outside deck 7 has been closed because the spray has soaked it, and the winds are so high.

The Jade is a huge ship, however, and when the sea is rough or less it can pretty well give us a smooth ride. “Very rough” however produces some lurching and rolling. It’s not alarming, but you are aware of it. Every now and then some combination of ship position and wave angle gives things a real jolt. Mary Alice saw a good deal of breakage at the bar by the knitting group. After one such lurch the p.a. system came on suggesting we use ‘appropriate caution” when walking around. Very helpful.

Last night we slept with the balcony door open a couple of feet and listened to the howling wind as the bed rocked to the waves. It was a great night. Fortunately we did not get soaked by spray.

We’ve been at sea for 5 days now. Tomorrow will be the sea day, but our port call in Ponta Delgado will break up the last two days with a port day. Port days have an entirely different rhythm than sea days for the obvious reason – you only have so many hours in the day and port trips take up a lot of them.

Woke up today a bit after 8,a.m. room service brought breakfast at 8:30. After breakfast we dressed and went for a walk. The deck 7 promenade was closed, and the deck 13 jogging track was way too windy and cold. So we walked deck 11, then deck 10, looking at the art that hangs every few feet on the aisle walls. M.A. went to knitting; I got my computer and went on-line in the main public room using the wi-fi so the cabin stewards could clean our cabin. About 1pm I found Mary Alice with the last two knitters, and after they wrapped things up, we went to the Blue Lagoon for lunch. Then back to the room to catch some news on TV (Fox, I’m sorry to say) and get the blog ready for posting.

I’m working on a few legal things by e-mail, and trying to get the Antarctic trip presentation together. I’ve got to whittle 1600 slides down to 100 or less, and it’s not easy. At 7:30 we have reservations at the Mexican restaurant. After that we will probably read ourselves to sleep.

The first 6 days of the cruise are at sea, with no ports of call. We will sail some 2600 miles before we reach the Azores, and our stop at Ponta Delgada. That’s about as far as San Franciso to NewYork. The ship’s speed is around 20 knots per hour (ie 20 nautical miles per hour) so in a 24 hour day it can go about 480 nautical miles. Put it this way: 1 ship day equals one hour on a jet. Only you can walk around.


(And, to quote Homer and Jethro, "that's just the top of it")

The sea remains pleasant to sail upon today, as it has been for the whole trip. We get a constant update of sea conditions (and lots of other things) on channel 22 of the cabin TV and technically we have had conditions from calm to moderate, i.e. waves from 1/2 foot to about 7 feet high. The ship hardly rocks in response to these sea conditions.

The conditions went to “rough” last night – ie 7 to 12 foot waves. The ship rocks a bit and gets very noisy as parts creak and groan as the ship moves. Since it was night time most unfortunate aspect of this was a noise that sounded like someone knocking at the door. Talk about a noise that will keep you awake.

Its my 68th birthday and as luck would have it I heard an announcement about 4pm that in 15 minutes there would be a dress rehearsal of Smokey Joe’s Café – which is a musical review of Lieber and Stoller songs. Faithful listeners to my radio show will know that this is my top duo of writers from the 50s. I saw the original version of this show in New York with my sweetie, so we dashed down the long hallway, into the forward elevator, and got good seats in the Starlight Theater. I wouldn’t say that the singers were the Coasters, LaVerne Baker, and Ben E. King, but they were good enough. The music will carry quite a bit, and the show was entertaining. When I saw “Crossroads” the opening sequence with Robert Johnson recording ran chills up my spine. In this show it was “Hound Dog” that did that. The show got a standing ovation – pretty good for a dress rehearsal.



Now we are dressing for my birthday dinner at Le Bistro – the French restaurant. I’m having duck. This afternoon I found a card posted outside my room which I’m to give to the matre’d to tip the staff off that I’m celebrating a “special” night. I don’t know whether I’m going to get a bottle of champagne or a crowd of waiters singing Happy Birthday. I’ll let you know.

Yes, it all happened. We liked Le Bistro better than any other dining site on the ship, so far. It was nice and quiet. We had duck l’orange. When served it comes in a covered dish and the waitress said “As we say in France, un dos trios – voilia” as the dish is uncovered and the duck appears. Our waitress was from the Phillipines, and our waiter from Columbia so their French was no better than mine. The duck was wonderful.

I gave the matre d’ the card but he gave it back to me and said I was to show it to the waiter. “No singing” I said to the waiter. I heard Happy Birthday being sung in a mercifully short version at another table, and after it subsided I walked over to wish my co-birthday sharer a happy birthday. He was only 67 so I let him know that year 67 was “a doozy.”

The deal is that they come sing, anyway, and bring you a cake in a take home dish. The dish is too large to fit into the mini-bar in the room so you have to eat the cake pretty soon.