Sailing Off into the Sunset… And On to New Adventures

June 11, 2013January 24, 2015 / Curt Mekemson / 12 Comments

What’s not to like about a beautiful sunset. This one took place off the southern coast of Italy in the Mediterranean Sea.

I am a sucker for sunsets, which is a good thing. Sunsets, waves and spectacular cloud formations are what pass for scenery on the open ocean. My dad, who started and ended his life as a painter, dismissed sunsets as postcard pictures. Nevertheless, when I went through several thousand of his photos after he died, I discovered numerous photos of the setting sun. Nobody can resist a beautiful sunset. Along with fireworks, they are the number one cause of oohs and ahs.

Mediterranean sunset off the coast of Southern Italy.

A close up of the same sunset shown above.

As for sailing off into the sunset, sailors have been doing this since the first sail was invented. (The western heroes of my youth rode off into the sunset, instead. After doing in the bad guys, they would kiss their girls goodbye– probably on the cheek, climb on their faithful horses, and ride off into the west as the sun sank behind the horizon and the picture slowly faded. “Hi-o Silver away!”)

Once we left our farthest point to the east, Kusadasi, Turkey, we sailed into the west all the way to Galveston, Texas. Since our ship inevitably pulled out of port in late afternoon, there were ample opportunities for sunset photos. I decided that a few of these sunsets, along with some cloud formations, would make a fitting end for my series on Mediterranean Ports.

Sun shining through clouds on the Atlantic Ocean.

Sun shining through clouds can be quite dramatic. We took this photo in the Atlantic.

Close up of the above photo. Somewhere in my youth, I was required to color clouds like this in Sunday School. The image has never quite left me.

Clouds over the sea can also provide drama, as this towering cumulus does.

Towering Cumulous cloud over the Mediterranean.

Another cumulus cloud over the Mediterranean.

The seabird soaring between the clouds spoke to how close we were to shore.

These clouds over the Atlantic appeared less threatening, but brought a storm.

This impressionistic photo of purples and pinks was taken in the Caribbean south of Florida at the end of the trip.

NEXT BLOGS: I hope you have enjoyed our journey through the Mediterranean. In three weeks Peggy and I will begin another adventure, this time driving from our home in Southern Oregon to Alaska via the Northwest US, British Columbia and the Yukon Territory. Please join us. In the meantime, I will introduce you to our hometown of Jacksonville, Oregon; take you on a trip though the Southwestern US exploring thousand-year-old Native American rock art, and catch up on what’s happening with Burning Man 2013. Peggy and I will again be traveling to Burning Man after we return from Alaska.

The Wolf, the Woodpecker and Rome… Mediterranean Ports

April 19, 2013January 24, 2015 / Curt Mekemson / 6 Comments

Romulus and Remus, the mythological founders of Rome, chow down on breakfast. I found this particular bas-relief near the Forum in Rome.

What better place to start my blogs about Rome than its founding? The story of Romulus and Remus has something for everyone. Think about this, but not too hard. (Grin)

Romulus and Remus were born of a Vestal Virgin who was impregnated by Mars. (It’s always good to have a convenient god around when ‘Who’s your Daddy?’ is in question.) Mom, knowing she is going to be punished… Vestal Virgins were supposed to stay virgin, places the babies in a basket and sends them floating down the Tiber. So far we are we are on familiar ground, or make that water. Think Moses. Then things get a little weird.

A she-wolf named Lupus finds the twins and carries them off to her den, indubitably by the nape of their necks. She opts not to eat them and soon the greedy little guys are slurping away. Picus, the Woodpecker, helps out. It makes for a more balanced diet. Picus, unfortunately, rarely gets credit for his help. I found dozens of images on Google of Lupus feeding the kids but none of Picus flying in with a bug.

Eventually, life returns to normal. A poor shepherd finds the two twins in Lupus’s den and raises them as his own children. (How Lupus and Picus felt about this change of fortune is not reported. I suspect they appreciated not having to get up several times a night.) As these myths usually go, the kids grow up, discover their heritage, and hurry off to punish the person responsible for doing in mom.

Justice is served and the twins decide to found Rome. But things get nasty. They argue over which hill to build the city on. Romulus solves the problem by killing Remus and naming the city after himself. Otherwise, Rome might be Reme. After many more adventures, Romulus dies and ascends to Heaven, thus ending the story.

Bronze relief of Romulus, Remus and Lupus in Venice.

I took this photo of the well-fed kids in Venice. SPQR, by the way, stands for the Senate and the People of Rome. Mom does not look happy in either of the two photos.

NEXT BLOG: We go for a walk on the Tiber and find the Vatican. It wasn’t lost.

A Crow’s Nest View of Venice… Sea Ports of the Mediterranean

March 13, 2013January 24, 2015 / Curt Mekemson / 6 Comments

Perched on the top deck of the Crown Princess, it was easy to see that Venice is an island, a relatively small island. Plopped down on a marsh, it is sinking into the sea at about 9 inches per century. Vivaldi, BTW, once offered music lessons at the Hotel Metropole on the right.

Perched on the top deck of the Crown Princess, it was easy to see that Venice is an island, a relatively small island. Built on a marsh, it is sinking into the sea at about 9 inches per century. Vivaldi, BTW, once offered music lessons at the Hotel Metropole on the right.

We approached Venice by sea, as mariners have for the past thousand years. I was perched on the top deck of the Crown Princess looking down on the fabled island city with a sea gull’s perspective. Icy winds turned my traveler’s curiosity into a minor act of courage. A warm bar beckoned. But I was strong. There were photos to be taken and adventures to plan. We would be in Venice for the next day and a half and there was much to see. My next five blogs will be devoted to the city. Today’s blog is on my crow’s nest view. I will then write about visiting the area around St. Mark’s Square, admiring the city’s famed canals, getting “lost” among Venice’s confusing streets, and going window shopping.

Venice is justly famed for its canals… and for the bridges over the canals. Each seems to have a different personality.

Altogether, there are some 25 miles of canals. Each one invites exploration. The building just visible on the right is the city’s naval museum. Venice was once one of the world’s greatest sea powers.

The presence of gondolas suggested we were getting near the center of Venice’s greatest tourist attraction…

And we arrived. The building on the right is the Doge’s Palace. Next to it is the beginning of St. Mark’s Square… the center of Venice.

Looking down on St. Mark's Square. The Campanile is on the left, St. Mark's Basilica is on the right behind the Doges Palace.

Looking down on St. Mark’s Square. The Campanile is on the left and St. Mark’s Basilica is on the right, behind the Doge’s Palace. Snow capped mountains are in the distance.

I found this building, the Emporio Dei Sali, interesting. Once it housed salt. Now it is home to one of Venice’s best rowing clubs.

This photo looks back toward the Campanile. The opening on the right is the beginning of the Grand Canal. The church is La Salute, which was built as an offering of thanks at the end of the plague of 1630 when one third of the City's population died.

This photo looks back toward the Campanile. The opening on the right is the beginning of the Grand Canal. The church with the onion dome is La Salute, which was built as an offering of thanks at the end of the plague of 1630 when one-third of the City’s population died.

A final view from my crow’s nest perspective. The hotel Pensione Calcina was once home to limestone sellers.

NEXT BLOG: The many attractions of St. Mark’s Square as it floods beneath the Adriatic Sea.

Let the Cruise Begin: Santorini… A Magical Greek Island

January 22, 2013January 24, 2015 / Curt Mekemson / 12 Comments

Buildings cascade down the cliffs on the Greek island of Santorini located in the Aegean Sea.

Churches, homes, shops and hotels cascade down the cliffs on the Greek island of Santorini located in the Aegean Sea.

I am normally not the cruising type; it’s too social, crowded and regimented for the part of me that demands solitude, wide-open spaces, and independence. Still, when my brother-in-law, John Dallen, sent my wife Peggy and me an itinerary of a 32-day repositioning cruise he was planning to take with his wife Francis, I was intrigued.

The cruise included visits to a number of Mediterranean ports I had always wanted to see and a voyage across the Atlantic I had never made. It sounded like an adventure. It also took place during our Twentieth Anniversary and Peggy, unlike me, loves to cruise. It seemed like a great way to celebrate. We signed on the dotted line and sent off our deposit.

Our ship, the Crown Princess, anchored in the caldera located off Santorini.

Our ship, the Crown Princess, anchored off Santorini. The island behind it is a small volcanic island.

Over the next couple of months I will blog about the journey we just completed. Join us as we visit the Greek islands of Santorini, Mykonos and Corfu, stop off at the historic sites of Pompeii and Ephesus, scale the walls of Dubrovnik, and explore the cities of Athens, Venice, Rome, Florence, Barcelona, Cannes and Lisbon. I’ll conclude with our brief stopover on the Azores Islands and trip across the Atlantic.

I will also describe shipboard life where food was served 24/7, our bed was always made, and entertainment was just a few floors away. Be warned, though, the trip wasn’t all four-course meals plus dessert; there was also the Noro-Virus that reached red alert status and forced employees to wear rubber gloves, rolling seas that threatened to dump us out of our bed, the guy who dropped dead in our dining room, and the daring Coast Guard rescue off of Louisiana.

Cruise ships sell luxury and visits to exotic locations. This is an inside view of the Crown Princess.

I am going to start this series with the Greek island of Santorini rather than Rome where we began our cruise. Santorini is more personal, easier to comprehend, has an intriguing history, and is exactly what I imagined a Greek island to be. In 2011 Travel and Leisure magazine declared it the World’s Best Island. Rick Steves, the renowned travel expert on Europe, said, “If you can’t snap a post-card quality photo here, it is time to retire your camera.”

A post card type photo of a church in the town of Oia on Santorini

A post card type photo of the Church of St. George in the town of Oia on Santorini

Santorini is located in the southern part of the Aegean Sea southeast of Athens. Once upon a time it was a huge volcano, now the island is part of a large caldera. When Santorini blew its top somewhere around 1600 BC, it was one of the largest volcanic explosions in the last 5000 years. Effects were felt as far away as China where crops withered. The resulting tsunami destroyed much of the Mediterranean’s Bronze Age Minoan civilization. Legend is that this destruction included Atlantis. In fact, the ruins of Akrotiri on Santorini are considered a prime candidate for being the Lost City.

Excavated ruins of the ancient city of Akrotiri on Santorini are a candidate for the lost city of Atlantis. If so, this mural taken from the ruins may show a resident of the Lost City.

Arrival in Santorini by ship quickly reinforced that we had sailed into a caldera. Everything was up. Fira, the islands administrative center, was perched above us on top of daunting cliffs a thousand feet high. Getting to the top involved hiking, riding a donkey or taking a tram. Riding the donkeys sounded romantic except we would end up smelling like donkeys and not able to sit down for a day. Walking had more appeal but then we would be dodging Donkey poop. We opted for the tram. Once on top, we were prepared to explore.