Ephesus

Ephesus

The ship departed Patmos at six pm and drove in circles for about three hours at very, very slow speed.  The distance to be covered was less than one hundred miles so they kept things slow and easy so the guests could enjoy cocktails and dinner.  We had a lovely view of the sunset and since we were never out of sight of land we could enjoy watching all the lights come on on the various islands.  We had a lovely dinner with some fantastic Chablis and by the time we were in the lounge and dancing, we were docking at the Turkish harbor of Kusadasi.  It was only about eleven but we were still surprised at how many people, mostly crew, were getting off the ship and hitting the bars.  As we prepared for bed with a small glass of ouzo on our balcony, we watched a very old, but very sleek cruise ship with great lines tie up across the harbor from us.  The ship was the Discovery and we found out the next morning that it was the first ship of the Princess line and was the original Love Boat.  Memory lane.

We had been told that we could get off the ship and walk to Ephesus.  We were very misinformed.  Fortunately in conversation with one of the crewmembers we were correctly told that we either needed to take a city bus or take a guided tour.  He recommended the tour since we would be given lots of information that we would miss if we tried to do this independently.  Since it wasn’t that expensive and the timing was right we took the tour and I can tell you as a confirmed hater of tours, it was well worth it.  My goodness, what a rich historical treasure is contained in the area around Ephesus.  We boarded our ‘luxury coach’ - no one says bus any more - put on our earphones, and were introduced to our guide, a Turkish lothario, who immediately started in on the history of his country and the details of this port city of Kusadasi, which means Bird Island in Turkish.  We passed the palm-lined esplanade in the center of town, which contains thousands of small shops offering wares to rival the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul.  We also passed a large and beautiful Caravansary built in 1613 as a haven for passing merchants and their camels but which is now home to a luxury hotel.

While the ruins of Ephesus are only about fifteen miles from the dock, it seems to be up hill the entire way.  We had opted for the extra tour which included visiting the house of the Virgin Mary, which is straight up the hill, on a winding, twisting and narrow road.  As you can imagine, this is a very popular spot for pilgrims, despite the fact that there is no real confirmation that Mary ever really lived here.  However that is what faith is all about so we were only too happy to visit the site and listen to the history of the place.  Its position on the summit of the mountain afforded marvelous views, especially from the men’s bathroom, which has an open window overlooking the entire valley of Ephesus.  The actual shrine to the Virgin Mary is in the middle of a lush pine forest and it is quite a lovely building.  The interior is very small, it is softly lighted, and there is religious music in the background.  There is a hushed reverence as pilgrims worship at the alter of this shrine and pause to collect a candle that can be lit with a small prayer for loved ones.  I’m not much of a believer but I do have two loved ones that have embraced the church so we lit two candles for two lovely ladies: my mother and my Aunt Dot.  As we exited and headed back to the bus we went past the three springs that are supposed to have healing powers so I took a sip, what could it hurt?  We were also given fifteen minutes to shop at one of five large souvenir shops that were hawking all things related to religion, the Virgin Mary, and Turkish folklore.

We headed back down the hill towards Ephesus, stopping for a photo-op at a huge golden statue of the Virgin Mary that overlooks the valley.  We were let out in front a series of souvenir shops, quel surprise, and here the hawkers were far more aggressive in trying to get us to purchase Chinese made products that were ‘valuable icons’.  We waited a bit to let the guide sort out our tickets and then headed into the area that contains the remains of Ephesus. As you know we have visited lots of interesting places that have lots of history, like Petra, but we were totally unprepared for the enormity of Ephesus.  It is huge and as our guide told us, only one third of the original city has been uncovered.  They have done a great job of restoring this ancient city, and with very little imagination you can get a great feel for what it must have been like to live here.

The rich had lovely large homes situated on hills overlooking the sea.  These homes, built around 300 BC, had running water, were centrally heated, and were filled with lovely mosaic tiled floors.  For hundreds of years this was the commercial center for Asia Minor and as such, enjoyed great wealth from trade, which was reflected in their architecture and monuments.  The greatest building to have been recovered thus far is the Library of Celsus, which has a lovely two-level façade.  The interior of this building had walls that were designed to display 12,000 scrolls, making it the largest library after Pergamum and Alexandria.  I’ve enclosed a few photos but to really get the feel for this place you need to do some Internet searching which I’m sure will yield some video tours.

After spending about three hours touring this lovely old city we headed back to the port where we wandered a bit, found an little café for a glass of Raki (Turkish ouzo), and a glass of lovely dry white Turkish wine, which we enjoyed while catching up with emails with their free Wi-Fi.  We wandered a bit in the bazaar but were not eager to purchase anything so we just enjoyed the local color, cacophony, and smells before heading back to the ship for a well deserved nap. 

After our nap we dressed for the walk and enjoyed watching all the activity involved in preparing the ship for our departure.  We have been very good about exercising during this cruise and in the mornings we can usually do two miles on the treadmill and in the pre-cocktail hours we walk around the ship’s small track for about forty-five minutes.  By sunset we were heading towards Israel and our first full day at sea.  This was also our first formal night so Cindy and I dressed to the nines, she looking like a million bucks and me looking like a shorter, greyer, heavier James Bond with my polished black shoes and European cut dinner jacket.  It was also smoke free night in the casino so we went to the casino bar for a cocktail I got twenty dollars worth of chips to play roulette, something I always do once on cruises.  I took two one-dollar chips and placed them on 15 and bingo, the ball stopped at fifteen and I took my seventy dollars and headed into dinner.  This has happened to me once before and it always makes your heart race a bit faster.  The money will be well spent on a nice bottle of Champagne for our next formal night.   From CC: my jaw dropped and stayed that way for about 15 minutes after that little roulette ball landed on #15.  ONE try, and he won!

 Best to all, Cindy and Wm

First Days At Sea

At Sea

We managed to get to the ship with no difficulty, mostly due to the fact that it was a Saturday and the traffic was light.  Another factor was the decision by dockworkers to extend the strike on ferries through Sunday, which means that there was no service from Athens to any of the islands for five full days.  With no cars coming on or off ferries we had no problems and we were on the ship in under an hour from departing the hotel.  From CC: Can you believe it, no ferry service for 5 days in an area that completely depends on ferries for everything?  Glad we didn’t decide to spend the days leading up to the cruise on a Greek island.  Back to Wm …

We had a pleasant surprise upon check-in when we were told that we had been upgraded to a mini-suite, which meant more space on the balcony and a much larger cabin than we had booked.  It also came with butler service - I’ve never known what to do with a butler but it was nice to know we had one.  He came as soon as we were in our cabin, explained how things worked, and immediately went to get us two ice-cold glasses of Champagne.  A great way to start the cruise.  We sipped our Champagne on the balcony and marveled at how quiet things were in the port with all the ferries idle.

We unpacked and stored everything, lots of space available, and soon we were ready to explore the ship.  This is a very small ship, which is what we enjoy.  Only about 650 passengers, which means it can get in and out of smaller ports of call without having to use tenders to get folks from the ship to the shore.  The ship is filled with dark wood and carefully maintained brass fittings so it has a very club-like feel in all the common rooms.  Our cabin is light and airy and non-claustrophobic, which is a very definite plus for me.  I always marvel at how well designed these cabins are in terms of no wasted space.  We even have a TV that gets all the news stations including BBC 24/7 due to the satellite TV system installed on this ship.

We had the mandatory life boat drill conducted by a gentleman with a very proper British accent.  At one point he was talking about the man overboard procedures and for the life of me I couldn’t understand why it would be of any value to throw the person overboard a bar of soap!  Cindy explained that the Brits call a life ring a lifebuoy and with his accent it sounded like Lifeboy to me.  We returned to our cabin and got dressed for dinner, which for us starts at 8:15.  There are two seatings, one at 6 pm, and then the late seating.  We picked a bar for our before dinner drink and we were only one of three couples in the bar at 7:30.  Most of the other ships we have been on would have had full bars at this hour but this is an older crowd and they don’t seem to be bar flies. 

I had requested a table for two but when we got to the dining room I found that we had been placed at a table for four, and I could see that the other couple that were sitting there already were certainly not our style.  The Maitre D’ was sympathetic but explained that there were only a certain number of tables for two and they were filled.  Both Cindy and I were dressed well, far better than anyone else in the room and we both noticed that the Maitre D’ was Italian so we spoke to him in Italian and he asked us to step away for a moment and very quickly he came over to us and announced a table for two for that evening since one couple had missed the boat.  It was a perfect table and he came over several times to make sure all was okay.  On one occasion he came back and said he had a table for six for the next night but we would be the only ones there.  The next night we arrived, well dressed again and bearing a thank you gift for him and he proudly announced that our table for two from yesterday was now ours for the remainder of the trip.  This was a godsend since we have noticed that everyone on board seems to want to chatter and most talk more than they listen.  From CC:  Wm was shocked, simply shocked, when I confirmed for him the fact that many people take cruises in order to get to know their fellow travelers.  He just shakes his head in dismay at the thought of someone actually enjoying a conversation with a stranger.  Back to Wm … the good news is that I am perfectly content to converse with Cindy all day every day.

The food, service, and wine list in the restaurant are all excellent and it is a very comfortable space with well-paced service of the various courses.  As with most ships, the waiters are all Filipinos and are extremely friendly, humorous, and well trained.  We retired to a quiet bar for an after-dinner drink and were disappointed to discover that there was no dancing music being played.  There was music, but no dancing music. Which just meant that we got to bed earlier than anticipated so we were quite refreshed when we pulled into Patmos the next morning.

Patmos is Greek for, “ If you have nothing better to do.”  Since this is a Holy Land cruise I’m assuming that we stopped here because it is believed that Saint John received his revelation in a cave here, but scholars are really only sure that it was someone named John, not at all sure which John they are talking about.  The island is typically Greek, white washed houses with blue shutters, lots of shoreline lined with cafes, tavernas and fishing boats.  It was a Sunday and we enjoyed walking around the island, sitting in the main square and watching extended families milling about and settling in to their favorite café for coffee and conversation.  The place was awash in little children, all of whom where quite active and vocal, but then again, this is Greece and it was good theater.  There is a lovely monastery, which looks more like a fort, at the very top of a hill.  The closest we got to it was with a telephoto lens, but that seemed to be all we really needed. We headed back to the ship on the tender, which made us feel like we were indeed close to the water, all very romantic and invigorating.  Here are a few photos, which again say Ephesus, but should say Patmos.

Until our next free Wi-Fi stop, Cindy and Wm

Bon Voyage

We are two hours away from boarding the ship for our twelve days of decadence so I thought I would get out this special edition of the blog.  It has been an interesting journey to get here from Chalons en Champagne.  We had a lovely four days in Chalons and we were blessed with perfect weather.  The only rain came during a nap and we ate very close to home that night even though the rain had lessened. We got into a lovely routine in that every evening we would go to the same bistro and order two flutes of ice-cold Champagne before we would wander around reading menus to decide whom we would grace with our presence that evening.

We noticed something very new to us for France.  We only ate in Bistros and Brassieres as opposed to proper restaurants and we found that the portions of food served have become enormous.  Normally the portions are on the small side and we have always had no difficulty finishing most of what we were served.  Not so on this trip!  There wasn’t a single meal that we could even come close to finishing.  The salads were enough for two or three people and they all seemed to come with a pound of lardons, which is French for bacon bits (the real thing, not fake bacon).  One night I had a confit of duck leg and the little leg came with ten, count them ten, two-inch roasted potatoes, no other vegetables, just a huge mound of potatoes.  On only one occasion did we get any fresh vegetables with any meal other than salads.  This is a great market town and on our first morning there we were blown away with the variety and quantity of vegetables in the market, but on this trip we were served canned green beans, canned peas and on one occasion Cindy was served a heaping helping of inedible canned broccoli, mushrooms and green beans.  This was the only disappointing part of the trip and perhaps if we had eaten lunches, like the rest of France does, we might have had fresh vegetables.  Thank goodness for those salads, huge or not.

We checked our email upon returning from dinner on the last night only to discover that Air France had cancelled our flight to Athens that had been scheduled for the next afternoon.  It was too late to call them and there wasn’t anything we could do about it since the Air Traffic Controllers in Greece were taking part in the two-day strike that was scheduled to start at 8 am the next morning.  We were supposed to have dinner with our friend Catherine on Thursday but our new booking for Athens wasn’t scheduled until Friday.  I hastily booked a room at the airport Hyatt in Paris because it looked like we’d be in Paris at least one night … and the next morning we departed Chalons for the airport hoping that perhaps the ATC folks would only have a twelve hour strike as had been reported on BBC that morning.

From CC: he forgot to say that we’d set the alarm for 7 am thinking maybe the strike wouldn’t happen.  Wm checked email and the news at 6:55, realized we weren’t flying anywhere that day, and back to sleep we went.

We left Chalons toward noon for the lovely 2-hour drive to the airport, went directly to the Hyatt and deposited our luggage and settled into the lovely, large and ever so modern room.  Then I took the rental car back to the airport and made my way to Air France customer service in Terminal 2E.  I had a very nice person helping me but she insisted that there would be no flights to Athens until Friday morning.  I was wearing my Air Crew badge and suggested that my dispatcher had told me that the ATC strike was ending in three hours and asked if she could confirm that with her supervisor.  (From CC: He admitted that his nose grew during that time – but it’s not a lie if it turns out to be correct, right?)  She called and sure enough they had just gotten confirmation from Greece that they could begin flights tomorrow.  The first and only flight they had on Thursday was departing at 12:35 and I got us two seats on the plane.  I had her print out the confirmation and then I asked her for boarding passes so that we would be assured of no hassles the next day.

We celebrated our good fortune with drinks in the Hyatt Club lounge and then, as is our custom, we walked over to a French chain restaurant called Hippopotamus.  On our first visit to this chain, some twenty years ago, we were celebrating the marriage of our friends in Paris and there were six of us having a grand old time in the restaurant at 1am.  As I remember we were politely asked to tone things down or leave.  We didn’t hold a grudge and have been going back to the one at the airport for many, many years for our penultimate meal in France.  We even had fresh vegetables as part of our dinner – delicious green beans!

The next day we were able to get out and the flight was on schedule so we arrived in time for dinner with Catherine.  We met at a lovely seafood restaurant and had a marvelous meal with lots of conversation, laughter, and wine.  We realized that we hadn’t seen each other for more that twelve years but we picked up where we left off and it was a truly delightful evening.  The next morning we enjoyed walking around the area where we are staying.  This is a resort area and we are on the point of a lovely peninsula with spectacular views over the water towards Athens.

I would be remiss if I didn’t rant a wee bit about the Greek strike.  The workers in Greece are upset because the government needs to cut back on everything and that doesn’t sit well.  Now remember, since joining the Euro Zone, the Greeks have borrowed billions of dollars to support their rather luxurious way of life.  Most Greeks pay little or nothing in taxes; loopholes abound and there is no enforcement of tax laws.  The government is out of control in terms of spending:  According to Time Magazine, to get around pay restraints in the calendar year, the Greek government simply paid employees for months that didn’t exist.  The Greek public railroad had annual revenue last year of $100 million, yet they paid $400 million in annual wages, not including operating expenses.  As it stands now, the average Greek’s average share of the nation’s debt is $250,000.  So, it would stand to reason (not) that they would want to shut down the country for 48 hours, losing millions and million of Euros in tourist revenues since eight cruise ships had to divert to other destinations, no ferries were running between Italy, Turkey, Cyprus or other Greek islands, and of course no flights in or out of Greece.  Nothing was accomplished and a lot was lost!  Go Greeks.

We are two hours from departure to head to the docks of Athens for our cruise.  We had a lovely dinner here in the hotel last night.  They have a Turkish Week special with a buffet of appetizer and desserts at a price we could afford.  This is an expensive hotel, one Ouzo costs the same as a full bottle, one espresso was seven dollars but we enjoyed our dinner, found s decent bottle of wine and we were able to get to bed before midnight.  So, we are backed and ready and we wish you all a lovely remainder of October.

Best wishes, Cindy and Wm

Chalons en Champagne

 It has been a tumultuous week for the Embees.  It started with news that our grandson Aidan had to be taken to Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg Florida with an acute kidney problem.  He was there for the week hooked up to IVs and poked and probed by doctors and nurses.  He was all swollen and pale and through it all he maintained his normal good humor and charm.  He is home now and we all hope that he is on the road to complete recovery.  As if in sympathy with his problems, I had a touch of medical issues myself. I had been feeling a bit tired and listless since my return from Bulgaria and had some issues with painful urination, but I chalked it up to jet lag.  On Monday I went flying, fortunately with an instructor, in order to keep up my license.  I knew I wasn’t truly focused when I couldn’t seem to plug in my earphones, but when I forgot to lower flaps and pull out the carb heat upon my downwind approach to landing, I knew something was really wrong.  When I was home I explained all of this to Cindy who diagnosed me with a urinary tract infection.  I then found blood in my urine, and nothing gets your attention like blood in your urine, which simply confirmed that I needed to get to a doctor.  Sure enough I had a urinary tract infection that required a bit of rest and some strong antibiotics, which cleared everything up in three days.  Not at all sure how E. Coli gets into the urinary tract but it sure did and knocked me for a loop for a few days.

Things got a whole lot better on Friday when we took off for Paris.  We had a lovely flight on a new Air France Airbus 380.  We flew in the new Premier Economy on the upper deck and it was truly a grand experience.  I gave the flight attendants my normal gift of See’s Lollipops and you would think I had handed them large diamonds.  One of them came up and asked if I would like to visit the cockpit before takeoff and you can imagine my response.  This is a super modern aircraft and the captain gave me a really comprehensive tour of the cockpit for about fifteen minutes, which I thought was most gracious of him.  Not only is the aircraft big and spacious, it is also very, very quiet.  I found out that there are about twenty video cameras on the plane and the captain can scan all of them in case of some security incident.  There is also a camera mounted on the tail of the plane that is activated upon take off and landing so that all the passengers can see what the pilot sees. 

Our flight attendant made sure that we were well hydrated with French liquids and it was really a nice trip.  The configuration on the 380 upper deck is 2-3-2 so we had a window/aisle with two large windows to enjoy the take off and climb out.  The seats were comfortable and the TV screen was large and the movie selections enormous.

From CC:  Wm is right, the extra space was great and Premier Economy is so much better than regular economy.  However, when the food came we might as well have been in economy – everything was served at once on a little tray with flat paper envelopes for the salt and paper, wrapped Monterey Jack cheese as a “cheese course,” stale bread, etc.  What I really noticed was the little tiny thin red paper napkin, and just then Wm whipped out two large cloth napkins from home!  With buttonholes in one corner like proper airplane napkins (thanks, Kari, for giving those to Wm years ago).

Back to Wm:  We managed a few hours sleep and landed early at 5:30 am.  An hour later we were leaving CDG in our rental car and heading to the Champagne country.  There was very little traffic that early on a Saturday and we made good time with no hassles.  As we approached Reims, the Champagne capital of the galaxy, the sun was just coming up and we could see what appeared to be an endless string of hot air balloons rising with the mist in the early morning light.  As we got closer we could see their beautiful colors and Cindy noticed that they were being launched in intervals.  We think it must have been some type of race or rally or whatever hot air balloonists have, but it was sure pretty.

We got to our hotel in Chalons en Champagne at about 9 am and found out that our room wouldn’t be ready until 12:30.  We had hoped against hope that we might be able to get in right away and take a long nap, but instead we just walked for four hours around this magnificent city.  It is very small and compact and filled with gardens and canals and half-timbered houses.  The morning was cold but sunny and there was a Saturday outdoor market as well as a lovely covered food market so we had plenty to see and do.  We had a few coffee breaks and finally, overcome with hunger and exhaustion, settled in for a light lunch of salads and wine.  By 1 pm our lunch was done and our room ready and we collapsed for a well deserved two-hour nap followed by a two-hour walk in one of the most beautiful parks I’ve ever encountered.

From CC:  we’ve been planning these few days in France for several weeks and had originally reserved a room in a suburb of Paris … but then got to thinking that we’d rather be in a city (other than Paris).  Out came the Michelin Guide - we had just bought the 2011 version.  As great as the Internet is, we still love that big red book of ratings for hotels and restaurants with its great maps and other information.  We settled on Chalons en Champagne and found a hotel we could afford … we also seemed to remember having stayed there before but our memories were fuzzy other than the fact that it was just after NY’s, we’d had a big lunch with friends in Paris, and had an overnight stopover as we drove toward our home in Frankfurt.  We had vowed to never eat again … but lo and behold after checking into the hotel and walking around a bit, the smells from the hotel kitchen overcame us and we ended up eating a lovely dinner.

And that’s ALL we remembered until I dug out my travel journal from 1984 and confirmed some details (in our defense, in 1984 we’d arrived after dark and then left early the next morning).  The confusing part was that I had written that we stayed in Chalons sur Marne – and while this city is indeed on the Marne, that doesn’t seem to be its name.  Writing the wrong name of a city in my journal seemed like a very odd mistake to have made – but just today I found out that they changed the name to Chalons en Champagne in 1998!  I am so relieved.

Back to Wm:  We enjoyed a lovely dinner last night at the same place we had lunch.  The waiter took us to our ‘usual’ table and we started with ice-cold glasses of Champagne.  The dinner was okay, nothing spectacular, but the wine was cold and the bread was fresh and we had a delightful evening.  We walked around the square for a bit and decided to have a nightcap at the bar next to our hotel.  It was really hysterical.  We were the oldest people in there by at least thirty years.  We sat at the bar and Cindy had an Armagnac and I had a glass of Aligote, a fiercely dry white wine from Burgundy.  We watched with amazement as they made enormous mixed drinks with lots of color and fruit and enough alcohol to choke a horse.  The noise level picked up when a group of fifteen twenty-somethings came in so we downed our drinks and headed home, which was a very short walk.  We hit the sack at about eleven and woke up totally refreshed at ten this morning.  As Cindy ran in the park, I walked and took lots of photos, which I’ll try to post sometime this week.  We went to the best bakery in town, judging from the lines, and got a croissant and a small baguette and went to the big square where there was a lovely café with lots of tables in the sun for our morning noisette (a small espresso with some milk). 

We came back and cleaned up and headed out again for the Cathedral Saint-´Etienne, which is only open on Sunday.  This is a stunningly beautiful building that has been closed for twenty years but is now open to the public for limited hours.  It is a soaring structure and filled with lots of light, unlike so many churches in Europe.  Also, unlike most churches in Europe, they had volunteer guides who spoke English and met us at the entrance to tell us particular things to notice.  A lovely touch.  The light was just perfect for us to really see all the detail in the stained glass, which is everywhere.  Best of all, we had the joint to ourselves and could wander and linger as we did for forty minutes.

We walked along the River Marne for a while and then through the park again and by two o’clock we were a bit hungry and adjourned for a light lunch to the café where we had coffee this morning.  It was an Alsatian place that had a grand flammkuechen and some dry white Alsatian wine that took us back in time to a place we used to eat outside of Strasbourg.  All and all, a perfect Sunday in France.

Best wishes to all, Cindy and Wm.

Back to Pack

This retirement thing gets better and better.  I’m recently back from Sofia, Bulgaria and we are now in the midst of packing for a three-week trip to Europe, The Holy Land and Egypt.  I’ve already discussed a bit about Sofia, but I must mention an incident at the 20^th Anniversary of the American University in Bulgaria Gala.  It was held at the Ivan Vazov National Theatre, which is a gem of a building and a focal point for Sofia’s rich heritage of parks and historic buildings. The theatre was very close to my hotel and I had walked by it several times, but on the evening of the Gala it was totally illuminated with fancy lights and the area outside the theatre was filled with huge tents for the big party after the presentations.

I presented myself to the students who where checking names of those invited and when they found my name they immediately called over a young woman who had been waiting for me to arrive.  I was ushered up to the balcony where the stage party was enjoying canapés, wine and conversation.  I was taken directly to HRH Maria Lusia, Princess of Bulgaria, who greeted me warmly and by name.  She then did the most extraordinary thing - she said I have someone I want you to meet and she took me over to an elegantly dressed older man and said, “William I want to introduce you to my brother the King.”  A real king!  He was charming and engaging and we had a wonderful conversation.  A most incredible evening.

The next day brought me back to reality rather quickly with a four am wake-up call to get to my six am flight to Paris and then onto Washington.  I was one tired puppy when I got to Dulles but Cindy was there to greet me and it was a lovely autumn day for the drive to Charles Town so I quickly revived.  We have been blessed with lovely weather for the past several days and it is a joy to go for early morning and late afternoon walks without the heat and humidity that was here just ten days ago.

As mentioned, we are off on Friday for three weeks and will not be bringing a proper computer, just Cindy’s iPad, which I’ve loaded with movies and songs for our entertainment pleasure.  The passing of Steve Jobs reminded me about how much we take today’s technologies for granted.  I began my computing in 1982 with an Apple and I’ve never owned any other brand of computer or MP3 device; heck, I even had a Newton.  I was amazed at the Apple II E, thrilled with the first Mac and have enjoyed everything that has come from Apple.  Just for fun I did a count today of Apple devices we have in the house and the number is twelve.  The only thing we don’t have is an iPhone and that’s because I seldom, if ever, use a cell phone.

I tried to be a true red blooded American today and sat down to watch some football. It was a bust; I only lasted for about ten minutes before switching to Ken Burns’ Prohibition.  I suppose I can’t get interested in football because I’ve been away from it for so long, no longer have a team to root against or for, and just can’t get too excited by the game.  Perhaps later in the year when things start to get serious my interest will return.  I find it amazing that we are still in the baseball playoffs in the middle of October and that professional hockey has started. These seasons just get dragged out longer and longer every year.  I did a little research and discovered that in 1950 the series was over on October 7th, ten years later the series was over on Oct. 13^th and every ten years after that the series crept up five days until last year when the series was over on November 1^st.   I’m guessing that indoor stadiums had a lot to do with it as does the expanded number of teams in the leagues, plus the fact that even lousy teams can make the playoffs.

I’m going to fly a little Cessna 172 in the morning to make sure I stay qualified. I need three takeoff and landings every three months to keep my ticket. They have ripped out the only runway at Winchester Airport and it won’t be ready for use until mid-December.  In the interim they are using the taxi way as a runway for limited use, no heavy planes, no touch and goes, no flight training and it is only open from 8 am until 5 pm.  It should be fun; normally the runway is 100 ft wide and now it is only 37 feet wide, which adds a little excitement to the landing.  It will give me a good excuse to practice short field takeoffs and landings. I’ll need to fly over to Front Royal to do my touch and goes.

Hope your Sunday is progressing beautifully, Cindy and Wm.

Sunday in Sofia

I’m in Sofia, the beautiful clean, green capital of Bulgaria.  It is a bit like Moscow with smiles.  It is filled with little parks and fountains and there are lots and lots of men playing speed chess sitting under huge chestnut trees which periodically break the rhythm of the game by dropping large green spiky nuts onto the boards.  I arrived at about four pm after at twenty hour travel day that took me from Dulles to Atlanta to Paris and finally to Sofia.  The trip wasn’t that bad considering that I was in coach.  On the leg from Atlanta to Paris I was in the new Air France Premium Economy.  It is four rows of 2-4-2, compared to regular coach, which is 3-4-3, so there is a bit of extra room.  The real advantage is that it is rather quiet, has a shell seat so that no one reclines into your face and there is a bigger tray table and TV screen.  Otherwise it is about the same, with the same food and beverages in coach.  I once again presented the coach flight attendants with See’s Lollipops and the Champagne and white wine flowed freely for me.  (Yes, I know I’m shameless but one must do what one must do to survive coach flights.)  Despite the slightly improved environment, I was only able to sleep for about ninety minutes and that was fitful.  Needless to say, I was one tired puppy when I finally got to the next flight.

The flight from Paris to Sofia was just gorgeous.  It was perfect weather and we flew over Zurich and then followed the Alps.  I sometimes forget how beautiful that part of the world really is, with the combination of snow-capped peaks that soar up from the deep green valleys and seemingly dark black rivers and streams.  It was a little Airbus 319 that carried us to Sofia and it had a weird configuration.  All the seats are the same on these planes but they have little movable curtains that are used to separate Business from Coach.  On this flight they had one business row and one row for Premium Coach.  For business they leave the middle seat empty but since I was the only person in Premium Economy, I had a whole row of three seats to myself.  In this case, the food and beverages for Premium Economy are the same as Business, (go figure) so I was able to sip some lovely Champagne as I watched the Alps slid below.

The ride in from the Airport was lots of fun since my driver was clever and knew lots of English.  It had been more than twenty years since I’d been in Sofia and I must say I didn’t remember much.  There are a few buildings and monuments that looked familiar but other than that it was all new to me.  Turns out, according to the driver, that I can use Russian here since everyone understands it because Bulgarian is very similar. If I’m stop for directions here in Sofia I can now say, “az ne govorya bugarski”

I’m in a grand old hotel, The Sheraton Sofia Hotel Balkan, which is right in the middle of the city and convenient for long walks.  Outside my window is the Church of St. George and if you look to the left of the cross in this photo, the two top balconies is my room.  After getting up packed I took a quick walk to get familiar with the area as well as stretching muscles that had been unused for twenty hours.  There is a lovely little park right behind the hotel and it was filled with folks and families walking around and enjoying the late afternoon sun.  It is still rather warm here and the trees are all starting to change into their more colorful attire.  As I mentioned, everyone seemed to be smiling and chatting and having fun as they ate their ice cream or sipped their coffee drinks under large white and green umbrellas set up on all the decks around the cafes.

By the time I came back I could call Cindy who had returned from running.  We tried to Skype but the connection here is not too fast and we ended up using Skype Phone.  I was bound and determined to stay up until at least 9pm so after we talked for a while I took a cold shower, got into some clean clothes and heading down to the Bar/Lounge.  Turns out that I got the deal of the century on this room.  Not only is is lovely, has two balconies, is every so stately, very light with tall ceilings and a chandelier, a mother of pearl bathroom floor, and wood everywhere, but it comes with free Wi-Fi access which in Europe is a big deal.  The Bar/Lounge down stairs is rather small but I was the only one in there since it was still early by Sofia standards.  With your drinks you can enjoy some canapés, which were just delicious.  Some of them were with smoked salmon, some with smoked cheese, and some with smoked ham.  There were also smoked nuts and smoked olives.  They like smoked things here, but it really wasn’t over done and I enjoyed my time just reading, nibbling, and watching the news.  The wines were very good, but then Bulgaria has always had a wonderful reputation for excellent wines, they just don’t get much distribution in the USA.

I stayed up until exactly 9pm and then I took a little round white pill that Cindy told me would help me sleep and I was out like a light for ten hours.  I woke up refreshed and ready for my only free day of this trip so I did my exercise routine, and got cleaned up before hitting the streets.  I wandered over to where I thought I had seen a Central Market and sure enough there it was.  It was build in 1905 and looks like an old train station.  It is very similar to the one in Budapest but not as lively, nor as exciting.  There were just lots of stalls selling foods and dry goods, trinkets and cheeses.  I did one quick tour and was out of there since I knew there must be something better.  The place wasn’t at all crowded on a Saturday morning, which meant that there were options someplace else.  Sure enough I saw two older ladies pulling their empty shopping bags heading down the pedestrian street and I decided to follow them.  I was rewarded with a five block long street market that was jammed with shopper, hawkers, pickpockets, and beggars; it was just what I was looking for.

I took my time and started up one side of the market that was selling all manner of clothing and I must say the Sofians are not shy about trying clothes on in the great outdoors. Beyond the clothes came the kitchen stuff, sinks, faucets, plugs, and other odd bits.  There was a section of second hand hardware and tools; a place for selling reading glasses right next to a place that was selling big garden tools like shovels, axes, hoes, etc.  I sat and watched a Roma family making things out of straw and reeds.  Some were weaving baskets others were making brooms, which really fascinated me.  Their fingers flew as they gathered up the straw and crimped it at one end, wove some string in the middle to hold it all together and then, with what had to be the sharpest tool I’ve seen, sliced off the ends so it was neat and even and then they attached the broom to the handle and bingo, a brand new broom.  I wanted to buy a great big one and bring it back to Washington hoping that a new broom would clean out the dirt that we call congress, but alas, they didn’t have one that large.

I hit the other side of the market after watching the broom makers and was amazed at the quality and variety of the fruits and vegetables that I saw.  I’ve never seen larger cauliflower in my life, huge gleaming white orbs of goodness.  There were tomatoes so sweet that the little cut samples were attracting more bees than some of the other ‘sweet’ fruits.  Needless to say, the wild stuff was where the crowds were.  People had brought to market scores of different wild mushrooms, lots, and lots of wild nuts, which were displayed whole, cracked, and cleaned.  Near each of the areas, vegetables, fruits, meats, etc, -there was some enterprising person cooking and selling skewers of roasted vegetables, raw fruits drizzled with honey and sprinkled with a variety of spices, grilled meats that were either eaten on bread or off the stick.  The one place that didn’t hold a lot of interest for me was the offal stand where the raw tripe and stomach, liver and kidney, tongue and brain were hard enough to look at, but when they started to cook it, goodness, that has to be where we get the word awful!

As fascinated as I was with spending a hour browsing this market, I was lured away when I saw streams of young people coming down an intersecting street, all dragging rollaboards over the uneven and loose cobblestones.  I had to work my way up stream from this group of travelers, hoping that I would be rewarded with a grand old rail terminal.  Alas, they had all been disgorged from two large tour buses from Sarajevo.  (Incidental the license tags for Bosnia and Herzegovina is BiH, I had to look that one up.)

Looking for a bit more excitement, I followed a group of police, all carrying helmets, and shields.  Much to my amazement, they were heading right back to my hotel.  Turns out that right behind the hotel, in front of one of the more important government buildings, they had guards in old fancy uniforms out front, there was a demonstration by the ATAKA political party.  They are basically far right nationalist that what to return Bulgaria to the Bulgarians.  They hate almost everyone, especially the Romas, and I must say they really were rather well organized.  There were trailers there with pictures of their leaders, lots of banners, lots of loud speeches and louder music from speakers and, I would estimate there were about 150 people in black shirts mesmerized by the speakers.  I would also guess that there were about 400 police near the rally and more scattered around the blocks surrounding the rally.  I’m not sure if they expected trouble but they had them out numbered and out gunned.  This was yet another reminder that I wasn’t in Moscow any more.  There were no arrests, the police never put on their helmets, and most of the time they just stood around with smiles and accepted little plastic cups of strong coffee from people who were walking by showing support for the police.

Speaking of police, the Church of St. George area behind my hotel is also a staging area for the police, as well as being a favorite place for photo sessions for newlyweds, five today.  They seem to have the same tradition here as in Moscow whereby the bridal party all pile into a limo and go all over town to have photos taken in front of famous and historical buildings.  I’ve notice two differences here; they are not all as drunk as skunks, and the police all seem to do what they can to help them with their photo shoot.  One couple had all the police get in the picture with them; there were twelve of them.  One of them let the bride hold his nightstick over the head of the groom for the photo.  You would NEVER see this in Moscow.

Priyaten Nedelya (Have a nice Sunday),   William