Mediterranean Cruise: Day 1

The first day of our cruise around the Med was pretty hectic and generally just a bunch of Point A to Point B action. Up at o'dark-thirty for the drive to London Heathrow airport for an Iberia Air flight to Barcelona (an Airbus A320 if you're curious about that kind of thing) followed by a small snafu when our transport to the port decided not to show even after a couple of phone calls to the main office.

Despite this we arrived on the Brilliance of the Seas with 2,200 of our newest friends and were quickly under way leaving Barcelona for Palermo. It was a grey, drizzly day very much like the norm we left in England. But I always try to make the best of what there is so I was able to do some photography on the surrounding industrial area and some of the more interesting ships as we left. Here are a couple of examples, you can see the most recent ones at my Flickr gallery.













I think what most amazes me about these container ships is that each one of those little colored squares is a semi-trailer/lorry trailer. And there are HUNDREDS of them on the ship. Just amazing.

Back with my prize!

Growing up in the South I often dreamed of far away distant lands: Dayton Beach, Disneyland, that sort of stuff. Of course I knew of those "other" distant lands from the Arabian Nights and Camelot stories but to think about visiting them... nonsense.

Fast-forward many, many years and I found myself in the midst of a family vacation that included ports-of-call with names like Palermo, Malta, Cypress, Rhodos (the correct way to say Rhodes I learned) and Athens. And to put a cherry on top of it all we would visit Egypt and make the trek from Alexandria to Cairo to visit the pyramids.

Now if you know me you are aware that I'm pretty much a little kid in a middle-aged body. Being such, I naturally thought "wouldn't it be cool to sit on a camel while looking at the pyramids"?

Well, dreams can come true and to prove it I present to you my fantastic family in front of the Great Pyramids of Egypt while on camels.





From left to right: my son Jordan, myself and daughter Emmalea, son Zachary and daughter Hannah and finally my lovely wife, Jill. It is important to notice that the lead camel, perhaps offended at my wife not wanting to experience Egypt on camel-back, has decided to lick and chew on her head during the photo. While I took a few photos during our 2 weeks aboard the Brilliance of the Seas (about 27gig worth) this is hands-down my favorite image of the trip.

I will be "driving the PC" for many days to edit the images but will begin posting them as soon as I'm able. Prayers for sanity (mine and my family's as I shout "where were we when we saw....") during the process requested and appreciated.

Cheers!