Update no.803A

Update from the Heartland

No.803A

1.5.17 – 21.5.17

Blog version:  http://heartlandupdate.blogspot.com/

To all,

            The Update hiatus announced in Update no.802 is officially over.  For security reasons, I chose not to broadcast the reason for going dark, but now you will know.  We were off to visit places where this currency is standard (quite distinctive, I must say).

Euros

I finally got Jeanne on a trans-Atlantic flight, after two decades of avoidance.  We took a nice, moderate length, Mediterranean cruise, as you will soon read.  If you do not want to read a personal travelogue, stop wasting your time, now; and hopefully, join me next week when Update from the Heartland returns to its normal format and content.  Thank you for your patience and understanding.

            Due to the size of the file, this travelogue will be published in four (4) installments on consecutive days – Update no.803A through 803D.  If anyone would like the whole file, please let me know; I will ensure you get a copy.

Day -2

Wichita, Kansas, United States of America:

Thursday, 4.May.2017:

06:00 [S] CDT:

            We arrived at Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport (ICT) two (2) hours prior to our flight.  Of course, Jeanne decided to take more clothes than we can wear in a month, but I managed to get everything into three rolling bags . . . no room to bring anything back, but hey, a small price to pay for a happy wife.  Her bag was five (5) pounds (mass) overweight, while just as a side note, my bag was under the weight limit, so that cost us another US$100 at the get-go.

            Granddaughter Aspen Shae dropped us off at the airport.  Security was an easy transit with surprisingly no line.  Oh my, only if they were all so easy.  Just a side note: the city did a really good job building the new terminal.  Well done!

09:30 [S] CDT:

            We arrived safely and on time at our first waystation – Dallas / Ft. Worth (DFW) for a 2.5-hour transfer time that enabled us to have a nice little lunch at Fuddrucker’s in Terminal ‘D’.  It was a gorgeous spring day in Texas.  Unfortunately, we were confined to the airport terminal.  We departed DFW on time.

16:10 [R] EDT:

            Our second waystation was Miami (MIA) with a little over an hour of transfer time.  The planned takeoff time was 18:20 [R] EDT.  We were not quite an hour late in boarding as the gate agent explained they were dealing with a maintenance problem to make sure the aircraft was ready for the long 8-hour-55-minute flight.  We finally boarded our B777-200 aircraft.  It was a nearly full flight, so a lot of people.  We pushed back from the gate, and began to taxi to the runway, only to stop and return to a different gate.  The pilot said he had a caution light that he needed the maintenance folks to verify normal operations, i.e., a false indication.  Apparently, he was eventually satisfied and away we went . . . 2 hours, 40 minutes late.  Fortunately, the aircraft had a rather nifty seat-back, personal entertainment system along with a convenient 110 volt AC power receptacle to keep my iPad charged.  I watched the movie “Assassins Creed” in its entirety before takeoff – not bad as a pacifier of the masses, I must say.  The entertainment system offered perhaps a dozen (I did not count them) first-run movies, and you could use your own headphones or those cheap-o’s provided.  I also watched and eventually finished “The Founder” [the story of Ray Kroc and McDonald’s] off & on during the flight.  Our plan called for meeting a driver upon arrival in Barcelona, so my mind reviewed the procedures for connecting with our driver, who reportedly could only wait an hour and a half.  Oh well, one step at a time; we will deal with whatever comes.  By the way, for those who might be interested in the gastronomic offering on the flight, I had a very nice bow-tie pasta dish with a perfect tomato-garlic-onion sauce – well done, actually.  Jeanne enjoyed a chicken & rice combination that was equally good.  Our bellies full, it was off to sleep.  As a related side note, I highly recommend those U-shaped neck pillows; my first time using one and they really work.

Day -1

Barcelona, Catalana, Reino de España:

Friday, 5.May.2017:

11:45 [A] CEST (planned 09:15 arrival time) {subsequent time notations are Central European Standard Time, except as noted}:

            OK, we were late from the start, but hey, best laid plans of mice and men, ay.  The flight crew made up a little time lost, but then . . . surprise, surprise . . . we had to orbit for a while on approach to Aeropuerto Barcelona (BCN).  The on-board, navigation progress map displayed two sets of orbit patterns: one well ordered and conventional, and another closer in that resembled a ball of yarn. The pilot said the delay was to allow the airport to change runways, but it does not take that long to change runways.  My guess was there was some other airport access issue.  All in all, it was a good flight, even though we were late.  We had no forced passenger removals, or even a single unruly or belligerent passenger.  It was also a smooth flight with only one spot of moderate turbulence at roughly mid-Atlantic.  Unfortunately, that was not the extent of our trials and tribulations.  The worst was yet to come.

            We were apparently among several large international flights dumped into the arrival system at roughly the same time.  A long, very slow moving line stacked us up outside the passport (immigration) control hall.  Several other flights arrived after us, and of course, those folks made their own waiting line, cutting in front of us.  There were NO security or control personnel anywhere to be seen.  The situation was a volatile admixture of tired, frustrated people, and NO order to the process.  It took 87 minutes just to reach the passport control hall, and then it was a single rope line snaking around the place.  Eventually we discovered why.  We were only half of the arrivals; the other side of the hall had more folks lined up in their own cueing process.  Several thousand arriving passengers and only SIX (6), count ‘em SIX, passport control officers on duty with 30 physical stations in the hall.  It took another 45 minutes to eventually reach the passport control counter.  The actual passport check and stamp took all of 45 seconds to complete.  That immigration control episode was the worst I have ever experienced in all my travels.  This event was a practical demonstration of what happens in human gatherings without any regulatory influence – chaos!  We were lucky altercations did not break out.  Worse for me, personally, I am not a crowd person.  I truly hate standing in lines; it seems like a massive waste of valuable time.  We survived it.

            In the baggage claim area, our flight was no longer even listed on the tote board, so I had no idea where to start our baggage retrieval process.  I started at the closest carousel.  Fortunately, for us, our baggage was not hard to find.  It had long ago been set aside at it was the first carousel we checked.  Outside the arrival hall, a long line of drivers with signs awaited us, so we had to parade down the line looking at every sign – some scrawled on cards, some nearly printed and even a few with fancy electronic boards like large tablet computers.  Of course, as I expected, not one sign had our name on it.  Our instructions in that eventuality involved finding a telephone and calling the charter company.

            As we are looking around beyond the line of drivers, a man approached and said in English, “I am your driver.”  His name was Christopher.

            His sign did not have our name on it.  He clearly detected my expression of skepticism and caution, and sure enough, he pulled out our name on a large printed sheet behind the top page.  He also knew our destination without prompting.

            I asked, “How did you know it was us?”  He never really answered the question, but we were grateful he stayed current on our arrival time and somehow recognized us as his intended clients.  I also asked, “Why were there so few passport control officers.”

            “Holiday,” was his simple response.

            The drive from the airport to the hotel took a little over an hour, traffic was backed up from what he said had been a very bad accident on the highway.  We finally arrived at our lodging in the city – Hotel Casanova.  The time was 16:15, so the day’s hoped for sightseeing had been spent in other far less attractive pursuits.

            After we checked in, settled in our room, we decided to take a little walkabout before dinner.  We purchased a couple of Red Bulls, took a short break at a nice promenade bench to people watch . . . more precise, dog watch . . . we missed our dogs already.  We looked at several local restaurants and cafes, but we eventually returned to the hotel restaurant for an excellent meal.  As would be expected after a terrible day, we retired early in an attempt to recover some sleep.

Day 0

[E-Day]

Barcelona, Catalana, Reino de España:

Saturday, 6.May.2017:

            I slept from 19:30 to 03:30, when I woke up, got up and tried to write.  My intended activity did not last long.  I went back to bed at 04:15 and slept until we both woke up at 09:15.  Ah yes . . . the delightful effects of jet lag.  It did not take long for us to ready ourselves.

11:00:

            We had arranged for a driver, in this instance Adolfo, to transport us to the ship.  We were among the first to arrive, which was a very good move from our perspective.  The security and check-in procedures were efficient and well done.  We were in the third group to board the Princess Cruise Lines MV Royal Princess and went directly to our stateroom.

  Our stateroom steward was Heidi.

18:00:

            We opted for the early serving of evening meal.  We had a very nice table for two at the stern of the Allegro Dining Room with a large picture window (porthole) to view everything astern of us, which would offer some unique scenery during the course of our cruise, since most of our sailing times were circa our evening meal.

  Our headwaiter was Alvin.  Our assistant waiter was Domingo.  Both were very nice and capable Pilipino men.  Our section chief waiter was Marius.

19:00:

            The ship set sail (figuratively speaking, since the ship actually has no sails).  The process always reminds me of my required ship handling courses at the Naval Academy . . . instruction I truly enjoyed and absorbed (sailing [real sails with no motor] was also a required course, along with golf and tennis).  After dinner, we decided to check out the ship’s theater under the stars topside for the evening movie – La La Land.  The super massive digital screen made viewing very easy and the sound quality was surprisingly good.  Unfortunately, it was a smidge too chilly with the wind over the deck, so we did not last long.  We checked the movie listing for the voyage; we have seen many but not all of the movies planned.

Day 1

Marseille, Bouches-du-Rhône, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, République Française:

Sunday, 7.May.2017:

            This day was the run-off Election Day in France; we all wondered what the French electorate has in store for the rest of us.

            We booked a shore excursion with Princess Cruise Line on-line prior to commencing this adventure.  We were on a tour bus with 44 other passengers.  Our tour guide was Louis (a rather colorful character) and our driver was Daniel.

            Our first stop was le Pont du Gard – a UNESCO Heritage Site.  The site is based upon a magnificent Roman aqueduct that in its functional time carried 44 million gallons of water per day from a natural spring at Source d’Eure near Uzès to the city of Nimes.

le Pont du Gard
(The Bridge of Gard)

The structure is reportedly the second highest built the Romans next to the Coliseum in Rome and completed circa 50 AD, during the reign of Emperor Claudius.  The aqueduct compensated for the low rainfall and scarce water resources typical of the region and served its purpose into the 6^th century.  During the middle ages, local people began dismembering the aqueduct at both ends, leaving only the Roman bridge structure, which seemed rather counter-productive given the scarcity of rainfall in the area.  Later generations sought to preserve the site by adding concrete and stone footing extensions, as close in appearance to the original stones, to protect the footing pillars and provide for an adjacent, downstream bridge for pedestrian and vehicular traffic.

            The second stop on this particular tour was Le Palais des Papes (The Palace of the Popes) at Avignon on the River Rhône.

Palais des Papes

(Palace of the Popes)

During the Great Western Schism in the Catholic Church, nine successive popes from 1309 to 1377 presided over the faith from the Palace of the Popes in Avignon rather than the Vatican.  The College of Cardinals disagreed with the election of Pope Clement V, who was neither Italian nor a cardinal.  Clement V was infamous for his liquidation of the Knights Templar.  Our last portion of the tour took us to Rocher des Doms (Rock of the Doms), a well-kept public park on a hill just to the left (off frame) of the palace and church.  We had a delightful and peaceful lunch at the only café in the park – Buvette du Rocher des Doms (literally, Pump Room of Rock of the Doms) – well worth the visit on a pleasant weather day.

            Almost as a footnote, our guide informed us as we returned to Marseille Port that the largest known underwater cavern is located near Marseilles.  The Cosquer cave entrance lies 37 meters (121 feet) below sea level.  Of greater significance is the well-preserved wall artwork in the largest chamber dating back 10 millennia, which in turn means water levels were far lower in those days.  Also, he pointed out a Nazi submarine pen, concrete and steel, blockhouse bunker that proved too expensive to knock down, so they left it, as a de facto monument to those sad days gone by.  [Side note confession: I did not know the Nazis had sub pens at Marseilles, but I do now.]  Lastly, he also point out a small island off the coast of Marseilles with a single building – Château d'If – that imprisoned the Count of Monte Cristo in the Alexandre Dumas novel.

            After a delightful evening meal, Jeanne took her first stab at the on-board casino while I returned to our stateroom to make a valiant attempt at recovering my writing on this humble travelogue.

            By the end of the day, news sources were reporting that Emmanuel Macron defeated Marine Le Pen by 66.1% to 33.9%.  Whew!  I am glad that episode of history is now over.  The last thing we (and Europe) need now is an inward looking France.  It will be interesting to see how he forms and operates a government since he has no “party” delegates in the legislature.  He will truly be the leader of a coalition.  Parliamentary elections are not scheduled to take place until 11 and 18.June.2017.

Day 2

Livorno, Provincia di Livorno, Toscana, Repubblica Italiana:

[Pisa, Firenze, Lucca]

Monday, 8.May.2017:

            One of the sites I really wanted Jeanne to see and enjoy on this journey was Michelangelo’s incredibly magnificent statue of David – all 18 feet of its exquisitely sculpted and polished marble.  It never dawned on me as we were planning this trip that the museum might actually close.  Well, as fate would have it, the one day we are in Tuscany is the one day of the week both Galleria dell’Accademia and il Uffizi were closed.

            We contracted prior to departure with our driver/guide Roberto to motor us around Tuscany, since none of the tour options really matched up with what I really wanted Jeanne to see and experience on this adventure.

            First stop on our tour was the Piazza del Miracoli (Square of Miracles) in Pisa.  Of course, as fate would have it, the cathedral did not open until 10:00, too late for us.  We still enjoyed the marvels of the exteriors.

Jeanne & Cap at Pisa

Beyond the beautiful woman and the yokel she is cuddling up to in the foreground, the Baptistery, the Cathedral, and the famous leaning Bell Tower of Pisa (left to right) can be seen.  I could fill this journal with images of just the exquisite artwork displayed on the exterior of these magnificent buildings.  The beautiful interior of the Cathedral will have to wait for another visit.  We had only a short time in Pisa.  Then, what would a journal travelogue like this be without the obligatory Leaning Tower picture?

Jeanne Holding up the Tower All by Herself

            We took the Fi-Pi-Li (Firenze-Pisa-Livorno) motorway from Pisa to Firenze; I report this little tidbit factoid since I just love the name.  Roberto expertly motored us into Florence and to a scenic overlook of the city of Firenze (Florence). 

Firenze (Florence)

In the cityscape above: left – Palazzo Vecchio (Old Palace); center – Il Duomo (The Dome); right – Basilica di Santa Croce. (Church of Holy Cross).   I had not seen the city from that location before, so it was a first for me as well.  Numerous remnants of the Medieval and Renaissance city defensive wall were seen and passed, including Puerto Romano (Roman gate) – the southwest gate through the medieval barrier wall on the main road (back in the day) between Florence and Rome, as well as Torre di San Niccolò (Tower of San Niccolò), part of the city perimeter fortifications – the main eastern gate, where only the watch tower and gateway remain.

            First stop on our must-see list was La Basilica di Santa Croce:

Basilica di Santa Croce

The marble façade (pictured above) contrasts sharply with the basic brick construction of the whole church.  The church is famous for many reasons, not least of which is the final resting place of Michelangelo, Dante, Machiavelli, and as I learned, also Marconi and Rossini.

Memorial Tomb of Michangiolo Bunoarotti

The bust of the great artist sits atop the sarcophagus, while sculptures of “Painting,” “Sculpture” and “Architecture” sit in the foreground to symbolize his extraordinary accomplishments.

            We took our driver/guide Roberto to lunch at a delightful wine bar he suggested called Trattoria da I Matti on Via Borgo San Lorenzo in Firenze.  If you ever have the privilege of visiting Florence, I highly recommend this restaurant.  The waiters were gregarious and quite helpful, and the food was delightful.  Perfetto! . . . as the Italians say.  Grazie mille, Roberto.

            The most dominant structure in the city has to be Il Duomo, Battistero (Baptistery), and Campanile (Bell Tower).  I wanted to find a unique view.

Baptistery, Cathedral, Bell Tower of Il Duomo

If you look closely, there are people standing at the base of the cupola on top of the Dome.  I do not know how many steps there are on the ascent, but let us just say a whole freakin’ lot.  The stairway spirals around in the space between the interior and exterior walls and surfaces from the floor to the top. I report this from an earlier visit since we did not have time for the ascent, plus Jeanne does not appreciate unobstructed heights. Also, if you look above the main (center) entrance to the cathedral, just under the circular stained glass window, you will see:

The Dome Façade

This incredible artwork . . . not just the sculptures of Mary and child at the apex, but the masonry, the attention to detail, even on the interior of each sculpture alcove . . . the whole imagery of it all is intended to overwhelm even the unbelievers.  As an engineer, I am simply awestruck by the planning, calculations, and extraordinary effort required to produce such structures.

Fresco on Interior of the Dome

The fresco is Giorgio Vasari’s unique rendition of the Last Judgment inspired by Dante’s Divine Comedy.  If it was possible, I could have lain on the floor and marveled at the artwork.  Alas, I could not . . . too many people and such action would probably not be considered appropriate for a sanctuary. For spatial reference, the white near-circle in the image above is the interior of the cupola at the top of the Dome.

            As a related side note: we past an Apple store at Piazza Repubblica, which caught my attention, since for some odd reason the day prior, my iPad developed a critical anomaly; I could not get it to take external power.  I tried everything I could think of – no joy.  The technician in the store ran his diagnostics; yep, power connection kaput.  Remedy: replace the device.  A further complication: without that power connection, I cannot back-up or transfer apps & files.  So, I curtailed using the device.  Now, I can only pray the 40% battery charge remaining gets me back to the States, and Apple can access the memory, back up and transfer my “stuff” to a new device.  Oh my, the challenges of international travel!  At least I have a good book to read on my iPhone, and I can take tour notes on my iPhone.

            Lastly, we stopped at Piazza della Signoria to see the full-scale replica of Michelangelo’s sculpture of David.  I could not get Jeanne in to see the original (closed on Mondays), so the copy had to suffice.  The most dominant building around the plaza is il Palazzo Vecchio – the Medici family headquarters, so to speak.  Some say, the Medici’s wanted everyone to know they were the most powerful family in the region, thus the prominent tower above the palace. 

Old Palace

The clock tower could be readily seen from miles around as displayed in the cityscape image above.  The main entrance to the palace sits at the lower right.  A sliver of Il Uffizi (the Medici family and the city’s administrative offices back in the day) can be seen just beyond the palace main entrance to the right.  The first objective of our journey (well, at least a facsimile thereof) stands just to the left of the main entrance.

Copy of Michelangelo’s David

For the record, the copy resembles the original statue in size and proportion, however the replica does not even remotely do justice to the original figure.  The original sculpture should be on everyone’s must-see list.  Just remember, do not plan to visit on Monday’s.

            For reasons I did not understand or appreciate, the ship directed everyone to change our clocks one hour forward before retiring.  Greece is in the ‘B’ time zone – Eastern European Time (EET); however, we were still well short of the actual time zone meridian, thus my puzzlement.  I suppose time is rather arbitrary since it is only a convenient relative reference to proper astronomical time.