Home with Moshi

Good to be home with Moshi.

And luggage to be delivered tomorrow if not later tonight.

Back in USA

We are in Minneapolis. We made our connection in Paris but apparently our luggage didn't. Oh we'll. as long as we get home this evening.

BARELY made our connection in Paris. This airport is horrible. Will avoid in the future if possible. Wow. The worst. And we've been in a lot of airports. Hopefully smooth trip to Minneapolis and then Indy.

Saturday dinner

We were wondering around looking for a place to have dinner. We were checking out menus and such. We went in a little place and Susan asked if they had a menu in English (as many do.). The proprietor said "no because the menu is fresh" and he pulled up his laptop with a Spanish to English interpreter website and told us what was on the menu. We had to stay. Food was great. Can't beat the friendly service.

Religious procession

So it's 8:30pm Saturday night and we turn down a street and find a religious procession complete with music, candles, incense, and a statue of Mary being carried by two dozen men. Very unexpected but interesting.

Saturday, Malaga

Today we saw the ancient Cathedral (from the outside), powered our way through the Picasso museum (this is his hometown) and had a tapas lunch at an outdoor restaurant. This afternoon we are at out hotel relaxing. We will have an early start tomorrow to make our way home.

Nice day for a wedding in Malaga

We stumbled across a wedding about to start at a beautiful church amongst the narrow pedestrian streets in old Malaga. We watched as guests entered the church grounds. Many women wore large, colorful hats. You would have thought it a royal wedding.

Chocolate and churros

We stopped at a little street cafe for hot chocolate and churros. The chocolate was very thick, like drinking very warm chocolate cake batter. Mmmmm.

Return to Malaga

Early this morning our ship returned to Malaga. We will spend the day and night the city and begin our trip home early Sunday morning. Today we may visit the old cathedral. It is easy to see from the harbor.

Friday, Le Alhambra, Grenada Spain

We visited beautiful Grenada and the Alhambra palace dating to the 1300's.

Sierra Nevada

The morning sun is shining on the Sierra Nevada range and the coast of Spain.

English pub

After hiking down the rock and back to town, nothing could be better than a pint in an English pub. We are in the UK after all.

Thursday, Gibraltar

Today we took the cable car to the top of Gibraltar. The views were amazing. It is such an improbable place. We hiked our way down back to town, along the way visiting caves, old military tunnels and finally an old Moorish castle dating back to the 1300's. By the way, the rock is inhabited by apes.

Groups sailing together

There are at least two groups of friends or acquaintances sailing together on this trip. The large group, consisting of 40 passengers, is from the Lido Yacht Club. There is also a small group of water color artists. In this photo they are working on the same sketch. They get guidance from an instructor and create paintings on board.

Thursday, Gibraltar

Today we will visit Gibraltar. It is an impressive site as we approach.

Wednesday, Seville

We visited the 3rd largest cathedral in the world, St Mary's, built over a 100+ year period starting in the early 1400's on the site of a previous Moorish mosque. We saw the palace built by Peter the First (aka Peter the Cruel) from the 1300's. We enjoyed some other quaint areas within the old medieval city area. And finally we visited the Spanish Square built in the 1900's.

Wednesday, Cadiz "football" bus

This morning we docked at Cadiz, Spain. We are going by bus on an excursion to Seville today. Our tour bus happens to double as Cadiz's pro soccer team's bus. It's very nice and includes wifi. We may get a lot of looks from passing motorists as our bus is in the team colors and displays the team crest.

Tuesday, Tangier, Morocco

Today we spent the afternoon shopping in Tangier for Moroccan souvenirs. We were "greeted" by many self-employed, self-described "guides". They were quite annoying but we do stand out as tourists. All in all we had a nice day and enjoyed the old city and views of the bay.  In the lower picture, if you look closely, you can see our ship docked at the pier. 

Disconnected

The ship is equipped with a high tech communication system. It provides cell service and wifi Internet thru satellite links. Unfortunately, it hasn't been working on this trip. I'm told that they recently installed a new satellite dish and that's the cause of the trouble. They are upgrading so that they don't have any blackout areas when they do their transatlantic trips, which is an issue with the old system. Apparently the new system isn't operational yet. They're "working on it."

Sent from Kyle's AT&T iPhone

Tuesday sunrise

We departed Casablanca mid afternoon and travelled through the night northward toward Tangier. The Atlantic was rolling all night making sleep rather difficult. (The captain calls the weather a "swell".)  But this morning the sunrise over the coast of Africa is quite beautiful. 

Sent from Kyle's AT&T iPhone

Crow's nest

Tuesday I climbed to the crow's nest. It's not that far up. Until you are making the climb. Then it seems to be very high. And you are glad to be wearing the mandatory safety harness as the ship sways and makes you think she's trying to toss you into the sea. Once up there, the feeling is spectacular. 

Sent from Kyle's AT&T iPhone

Susan at work

Sometimes they invite passengers to hoist a sail. Here, Susan is one of a dozen people in a line pulling on a line to raise a sail. The pulling gets real tough as the sail goes up. With each pull, more of the sail is in the air and and off the ground and working against gravity. They allow passengers to do this for fun. Normally they use powered pulley systems to pull the lines to raise and lower the sails. 

Sent from Kyle's AT&T iPhone

Monday, Casablanca cont.

After leaving the mosque, we then walked into the heart of the city and passed a number of little cafes where patrons drank (presumably) the local mint tea. We did pop into a little patisserie for some fabulous pastries - some odd little things with sesame seeds and jellies. We walked to the old cathedral. It is nothing fancy and is in disrepair. Our guidebook said it was only open for special occasions. Well, it was open for an art exhibit. We paid a small fee to the man at the door in order to climb the tower. Soon the steps narrowed and were full of pigeons and droppings. Susan (wisely) stopped at the first point it narrowed. Kyle went on to the top, clapping his hands along the way to scare away pigeons in advance. The views of the city at the top were quite nice. The minaret of the mosque is in the background and then the Atlantic (and haze) make up the backdrop. 

Sent from Kyle's AT&T iPhone

Monday, Casablanca

Our ship docked in the port of Casablanca first thing Monday morning. Soon we were surrounded by three huge cruise ships. They dwarf our clipper ship. Casablanca is a big, busy city. We walked 30 minutes to the beautiful, huge Hassan II mosque on the coast. It holds 25,000 worshipers. We got to watch the retractable roof open. It was built in the '80s by the King and cost $800,000,000. After seeing it, the cost seems like a bargain. The photos don't do it justice. Susan is standing in front of one of the massive titanium doors in one photo to give perspective. And the minaret is 650' high. 

Sent from Kyle's AT&T iPhone

Sewing 101

The ship is self sufficient. It even has its own industrial size sewing machine used for sail repairs. Just use the floor of the "Tropical Bar" in the morning when it's not busy. 

Sent from Kyle's AT&T iPhone

Sunday, sails up

We set sail at 10pm Saturday night. The forecast is very clear and calm, which means we may not have winds to sail and will have to travel by engine power. But today as we make our way through the Straight of Gibraltar and into the Atlantic, we are sailing on wind power. Since the straight is relatively narrow, we see many huge freighters all around us in the distance.  We are enjoying the warm sun on deck and relaxing and reading. We will make our way around the northwest coast of Africa today and will be in Casablanca Monday morning. 

Sent from Kyle's AT&T iPhone

Sunday, day at sea. Beautiful day. Relaxing and reading in the sun. Internet satellite connection not working so can't post photos today. Hopefully tomorrow...

First Class seats (not for us)

We had to chuckle when we walked through the "First Class" section in our AirEuropa flight to Malaga. First Class is the same seating as the coach section except they mounted this tray gizmo on the middle seats and sell the aisle and window seats as First Class.

Paris

Welcome to Charles De Gaul airport in Paris. Perhaps the most disorganized, confusing, inefficient international airport in the world. And they speak French, too. But we've made it to our terminal and its time to board our flight to Spain.

Detroit to Paris

We dropped off Moshi at his sitter's home and have made our way to Detroit. We are ready to board our 8 hour flight to Paris. After a 2 hour layover we will have a 2.5 hour flight to Malaga, Spain. There we will board the Star Flyer. It was tough to leave Moshi behind but now we are anxious to get to Spain and our ship.

Star Clippers vacation

Saturday we board the Star Flyer in Malaga, Spain. We will visit Casablanca and Tangier in Morocco, Gibraltar, and Cadiz and Motril in Spain.

Vacation

We are excited to be getting ready for vacation but dread leaving Moshi behind for 9 days.