Whereonearthisjojo

 We arrive at 8 am though we are up around 7:30.  The same heat and pollution greeted us here as it did in Jeddah.  We opted not to subject ourselves to this heat and bad air, and are enjoying a relaxing day on ship.    However, we will venture out tomorrow as we are here for two days.  At which time I will write a further update.   I would also like to remind my readers, if you want a different perspective of our ports of calls to read my co-travelers blog at:   whereintheworldismargit.blogspot.com. I think you will enjoy her reporting and impressions.    I have also gone back to the Jeddah blog for a few minor corrections.    In the meantime I share just a few pictures.   View of the port and city in the background of Yanbu View of the port as seen from our balcony.  How nice to be Welcomed!!  These two gentlemen are Saudi Arabian officials that are inspection our ship and checking to see that we are complying ...

 The alarm woke us at 6 as we had an early morning tour.  We could not believe what we felt and saw as we peaked out our balcony door.  It was already 80 degrees, you could not see beyond  the port the air-pollution was so heavy and thick.  Oh, will we survive this drastic change!!!!   We did but we forwent going out the second day.   While Saudi Arabia certainly has a fascinating and tumultuous history, and a culture that requires and open mind, the city itself was not impressive.  Was it the heat, the air pollution I am not sure.  It was quite evident that Saudi Arabia is a very rich country, it’s the richest among the Arab nations and ranks 19th in the world.  Its economy  is oil and natural gas based.  (80% of its GDP comes from oil and natural gas).   It now has a very young Crown Prince, Muhammad bin Salman (colloquially know as MBS), (SA is a monarchy) with a vision for the future.  He realizes that Oil and gas...

 We look forward to a few sea days to catch our breath from all the touring we had done.  The weather begins to improve and by the time we arrive in Jeddah it will be a balmy 93 degrees, from one extreme to the other.   As we near the canal we notice an unbelievable haze.  The Sahara Dust storm that had passed through this region and made its way all the way to the Alps  would no longer be lingering, so we conclude its pollution from the city of Alexandria or any of the other Egyptian coast line cities.  Maybe even Port Said, which is where all the ship enter and exit, undoubtably the ship traffic itself creates a lot of pollution.     While we were asleep we entered the Suez Canal around 11 PM at Port Said.  We wake around 7 to a still very hazy sky, though it clears a little the further south we cruise.  The views of the canal and its surrounding area is not nearly as impressive and beautiful as the Panama Canal.  But then wh...

 Crete is the largest and  the most populous (650,000)of the Greek Island and the 5th largest in the Mediterranean.   It  is flanked on the north by the Aegean Sea and the Libyan Sea on the south. It is very mountainous with the highest peak at 8058 feet, Mount Ida, of the White Mountain Range.   It has 650 miles of coastline ranging from lovely sandy beaches to rocky and cliffy terrain.  It also boasts to have more than 30 million olive tress, and yes it seemed every square inch of the island was covered in Olive groves.  Olive oil production is a major economic driver along with tourism.     Heraklion is the capital with about 144K population.  Normally Crete has a semitropical and moderate climate.  However while we were there they experience the coldest winter in 30 years.  The mountains were still covered in snow and snow had fallen at the higher elevations a few days ago and the day we were there.   Crete was populat...