Category: Travel

A Trip to Europe

We, my wife and I, left for London England on August 21 for our holiday to London and Paris. It was not the same as going on a safari but since we had never traveled to Europe before this was a special event in our lives.

While the trip did not take us away from civilization it did educate us on the way others live in their cities. We did not suffer from any cultural shock. Western Europe is really very similar to the USA. America’s roots are based upon European culture and behavioral differences are minor.

The single prominent difference is the presence of Muslims. That is fact is enforced by the high number of woman dressed in burqas. Since France introduced its burqa ban in April there have been violent attacks on women wearing the niqab. Niqab is the term used to refer to the piece of cloth which covers the face, worn by some Muslim women.

 Still in Paris, women are wearing the burqa without the niqab as they walk down the Champs-Elysees. That is not the case in London, where all manner of dress is seen.

In the next few days I will be retelling more details of our trip.

In summary it was an extraordinary experience. I am grateful to have had the experience.

From London

It’s a 13 hour air flight from Los Angeles, California to London, UK.  It’s a first for my wife and me.

We are across Oxford Street at the Marble Arch.  The bus service is astonishing.  Los Angeles has a lot to learn.  Despite all the talk of austerity the streets are  not falling apart.  The city is clean.  The people are friendly.

However, the cost of one hour on  the net is 6 British Pounds.  Photos from the cameras will be posted in September.

The Last Voyage

  

I have seen the movie “Titanic” twice, “The Last Voyage” once, and “The Poseidon Adventure” many times.  They are very suspenseful and entertaining with wonderful casts.  They are one of the reasons I won’t take a cruise.

Three bodies were recovered from the sea and news reports said 69 people were still unaccounted for after the Costa Concordia ran aground off the tiny island of Giglio near the coast of Tuscany late Friday, tearing a 160-foot (50-meter) gash in its hull.  (The final death count is 32 people.)

“Have you seen ‘Titanic?’ That’s exactly what it was,” said Valerie Ananias, 31, a schoolteacher from Los Angeles who was traveling with her sister and parents on the first of two cruises around the Mediterranean. They all had dark red bruises on their knees from the desperate crawl they endured along hallways and stairwells that were nearly vertical, trying to reach rescue boats.

Passengers complained the crew failed to give instructions on how to evacuate and once the emergency became clear, delayed lowering the lifeboats until the ship was listing too heavily for many of them to be released.

By morning Saturday, the ship was lying virtually flat off Giglio’s coast, its starboard side submerged in the water.

Helicopters plucked to safety some 50 people who were trapped on the ship, some survivors were rescued by boats in the area, and an official said some people jumped from the ship.

Three bodies were recovered from the sea and news reports said 69 people were still unaccounted for after the Costa Concordia ran aground off the tiny island of Giglio near the coast of Tuscany late Friday, tearing a 160-foot (50-meter) gash in its hull.

Survivors who escaped a luxury cruise ship that ran aground and tipped over recounted a scene reminiscent of “Titanic” on Saturday, describing a delayed then panicked evacuation, as plates and glasses crashed around them and they crawled along upended hallways trying to reach safety.

Several passengers said crew members for a good 45 minutes told passengers there was a simple “technical problem” that had caused the lights to go off. Seasoned cruisers, however, knew better and went to get their life jackets in their rooms and report to their “muster stations,” the emergency stations each passenger is assigned to, they said.

It wasn’t immediately known if the dead were passengers or crew, nor were the nationalities of the victims immediately known, Paolillo told The Associated Press in Romeby telephone from his command in the Tuscan port city of Livorno. It wasn’t clear how they died.

As dawn neared, a painstaking search of the 290-meter (950-foot) long ship’s interior was being conducted to see if anyone might have been trapped inside.