This is part of a series called Seabourn Half-World cruise Ah, Croatia – another beautiful country with a painful history. Sitting at the crossroads of Central Europe, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean, it has always been at the center of trade routes, shifting empires, and ethnic/religious rivalries. Like so many other countries, the fortunes of…
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This is part of a series called Seabourn Half-World cruise One of our last stops on the cruise was the Greek island of Corfu, the second largest island in the Ionian Sea. Corfu really marks the northwestern corner of Greece and, if you look at a map, you will see most of the island is…
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This is part of a series called Seabourn Half-World cruise Leaving Israel, we were off for southern Turkey, making two port calls in Bodrum and Kusadasi, along the southwestern coast of Turkey in the Aegean Sea. I have to tell you that Turkey turned out to be one of our favorite places on the trip…
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This is part of a series called Seabourn Half-World cruise After leaving Egypt, we were ready for a change – something a bit more modern, clean, and hopeful. Israel clearly fit that bill. We visited two ports in Israel (Ashdod for Jerusalem and Haifa). I wasn’t quite sure what to expect when we arrived in…
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This is part of a series called Seabourn Half-World cruise I write this as we are cruising up the Suez Canal – our first “sea day” in the past five days. Busy, busy, busy! We made three stops in Egypt (Sohkna, Sharm al Sheik, and Safaga), but these were only convenient ports to depart on…
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This is part of a series called Seabourn Half-World cruise In contrast to the trip to Luxor, our time in Cairo was pretty depressing. First, you have to realize that Cairo is the largest city in Africa and the Middle East at 20 million people. From the overview, you learned that poverty, illiteracy, unemployment, and…
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This is part of a series called Seabourn Half-World cruise Sharm el Sheik is at the tip of the Sinai Peninsula. It was a sleepy little town for many years, but now has become a huge resort area boasting some of the best diving in the world. While I was very tempted to take advantage…
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This is part of a series called Seabourn Half-World cruise One of our favorite stops in the Middle East was Petra, the capital city of the ancient Nabataeans, an industrious Arabian people who settled in southern Jordan over 2000 years ago. Petra sat on the north-south trade route, with caravans bringing goods from the Red…
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This is part of a series called Seabourn Half-World cruise After leaving Oman, we spent 4 days transiting to our first stop in Egypt (Safaga), including a couple of days on the Red Sea. While most of the trip was uneventful, we did have on run-in with Somali pirates. We had earlier boarded (at sea)…
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This is part of a series called Seabourn Half-World cruise Okay, let’s start with a test. How many people actually know where Oman is? Be truthful! Well, I didn’t really know either. Frankly, I’ve always paid more attention to Asia than the Middle East. But if you look on a map, you will see how…
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