Life
We've been all over the old port area of Marseille this afternoon by bus. I fell asleep just before the tour was scheduled to begin, and almost missed it. As it was I forgot my camera in my haste to leave the room. Our female tour guide spoke an odd mixture of broken English, Amercan English and Elemer Fudd English."We are gonna go to vewy vewy import place. But you must be careful to see vewy vewy beautiful statue - statue is alegory of grain."
The paintings hanging on the wall in the Bassilica of Notre Dame were a catalog of disaters. People had commioned partings of car wrecks, plane crashes, ship wrecks, ships in storms, death beds, and earthquakes, in thanks for having survived them. John and I were interested in the tactical problems of attacking the Bassilica, built on top of a fortress, on top of a hill over looking the city.
At the end of the tour, the bus stopped to let passengers have a little shopping time. John, Andrew, and I opped to take a little walk down to one of the forts at the end of the old harbor. It was nice admiring the classical "Points" of the fortification, which was designed so that every wall was covered by the guns of another wall. On the way back to the bus, we jogged to make up for lost time - We got a few stares from the French around us.
"Are you from Austrialia?", the Frenchman asked John, as he pedaled beside us on his bycycle. "No, sir. We're from the USA" we replied. Why the question? Well, John is wearing his hat-that-never-leaves-his-head, and it's kind of Aussie looking. People watch him go by from accross the street, and as John happy explains, "There is no other hat like this in France".
The family went out and took a walk through town taking pictures as we went. We traveled very slowy as Mom would stop to take a photo of a building, then decide she needed to move about 30 feet behind to get a better shot.
Marseille is so different than other citys I've been in. For one thing, the old and the new are cramed in together. In the corner of a cenuries old building, you will see a modern bank, while above it will be laundry hanging out of a resident's window. The cars are runt sized - an alley that in the United States would be just squeezable through, here serves as a street plus parking. Dogs are everywhere, most of whom are not on leash but just happily following their owners.
Now that I've had lunch, we will be heading out, Lord willing, in a half an hour for a bus tour of the city.
Andrew and I have finished the first breakfast of the day. We went along and watched the ship dock afterwords. Now Andrew and I are up on my favorite deck chairs and looking out over the harbor. The sky is beggining to brighten, but it is still dark out. Sunrise is a half an hour away.
Andrew and I have already been up for a half an hour, prowling around the ship in the pre-dawn darkness and watching us sail into Marseille. It's great to own the the ship for a few hours.
The lights have dimmed, and I've just finished picking my favorite pictures, croping them, and getting them ready to upload to the photos site. I'm doing things differently on a cruise than I normaly do. I have the camera resolution cut down, and just deleting anything that I don't think is good. It means spend a lot less time messing with the pictures, so in thoery I can take more of them - which should be a good thing.
Good night!
I'm in my favorite place on the ship. A row of about 12 deck chairs are in an enclosed space near the top of the ship. While seated here the coast slips by and I can work on my laptop, read, or just plain think. It's a great spot, and what cruising all about for me.
Right now I'm downloading all the pictures I took today - only 20 left to go. We had our life boat drill earlier ( I brought a book about software requirements to read during the long periods of waiting), followed by a wonderful dinner. As on the Infinity, dinner is a chance to to get pampered by a pair of waiters, and eat delicious foods, the names of which I've never heard.
We made it to the ship! Since I've not slept in more than 32 hours, It's time to catch a little nap before the lifeboat drill in an hour an a half. I'm waiting for internet conntion kit to arrive - funny rules here will not let you take it to your cabin, an attendant must bring it.