I’ll write a column. Just walked in the door after traveling probably 13,000 miles and cruising over 4,000 miles. We were in Barcelona, Monaco, Florence, Rome, Pisa, Naples, Pompeii, Ephesus, Istanbul, and Venice, and took tours in all of them. Yesterday, we flew from Venice to Denver, and were in the air for close to 20 hours. Talk about jet lag! I felt like kissing the ground when we landed in Philly. A guy accidently bumped in to me and said, “sorry Mac,” and I rejoiced at hearing a voice that wasn’t speaking broken English with any of those accents from Turkey, Italy, or Greece. On the cruise ship, all crew are foreign and speak with heavy accents too, so getting back to America was great! The trip was highly enlightening! Never been to Europe before, nor the Mediterranean.
A couple of observations, first of all. The euro’s smallest bill is 5 euros. The smallest coin is a tenth of a euro. There are 1 euro and 2 euro coins, which I am certain will never wear out, and are much nicer than our dollar bills. The US mint should do this and get rid of dollar bills which I hear have a life expectancy of but a few months. The raw deal is that everything is priced with no sales tax. The price you see is the price you pay, and the people are really racking up the profits with no nickels and pennies. See, all of Europe has VAT (value added tax) of from 15.8% to 19.8%. So, never complain about a 7% sales tax in the USA! Gas prices in Europe are from a low I saw of $8 to close to $20 per US gallon. You buy gas in liters in Europe, which is a shade more than a quart US. The liters are more than a gallon in the US. Here’s a tip if you ever go cruising, which we do love. Before getting on the ship, go to one of those tax free, duty free stores just before you get on and get a couple of bottles of booze. I bought two bottles of Jack Daniels for $19 US per bottle, or about half of what a liquor store would charge. We then had cocktails on our private deck, rather than being gouged by the ship’s bars. Drank the last on the last day of the cruise.
Cruises are delightful, because you get on board, hang your clothes in the closet, and for a really good price have no worries about bad food or water. You’re entertained royally, fed superb food, and never have to change hotels. You take shore excursions, and see the highlights of your ports of call. If you like what you see, you can go back and explore further, but you get the basics and are guided by experts. We were on the Ruby Princess, which is practically brand new, and weighs over 100,000 tons. It is just too big for me with 3500 passengers. I really like the Holland America line much better. You usually cruise all night and wake up the next morning in the next port. No frantic catching of busses and risky hotels, food and water. Cruising is really wonderful.
You know, we saw wonderful things, historic things, Biblical things, Architectural wonderments, and where civilization was born. All grand, but I wouldn’t live anywhere but America. This is the most wonderful land in the world. Everywhere we went, we were warned about pick-pockets, but there is no warning here. In Barcelona, we met a couple who had had their pockets picked of all their euros. He had left his wallet in the hotel as he was instructed to do, so he didn’t lose his credit cards and other valuables. They are so skilled, that he never felt a thing, until he went for some money and found it was gone. Landing in Philly before going on to Denver and then home, I had to have a Philly cheese steak of course. Great eating!
The weather was fine, ship smooth, and entertainment excellent, but am I glad to be back in the good old USA! One other thing. In Istanbul and Turkey, Obama is almost worshipped. A tour guide told us “We really love Mr. Obama here.” Now, is he a Muslim or not? It was really great to see Fox News in the Denver Motel this morning before took out final one hour flight home. Sometimes a two week trip can make you realize what a wonderful land America really is! Our three little dogs, which we call “The Troops” were just as overjoyed to see us as we were to see them. Our cruise was 12 days, and that is enough. You just get enough, and want to go home. Several couples we met were staying on the ship for an additional six days and landing in Florida. Six days on the ship with no ports of call? Ugh! Boring is what that would be.