April 29 – At Sea. Today's a planned day at sea and a triple-header on the celebration front. First, it's Diana's birthday. Second, there's the Royal Wedding. Third, Carnival Corporation is accepting delivery of its one hundredth ship today.
Lets deal with these from least important to most important. Carnival took delivery of the Carnival Magic today making their total ship count to 100. Carnival, Inc owns 10 cruise lines including Holland America, Carnival, Princess, Cunard and Seabourn. 113,500 rooms afloat carrying almost a quarter million passengers at any given time. Tonight they're going to have a toast in the dining room to celebrate. Any excuse for a celebration.
The Royal Wedding is causing quite a stir on the ship, mostly among the women. The ship has decided to show the coverage in the main showroom on three huge TV screens starting at 9AM ship's time. Where we are the ceremony will be on at Noon. Our travel agent's escorts have a chat time from 11 to Noon every sea day but Lucia is going in to watch the wedding so Henk has to cover the chat. Usually it's mostly women who show up and talk about shopping, both past and future, but today it's five men and no women. We adjourned early leaving poor Henk to fend for himself. I decided to grab a quick lunch and then watch the actual ceremony. After all I watch Chuck and Di get married and look at all the good luck it brought them.
All I can say is that the bride was beautiful, the little girl attendants were very cute and everyone comported themselves with dignity and decorum. Seem somehow fitting that the Obamas and the Syrians were not invited. I can't really blame them, you just don't reach out and hug the queen and a DVD of some of your speeches is just not an adequate gift of state. As for the Syrians, well you just can't take them anywhere. It was nice of Kate to offer to change the wedding date so we could be there but we told her that getting married on Diana's birthday was honor enough.
The best part of the ceremony was when, as the bride and her entourage turned into the church proper and came into sight, Harry was looking over his shoulder and saw them. He leaned over and whispered in William's ear, "If you're going to run you have to leave now!" Classic younger brother stuff. I wish them well and hope that they have a long and happy marriage.
Diana's birthday was a success as well. We celebrated by going to the Pinnacle Grill. They are having a Le Cirque dinner night. They ditch their regular menu and feature dishes from the menu of the Le Cirque restaurant in New York. The food was excellent but that's not really a surprise. Their regular menu is excellent as well. We had a good time and a nice bottle of wine.
Our entertainers were Katzenjammer, '4 hands, 1 piano.' We've seen them before and they are very good indeed. They are both somewhat height challenged and very funny. They sit on the piano bench and play the piano at the same time. They always point a video camera at the keyboard and put their hands on the large TV screens on either side of the stage. They wear contrasting color long sleeve shirts, in this case black and white so you can follow who's who. They use flamboyant arm motions and play using very complex routines where sometimes one hand of each man is playing over the same octave of the keyboard. One on them has to bridge the hand of the other and play very near the top of the keys. They manage to play in every conceivable arm location. It's fun to watch. They also have a great sense of humor. I always enjoy them.
April 30 – Cagliari, Sardinia, Italy. This is a new port for us today as well as a new island. What that usually means is that we will stick to the city and see what it has to offer.
Sardinia is the second largest island in the Mediterranean after Sicily. It had been inhabited since prehistory and was the Kingdom of Sardinia for most of the last millennium until it became part of the Kingdom of Italy in 1861. Cagliari (cal-yah'-ree) was the capital of the Kingdom of Sardinia and has been a major port since Roman times. It has a very nice bay making for a great natural harbor.
This is another of those cities with an upper and lower are. The upper areas are almost all the oldest part. Their altitude made them more easily defensible when that was important. The city is divided into four districts three in the lower, newer city and the last, Castello, the upper city.
Our bus drove us around part of the new town and dropped us off at a narrow road that leads up to the old city and through a large gate in the city wall. Small cars can still drive up here so walking the narrow street is somewhat hazardous. We entered a the small Piatza Arsenale where there are three gates, one each through the city wall on the east and west, respectively the Porto di San Cristina and Porto San Pancrazio, and one on the north leading into the Regio Arsenale (Royal Arsenal). The arsenal now has a very peaceful use, it's home to the Cittadella dei Musei made up of several museums among which are the National Picture Gallery, the Communal Arts Gallery and the Regional Ethnographic Museum. In the Thirteenth Century this plaza had been little more than a very narrow connection between the Citadel and the Palace.
A large tower, the Torrre San Pancrazio, crowns the San Pancrazio Gate. It's the tallest point in the Castle and therefore the highest point in the city. The structure, like many built in early 1300s in the future Italian state, is enclosed on three sides by very thick walls with slits for the soldiers to engage the enemy. The side towards the castle interior is open and allows a view of the galleries on all four floors of the structure. Most of the towers of the city wall of Pisa are of the same design.
From the Arsenale we walked through the Saint Cristina Gate out of the Castle and a little down the hillside to view the ancient Roman theater. In the Second Century this 10,000-seat structure was the site where many Christians were thrown into the arena with lions and other wild animals by the increasingly paranoid government of Rome. Is it just me, or does it seem a little odd to you that just a century later this same government would be propagating Christianity by violent means also? Just another reminder that any large endeavor that involves human beings is more than likely corrupt or misguided at one level or another. Sadly that's the world we live in and the best we can hope for is that we make some small difference in the part of it that we can influence, as small as that may be.
We returned to the Castle and walked south from the Arsenale further into the Castle to the Piazza Independenza. The Archeological Museum of Cagliari is here and also many 3 and 4 story homes, all with at least one common wall and usually two. Based on the mailboxes on each they either always have been or are now divided by story into apartments. In some it seemed like the first two stories were one dwelling.
Continuing south through the Castle we came to an overlook that gave us a good view of the city looking eastward. It was very easy to see how much newer the lower city was. Leaving the overlook we arrived in the Piazza Palazzo and the Vice-regent's Palace. This is the governmental seat of the District of Cagliari. They fly four flags from the poles attached to the main entrance's patio, the EU flag, the Italian flag, the Sardinian flag and the Cagliarian flag. They honor the powers that ruled the island throughout history.
A little farther down the piazza we came to the Cathedral of Saint Mary. Originally constructed in 1254, it became the Cathedral of Cagliari in 1313. The first structure was the Pisan version of Romanesque but later enlargements and additions have changes much of the structure to Baroque style. The most comprehensive of these involved significant interior changes. For example, the original pulpit, a masterpiece carved by Guglielmo and given to the cathedral by the City/State of Pisa, was cut in half and mounted on the back wall of the building between the two entries from the narthex. The high relief carvings on it appear to be scenes from the life of Jesus. I'm glad they saved it, for a carving from the Eleventh Century it's in great shape. The four marble lions that supported it are now at the foot of the balustrade to the presbytery.
As is usual in buildings that have been built in earlier ages and then updated to the Baroque style, the outside of the cathedral, now neo-Romanesque, gives no indication of the richly decorated interior. Although not as ornate as a church actually built in the Baroque era, it's nevertheless more than elaborate enough to give you a little start when you enter. In addition to the old pulpit several of the chapels are noteworthy. The Saint Michael's Chapel is full bore Baroque bordering on Rococo. Its large centerpiece, carved from one block of pure white marble, shows Saint Michael casting Satan and his demons out of heaven in the large flames below. Atop the reredo are a group of cherubs surrounding a triangle of fire with golden rays, the traditional symbol of the Trinity. On either side are two large spiral columns made of gold, tan and white colored marble. A very well executed altar that, when taken with the quality of the original interior décor, indicates the importance of this church and city in the past.
We continued south along the city wall to the San Remy Bastion. It was raining pretty hard by the time we arrived there and we ducked into a small café for some hot coffee. By the time the women had all gotten through the WC line the rain had let up and we continued through the south gate and down to the new town Marina quarter to catch our bus.
Our next destination is a restaurant for a snack and some folk dancing. It proved to be much more than that. When we arrived we were greeted by men in Sardinian costume playing some flute like instruments and ladies, also costumed, handing out small glasses of a grape brandy, not unlike grappa on the mainland. That produced a quick start to the festivities. We were escorted down a hall and across a patio to a covered open-air garden with long tables arranged like spokes in a wheel around an open area. The tables were set with plates and utensils, both still and carbonated water, pitchers of red and white wine, bowls of olives and radishes and ornately twisted small loaves of crusty bread. For a 'snack' this was starting off very well indeed.
As we sat, talking and drinking, the ladies showed up again carrying plates of Parma ham, pepperoni, a very fine white cheese and very thin and crisp bread. While they were serving two men were playing the accordion and guitar. When the serving was complete an older man dressed similarly to the young men but with a fine golden embroidered vest and dark cape came out to sing. He has a very strong baritone voice and sang in the Sardinian language, which doesn't sound much like Italian to me. The meats were excellent, especially the thinly sliced ham.
When his song ended the ladies were back with a different cheese and bread for us to try. The cheese was aged I'm sure because it was very firm and also tasty. I asked our guide what it was and she said it was the local cheese made from sheep's milk.
When these items were served the ladies and men gathered in the center with the soloist and sang some more traditional Sardinian songs. The words were lost on me the music was enjoyable. Some of the songs were obviously sad laments, like Portuguese fado, others were joyous and happy. When the songs were over the soloist stepped away and the rest of the chorus became a dance troupe.
The costumes were colorful in that each one used the same maroon material for the middle of their ankle length dresses but above and below that they had printed material of several different patterns. Over the dress they each wore an apron of the same material as the print portion of the dress with a square of the maroon fabric adjacent to the top in the center. They work a black vest-like jacket over the dress. Each had a headband to which a waist length white scarf was attached. The most unique part of the outfit is the collar. I'm somewhat at a loss to know how to describe it. It creates a large oval opening that allowed some of the ladies to brag a bit about their bust line, others were more demure. It's made from lace and has long pointed, leaves around its entire circumference. The leaves behind the girl's head were pointing upward forcing those on her shoulders to stand up as well. Each was basically the same type but had different designs in the lace. The men wore tall black boots with white pants tucked into them with a black short skirt over the pants not unlike the Greek folk outfit. They wore puffy sleeved white shirts with colorful embroidered vests.
The dancing was energetic and usually themed. In one dance the man would do some fancy steps and then try to entice one of the ladies to be his partner. If his offered arm was refused, he'd dance even harder and eventually get to the lady who would accept. Some of the dancing was footwork performed in a line and others were more like square dancing moves but done starting in a line rather than a square. It was a great deal of fun watching them and they seemed to be having a good time too.
Our snack wound up being as much lunch as anyone would want to eat so on arrival back at the ship I began an earnest attempt to catch up on my journal. I did take a break to go out on my veranda to watch the sail away from Cagliari. It's a very pretty village with a nice skyline, the castle and all on the hill. The tug assisting us from the pier was one of the new type where either end can be the bow depending on what you're doing. The propellers are suspended under the tug on pods that can be swiveled 360 degrees to provide propulsion in whichever direction suits the current task. This tug is also a fireboat and has two high-pressure, remotely controlled nozzles mounted above either side of the pilothouse. The only unusual thing about the tug was the captain. It was a woman. I haven't seen many women in that job around the world. I don't look at every tug we encounter but this is the first time I've seen a lady tug pilot. Outstanding!!
No comments:
Post a Comment