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By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

There is something very special about this island in the Mediterranean. Something that attracted ancient peoples, the Roman empire, the Moors, Pirates, and Vandals.

In 1838, the great Polish composer Frederick Chopin and his mistress, the writer George Sand, arrived for a respite. While Chopin appears to have fallen in love with the place and wrote one of his better pieces here, Sand very much did not. But working on a delapidated rented piano he worked on his “Raindrop” prelude.

The great architect Antoni Gaudi came to work on some projects here in 1901, but he ran into some disputes with contractors. He left, but his acolytes kept up the work in places like Soller and Palma.

The artist Joan Miro spent his final years on the island.

The English poet Robert Graves spent most of the last half-century of his life living in the little village of Deià, and it was there he died and was buried in 1985.

On this visit, we avoided the hustle and bustle of the principal city of Palma de Mallorca, and instead came in to the charming resort village of Alcudia to the north; it’s also the site of some of the oldest remnants of ancient civilizations on the island. Roman ruins including a theater still stand at Pollentia, just outside of Alcudia. There is also evidence of inhabitants as far back as the Bronze Age.

Today Alcudia sits within its 14th century walls.

I went with guests up an almost impossible switchback road to the 13th century Lluch Sanctuary, a place of respites then and now.

LLUCH SANCTUARY

AN ALCUDIA ALBUM

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Now available, the revised Second Edition of “Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession” by Corey Sandler, for the Amazon Kindle. You can read the book on a Kindle device, or in a Kindle App on your computer, laptop, tablet, or smartphone.

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19 Sep 2016
Sète, France:
The Venice of Languedoc

September 19, 2016 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

Sète is a commune in the Hérault department of the Languedoc-Roussillon region of southern France.

So it is French, of sorts, although its ancient origins are as part of Occitania, a region of the Roman Empire also known as Aquitania.

Occitan is a Romance language, and still spoken in places here and there in the Languedoc region that includes parts of southern France, the Occitan Valleys of Italy, Spain’s Val d’Aran, and a few tiny corners of Monaco.

It is the southern terminus of the Canal du Midi, begun in 1666, which cuts the corner between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean with a connection to the Garonne River near Bordeaux. The canal is much too shallow and narrow for use by large ships, but Sète retains its canalized harbor and center city.

A SÈTE ALBUM

On this visit, we made a pilgrimage to the Cimitiere Marins, the Sailor’s Cemetery, which sits on a hillside above the Mediterranean Sea. It is a resting place with a view to die for.

And it is here that poet Paul Valery is buried. One of his best-known poems celebrates the cemetery.

Valery was a cynical romantic, responsible for writing like this:

“War is a massacre of people who don’t know each other for the profit of people who know each other but don’t massacre each other. ”

And a riff on Rene Descarte: “Sometimes I think, and sometimes I am.”

A PLACE OF EXODUS

On July 11, 1947, the creaky packet steamer SS President Warfield departed from Sète. (The ship was named after a president of the ship’s original owner.)

On board were more than 4,500 Jews who had left displaced persons camps throughout Europe and were willing to take their chances on an unauthorized attempt to reach Palestine.

Five days into the journey, the President Warfield took on a new name: Exodus 1947. Ultimately, the journey was unsuccessful, but later attempts had more success and this was one of the bases for the book and move “Exodus” and an important event in the establishment of the modern state of Israel.

Incredibly, there was an earlier exodus that also had its start here.

In May 1939, in the tremendous tumult that led up to World War II, the Sinaia set sail from the port, carrying 1,599 Republicans, opponents of Francisco Franco and thus on the losing side of the Spanish Civil War.

They had been detained in camps in France but were finally permitted to sail away to Mexico, which was the only country at the time that recognized a Spanish Republic in exile.

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18 Sep 2016
Marseille, France:
The Second City

September 18, 2016 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

Marseille is the oldest city in France, with the country’s second-largest population behind only Paris.

In 1792, Marseille sent 500 volunteers to Paris to support the French Revolution. The song they sung on their march from Marseille to Paris, a call to arms that became known as La Marseillaise, now the national anthem of France.

A MARSEILLE ALBUM

The Basilica Notre Dame de la Garde stands watch over Marseille, offering a great vantage point from its perch at the highest point in the city to the south of the Old Port, and some striking architecture.

Ornamented with an ornate Neo-Byzantine design, it was begun in 1853 and completed in 1864. Locals commonly call the church la bonne mère (“the good mother.”)

The church was built on the site of a 13th century chapel, also dedicated to Notre-Dame de la Garde: Our Lady of the Watch, the traditional guardian of seafarers.

The 200-foot-tall belfry and statue can be seen across much of the city and for miles out at sea.

The interior is decorated with inlaid marble, mosaics and murals. Many of the walls are covered with ex-votos, including paintings, plaques, model boats, war medals and even football shirts given by players and supporters of Olympique de Marseille, the local football team.

Along the lively waterfront, a grand mirror designed by architect Norman Foster brings sea, land, and people together in a new dimension.

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17 Sep 2016
Toulon, France:
A Change in the Winds

September 17, 2016 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

The winds were against us this morning, and so we were unable to put down our ship’s anchor offshore of St-Tropez and come to shore by ship’s tenders.

Instead we sailed on by, and came into the port of Toulon, on a lively Saturday under a bright blue sky…and a bit of breeze.

This is a place of great antiquity in this part of the world. Archeological studies, including those at the famed Cosquer Cave near Marseille, show evidence of human inhabitation as far back as the Paleolithic era. It went on to become an important Greek and then Roman colony.

Today Toulon is a major naval base, home port to the French Navy’s aircraft carrier Charles deGaulle and her supporting fleet.

Toulon still bears the remnants of the fortifications put into place by the great French military engineer Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban.

And fans of Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables know Toulon as an important character in its own stead. It was here, in the bagne of Toulon–still standing to the right of the entrance to the harbor–that Jean Valjean spent 19 years at hard labor. And it was also the birthplace of the novel’s protagonist, Javert.

Do you hear the people sing?

SAINT TROPEZ

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16 Sep 2016
Monte Carlo, Monaco:
Breaking Even

September 16, 2016 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

Speaking of suspension of disbelief, welcome to the Principality of Monaco and its port at Monte Carlo.

To guests who are leaving us here, arrivederci. Until we meet again somewhere else afloat.

And welcome aboard to those joining us here, on a jaunt through some of the prettiest parts of a lovely part of the world.

MONTE CARLO TODAY

We head out tomorrow to Saint-Tropez, one of the playgrounds of the Côte d’Azur, a small place famous for being outsizedly famous. From there to the much larger second city of France, Marseille.

Our last call in France on this cruise is at the intriguing canalized city of Sète in Languedoc.

From there we head due south into the Mediterranean for a call at Alcudia on the Spanish island of Mallorca; it is an ancient less-visited alternative to the big city of Palma on the same island.

Back to the mainland, we are due to call at Castellón de la Plana which sits between the spectacular cities of Valencia to its south and Barcelona to the north. It has its own appeal, and a co-claim to the origins of paella as well.

This cruise will finish in Barcelona, which is always worthy of a return visit.

A MONTE CARLO ALBUM

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15 Sep 2016
Cannes, France:
Suspend Your Disbelief

September 15, 2016 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

It requires more than a little bit of suspension of disbelief*, but Cannes was once a small and humble fishing village.

It is no longer small, by no means humble, and today’s fishing is aimed at the wallets of visitors.

It is, though, a very interesting place with grand architecture, high-end shops and restaurants, and a back story of movie stars, high fashion, and romance, fabulous festivals, and jewel heists.

Oh, and a beach.

A CANNES ALBUM

* The term suspension of disbelief was brought to us by the poet and aesthetic philosopher Samuel Taylor Coleridge in 1817. He said that if a writer could infuse a “human interest and a semblance of truth” into an otherwise unbelievable fantastic story, the reader would suspend judgment on the implausibility of the tale.

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14 Sep 2016
Porto Mahon, Menorca, Spain:
In the Middle

September 14, 2016 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

All of the islands of the Mediterranean have served pretty much the same role across history: an offshore sanctuary, a supply depot, a marshalling place for navies. Think of them as aircraft carriers.

Cyprus, Crete, Malta, Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica, and the Balearics have all fit that description.

Safe harbors, on the ancient trading routes for long-vanished peoples, as well as for wave upon wave of empire builders including the Carthaginians, the Romans, the Byzantines, the Vikings, the Spanish, and the English.

And then right along the watery highway for incoming Islamic tribes, and then for outgoing Crusaders.

Today, close enough for invading holiday makers to hop on a ferry or a flight from the mainland to the beach.

September has been unseasonably, ridiculously hot in the Mediterranean, topping 42C or 108F recently. Today some of us were quite happy to welcome gray skies and a light sprinkle of rain. Snow would be even nicer, but that is not yet on the horizon.

A PORTO MAHON ALBUM

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13 Sep 2016
Palma de Mallorca, Spain:
The Big One

September 13, 2016 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

Mallorca is Spain’s largest island possession, and its second-most populated island (after Tenerife in the Canary Islands.)

The name Mallorca derives from Latin insula maior, “larger island.”

Larger than what? Why, the smaller neighboring island known as Menorca. And then there is also Ibiza, plus the very small islets of Formentera and Cabrera and another 150 or so uninhabited rocks.

Collectively, the islands are called the Balearics, and they are a very popular holiday destination for neighboring Spaniards and just about anyone who enjoys sun, sea, beaches, fine architecture and art, beautiful hills and valleys, and great food. What’s not to like?

Today I went with guests to the village of Soller, about an hour out of Palma. We were delivered on the old railway, originally built to haul fruit. Today it carries only tourists, up into the hills and through a long tunnel.

TODAY IN SOLLER

A PALMA ALBUM

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12 Sep 2016
Barcelona, Spain:
Ramblin’ Around Your City

September 12, 2016 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

We come to Barcelona six or eight times a year in this job. Tough work, but someone has to do it.

This is one of most handsome, most uplifting cities in the world. We arrived for a full day’s port call, and we’ll be back in just over a week for two more days. We’re already planning expeditions to parts yet unknown.

The most famous street in Barcelona is Las Ramblas, or the Promenade. It is actually a series of linked streets, each one of them a rambla mostly dedicated to a particular set of markets: flowers, art, pets.

Few cities are more imbued with the artistic vision of one man than is Barcelona. The visions, all of them beautiful and some of them a bit strange, were those of Antoni Gaudi, one of the masters of the Modernist or Art Nouveau style.

His crowning achievement was—or will be—La Sagrada Família, the Holy Family.

Gaudi designed it to have 18 towers: 12 for the apostles, 4 for the evangelists, one for Mary and one for Jesus.

Gaudí died in 1926, and they’re still working on the basilica, with plans to complete in in 2026, the centenary of his death.

Like many of you I have visited hundreds of cathedrals all over the world, many of them many centuries years old. Gaudi’s La Sagrada Familia may well be the last monumental cathederal to be built, and it is amazing scene to watch the work underway.

BARCELONA TODAY

GAUDI IN BARCELONA

The waterfront at the base of the city, near the place where much of Spain’s great fleet of exploration was built and where Columbus returned from his first voyage, has been restored and improved.

Maremagnum, a sprawling shopping, dining, and entertainment complex has pride of place. Literally translated from the Latin it means the “great sea.” But as a Spanish idiom, it means an abundance or an overabundance or a confusion born of excess.

Much like Barcelona itself.

MAREMAGNUM

PALAU GÜELL

MERCAT DE SANT JOSEP DE LA BOUQUERIA

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11 Sep 2016
València, Spain:
Arts and Sciences and Paella

September 11, 2016 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

València is Spain’s third largest city, after Madrid and Barcelona, which is pretty impressive company.

But València can stand on its own as a wondrous old city, the former capital of the Old Kingdom of València.

The birthplace of paella.

The deathplace of the fallas.

And the modern resurgence of an ancient settlement around the spectacular Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciències, the City of Arts and Sciences, completed in 2008 in the old bed of the river Turia.

TODAY’S PHOTOS FROM VALENCIA

Its highlights include structures by the Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, among them the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia opera house and performing arts center which is topped by a swooping wave which overhangs the structure.

L’Hemisfèric, an IMAX Cinema and planetarium is the centerpiece of the project. Its eyelid is reflected in a water pool, creating the illusion of a giant eye.

El Museu de les Ciències Príncipe Felipe is an interactive museum of science that resembles the skeleton of a whale.

L’Umbracle is a landscaped walk with plant species indigenous to Valencia including rockrose, lentisca, rosemary, lavender, honeysuckle, bougainvillea, and palm trees.

L’Oceanogràfic is the largest oceanographic aquarium in Europe. Built in the shape of a water lily, it is the work of another architect, Félix Candela.

CITY OF ARTS AND SCIENCES

We eat oh so well aboard ship, but that is no excuse not to indulge in local specialties when given the chance. Few places are more worthy than this region of Spain, the birthplace of paella.

The dish is named after the pan used to prepare it. You can, if you wish, think of it as a Spanish version of a wok.

In many ways it brings together the Roman and Arab and indigenous flavors of the region.

In Moorish Spain, farmers improved the old Roman irrigation systems along the Mediterranean coast, leading to greater yields in rice production. And from this came casseroles of rice, meat, fish, and spices.

Paella Valenciana includes meat (usually chicken or rabbit). Paella de Marisco, with fish or seafood, or even Paella Mixta, with meat and fish. Not with sausage, ham, or meat broth; those are for tourists.

Paella is typically eaten at midday, so many restaurants do not serve it at dinner, which in Spain can be deep into the night. In its classical version, paella is cooked over a wood fire. Not gas. And if you see a microwave in the kitchen, run away.

MERCAT CENTRAL

One of the most famous aspects of Valencia is a tradition that dates back several centuries, the Night of the Cremà.

This is the burning of the Fallas, large wooden and papier mache dolls or effigies—sometimes representing politicians or celebrities or allegorical figures.

It is believed the tradition dates back to the carpenter’s guild of Valencia, who would celebrate the Festival of their patron Saint Joseph by gathering in front of their workshops to burn old tools, other wooden utensils, and candleholders they used to give them light during the winter season.

The party takes place in March, which means work is well underway now in workshops around town.

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10 Sep 2016
Cartagena, Spain: From the New World to the Old

September 10, 2016 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

Cartagena is on the Costa Cálida, the Warm Coast of Spain’s Murcia region. Cartagena is one of Spain’s more historically significant places because of its superb and easily defended naval port.

But Cartagena is less-known than many other coastal cities of Spain,

In fact, its distant namesake, Cartagena de Indias, in Colombia, may be much better known.

Cartagena, Colombia grew as one of the principal Spanish fortresses to hold the treasure taken from South America, the Caribbean, and Asia.

Cartagena, Spain has long been a crossroads of civilizations and navies. It has a fine collection of early 20^th century Art Nouveau buildings, intermixed with a spectacular Roman Theatre and remains of Phoenician, Byzantine and Moorish structures.

A CARTAGENA ALBUM

About 50 kilometers or 35 miles north of Cartagena in the interior is the town of Murcia, the provincial capital and university town, a much larger city of 440,000.

Murcia has a similar back-story to Cartagena, a mix of Roman, Moorish, and Spanish cultures.

One of the treasures of Murcia is its Cathedral, begun in the 14^th century after the reconquest of Spain from the Muslims. Its style is considered Churrigueresque—highly ornate and complex Spanish Baroque. The style gets its name from architect Jose Benito de Churriguera.

The 19^th century Murcia Casino, with an exterior inspired by the Alhambra in Granada, is inside more like a British gentleman’s club, a place to socialize and play billiards.

THE CATHEDRAL OF MURCIA

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9 Sep 2016
Malaga, Spain:
The Art of Attraction

September 9, 2016 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

The rust-colored walls of the Alcazaba, the azure waters of the Mediterranean, the dramatic flair of Spanish and Moorish architecture.

All are conducive, I suppose, to great art, and it was here that Pablo Picasso was born.

For all of these reasons and more, Málaga has wrapped itself in a mantle of art.

This small city has developed a remarkable portfolion of world-class art collections, starting with a Picasso collection and a branch of Madrid’s Carmen Thyssen museum.

More recently, the Centre Pompidou Málaga and a branch of the Russian Museum of Saint Petersburg opened.

On this visit, I went up into the hills to visit the ancient city of Mijas, the “Balcony of the Costa del Sol.”

It was the morning after the night before, in Feria or fair season.

A MALAGA ALBUM

Granada, one of Spain’s most spectacular and famous cities lies just under two hours to the northeast of Málaga, at the base of Sierra Nevada mountains.

The city has been inhabited for thousands of years.

In the 8th century, the city became the capital of a province of the Caliphate of Cordoba.

The Alhambra, Arabic for “the red one”, or the red fortress, was built in the mid-14^th century.

In January 1492, the last Muslim sultan in Iberia surrendered control of Granada to Ferdinand and Isabella, Los Reyes Católicos (“The Catholic Monarchs.”)

By the 16^th century, Granada took on a Christian and Castilian character, as immigrants came from other parts of the Iberian Peninsula.

Many of the city’s mosques, some of which had been established on the sites of former Christian churches, were converted to Christian uses.

GRANADA ALBUM

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8 Sep 2016
Cadiz, Spain:
Religion, Wine, and Horses on the Frontier

September 8, 2016 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

Cadiz is the oldest continuously-inhabited city in the Iberian Peninsula, and possibly the oldest in all of southwestern Europe.

Think of it as a frontier town, the Wild West of Europe.

Cádiz was part of the Muslim realm of Al-Andalus, now the Spanish region of Andalusia.

Its history and culture are built on a base of Moorish or Muslim cultures, and by earlier forces: the Iberians, the Carthaginians, the Greeks, the Roman Empire, the Vandals, and the Visigoths.

The Phoenicians built an outpost here about three thousand years ago and called it Gadir, which means walled stronghold. And for most of its existence, that was its role: a fortress and an armory.

A CADIZ ALBUM

Roman Theater of Cadiz

Alameda district of Cadiz

The Moors ruled between 711 and 1262, until they were finally ousted by Alphonso X of Castile. During the Age of Exploration, the city was re-energized.

Christopher Columbus sailed from Cádiz on his second and fourth voyages.

By the middle of 16^th century, when the Spanish Empire ruled or traded with much of the world, Cádiz was the receiving end of the treasure train from Asia and the New World.

Spanish Galleons would pick up gold, silver, and other treasure from Mexico, South America, Japan, China, the Philippines and other parts and try to get it past the real Pirates of the Caribbean and back to Europe.

ARCOS DE LA FRONTERA ALBUM

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7 Sep 2016
Portimão, Portugal:
Miles of Tiles

September 7, 2016 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

Today, I went for a visit back in time to the hillside town of Silves, a relatively untouched piece of Moorish culture in Portugal’s stunning Algarve region.

We were greeted first by storks, who serve as the modern lookouts, perched atop chimneys and parapets and anywhere else they can plant a nest.

And then we went up the hill, in the unusually hot September that has been visited upon Portugal to see first the small Catholic cathedral, from about the year 1050, and then behind it the Almohad Citadel, erected by the Moors in the 8th century.

The cathedral mixes a bit of Roman columns with Moorish arches.

MILES OF TILES

The local art scene includes some fine paintings, carvings, and architecture.

But the specialties of this part of the world have to include azulejos, blue-and-white painted tiles, dishes, and other ceramics. They’re not all blue, either.

Many older examples illustrate scenes from the bibles or the stories of saints. There are also landscapes, geometric patterns, and floral designs.

You’ll find them almost anywhere you go. In Portugal, you can find azulejos inside and outside of churches, palaces, ordinary houses and even train stations.

The technique came from Spain, which learned it from the Persians in the early 15th century. The word azulejos comes from the Arabic al zulayj, meaning “polished stone”.

Portimão is a small city, about 45,000 inhabitants, located on the estuary of the Arade River.

Since pre-Roman times, Portimão has made its living from fishing.

Today it is a major center for the sardine-canning industry, and also luring its shares of tourists.

VISIONS OF PORTIMÃO

Azulejo tiles in Portimão

Ponta da Piedade, near Portimão

Lagos, Portugal

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6 Sep 2016
Lisbon, Portugal:
Heading Down and Around the Corner

September 6, 2016 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

Welcome aboard.

Silver Cloud is resuming her championship cruising after crossing over from Rio de Janeiro where she visited the 2016 Olympics and served as home to the gold-medal-winning American men’s and women’s basketball teams.

We’re off on a trip down and around the corner, from Lisbon on the Atlantic coast of Portugal through the Pillars of Hercules between Gibraltar and north Africa and into the middle sea, the Mediterranean.

Continuing east in the Mediterranean Sea, we are due to call at the glorious Spanish ports of Malaga, Cartagena, Valencia, and the grand city of Barcelona.

Then we are scheduled to head south to Palma de Mallorca in the Balearic Islands, and the next day call at Porto de Mahon on the nearby island of Menorca.

And then Silver Cloud will head back to the mainland of Europe for calls at the glitzy ports of Cannes in France, and Monte Carlo in the Principality of Monaco.

Here’s our plan:

I hope you’ll join me here. I’ll be posting photos and commentary all through the trip.

A LISBON ALBUM

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13 May 2016
Piraeus, Greece:
Καλή αντάμωση

May 13, 2016 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

Καλή αντάμωση.

Or if that’s Greek to you, Arrivederci.

Until we meet again.

We have reached the end of our extended journey from Barcelona to Venice to Athens, a journey of six weeks.

As your vacation ends, ours begins.

I hope you’ll join me here in these pages in a few months as we take to the sea once more.

Until then, safe travels.

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SEE THE “How to Order a Photo or Autographed Book” TAB ON THIS PAGE FOR INSTRUCTIONS

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If you would like to purchase an autographed copy, please see the tab on this page, “HOW TO ORDER A PHOTO OR AUTOGRAPHED BOOK”

Here’s where to order an electronic copy for immediate delivery:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IA9QTBM

Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession: The Tragic Legacy of the New World’s Least Understood Explorer (Kindle Edition)

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF ONE OF MY BOOKS, PLEASE CONTACT ME.

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12 May 2016
Corinth Canal, Greece: The Shortcut to Athens

May 12, 2016 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

Pelopennesia is the southernmost part of the mainland of Greece.

Although, some might quibble, geographically speaking. You might instead want to call Pelopennesia the largest southernmost island of Greece, because for more than a century it has been cut off from the mainland of Europe by the Corinth Canal.

Ancient Corinth near the canal

The short and narrow canal connects the Gulf of Corinth to the west with the Saronic Gulf in the Aegean Sea.

It’s an obvious place for a canal, since it allows the possibility of saving 185 nautical miles (213 land miles or 343 kilometers) of sailing between the Aegean and Adriatic.

On our crossing today, we avoided the need to sail down and around the bottom of Peloppenesia, saving almost a full day for a sailing vessel or about half a day for a ship like ours.

And even better, it was a spectacular trip, one of the most challenging passages for a ship. Almost anywhere else in the world, the beautiful Silver Cloud is considered a small luxury vessel; here in the Corinth Canal, we are extra-large, right at the limits of width and height.

OUR PASSAGE BETWEEN THE GULFS, 12 MAY 2016

The idea of having a canal here was so obvious that it was pursued way before modern times.

The first serious consideration of a canal cutting across the Isthmus of Corinth was in 602 BC.

Periander, the Tyrant of Corinth and one of the Seven Sages of Antiquity proposed it as a public works project.

But he was not sage enough to figure out how to dig the ditch.

So instead, his engineers produced another great project, the diolkós, a stone road on which ships were transferred on wheeled platforms from one sea to the other.

Stretches of that dry canal can still be seen.

Skip forward three centuries, and in 307 B.C., Dimitrios Poliorkitis, king of Macedon actually began excavation.

But the digging was suspended after Egyptian engineers incorrectly predicted that differing sea levels between the Corinthian and the Saronic Gulfs would inundate the Aegean Sea.

Oh, and also: the experts declared that Poseidon, god of the sea, was opposed to the joining of the Aegean and the Adriatic.

Next up was Julius Caesar in 44BC and Caligula in 37BC; just thinking about it, but still concerned about Poseidon.

In 66 A.D., the Emperor Nero sent war prisoners from the Aegean islands and six thousand Jewish slaves to work on the canal. Nero himself started the work, digging with a golden hoe, while music played.

Nero’s slaves dug a ditch three kilometers or two miles in length and 40 meters or 131 feet wide before Nero had to rush back to Rome to quell the Galva mutiny.

The 19^th century, the Industrial Age, was the also the Age of the Canal.

The success in 1869 of Ferdinand de Lesseps’ Suez Canal awakened politicians and engineers and construction companies around the world. The Suez helped bring about the Panama Canal, the Cape Cod Canal, the Corinth Canal and other efforts.

The modern pathway follows—almost to the inch—Nero’s plans.

Sixteen million cubic yards (twelve million cubic meters) of earth had to be removed.

The Corinth Canal was completed and opened on July 25, 1893.

The canal was never a huge financial success.

It was (and is) too narrow for big ships, too difficult in bad weather or tides, and too prone to landslides.

The Canal cuts the Isthmus of Corinth in a straight line about 6 kilometers, or about four miles.

Earthen or rock cliffs flank both sides, reaching a maximum height of 63 meters or 207 feet above water.

It is straight, which is good. But it is relatively shallow: dredged to 6.5 meters or 21.3 feet, in some places just a bit deeper.

Our ship has a draft of about 4.5 meters or about 15 feet.

Next problem: the canal is very narrow: 80.7 feet wide (24.6 meters) at sea level. And down below it is even a bit narrower, 70 feet or 21.3 meters wide. That’s less than two tour buses or coaches in width.

Silver Cloud is 70.6 feet wide.

Like many of us, our ship is widest around the middle and higher. So we have just enough to spare on each side of the ship and beneath our keel.

And memories of a tight squeeze.

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12 May 2016
Itea, Greece:
A Visit to the Navel of the Earth

May 12, 2016 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

Itea is on the mainland of Greece, at its southern flank on the Gulf of Corinth.

Athens is about 75 miles or 125 kilometers southeast, easily reached by car.

Not so easily by ship.

Before 1893, ships had to go down and around Peloponnesia to get from the Adriatic to the Aegean.

But we have ahead of us this afternoon one of those “tick-the-boxes” treats for world travelers: a passage through the strange, narrow Corinth Canal.

But first, we have a morning in Itea.

There’s not all that much in the port: a few taverns and cafés and a bank. There’s a little beach in town; as is the case most everywhere, the better beaches are away from the harbor.

Pleasant enough, but that’s not the reason we’re here.

Just east of Itea is Kirra, which was the ancient port of Delphi.

And 15 kilometers, or 10 miles northeast are the partly restored ruins of Delphi itself.

The ancient and the modern town of Delphi are on the southwestern section of Mount Parnassus in the valley of Phocis.

It was here that Apollo slew the Python, a dragon who lived there and protected the navel of the Earth.

Yes, there is a place in Delphi the ancients believed to be the belly button of the planet, the Omphalos.

ANCIENT DELPHI

This was also the site of the Oracle of Delphi, the most important of the classical Greek world.

An oracle was a person—or sometimes a group of people—considered to be a source of wise counsel or prophecy.

Oracles were considered portals through which the gods spoke directly to people.

The most important oracles of Greek antiquity were the Sybil or Pythia priestess to Apollo at Delphi, and the oracle of Dione and Zeus at Dodona in Epirus.

In some ways, not too bad a job.

Chosen from among the peasants of the area, she was required to be an older woman of blameless life.

She only gave prophecies the seventh day of each month, seven being the number most associated with Apollo, and only during the nine warmer months of the year.

Hordes of people came to consult with Pythia and her successors.

Some wealthier individuals were said to have tried to jump the line with special offerings. Bribes, you might say.

An acquaintance of mine who is a professor of antiquities in Istanbul described the oracles of ancient Greece as borderline crazies who spoke in tongues.

Actually, he may be on to something.

Observers wrote that the Pythia seemed to be in a trance, speaking gibberish.

She sat on a tripod seat over an opening in the earth.

Vapors rose from a cleft in the rock at the navel of the earth.

According to one version of the story, when Apollo slew Python, its body fell into this fissure, giving rise to the fumes.

Intoxicated by the vapors, the Oracle would fall into a trance, allowing Apollo to possess her spirit.

One line of thinking is that some sort of natural gas—perhaps ethylene or methane or carbon dioxide or even hydrogen sulfide might have been coming from the earth.

That might have been enough to intoxicate the oracle, if not kill her.

And it would have smelled pretty bad.

People consulted the Delphic oracle on everything from personal affairs to important matters of public policy.

The ravings of the Oracle were “translated” by the priests of the temple.

If it sounds like that might be source of some of the campaign planks of some of our current politicians…you just might be on to something.

ITEA HOSIOS LOUKAS MONASTERY

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11 May 2016
Corfu, Greece: A Quilt of Many Colors

May 11, 2016 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

Corfu is a little piece of Greece, the seventh largest of the country’s islands. But in many ways it does not much resemble the rest of Greece.

Its history includes a long period of domination by the Venetians, a bit of French, and a few decades of British rule.

In 1386 the islanders placed themselves under the protection of Venice, which kept it for four hundred years. Corfu—or Kerkyra as it was called–was known as the “Door of Venice”,

The presence of the Venetians offered some protection but it also attracted assaults by Turkish naval and land forces. The Siege of Corfu in 1537 landed 25,000 soldiers from the Turkish fleet of Suleiman the Magnificent. They pillaged parts of the island and took 20,000 hostages.

But in the city, the castle held and the Turks withdrew because of lack of supplies and an epidemic.

The second great siege of Corfu took place in 1716, during the last Turkish-Venetian War. On July 8 the Turkish fleet of 33,000 men was encountered by the Venetian fleet off the channel of Corfu and was defeated.

Despite repeated assaults and heavy fighting, the Turks were unable to breach the defenses and were forced to end the siege after 22 days. The 5,000 Venetians and foreign mercenaries, together with 3,000 Corfiotes, were victorious.

Once again Venetian castle engineering had proven itself once again against considerable odds.

The repulse of the Ottomans was widely celebrated in Europe, Corfu being seen as a bastion of Western civilization against the Ottoman tide and in many ways marked the beginning of the end of that empire as it began to pull back toward Constantinople.

Empress of Austria Elisabeth of Bavaria, also known as Sissi, was a woman entranced by beauty.

She lost her only son, Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria, when he committed murder-suicide with his mistress in 1889, in what became known as The Mayerling Incident. This was one of the string of events that would eventually lead to the ascension of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand whose assassination was an immediate precursor to the first World War.

In 1890 Elisabeth built a summer palace to the south of the city of Corfu, with the powerful mythical hero Achilles as its central theme.

The palace, surrounded by neoclassical Greek statues, is a monument to platonic romanticism. It was named Achilleion, after Homer’s hero Achilles.

Achilles is everywhere within: paintings and statues in the main hall and the gardens.

In 1898, Empress Sissi was herself assassinated by an anarchist in Geneva, Switzerland.

After her death, the palace was purchased by German Kaiser Wilhelm II, who had his own thing about Achilles. Today, the Achilleion Palace has been converted into a museum, a very worthy place to visit in Corfu.

ACHILLEON PALACE TODAY

The last statue is that of the Empress herself, with her famously–frighteningly–narrow waist. She did pay for the statue, so perhaps there was a bit of alteration included. Or not.

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF ONE OF MY BOOKS, PLEASE CONTACT ME.

SEE THE “How to Order a Photo or Autographed Book” TAB ON THIS PAGE FOR INSTRUCTIONS

————-

If you would like to purchase an autographed copy, please see the tab on this page, “HOW TO ORDER A PHOTO OR AUTOGRAPHED BOOK”

Here’s where to order an electronic copy for immediate delivery:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IA9QTBM

Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession: The Tragic Legacy of the New World’s Least Understood Explorer (Kindle Edition)

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF ONE OF MY BOOKS, PLEASE CONTACT ME.

SEE THE “How to Order a Photo or Autographed Book” TAB ON THIS PAGE FOR INSTRUCTIONS

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10 May 2016
Kotor, Montenegro: The City in the Hill

May 10, 2016 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

Montenegro is a ten-year-old nation with a thousand-year back story and some spectacular scenery at sea level and up in the mountains that fill much of the country’s interior.

Kotor, the port we are visiting, presents one of the most spectacular views offered from a cruise ship: an ancient city carved into the face of a mountain.

Silver Cloud at the dock in Kotor today

Montenegro, part of what was once Yugoslavia, is one of the smaller countries in the world: about 14,000 square kilometers or 5,300 square miles.

A KOTOR ALBUM

Our approach to Kotor is through a winding waterway that some tourist guides insist on calling a fjord. That’s not technically correct: a fjord is a long, narrow inlet with steep sides or cliffs in a valley carved by glaciers.

Nearly all of the earth’s glaciers are at or near the poles, with only a few way up high in mountains near the planet’s mid-section.

What we’ve got in Kotor is a drowned river valley. The river was long ago covered over by a rising sea level in the region.

On our approach just short of Kotor is a bay where we make a 90-degree turn to starboard.

Directly ahead is the little town of Perast, which under the Venetians was a very prosperous mini-maritime state with its own fleet and a bit of wealth.

And offshore are two islets.

One is a natural islet, Sveti Đorđe, the Island of Saint George, which contains a Benedictine Monastery from the 12^th century and an ancient graveyard.

The second island is Our Lady of the Rocks. According to legend, local seamen found an icon of Madonna and Child on a rock in the sea at this location on July 22, 1452.

The seamen were said to have made an oath: upon returning from each successful voyage, they laid a rock in the Bay. Over time, the islet gradually emerged from the sea.

The custom of throwing rocks into the sea continues; every year at sunset on July 22, a small flotilla of boats sails into the bay for an event called fašinada, throwing rocks into the sea widening the surface of the island, takes place.

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF ONE OF MY BOOKS, PLEASE CONTACT ME.

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Around the World with Corey Sandler

Category Archives: Uncategorized

20 Sep 2016
Alcudia, Mallorca, Spain:
Poets, Pianists, and Raindrops

19 Sep 2016
Sète, France:
The Venice of Languedoc

18 Sep 2016
Marseille, France:
The Second City

17 Sep 2016
Toulon, France:
A Change in the Winds

16 Sep 2016
Monte Carlo, Monaco:
Breaking Even

15 Sep 2016
Cannes, France:
Suspend Your Disbelief

14 Sep 2016
Porto Mahon, Menorca, Spain:
In the Middle

13 Sep 2016
Palma de Mallorca, Spain:
The Big One

12 Sep 2016
Barcelona, Spain:
Ramblin’ Around Your City

11 Sep 2016
València, Spain:
Arts and Sciences and Paella

10 Sep 2016
Cartagena, Spain: From the New World to the Old

9 Sep 2016
Malaga, Spain:
The Art of Attraction

8 Sep 2016
Cadiz, Spain:
Religion, Wine, and Horses on the Frontier

7 Sep 2016
Portimão, Portugal:
Miles of Tiles

6 Sep 2016
Lisbon, Portugal:
Heading Down and Around the Corner

13 May 2016
Piraeus, Greece:
Καλή αντάμωση

12 May 2016
Corinth Canal, Greece: The Shortcut to Athens

12 May 2016
Itea, Greece:
A Visit to the Navel of the Earth

11 May 2016
Corfu, Greece: A Quilt of Many Colors

10 May 2016
Kotor, Montenegro: The City in the Hill

Cruise Photos and Stories by Corey Sandler