World Travellers
Growing up as a young boy in Virginia I had wanderlust to visit places I read about in books or pondered on my globe . In a family of five children a station wagon trip to camp on Hatteras Island , NC was the extent of my travel . However , my mother showed me on my globe where I was born in France and that seemed so exotic and so far away as I looked at all the blue ocean in between .
Dee and I were fortunate in my Army career to live across the USA and in Europe for nine years and that just wet our appetite for more travel . We have traveled extensively in retirement and most recently finished our second circumnavigation of the world on Holland America ’ s m / s Amsterdam . We chose this second trip because the itinerary included many Asian countries missed our first time around when we sailed largely in the southern hemisphere . Dee also wanted to retrace some of her father ’ s travel as a career Navy man and especially to visit Nagasaki , Japan , where her father spent time nearby as a prisoner of war after being captured at Corregidor , Philippines .
We embarked at Fort Lauderdale for 111 days to circumnavigate the world for 30171 nautical miles to 40 ports of call and passing through the Panama and Suez canals . We were accompanied by our Fort Walton Yacht Club burgee , which flew in exotic places like zip lining in Costa Rica , the Great Wall of China , the Korean DMZ , a Chinese junk in Hong Kong and on a camel ’ s back in Wadi Rum , Jordan . Whenever we put it on display , it drew attention with the Indian chief . The world knows Hollywood movies and westerns with Indians , so our burgee design was familiar yet exotic to foreigners .
The best reason for travelling with a ship as transportation is that you only unpack once and your hotel-like accommodations travel with you . While dining out in exotic places is fun , we knew that if the meals were too exotic , a good meal awaited us on the ship . We were lucky to enjoy a center of the ship cabin with a generous veranda . And , we enjoy the effortless living on the ship where you are pampered and entertained daily .
We had two land excursions away from the ship : one in Beijing , China by bus and the second in Spain where we took a high speed ( about 200mph ) train from Barcelona to Madrid before returning to the ship in Cadiz a few days later .
Highlights for us on the trip were the Great Wall of China where it snowed , Vietnam where I served in 1970-71 , and Spain where we visited Toledo on our Madrid side trip . The most fun thing we did was a sleigh ride down a mountainous steep city street in Funchal , Maderia . The most exotic place we visited was Marrakech where the central plaza had magicians , acrobats , snake charmers , performing monkeys , donkey carts , coopers making barrels , metal workers making copper pans , and cobblers making shoes . Marrakech ’ s plaza is an impromptu circus that is magical . Its marketplace , the souk , is a maze of narrow alleys where you can find silks , slippers , leather goods , spices , jewelry , carpets , objects of art , and just about anything you can think of that a craftsmen or artist can make .
The best part about such an adventure are the many memories you take home and a deep appreciation for being American and living in the best country in the world . We had a wonderful time , but we missed very much our family at the Fort Walton Yacht Club . We were happy to return home where we are already planning our next big trip abroad . See photos on our trip log at mickeydee2017 . blogspot . com .
~ P / C Micky La Garde
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