After a hectic and stressful 24 days at our Pawleys Island home, our boxes and bags were packed, the sale of our home was complete, and our new home was several months from being finished. What to do? We had all the boxes and furniture moved to a storage unit near our new home in Wilmington, NC, and we and our bags headed south to the Space Coast of Florida. Our first stop was in Wilmington to check on our new home.
This is the way it looked on May 30. It may look like it is being built on a beach or a desert, but it is really located in the city of Wilmington. We were there for our pre drywall inspection.
We then made a circuitous route through Charlotte, Columbia, and Charleston to see our children and grandchildren before heading south to St. Augustine, Florida. Perhaps we are jaded from so much more exotic foreign travel, but we were somewhat disappointed in St. Augustine despite it being the oldest city in the US. While there were some nice buildings in the old town, the ubiquitous souvenir shops detracted greatly from our enjoyment. One thing we did enjoy was the guided tour of Flagler College.
One of the campus buildings is the former Ponce de Leon Hotel built by millionaire developer and Standard Oil cofounder, Henry Flagler, in 1888. Flagler made his fortune first in grains, then in railroads, and finally in oil. He was fortunate to have two very good friends who helped build the hotel: one was named Tiffany and the other was named Edison. This meant the hotel had some very nice chandeliers and was one of the first fully electric buildings in the world. In fact, electricity was so new that that customers were afraid to flip the switches; so Flagler had to hire people to do this for them!
The two towers of the hotel were originally used as water storage tanks so the hotel could have running water.
The building was one of the first in the country to be made of pored concrete. The trim on the doors, towers, and windows is terra-cotta.
This picture shows four unique features in the former ballroom of the hotel: the clock was made by Edison (you can tell because he uses IIII as the Roman numeral four instead of the more traditional IV), it is a Tiffany chandelier, the stone in which the clock is mounted is one of the largest pieces of that stone type (Sorry, I forgot the stone type), and the ceiling color around the chandelier is the first use of Tiffany blue.
The dining room features Tiffany stained glass windows. These windows are some of the first he made so they don’t reflect the more colorful style for which he became famous. Still, how many college dining rooms feature Tiffany windows?
We also enjoyed the Lightner Museum, which is housed in the former Alcazar Hotel built by Flagler across the street from The Ponce. At the time it housed the world’s largest indoor swimming pool.
After an overnight in St. Augustine, we drove to our destination, the home of our world cruise friends, Dave and Donna. They are in their Pittsburgh home while we are staying at their second home in an RV and golf resort on the Space Coast of Florida. Their community is unique to me as all homes must include an RV garage or carport capable of housing a motor home.
Since most people here have a motor home, one or two cars, and a golf cart, the garage designs are a major feature of the home.
This is the typical morning view out our back window. 
The late afternoon view is quite different with ominous black clouds, the rumble of thunder, and flashes of lightening. We have been in Florida for fourteen days and there have been heavy thunderstorms in the late afternoon on thirteen of those days. There was hail on two of those days. It makes it difficult to plan any early evening activities as the weather can make travel difficult. The area is also somewhat of a wildlife reserve. There have been deer in the back yard, alligators in the lake, and a bobcat running in the road. Herons, egrets, and other shore birds frequent the lake. We have seen an eagle on the roof of the largest house across the lake.
Our stay here is very relaxing. There is a beautiful national seashore about a half hour away. We also spend a lot of time at the neighborhood pool. We are both reading a lot of books. The neighborhood is even more friendly and outgoing than the Carolinas. Every person you see when you are walking, whether they are walking, driving a car, driving a golf cart, or working in the yard, waves and says “hi” to you. The people at the pool also want to talk to you and invite you to neighborhood events. We notice that the space program is a common topic of conversation here. I don’t recall anyone talking about it in the Carolinas. It is clearly an important part of their economy.
On the way home from the beach last week, we stopped at the manatee observation deck in a national wildlife refuge.
There must have been more than thirty manatees hanging out around the deck. It was the first time I had ever seen a manatee.
Mary Anne and Steve, more friends from our world cruise, have invited us to their house several times and taken us on tours of the area by car and by boat. They are docents at the lighthouse on the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station so they have gate passes and free access to the station. Most of our space launches have taken off from this station from one of the more than thirty launch pads located there. It appears that every new space program requires a new launch pad as only three are presently active and the others are abandoned. The active ones all belong to private companies.
This is one of the active launch sites. The two tall metal towers are glorified lightening rods. Before launch, the rocket is moved within the center structure to prepare it. This one is unique in that at launch the structure moves out of the way. In most launch pads, the rocket moves away from the structure before launching. The odd shaped thing on the right was used to divert flames from the rocket at one of the abandoned launch pads. That launch pad where I am standing was the site of the Apollo One disaster where three astronauts were killed during a training exercise.
After our tour, we enjoyed lunch in Port Canaveral. We have one more week in Florida before we head to North Carolina.
This worked for about another hour until someone came and said it was her job to collect all the wheelchairs and put them back where we found them. With no place comfortable to sit, we then stood, sat, or lay on the floor at the entry to security until it opened at 3:30 AM. It was a rapid comedown from life on the Sun! You will not find many Vikings with many good words to say about either JFK or American Airlines. You certainly won’t hear any good words about either from me! To add insult to injury, one of my bags didn’t get on the plane to Myrtle Beach! This is very much the Readers Digest version of our problems on the flights home, but I will say that business class is much nicer than tourist! The remainder of the blog was written prior to arriving in London.
The dinner for the couples that are bridge partners.
Our trivia team. Marti, Julie, Karen, John, Steve, Mary Ann, and us.
A Cruise Critic meet and greet.
The Mahjong group.
Londoners love to give nicknames to buildings. The top building is The Shard and the bottom building tends to have changing names. Until recently when the name no longer made sense, it was named after Princess Kate.
We didn’t have time to ride it, but it would have been a perfect day for the London Eye. You don’t dare call it a Ferris wheel in front of a Londoner; and unlike most Ferris wheels, its only support is on one side.
Unlike the museums which are free, it costs almost 30 dollars and a long queue to go into Westminster Abbey. It was suggested that the smart people attend a Sunday morning service which is free and uncrowded.
Parliament Square has many statues of people who have made the world better. Abraham Lincoln is one of the statues. This tour group from India is having their picture taken in front of the Gandhi statue.
This is the view of Big Ben and Parliament House from near Parliament Square. The classic view is, of course, from the other side taken from across the Themes. In case you can’t recognize Big Ben, it is totally enclosed in scaffolding for renovation. They are also installing scaffolding for a renovation of the Parliament Building which is expected to take over forty years! I guess there is no hope I will ever see it without the scaffolding. The left side of the building is the House of Commons (or Kindergarten as our guide calls it) and the right side is the House of Lords (or adult day care).
A mounted member of the palace guards.
In the afternoon, we visited the Tower of London, the home of the Crown Jewels.
Ravens are a fixture in the Tower. Legend says that if the ravens ever leave the Tower, it will collapse and the monarchy will fall. The ravens have their wings clipped so they are unable to fly away. They have a guard assigned to feed them, let them out of their cages in the morning, and put them back in the evening.
Over a hundred people live in the Tower. To get back in after official closing hours, they have to know a password which changes every day. I think I might have to spend some nights in town.
The Scotch Guard outside the building with the Crown Jewels.
The Tower Bridge. The city is full of traffic and buses. We spent much of our tours sitting in traffic. Our transfer from the ship to Heathrow took over an hour and a quarter with no traffic on a Saturday morning, and only the last few minutes were on a road that would pass as an expressway.
Porto, Portugal is located at the mouth of the Douro River. This river is home to the grapes which can be legally used in wine called port. There are about 70 producers of port wine in the area. But even though all port wine comes from Portugal, the origin of port wine is really more about the British who originally got their wines from France. However, because of wars with France in the 17th and 18th centuries, Britain boycotted French wines; so they turned to Portugal to satisfy their wine cravings. These wines often didn’t survive the longer shipping time by sea from Portugal. The solution was to add some brandy to the wine which increased the alcohol content which in turn stopped the fermentation process leaving more sugar in the wine. The result was port wine which is sweeter than normal wines and has a higher alcohol content of about 20%. 
We had a port wine tasting with friends Graham and Sue on the left and Bonnie, Dick, Susan, Donna and Dave (hidden by Donna) on the right.
This bridge spanning the Douro was built by the same company that built the Eiffel Tower.
The trees in this park have a disease that causes the unusual trunks. The color distortion is because the picture was taken through the bus window.
I am happy to let you know that we succeeded despite a lot of the stores being closed for the May Day holiday. Portugal produces about half of the cork in the world. It comes from the bark of an oak tree. The cork can be harvested every nine years without hurting the tree. The bark that is removed will grow back during the nine years between harvests, so it is an environmentally friendly product. Susan loves to look cool and help the environment at the same time.
One of its claims to fame is being the birthplace of Pablo Picasso. He was born on the second floor of the building above what is now a tapas bar. We visited the Picasso Museum, which contains 200 works donated by his family to establish a museum in his home city.
The Cathedral was built between 1528 and 1782 when they ran out of money and never finished the second matching tower on the front of the church, thus earning the nickname of “one armed lady”. This side view with the complete tower is more appealing than the front view.
The Alcazaba is a Moorish fortification that sprawls across one of the hills in Malaga.
From this hilltop overlook we could see the bullring below as well as the harbor and the city and mountains beyond.
Mijas is known as a white town for obvious reasons: every building in town was painted white. Several streets were particularly attractive with all flower pots painted the same blue color.
A unique feature of Mijas is their burro taxis. Each burro has an official number on the plate on their forehead. They are a hazard though as a woman got thrown off one that bucked while she was waving at her friends taking her picture. 
After seeing so many large churches, mosques, and temples on this trip, it was nice to see this charming little church built in a cave.
This even smaller Church was located all by itself on the hills above Mijas. I was surprised to see a person outside of it when I looked at the picture as the location seemed so remote.
But the best thing to do in a Spanish hill town is to sit on the street with friends and enjoy a glass of sangria! After a day at sea, we visit Porto, Portugal.
Cartagena is a beautiful town to walk around in with many pedestrian streets paved with granite tiles.
There were many sculptures scattered around town. This one was especially whimsical.
We visited the Punic wall which was a defensive wall built by the Carthaginians in the third century BCE. The wall consisted of two parallel walls ten feet high and sixteen feet apart. The remains are shown above.
The crypt of St. Joseph shown above was located at the same place as the wall. It dates to the 13th century CE and was apparently where defeated gladiators found their final resting place. No word on whether the bones and skull are from real gladiators. Cartagena is full of ancient archeological sites and several of them are built one over the other.
This elevator takes you up to a castle on top of the highest hill in town. By the time we got there, the blue sky in the earlier pictures had disappeared and the fog was rolling in from the ocean, so no good pictures up there.
One of the highlights in town is the remains of this Roman Amphitheater. The seats had been carved from the natural rock of the hill side. This Amphitheater was built in the first century BCE and was only recently discovered with the ruins of an old Spanish church built over part of it.
What appears to be a new building next to the Amphitheater is really only a facade apparently built to conceal another archaeological site behind it. There are a lot of facades like this throughout the town.
No story here except that I like tree roots, palm trees, unusual statues in unexpected places, and harbors. Our ship is in the background.
The Martyrs’ Memorial, built to celebrate the 20th anniversary of their freedom from France, honors all those who died in the revolution. Russia gave them the three statues of a martyr that stand at the base of the concrete pillars.
Most of the apartment buildings in town were quite dilapidated, but everyone seemed to have a satellite disk.
The buildings in the French section of town were typically white with blue, wrought iron balconies. About a third of the buildings in this area of town were being renovated. Most of the others also needed renovation.
The botanical garden was primarily trees, ponds, and statues.
This tree is known as the Tarzan tree since one of the Tarzan movies was filmed in the gardens.
Friday is the first day of the weekend in Algiers, so the park was packed with people. Since tourists and English speakers are both rare, we were quite a novelty to the locals. When our ship pulled into port, all the workers had their cell phones out taking our picture. These girls are taking a selfie with the guitarist on our ship. Most of the women wore head scarves, but they are free to wear traditional or modern dress.
Algeria is 99% Muslim, but that still leaves enough Christians for this beautiful church.
There were many shallow pools of water for producing salt on the outskirts of town. To my surprise, there were quite a few flamingos in the ponds.
There were a lot of old city walls.
The old town was full of squares, tunnels, and narrow streets. 
Every Italian town has to have a lot of churches.
We could go down into the catacombs beneath the church alter. All the designs on the wall are made with marbles of different color.
The Tower of the Elephant was once used as a defensive rampart and then a prison. It takes its name from the small elephant sculpture on the left side of the door near the top of the door.
Because the town is built on a hill, it has many viewpoints and you could see our ship from most of them.
The city had a lot of graffiti and many of the buildings needed a little work. We did not add Sardinia to our hypothetical trip to Sicily and Malta next year. 
This banner hanging from an apartment window caught my attention. I guessed that the sign related to rescuing refugees in the Mediterranean and some humanitarian rescue group. With the help of Google I learned that Open Arms is the name of a rescue boat operated by an NGO that rescued 218 migrants from a raft off the coast of Libya earlier this year. Shortly after the rescue they were approached by the Libya navy with guns drawn and ordered to return the refugees. They refused and fled to southern Sicily where the boat was impounded and the captain arrested. Earlier this month the boat was released, but the captain is still facing charges.
The Order of the Knights of St. John was made up of noblemen of the most important families in Europe and they took it upon themselves to protect the Catholic faith from the attacks of the Ottoman Turks. After the Great Siege of 1565, the knights turned Malta into a fortress worthy of their noble background. Consequently, there are walls within walls and watchtowers everywhere.
These streets are typical of the city. The columns in the right of the bottom picture are the ruins of the old opera house, which is still used as an outdoor performance venue.
For over 200 years, it was the conventual church of the Knights and they outdid each other in contributing gifts to enrich the church. And indeed, every square inch of the interior has been enriched. The top picture is the alter. The second picture shows the side chapels that line both sides of the nave. Each chapel is dedicated to one of the “langues” (language viewed as an abstract system used by a speech community) of the Order and also to a different saint. The third picture shows one of the side chapels. Each panel on the floor is the tomb of one of the Knights and tells something of his life. These tombs cover all the floors of the church. The bottom picture shows some details of one of the side chapels.
The Oratory features “Beheading of St. John the Baptist” by Caravaggio. It is the only work he ever signed and the largest he ever painted. It was painted for this specific location.
The Palazzo Parisio is another example of the subject of the blog. This is about as plain as it gets in Malta.
Yet this is the ballroom in the interior. There was also a nice garden and conservatory.
Barrakka Gardens in Valletta was filled with geraniums and had beautiful views of the harbor.
This church, which is claimed to have the largest unsupported dome in the world, has an interesting history in WW II. It was a British colony at the time and because of its strategic location in the Mediterranean, it was one of the most heavily bombed areas by Italy and Germany in the war. The details of the story vary a little from guide to guide; but during a service a bomb penetrated the dome and hit a wall just above the figure of Jesus and fell to the floor without exploding. No one in the church was injured seriously. If you look carefully, you can see where the dome was repaired a little down and to the left of center. The interior of this church is much simpler and more to my taste. All of the churches we saw in Malta had very tall candles on the alter.
We never got to explore this area across the harbor from where we docked. They have some nice looking yachts docked there.
Along with trees, I have a love of photographing windows and doors. This is one of my favorites! Our next stop is the island of Sardinia which is part of Italy.