cruising odds and ends -- iii

History provides us with some of our best punchlines.

This one was blowing in the wind on a Red Cross Building.  Please note there are two symbols.  The Red Cross.  And the Red Crescent.

The Red Crescent is the Muslim equivalent of the Red Cross.

Now, let me throw in another fact.  The building is in Cartagena.  In Spain.  The land of their Catholic Majesties, who drove the Muslims from the country.

Maybe it is more than irony.  It may be a symbol of reconciliation.  Or merely accommodation.  Either way, it is a new chapter in European history.

I lived in Greece for a year in the early 1970s.  The Mediterranean would occasional do a David Copperfield.  The water and the sky seemed to meld into one another.

 

One morning while we were off Malta, I tried to take photographs of the phenomenon.  At first, my camera would not focus.  It was like looking into infinity.  But I finally got one.

Several people asked me about shuffleboard.  Yup, the ship had it.  Nope, I did not play it.  But some of my fellow cruisers did.

The colors and shapes of the piles of spices in a market in Barcelona caught my eye.

I may have mentioned this in the past, but it is worth a re-run.  The Voyager of the Seas has a unique landmark for men only.  A urinal made of granite.  My former employer installed a fountain in its employee break area that looked similar.

But it did not have the Deck 11 view of the Voyager urinal.  Complete with glass mermaids that reminded me of the silhouettes featured on the mudflaps of some semis.

For those of you with a Weimar Republic sensibility (or if you are just a Cabaret fan), this is a reflection of the audience on the entertainment bridge in the Promenade.

But this is my favorite photograph.  From my window, I had just watched a Caribbean parade along the Promenade.  One of the parade accessories were balloon palm trees powered by fans.

The crew had started breaking down the props.  But not before this elderly couple came by.  I must confess I was out to get a shot of the woman with her walker.

Then something amazing happened.  She reached out to touch the prop.  And she broke out in a smile.

She may have been old.  Her walking may have been impaired.  But she knew joy when she saw it.  And she shared hers with us.

That may have been reward enough for this trip.