crusing odds and ends -- i

I have not quite made it back to Melaque.  But I will be there in a few days.  Until then, here are a few odds and ends from this trip.   

Probably three days' worth.

In no particular order.

Starting with the title photograph.  My little joke about passengers in my age group.

Remember my post about the pirates (pirates of the arabian)?  Well, the insurance company seemed to think the danger was large enough for us to take on some hired guns with big guns.  Take a look at what passes for anti-pirate gear these days.

Most of the houses in The Azores look as if they were sired by mainland Portuguese buildings.  But this multi-colored shingle tower was eccentric enough to catch my attention.  My whimsy meter pinged.

While snaking my way through the alleys of Barcelona, I ran across this interesting tableaux.  Two well-dressed Spanish women and a man with a cart.  Rhyming shapes.

Even though Egypt is 90% Muslim, 10% are Coptic Christians -- once the majority group before the Arab invasion.  That 10% number is quickly dwindling.  Like the Chaldeans in Iraq, they see a new world coming where non-Muslims will not be tolerated as they have been.

Now and then I would notice a cross on the top of a building.  Obviously, A Copt church.  But the "cross" on this church along the Suez Canal turned out to be quite creative.  The Messiah child lifted by his mother.

Even though I missed seeing the Picasso Museum in Barcelona, I ran across this commercial in production.  I have no idea what the product is.  But tourists kept wandering into the camera shot.

I was fascinated by these dove cotes in Egypt.  I would like to tell you more about them, but the childish tourists on my bus trip to Cairo were fighting so much with one another I missed the details.  All I know is this is an example of an irrigated farm along the Suez Canal.

Barcelona is a fascinating city.  But it is difficult to find a WiFi hookup.  Or so I thought.  There is a full-service establishment right on the main pedestrian thoroughfare -- Las Ramblas. The combination still sends me in flights of authorial fancy.  Not to sound too defensive, but I have no idea what lies behind the face of that building.