Cruising

Virginia and I drove to Atlanta, Georgia, where he boarded a flight to Nice, France, and a two week cruise down the western coast of Italy. In Nice we were met by our transfer agent and drive to Monte Carlo…land of the rich and famous where there is a private airport filled with large, private jet planes -- none of which cost less than 1.5 million. The fact that we had to pass through security twice in Atlanta tells you the sorry state of the world, but coming home, we had to clear no less than five security points before we got on the plane in Nice and then another two in JFK where we had a three hour layover and a lousy lunch that cost us $39.00 and took all our ingenuity to obtain in the first place.

I can’t tell you the number of people who purchased duty-free items in the airport and on the plane only to find they had to discard them at security because they exceeded the regulations. Items such as Chanel # 5 and expensive wines could not be carried on the plane. So, if the purchaser didn’t think to put them in his checked luggage, out the duty free item went.

By the way, does anyone know what the #5 stands for after Chanel? Well, it means there are five ingredients or separate fragrances in the perfume. We were actually in the place where the flowers are grown to make all the perfumes produced in France.

We also learned that originally the people who tested these fragrances were called “noses”, but now they are called something like fragrance engineers. They are only able to work a few hours a day because their noses become clogged with the scents and, if you think the life of a “nose” is easy, they sign a contract foregoing certain kinds of foods, all alcoholic beverages, no night life, no cosmetics of their own, etc. Most of them cover their noses before they arrive at work so they do not contaminate their ability to test the various fragrances.

All of this did not interest the security people of the TSA, who are very polite and courteous, but strictly adhere to their job description. So if you want to import items which are now illegal to bring in on carry-on luggage, do what the rest of the world is doing…give it to the border jumpers and they’ll smuggle it across the border for you.

Once we were on the Seabourn Legend, life took a turn for the better. Substantially better. We signed on for a cruise of the French and Italian Riviera as well as the Amalfi Coast. Among our highlights were Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily, Elba, Carthage (Tunesia) and Pompeii, the ancient city buried by the volcanic eruption of Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79.

Seabourn specializes in small ships with no more than two-hundred ten passengers and about 150 crew members. So when we approached the yacht, moored in Monte Carlo, they literally rolled out the red carpet, the blue and white canopy of Seabourn, along with cold refreshments as well as hors d’oeuvres.