We boarded Lindblad’s newly renamed National Geographic Endeavour in Venice and for 24 days admired ancient Roman ruins and the classics of today in nine countries: Italy, Croatia, Montenegro, Albania, Greece, Libya, Tunisia, Spain and Portugal.
Passing through the Lido Channel outside Venice, we navigated south on the Adriatic Sea and entered the Mediterranean sailing its full width west to Gibraltar and north to Lisbon.
The Romans ruled for hundreds of years in this part of the world and left their mark on all the lands touching the Adriatic, the Mediterranean and beyond. As we moved through the trip, the Roman sites became more impressive with the best in Libya and Tunisia.
We touched on other civilizations, too. The ancient Greeks and Minoans left remains in Olympia and on the island of Crete, while remnants of the Phoenicians can be found in the museum in the seafaring city of Carthage in Tunisia. There were even bits of the Ottoman Turk Empire in Albania and Greece. The Moors, originally from North Africa and Arabia, ruled present-day Spain and Portugal for 800 years and created the Alhambra, a palace-fortress that we visited toward the end of the trip. But every day of this voyage we found the Romans.
Zodiacs, rubberized boats that hold a dozen people, took us to landing sites without docks, gave us tours of cliffs and islands and served as a link to the launching pad for the several times that we could kayak or swim in the warm Mediterranean.
In addition to nearly a hundred stops once we departed from the ship, many of them UNESCO World Heritage sites, Mother Nature put on a show for us, too. Along with mostly sunny skies for those weeks at sea, we witnessed a partial eclipse of the sun in Tunisia, a sandstorm in Libya and were chased by an unlikely Hurricane Vince into the port of Lisbon in Portugal.
ONBOARD THE SHIP
Formerly known as the MS Endeavour, our expedition ship was at its full capacity of 110 passengers, plus a variety of onboard lecturers, including an American expert on ancient Rome, British and Canadian archeologists, a Mexican botanist, an American geologist and an Irish expert on the pre-history of the region. An underwater specialist periodically took photos for us from the deep, showing us what fish and other sea creatures looked like below the surface. The dining room crew is mostly Filipino and the executive chef, Richard Schager, is from Sweden. As the word expedition suggests, a trip on the National Geographic Endeavour is meant to be educational as well as fun.
TODAY’S FRESH CATCH
The longer the voyage, it seems the more important the dining becomes. And it was outstanding on this trip. The most popular lunches and dinners, according to the chef, were those that used the fresh fish, vegetables and fruit — even olives — from local markets. I always looked for the words “today’s fresh catch” on menus. If I saw that, I didn’t need to look any further down the list.
One of the evenings on the Adriatic coast the hors d’oeuvre choices were fresh Croatian oysters on the half shell and Sopska Sulata, a Dalmatian Spicy Tomato and Feta Cheese Salad. The day we were in Crete the vegetarian entree was a traditional stuffed Greek zucchini served with a fresh herb salad and creamy tzatziki sauce.
And in Libya, where there is some of the best fishing in the Mediterranean, “today’s fresh catch” was a pan-seared grouper served with a creamy risotto. In our experience, it’s rare on an expedition ship, or any ship, for the chef to so carefully match menus with our stops during the day. Here’s one last example, this time it’s a day in Tunisia. The soup is Shorba Looz, a Tunisian creamy almond soup, the today’s fresh catch is sea bream, and the meat entree is North African leg of lamb with cous cous and chickpea hummus — all local favorites.
Onboard there is open seating at all meals. Breakfast and lunch are buffets, and dinner with fish, meat or vegetarian entrees is served at the tables with always an option of grilled chicken or steak. Lunch offers generous selections of six or more salads, along with soup and a variety of entrees. Every day there is also an opportunity to have lunch outside on the main deck. Breakfasts are an array of fruits, cereals and breads with the omelet flavor and cooked cereal options changing every day.
LIBYA AND ITS ROMAN GRANDEUR
Modern day Libya is the fourth largest country in Africa with 1,200 miles of beautiful Mediterranean Sea coastline. We saw a renovated Roman villa here right next to the sea that was part of the ancient city of Leptus Magna.
Anthropologists at this site told us that there were many miles of villas on the seashore that are still buried by more than a thousand years of sand.
Leptus Magna, constructed of limestone, is considered the best preserved of any Roman city with most of the major buildings dating back to 200 A.D. We spent an exhilarating morning and afternoon here — not enough to see everything — but enough to appreciate the grandeur of a prosperous Roman city with its public baths, temples and fountains. Among the sights were the amphitheatre and the hippodrome, an open-air stadium with an oval course for horse and chariot races. Libya’s other main ancient Roman sites are at Sabratha and Cyrene, places we also visited, along with the capital city of Tripoli. Lindblad, by the way, was one of the first companies to take Americans into Libya after the U.S. embargo was lifted against travel in 2004.
OUR LADY OF THE ROCK
The tiny country of Montenegro (officially still part of Serbia) is wedged between Croatia and Albania on the Adriatic. To reach our harbor for the day we glided through a 13-mile path among 3,000-foot mountain peaks. Montenegro means black mountains. After we reached the dock at Kotor, we left for the town of Perast. It here’s that we visited Our Lady of the Rock Church on a manmade island out in the Kotorfjord that is dedicated to seafarers.
According to local legend, when a statue of the Virgin Mary was found at a particular spot, the local fishermen decided to sink more rocks and the wrecks of old boats to make an island. Before every voyage local sailors would row out and drop a new rock. The island appeared above the water line at the end of the 15th century. The church that’s on the island today was built in 1630. Additions and changes in the church have gone on until the present day. Every year on July 22, as the sun goes down, the local priest and men go out in a convoy of decorated boats and drop more rocks around the island. The women and children can only wave to them from the shore.
SCENES OF MODERN WARFARE
While tracking the movements of the Romans some 2,000 years ago, occasionally we viewed the remains of more modern wars, too. A museum in the seaside town of Dubrovnik in Croatia had a hole in the wall covered with glass to show the place where, in 1991, a missile landed during the six-month bombardment by the neighboring Serbs who surrounded the city. A local pointed out the 11th-century fountain in the old town that was the water supply for the city for many of those months.
Nearby Albania, also on the Adriatic Sea, is littered with thousands of so-called “pill boxes” — we saw hundreds in two days. They are concrete mounds that were erected during the communist era in anticipation of an American invasion in the 1980s. It was said that each of these mounds was designed to hold 15 people.
By trip’s end we all knew far more about ancient empires around the Adriatic and Mediterranean Seas, particularly the Roman Empire, than we did before. No history book is, of course, as compelling as seeing for one’s self the ruins of Roman baths, avenues and amphitheaters. Like ancient mariners we sailed these seas and in a brief, though glorious fashion, we were able to see, touch and sometimes taste all these many cultures.
INCIDENTAL INTELLIGENCE:
GETTING THERE:
Tap Air Portugal, www.flytap.com/USA/en/Homepage/, 800-221-7370. Tap Air Portugal is the primary air carrier in Portugal and a partner in the worldwide Star Alliance.
ON THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC ENDEAVOUR
Lindblad Expeditions, www.expeditions.com, 96 Morton Street, New York, N.Y. 10014, phone 1-800-EXPEDITION (397-3348). Our trip, “Epic Mediterranean Odyssey,” is not scheduled for 2006, as the National Geographic Endeavour will be sailing in the South Pacific most of the year. Other European itineraries, however, on different Lindblad ships are available in 2006.
Diana and Gene Korte are food and travel writers in Boulder, Colo. You can contact them at culinarytravelers@yahoo.com.)
(C) 2006, DIANA AND GENE KORTE DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.
