were supposed to dock by 7, but the Captain made an announcement that
another ship was in our berth and we would have to wait for it to leave
as we were sitting outside the port for another 15 to 30 minutes. We
had coffee on the verandah and watched our approach as we dressed for
our 9:15 nine and a half hour tour. After breakfast, we boarded the bus
for a 2 hour ride through the desert and the mountains to Nizwa to visit
a fort built around 1660. The highways here are fantastic with 6 lane
and 4 lane divided roads that were very smooth. Our bus driver was
really going fast as we passed cars very often and the speed limit for
cars was 120 kph or 75 mph. At the fort, we had to do a lot of climbing
and Glenda made it up and down very well. After the fort, we had lunch
at the Falaj Daris hotel. It was a very nice buffet served around the
pool area. After lunch, we went to the Jabrin Castle, a typical 17th
century Imam Palace. After I climbed all through the castle (Glenda
stayed below), we took the bus to another city with an interesting water
system and beautiful fruit tree gardens all around. We also stopped at
another fort that was being restored before riding back to Muscat and
the ship. We reboarded at 5:45 and cleaned up a bit for dinner. Today
was the Captain's 50th birthday and there was a big party for him in the
Crow's Nest with appetizers and free champagne. The crowd was very
large as it is anytime there are free drinks of any kind. We had a
glass of champagne for the toast to the Captain and others just kept on
ordering more. We left at 11:50 and there was still a good crowd.
