Almost Live - Viking Sky - Journey to Antiquities - Jan 2023

[OneSixtyToOne]

6 minutes ago, Delhi Ocean Cruiser said:

Sorry I didn’t get to this until today, Feb 7. Yes the free day shifted to Monday. And when we arrived Delphi had moved to Saturday because of weather. It’s been cold a snowy in Athens. I’m glad Delphi moved—it was a beautiful day, though cool to cold. I know shifting is bothersome. But I appreciate the company looking to give the best experience for guests. On board the Sky now. Will miss our terrific host, Andreas, and guide Paris. A super team. Looking forward to the cruise portion. 

Glad you had a great day at Delphi. It’s truly an incredible site.

[springtravel]

I so enjoyed your journey and photos.  Great insight on what to expect on our upcoming trip.  

[OneSixtyToOne]

Another post script… Here are the videos of the silk spinning demonstration in Turkey.

   

 

 

And yes, we bought a rug.

Edited February 8, 2023 by OneSixtyToOne

[KTRaveller]

11 hours ago, OneSixtyToOne said:

Another post script… Here are the videos of the silk spinning demonstration in Turkey.

 

FullSizeRender.MOV 142.14 MB · 2 downloads   IMG_9868.MOV 88.33 MB · 1 download  

 

 

And yes, we bought a rug.

So interesting to see this silk weaving.  Here's a few pictures from a silk weaving enterprise in Cambodia if I can figure out how to upload.  I was there on a Road Scholar trip in December.  We saw the whole process from moths mating to tiny caterpillars emerging, then pupating and making their cocoons.  It was much more basic a setting but stunning silk scarves and other clothing came from it -- no rugs!  That natural gold color is a specialty -- just the kind of moth, I guess!  We were rafted with the Viking Mekong one day -- far more elegant but much less intimate than our 18 passenger experience with Road Scholar.  We had to go up about 4 flights of stairs to get from our little boat through the Viking ship to the street!

[OneSixtyToOne]

7 hours ago, KTRaveller said:

That natural gold color is a specialty -- just the kind of moth, I guess!

In Turkey I learned that silk won’t take a natural dye. If it’s real silk and it has any color other than the cocoon, a chemical dye has been used.

[fountainpen]

1 hour ago, OneSixtyToOne said:

In Turkey I learned that silk won’t take a natural dye. If it’s real silk and it has any color other than the cocoon, a chemical dye has been used.

https://www.advantour.com/silkroad/dyeing-of-silk-fabrics.htm  The main natural red dye in ancient China was the substance received from madder root. By the end of Han epoch Chinese also used safflower to obtain red fabrics. It came to China as a result of contacts with the West. Jinzi fruits were used for getting yellow color; ochre – for dark red, mineral dye baionma or xuanjun were needed for white.

By the Qing Dynasty (1616-1912), there were more than ten kinds of dyes used to dye textiles. The most frequently used dyes were safflower, sappanwood, bud of pagoda tree, amur cork, turmeric, indigo, gallnut and top of oak tree fruit. Among them, pagoda tree and amur cork are special East Asian plant dyestuffs.

 

Edited February 9, 2023 by fountainpen

[OneSixtyToOne]

17 minutes ago, fountainpen said:

https://www.advantour.com/silkroad/dyeing-of-silk-fabrics.htm  The main natural red dye in ancient China was the substance received from madder root. By the end of Han epoch Chinese also used safflower to obtain red fabrics. It came to China as a result of contacts with the West. Jinzi fruits were used for getting yellow color; ochre – for dark red, mineral dye baionma or xuanjun were needed for white.

By the Qing Dynasty (1616-1912), there were more than ten kinds of dyes used to dye textiles. The most frequently used dyes were safflower, sappanwood, bud of pagoda tree, amur cork, turmeric, indigo, gallnut and top of oak tree fruit. Among them, pagoda tree and amur cork are special East Asian plant dyestuffs.

 

Silk has low colorfastness, so while it can be dyed with natural colors, it will fade fast. That's why chemical dyes are used.

https://www.hunterlab.com/blog/improving-colorfastness-in-silk-products-via-spectrophotometric-color-measurement/#:~:text=However%2C silk is also one,and has notoriously low colorfastness.

[KTRaveller]

On 2/9/2023 at 5:34 AM, OneSixtyToOne said:

In Turkey I learned that silk won’t take a natural dye. If it’s real silk and it has any color other than the cocoon, a chemical dye has been used.

That's why these gold colored cocoons were so special -- and I was seeing the thread come right off the cocoons.  I don't know how long the color would last though -- even whether it was considered desirable but to me it looked like Rapunzel spinning gold!  It was hard to capture in a photo.

[KTRaveller]

On 2/9/2023 at 7:14 AM, fountainpen said:

https://www.advantour.com/silkroad/dyeing-of-silk-fabrics.htm  The main natural red dye in ancient China was the substance received from madder root. By the end of Han epoch Chinese also used safflower to obtain red fabrics. It came to China as a result of contacts with the West. Jinzi fruits were used for getting yellow color; ochre – for dark red, mineral dye baionma or xuanjun were needed for white.

By the Qing Dynasty (1616-1912), there were more than ten kinds of dyes used to dye textiles. The most frequently used dyes were safflower, sappanwood, bud of pagoda tree, amur cork, turmeric, indigo, gallnut and top of oak tree fruit. Among them, pagoda tree and amur cork are special East Asian plant dyestuffs.

 

thanks for the information -  this has been a fun thread (pun intended!)

[OneSixtyToOne]

Our rugs arrived today from Turkey. 😍

[Sleep7]

56 minutes ago, OneSixtyToOne said:

Our rugs arrived today from Turkey. 😍

Oh my!! Those are GORGEOUS!  What a great purchase!!😍

[Hobson1754]

10 hours ago, OneSixtyToOne said:

Our rugs arrived today from Turkey. 😍

They’re gorgeous - colours would have been my choice - they look so rich

[OnTheJourney]

Can't get any of the videos to play. Never have been here on CC. The little spinny icon just spins and spins...but video never starts. Guess the threads are all gone....😆

[OneSixtyToOne]

9 minutes ago, OnTheJourney said:

Can't get any of the videos to play. Never have been here on CC. The little spinny icon just spins and spins...but video never starts. Guess the threads are all gone....😆

They work for me. They are in the .MOV format. 

 

[OnTheJourney]

On 3/17/2023 at 2:52 PM, OneSixtyToOne said:

They work for me. They are in the .MOV format. 

Huh...doesn't seem to matter. Our Verizon internet is often so crappy though as to frequent interruptions, stalls, etc. during vidoes or streaming, etc. so that's probably why. I'm probably not waiting long enough. 

[SempreMare]

On 1/12/2023 at 6:59 PM, OneSixtyToOne said:

Just boarded. Lufthansa is using face recognition for boarding. No more scanning boarding passes. Just stand in front of the camera and wait for the green light.

 

Wow. 

 

When did you give them the source photograph they use for compare? 

At desk checkin? 

[OneSixtyToOne]

37 minutes ago, SempreMare said:

 

Wow. 

 

When did you give them the source photograph they use for compare? 

At desk checkin? 

They scan your passport at check-in. 
It appears to be an LAX thing.

Edited March 24, 2023 by OneSixtyToOne

[TayanaLorna]

I just read through your entire large post with all the fantastic photos.  Our Feb. 2024 cruise is a different itinerary but includes Rome, Naples, Sicily and Athens.  We live in a tropical climate and your weather discussion gave us an idea of what to pack.  The lack of crowds is a fair trade off for colder weather I think.  Have a question - was your Taormina excursion the Taormina On Your Own or the guided Taormina one?  Thanks and happy cruising.

[OneSixtyToOne]

2 hours ago, TayanaLorna said:

I just read through your entire large post with all the fantastic photos.  Our Feb. 2024 cruise is a different itinerary but includes Rome, Naples, Sicily and Athens.  We live in a tropical climate and your weather discussion gave us an idea of what to pack.  The lack of crowds is a fair trade off for colder weather I think.  Have a question - was your Taormina excursion the Taormina On Your Own or the guided Taormina one?  Thanks and happy cruising.

It was the optional Viking excursion.

[kctwinmommy]

On 1/13/2023 at 6:56 AM, OneSixtyToOne said:

Munich is a great airport. No crowds and we cleared passport control in less than 3 minutes. Much easier than connecting thru Frankfort.
 

Good to know! As I look at flights, I'm checking where the connections are. Having never flown through any of these cities as connecting flights (nor into any of them in about 30 years), not sure which is our best option. I'm actually trying to do a connection through NYC if I can.

[kctwinmommy]

Some great bits of info in here, wonderful post!! We'll be in some of these ports next year, so good pictures and info to go along.

 

We're still stuck on deciding between Pompeii and Herculaneum! I've always wanted to see Pompeii, but I hear that Herculaneum is actually better in many ways. I was thinking of looking for a private company that might be able to take us to both. We'll see though...

[OneSixtyToOne]

4 hours ago, kctwinmommy said:

We're still stuck on deciding between Pompeii and Herculaneum!

ICYMI here is my posting for Herculaneum.