Italian Cruise 2021 - Day 7

Friday, 10/22 - Pisa

I don't remember where we had breakfast on this day. Possibly in the Taste, one of the main dining rooms, since our excursion didn't leave until after noon. Or shortly before noon. We started off with a long bus ride to get to Pisa.

We were there to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa, but the bus didn't take us all the way there. It took us to a bus parking lot near the edge of town, where we switched to a 'train'. It was an open air vehicle, as the small cars didn't have any windows in the window slots. And it didn't operate on rails; it used rubber tires like a car. I am reminded of 'trains' that the Shriners and some other organizations use in parades, only the one we rode in wasn't painted so brightly.

The train was packed rather tightly as it drove us through the city streets and deposited us about a block from the Tower. We hadn't gotten a glimpse of the Tower as we approached, as it is located in a religious complex, and there were some large buildings between the streets and the Tower.

There we were met by the specialist guide, who led us through another open market selling trinkets and souvenirs until we could see the Tower from a particular angle. It looked to be perfectly straight up and down. I wondered if engineers had actually managed to correct its leaning proclivity, but as soon as we changed our position, it became clear that the Tower had been leaning right at us. That gave me a little bit of a chill.

We walked a quarter of the way around the Tower and listened to the guide tell us all about the history of the Tower, and the efforts made to make it cease leaning. When the guide continued to walk on, directly away from the Tower, and around the church, John was busy trying to get a good picture of the Tower. I wasn't even sure he was aware we had continued on, and as the minutes ticked by, I began to wonder if he would ever catch up to us. But eventually he did. I still don't know if he got the picture he wanted.

For some reason, this church had been built in two pieces; the main portion with the pews, which we were not allowed to enter, and then a round or octagonal piece several yards away, which we were also not allowed to enter. But the guide filled our ears with 'interesting' facts about the church, like pointing out that the details carved into the 40-foot tall doors got larger and more exaggerated as they went up the doors, so that they could be seen by those standing on the ground. And a lot of other facts that I can't remember now.

Then we walked around the other side of the main portion of the church, and were soon looking at the 'backside' of the Tower. Now she told us that the Tower actually has a bit of a bend to it, as the architects tried to compensate for the leaning by adjusting the length of the pillars as they went around the outside of the Tower. But she got me confused when it seemed she said the pillars were longer on the side that was on the 'top' side, which would have made the lean worse. Consequently, even when she took us to a position 3/4 of the way around the tower, I could not see the bend that she kept trying to point out. My brain was confused, and my eyes would not cooperate.

Finally, she took us back to our starting point, where the Tower once again seemed to be standing up perfectly fine, right after telling us all that if it were to lean just a few more degrees, it would come tumbling down!

Well, I was ready to leave. So we walked most of the way back to the 'train stop', where we were given half an hour to go in the restaurant, use the bathrooms, visit the gift shop and get some snacks, if we wanted. But please do not wander on our own. Well, somebody got the memo that tourists were not to wander around on their own.

As we all collected in a group across from the restaurant at the end of our half hour, some merchants from the market came over to try to sell us things. The guide finally got a count to make sure she had all of us, and took us back to the train, which took us back to the bus.

Traffic on the bus ride back to the boat was horrendous, and at least once came to a complete standstill as emergency vehicles made their way past us. It took us much longer to get back to the boat than it took to get to Pisa, and we were beginning to get worried that we wouldn't make it back in time, but we did. Later than we expected to get back, but we got back in time.

I'm not sure where we ate that night. It might have been the Irish pub in the middle of the casino, which seemed to have some of the best food on the ship. But their menu didn't change from day to day, so I guess they got lots of practice with what they made.

We didn't have any excursions the next day, but we were still pretty worn out, so we went to bed.

Italian Cruise 2021 - Day 6

Thursday, 10/21 - Pompeii

Now these blogs will become a little hazy, because despite my best efforts, I didn't get a chance to write on them while we were still on the ship. Consequently, I'm working from old memories, and I probably don't remember a lot of detail.

On Day 6, we visited some city (I didn't catch the name, I was still worn out from Rome.) and Pompeii. I dozed during the bus ride to the city, and don't remember much until we stopped in the city limits, the bus stopping in a bus parking lot just long enough for everybody to get off, and then it scooted off somewhere else. Then we walked 4 or 5 blocks to our first stop. You guessed it, cobblestones, but at least we had sidewalks to walk on, and didn't have to share the roadway with the vehicles.

They took us inside a big furniture shop, where we were given a lecture about how difficult it was to do inlay. There were probably dozens of ways the worker could mess up during the process and have to start all over again. Their inlaid furniture was absolutely beautiful, but I was afraid to brush up against any of it, for fear I'd have to buy it.

Then they gave us half an hour to walk around and see a little bit of the city. (I was surprised by this, because didn't the government object to us tourists walking around on our own?) Anyway, there was an ice cream shop across the street, and I was still tired, so John bought me an ice cream cone and let me sit at one of their outside tables while he wandered a few blocks away. He came back having bought a small bottle of lemon liquor, which is a known commodity in this city. It still sits, unopened, on our kitchen counter, having made it home with us. Well, we don't drink much, and not very often, but it will be taste-tested one of these days.

Then we all gathered together and walked back to the parking lot, where our bus waited for us. We were off to see Pompeii!

There is a modern Pompeii built up around the excavations. I didn't expect that, but I'm not sure why. The excavations are a tourist attraction, after all.

After the bus parked, we had to walk about 3 blocks, and about half of that distance was through an open-air market, past booths that sold all sorts of trinkets and keepsakes. But before we got to see ancient Pompeii, we were taken into a small shop, where we got a 3-minute lecture on how cameos are created. I knew about as much about the art form coming out as I did going in.

There was a pizzeria attached to the cameo shop, and we were given about half an hour to get ourselves something to eat and drink, if we wanted any. At the end of that time, our 2nd tour guide showed up, the group split in two, and we were off.

We entered ancient Pompeii through the gladiator school. It was, I have to admit, the cleanest, well-kept and greenest spot in the town, having a grassy spot in the middle arena. Of course, if that's where the gladiators practiced their fighting, it probably didn't have much grass growing there back in Roman days.

After that, everything was cobblestone or gravel and dust. We saw one of Pompeii's auditoriums, and our guide discussed the ingenious way they constructed it so that all the audience could hear what was said on stage. Then we were taken through a narrow alleyway to a street.

It was obviously a street, complete with raised sidewalks. All cobblestone, and big stones, at that. The guide tried to impress upon us how much shorter people were 'back then', and I couldn't help but wonder how they ever managed to cross the streets, because the difference between street level and sidewalk was about a foot. I wasn't the only one who needed help getting up and down every time the guide decided to cross the street!

She paused to tell us that Pompeii was a dusty town, and every time it rained, the streets became muddy rivers as the water rushed down the hills and out of town. Then we walked to the corner, where this street crossed another, and 3 big blocks semi-blocked the street, stretching from corner to corner, while other blocks crossed the others corners of the intersection. So it wasn't necessary to cross the street in the middle of the block, you had the option of walking to the corner and walking across these stepping stones. But there wasn't a lot of room between them, and I wondered about horses threading their way between them. Also, it meant all the carriages and carts had to be a standard distance between wheels, or the vehicle would never get between those stepping stones!

So we walked all over ancient Pompeii for weeks (or so it seemed). Despite my efforts to 'get into shape' for this excursion, and no matter how close I was to the guide when she started walking again, I would always wind up at the end of the group, trying to keep my balance and keep track of where the group was headed.

Near the end of the tour, we visited the 'red-light' district of town. Back then, the method of attracting the attention of potential customers was to howl like a wolf. This is where some of the best kept murals in town were found, a series of 7 or 8 pictures showing various sex positions. That way, a visitor who didn't speak the language could merely point to a picture to indicate what he wanted.

One of the last places we visited was a series of semi-buildings that were being used to store what had been excavated. In those, we saw 3 plaster casts of people who had been covered in volcanic ash. The cast of the small child actually had a bar between the legs for support, and thus made me think of a body cast.

Then we were headed out of the ancient city. It didn't take long for the guide to leave me behind again. I found myself at the top of 2 sets of stairs going in opposite directions, and I had no idea where I was supposed to go. Thankfully, John had heard her say, "Just keep turning left.", so we did that until we got to the gate and got out.

So, I was sort of disappointed in my exploration of the ancient town. I wish I had been in even better shape, but I am not a fast walker, and my balance isn't the best, so I'm not sure I could have kept up with the guide anyway. And while we got to see the 'summer' master bedroom and the 'winter' master bedroom in one house, I'm not sure why they needed 2 bedrooms. As always when it comes to excavations, I am always interested in the daily life of the people who lived there. Much more interested in that than in holiday festivities and religious rites. Or who knows, maybe the guide went into that sort of thing when I was trying to keep my balance and not get lost.

And then we had to wait for the other group to join us outside in the marketplace. Then we retraced our steps to the bus and were taken back to our ship.

I think that was the night we ate at the Moderna, a Brazilian Steak House. If you've never been to one, they had a 'salad buffet', which had more than salads. Then when you returned to your seats and were ready for meat, there was a card you turned over, and various waiters came around with chunks of meat on skewers. If you wanted lamb, you told that waiter, and s/he would carve some off for you. Chicken drumsticks, pork, beef, just tell them you wanted some, and they'd deposit it on your plate.

John tried everything. I guess I wasn't paying much attention until I finally got a filet mignon deposited on my plate. I cut into it, and... I swear it mooed! Okay, maybe not, but it did bleed. I caught the attention of the main waiter, and explained that I liked my meat well done, so was there anything we could do about this bloody piece of meat? I expected them to take it back and let the cook show it to the flames a few more times. And maybe they did. I can't say, because what came back looked much different than what they took away.

But I liked their cocktail so much, I had 2 of those.

Our excursion the next day was not until the afternoon. But we were tired, so we were soon setting our alarms and going to bed.

Italian Cruise 2021 - Day 5

Wednesday, 10/20

Rome

Walking til the cows came home

Another breakfast in the buffet, at about 6 am, because most of the restaurants didn’t open early enough to let us eat and get to the auditorium on time. I had one skinny little omelet, 4 pieces of bacon, 2 slices of pineapple, and some orange juice. I dawned on me that I wasn’t eating much, but honestly, nothing else appealed to me.

Rome is not a port city, it was located about 70 km from the port. It took us about an hour to reach the city, where the guide immediately started pointing out churches, the old city wall, important buildings, while the driver took the bus off the highway and through progressively skinnier and skinnier streets. Eventually, the bus stopped, and we all got off, were introduced to the woman who would be leading us through town and to the various sights we would see.

First was a famous fountain, but to get there, we had to walk about 45 minutes through very narrow streets over cobblestone sidewalks where the stones were not necessarily sturdy, some of them wobbled as you walked on them. We were given about 15 minutes to admire the fountain, and then we were off again.

Walking, walking, walking, until we reached a ‘new!’ monument, only 100 years old. According to the tour guide, nobody liked it because it was the wrong style, and didn’t fit in with its surroundings. Here we were given a few minutes to take some pictures of this unliked monument, and then we were off again.

We could see a bit of the coliseum from that monument, 3 or 4 blocks away, and that was where we were headed next. On the way there, we walked past excavations of pieces of ancient Rome, and the lady guide occasionally stopped to tell us about one or another. Otherwise, I would not have managed to keep up.

We reached the Coliseum about noon, and had to show our vaccination cards and go through a security check point to get in. We were about to climb a couple of staircases to the third floor when Philip, the tour guide from the bus, gathered a group of about 6 who were having trouble keeping up, and took us to the elevator to go up to the 3^rd floor. I found out later that the coliseum originally had 28 elevators in it, each operated with weights, ropes and the muscles of 40 slaves to transport them up and down. These days, the coliseum only has 1 elevator, or, technically, 2; 1 to go up only, and 1 to go down only.

On the 3^rd floor, we reunited with the group, and walked past various displays explaining the history of the coliseum. After the games were discontinued, it became homes for the poor, and sometime after that, the rich moved in, making homes for themselves. The footing we were walking on was not very smooth, and I was rapidly losing my capacity to pay attention to the voice in my ear. (Each member of the group had been issued a small radio and an ear phone, so the tour guide did not need to bellow for us to hear her.)

The same small group that took the elevator up was peeled off to take the elevator down with Phillip, while the rest of the group followed the woman around the 3^rd floor of the coliseum. When we met up again, the group was headed for the Forum. But Phillip took pity on 3 fat old ladies (myself included) and took us to a small ‘snack bar’ about a block away, where we sat and cooled off and had a drink. After a while, Philip took us to the bus, which had relocated to be closer, and a few minutes later, the rest of the group appeared and rejoined us.

This time when we got off the bus, we walked ¾ of the way around a city block to get to a restaurant. We went inside and down the stairs to what appeared to be an ‘event’ room, where we all took seats. This was around 2 in the afternoon. We were served some pasta and bread to start with, and the wine was opened. John told me it a dry wine, so I didn’t bother to get any. The 2^nd course consisted of some sliced beef and French fries, and neither one of us can remember if there was anything else. Dessert was a wedge of two-toned gelato (ice cream). Certainly nothing to write home about. The meat was so bland, it reminded me of my mother’s cooking, and not on a good day. We were, to put it mildly, disappointed in the meal.

Then we had one more thing to see, and that was the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City. Vatican City, it turned out, was just the other side of the street, but once we crossed that street, we still had to walk 2 or 3 blocks to skirt around the edge to an entrance. After giving us a short talk about the chapel, and pointing out where we would meet, we were given 15 minutes to snap pictures and shop. John bought a magnet from the shop and 4 bracelets from a street vendor. I found a stone to sit on and waited for the tour guides to take us back to the bus.

Finally, it was time to go, and the bus was around 4 or 5 blocks away. I was beginning to think the walking would never end. But we finally reached the bus, and bade good-bye to the lady tour guide.

I had dozed on the drive into Rome, but dozing was beyond me on the way back to the ship. It was horrifyingly fascinating to watch the drivers in Rome. Philip had already mentioned that Romans park wherever they liked, and there was certainly plenty of evidence of that! Vehicles were parked with mere inches between them, and sometimes perpendicular to the rest of the cars parked there. Or double-parked. Motorcycles were parked on the islands between lanes. It struck me as madness.

I am left with a definite impression of Rome as a dirty city. Graffiti was everywhere, but I kept telling myself that it was a time-honored tradition, because the coliseum had had lots of graffiti dating all the way back to the early days of its existence. Some of the ‘dirt’ was probably leaves that had fallen off the trees (it was the latter part of October, after all) and been trampled into something resembling dirt. But everywhere I looked, there were bits and pieces of paper scampering about on the breeze. 

Italian Cruise 2021 - Day 4

 Tuesday, 10/19 - Sardinia

Lots of wine and cookies

The next day was another shore excursion on another island. The island was Sardinia, part of Italy. We got up and had breakfast, and went to the theater to wait for them to send us out to the bus. We drove through the port city on narrow streets, looking at various buildings and ‘points of interest’. At one point, we drove up a hill and stopped to take pictures. On one side of the bus was the ocean and some salt ponds. We were told that these salt ponds were no longer used to produce salt, that was all done on the other side of the island, but these were maintained for the benefit of the flamingoes and 230 other bird species that use them.

After a few minutes, we were back on the bus, and headed out of the city. A farmer in a local village would welcome us into his house for some folklore, traditional clothing, music and refreshments. We arrived at the farmer’s house, in the middle of the village, at about 1. We were joined by a 2^nd tour group, so quite a large gathering in the courtyard.

There was a small group of performers. One man played the accordion. Others played an ancient instrument consisting of 3 pipes of different lengths. The longest one had the deepest sound, and needed to have air blown through it consistently. We were told that, starting as a child, they were taught to practice that constant blowing by blowing into a straw into water while breathing normally. One of the men did a short demonstration with a mouth harp. Most all the performers sang the songs, and at least 6 performers participated in the dancing.

Generally, we got a short history lesson of the song or dance about to be performed, and then they performed a song and a dance. Then they would tell us about the cookies they were handing out, and the wine being poured. Then another song and a dance, then another type of cookie and wine. There were, I think, at least 6 different cookies and wines served. By the time we were getting ready to leave, at 3, everything above my ears felt slightly fuzzy, but I made it back to the bus and thus to the ship.

We had a reservation to see one of the stage shows at 7:30. It was an interesting and entertaining show, but had its confusing moments, too. A dress made of flip flops? I guess I don’t hang out in the LGBT world enough to understand. Or maybe that was pertaining to ‘high fashion’? Certainly I think some aspects of high fashion are hideous and not functional.

Afterwards, we went to supper, I’m not sure where. Possibly we tried to go to the Manhattan, but we didn’t meet their dress code, so we went down one deck to the Taste. Unfortunately, we were seated in the chandelier area, which was quite noisy, so talking was next to impossible.

We knew the next day would be a long excursion (10 hours), so we went to our cabin and went to bed.

Italian Cruise 2021 - Day 3

Monday, 10/18

Shore Excursion on Palma

Having gone to bed so early, we were a bit surprised to wake up still tired, but we shuffled our way to the buffet and had some breakfast. I thought the scrambled eggs looked good, but as usual with buffet scrambled eggs, they were still a little runny. Not enjoyable. I don’t like food that isn’t well done. I got some other stuff, too, from potatoes to fruit, and some orange juice. What I really wanted was a cola, for my morning batch of caffeine, but I didn’t get any.

We went to the auditorium and waited for them to call our excursion. We got there about half an hour early, so it took them a while, but eventually, it happened. They sent us down a long black corridor and at the end of it, crew members put a sticker on our shirts that had a number on it, and we were sent down to the gangplank, where crew members scanned our room keys to note that we were leaving the ship.

Outside, there was a long line of buses waiting. A crew member took a final look at our tickets and said, “30. Your bus is at the end of the line. So we trotted off, taking him at his word, headed for the last bus. We had almost reached it when one of the tour guides stopped us. “Wait, wait, you just went past your bus,” and pointed to the sign sitting on the dashboard, instead of the sign at the top of the bus. Sure enough, the dashboard sign of the 4^th bus from the end said ‘30’, and the title of our excursion. So color me pink with embarrassment as we went back and presented our tickets. Then we climbed aboard and found seats. Before long, we were on our way.

I don’t remember the name of the port city, but the island was Palma. It’s part of Spain. While the tour guide pointed out some buildings for us to look at, and told us some of the city’s history, the bus driver weaved his way through narrow streets and up a hill to the castle at the top. After the bus was parked, we were given about 20 minutes to walk back to the front of the castle and take pictures. There was a long staircase to get from the road to the castle. I opted not to tax myself by climbing all of them, but John went up and took pictures. I started to get worried as the minutes ticked by, wondering if I would have to race up the stairs to find him and drag him back to the bus. But he showed up, and we got back more or less on time.

Then the drive back down the hill, and through some more narrow streets, past more homes and churches. Then the bus stopped at the corner of modern thoroughfare, and we all got off. We walked about a block and then crossed the busy street, paused to hear some history of the building in front of us. Then we walked for about 2 days, uphill, on cobblestone sidewalks to get to the center of town. Or if not the center, then a downtown section of the city. Many important government buildings were pointed out to us, which John dutifully took pictures of.

At one point, the tour guide pointed out an old olive tree in the square that was purported to be 800 years old. It had a very interesting shape, which I would have loved having pictures of, in case I ever felt inclined to paint a portrait of a strangely shaped tree. But John never thought of taking pictures of it, and by the time I thought of suggesting it, we were off and walking elsewhere.

A block or 2 later, we paused to compare architectural details of 2 buildings. One of them was under renovation, and we had to stand about the base of the scaffolding. When we started off again, one of our group stepped forward to go through the scaffolding, only to trip over a bracing bar. He got back up, and those of us around him wondered if he was okay, but he wasn’t bleeding. So we hurried on, sometimes sharing the half-lane street with vehicles or delivery trucks.

Eventually, we came to a building which the guide called a market. Think of a mall, only instead of store fronts, it was full of booths of all sizes, selling all sorts of things, including meat and produce. We were given half an hour to roam among the booths before we gathered back together. In that time, the man who had fallen and his wife had found a pharmacy and bought some antiseptic ointment and a couple bandages for his banged-up shins, so he was a little more inclined to shake off the experience.

Once we had all rejoined the group, the guide took us inside, up the escalator to the 2^nd floor, and to a special event restaurant, where they served us a traditional meal of Palma, complete with wine. It was very good, though the wine was a little too dry for my taste. (I like soda-pop wine.)

After a filling meal, I wasn’t looking forward to walking any great distance, but it turned out we only had to walk about 3 blocks to get to our bus, which had changed location and was waiting for us. A quick trip back to the pier, and we were boarding the ship.

John went to the hot tub. I laid down on the bed and rested. In years past, I would have fallen asleep, but not this time. I’m proud of myself. I may not have made it to the hot tub, but at least I didn’t fall asleep.

We had a reservation at the Japanese specialty restaurant that evening. The type of place where they cook the food on a big grill right in front of you. This place included making the fried garlic rice on that grill, which was a fun addition. They used about a pound of garlic butter making the fried rice. Our drinks package allowed us to get mixed drinks that were $15 or less, and this restaurant had 2 cocktails on their menu, so we each got one, and then tasted each others.

Anyway, I opted for the filet mignon, well done. I usually tell them to ‘burn it, stomp on it, and burn it again’, because I’ve had ‘well done’ meat that was still mooing. But John begged me not to add those instructions, for fear the chef might actually climb on the grill to stomp on it. So I quietly asked for it to be cooked well done, and wasn’t the only one to ask for that, so there!

When he got around to cooking the filet mignon, especially the well done portions, the chef added butter and soy sauce to the meat. So when I got to eat it, it was soft and tasty, not hard and cardboardy. I’ll have to remember that trick if I ever decide to cook meat at home.

After we ate, we went back to our room, took our evening pills, checked our tickets for the next day’s excursion, set our alarms, and went to bed.

Italian Cruise 2021 - Day 2

Sunday, 10/17

During our flight to Barcelona, I got woke up rather rudely as the lights were turned on and the flight attendants handed out breakfast. The yogurt was okay, but not a kind I would have picked. Much thicker than I’m used to, but at least it was fruit flavored. After breakfast, they turned the lights back out.

By now, John had opted to use the empty seat next to us, and I was sitting next to the window. Despite having only gotten about half an hour of sleep, I couldn’t go back to it. As the sky lightened as dawn approached (or were we approaching it?) I watched the Spanish landscape pass by under us. There were entire valley systems that were full of fog, which lent the view an eerie look. Some were so large, they looked like seas.

Then we flew out over water, which surprised me. I thought Barcelona was land-locked. Apparently not.

The Barcelona airport is big, with long halls to walk and many hoops to jump through. There was a bottle-neck as our passports were checked. More walking. More walking. Another bottle-neck as our Spanish health forms were checked. John’s sailed through. I don’t know what the problem was with mine, but I must have stood there for 2 full minutes before they sent me on.

Find our luggage. This was at least an hour after the plane landed. Somebody was collecting suitcases from the carousel as ‘unclaimed’. Eventually, John found our 2 suitcases, and we put on the luggage tags for our cruise. More walking.

Finally, we saw somebody holding up a sign for a cruise line. Not the one we were looking for, but ours was standing not too far away. That person directed us to another cruise employee, who was taking luggage and sending it to the ship. After standing around for a few minutes, they took us upstairs and outside to ‘go to the bus’. We walked a couple blocks. The breeze felt nice. Then into a building and down 2 floors to get tested for covid. We were told about this, but thought it would happen at the dock.

Half an hour later, we got on the bus to the ship.

We didn’t have our boarding documents that had supposedly been sent to us, but they were ready for that. They took our passports, found us in their system, gave us our cabin keys (and gave our passports back), and sent us on our way.

At last, we walked onto the ship. Our first chore was to find our muster station, in case of emergency, but that muster station was, for us, right inside the entrance. So while we were there, we booked reservations for a couple shows. Then we went to The Taste, one of the main dining rooms, to get some lunch. John got a pork chop, and I had a philly cheesesteak sandwich. Both came with fries. John finished his meal, but I was so sleep-deprived, I could only eat half of mine. My body didn’t want food, it wanted sleep. And fluid. I did manage to drink 4 glasses of cola and 1.5 glasses of water. John drank about the same. We felt semi-revived after lunch, so went and found our cabin.

Our cabin was so small, it was lilliputtin-ish. The bathroom had been split up, with the toilet in a tiny closet on one side of the entrance, and the shower on the other. There was a curtain that could be closed to separate that piece of the room from the rest of the room. Beyond that, a curved closet resided on the right, the sink, a counter and cupboards on the left. A double bed presided over the rest of the cabin, with–I’m guessing–less than a foot of clearance on either side of it. So, not a lot of room to move around in.

Our luggage had not yet shown up. John unpacked the carry-on suitcase and we took our morning pills. We hadn’t managed to take our evening pills the night before, but it was far too late to worry about that.

John went out to explore the ship, and I lay down and stared at the ceiling. After a while, I got up and unpacked my carry-on bag–mostly–and then I got on the phone and checked on our specialty dining reservations. We had forgotten when they were at, and didn’t want to miss them. Then I glanced through the shore excursion tickets, just to do something. Uh oh. According to my count, we were missing one ticket for one excursion, and both tickets for another. So I shoved them back into the envelope and trotted down to the shore excursion desk to check into it.

The shore excursion desk was busy. I expected that, so I got into line, as requested. Others apparently didn’t realize there was a line, and got help before me, but eventually I got up there, and took all the tickets out of the envelope to explain the problem. Turned out 2 of the tickets had been stapled together and I hadn’t noticed. So that missing ticket was solved. Then as I sorted through the rest of the tickets, I realized I had pairs of tickets for every port we would hit. All was well with shore excursions. Obviously, my brain wasn’t functioning well. More laying on our bed, not sleeping but resting as best we could, and still no luggage.

Eventually, we went back to The Taste for supper. John had Atlantic salmon, and I had baked zita. I was so tired, I only wanted comfort foot. We admired the 3-deck tall chandelier in the middle of the restaurant and went up to the buffet on deck 15 to have a 2^nd dessert.

Then it was back to our cabin. Our luggage had shown up. We quickly unpacked–mostly–and then gave in to our fatigue. After checking our tickets for our shore excursion the next day, we set an alarm to wake us up. With an inside cabin, there would no chance of sunlight seeping in to wake up. And especially at 6:30 am, so we set an alarm or 2 and thankfully sank into some much-needed sleep.

Italian Cruise 2021 - Day 1

 Okay, we were ready. Or thought we were.

Our suitcases were packed. The dog was at the kennel. We got up at 7:30 on Saturday, Oct 16, to make sure we got to the airport for a 2:56 pm departure for Miami. We left the house about 10:30, got the car parked, and got on the shuttle. It was about noon. There was, of course, a line at the airline counter, but otherwise, things were going as expected.

Until we got to the ticket booth. I handed her our passports, our vaccination cards and our print-out regarding our flights. Then; “Have you got your health form for the Spanish government?”

My jaw dropped. “I know nothing about such a form. I was never told I needed any kind of form for Spain.”

Well, such a form was necessary. Such a form was mandatory. The clerk wrote down the website on my flight information and asked me to step aside and go to that website on my phone and fill out the forms, and come back when I had the QR codes we would receive by email.

My phone! Use the internet? Check my email? I don’t use the internet on my phone; I use it for phone calls. And text messaging.

No choice. So for an hour, I stood in the middle of a busy airline ticket center, trying to fill out a form to get permission to land in Spain. First, I filled it out for a family, thinking that would be simpler (I was wrong). I filled it in for John, then went on to give it my information, skipped through the sections for 5 children, and… it wouldn’t let me go on until I filled in those sections! So I went back to fill out individual forms. Fill in the information for John, and… It told me a form for him already existed, and I should click on ‘Continue with Forms’, a button that I could not find. Tears streamed down my face as I started tearing out my hair.

Okay, not quite that bad, but I was getting pretty frazzled. It was going on 2. The crowd had dissipated. Finally, the ticket clerk came over to help and filled out the forms on her smart phone, then printed them out so I would have them when we got to Spain. She got us our boarding tickets, took the luggage we were checking in, and sent us on our way. I never even got her name. She was my hero, that day.

Next, the security line, which was long. We took out our electronics and put them in a bin. Emptied our pockets and put our extra glasses in a bin. Took off our shoes to put in a bin, was told not to use a bin. I had to take off my belly bag, and couldn’t put it in a bin, either. I told the guard I had artificial knees, and he waved me over to the big, 360 degree x-ray machine, which I expected. Then I got patted down. What was the purpose of the x-ray machine? John doesn’t have any artificial parts, but he got waved over to the x-ray machine, and got patted down as well. Apparently, what was good for the goose was good for the gander.

It was approaching 3, and they were hollering at us to get our stuff and get out of the way. John told me to grab my stuff, and run for the gate, he’d catch up. The overnight case fell open, and he had to shove stuff back into it. I shoved the computer and 2 kindles into my bag (only the computer had come out of it), shoved my phone in my pocket, grabbed my phone and ran for the tram to the concourse I needed. It was crowded, and I didn’t get a chance to get my shoes back on. As I hurried down the long hallway towards Gate 58, I heard them calling our names to report to the gate, the plane was about to leave. I got there and shoved our tickets at them, had to remind them to give back the attached tickets to get us to Barcelona (Spain). Then I turned around to see where John was.

He was coming. He handed me the glasses I had forgotten to pick up. He didn’t have his shoes. They couldn’t let us on the plane without shoes. I sat down and put on my shoes, but all his other pairs of shoes were in his checked luggage, not his carry-on. We had a plane to catch in Miami in order to get to Barcelona. What were we to do?

A man said he could give John a pair of sandals, size 12. John told him they would be a little small, but he’d take them. After looking through all his family’s carry-on pieces, the man didn’t have his size 12 sandals and apologized. At that time, a younger man approached with a pair of flip flops, which he offered John, who accepted gratefully, and we got on the plane. I have the impression we were not the last ones to get on that plane, but I can’t swear to that.

We found our seats, sat down, buckled up, sighed in relief and hoped the worst was behind us. John had lost his shoes to the conveyor belt at security. We could hope to reclaim them when we returned to Orlando. At some point, John realized I wasn’t wearing my belly bag. Another item lost to the security check point. Another thing to hope to reclaim when we returned to Orlando.

The items in my belly bag included my flash drive and my driver’s license. Luckily, our passports were in my carry-on bag, so I still had a form of ID.

We arrived at Miami without further incident. While John made use of the rest room across the hall from our arrival gate (D20), I discovered that we had 2 hours to reach our departure gate, D4.

We had had an early breakfast, but no chance to grab anything to eat or drink in the Orlando airport, and nothing had been served us during the ½ hour flight to Miami. We had 2 hours. Surely we could find something to eat in the Miami airport, couldn’t we?

Luck smiled on us. Directly across from our departure gate was a tiny Cuban restaurant, so we got something to eat. We had no clue if anything would be served to us during the 9 hour flight to Barcelona, so we ate while we had the chance, and it was good. I rather wished I had gotten 2 empanadas. I opted to munch on pretzels I had packed as a snack. Between the relief of finally being on our way and the introduction into our systems of much needed food and drink, we were feeling pretty decent.

John likes an aisle seat in a plane, but we were assigned seats A and B, which were the window seat and the middle seat, so he took the window seat. Surprisingly, nobody showed up to claim the aisle seat, but we were in the air before I realized it was going to remain empty.

After about an hour of flying, the flight attendants served drinks. And then supper. I opted for the vegetarian pasta, John had the chicken and rice. There were a lot of other things included; a bottle of water, a small salad, 2 large crackers, a wedge of cheese, a roll and a dessert bar. We ate it thankfully and finished our sodas, keeping the bottles of water for later.

After dinner, the cabin lights went off, as it was presumed everybody would sleep through the flight. There is 6 hours time difference between Florida and Barcelona, and it is an 8-hour flight. We left between 6 and 7, and would arrive in Spain between 8 and 9 (both local times.) But according to my watch, we would arrive at about 2 am. Anticipating a long, busy day the next day, I tried to sleep. I really did. John ‘rested’, but probably didn’t get much sleep. It wasn’t until my watch said it was 12:33 that my body decided, ‘Okay, it’s time to sleep.’

We would arrive in Barcelona in approximately 2 more hours, but I got a few minutes of sleep.

Jurassic Park Period Part 7

 Fauna - All the rest of it

 Insects and arachnids - There appears to have been no major extinction of insects at the Triassic–Jurassic boundary. Many important insect fossil localities are known from the Jurassic of Eurasia. The diversity of insects stagnated throughout the Early and Middle Jurassic, but during the latter third of the Jurassic, origination rates increased substantially while extinction rates remained flat. The increasing diversity of insects in the Middle–Late Jurassic corresponds with a substantial increase in the diversity of insect mouthparts. The Middle to Late Jurassic was a time of major diversification for beetles. Weevils first appear in the fossil record during the Middle to Late Jurassic, but are suspected to have originated during the Late Triassic to Early Jurassic. The oldest known lepidopterans (the group containing butterflies and moths) are known from the Triassic–Jurassic boundary. Modern representatives of both dragonflies and damselflies also first appeared during the Jurassic. Although modern representatives are not known until the Cenozoic, insects thought to represent primitive relatives of modern fleas are known from the Middle Jurassic of Asia. These insects are substantially different from modern fleas, because they lack the specialized morphology and they were larger. The earliest group of stick insects first appeared during the Middle Jurassic.

Spiders diversified through the Jurassic, and several long names of species or orders were given in the article. But to me, a spider is a spider. The oldest member of the family Archaeidae is known from the Middle Jurassic of China. Mongolarachne from the Middle Jurassic of China is among the largest known fossil spiders, with legs over 5 centimetres (2 inches) long. I know I've seen granddaddy longlegs with longer legs, but maybe they are not true spiders. It's been a long time since I had the opportunity to count their legs.

Birds - The earliest avialans (birds and their ancestors) appear during the Middle to Late Jurassic. There are some examples from China that have been postulated to have been birds, but have alternatively been found to be a separate lineage of another group of animal altogether. So not only were there birds, but also animals that may or may not have been birds.

Mammals - Mammals originated from cynodonts at the end of the Triassic. Cynodonts were a group of creatures that measured up to 1.5 metres (4.5 feet) in length, and that did include a tail. They may have eaten roots, insects, eggs, and possibly even small or infant dinosaurs. As mammals, they diversified extensively during the Jurassic. While most Jurassic mammals are solely known from isolated teeth and jaw fragments, exceptionally preserved remains have revealed a variety of lifestyles. Some were adapted to aquatic life, similar to the platypus and otters. Some members had a patagium akin to those of flying squirrels, allowing them to glide through the air. One aardvark-like mammal was likely a specialist on colonial insects, similar to living anteaters.

Early relatives of monotremes first appear in the Middle Jurassic of Gondwana. The monotremes are a group of highly specialized egg-laying predatory mammals, containing the platypus and echidnas. There are only five living species of monotreme, contained within two families.

Therian mammals, represented today by living placentals and marsupials, appear during the early Late Jurassic, represented by Juramaia, a mammal closer to the ancestry of placentals than marsupials. Juramaia is much more advanced than expected for its age, as other therian mammals do not appear until a later period.

Two groups of non-mammalian cynodonts persisted beyond the end of the Triassic. One ate insects and has a few records from the Early Jurassic. A herbivorous group of cynodonts has abundant records from the Jurassic, overwhelmingly from the Northern Hemisphere.

Sounds like life was all over the planet, much like it is today. Possibly not quite as diverse as it is today. If we could keep the herbivores out of our crop fields, it might be possible to colonize. And we should be able to hunt, to put meat on the table. I'm a little worried about that, though. If we killed the wrong mammal, would we disrupt the evolutionary trail that would result in humans?

Well, we'd never know about it. There's millions of years between the Jurassic Period and the development of anything resembling humans. There's several possibilities here, that I see. Either our colony would thrive, establishing a new timeline of humans on Earth. By the time 'modern day' came around, we may have taken off for outer space. In which case, we would either all leave and Earth would be devoid of humans. Or not everybody left, and the civilization continued strong, so Earth would have humans, even though it was a mixed-up mess as to how we evolved, showing up so abruptly in the Jurassic. Or at some point, our little piece of civilization would sputter and die, and there would be no humans any more, and who would be here to miss them? Or our civilization would die, and humans would evolve, lending a whole new meaning to the term 'Circle of Life'.

Okay, so we'll take a vote. Everybody in favor of settling down here in the Jurassic Period and establishing a colony, say 'Aye'.

Jurassic Park Period Part 6

 Fauna - Amphibians & Land Animals

Amphibians - The Early Jurassic Prosalirus is thought to represent the first frog relative capable of hopping like living frogs. Recognizable frogs like the South American Notobatrachus are known from the middle of the Jurassic. Although salamander-like amphibians are known from the Triassic, salamander ancestors first appeared during the Jurassic.

But most of the land animals mentioned were dinosaurs. Dinosaurs had morphologically diversified in the Late Triassic, but experienced a major increase in diversity and abundance during the Early Jurassic after the extinction of other reptile groups, becoming the dominant vertebrates in terrestrial ecosystems.

Theropods - Theropods are a group of dinosaurs that had hollow bones and 3 claws on each appendage. They first appeared in the Late Triassic. One group, called the Neotheropoda, persisted into the Early Jurassic. The earliest 'bird snout' members of the averostrans appear during the Early Jurassic and continue throughout the rest of that period and the Jurassic. Most theropods were carnivorous, although the unusual Limusaurus of China had a herbivorous diet, with adults having beaked jaws, making it the earliest known theropod to have converted from an ancestrally carnivorous diet. The Coelurosaurs first appeared during the Middle Jurassic, including early tyrannosaurs such as Proceratosaurus. The scansoriopterygids was a group of small feathered coelurosaurs with membraneous, bat-like wings for gliding, and records have been found from the Middle to Late Jurassic.

Ornithischians - This refers to an extinct order of mainly herbivorous dinosaurs characterized by a pelvic structure superficially similar to that of birds. Hence they were called "bird-hipped", or Ornithischia. However, birds are only distantly related to this group, as birds belong to the theropod line of dinosaurs. The Ornithischians included those known as "horn-faced", such as Triceratops, and the armored dinosaurs such as stegosaurs and ankylosaurs. There is strong evidence that certain groups of ornithischians lived in herds, possibly segregated by age. Some were at least partially covered in hair- or feather-like pelts, and there is much debate of whether these pelts may have been primitive feathers.

The earliest definitive ornithischians appear during the Early Jurassic. The earliest Ankylosauria and Stegosauria appear during the Middle Jurassic. At least some ornithischians were covered in protofeathers.

Sauropodomorphs - Sauropods are a group of "lizard-hipped" dinosaurs. They had long necks and tails, small heads and 4 huge, pillar-like legs. They became the dominant large herbivores in terrestrial ecosystems during the Jurassic. Some reached gigantic sizes, becoming the largest organisms to have ever lived on land. Bipedal sauropodomorphs continued to exist into the Early Jurassic, but went extinct by the beginning of the Middle Jurassic. Quadrupedal sauropomorphs were a hold-over from the Late Triassic. One type of quadrupedal from the earliest Jurassic of South Africa reached an estimated weight of 12 tons, far in excess of other known sauropodomorphs.

So it appears there were lots and lots of dinosaurs ambling across the landscape. I know I earlier said we would pause to look at some of the better-known dinosaurs, but I didn't realize how many episodes the Jurassic Period would take, just to give it this brief look. So I've changed my mind, and the next episode (all the rest of the fauna) will finish up the Jurassic Period before I go on to the next time period in the history of the Earth. Later on, when I've finished the Earth's prehistory, I'll find a time to take a look at various species of dinosaurs, so keep watching, because I'll get to them!

Jurassic Park Period Part 5

Fauna - Fish

I don't have as much information on the fish of the Jurassic as I had on the reptiles. So this blog might not be as long. But we'll see.

Conodonts - This is a class of jawless fish that had hard tooth-like elements. They were mentioned in the article I consulted only because they died out during the Jurassic, although not all over the globe at the same time. They had over 300 million years of evolutionary history, but only a handful of species made it into the Jurassic, and those went extinct early in the period. So they wouldn't have been plentiful in the oceans, but there might have been some, depending on what time during the Jurassic period a person was looking.

Sarcopterygii - This is a fancy name for lobe-finned fish, a class of fish whose fins are attached to their bodies by a single bone. This includes several genera of lungfish, which lived in freshwater environments in both hemispheres. Some of those lungfish are fairly closely related to lungfish now living in South America and Africa, rather than those living in Queensland. And there were some living in Asia that are not closely related to any group of living lungfish. Another group of this type of fish were the Mawsoniids, which are completely extinct now, but which lived in the oceans or fresh or brackish water.

Bony fish (Actinopterygii) were major components of freshwater and marine ecosystems. Among these were the Amiiform fish, which are represented today only by the bowfin, an elongated, eel-like creature with sharp, pointy teeth that live in slow-moving fresh water. During the Jurassic, the Amiiformes became fairly global. The pycnodontiforms were small to middle-sized fish with laterally-compressed body and an almost circular outline. They lived mostly in shallow-water sea. They had round and flattened teeth, well adapted to crush food items. Some species lived in rivers and possibly fed on molluscs and crustaceans. Although they had a large variety of representatives during the Jurassic, they are all extinct now. Teleosts, which currently make up over 99% of living Actinopterygii, appeared during the Triassic and underwent a major diversification during the Late Jurassic. The Pachycormiformes are a group of fish closely allied to teleosts. They first appeared in the Early Jurassic, and included both tuna-like predatory and filter-feeding forms. This included the largest bony fish known to have existed, with an estimated maximum length over 15 metres (45 feet).

Chondrichthyes - are fish whose skeletons are mostly made of cartilage, rather than bone. During the Early Jurassic, Hubodonts, which appear to have been primitive forms of sharks were common in both marine and freshwater settings. However, by the Late Jurassic, hybodonts were minor components of most marine communities, having been largely replaced by neoselachians, which contains all living sharks and rays. Hybodonts remained common in freshwater and restricted marine environments. Relatives of the bullhead shark, carpetsharks, and mackerel sharks all made their appearance during the Jurassic. There were also other examples of extinct and relatives of now-living sharks mentioned, so I would suppose that shark-like creatures were a regular feature in the oceans.

So there were plenty of fish in the seas.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jurassic

Jurassic Park Period Part 4

Fauna - Reptiles

During the Jurassic, dinosaurs came to dominate the animal world, but they were not the only type of animals. The first birds appeared, evolving from a branch of theropod (hollow-boned) dinosaurs, to share the skies with pterosaurs, the dominant flying vertebrates. Lizards made an appearance and have been with us ever since. Therian mammals evolved, meaning creatures that gave birth to live young, and that includes marsupials. Crocodylomorphs (which eventually gave rise to modern crocodylia, but not during the Jurassic) transitioned from a terrestrial to an aquatic life. The oceans were inhabited by marine reptiles such as ichthyosaurs and plesiosaurs.

This is a lot of ground to cover (so to speak), so I'm going to start in the oceans and work my way to land and sky.

The Triassic/Jurassic extinction event decimated crocodile-like reptilian diversity, with crocodylomorphs (which originated during the last half of the Triassic) being the only group to survive. Even the herbivorous aetosaurs died out. [Can you imagine if they had survived, and we had vegetarian crocodiles raiding our gardens?] The diversity of crocodylomorphs during the Early Jurassic was about the same as those of the Late Triassic, but they occupied different ecological niches.

A group of predominantly marine crocodylomorphs became a prominent part of marine ecosystems. Within that group, some became highly adapted for life in the open ocean, including the transformation of limbs into flippers, the development of a tail fluke, and smooth, scaleless skin.

Turtles - Turtles (Testudinata) diversified during the Jurassic. The Jurassic turtles are believed to have formed 2 more advanced groups, the Mesochelydia (which were aquatic), and the Perichelydia. There are 2 modern groups turtles (the Testudines), which are terrestrial and had diverged by the Middle Jurassic. The Thalassochelydia is a diverse lineage of sea turtles, and is known from the Late Jurassic of Europe and South America.

Lepidosaurs - The tuatara is a reptile native only to New Zealand, and is the sole living representative of the Rhynchocephalians, which had achieved a global distribution by the beginning of the Jurassic. The Rhynchocephalians occupied a wide range of lifestyles, including the aquatic pleurosaurs with long snake-like bodies and reduced limbs, the herbivorous eilenodontines, and the Oenosaurus, which had broad tooth plates indicative that they ate creatures that were hard-shelled or had an exo-skeleton, such as corals, shelled mollusks and crabs. Rhynochocephalians disappeared from Asia after the Early Jurassic. The last common ancestor of living squamates (which includes lizards and snakes) is estimated to have lived around 190 million years ago during the Early Jurassic. Squamates first appear in the fossil record during the Middle Jurassic and included early members of a snake lineage. However, many Jurassic squamates have unclear relationships to living groups. Eichstaettisaurus from the Late Jurassic of Germany has been suggested to be an early relative of geckos and displays adaptations for climbing.

Ichthyosaurs - The Ichthyosaurs suffered an evolutionary bottleneck during the Triassic/Jurassic extinction event, with all but one group of them becoming extinct. Ichthyosaurs reached its apex of species diversity during the Early Jurassic, including the huge apex predator Temnodontosaurus and the swordfish-like Eurhinosaurus. However, Early Jurassic ichthyosaurs were significantly less morphologically diverse than their Triassic counterparts

Plesiosaurs - The Plesiosaurs originated at the end of the Triassic Period. At least 6 lineages of plesiosaur crossed the Triassic-Jurassic boundary, so they were already diverse in the Earliest Jurassic. Early plesiosaurs were generally small-bodied, with body size increasing later. There appears to have been a strong turnover as the middle of the Jurassic Period began, with the extinction of 2 groups that had been widespread, and the first appearance of the Cryptoclididae group, which became the dominant group of the latter half of the Jurassic. During this time, the thalassophonean pliosaurs, which had ancestrally been small-headed and long-necked, evolved short necks and large heads. Some species, such as the Pliosaurus, had skulls up to 2 metres (6 ft) in length, with body lengths estimated around 10-12 meters (30-36 feet), making them the apex predators of Late Jurassic oceans. Small-bodied plesiosaurs also invaded freshwater environments during the Jurassic, as shown by remains found in freshwater sediments from China and Australia.

Pterosaurs - Pterosaurs first appeared in the Late Triassic, but a major group of Jurassic pterosaurs is the Rhamphorhynchidae, which first appeared in the Early Jurassic. They ate fish. Another group, the Anurognathids, first appeared in the Middle Jurassic. They had short heads and densely furred bodies, and were probably insectivores. Short-tailed pterodactyloids first appeared in the at the beginning of the Late Jurassic. These include the ctenochasmatids, which have closely spaced needle-like teeth that were presumably used for filter feeding. The Late Jurassic Cycnorhamphus had a jaw with teeth only at the tips, with bent jaws like those of living openbill storks, that may have been used to hold and crush hard invertebrates.

Some of these animals could be found on land, as indicated in the above paragraphs by what they ate. But I'm fairly confident that they had branches of relatives living in the oceans. I am sorry for the use of huge tongue-twisting names, but there were so many names, I would have gotten completely bogged down trying to describe the various species.

There you have some of the reptiles that lived in the oceans and other waterways. This has been a long post, so I am going to end it here and take up fish next time. Yes, there were fish in the waters, too.

There will not be a quiz on the names used in this blog. Class dismissed.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jurassic

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crocodylomorpha

Jurassic Park Period Part 3

Flora

And now, let's move on to living things, such as plants. There's a lot of ground to cover, so to speak, so let's get to it. There is no evidence of a mass extinction of plants at the Triassic/Jurassic boundary, although some species did decline or even die out in some areas.

Conifers form a dominant component of Jurassic floras, when they underwent a major time of diversification. Most modern conifer groups appeared by the end of the Jurassic.

The oldest definitive record of the cypress family is from the Early Jurassic and were found in Patagonia (the southern area of South America). By the middle of the Jurassic, the cypress were abundant in warm temperate-tropical regions of the Northern Hemisphere.

Ancestors of the current pine family were widely distributed across Eurasia during the Jurassic.

The flora of the mid-latitudes of Eastern Asia were dominated during the Early Jurassic by a broad leafed conifer which shed its leaves seasonally, and which is not closely related to any living family of conifer. It extended northwards into polar latitudes of Siberia, and then contracted northward because of increasing aridity of the region.

Evidence of the yew family have been found in Sweden, England and China dating from the Middle Jurassic. They appear to be closely related to modern yew specimens.

Ginkgoales—which today has only one living specie, the Ginkgo biloba—were more diverse during the Jurassic, and were among the most important components of Eurasian Jurassic flora, adapted to a wide variety of climatic conditions.

Bennettitales are a group of seed plants that reached a peak diversity during the Triassic and Jurassic periods. Although they bear some resemblance to cycads, they are not believed to be closely related to them. All Jurassic Bennettitales grew as shrubs and small trees, and were adapted to grow in open habitat with poor soil. They also had flower-like reproductive structures that are thought to have been pollinated by insects.

Cycads reached their apex of diversity during the Jurassic and Cretaceous (which comes next) periods. Although this era is sometimes called the 'Age of Cycads', cycads are thought to have been a relatively minor component of Jurassic flora. Their foliage is often confused with that of Bennettitales and other plants. Cycads are thought to have been mostly confined to tropical and subtropical latitudes.

There are no widely accepted Jurassic records of true flowering plants, and fossil evidence suggests that the group diversified during the period following the Jurassic.

'Seed ferns' is a collective term to refer to fern-like plants that produce seeds but have uncertain affinities to living seed plant groups. One prominent group of seed ferns reached their zenith during the Jurassic and was widespread in the Northern Hemisphere, although records in the Southern Hemisphere are rare.

Another group of seed plants are known from the Late Triassic through the Jurassic to the Cretaceous. They are thought to have been tree- or shrub-like, and formed a conspicuous component of Northern Hemisphere Mesozoic temperate and warm-temperate floras. Another group of seed plants called the Pentoxylales, first appeared during the Jurassic, but appear to have been confined to Gondwana.

Many living families of fern were widespread during the Jurassic period. The Polypodiales ferns, which make up 80% of living fern diversity, have no record from the Jurassic and are thought to have diversified later, during the Cretaceous.

The oldest remains of modern horsetails first appear in the Early Jurassic. I could have sworn I heard mention of horsetails in earlier periods, but those must not have made it to modern times.

The Cyatheales, the group containing most modern tree ferns, appeared during the late Jurassic.

Quillworts that are virtually identical to modern species are known from the Jurassic onwards.

Various mosses have left fossil records from the Jurassic and are believed to be related to modern mosses. Several records of liverwort have also been found from the Middle Jurassic.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jurassic

Jurassic Park Period Part 2

Paleoclimate

Climate during the Jurassic was approximately 5-10 degrees C (41-50 degrees F) hotter than present time, with atmospheric carbon dioxide likely 4 times higher. It's likely that forests grew near the poles, where they experienced warm summers and cold, sometimes snowy winters. It is unlikely there were any ice sheets, as the high summer temperatures would have prevented the accumulation of snow, although there may have been mountain glaciers. The ocean depths were likely 8 degrees C (about 46 degrees F) warmer than present, and coral reefs grew further north and south by 10 degrees of latitude There were probably large areas of desert in the lower latitudes.

The beginning of the Jurassic was probably marked by a thermal spike corresponding to the eruption of the Central Atlantic magmatic province. This was followed by the Early Jurassic cool interval between 199 and 183 million years ago. ('Cool', of course, is a relative term.) Then came a spike in global temperatures of around 4-8 degrees C (39-46 degrees F) during the eruption of the Karoo-Ferrar large igneous provinces in southern Gondwana, which lasted from 183 million years ago until 174 million years ago.

During this long temperature spike, the ocean surface temperatures likely exceeded 30°C (86°F) and all the land mass between 30°N to 30°C were likely extremely arid, with temperatures in the interior in excess of 40°C (104°F).

There was an episode of widespread oceanic anoxia that is often attributed to the eruption of the Karoo-Ferrar large igneous provinces and the associated increase of carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere. This event had significant impact on marine invertebrates, but little effect on marine reptiles. During this time, the Sichuan Basin (of southwestern China) was transformed into a giant lake, 3 times the size of Lake Superior. Seawater pH dropped to its lowest point around the middle of this event.

This was followed by a (relatively) cool period between 174 and 164 million years ago, which was followed by a warm interval between 164 and 150 million years ago. During this warm interval, the land mass interior had less severe seasonal swings than before because the expansion of the Central Atlantic and the western Indian Oceans provided new sources of moisture to moderate the temperature. The end of the Jurassic was marked by another cool interval, which began 150 million years ago and continued beyond the end of the Jurassic.

I recently saw someone on social media poo-pooing concern over the climate changing. As they put it, the climate has been changing for millions of years. And they are right, it has been. What they fail to take into consideration is that mass extinction events have been happening for millions of years, AND the climate changes of the past have not occurred as rapidly as this one. If we want to survive this climate change, we need to use the brains we have.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jurassic