Sherry Hutt – författare

Cruise through History - Itinerary XI Ports of the Baltic Sea, the fifth book in storybooks for travelers series, is a delightful romp through one fairytale city after another.  These are stories of Viking kings and royal dynasties, competing for trade with the powerful Hanseatic League as they  fought pirates and created the walled city of Tallinn and the European city of St. Petersburg.  It is also a story of architects who designed Stockholm in the 18th century and Riga and Helsinki in the 19th century.  Walk through Copenhagen with Hans Christian Anderson and explore the Hill of Witches in Klaipeda, Lithuania, where artists defied their Soviet overlords with hidden meaning in wooden statues crafted along a walk in the woods like no other.

Cruise through History takes readers beyond guide books to tell stories that make ports along a typical cruise itinerary so special and intriguing.  Add depth and meaning to your travels, or just read the stories for all the interpersonal side of life your teachers never mentioned.  Go into homes of historic celebrities to see what motivated their legacies on the landscape left for you to enjoy.

Itinerary V of Cruise through History''s latest release, eleventh in the series, includes tales found in ports of Arabia, through the Suez Canal, along the southern Mediterranean, to Atlantic Ocean islands and Morocco. Just as travelers left the beginning of human civilization in northeast Africa and traveled west across the north coast of Africa and to islands along the southern Mediterranean, so this Itinerary follows currents west from Arabia, down the Nile, through the Suez Canal, to Malta, Mallorca, Gibraltar and out to the Atlantic. In the Atlantic cruise to Madeira, the Canary Islands of Spain and Azores of Portugal, before returning to North Africa and ports of Morocco. As this Itinerary moves from port to port, it traverses timelines from deep into the ancient era of cave dwellers of Gran Canaria to recent history, including formation of the United Arab Republic in 1970.

Meet the real Hatshepsut of ancient Egypt and the real Lawrence of modern Arabia. Be inspired by Gertrude Bell, whose maps of Iraq were relied upon by Winston Churchill in drawing the landscape of the Middle East, and the tenacious Knights of St. John in Malta. Follow antics of the angry artist, Caravaggio, who was a Knight of St. John for two months, and the devious Amaro Pargo, eighteenth century hero of Tenerife.

This itinerary begins at the Red Sea, with a Little Political/Biblical history and moves forward to ancient Arabia in Oman, before displaying the contrast of Bedouins of the Desert with modern sheikhs of the UAE, investing in the most advanced city on the planet in Dubai. The leading city of trade in the ancient world, Petra has its own story, where the ruler of Nabatean Petra, intermarried with Herod''s family in Judea and the two rulers played a game of intrigue with Cleopatra VII, that would have impressed Caesar.

Meet the Black pharaohs of the Kingdom of Kush, who united Egypt in the seventh century BCE and ruled Egypt for generations. Visit Ramesses in Luxor and Hat and Tut in the Valley of the Kings. Then solve the mystery of the Rosetta Stone, a competition between French and British scholars, as fierce as battles in this Itinerary and as great a feat as the story of building the Suez Canal.

Enjoy the Long and Strategic History of Malta and the short and infamous tenure of Caravaggio as a Knight of Malta. Peer into the Co-Cathedral of St. John in Malta, the most opulent church in the world. Then island hop to Mallorca and ports of the Spanish Mediterranean to visit Bullrings without the Bulls. Gibraltar has its own stories of heroes in the little bit of Britain surrounded by Spain. History of Gibraltar is linked to the American Revolution, when Britain made Spain an offer to trade Gibraltar for Florida.

Venture through the Pillars of Hercules, into the Atlantic and the lovely Portuguese island of Madeira, where the story is Wine, Wicker and the Women who saved the island economy with embroidery. Madeira history began in a Moroccan prison, then almost touched off a world war in 1907, when Germans came to build a health spa, that stole the view from a favorite hotel of British vacationers. In this island of flowers, visit Quintas, home of local royalty, host to royalty of the world. It is no chance of fate that Columbus came to Madeira to be inspired to discover a New World. Source of his inspiration, his mother-in-law, is its own story. End the voyage through Portuguese islands with a trip to Remote and Exclusive Azores. Discover how Dutchmen preceded Columbus to America.

End this Itinerary at the Crossroads of Trade from Arabia to the Atlantic in Morocco in ports of Tangier and Casablanca. These fabled cities preserve the Kasbah and a real restaurant dedicated to fiction in the famous movie, Casablanca. Finish the tour in the Mosque of Modern Islam, built over the sea in Casablanca. 

Enter Itinerary XV in Cruise through History stories at the northern divide of east and west at the Bering Strait and sail south through the Far East to the Wallace Line, dividing Asia from the South Pacific at the eastern edge of Indonesia. Along port stops meet cultures known to each other through trade for thousands of years yet thought exotic to westerners until the mid-nineteenth century. Meet real kings, queens, emperors, rajah and presidents, building nations ancient and modern, and mythical Righteous Princes and Queens of the Southern Ocean. In this Itinerary Dragons are real and endangered. 

Begin the Itinerary in the developing cruise port of Petropavlovsk, made possible by a Dane, Vitus Bering, at the insistence of Peter the Great. A museum and monument to contributions of a foreigner are small in this Russian outpost. His story is a chilling tribute to skill of Bering, who gave his life to map the northern reach of the world. 

 In Japan, history is a celebration of culture expressed in high art forms of haiku, raiku, bonsai and ikebana, evoking Zen balance in the Wabi Sabi of life. Enter Japanese theater in Kabuki, Noh and Doll theater. Visit Tokyo, begun as Edo by Shogun, Samurai and Ninja, until an emperor reasserted authority and built a modern nation. Visit the stunning site of ancient Jomon people in Aomori, cherry blossom covered grounds of historic castles, the fort of the last Shogun in Hakodate, the last Samurai and the opening of Japan to the world in Yokohama, at the insistence of Commodore Perry. In Hiroshima and Nagasaki view the Bomb and Modern Japan from perspectives of Japanese people.  

 Korea, caught through history between China and Japan, built its own culture from Ancient Ways to Modern Adaptations. In Busan and Jeju visit a modern tiger economy and an island preserve of natural vegetation, whose people have a comic sense of humor. Dive deep into history and culture with mermaids of Jeju. 

 In China discover the root of blended history of Asia, in the beginnings of writing, currency, drama and art. Visit Beijing, the Forbidden and Inviting City and Shanghai, the Home of Old and New China. View the recent history of Hong Kong from rocks on a beach to High Rises and Street Markets. 

 Taiwan sits at the Cross Currents of Culture. Geography placed the indigenous cultures, varied and independent, under rule by the Dutch, Japan, China and the exiled Republic of China. The story in Taiwan is a continuing search for identity in a tumultuous history.  

 In the Philippines learn of two wars known to Filipinos and not taught in the United States. Enjoy travails of election battles of two female presidents, the Steel Butterfly and the Sainted Madonna. Sail on Manila Galleons to Acapulco, beginning trade that built a Modern Tigress economy.  

The story of Brunei begins with a rogue adventurer, muse for Joseph Conrad''s Lord Jim. The little-known British Rajah of Sarawak fought headhunters of Borneo. In Brunei, the wealthiest monarch today enjoys the small domain that fended off giant nations. 

 The Itinerary moves due south to include more eastern islands of Indonesia in Java, Bali and Komodo. Java, Ancient and Modern is central to the story of Indonesia, with a wealth of ancient temples to ancestors, large Buddhist temples, cities built by Dutch in the colonial era and a modern powerhouse economy. In Bali, Balinese Aga maintain their own compass Rose of the Winds in a sea of Islam, and ancient rice cultivation, amid artist colonies and beach resorts thick with tourists. The Indonesian government battles to preserve Dragons in Komodo as it seeks to Create Unity out of Diversity in Indonesia.