Athens

Artemison Jockey, 140 BC

We disembarked from the Cristal bright and early this morning for the city of Athens. We must be spoiled, I can't recommend the Louis Cruise Line, they just didn't seem to respond to customer needs, whether it be our dining arrangements or mixing drinks. They sat 10 of us at a table for 8, meanwhile there were 3 tables for 10 sitting empty nearby.



We used the morning to visit the National Archaeological Museum, one of the best in the world. It contains numerous pieces of stone, marble, and bronze from the 5th C BC through the 2nd C AD. The intricacy of the bronze pieces and the true to life depictions of muscles, eyes and fingers make you realize how advanced Greek art was in the 5th Century BC. To quote from "The Greek Way" by Edith Hamilton: "No sculpture comparable to theirs; no buildings ever more beautiful; no writing superior.... Little is left of all this wealth of great art: the sculptures, defaced and broken into bits, have crumbled away; the buildings are fallen; the paintings gone forever; of the writings, all lost but a very few."

Aphrodite, Pan, and Eros 1 C BC

We checked into our hotel, the Oscar and lucked out - we have a huge suite with its own air conditioner. Everyone else is complaining about the stifling heat in their room because the air conditioning was turned off weeks earlier, but we're having 70 and 80 degree weather.

This was also our day for Greek meals. We had some chicken gyros for lunch at an outdoor cafe near the museum. In the evening, we took the Metro (built for the 2004 Athens Olympics) to the Psiri region to have dinner, Greek salad and kabobs.

Crete and Santorini

We arrived at 7:00 AM in Northeast Crete, the town of St. Nicholas and took the "Taste of Crete" tour. It started at an Olive plant where we view the old methods of pressing olives. We sampled olives and a liquor made from the remains of the olive after all the pressings. Then we visited a small village restaurant where we sampled olives, cheese pie, vegetable pie, tea, cheese, and yogurt with honey. There we were entertained by 2 men in traditional Greek dress.

Dancers in Crete

In the afternoon, we sailed into the Caldera of Santorini - what a sight! From a distance it looked life the cliff was covered with snow, but as we approached, I realized it was the white-washed buildings. We tendered in to the port and then took a cable car to the top of the cliff. We arrived in time for the sunset. Our entire group found a bar and watched the sunset from there. We did a little window shopping, but the tiny streets were soon packed with people. I hate to think how crowded and hot this must be in summer. But the weather was pleasant (in the 70's) 10-20 degrees above seasonal.

Sunset from the cliffs of Santorini

Rhodes

Temple of Athena, Lyndos, Rhodes

Rhodes is a large island of 540 square miles. We started our day by driving to Lindos with its acropolis. We climbed 300 stairs to the top, even Mary made it after being sick. (Though this appears to have damaged her knee for the rest of trip.) In Classical times, it had 3 large terraces with a temple to Athena at the top, 116 meters above the sea. From the top you see St. Paul's Bay where his ship capsized. In the 14th century, a Byzantine fortress was built on the acropolis.

We returned to the city of Rhodes to tour the medieval walled city, built by the Knights of St. John in the 14th century. These are the best preserved medieval walls in Europe. Today, it is filled with shops and restaurants, but also 6000 people live within the walls. Some of the key sights are the Palace of the Grand Masters (rebuilt 80 years ago when the Italians ruled Rhodes), the clock tower and the lodge & hospital of St. John.It is very impressive walking through the walled city.

Palace of the Grand Masters, Rhodes

Patmos and Ephesus

Our ship, the Cristal, docked at Patmos

We docked about 7 AM on the island of Patmos, a 13 square mile crescent shaped island. On the top of the hill is the monastery of St. John founded in 1088. We just wandered the small village along the port with its many white washed buildings.
In the afternoon we docked at Kusadasi and made the 20 minute drive to the home of the Virgin Mary. Here is a small chapel erected where her house was. She lived here with St. John, the evangelist, for the last years of her life. Then John went on to Patmos, where he wrote the Book of Revelations in a cave, the grotto of St. John.

Mary and John at Ephesus

We went on to Ephesus founded in the 11th century BC. Most of the ruins are from the Roman period when this seaport had 25000 inhabitants. Only about 13% of the city has been excavated. We walked down the main street with its marble roadway which used to be lined with columns. We had fun with a group picture at the public latrine with its marble seats. What was amazing to Mary and I was how much restoration had been done on the library of Celsus (once the 3rd largest in the world). Rather than just 1 face, the face has statues and a room behind the facade with passages to the Agorra to the right. The statues represent Wisdom, Character, Knowledge, and Judgment.

Library of Celsus

Our last stop was the grand theatre from the 3rd century, which has been reconstructed for concerts. Here St. Paul could have preached to up to 44000 people.

Mykonos and Delos

Mary spent the day in the cabin, mostly sleeping and eating a little.

Lions of Delos

Meanwhile we arrived at Mykonos about 2 PM and took a small boat to the island of Delos. Delos is the mythical birthplace of Apollo and the real capital of the Delosian league during the 5-6th centuries BC. In its peak in the 2nd C BC, this was an international free port, home to Greeks, Romans, Phoenicians, Persians, and many other nationalities. There were temples to the Gods of all these nationalities, but the site was dominated by 3 large temples to Apollo. In 88 BC, the island was destroyed and 20,000 of the 25,000 people were slaughtered in retaliation against the Romans. The most impressive of the ruins was 5 lions of at least 9 and the mosaics in some of the houses. The House of Bacchus (god of wine) in particular had a beautiful mosaic. Under the streets was a sewer system and many of the houses had marble wells where we could see the rope marks from hauling up the buckets of water. Finally we saw the 3rd C BC Greek theatre which held 6500 people in its 43 marble rows.

House of Bacchus, Delos

We returned to Mykonos about dark and saw the windmills and narrow streets with their white and blue houses, stores, and churches.

Dohlabahce Palace, Istanbul

Our first day on the ship, we stayed in Istanbul. Unfortunately, we woke up to a rainy day, anything from a sprinkle to a downpour. Instead of going to Topaki Palace which is across the river, we decided to walk the 2 km. to Dolmabahce Palace. This palace was built between 1842 and 1853 for the sultan. It is a traditional palace along the lines of Versaille or Peterhof. We visited most of the public rooms. Unique was the crystal staircase with its crystal balustrade and big elephant tusk incense holders at the top. But the breath-taking room was the throne room or Muayde Hall. It has a dome of 25 meters and is 2000 square meters in size. The chandelier is 4 1/2 tons with 664 bulbs made from Waterford crystal.

Throne Room Dolmabahce

Unfortunately, in the midst of the tour, Mary caught the Norwalk virus and had to leave feeling sick to her stomach. We took a cab to the dock, but still had a long walk in the rain with her feeling sickly. On board, we called the doctor, she was given a short which quickly took effect. Unfortunately, she needs to say in our interior cabin for 48 hours.

Istanbul

Our Trip

Today was the start of our 14 day trip to Greece and Turkey including 6 days cruising the Greek Islands. This was Mark Guiletti's idea to celebrate the start of his retirement, but the great thing is we're going with 8 other people that we know. We're going to try out Gate1 Travel, which a few others have tried, but this will be our first experience with them.
We (Mary, Mark and I) flew from Denver to Frankfurt and on to Istanbul on Lufthansa. Good meal and Mary managed to get extra Bailey's for 'sleeping'. We met Mark, Steven, and Darcy in Frankfurt and upon reaching the Orsep Royal hotel, there were Bill and Flo waiting for us. We all went out for dinner together in a nearby restaurant to officially start our trip.
We started our Istanbul tour at the former Hippodrome, which at the time held 100,000 people. Today, only the obelisk and central columns remain. Next stop was the Sultanahmet Mosque. The interior has 17th century blue tiles and windows leading to the familiar name - Blue Mosque. The Mosque will hold 7500 with another 7500 in the courtyard.
We also paid a short visit to the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Art, a former palance which overlooks the Hippodrome. Inside are a large collection of carpets from the 17th-19th centuries and a display of typical homes and rooms across the centuries.

Interior of Blue Mosque

The Church of Divine Wisdom, Hagia Sophia, was built by Justian in the 6th century. At the time, it was the largest church in the world (today it is the 4th largest) and it's dome was an engineering marvel. In 1453, it was converted into a Mosque after Istanbul was conquered by the Moslems. Many of the frescoe tiles were plastered over bcause they depicted people. In the restoration of the church they have slowly been recovering the original tiles. An interesting feature along the walls are the marble squares, where the marble stones were cut in two and laid next to each other to form symetrical patterns.
We finished off the day at the Grand Bazaar with its over 4000 shops under one roof. We stopped for lunch, gawking at the shops, and a few of us were buying. We walked back to our hotel, and then joined our cruise ship, the Cristal in early evening. There we were met by Panos from Gate1 travel. While not a guide, he was there to help us with choosing our side trips from the cruise.