Athens again

Athens is a city of 4.5 million people, the capital of Greece since the 1821 rebellion against the Ottomans. We took the standard half-day tour, starting at the 1896 Olympic Stadium built on the site of the classical Athens stadium.

Then on to the changing of the guard at the tomb of the unknown soldier in front of the Parliament Building. The honor guard is chosen from each year's new recruits (1 year of service is mandatory for all males). Those selected must be 6'1" and weigh about 196 lbs - the perfect Greek male.

Next was the Temple of the Olympian Zeus. Here the original (475 BC) Doric columns were recut to be Corinthian columns in 131 AD. Originally this temple had 2 rows of 20 columns, but most fell in an earthquake in 560 AD.

And then we climbed to the Acropolis. Mary made it to the top, even though her knee has been painful. The acropolis (extreme city) was built at the peak of Greek power in the 5th century BC, when it was Athens was the head of the 212 city-states in the Delion league. We walked through the Propylaea, the monumental entrance to the Acropolis. At the top stood the Parthenon built over the course of 42 years completed in 432 BC. It is over 240 feet long and actually would have looked too long if seen from the old city, since the hill it is built on is only 5 feet higher. So it is positioned to be seen from the sea which is 580 feet below the Acropolis. The building looks straight but it is all curves - 4 inches taller in the center than the ends, and columns that lean inward to better survive earthquakes. It actually stood through the centuries until a gun powder explosion in 1690 during the Ottoman-Venetian wars. The Parthenon was originally built to thank Athena for victory over the Persians. But it isn't clear that it was ever dedicated as a temple, instead it served as a treasury.

The other smaller building is the Erechtheum built in 407 BC over what had been the palace of the king. It was built next to an Olive tree that legend says was given by Athena, a gift of light, light from olive oil.

The group at the Acropolis of Athens

We walked into the Plaka neighborhood, where Steven was trying to find a restaurant recommended by Frommer. We finally gave up and ate at a Greek family restaurant, Sholarhio. What luck! This was the best Greek meal we had. For 5 people, we could choose 12 dishes from a selection of 18 plus ouzo, wine, and dessert, all for 12 Euro a person. It was a great place to celebrate Mary's 57th birthday.

Everyone did a little shopping on our last day. Mark Kolhour and I did a dash through the Roman Aggora and the Temple of Hephaestus, the best preserved temple in Greece from 460 BC. We managed both of these in 45 minutes before the 5:00 PM closing time.

Temple of Hephaestus at sunset

A long day, we headed back to the hotel for showers, packing and some drinks before our short night - our flight is at 6:20 AM, wake up time at 3:00 AM.

All in all, it was a good trip. While we were disappointed with the cruise line itself and some its crazy itinerary - I wouldn't have missed Ephesus, Rhodes, and Santorini. The highlight was the days spent in Greece, extra time to explore Athens and the 4 day road trip to Olympia and Delphi. And, of course, it's always fun to do this with friends.

Kalambaka

View from our hotel window to the Meteroa

We're visiting the 14th century monasteries sitting on top of the "suspended rocks" in the Meteora area of Greece. Our first stop was St. Stephen's monastery built in 1300, burnt in 1941 and then rebuilt. It is a typical Greek Orthodox church with a Narthex for those yet to be baptized, the Nave (boat) with a dome above (heaven) and a sacristy hidden by a wall of icons and finely carved wood. The whole church is covered with icons. The Narthex was quite gruesome showing many martyrs and the last judgment. The Nave was filled with stories from the New Testament especially the Transformation and the Resurrection. An interesting belief is that the face of Christ in all their icons is based off the Shroud of Turin and the face of Mary from an icon painted by St. Luke.

St. Stephan's

We also visited the Monastery of St. Barbara with a similar church but the icons were the originals from the 14th century. There are 4 other existing monasteries and ruins of several others.

In the afternoon we traveled the 400 km. back to Athens and ended up having dinner about 9:30 PM, just like the Greeks. In all we've traveled 1400 km. in the last 4 days.

Delphi

It is believed that 6 temples have been built at Delphi, 3 of wood and 3 of stone. Why here, on the face of a mountain? The temples were built over a spring of methane gas, thus the priests who consulted the oracle were intoxicated. The last temple was built in the 4th century AD, after which Christianity took over from the Greek Gods. We entered an agorra, a market place where you could buy your offering after traveling long distances. Along the way were a series of statues, followed by the treasuries of the various city-states of Greece. All were made of local stone, except for the Athenian treasury which was made of marble. Then came the largest building, the temple of Apollo, of which only a few columns remain. Since there are both Greek and Roman ruins here, we learned to distinguish them by the columns: ridged and in layers connected by lead or brass are Greek, smooth and all in 1 piece are Roman. We also visited a theatre above the temple and then the stadium for the Pythian games with stone seats built in Roman times.

Athenian Treasury

The museum had many unique pieces. There was a Sphinx from 570 BC influenced by Egyptian art, the twins of Agros, a fine ceramic bowl of Apollo (480BC), and the Center of the Earth marker from the temple. Mythology talks about 2 eagles being released by Zeus in different directions around the world and they met at Delphi - the center of the Earth. The best piece was a charioteer at the moment of winning the Pythian games, made of bronze with eyes of enamel and ivory. It is so lifelike that you can see the muscles and veins of the hand.

Charioteer

In the afternoon, we drove to the region of Thessolonia, mostly through the mountains, which cover 60% of Greece, and then a large flat plain with lots of agriculture. As has been true in all of Greece, the skies are filled with smoke and smog. Apparently, this is because of the warm weather we've been experiencing which has winds from the South.

Olympia

Olympia, of course, is the home of the Olympics which were held every 4 years from the 8th century BC until the 4th century AD. Before and after the Olympics was a 6 month period of peace between all the city-states of Greece. Only Greeks could compete, but anyone including slaves and foreigners could watch the games (except for married women). The area was dominated by the temple of Zeus (460 BC). The East portal depicts the chariot race of Pelops and the west portico, the battle of Lapith and the Centaurs, both of these are in the museum. Second to the temple of Zeus is the temple of Hera (his wife) where the Olympic Torch is lit. Most of these temples were destroyed during an earthquake in 526 AD. We also saw the remains of many of the training rooms, the circular Philippcon, and a 5th century church, built here to signify the end of the Greek gods. Lining the way to the stadium are 16 bases of Zanes (statues of Zeus) paid for as a fine by the men and their towns who cheated at the games, only 16 cheaters in 1200 years. The stadium itself has grass rather than stone seats, because the Olympics were held at the full moon of August in the heat.

Results of 526 AD earthquake on Temple of Apollo

The museum here was superb with bronze offerings from the 9th century BC, the porticoes, the Nike of Paionios (the sculptor) which celebrated the victory of the Messenians and the Nasapactians over the Spartans, and a beautiful statue of Hermes. Sculpted by Praxiteles, he was the first to use human features to depict the gods in 340 BC.

Hermes with baby Dionysos

In the afternoon, we began our drive to Delphi, stopping in Patra to see the Basilica of St. Andrew.

Athens to Olympia

We collected people across 5 hotels and then headed into the countryside. Our first stop was the Corinth canal built in 1892 to connect the Aegean and Adriatic Seas, it is 4 miles long and 25 meters wide.

Lions Gate Mycenae

Then we visited Mycenae, a fortress palace built in 1300 BC. This site was explored by archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann in 1876. The Lions Gate had been exposed for centuries, but was mistakenly assumed to be of Venetian origin. Schliemann, who had already discovered the city of Troy, began digging behind the gates discovering 5 of the 6 royal graves eventually found in the grave circle. Mycenae was built with huge stones, some weighing 18 tons. In the 5th century BC, the Greeks couldn't build with stones this big, so they created the legend of the Cyclops to explain these walls. Nearby is the tomb of Agamemnon, a beehive tomb (shaped like a beehive inside) which has been preserved since 1350 BC.

Beehive tomb of Agamemnon

We had lunch in the port town of Nafplio which has a fortress in the middle of the harbor. Next stop was the Theatre at Epidourus, which seats 14000.

We spent the next 4 hours driving through the mountainous country with many hairpin turns arriving in Olympia well after dark. The hotel, Europa, was top notch with beautiful rooms and a courtyard leading to the pool.

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.