Cruising the Greek Isles.

 

This was a nice break which sounds silly, but not having to wake up early for at least one day and spending time with a bit more freedom from a schedule was very nice.  Our ship is not too large, but there are 1500 guests on board so it is quite nice, but certainly not overcrowded.

Day 1 on our Cruise took us to Mykonos, an island that you normally see in the movies with its many shops and whitewashed buildings.  We took a walking tour through the maze, the town has many narrow streets and alley ways. It was very safe and not too difficult to find our way out. There are so many tourists here but Barb and I did take a walk on a small beach before returning to the ship.

         

On Day 2, we visited Turkey and the town of Kusadasi. Barb has always wanted to visit Turkey so this was a “bucket list” day for her.  It was not that important to me but I have to say, I was impressed by the town and the people.  As our tour guide says, he did not bring his camel or his fez, two stereotypes of this country. We were up early today to take a tour of Ephesus which is an archaeological site of an ancient Roman ruins that has been uncovered for many many years, and will take at least another 100 to uncover it all.  They have rebuilt some of the area with the stones and columns that have been discovered and to walk through these ruins and actually touch stones from over 2000 years ago is something that you have to experience.

We were then taken to a place where Turkish rugs are handmade and watched a demonstration of the materials like wool, cotton and silk that is used to make these incredible rugs.  We almost bought one but these are not cheap. The one we were looking at would have cost us over $6000.00 Canadian Dollars, it would last forever but thankfully our senses stopped us.  The cost is not so much about the amount of material used, but more because they are handmade and can take up to a year to produce. Very, very beautiful however.

 

The afternoon of day 2 took us to Patmos, but we stayed on the ship to just relax and swim in the pool on board.

We spent the evening with our group at dinner and for a bit of bad Karaoke, then I headed to the Casino with Barb for a bit of gambling fun. We had a good evening and came away with a little more money to spend.

Day 3 we had a nice sleep in rather than getting up early to visit Heraklion (Crete). Again it is a warm sunny day, the heat is subsiding a bit from the European heat wave but we still need to drink lots of water through the day.

Our second island on this day was Santorini where we took a tour of the Spectacular OIA Village. We drove around this island where the towns and all buildings are built on top of this island which is made up of volcanic rock. The views were spectacular.

 

There were three choices given to us to get down the cliffs from the town we were in and back to our tender boat to take us back to our ship. Walk, about 20 minutes, ride a donkey, yes ride a donkey or take the cable car.  You know of my fear of heights, but I didn’t hesitate on taking the cable car. No problem and I had a beer to celebrate when we got back on the ship.

Our last evening meal was with the entire group to celebrate the 41^st wedding anniversary of one of the couples from Australia and of course we had to try the desert at the end of another very nice meal.

Yesterday, we took a tour of Athens after finishing our cruise, to the Parthenon on top of the Acropolis. The Parthenon was built for Athena, the virgin goddess of reason and daughter of Zeus. These historic ruins are built on the highest location in Athens, where they have a regulation that no building can be taller than the Acropolis. This way you can always see the Parthenon, which is the main building on top of the Acropolis, from anywhere in the city. 

 

We also stopped to have a look at the first Olympic Stadium of the modern Olympic Games which were built in the late 1800’s.  There are many ruins in Greece and Athens and seeing some of them has been quite an experience.

 

We took a ferry boat from the port of Palma yesterday afternoon for the 23 hour trip back to Italy overnight. Not quite the smooth cruise we had through the Greek Isles, but we didn’t mind the gentle rocking which help put us to sleep early. We were all looking forward to getting back on our bus this morning and back to exploring Europe.  We will spend the next five days in Italy.

We are now in Assisi for the night.