Home Sweet Home!

As our adventure comes to an end, I can't help but comment about our first "group trip".   We couldn't have possibly had better traveling companions in our group of 22.  By the end of the trip, we felt as if we'd made new friends and we hope they were able to return to their homes safely.   Will we take this type of trip again?   I guess the answer to that one would be, if the destination is safer and easier to do in a group, SURE!   But, we're not ready to trade in our free spirits just yet! 

Our flight from Amsterdam couldn't have been better.  We had booked two aisle seats in the center of 3 seats in the middle of the plane.   After boarding, Richard asked the stewardess if there was a possibility that the middle seat wasn't booked.   She smiled and said the flight was over sold and there wasn't a chance.  We patiently waited for our traveling companion to board, not wanting to get too comfortable and buckle in.  When the doors to the plane finally closed, the stewardess walked past us and smiled and gave us the thumbs up!   She said there was one empty seat on the plane....how lucky are we?


Nine hours and three movies later, we land in Memphis, TN, then on to Muscle Shoals international airport!  We arrived home around 9 p.m. after having been up for 28 hours, and our dog was standing at the door to greet us!


Two days later we're both still a little shaky and disoriented.  But the bags are unpacked, the lawn is mowed, and the Pflueger Odyssey continues!   We'll be packing up again in two weeks.....stay tuned!

Amsterdam

Just as they said, the wake up call came at 1 a.m.!!!   We actually were asleep (with some help) at 8:30 p.m., so we got up feeling rested.  Our shuttle left the hotel at 2 a.m. and we arrived at the airport around 2:50 a.m.   Our flight on KLM was great!!  We managed to get a window and aisle seat with an empty seat between us.  We both slept most of the 3 hours to Amsterdam.  We decided to check our bags so that we could be free to discover Amsterdam.   While packing last night, we put everything we didn’t need in the checked luggage.    Richard had been to Amsterdam 25 years ago and said he was there for 7 days and it rained every day.   That went in one ear and right out the other.  Duh!   We’d not seen any rain for the past 15 days and it had been HOT!!!    After we landed, we took the train to the Central Station.   The weather was…..cool (60ish) and RAINING, and our umbrella and raincoats were in our checked luggage.   After walking around awhile, we ducked into a sidewalk pastry shop and ordered a coffee.  We began talking with the shop owner and his wife and asked them where we could buy an umbrella.  She quickly went to the back room and came out with an umbrella and said, “here, you can have this one”.   We couldn’t believe it.   She said that someone had left it there and that we were welcome to it.   So, we ordered a pastry and sat and visited for awhile.  We didn’t want to press our luck, so we headed back to the train station (with the umbrella).  After arriving back at the airport, we found a young oriental couple that were leaving the airport and we offered them our umbrella.  They seemed surprised, but gladly accepted it, smiled, and thanked us.   So we’re sitting here at the gate in Amsterdam, awaiting our 8 hour flight to Memphis.  More later, pending a safe arrival back in the U.S.A.!!!

Meteora/Athens

Today is our last day and the group seems to be happy to be ending the trip. This has been a good holiday but as usual, we’re ready to get home. Hurricane Irene is presently impacting the North Carolina coast and moving northward so we’ve been closely watching the weather on the east coast. As expected, we learned this morning that our flight from Amsterdam to Boston had been cancelled! We tried to contact Delta/KLM online, but the website wouldn’t allow us to change destinations outside the northeast U.S., and they were all shut down because of the storm. We were thinking that if we could get a flight to Atlanta, things would work out well. Then, we found a local number in Greece for Delta/KLM. When nobody answered, we found out that they only work Monday – Friday. This was Saturday morning! Plan B was to wait until we got to Athens and either go to the airport and try to change our flight or to purchase an international SIM card and call the 1-800 Delta number. When things like this happen, it makes you really appreciate all the 24/7 services we have in the U.S. We sometimes forget that the rest of the world isn’t like this. You may get someone from the Philippines when you call, but at least they answer the telephone. There is some comfort and speaking to a live agent.




While in route from Meteora to Athens, Maria, our tour leader used her cell phone to call the Athens airport and got someone from KLM on the phone for us. When we asked about a flight to Atlanta, we were told that there were no seats available. Although the agent was helpful, she basically only answered yes or no and, not being familiar with U.S. geography, was unable to make any suggestions. After several rounds of questions and receiving “No”, I finally found out that there was a direct flight from Amsterdam to Memphis! We would stay on our original 5 a.m. flight from Athens, and would not depart Amsterdam until 2:10 p.m. What luck! We dropped one leg of our journey and we now had time to leave the airport an see Amsterdam (at least for 2-3 hours) and still connect with our original flight from Memphis to Muscle Shoals at get home by 8:40 p.m.!!!!


Needless to say, we were much more relaxed on the remainder of our long bus ride to Athens. After checking into our hotel, (Hera Hotel), we visited the Plaka and flea market in Athens. Tonight was the farewell dinner and we were scheduled to have dinner with our fellow ship mates (from the “other” group). However, our wakeup call was scheduled for 1 a.m. so we opted to skip the dinner and try to get a few hours of sleep.

Kalambaka/Meteora, Greece

We departed Delphi and on the way to Meteora we stopped at the famous battle site of Thermopalye (recently depicted in the movie 300). Although the site is no longer a seaside location due to siltation it was interesting to see the actual location and to learn that there were also 700 Thespians who died along with the Spartans who get no credit in the media.

The Meteora Hotel is on the outskirts of town and has an excellent view of the rocks made famous by monasteries built alongside and atop them. We spent the late afternoon at the pool.  The next morning (Friday 8/26) we toured two of the six remaining active monasteries. 

The group was split up into 8's and were taken to the home of a local family and treated to dinner.  It was a very special evening and we were made to feel like family!

Delphi, Greece

This morning we toured one of the most prominent archaeological sites in Greece.  Everything you learned about Greek mythology in childhood comes to life here!  Delphi was believed to be the center of the world in antiquity.  The cult of Apollo in Delphi began around 800 B.C. and went on until the end of Roman times--for more than a thousand years!  The sun was shining today and it quickly became very hot!  We opted to stay in Delphi while our travel companions went to a restaurant outside of town for lunch.  Although the Greek food is wonderful, after 8 days in the country, we opted for a change and ordered a "Greek" cheese and fresh tomato pizza!  After lunch we visited the antiquities museum in Delphi and then returned to the hotel.

Piraeus, Athens, Arachova, Greece

Tuesday, August 23rd, we arrived in Piraeus, the port of Athens.  The previous night the Captain advised that we would have "moderate to rough seas".   We slept very little.  We kept thinking about how we would get out if we capsized and what we would use for flotation since all the life jackets were stored on the top sun deck in a locker.  We were scheduled to dock at 6 a.m., but it was almost 8 a.m. before we docked.

The two OAT groups split up as we disembarked.  We are scheduled to meet up again in Athens for dinner on the last night of our trip.  Since our time in Athens was very short, our group decided to spend a couple of hours at or near the Acropolis, on our way to Arachova.  We decided to walk around the Plaka since we had been to the Acropolis in 2002.  We sat down at a sidewalk cafe' and enjoyed a delicious chocolate and banana crepe.  Yum!


Afterwards, we drove about 2 hours to Arachova (after lunching at a quaint roadside restaurant in the country).  Arachova is about 2500 feet above sea level and is a beautiful little mountain village.  Its high season is during the winter ski season.  It reminded us of Murren, Switzerland.  Our hotel (Hotel Anemolia) sits on the side of the mountain with a spectacular view of the mountains.   This is a completely different atmosphere than the Greek isles.  After checking into the hotel, we walked back to the village to explore.  There were lots of photo opportunities around each corner you turned. 

That evening we were given a Greek cooking lesson from the chef at the hotel.  We learned to make Moussaka (layered eggplant, potato, zucchini, ground beef/sausage, topped with a Bechamel sauce that made an excellent crust), Spanakotiropita (cheese and spinach pie), and Tzatziki (yogurt, garlic, cucumber, oil and vinegar).  Our reward was that this became the appetizer for our dinner.  After dinner we managed to Skype with folks at home.  With an 8-hour time difference and poor internet connections, communication with home has been rare.

Syros, Greece

We arrived early morning in Syros, the capital of the Cyclades. We took a morning walking tour of the town with Maria and the group and then broke away from the group for some exploring on our own.  There were a couple of interesting churches.  These were nice stores selling produce, pastries, etc.  We bought several bars of olive oil soap.  This island is different from the rest in that it is not a tourist destination.  Most of the stores closed at 3 p.m.


Most of the afternoon was spent resting and packing for tomorrow's departure from the ship.  The Captain's farewell toast was in the evening, followed by yet another delicious dinner.

Naxos, Greece

Jan said the crew had a rough time docking this morning (2 a.m.), but I slept through it. Naxos is the largest of the Cyclade Islands and is less touristy. We docked right at the main town and it is a convenient walk to shopping, taverns, etc. Coffee was a little weak this morning but only a comment to Eko and he prepared a fresh pot of good coffee. One of the good things about small ship cruising is that the crew and captain are very accessible. They will always take time to talk with you. The chef is very nice and you can sign up to receive copies of recipes that you like.


We took a guided walk along a hill town about 15 minutes from the harbor. It was a nice walk and good to get out into the countryside. We visited an ancient quarry and found an unfinished colossal statue of a man that was from around 600 BC. Jan and I volunteered to walk behind the group to catch any stragglers (at Maria’s request). I would not make a good tour group leader.


We returned to the ship and took a nap, after having two restless nights. I never know if it’s called going back to bed or taking a nap if it’s before lunch. Oh well, we got up in time for lunch. Again, it was a wonderful meal. After lunch we headed out own our on to explore the island of Naxos. We walked along the harbor and quickly found the old city which consisted of narrow, winding, walkways and beautiful old buildings. We have taken lots of pictures of interesting doors on this trip!


For dinner we were taken to the home of a Greek family. They told us that the feast they prepared for us was a typical dinner. They fed 23 people. The appetizers were cucumber, tomatoes, and pepper salad, grilled zucchini and peppers, boiled potatoes and zucchini with olive oil and lemon, spaghetti and meat sauce, green beans, cheese, something that looked like quiche, and other things that I can’t remember. The main course was roasted chicken and potatoes, and dessert was more cheese, watermelon, and cake. Their home was lovely, just as they were.


When we returned to the ship, several local folks dancers came aboard and entertained us with song and dance. They managed to get most of us up to dance with them. We’ll keep those photos out of the blog!

Mykonos, Greece

Our itinerary was changed last night because of excessive winds. We were unable to travel to Delos, which was inhabited from at least the 3rd millennium B.C. Instead, we traveled to our next stop, Mykonos. The ship departed around midnight and the “rock and roll” onboard began. The trip was so rough that nobody got much sleep and we arose this morning to items turned over or knocked off tables in our cabin. Although we didn’t get sick, it was a pretty restless night. We arrived around 6:30 a.m. to cooler temperatures, around 72 degrees. Naturally, it warmed up considerably and we left on a tour of the island around 9 a.m., spent time on Paradise beach swimming, and returned to the ship for a delicious lunch. The food onboard has been wonderful!

This afternoon we walked around the main town of the island around the harbor. It is a beautiful area and has buildings that are similar to Venetian buildings. They are located right on the water and the area is referred to as Little Venice.   We could have stayed longer but the souvenir shops are starting to all look alike.   One of the most unusual sites was octopus hanging from ship masts and in front of stores drying.  This is how they process them for eating.  Mykonos is a very windy island most of the year according to the captain.


The ship left late in the evening for Naxos.

Santorini, Greece

We docked in the late afternoon at Santorini. It is an awesome sight sailing into the caldera at the harbor. The main village is hundreds of feet above the sea with vertical cliffs up to the village. Since it is not a particularly calm harborage, the docking procedure seemed very rough. Our ship (M/V Arethusa) is small enough to dock at the port whereas other cruise ships have to anchor offshore and tender in passengers. At sea level there are only a couple of shops and taverns. There are three ways to reach the village at the top of the cliff; walk up a steep, paved path, take a cable car, or ride mules. This evening we rode the cable car with David and Bonnie from California and got a glimpse of the village. It was packed with young people walking around the narrow streets and sitting at restaurants and taverns. The last funicular was at 10:40 pm and managed to get there in time to return to our ship.

OAT provided passes the next morning, which could be used for either the cable car or the mules. We took the mules up to the city and loved it!

It was about a 15-minute ride up the mountain. The mules were well behaved, however, they tended to rub against the stone walls and telephone poles on the way up. Several people received mild abrasions and bruises on their legs. David, our friend from last night’s adventure (who chose to take the cable car up) made the following comment when asked if he was going to take the mule or the cable car “do you think I’m going to trust my life to what might possibly be a Greek, pissed-off jack ass?” Maybe you had to be there, but several were in tears!


We boarded buses and toured the village of Oia for a couple of hours and then returned to the village of Fira. At Fira we had lunch with other folks in our tour group and then walked (shopped) around the village until time to board the ship.

While we were touring we heard that the ship had to be moved away from the dock and anchored off shore and that we would have to tender. Seven of us took the last tender at 6:30 pm. The seas were pretty rough and apparently the only way to board was by climbing up a rope ladder dropped down the ship. As we approached the ship and saw the rope ladder, Richard commented that “this is certainly different than a Princess cruise”. It was pretty interesting, but we managed to board without any major event. Later, we laughed as we recalled hearing our tender mate Fern repeating “I’m not liking this”. Apparently the earlier group had a much rougher time boarding because of rougher seas and inexperienced pilots. It was a fabulous day and fit the company’s name perfectly (Overseas Adventure Travel).

Amorgos, Greece

The passengers on the boat were divided into two tour groups today. The “Hikers” and the “Easy Riders”. The hikers would be touring the Hozoviotissa Monastery, which happened to be on the side of a mountain. There were an estimated 400 steps to get there.

The other group would be driven to the parking lot at the base of the Monastery, get to look up and take pictures, and then take a walking tour of the town. Naturally, we were hikers. The climb and view were amazing. Words and photos do not do it justice. We met the Abbot who was very welcoming. It was not a bad walk up the steps to the monastery. We were met by donkeys who re-supplied the monastery.

Afterwards, on the way back to the boat we visited a small village in the center of the island where we walked around and then sat and enjoyed a cold beer. We returned to the boat and had free time at the harbor. We tried Greek cheese pie which came highly recommended, but tasted very similar to quiche…not what we were expecting.


This evening we sailed for Santorini. The captain said he expected rough seas. Several people had gotten sick the previous day between Patmos and Amorgos so we took precautions and had a Dramamine. Turns out the seas were not quite as rough as the day before but we had a good nap during the crossing.

Patmos, Greece

No wakeup call this morning! I went downstairs a little after 7 a.m. and brought back two large coffees. We boarded our coach after breakfast and made our way to the Monastery of St. John the Theologian, which was sitting high upon a mountain surrounded by the hora, (the capital) of the island.


Afterwards, we were taken to one of the caves that legend says St. John was exiled to and from where he wrote the book of Revelations.


We left Patmos after lunch and encountered rough seas as we sailed to Amorgos. After a 4-hour journey, we docked in Amorgos at dinner time. After dinner we went ashore and explored the harbor area.


The internet connections in the islands is pretty weak.  I will be uploading pictures soon!

Ephesus, Turkey

Our wake up call for this morning came at 5:30 a.m. After breakfast at the hotel, we departed for the Istanbul airport, and took a 30 minute flight on Pegasus Air to Izmir, Turkey. We boarded a bus and headed to Ephesus. We began our walk through the ruins at the top of the ancient city and explored this amazing city. It was larger than we’d expected and archeologists were onsite excavating the terraced houses. The outdoor amphitheatre was very impressive. Although not quite as large as the one in Rome, it was pretty impressive.

After that we visited St. John’s basilica by the Temple of Artemis. This is where they claim that St. John is buried.

Due to manufacturing technology, the art of making handmade Turkish carpets is becoming a lost art. We were taken to a carpet cooperative where young girls sit in front of wooden looms and make exquisite rugs. We were shown how the silk for the rugs is gathered from the cocoons and how natural herbs are used to dye the wool. Naturally, they would have loved for us to purchase a rug, which they would gladly ship home for us. One of our fellow travelers (Renata) had her eye on one that cost $14,000.

Next we headed to Kusadasi to board our 50-passenger ship, the ARETHUSA. After a quick briefing by the crew we enjoyed dinner aboard our new home for the next 7 days.

Istanbul Turkey Day 2

This morning we were awakened by our 7 a.m. wake up call.  We were scheduled to leave the hotel at 8:30 am.  We boarded a nice bus and our tour of Istanbul began.   We were joined by a local tour guide, Sermin Uthes, who did an excellent job describing what we were seeing.   We began with a stroll through the Grand Bazaar.    We had expected the bazaar to be similar to Marrakech’s market, but were surprised.  It was very clean and we felt very safe.  

 

We would occasionally see a young boy around the age of 8 years old that was dressed in what appeared to be a royal costume.   Someone told us that this was part of the celebration that the boys had recently been circumcised.  Apparently there is a huge festival and the boys get to dress up like this.  Hmmm....

Afterwards, we traveled to the Topkapi Palace, which was built in the 15^th century by Mehmet II.  It was initially built as his primary residence, but served as the seat of government and also contained a school.  The palace was eventually abandoned in 1853 and was reopened in 1924 as a museum.   Some of the pieces we found of interest (and I might add some speculation) were a staff that supposedly belonged to Moses and a hand bone of John the Baptist!

Next we visited the Blue Mosque, which is still an active mosque.  We removed our shoes as we entered and the women with bare arms were given a scarf to cover themselves.   We weren’t required to cover our hair because we weren’t entering during a time of prayer.   The floor of the entire Mosque was covered in Turkish  carpet.   

On our way back to the hotel, we asked to be let off the bus near the spice market.    Although we felt we might be labeled as the renegades of the group by our fellow travelers, we enjoyed a leisurely walk through the spice market and then were pleasantly surprised to find restaurants that lined the underside of the bridge that crossed the Golden Horn (connecting the two parts of Istanbul).   We walked back to the hotel and then later ventured out on our own and found a large pedestrian street that was full of nightlife.    There were numerous local restaurants hidden in narrow alleyways.  We picked one out (or actually they picked us out as they had barkers standing outside each and every one, trying to get you to come in and eat).   We enjoyed a light dinner of tapas (stuffed mussels, grilled shrimp, and lots of bread).    On our walk back to the hotel, we stopped at an ice cream stand and were entertained by the young entrepreneur  that used a long ice cream scoop to put ice cream on the cone that I had been given.  As I was taking the cone, he pulled the long scoop back, taking the ice cream off the cone.  After several jovial tricks, I received my ice cream cone and Richard began playing the same game with him, only this time with the Lira that he was anticipating for his pay. 

Upon returning to the hotel, Richard selected “R” in the elevator and we were totally amazed to find a rooftop bar and restaurant that overlooked the city of Istanbul.   The views were absolutely breathtaking!!!   We could see the Hagia Sophia off in the distance lit up with a Ramadan sign in lights.  All this topped with a full moon.

What a day!   What an adventure!   We are so blessed to be able to do the things we do!

Istanbul, Turkey Day 1

The flight from Boston to Paris took only 6-1/2 hours, but took an additional 3 hour flight to finally arrive in Istanbul. Although travel weary, this afternoon was the only chance we were going to have to see the Hagia Sophia because it was going to be closed on Monday and we were departing Istanbul early on Tuesday morning. We met two of our group members at the airport (Rocke and Fern from New York) and they too wanted to see the Hagia Sophia. This remarkable building is more than 1400 years old and it was worth the effort we made to see it! It was built over two earlier churches and inaugurated by the Emperor Justinian in the year 537. It was converted to a mosque in the 15th century. Today it is a museum. Rocke recommended also visiting the Basilica Cistern, which was directly across the street. It was the film location of a scene in the James Bond movie From Russia With Love.

After returning to the Maramara Pera Hotel, we met the remainder of the 20 travelers in our group, enjoyed a nice dinner together, and very quickly fell asleep around 9 p.m. However, our visit to Istanbul came during Ramadan and after fasting all day the locals partied till late. We were awakened around 10:30 p.m. by an outdoor concert across the street from our room. We quickly donned our ear plugs and fell back asleep.

Boston

We flew from MSL to MEM at 6:40 am. Pretty early for us but it was a good and convenient flight. We then flew to Boston on the flight from hell. Hell was a 6 yr old and a 3 yr old who were totally out of control. “Daddy” dozed during the flight and “Mother” did nothing. Earplugs helped some. If an adult caused the disruption they did he would be arrested upon landing.   A couple of Sam Adams Red Bricks helped take the edge off though and we quickly recovered.

We stayed at the Omni Parker House in Boston which was an excellent choice. Everyone was very helpful; got a late check-out; and the hotel was very convenient for us.

We walked most of the Freedom Trail which went by our hotel. We ate both days at Ye Olde Oyster House near Quincy Market (found a good thing so did it twice). Today, August 13 we took the Blue Line to Harvard and took a historical walking tour of the campus.

Weather was perfect both days. We enjoyed Boston, but now on to Istanbul!

Get Ready, Get Set.....

Counting down the days until our next big adventure.   Stay tuned!