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.