Santorini, Greece

Visiting Santorini, Greece has been a dream of mine for a long time.  I’ve seen all those gorgeous photos of the white buildings with their blue-domed roofs.  And the water, it’s the bluest of anyplace I’ve ever seen – in the photos, that is.  The fact that this was a port on this itinerary had a lot to do with our decision to book this cruise.

It’s a tender port because there is no pier.  The ship dropped anchor out in the harbor and tender boats were used to take 200 people to shore at a time.  So my first glimpse of it (because we have an inside cabin with no window or door) was from the elevator as we went to breakfast.  Now granted, the windows were dirty, my eyes were still a little blurry, and we do live in Denver where snow-capped mountains are our norm – but my first thought was “is that SNOW on the mountain top”?  I blinked my eyes to try to clear them.  No – those are houses up there!  This is the way I saw it…

And this is zoomed in…

 Seriously!  Santorini wasn’t at all what I expected.  The west side of the island is bluffs as high as 980 feet straight up.  The buildings all sit at the top, and the rest is just layers of lava and pumice with little vegetation.  It’s really not that pretty, and not at ALL like the photos.  But the water, oh my, it’s so blue and beautiful.  That part is as advertised.

There are a few sea-level docks where the small boats can come in to.  Then you must walk up (yikes!), take the cable car, ride the donkeys, or drive on switch-back roads to reach the top.

Our tour began with a short boat ride to a small fishing village on the south end of the island.  From there, we boarded a bus which took us up the switch-back road to the top.  The views are absolutely breath-taking.  The higher you go, the more beautiful the water becomes.  We were so blessed with a warm, sunny day without much wind. 

We drove through a small village which was the home of our guide, Harra.  She explained that all the churches are privately owned by families, and in her town of 600 people there are over 65 churches.  Santorini has a population of 15,000 people spread across 13 small villages, and there are over 400 churches and 1,000 hotels. 

Our first stop was the Santo Winery.  They gave us a short talk about how they make wine on the island.  There is little rain and no fresh water on Santorini.  All of their drinking water comes from desalinization of sea water.  They practice dry agriculture, nothing can be irrigated. It is so humid that the nutrient rich and very porous lava and pumice readily absorb and retain moisture, just enough for crops to prosper.  Forty varieties of grapes are grown to support the island's wine making industry, but arbors and trellises are not used to support the plants.  It is so windy that the vines are coiled in circles close to the ground to prevent damage.  The wines are very dry with a hint of a salty taste.

 They offered a tasting of 3 of their wines, and had a spread of olives, tomatoes, bread, and goat cheese to go with it.  The view from their terrace was incredible.  Saint Irene (Santorini in Greek) is the result of one of the largest volcanic explosions in history -- the Minoean Eruption 3600 years ago.  It is what remains of the Eastern edge of a huge caldera that is filled with water and has 2 other islands within its crater.  Except for one large limestone outcropping at the top, the entire island is of volcanic origin with a thick upper crust of hardened white ash (pumice) that was deposited during the eruption.  The other islands and the ship were visible from the winery.

From there we drove to the north end of the island to a village called Oia (EE-ah).  Harra explained that the Greeks like to write a lot of letters that aren’t pronounced.  This is where most of the blue-domed churches are. 

The hottest item for sale here is nuts: pistachios, cashews, and almonds.  They also make a sweet treat by rolling the nuts in honey and sesame seeds and then roasting them.  They are so delicious! 

After some free time here to explore and “make photos”, as they say here, we then drove along the east side of the island where it flattens out and there are some black and red sand beaches.  The hillside is terraced to prevent erosion and assist with crop production.

Harra explained that a major earthquake in 1956 destroyed almost all of the buildings on the island.  When they rebuilt, they used whitewashed concrete instead of stone, and no dwelling can have more than 2 stories.  Most of the buildings are new (since 1980).  There's a law that construction can only take place during the winter so as not to cause noise during the wine making and tourist season.  It also provides jobs for those who perform seasonal summer work.  There is no unemployment.

We came into the capital city of Fira for our final stop.  We were instructed how to get to the cable car and given a ticket (it costs 4 EU each way, per person), and then we were turned loose to shop and explore on our own. 

We had already made all of our purchases, so we went straight to the cable car.  The line was unbelievably long and took almost 30 minutes to reach the cars.  Each train contains 6 cars which hold 6 people each.  There are 2 trains operating at a time.  It goes almost straight down and every few minutes it applies the brakes, which feels like a jerky vibration.  That was unnerving to me.

I didn’t like it very much, but it was the best of the 3 alternatives.  I hear the donkeys smell terrible and aren’t very cooperative.  Sometimes they stop and refuse to continue, and you end up leading them down.  The walk is long and strenuous.  Most people take the cable car.

We waited another 20 minutes to board our tender boat for the ship.  My advice to anyone cruising here is to be sure you allow plenty of time to get back to the ship from Fira.  You don’t want to wait until the last tender and then not get on, you’d be waving good-bye to everyone as they sail away. 

Aside from being shocked by the topography, Santorini is beautiful and I’d definitely return here.   

Stay tuned…

Kusadasi & Ephesus, Turkey

We had a great day in Turkey.  I fell in love with the beauty of the country and the warmth of the people.  Oh, and the temperature was pretty warm, also.  It was only about 75 or 80 degrees, but it felt like 100.  The sun is very intense here.  By August it will be 115, I can’t even imagine how miserable that would be.

We docked in Kusadasi, pronounced Koosh-uh-DAH-seh. 

 Two ships over was the Pacific Princess, the ship used for the old Love Boat TV series.

 We were greeted on the pier by a group of dancers performing. 

 We boarded our bus and headed for the ancient ruins of Ephesus, with our guide Nevin.  She gave us some background about the city as we drove the 4 miles to it.  Ephesus, founded in the 10th century BC, was an ancient Greek city that was built where the Cayster River flows into the Aegean Sea on the west coast of Turkey.  In 27 BC Augustus made Ephesus the capital of Asia Minor. The city had to be relocated twice due to the silting of the Cayster River whose alluvial fan kept filling Ephesus Harbor despite ongoing attempts to dredge the harbor.  The Romans turned Ephesus into a huge commercial port and by 100 AD it was the second largest city in the Roman Empire with an estimated population of over 400,000.  The Cayster River eventually silted out again.  It filled in the Port of Ephesus until it was marshland, a perfect breeding ground for mosquitoes.  Malaria began killing the Ephesians and the city was abandoned by the Romans in 600 AD.  As inhabitants left the city to build elsewhere, they took with them many of the stones from the existing buildings and most of the marble. 

The city was covered by silt over time, and the ancient ruins were only rediscovered in 1896.  It's taken over 100 years to excavate just 55% of the city and only a fraction of that has been restored.  The city covers a large area which takes 3 hours to walk through.  It’s mind-boggling to see the effort that has been put into recovering this lost treasure.

As we drove along, I saw 2 Kangal dogs running in a field.  It made me miss my dear dogs Sultan, Efe, and Sirin who were born in Turkey.  They are very large fawn-colored dogs used as livestock guardians.  I used them to guard my large goat herd.

It wasn’t long until we had reached Ephesus.  Near the entrance is the music theater.  Notice in the background of these photos that the hillsides look very much like Colorado foothills and the sky is crystal blue just like home. 

Nevin explained how all these columns are built.  It’s really quite clever.  Each column is made up of several sections which are stacked.  Each section has a hole down the middle, like a donut.  They stack them, line them up perfectly, and then pour molten metal into the hole to stabilize the column.  Some columns are one solid piece of marble, but when they could, they would use sections.

Cats were everywhere!  Each one has a specific column that it defends as its territory.  The guides bring food and water to them so they’re very tame.

One interesting feature was the “public potty”.  They actually had dual clay pipes running throughout the complex – one that provided running water and the other was the sewer.  This public bathroom had marble seats which would be cold in the winter months.  The rich would send their slaves in to warm up the seats for them.  It had running water underneath to “flush” away the waste and a channel of running water at their feet to wet a sponge that was used for toilet paper.  The sponges were shared – gross!  There was no privacy and it was coed.  Music would be played to cover “noises”. 

The richest people lived in the Terrace Houses overlooking the complex.  We were guided through this part by one of the archaeologists who worked here for 30 years.  This part of the tour is covered by a temporary roof similar to the Denver International Airport and provides some very welcome relief from the blazing sun.  These homes were like apartments and were quite posh with marble walls and mosaic tiled floors.  A few of the rooms were covered with the same type of rare marble as the Colorado State Capital.  Some of the wall paintings are sill visible.  It was really impressive.  We walked on scaffolding with a plexiglass floor to preserve the site.  This first photo shows some of the many tables covered with bits of marble being reassembled like a giant jigsaw puzzle.  What a job trying to piece it all back together!

From behind the Terrace Houses we could see the marshy area where the Mediterranean Sea used to be.  It’s hard to visualize this site as having been oceanfront property at one time when it’s now about 4 miles from the sea.

The big attraction here is the Library of Celsus.  It was the 3rd largest library in antiquity and housed over 12,000 scrolls and papyrus documents.  In its glory, it must have been magnificent.   Off to the right is the gate which served as the entrance to the agora (crossword puzzlers know this to be the Roman market).

On the front are the statues of 4 women who represent Wisdom, Knowledge, Virtue, and Friendship.  I’m not sure which is which, but here’s one of them.

This is a large arena that was used for gladiator fights and sporting events.  A number of famous singers have performed concerts here with the perfect acoustics.  Also, as mentioned in the Bible, St. Paul came to Ephesus to give a speech about Christianity in this arena.  A riot was instigated by the local artisans whose livelihood depended upon sales of artifacts related to their 12 pagan gods, now being threatened by someone claiming there is only a single god.  Consequently the speech was canceled.  St. Paul resorted to writing to the people.  Hence this is the source of the Letters to the Ephesians in the New Testament.

The tour concluded with a play.  We saw the girls do a simple belly dance, and then the gladiators fought.  At the end of a fight, the King would give a thumbs-up signal to the winner to drive the sword upwards into the throat of the loser, or a thumbs-down meaning for the victor to lay down his weapon..  Contrary to what we see in the movies, very few gladiators were killed, other than by accident.  It was too expensive to train new ones to replace them.  

There are no restrooms inside Ephesus, and after 3 hours we were ready for one.  Luckily, Royal Caribbean provided a “mobile potty”.  When Nevin said that, I was thinking it would be PortAPotty.  I was pleasantly surprised to see an RV which has been fitted with a men’s and women’s two-stall restroom.  It was clean and nice.

We loved our tour and came away with a lot of understanding about how people lived in this age.  I would suggest a few pointers to anyone thinking of visiting here.  It’s hot and there isn’t much shade – dress in light, loose-fitting clothes, wear sensible walking shoes and a hat, use sun screen, take lots of water and a small snack, and use an umbrella for shade.  This tour isn’t recommended for young children – they won’t understand it and they’ll be miserable.  We heard lots of them crying and complaining.  It isn’t really accommodating to the elderly, either – the path is cobblestone and hard to walk on or push a wheelchair on, there are lots of stairs, and it’s really hot.

Back in Kushadasi we ended our day with a tour of the carpet gallery.  They showed us how they turn the silk from these cocoons soaking in warm water…

… into these unbelievable silk carpets.

They served our choice of beverage: Turkish beer or wine, or their famous apple tea.  And we each got a piece of what looked like a very large pretzel.  It was all yummy.

Kusadasi has a beautiful walkway around the harbor that leads to a sandy beach.

And from there we had a great view of the Serenade of the Seas.

It was a wonderful day in a gorgeous city and country.  I’d love to see more of it

Stay tuned…

Athens, Greece

This is another placeholder so I can skip ahead to Santorini and Ephesus.  Stay tuned...

Rome, Italy

The weather forecast was for thunderstorms all day.  We started out with threatening skies, but no rain.  The ship docked in Civitavecchia, Italy, a small coastal town about 1.5 hrs from Rome.  The first thing to learn is how to pronounce this mouthful of a tongue twister.  Try this:  chee vee tuh VECK ee uh.  I warned you it's a mouthful!

Any time the attraction is that far from the ship, it's a good idea to take a ship excursion.  I don't like to risk not making it back in time should anything happen along the way.  We signed up for the Imperial Rome tour which hits the highlights of the city.  Our day started very early by boarding a big bus.  The drive was along the coastline for a ways, with the Med on one side and lovely rolling hills on the other.

Every European town has ruins of some sort that they have preserved.  This little town has a fort, a pyramid (that was cloaked with plastic for renovations), and of course the cathedral.  Here's the fort.

Of course, the ruins in these small towns pale by comparison to those in the major cities.  I'm a small town girl at heart, and even though I live in a suburb of Denver, these big cities do overwhelm me.  So I'll just come right out and say this right up front, Rome was not my favorite place.  Some cities can be huge and yet not seem like it.  Not so with Rome.  It's huge and extremely overcrowded.  For starters, they don't have a good public transportation system.  Every time they try to build a subway, they uncover more ruins that ceases construction.  Consequently, everyone drives or rides scooters on their narrow streets.  The traffic is crazy.  Add in millions of tourists and it's chaos.

Our tour guide was a beautiful young lady named Sandra with perfect English.  We drove past the Colosseum on our way to our first stop, the Trevi Fountain.  The statues are amazing.

Notice that green thing hanging around my neck, with a blue cord?  Bruce's is in his pocket.  That is the receiver to Sandra's transmitter.  With our ear buds in, we were able to hear her talk as long as we didn't stray too far from her.  Most of our European tours provided these.  It's a great invention.

Of course we had to do the traditional tossing of coins into the Trevi Fountain.  We heard several versions of this, but basically the number of coins you toss determines your destiny:  one for returning to Rome, two for falling in love, three for getting married.  That's the most popular version, but we also heard it was one for falling in love, two for getting married, and three for getting divorced.  We didn't want to take any chances so we only threw one coin each, although I'm not sure I really want to return to Rome.  You're supposed to hold the coin in your right hand and toss it over your left shoulder, like this...

The next stop was at the Roman Forum.  It's an outdoor display of ancient statue bits and pieces, along with some examples of the architectural details and a few buildings that have been restored.

The exit was via an iter - old Roman road that was used by the chariots.  Once upon a time these stones were perfectly meshed and level.  Today, they are eroded with huge gaps and are challenging to walk on.

We made our way back to the Colosseum for the tour.  It's quite amazing, and sad, at the same time.  In its day, it was covered with white marble - the entire thing, inside and out!  When the building was abandoned, the marble was pilfered for other uses.  You have to use your imagination to appreciate the glory that it once was, or else it just looks like a pile of rubble.  Notice the structure is a series of 3 nested walls.

The inside is no less impressive than the outside...  Only one section of seats has been restored, just behind and to the left of the stage.  Those sloped areas are where the seats were.

 This lower section was covered by a stage, which has been partially recreated to demonstrate but still allow visibility into the area below which was used to house the gladiators and the animals that fought here.

And here's a really terrible picture of Sandra, our guide.  Just as I snapped, she must've licked her lips.  What I wanted you to see was the scarf on the stick that she carried around.  That's so we could find her in the crowds of people.  Believe it or not, there were thousands of people here, but they were mostly behind the camera.

By this time it was about 1:30 and we were all starving.  We walked back to the bus, and went to a hotel where we had a fantastic lunch (included in the tour).  They started with a baked pasta dish, then served sliced roast beef and vegetables.  We had a nice gelato for dessert.  Wine and bread were also served.

We had enjoyed partly cloudy skies so far, but while we were eating the clouds opened up.  It poured for about an hour.  It just lightly drizzled the rest of the afternoon.  For once, our timing was perfect.

Our final destination was to the Vatican.  We aren't Catholic, but were still excited to see this famous city within the city.  Excited, that is, until Sandra reminded us that it was Wednesday, as in, the day the Pope gives a talk at noon which attracts thousands of people into St. Peter's Square.  Oh boy, another crowded tourist attraction.  This really deflated our enthusiasm. 

Luckily, when we arrived it looked like a lot of the people who came for the speech had left already.  The Square was full of empty chairs.

That's St. Peter's Basilica straight ahead.  And the chimney where the smoke comes out when a new Pope is chosen is on top of the tiny building just to the right of the Basilica.  It just looks like a little grey knob.  Our tour was only for the Basilica.  I would have loved to see the Sistine Chapel, but getting into that is pretty tough with daily tourist restrictions. We walked across the Square to the Basilica entrance, passing the statue of St. Peter on the way.

When we got to the entrance, it was crazy.  Large tours get to skip the main queue of people, although lots of people tried to cut in with us.  There was a guy at the gate whose job is to count the people in a tour.  The guide tells him how many are in the group, and what unique thing identifies the members of the group - in our case it was our green receivers.  Once inside it was unbelievable...

...and I don't mean the Basilica (although it was amazing, of course), I mean I couldn't believe how many people there were inside there.  I've always heard the expression "wall to wall people", but this was living proof.  It was so crowded that you literally had to move with the flow or be trampled.  There was no such thing as "personal space" in there.  We were shoulder to shoulder and front to back with people. 

Sandra led us through, but the only way to follow her was by following her scarf on the stick.  I kept trying to stop and take a picture, and then I would look up and see that scarf off in the distance with no way to push through and catch up again.  I kept getting farther and farther behind until I finally lost all sight of her and our group.  Then I saw the scarf and followed it - only to realize after several minutes that it was pink and not orange.  All the guides had some sort of scarf on a stick and in the dim lighting it was hard to tell them apart.  For a while I could still hear her talking, and then I lost her voice as well.  Panic started to set in.  I suddenly saw myself being left behind at the Vatican and missing the ship.  I decided to stop looking for the group and just make my way to the exit.  Whew!  I found them at last.  What a relief!!

I was more than ready to head back to the ship after that experience!  That memory will always stick in my mind when I think of Rome.  Too many people for me!  The ship was waiting for us, along with the Norwegian Epic and some Carnival ship.  What a welcome sight... ship sweet ship.

 Stay tuned...