Athens On Our Own

     We just returned from a full  day in Athens.  The last time we were here (2003) the city was torn up as they we getting ready for the Olympics.  They also had one of those 10 year "rains".  It is fitting that as we leave Athens, it started to rain again but the entire day was nice.
     We took the ship shuttle to the city centre but would take a

cab the next time.  We had intended to do it on our own anyway and the ship simply provided transport.   Our first stop was the Acropolis Museum barely 3 years old and dedicated solely to the artifacts of the Acropolis.  It was a wonderful place.  The "floor" of the building has glass panels in it where you can see the restorers working on the ruins below.  A really well planned approach.  3 floors of artifacts with great models showing the changes over time.  A short movie also provided much information.  After the museum we really did not need a guide to the actual Acropolis.

      That was our second stop.  Again, they have continued to reconstruct the temples and it is in much better shape today.  We have all see the photographs of the hill with its various temples and a visit did not disappoint.  We then walked down to the Ancient Agora - literally meeting place but better thought of as the local market.  Wandering around we came across a church built in 1000 A.D.  A walk through a crowded Plaka

occupied the afternoon but we were not trying to buy anything so it was mostly a look and see type of experience except for a good gelato!  After having been to the Bazaar in Istanbul the place was a bit quiet.   On the way back to the bus meeting place we did get a picture of Adrian's Gate which marked the change from the old to the new city.  It is located very near the Temple of Zeus which we did not see the last time here. We had a short visit to this big temple.  We did have a bit of to kill so we did stop for a bottle of Greek beer and some spinich pie.
          Back onboard and headed to Naples now.  A sea day tomorrow is what we need after 4 days of going ashore!   Tonight's activities include the VIP Art reception (free wine) followed by a line dance party, dinner and then the Ultimate Deck Party - now being held indoors because of the rain.  It should stop later tomorrow, probably just when we are getting out of bed!

Kusadasi And Ephesus

      Our day in Kusadasi and Ephesus was all and more than we expected it to be.  That is because it was always a place we wanted to go back to and having done that, we were not disappointed.   The other good thing is that unlike the last time we were here, we did not hit the dock and have to stay for an extra day!   They have built another dock and a big new termoinal building.

Mary's House

       We had 3 things to do today.  The first was a stop at the House of the Virgin Mary. The Vatican has recognized this small (now rebuilt) house as the finall resting place of the Virgin Mary.  A small shrine was found when the ruins were first discovered about 150 years ago.   It is known historically that John took Mary with him to Ephesus when they left Israel.   Ephesus was the 4th largest city in the Roman Empire and was known for religious tollerance.  In any case, it was a good visit.  We did not go to the ruins of St. John's Church as we have done that the last time we were here.
     The real highlight was the full tour of Ephesus.  We were last there in 2003 and they have

done a lot of reconstruction in the past few years.We entered from the top of the city (the Magnesia Gate) throught the government district then down to the socal district.   The city probably had 300,000 people at the height of its population all based on a good harbour which brought trade from all over the Roman Empire.  The Library was there the last time we visited but this time you could get into the reconstructed structure.  We did not visit the terrace houses  (some houses had 4000 sq feet).  This was a choice of tours that we had made.  However our table mates did get there and were suitably impressed.   The Ampitheatre was there the last time but they have added to the

Ampitheatre

structure.  It is where St Paul preached before he was driven out of the city as he was disrupting the sellers of the Roman gods trinkets.   The via down to the now silt filled port with shops and columns has also been filled out considerably.  The water is now 5 miles away and because of the silting, the city's source of trade was cut off and the city died.  However the running water systems, red light houses, roman baths, temples, etc made for a good day!
      We skipped the carpet demo and walked the bazaar but the merchants did not seem to be as agressive as the last time .  Perhaps with the number of ships that do arrive here on a constant basis (2 others this day) means that they don't have to hassle as much!  Next Stop Athens.

Exploring Istanbul

    I just returned to the ship after getting ashore shortly after 8 this morning.  We did not take a ship tour for this port because of the information that we had before we left Canada!   We did take the local shuttle although if we had had more time (we needed to catch a 3 pm shuttle back) we could have easily walked.  If we are ever this way again, we would take the tram and save the jam (traffic that is). 

Blue Mosque

     Our first destination after we were dropped near the Grand Bazaar was the Blue Mosque, so nammed because of the thousands of blue tiles that make up the interior.  We did remove our shoes and walked over the nice plush red carpet that is throughout.  It is the largest in the mosque in the world.  There is an enormous anount of room on the inside.  The only person beyond the barriers that kept the crowd on the outside was a cleaner vacuuming the carpet.
       The next stop was Saint Sophia a church that was converted to a mosque after the fall of

Santa Sophia

     As we walked to the meeting point we passed anothre landmark that I wanted to see so I did go inside myself.  This was the Yerebatab Cistern built in the 5th century.  This truly was a find.  It took about 20 minutes to walk the perimiter.  It has hundred's of colums in it, some that are very ornate.  It is empty and no longer in use but if was originally filled with fresh water supplied by aquaducts.  It is hard to describe but I think the most impressive thing was that is is 1500 plus years old.
      A slow walk from the Cistern got us to the meeting point. 

Grand Bazaar

Judy went back to the ship on her own and I wandered around the Grand Bazaar for about an hour.  It is very easy to get lost in it.  There definately is a pecking order to the shops.  All the gold and silver places are near the prime gate - the high priced places.  If you wander some of the side alleys (all covered of course) you find the "other" stuff like carpets, shoes, shirts, etc.   How there can be so many shirt shops, etc. is hard to believe. 
       The trip back was an adventure as is any ride in these cities.  How the drivers can get those buses around and up and down those streets is a mystery.  We are about ready to sail for Kudedasi where we do not arrive until noon tomorrow.   We have to make 300 miles by then.   At least we will get to see a bit of this historic waterway in the light as we transit back to the Mediterranean..

Khios Greece

    Yesterday was a sea day and the whole ship seemed to be in a "sleepy" mood after the long days in Egypt.  There are only 1925 passangers aboard so the ship seems "empty" most days anyway.   The seas have been as flat as can be expected since we left Rome.  In a few minutes we head for Istanbul.

    We did manage to go to a dance lesson and attend a few

lectures but generally it was a peaceful day.  I really appreciated that.  I have been feeling a bit "off" for a few days.  All I want to do is sleep - which is what I did during the art auction.  We did attend the last show of Lenny Windsor.  We had seen him before.  He was a writer for the Benny Hill show and had some good stories to tell.  He was aboard on our trip last fall.  We did go to the line dancing hoedown last night but missed most of it as dinner was a bit late.
   

Local Beer

Today we did not take an organized tour, but opted instead to just wander around the small town of Khios.  It does have a world hertigage monistary but it did not seem exciting enough for us.  We did visit the local museum as well the the biggest Greek Catholic church in town.  We did end up at a sidewalk cafe and had a glass of "greek" beer.  I think I will pass on that when we get to Athens.  It was too bitter for my taste.
      Tomorrow is Istanbul.  We did not take an organized tour as we will be docked close to the sites and can take a shuttle if we don't feel like walking the short distance.  Weather continues to be warm and sunny.

Egypt - Alexandria on Day 2

     After the long day of going to Cairo, we were up "early" again and were off touring the city of Alexandria.  Although we were going to stay "local", the tour lasted from 8:30 until 2 pm.  Judy continued to mention how she was disappointed in the city.  I guess she thought that it would be something exotic and it is anything but that.  It is very dirty with holes all over the place.  No place except one that we visited was clean as we know it.

   The tour had 3 stops.  The first was the museum where local

Pompey's Pillar

artifacts were displayed.  It certainly did not have the flare of Cairo with the King Tut artifcts but it was well done.  They recently found thousands of artifacts - statues, pillars, etc. on the bottom of the bay.  Much had been dumped there to prevent naval forces from entering the harbour.
    Our second stop was Pompey's Pillar which is the tallest remaining ancient monument in the area.  It is made of solid granite and is the only thing standing in a temple area that had hundreds(?) of shorter columns.  All the rest are on the ground or in the bay!  I don't know if they re-erected this one column after the earthquakes that destroyed the temple.  Two things are of interest here.  First it was the only place that did not have the "dollar boys" hounding you at every step.  To be fair the museum was free of them as well.  The second was that the grounds did not have one piece of litter in it.  This is the older part of the

City Street

city with slums all around.  Here we are looking at this ancient temple and are impressed by the lack of hawkers and garbage!   The other item of interest here was the "daughter" library to the one destroyed by fire.  It was a common practice to have a library with temples.  It was carved out beneath the temple and some of the books that were saved from the great fire were stored in nooks carved (shelves) in the wall of the passageways.  Unfortunately these books were also burned on order from of the Christians later because they were "pagan".  Funny, some of the oldest bible copies were among the items.

Dockside Shopping

      The third stop was the Roman catacombs.  These are not like the ones in Rome where the Christians were burried but rather Roman catacombs.  They date to the first to third century.  They are on 3 levels.  The original one was for some wealthy family and then they just kept carving.  The lowest level if filling with water because of changes to the water table caused by the building os the Aswan dam.  It was under an old garbage dump and found when a donkey of a garbage collector fell  through the ceiling of the tombs.
       All in all a very interesting place. Next _ Sea day then Khios, Greece.

Camel Riding At The Pyramids

   The port of Alexandria was the starting point for our visit to the Pyramids in Cairo.  The day started very early - before 7:30.  By the time we cleared the Immigration, baggage checks, etc to get ashore we were underway to Cairo by about 8:30.  We were warned that it was going to be a long day.  It lasted over 12 hours.  Of course you can not go anywhere in Egypt without an armed security guard on the bus but it also meant that all buses had to travel as a group.  Can you imagine 20+ buses all headed to Cairo in a convoy with no stops allowed for the entire 3 hours ride to the Pyramids.

  My first impression of the Pyramids was one of disappointment - at the fact that Cairo has grown so large that the city now abuts the property.  Once on the grounds and on the hill, then the city seemed to disappear and the structures could be seen without the city buiding appearing to overshadow the location.  We were warned about the sellers and hawkers before we got off the bus but it is always a cultural shock when they come at you.
     We took our photos of the pyramids at the first stop and then decided to get a picture of Judy

On The Camel

on a camel.  Remember we were warned - $1 for a photo (everything started at $1) and $3 for a camel ride.  No ride just a photo please.  Then the hard sell.  Judy gets on and the boy handler gets the camel up.  Next they tell me to get in the picture.  So O.K. for that.  Off with the hat, on goes the "rag" a whip in my hand and I looked like Lawrence of Arabia.  Perhaps Indiana Jones! The man takes my camera and shoots a few photos.  He then asks for another $1.00 So that seems reasonable.  The next thing you hear is Judy screaming as this boy is taking

her for a "ride" in the desert.  Now they warned us about $1 to get on, up goes the camel and then they do not get you down unless you pay them.  Judy starts to scream more.   She can do that with the best of them as she didn't like it.  I start to boil as I can see what's coming.  I start to scream - Give me my hat back!  I scream louder, give me my camera!  I get the camera and the hat - 2 out of 3 ain't bad!  Judy is screaming louder!  The camel man asks for more money - remember I am holding out on the second $1.  I started to yell no more money until she is on the ground.  I figured it was the least I could do for her.  I guess the teacher voice must have come out because they finally "stopped the ride" and let her off.  Only then did I pay them.  One woman on our bus paid 20 euros to get her mother down and today we heard that someone payed 40 euros!  The lady did get the "tourist police" to come over and did get her money back!  Boy those Pyramids are sure something.

    We made a second stop at the Pyramids and finally went to the Sphink.  My impression was how small it really is in comparison to the actual Pyramids.  We walked around there for awhile, dogging the "only $1 U.S. dollar" boys.  Then it was off to the "shopping" stop at the "preferred" store (as usualy - at least no rug demo - that comes later in the cruise) and finally to the Mariott Hotel for lunch.  Lunch  - buffett - was good but not outstanding.  However they probably were feeding a 1000 people at at time.
    Cairo itself with their 20 million is dirty and crowded.  It seems like if you dig a hole to fix something, you leave everything on  the street.  So you see holes and dirt, bricks and trash everywhere.  The run down areas are very poor and dirty as you might expect.  I will let the pictures do the talking!
    The last stop was the Cairo museum which had about half the goods looted during the recent riots.  As a building it was less that impressive and the best thing in it was the original Tut artifacts.  I think we expected something more from such as famous museum.  A lot of the exhibits did not have labels on them and generally poorly lit.  Having said that, it was still an impressive place.
      After the museum was did the 3 hour trip back to the ship.  We did get stopped in a big traffic jam so the driver drove over the curb and median and reversed direction.  There were 3 lanes of traffic in each direction!  We all clapped when we saw the ship.  I suspect that it was because we had seen some truly amazing things and survived the dollar boys and the traffic.
    Next post will be touring Alexandria!