Our Travel Blog

Like yesterday, there was no need to get up early, so we didn’t! Unfortunately when we opened the curtains we saw that it was dreary and drizzly day. We hadn’t planned anything at all, but didn’t fancy hanging around the ship for the whole day.

Last night we heard people talking about a Hop-on-Hop-off bus that stopped right in the port so we decided that was the best option. There we three companies operating, so before buying the tickets we made sure we chose the one with a closed roof!

We had breakfast then hung around for a bit before heading out late morning. We timed it to perfection as there was a bus waiting for us. Thessaloniki is the second largest city in Greece after Athens. The city itself had very few modern building due to local rules trying to preserve the look of the old city.

Out of interest, I started to play with “black magic” aka AI. Both pictures below are from the same picture. The first one was the original taken of a dreary view across Thessaloniki to the Church of St Paul. For the second one, I asked AI to convert the picture to one taken on a bright sunny day.

After that experiment, I played with another picture. Further back is a picture of King Phillip II. The one I took had traffic lights in front of the statue, a white cable going to the lights and a vertical black line from the sliding window. All gone now!

Tomorrow is a sea day, so nothing much of interest there, at the least I’ll do a wrap up in a couple of days.

No rush to get up this morning, so we didn’t. We headed out to the buffet for breakfast, then back to the cabin to let the crowds battle it out for a seat on the tender. We are in Kavala, in the north of Greece back on the mainland. Temperatures have cooled to around 14C, and there is a light drizzle.

We headed out around 11AM once the lineups had subsided. Once ashore we had a feeling there wasn’t too much to see or do, we were right. Not just us but a number of passengers returning to the ship were of the same opinion. Ah well, you can’t win them all! We had a fairly lengthy walk into the town through the port. Once we reached the town, it was mostly cafes and souvenir shops. The town did boast an aqueduct which was different.

The aqueduct was built by the Ottomans around 1530 to bring water to the city from the mountains. It was in use until 1911.

As I am running out of pictures, a couple of flower ones. In this case an Angel Trumpet.

Found this heart shaped “thing” on the sidewalk. Turns out it is an initiative by the Greek Government to get people to place their discarded bottle caps in the heart, rather than dropping them on the ground.

Below is a Kaiki or Trenhaniri, easier known as a traditional Greek wooden boat.

The town also had a fort, but we deemed it to far away and too high up to visit!

Tomorrow is our last day with a stop at a port, Sunday we are at sea all day.

Today is the last of our organized trips. We have two more ports to visit but we’ll do our own thing, or not, when we get there!

After breakfast we went down to catch the tender to the Island of Mykonos. The sea was pretty lively and many people insisted on standing outside on the deck of the boat for fear of losing breakfast. It wasn’t that rough! We made the 7 minute transit with no loss of pre-digested food.

Today was a simple tour, no ruins, just a sightseeing trip around the island, a couple of beaches, a 14th century monastery and some Greek food and booze (ouozo).

Here come the photos:

Views from/of a beach

Unfortunately it was difficult to get excited by the beaches after being spoiled by those on the Gulf of Mexico.

All the houses (except 2) on the island are white. This has been mandated by law to keep in character with islands history. The white comes from a limestone wash which was introduced in the early 20th century when Greece was hit with a cholera outbreak. The wash had antiseptic properties and prevented the spread of the disease. Until recently all windows, doors, domes etc had to be blue. In the last few years that requirement has been lifted.

Like the other islands, Mykonos is very rocky and very little grows here, likewise there a very few animals. For some reason though the island has become extremely popular with the rich and famous, consequently it is very expensive to live here.

Next stop was the 14th century (rebuilt in the 18th century) monastery in the village of Ano Mera. The monastery was built for one purpose. Greek Orthodox churches don’t have statues, they have idols, or 3D pictures. The relief of the picture is made from bees wax, overlaid with paints for the colour. Back in the 14th century an icon of the Virgin Mary was found in the sea off Mykonos and to keep it safe, a group of Monks built the monastery to house the icon.

The Monastery:

We also had a quick snack in the village Taverna. The accompanying drink was ouzo, a clear liquid that goes cloudy when water or ice is added. I haven’t drunk Ouzo since I had a bad experience with it in 1982! It still tastes OK, but the memories linger!

We then spent a bit of time wandering around the village.

We then headed back to the port, and another bumpy tender ride back to the boat.

OK, the title is a little dramatic, but it refers to last nights dessert. It all started when someone in the restaurant ordered the desert below. From that point on it was the go to dessert. A chocolate sphere with ie cream in the middle. The ice cream is revealed by pouring a flaming chocolate / coffee liqueur over the chocolate, which in turn causes the chocolate to collapse. Amazingly all the calories are burned off.

Today we are at Santorini. It also the Greek National day, and the forecast was for 2 – 3 inches of rain. We decided not to go on an official tour, rather we’d just take a walk into town.

The town is built atop a cliff, there are 3 options to get to the town from where the boat tender arrives. Walk up 450 steps, ride a donkey up 450 steps or take a cable car! The picture below will show our choice!

As usual I’ll just post a string of photos below.

Today we made it back to the ship before the rain started. I’d love to tell you how Google Maps and I managed to get us walking in the wrong direction, but dinner calls!

Well, the day started out bad. We had breakfast in the cabin and then headed down to get on our coach to the ruins at Ephesus in Turkey. We had to have our cards scanned to get off the ship. Lyn’s failed, with an error that her card had been reprinted and the one she presented was not valid. When I explained that it was my card that had been reprinted not hers, we were told to go to guest services and get a new one. A discussion, becoming more heated ensued, finally an officer got involved! He went to get a new one while we waited and the embarkation time for our coach passed. Finally Lyn’s pass arrived and it failed. The discussion continued to rise in temperature. Finally they made a manual entry and allowed her through. When they scanned my card, as expected, it failed this time they immediately made a manual entry and let me off. Getting back on board Lyn’s card worked fine, go figure. Mine failed and was confiscated. A trip to guest services got me a new one which now appears to work.

I am just going to publish some pictures of the ruins at Ephesus and as usual Google is your friend if you want more details. The old city is still in the process of being “discovered” as most has been buried. It was completed around 2BC, and today they think only about 10% has been uncovered. Marble has been used in abundance for walls, pathways and columns

We made a quick stop at a statue of the Virgin Mary who is supposed to have spent her last years in the city, then off to the ruins proper.

Slightly off topic, a pomegranate and pomegranate tree, of which there a plenty around.

At the end of the tour we headed back to the ship where I had planned a surprise for Lyn. As you may remember from previous blogs, her best friend at school married a Turkish guy, and they moved to Turkey. We spent a vacation with them many moons ago, and also met up with them in New Orleans a few years back. When Lyn learned that we were stopping in Turkey she said wouldn’t it be great if we could meet up with Francis and Vedat. I did some checking with them about a year ago, and they thought it a great idea. I immediately told Lyn that they would love to meet us but it was too far for them to drive! End of conversation. Well I continued to make arrangements, and as we stepped off the coach they were there to meet us. I am not sure whether Lyn was madder at me for the deception or gladder to meet them. We spent the rest of the day with them and drove around the area. I think I finally may have gained a couple of Brownie points!

Why do the Greeks have so many Gods, it very confusing!

With another early start we availed ourselves of a hot breakfast on our cabin balcony. The temperature was around 21C but we were surrounded by storm clouds. The forecast gave a 92% chance of rain, not too encouraging.

We headed off to the coach, and drove around the coast for an hour before reaching the ancient village of Kamiros. Until the 1947 the island of Rhodes was under Italian rule, and there are still a few signs of that today.

The city of Kamiros is well over 2000 years old, and was “rediscovered” by archeologists in the 19th century. It is built on three levels, the market and baths, the dwellings and the cistern where the water was captured and stored. To keep the water fresh, they poured olive oil into the storage tanks. The oil floated on the water, preventing contact with the air and also reduced heating from the sun. Some water was left to heat for the baths, so even 2000+ years ago they had running hot and cold water!

After an hour or so wandering around the viewings, it was time to head back to the bus. If you need the wash rooms, that is the time to go. Every one rushes off the bus and the first thing they ask is “where are the washrooms” and the queues form. On the way back, no queues! It seems traditional that toilet seats are either not provided or are stolen in Greece.

Back on the bus and back to Rhodes. The Colossus of Rhodes was one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world. It was supposedly a 33 metre tall bronze statue of Helios, the Sun God, built around 280BC and later destroyed in an earthquake. However modern scholars doubt it’s structure as it is believed the statue stood atop two giant pillars, one foot on each. Greeks were well known for accuracy in their statues, and would not be possible of a 33m statue to be depicted accurately.

Rhodes is a medieval city, a few photos are shown below

We were about 10 minutes away from our meeting time to pick up the coach, and the rain started. Gentle at first, then thunderstorms and torrential rain. Luckily we were able to shelter under a large arch until the bus arrived. We didn’t get too wet!

Unfortunately I managed to lose my cruise card, so had to spend a bit of time with photo ID before being allowed back aboard! Getting a new card was not a problem, however getting a new card that opens our door is a different matter. The first card failed to open it. The second card, created on a different machine caused the machine to error, as did the third on yet a different machine!! IT have now become involved. At least Lyn had the good sense not to lose her card, so we still have access to the cabin.

Well, having just kicked jet-lag, they threw a 1 hour tome change at us last night! With most of our clocks being linked to the phone or computer, we had no idea whether they had changed automagically or not. Luckily Lyn still has an analogue watch, which gave us the correct time Unfortunately we somehow slept in 2 hours after our normal wake up time.

As we are at sea all day there won’t be many pictures, but maybe a quick explanation of the “more on that later comments”. A little history. When we first started traveling back in the 80’s it was low cost airlines to low cost resorts. This remained the norm until the mid 2000’s. At that stage I was making a lot of business trips to Europe and we were allowed Business class. Once I retired the thought of no more traveling in Business class loomed 🙁 .

After retirement I used all of our frequent flyer miles on a round the world trip in Business. This was a mistake, as Lyn also got the big seat bug! With a lot of internet searching, it was possible to get business class at a price not too far above economy. Problem solved!We did a lot of trips after retirement, but then we decided we we didn’t like the idea of of trips that had us spend a couple of nights in a hotel, then pack up and move to the next stop, so we decided the easiest way was to find a hotel that moves… A cruise ship. We found ourselves a good Cruise Travel Consultant who was able to help in getting good prices, so off we went. At the outset we decided we both wanted a balcony cabin, again not too much more than a non balcony cabin. This worked just fine, we had found the best way to travel, or had we.

These cabins were a little on the small side, with the only seating being a small desk chair, or the bed. A sofa would be nice! So we tried the next level up. Well once you’ve tried it, you can’t move back.

Well that worked well, but the cruise we are now on, which we had wanted to do for our 50th for some years wasn’t operated by our usual cruise line. We switched lines, but they didn’t have a mini-suite category, only a suite. We looked at the lowest price suite (the higher priced ones can sell for 6 figures!!) and it had all we wanted, at a price we wanted. Perfect.

After a lot of rambling, now to the original reason for this post. Suite guests are given access to a number of perks. The first we got was at check-in. We were given a check-in time of 1:30PM, but as we had to leave the hotel at 11AM we were early. First perk, there is a waiting lounge just for suite guests. Second perk, boarding times don’t apply to suite guests. Third perk, security line ups don’t apply to suite guests, we were escorted to the front of the line. From stepping out of the taxi to being fully checked in on the ship took no more than 10 minutes!

Once on board we took a look around, there was a nice lounge for suite guests only, I am going to finish up a snob by the end of this cruise! Back in the cabin, our butler dropped by to introduce himself, and point out a few more perks!

In the evening we went to a restaurant for suite guests, it was much smaller than the main dining rooms and very well laid out. Another perk, we didn’t need to reserve ahead of time!

This is where we got our first disappointment. The menu was very limited and consisted of what I call Yuppy Food! Nothing really appealed. Then our waiter came round with two more menus from other restaurants on the ship. We could mix and match from all three menus, Perfect!

The service was excellent, as was the food.

When we left the restaurant, we passed one of the other main restaurants, there must have been 40-50 people waiting for a table.

The next morning, after our butler brought a hot breakfast to the cabin, we went to the main theater to join hundred of other guests waiting to go on tours. We discovered we could wait in the suite lounge, drink coffee, eat pastries and then be escorted ahead of the crowds to our coach, so we could get a decent seat together. Life is so tough.

I wrote way more than I planned, and you’re probably bored to tears by now, so I’ll shut up.

We arrived in Crete to the knocking of someone at our door. For some reason my alarm had failed to go off and this was our butler bringing us breakfast!! (More on that tomorrow)

The weather was overcast with drizzle and around 15C. We headed down to the waiting area (More on that tomorrow) before being escorted out to our coach.

The first stop ws Aptera, up in the hills, for a photo opportunity. The area is steeped in mythology, and in particular here it was the “sirens” who were believed to lure ship onto rocks with their singing. The 3 islands in the photo are believed to be the remains of the sirens after they lost their wings and crashed into the water. In addition to the islands there is also a bonus US Navy ship in the picture. This body of water is well sheltered and houses 3 naval bases, Greek, U.S. and NATO

Below are the remains of an ancient city wall, originally 4km long around a city of 15,000 people.

Below is a more modern structure, the Aptra Fortress built around 1867 by the Ottermans after the Cretan revolt of 1866.

Next is an old fortress, most recently used as a prison. It is no longer in use.

From here we drove to the village of Gavalochori, most famous as the first toilet break on the trip. We had 3 coach loads of passengers who had been on the road for about 45 minutes and just had to use the toilets. The village boasted 2 cafes and a supermarket, each with a single toilet. You do the math!

At the supermarket the grandmother of the owner was showing bobbin lacing. This particular form of lacing is unique to this part of Crete.

A few general street sciences in the village

A little later than scheduled, after everyone was rounded up from the toilets we headed off to the village of Georgioupolis (Georgetown). We had some heavy rain showers on the way, but they had mostly cleared up by the time we arrived.

The final stop was the city of Chania, which is an old Venetian port. Here we had a longer stay to allow us to get some food at one of the many waterside restaurants. We tried the local gyro in pita. There are 3 churches in the city, one Orthodox, one Catholic and one Mosque. The Mosque is no longer in use as such, as back in the early 20th century after one of many wars with Turkey an agreement was made to move most Muslims from Greece to Turkey and most Catholics from Turkey to Greece!! The Catholic church is down a narrow alley, as Christian churches were meant to be built out of view behind other buildings.

As we headed back to the boat the skies cleared and the sun came out!

Tomorrow is a sea day, so I’ll explain those “more about this later” comments.

Last night we found the restaurant we were looking for on the first night! Reason we couldn’t find it was that it was closed!

We got a ride from the hotel to the cruise ship, and much to our surprise we were out of the car and checked in on the ship within 10 minutes. More of that later.

We arrived in the cabin to find a bottle of champagne. For that reason there will be one picture and that’s it for tonight!!