Monday/Tuesday: Delphi - Athens and Beyond

Wow!  What can one say about Delphi?  First off,  it's museum (absolutely on the DO NOT MISS list) is chock full of archaeological finds, reproductions of marble statues (like the statue of Antinoos) , metal use (like the unique bronze charioteer), the Naxian Spinx, gold and silver jewelry, weaponry, stone work. The museum presents it in a way that you can see the absolutely unbelievable early artistry and its progression from one era to the next.  Ah, but after the museum the "fun walk" starts.  Back on those wonderful marble slab paths (watch out for the shiny parts - slippery) to visit the theater, the archaeological site of the Temple of Apollo, Castalia Spring and the large rock that is referred to as "The Navel of the Universe".   Ask one of us to explain, it has to do with Greek Mythology and is very complicated.  The ruins are just (in my way of thinking) unbelievable as to their size, workmanship and beauty - I kept thinking to myself "How de do dat?"  I took some photos purposely including people to show the enormity of these objects.  You also have to wonder - where did we go wrong in not following through with the creativity of these marvels?
I am not sure I mentioned this before, but try to arrange your expeditions in the morning as the afternoons can be brutally hot.  Especially when you are walking up somewhat steep inclines on marble slabs.
We ended the day with a not so exciting lunch at one of the pre-determined stops.  Our guide (Elena), a very spry 67 year old who has been a tour guide for 38 years (but has the stamina of a 25 year old - at times, we had a hard time keeping up with her!) told us that the "rest stops" as pre-determined by "the supervisors".  Nonetheless, she made this tour worth every cent as she relentlessly filled us in on the history (both real and mythological) of each site and included information that I am not sure the average tour guide would have.  She kind of reminded me of a female Desi Arnez as the would often start off her talk with "Now let me s'plain something to you."  
After lunch, we said goodbye to six of our fellow tourists, (our tour consisted of 10 people in the beginning) as four were continuing on to the fourth day of the tour, and joined a large group who were returning to Athens after a one day tour to Delphi.  Word to the wise - if you visit Athens, take the three (or four) day tour (as we did) and don't settle for the one day outing.  It's not worth it for just one day as you really lose a bit of the flavor of the surroundings and it makes for one very long day.  
We hassled getting through the Athens traffic (at 7:30 at night) to our hotel.  Seems like someone else was on strike in Athens today.  We returned to the same hotel we had stayed at.  
I cannot say enough about the Athens Plaza hotel - first class!  We had to be picked up by 5:00 a.m. on Tuesday and asked if we could get a few rolls and juice before we left.  Of course - they delivered juice, tea, coffee, misc rolls, meat, cheese and fruits to our room at 4:15 a.m. Tuesday morning.
One thing I almost forgot - tell me that last time you rode in a Mercedes Benz TAXI!  I'm not joking.  We were taken to the airport that way.  As a matter of fact, we saw very few "older" or average type autos.  Most of the buses were Mercedes or comparable.  More on all this later.    
Some of you have asked about updated photos.  I was able to upload a few interesting sign photos that I added in Delphi from various areas we had visited.  I will try the slideshow route from various areas along with a slideshow of the signs that I found interesting.
I will wrap up our Grecian odyssey in my next post along with personal observations, hints and general truths.   

Sunday - Olympia to Delphi

Two Updates  - couldn't get internet service in Olympia 

We left our hotel in Olympia (The Olympia Palace) at 9:00 a.m.   We got to sleep in until at 7:30 wake up call which was nice.  However, why are the beds to low to the ground around here?  We first visited the archaeological site of Olympia which includes the Temple of Zeus (or what is left of it), the altar of the Olympic flame and the stadiums (we also viewed the training areas – for both men and women!).  It boggles my mind trying to figure out how in the heck these people were able to construct these massive engineering marvels with what they had available ( hich was basically slave labor).  The bases for the pillars alone are massive and to see how they fit each together is amazing (let alone trying to figure out how they got them to align, etc.).  The museum here is well worth the visit as it contains many replicas (and originals) of ancient Grecian and Roman statues, pottery, armory, etc.  If you visit, do it in the morning!   We then drove through Patras to Rion, across the channel of a state of the art suspension bridge.  We stopped for lunch at a nice place conveniently called the Touris Club.  This was a buffet and gave us all a chance to taste different types of Greek cuisine.  After a long drive up a scenic, but winding, road we made a brief stop at the village of Arachova.  We are now at our hotel which is somewhat Spartan but has a great view.   Our tour guide has already warned us that the trip to Delphi tomorrow includes lots of walking UP!  Thank goodness it is the last day because I think that my Grecian historical/archeological/mythological mental hard drive is 99% full.  I will have to do a defrag when we get back.  After Delphi and various sops we head back to Athens.   

One other travel comment – if you book any trip through a travel agent, or go on your own,  try and get as many advance travel brochures as you can and/or do your research ahead of time.  There is just too much verbal information given out by these great guides we have had to absorb.    

Saturday - Athens to Olympia (not Washington)

Saturday – 5:10 P.M. (Grecian Time) on a small motor coach (Mercedes Benz no less) somewhere on the way to Olympia.  We have already had a full day.  We got picked up at 7:00 a.m. at our hotel in Athens (nice place) and then were transferred to this smaller “bus”  There are only 10 of us on board (the four of us, one couple from LA and two couples from Australia (ahh – that’s pronounced Oz trailyeeea to you mate!).  We visited the amphitheater in Epidavros. This city was also known as the center of healing in ancient times.

Next we visited Mycenae where there is another acropolis and dates back to the 16 -12^th century BC!   The museum here has many reproduced artifacts from the early civilizations and it is truly mind boggling (to me anyway how they were able to produce such masterpieces). 

Side note – cheapest gas we have seen so far is 1,59 Euros (not a typo – they use the comma like we use the decimal point).  Before you decide to sell your house and move to Greece based on the price of gas, that price is per liter not per gallon (you figure it out) so we don’t have it so bad after all. 

Very bumpy and curvy road so I’m signing off for now.  Hopefully I’ll be able to send this out when we get to our final destination. 

Tried to send out from our hotel – The Olympia Palace – but server is down = ( 

Friday afternoon - At an outdoor cafe in Athens = )

We missed the taxi strike by one day in Athens, HOWEVER, we did not miss the fact that today the metro is "closed" and their was a general demgh.  More lattouonstration at the town square (located near our hotel).  However, in the a.m. we got on another tour bus but agiaw part of the city (drove by the Grecian Tomb of the Unknown Soldier) and then to the fabulous Acropolis.  WOW!  What a site -Right out of the istory books.  You truly "had to be there". Sorry - I gotta get back to my stuffed cabbage, stuffed grape leaves, mousakaf.  Life is tough.  Photos later.  

Thursday (Crete and Santori) Update –

We arrived (docked) at 7:00 a.m.   We signed up for the next three tours on the ship.  Word to the future wise traveler – if you don’t like “cattle call” tours, wait to you get on land and check into a personal guided tour. 

Crete – We were on an English/French speaking tour where the tour guide seemed to spend more time parlevousing than speaking Americaneze.  We visited an authentic olive farm, got to taste different types of Raki (Greek moonshine - too early in the a.m.), saw how they used to crush olives and Greek dancers perform for us.  We went by the lake in small village of Aglos Nikolaosake (Voulismeni).  According to legend, the goddess Athena took her baths in this lake.  We also drove through some of the small villages.  Back on the ship as we were due in Santorini at 4:00 p.m.

Santorini –

This is the first port where we had to take a tender in to shore.  And we were the fifth cruise line to be in port at the time (approx 1200 x 5 = mucho tourists!). 

We boarded our tour bus and began an interesting road odyssey.  Imagine a switchback trail going up a very steep mountain.  OK – now change that trail to a (maximum) two lane road.  Now envision NO guardrails on the side of the road.  Now envision tour buses going up and down these roads with numerous “hairpin” turns.  As the tour guide said “if you are afraid of heights close your eyes.  That does not include the bus driver.”   On the way up we were able to see great views of the island.  We then visitied the Oia village where we walked along the cobble-stone narrow streets.  These are the picturesque scenes that you see on those travel posters that say “Visit Greece”.  We took what we hope are some great photos.  Beverly found some cats to feed so she was happy!  We then returned to the port of Athinios.  We boarded a rocky tender back to the ship at 8:30 p.m.  Long day! 

Wednesday – On the Road to Rhodes (with Ephesus update)

But before we begin today’s journey …

Tuesday (continued) Ancient Ephesus – History fact: during the years of the Roman Empire, the Greek port of Ephesus became the greatest city in Asia Minor.  We entered the ancient city through the Magnesian Gate.  We walked the streets where Mark Anthony and Cleopatra once rode in procession (you could almost picture Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor being there).  Among the marvels (and there are many) are the massive blocks of marble and stone that make up the avenue streets.  Remember all those pictures in your history books (and on travel brochures) that show ancient Roman and Greek ruins and how magnificent they seemed?  Believe me, they are for real!  Many artifacts recovered still reflect the original ancient Greek writing etched in the stone.  The marble and sandstone pillars are massive.  We viewed the forums (both private and public), the reconstructed remains of the Library of Celsus, the thermal baths of Scolastika and numerous continual archeological works still going on.  Remember all the pictures in your Another breathtaking experience and, after viewing the superb engineering, forethought  and obvious long term planning involved, one has to wonder “where did we go wrong?” 

(side note) if you are considering cruising in the future, try to find a vessel with open dining availability.  Somehow we ended up at the late seating time which means (earliest) 8:45 evening dining.  Which means, if you don’t want the buffet, you don’t get done until about 11:00 p.m.   When you’ve been hoofing it over what seems like the long lost route to Shangri-La, you really want to grab some grub and call it a day. 

Rhodes and Philerimos

We  docked at 7:00 a.m. and our tour left at 7:30 a.m.  Looked like rain at first, but it was only overcast in the early a.m. 

(side note: tourist season on “the islands” goes from late March to the end of November.  We asked one of the tour guides what he did from December for March when the tourist season slowed down and his reply was … “Pray!”  According to locals we have been lucky not to have encountered any rain.  Actually the weather has been mostly pleasant).

We started off our bus tour by driving along the medieval walls to the summit of Mount Smith, the Acropolis of ancient Rhodes.  The tumbled massive pillars of the Temple of Athena and the port once protected by the Colossus of Rhodes (the two base pillars still exist but the original statue was destroyed by an earthquake.  Ships entered by sailing between his legs (ouch!).  This was considered one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.  We also visited the summit of Philerimos and the restored Byzantine Church of Our Lady of Philerimos (talk about a turn around – was originally a catholic church, then converted to a moslem temple then converted to a Greek Orthodox church – whose on first?).  Beautiful inside and out with lots of ancient Greek Orthodox icons.  Also included long path with stations of the cross leading to a massive crucifix where you could climb to the top).    Now off to Crete and Santorini (pronounced SAN torenee). 

If It’s Tuesday – it must be Patmos and Kusadasi

Patmos: Docked at at 7:00 a.m.  Since we did not have a pre-arranged tour we could not leave until 8:00 a.m.  Thinking we were going to be visiting a cave we brought jackets – not!  First off, it was already warm and somewhat muggy when we got off.  Secondly, the “cave” is really a grotto.  We secured a taxi to take us to the Grotto of the Apocalypse and St. John Monastery (30 Euros for 3 – not bad).  Do not attempt to walk to these attractions unless you have all day and are in tip top shape, 

Grotto of the Apocalypse and Monastery of the Apocalypse – The grotto is recognized as the place where St. John the Divines was said to have dictated the text of Revelations to his pupil Prochoros in 95 A.D.  (I just hope he had a good word processing program!).  Very sparse living conditions.  Scenery is beyond breathtaking. 

St. John Monastery – Founded in 1088 to honor St. John the Magnificent – they refer to this as a “fortified monastery” based on the fact that it is located at the very top of the hill and you can readily see how difficult it is to directly enter.  Again, the scenery from this viewpoint is magnificent.  The museum contains manuscripts as early as the 7^th and 8^th century and the artistry involved is magnificent.  They also had numerous (one dimensional) icons (Greek Orthodox religion does not believe in using a statue as a worship artifact or representation of sacred personnel).  We were able to visit the altar area, the dressing area and general meeting place all of which were ornate (in a very religious way) with frescos (paintings) on the walls and ceilings.  The artwork on the walls and ceilings was just amazing on its own. 

Word to the wise – if you take this tour, bring good walking shoes.  There are no elevators!

Kusadasi:  (back to Turkey?)  Actually located on the south side of the Greek Island of Samos. 

The House of the Virgin Mary- We drove through Kusadasi to reach Mt. Koressos where the chapel lies on the site where the Virgin Mary is believed to have spent her last days.  This site has been certified by the Vatican as an official pilgrimage site (still waiting for AAA Certification – jk). 

Found an internet café in Rhodes but too slow to upload photos.  Will update everything tonight.  I am close to being “toured out”.