2019 Ancient Empires & Mediterranean Legends Cruises

Wednesday, October 30, 2019

Tuesday, September 17, 2019 - Docked in Piraeus, visited Athens, Greece

We started earlier again with Monica and Bill to visit Athens today. The main attraction to visit was the Acropolis. The Acropolis is the centerpiece of Athens. It is rising up from the city center and is a rocky, fortified, limestone plateau, topped with the Parthenon and several other ancient monuments.

When we got there, it was already packed with tourists. This was our 2nd time to visit the Acropolis, therefore we were sort of familiar with it's surroundings. Again, we did the usual of walking around and taking a lot of photos.

First we saw the Odeon of Herodes Atticus which is a stone theatre structure located on the southwest slope of the Acropolis and it is one of the more “modern” buildings on the Acropolis, built in 161 AD. This theater can accommodate almost 5,000 people and it is still used for performances during the summer months.

Odeon of Herodes Atticus

Then, we went through Propylaea which is the gateway into the Acropolis; it’s a grand entrance, meant to impress visitors with its colonnaded entryway and marble buildings.

Propylaea

Later, we saw the Temple of Athena Nike standing next to the Propylaea. This small temple is dedicated to the goddess Athena Nike who was the protector of the city of Athens.

Temple of Athena Nike

Then, we saw the Parthenon which is the centerpiece of the Acropolis.

Parthenon in Acropolis, Athens, Greece

Panoramic view of Acropolis

We also saw Erechtheion, Pandroseion, and the Old Temple of Athena which appears to be one building is really three separate temples and sanctuaries.

Erechtheion in Acopolis, Athens, Greece

Then, we visited the Acropolis Museum which is an archaeological museum focused on the findings of the archaeological site of the Acropolis of Athens. The museum was built to house every artifact found on the rock and on the surrounding slopes, from the Greek Bronze Age to Roman and Byzantine Greece. Several interesting parts of the museum are Gallery of the Slopes, Archaic Gallery, Caryatid Ladies and Parthenon Procession.

Acropolis Museum in Athens, Greece

Gallery of the Slopes has a transparent floors reveal the excavations of the maze of settlements and sanctuaries that once sat at the foot of the Acropolis. This gallery also displays items that were found here. There is Archaic Gallery which is a column-filled gallery allowing one have the opportunity to view exhibits from all sides as three-dimensional exhibits. There are 5 of the 6 original columns that supported the south porch roof of the Erectheion can be found here. The third level of the museum is Parthenon Gallery which allow one to see the frieze of reconstituted panels around the Parthenon but at eye level.

Then our guide took us to the Temple of Olympian Zeus for a short visit and photo taking.

Temple of Olympian Zeus, Athens, Greece

Then he took us to The Ancient Agora which is the best-known example of an ancient Greek agora. The word "agora" applies to an assembly of people and by extend marks the gathering place. In modern Greek the term means “marketplace".

First we visited the Hephaisteion which is located at the north-west side of the Agora of Athens, on top of the Agoraios Kolonos hill. The building's condition has been maintained due to its history of varied use.

The Hephaisteion in the Ancient Agora, Athens, Greece

Then we walked around several ruins and finally reached the Stoa of Atallos which is the most striking building in the Agora. The Stoa of Attalos houses the Museum of the Ancient Agora. The collection of the museum includes clay, bronze and glass objects, sculptures, coins and inscriptions from the 7th to the 5th century BC, as well as pottery of the Byzantine period and the Turkish conquest.

The Ancient Agora, Athens, Greece

Then we walked to the Roman Agora which is located to the north of the Acropolis and to the east of the Ancient Agora.

The Roman Agora, Athens, Greece

Then we were on the van for another hour of driving to south of Athens and arrived at the tip of the peninsula to visit the Ancient Greek Temple of Poseidon at Cape Sounion. It is one of the major monuments of the Golden Age of Athens. It is situated above the sea at a height of almost 60 meters. With much less tourists at this attraction, we were able to throughly enjoy this wonderful ancient temple.

Ancient Greek Temple of Poseidon at Cape Sounion, Greece

Then we had another hour drive back to Piraeus.

Wednesday, September 18, 2019 - Docked in Kusadasi, visited Ephesus, Turkey

We went to a private tour arranged by Arlene to visit Ephesus. We had a driver and a tour guide Denizhan Pekoz who is very knowledgeable.

The 1st stop was The Temple of Artemis which was built to honor Artemis, one of three maiden goddesses of Olympus. This temple is considered one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. We only stayed at distance to see these ruins.

The Temple of Artemis from distance

Then our guide took us to a ceramic factory showing us the traditional ceramic making and also provided some opportunities for shopping.

He then took us to Ephesus House of Virgin Mary. In our previous trip we also visited this place, and still remembered it. Even this is our 2nd time visit, we still enjoyed of seeing the house, the wishing wall which pilgrims have used by tying their personal intentions on paper or fabric, and the Holy Water Taps which signify wealth, health and fertility.

Ephesus House of Virgin Mary

Holy Water Taps near House of Virgin Mary

The wishing wall near Houst of Virgin Mary

By the time we drove to one of the entry point of the Ephesus, the crowd had already reduced significantly. The timing was set by our guide purposely to avoid the large crowd. It compared to the visit we had previously, the crowd was significantly increased.

The archeological site of Ephesus is an ancient city once a hub for the Mediterranean, a mixing pot of culture and diversity and a true example of a classical metropolis. With so many architectural structures now uncovered, Ephesus is a must-see destination for culture lovers and archeology enthusiasts alike.

At one point, when the city was the capital of Roman Asia Minor, Ephesus housed more than 250,000 permanent residents. Religious scholars even believe that St.Paul lived in Ephesus, fostering Christianity among many other religions. For roughly 1,500 years, Ephesus was all but forgotten. The remnants of this incredible classical city were hidden from the world until the 1860s, when an international team of archeologists began discovering the ruins. Today, less than 20 percent of Ephesus has been excavated, but it is still one of the largest accessible archeological sites in the world.

Exciting attractions of Ephesus are :

The Library of Celsus which was once of the largest libraries in the ancient world.
Curetes Way which was the main road that runs through Ephesus and many of the buildings once served as shops and homes for the countless residents living in the city.
Terraced Houses which is one of the most recently excavated attractions in Ephesus
Temple of Hadrian was dedicated to the Emperor Hadrian is considered one of the best preserved and most beautiful structures on Curetes Street.
Stone carving of the goddess Nike. Nike was the goddess of victory in Greek mythology, depicted as having wings, hence her alternative name "Winged Goddess”. The sports equipment company Nike, Inc. is named after the Greek goddess Nike.
Grand open-air theatre with estimated 25,000 seating capacity

The Library of Celsus

Curetes Way

Temple of Hadrian

Grand open-air theatre

After Ephesus, we visited a carpet store of showing the carpet making process. It was another shopping opportunity, however, no one did any buying of these carpets.

Then we drove to Sirince which is a small village recently attracted many tourists. We walked around the whole village in about 30 minutes. It was an interesting small village but not much worth to mention it. We did stop by their farmer’s market and Fei bought some local walnuts.

Street corner in Sirince

Sirince's farmer’s market

On the way back to the cruise port, our guide also stopped by a huge candy store namely Turkey Delights to sample the Turkey candies and deserts. Some of us brought them as treats for friends back home.

Thursday, September 19, 2019 - Docked in Mykonos, visited Mykonos, Greece

We visited Mykonos during our Mediterranean Cruise in 2006, therefore we could vaguely remember the layout of the main village Chora. We visited attractions in Chora and the Paradise Beach in 2006, so we planned to just walk around Chora and maybe visit the Elia Beach this time. However, after we walked around all attractions in Chora including Paraportiani, Little Venice, Windmills and the tight-winding streets with all interesting shops in Chora, we enjoyed this place so much and did not even try to go to Elia Beach.

Paraportiani

Windmills

Little Venice

Small Blue Dome Chruch

Central Square in Charo, Mykonos

Chora's tight-winding streets

Near Central Square in Charo, Mykonos

Chora's tight-winding streets with beautiful flowers

It brought back a lot of good memories from 13 years ago, and we were equally enjoyed this wonderful vacation town.

Friday, September 20, 2019 - Docked in Rhodes, visited Rhodes, Greece

This is our first self tour in this cruise. The Old Town of Rhodes was designated as an UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1988. Rhodes Medieval Old Town was divided into three sections,

The area north of Sokratous Street was restricted to the Knights. This area includes the Palace of the Grand Masters, the hospital, churches and buildings used by the Knights.
The Hora, south of Sokratous Street, is where commoners lived. It's shown on the map as the “Ottoman Quarter”. It's a large area with churches, mosques, the Turkish baths, Turkish houses, cafes, shops, etc.
The Jewish Quarter is a small area to the southeast. It's primarily a residential area.

We entered the Old Town via the Virgin Mary’s Gate and right away we saw Panagia tou Bourgou (Virgin Mary of Burgos).

Panagia tou Bourgou (Virgin Mary of Burgos)

Then we walked to Evreon Martyron Square, did some shopping and then walked further north to the Street of the Knights.

The Street of the Knights

Sign of the Street of the Knights

Interesting alley from The Street of the Knights

After an interesting short walk, we came to the Grand Master Palace. It is one of our planned attractions to be visited in Rhodes Medieval Old Town. It is a museum now with its ground floor consisting of two permanent exhibits on “The city of Rhodes”. The first exhibit covers the founding of Rhodes in 408 B.C. until the Roman Empire, and the second covers the 4th century A.D. until the Ottoman occupation (1522).

The Grand Master Palace

The ticket we got including the Kollakio Wall (the Old Town Wall). It was about 1 hour walk with top view of Rhodes Old Town and wonderful view of the Clock Tower, and the Rhodes Port.

View of the Grand Master Palace from the Kollakio Wall (the Old Town Wall)

On top of the Kollakio Wall (the Old Town Wall)

City View from the top of Kollakio Wall (the Old Town Wall)

View from the Virgin Mary’s Gate

Saturday, September 21, 2019 - Docked in Santorini, visited Santorini, Greece

Today, we visited Santorini which is the most famous island in the Cyclades group of the greek islands. The whitewashed, cube-shaped houses of its 2 principal towns, Fira and Oia, cling to cliffs above Aegean Sea. This is one of the must see sites for us during this cruise. The tender port is at bottom of the cliff and the Fira town is on top of the cliff. There are 3 ways to get from tender port to Fira; namely Cable Car which is famous with it’s long queue, riding donkeys through Donkey Trail as shown in many Greek movies, and walking up via Donkey Trail.

After we got off the tender boat, we noticed that the queue for cable cars was not bad at all, therefore we decided to take the cable car to Fira. The plan for us was to take the public bus from Fira to Oia to visit Oia first then visit Fira after we get back from Oia. From the Fira cable car stop to the bus station, there are many different shops and local tours companies. When we got to the bus station, we were told that we just wait there for the Oia bus and buy bus tickets on the bus. However there was no sign to tell us where was the bus stop. There were a lot of buses and people in the area, it was tough to figure our which bus was for Oia and when it would take off. Luckily, there was a bus pulling in the area, and we heard the driver’s reply to some anxious tourists with “yes, this is the one for Oia”, we quickly got on this bus and found seats. Then there were more people got on the bus with standing room only until there is no more room even for standing. After that then there was a ticket agent squeezing through the crowd for us to buy tickets from her. That reminded us the way we rode the public bus when we were young in Taiwan.

After we got to Oia, it was not difficult to find the route to the town by just following the crowd. With a short walk along all sort of shops, we found the Panagia Platsani in the Main Square of Oia. The building is white-washed and features a blue-dome and arched windows.

According to legend, this place of worship came into existence when the townspeople decided to build the cathedral at its previous location to honor the icon of the Virgin Mary that was found in the sea by a fisherman. After much struggle, the fisherman, along with the priest and fellow parishioners brought the icon to the church. The icon moved the following day, by phenomenon, from the church to the castle. Each time, the citizens returned the symbol to the church, it allegedly moved back to the castle miraculously. It was then that the townspeople decided to build a place of worship where the Virgin Mary had placed the icon.

This place was packed with tourists and it took us quite a while to get decent photos.

Panagia Platsani

Then we follow detailed description of Tom’s Port Guide (from internet) to walk down further to find the famous Blue Domed Church which is on almost all traveling magazine when they write about Santorini.

View from the Oia Castle

Front view of the Panagia Agion Panton

Finally, we found the famous Blue Domed Churches as shown on all traveling magazines. Therefore, we decided to explore further to get into different routes to check these famous picturesque churches. Since most of the buildings are marked as private for residences or hotels, we had to just walk though some hanging ropes to get down closer to sea shore. With extra effort, we got the chance of taking a lot of photos from many different spots.

Famous Blue Dome Church

Blue Dome Church

Famous Blue Dome Church

Then, we took the 1pm bus back to Fira. First we walked to the Hypapante Cathedral, there were a lot of tourists there.

The Hypapante Cathedral

After some photos, we walked to Fira town to just wondering around. It was more or less window shopping and people watching.

Shopping street in Hira, Santorini

After a while, we followed others to climb up a trail along the seashore to the top of a hill. The scenery was nice, but the climb was pretty demanding on our leg muscles. After we got to the top, we found out that it was the cable car stop. Since we did not walk on the Donkey Trail in the morning, we decided to walk down from the town to tender port via Donkey Trail. We did see a lot of donkeys and tourists riding on donkeys on the trail. It was a little bit smelly and slippery. No wonder Holland America did not recommend their guests to walk up or down the Donkey Trail. Actually, we believe walk up will be less slippery than walking down.

The Donkey Trail

After we got back to the Tender Port, we took some time walking along the seashore to enjoy the sea breeze and scenery.

View of Hira from the Tender Port