Day 31 Cephalonia

Today we have taken up the one and only cruise ship docking position in the town of Argostoli, one of the three towns on Cephalonia which Jeanette tells me is the sixth largest Greek Island and I believe her because she goes to all the lectures and finds out all this stuff.

A pretty place which also appears to appeal to the rich and famous judging by all the giant yachts moored near us.

A walk into town along the seafront was a little disappointing. Everything looked pretty tacky and run down, and while the weather was warm, a strong wind was blasting in.

Jeanette noted an attractive laneway running inland so we walked along this out of the wind.

We had a late lunch here and pushed on inland where we came across a large treed square with lots of restaurants round its edges. It was a real transformation.

We explored around this area then tried a street which seemed to run in the approximate direction of the ship. This was a very pretty walk as the street was lined with Oleander bushes of all colours.

And we soon had visual confirmation we were heading in the right direction.

Jeanette had taken a short tour in the morning to two other towns on the island so I will let her tell you about that.

Jeanette writes: our drive to the north of the island was via a very steep, high road with sharp hairpin bends! Not pleasant in a very long bus, even with a very skilled driver – the sheer drop away from the road was super scary! But we were rewarded with spectacular scenery of turquoise water with islands and ragged coastline. First stop was Assos, a dear little village with a protected bay which was dotted with many large luxury yachts occupied by people living the dream. Little cafes dotted the water’s edge.

Next stop, we drove further north to Fiskardo, also a quaint but larger seaside village which attracts the yachts and other tourists too. Lots of cafes and touristy shops dotted the waterfront. These two villages were not affected by the magnitude 7 earthquake which ravaged Cephalonia in 1953 so their Venetian architecture has survived.

On the way back to the ship, we stopped for a photo of Mirtos Beach which has been voted the number one beach in all of Greece – and it has many, many beautiful beaches!

Day 30 At Sea

Usual sea day . Nothing to report.

Day 29 Tuscania

This morning we docked in Civitavecchia for the second time on this cruise. Big changeover of passengers as 1500 were getting off and being replaced.

Jeanette and I headed off on a tour to the ancient walled town of Tuscania. This had been virtually destroyed in an earthquake in 1971 that killed 31 of the 600 inhabitants. In the aftermath of that disaster the government decided to restore it to its original condition and sent teams of archaeologists and skilled craftsmen to rebuild it from the rubble. The remaining inhabitants were initially rehoused in flats built beyond the walls.

The old city today looks as though it has been there for centuries. It is very clean and we were the only tourists in the town which was really nice. Many houses had jasmine growing over their doorways and the scent of its flowers filled the air.

From the city walls you can look across to the Duomo of St Peter. A fair walk for the faithful to get to church I thought. Now here’s one for the trivia buffs : Whats the difference between a Duomo and a Cathedral. If it is a major church and the bishop lives near by its a Cathedral. If he only visits, its a Duomo.

Set in the most beautiful countryside, this place just exudes a beautiful calm feeling. Our guide was telling us that many foreigners have chosen to live here. It’s not a huge distance from the sea and from Rome.

In one portion of the old town, the residents decided not to rebuild but to create a lovely green park.

Speaking of Rome, the name of the town’s main street indicates where all roads lead to.

Our next stop was at a local farm where we tried Bruschetta made from their tomatoes, tasted their olive oil and drank their rather pleasant white wine. The weather was just perfect.

Arriving back at the ship, as there was a lot of the day left, we decided to head into Civitavecchia. The docking area was absolute chaos since, as we found out later, there were some 16,000 people trying to board and disembark at the same time. We couldn’t find the shuttle bus into town amongst all this chaos so we decided to walk the long winding road into the city.

Along the way we passed many miserable and flustered passengers heading in the opposite direction towing large suitcases over the rough path. I got this shot of Jeanette trying to attract this sailor’s attention.

We wound up for lunch in a cafe that had what you might term a slightly dysfunctional operational style. The boss would find fault, tell off his wife who would then scream at the head waiter who would then loudly payout the skinny teenage kid who seemed to be doing most of the work, then they would all, but the kid, head out the back and have a verbal altercation with the cook. This cycle seemed to repeat over and over. Given all that, the food was surprisingly good.

Day 28 At Sea

Today we crossed the Ionian Sea then turned north through the Straits of Messina back into the Tyrrhenian Sea where we maintained a northward course en route to Civitavecchia where we are scheduled to arrive around 8am tomorrow.

In the course of this transit we again passed by the volcanic island of Stromboli only this time on the other side.

A quiet day. Jeanette managed to get to the 10am Church Service and a lecture on the Early History of Rome. After lunch she was off hunting for a spare washing machine which fortunately, she managed to find quite quickly

Day 27 Katakolon

This morning we tied up in the pretty little port of Katakolon. Our ship was really testing the limits of what could fit here.

Back on a dreaded bus, we took a 40 minute ride to the site of the ancient Olympic games.

This really is a fascinating place. We first came across the temple of Hera.

Then the Temple of Zeus, on whose steps the winning athletes were awarded the wreath made of olive leaves. Back in the day, this temple had a statue of a seated figure of Zeus made of an outer casing of gold and ivory set over a wooden frame and stood over 40 feet in height.

One interesting technique they had for ensuring fair play at the games was the wall of shame. On the right hand side of the path that athletes used to enter the arena was a large open area filled with bronze statues of winners in previous games. On the left side was the wall of shame. If an athlete was caught cheating, he had to pay to produce a bronze statue of himself which would stand along the wall of shame. On its base was his name, his father’s name and the name of the city he was representing.

In addition he was banned from ever competing in the Olympics again as were his sons, and his city was banned from the next two games. Interestingly, while the names of many of the winners have been lost to history, the names of the 16 cheating athletes that wound up along the wall of shame are still known.

The museum on the site had a fascinating collection of ancient greek and later Roman sculptures as well as the largest collection of ancient Greek helmets in the world.

But the best thing they had was, would you believe it, the actual helmet of Miltiades, the highly talented Greek commander whose Athenian army defeated a numerically superior Persian army at the Battle of Marathon in 490 BC. This battle is thought to have been one of the key turning points in the history of the West as a loss here would have signalled the end of Greek civilisation and, but for Miltiades’ outstanding generalship, we would be living in a very different world today.

We got back to the ship and decided to check out the town of Katakolon which is a pretty place mainly focused on the tourist trade.

It has a population of around 600 and a pier that can only handle one cruise ship at a time. The pier is a bit exposed and with the winds that came in this afternoon, the ship had to keep its bow and stern thrusters operating to reduce the strain on its mooring lines.

We had a late lunch in one of their waterfront cafes before the increasing winds forced us back to the ship.

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Day 26 At Sea

A very quiet day recovering from our exertions of the previous day.

Formal night again tonight. This picture is to prove that Jeanette and I are both there at the same time.

Day 25 Athens.

This morning we arrived in, Piraeus, the Port of Athens. This is a really bustling place with ferries ranging from giant Spirt of Tasmania size to smaller catamarans and hydrofoils coming and going at a remarkable clip.

On the dreaded buses at 8:00am, we headed off to see the amazing Corinth Canal that connects the Gulf of Corinth in the Ionian Sea with the Saronic Gulf in the Aegean Sea. 

First contemplated in ancient times by the City state of Corinth, their attempt to dig this canal failed due to continued collapses. Instead in 600BC they built an overland route, an early ship railway, where ships were hauled across the narrow Isthmus in wheeled cradles that ran in grooves.

In Roman times Julius Cesar conducted a preliminary design and site investigation works for a canal but it was under the reign of Nero that the second serious failed attempt was taken with thousands of slaves assigned to the task. This, however, ceased after two years on Nero’s death.

The Venetians tried again in the 1680s trying to continue on from what Nero had achieved but finally gave up.

The last and finally successful attempt was carried out in 1893. The canal cuts through the narrow Isthmus of Corinth and “separates” the Peloponnese peninsula from the rest of the Greek mainland

The Corinth Canal never lived up to expectations. It’s very narrow, making navigation difficult, and the anticipated traffic never materialized. There’s also the danger of sedimentary rock sliding off the canal walls and you can see where this has continued to happen as you sail through it. Still it is an amazing place to visit.

Our next stop was the Archaeological Museum at the Ruins of the Roman city of Corinth. If you remember how the old father in the movie ‘My Big Fat Greek Wedding’ used to go on about how the Greeks invented everything. I can speak from experience of several Greek guides that this appears to be a common Greek trait. Unfortunately our guide today had it in spades.

This museum has a reputation of having a fine collection of ancient sculpture but rather than see them we got corralled in a small airless side room where we got a long lecture on the history of the Greek gods, which I should say we have been told twice before, then how you could remember the history of Athens by the fingers on one hand, then we went thru an endless etymology showing all the English words that had come from the Greek.

By the time she had run out of breath we only had time to bolt out of the museum,do a quick half circuit around a very extensive set of ruins of a Roman city, before we had to get back on the bus.

We, however, managed to see the spot, pictured above, where St Paul is said to have preached to the Corinthians, which was pretty special.

We had a late lunch in a beautiful beach front hotel, then hopped on the bus again for a long slow trip back thru peak hour traffic to the ship. It had been a very long day and we were both wrecked.

Day 24 Crete

This was the day we were supposed to be docked at Santorini. However, our third attempt to reach the Greek Islands had again failed, this time due to a recent earthquake that had damaged their port facilities.

So instead we tied up at Crete. As this was a last minute booking, we were in an industrial town on the less desirable north coast. The south coast is said to have sand. The north just had rocks. Every ships tour took one and half hours or more just to get somewhere moderately more interesting.

Crete is is long narrow island and it has a modern highway running its length. When you get off this highway the fun really starts. The bus squeezed down narrow alley ways with just inches of clearance between the building walls and the bus sides.

My favourite was the little village we passed through where the road had a 90 degree turn. They had to move a tractor and the lady that ran the local cafe had to move all the tables and chairs she had set up on the roadway so we could get through.

Eventually we arrived at a pretty little monastery which we spent sometime exploring. There was a platoon of armed Greek soldiers just standing outside the chapel. They were there when we came. They were there when we left.

Interesting feature was that the monks all used to organise their own lives and their cells each had their own kitchen and bedroom.

Our next stop was Rethymon, a medieval seaside town and port next to a large castle built to protect this area.

This was a lovely place with little winding alleyways.

Built originally by the Venetians, the old port has now largley silted up but the old stone whaves have been converted into lovely waterfront dining venues.

They looked so nice we stopped for lunch.

At the end of the breakwater is a lighthouse built, would you believe, by the Egyptians. Not the pharaohs but in the mid 19th century when Egypt managed to grab Crete for a few years from the decaying Ottoman Empire.

Day 23 At Sea en route to Crete

Jeanette was on a hunt early today to find a spare washing machine and finally achieved success on her third try.

We checked out a lecture on early Greece and we had lunch at the Golden Lion Pub.

Tonight was a formal night so I had to submit to the torture of a black tie, and the featured item on the dinner menu was, to the mild discomfort of most Victorian passengers, Beef Wellington.

The show following after dinner was advertised as smooth Jazz and Swing. The featured singer was truly outstanding though the effect was ruined by a very large lady in the seat behind us who insisted on loudly singing along. She not only had a terrible singing voice but she also didn’t know many of the lyrics. Neither defect stopped her though.

Day 22 Our second day in Istanbul

Today we decided to venture out on our own. On our last visit here, our visit to the Grand Bazaar was very short and we thought we would like to spend a bit more time exploring it. Established in 1461 it has over 60 streets and 4000 shops. It is claimed to attract between 250,000 to 500,000 visitors a day.

Now Google maps suggested the walk from our ship to the Bazaar would be around 42 minutes but since we were planning to spend a couple of hours exploring it and then we still had to get back to the ship, we decided to take the tram which runs past the Ocean terminal.

As we walked to catch the tram, a taxi driver said the tram wasn’t operating. I told Jeanette that he was just touting for business and we walked on for a while and caught a tram, rode three stops, hopped off and got totally lost.

A kind local, seeing us staring at our phone screen trying to reconcile a cross road that was on the map but didn’t exist in reality, gave us directions to the Bazaar, which worked.

As we walked , I noticed the street we were in was predominantly full of shops selling artist supplies, fine papers and framing services.

The next street we turned into was about a half kilometre long and both sides were solely dedicated to jewellery shops. I suppose in a city of nearly 18 Million people you can support specialisation like that.

Finally we made it to Gate No 1 of the Grand Bazaar.

To your right as you enter the Grand Bazaar, was an enormous and very beautiful mosque. I couldn’t get far enough back to get the whole of it in but this shot shows some of it.

Inside the Bazaar was a mass of heaving humanity. Unfortunately it is an enclosed space and since most of the shopkeepers smoke, our visit was not quite as long as we had planned.

As we were leaving I got this photo of a male tea lady doing his rounds of the shops.

We retraced our steps back to the tram stop where we had initially got off and boarded a tram back. This went for a while in the right direction then suddenly reversed course. By the time we fought our way thru the crowds to the exit we were three more stops into the middle of the old city.

Never daunted, we got off and caught another tram back but this too stopped at the place where our previous tram reversed and we were told by a kind local this was as far as it went. It turned out, as the taxi driver told me at the start, the tram to the Ocean Terminal wasn’t operating.

So we headed off on foot across the Galata Bridge which was packed with fishermen on both sides.

We had a lovely walk back along the waterfront where we came across this amazing glass sculpture of Apollo’s head which it is claimed weighs 12 tons so no chance of it being stolen.

We had a late lunch in a waterfront cafe watching the endless parade of small watercraft.

In the early evening, we stood on our cabin balcony sadly watching our ship pull away from the dock as twilight fell. This is a lovely city and the kindnesses we were shown by its citizens on a number of occasions made a deep impression on us.