Goodbye...GREECE...maybe we'll visit you again...
This was our last lunch together before splitting up for our own time shopping. After shopping a while, we took the train back to our hotel room to rest. I decided to go to the top of the hotel and do some swimming/relaxing up there. Shauna was up there and so we had a nice visit together before I went back down to get some dinner with Rich. We walked around town near the hotel and got some local bakery items and some kumkwats at a fresh fruit stand for dinner. We were pretty full after lunch. We got a few hours of sleep before leaving early in the morning (about 4 or 5 a.m with Cheryl/Dan.) The hotel provided a sack for breakfast that we ate along the way.
Friday, June 6th we dissembarked in
Piraeus, Athens. We had this last day in Athens and we were back at the
Coral Hotel again. We spent the morning and early afternoon downtown in the Plaka area where I needed to find a painting to hang on my wall. Us girls split some
spinakopita at a local bakery. I like my mothers spinakopita much better! YUM...
When we eventually got to the dock and found our ships' guide, he told us that they were only missing 5 more people and right after he said this, they came and we were off...we BARELY made it on the last taxi boat back to the
Aquamarine!!! Goodbye Santorini!
After standing in line for quite a while, we made it to the
cable cars which took us down to the water and dock.
Richard stood in line for the cable-cars going back down to the dock while I did a little shopping for any souveniers. We didn't know if we were going to make it before the ship set sail!
Richard took us up this old BUMPY road where we could see another village on the other side of the island. It was very scary going back down the hill with all the switch-backs and Richard driving pretty fast and oft-times slipping as he made the turns (the road was paved with rocks that were flat and smooth making them very slippery).
We stopped off at a church with the traditional blue/white-washed colors. We also saw many fields of grape-vines (used for making their own wine).
We didn't spend much time looking at the shops because Rich was tired of doing that. Instead, we found an ATV rental place and asked if we could be charged half the price because we only had a couple of hours. So, instead of 20 euro, he only charged us 10 euro for the rest of the day. It was fun driving throughout the island.
Thanks for catching my "good" side honey! I asked Rich to take a photo of me on the donkey, I didn't specify which angle to get so I guess I can't complain. Here we are almost at the top where all the tourist shops are located and where I bought a
greek-key hair bun clip.
Richard riding on his donkey overlooking the ocean
Santorini overlooks what used to be a volcano which errupted and created this unique arc and made Santorini what it is now. The island is the site of one of the largest volcanic eruptions in recorded history: the Minoan eruption (sometimes called the Thera eruption), which occurred some 3,600 years ago at the height of the Minoan civilization. The eruption left a large
caldera surrounded by volcanic ash deposits hundreds of feet deep and may have led indirectly to the collapse of the Minoan civilization on the island of Crete,110 km (68 mi) to the south, through the creation of a gigantic tsunami.
A breathtaking view when we got to the top.
Our next port of call was the island of
Santorini- also known as the "
Black Pearl of the Aegean" which was one of my favorite islands! We started off taking little taxi boats from our ship to the shore of Thira where we could either take the cable cars or the donkey up the cliff to the village of
Oia. We wanted to have the once-in-a-lifetime experience of taking the donkey up.
View from the exit of Knossos ruins
Ancient Road of the city
Well preserved pots that they used to fill with grains.
Mural
Ancient Minoan Pillars
Thursday, June 5th. My parents stayed on board while the rest of us took off to explore the island of
Crete. The city of
Heraklion (the capital and 4th largest city of Greece) wasn't much to look at when we got off the ship...it seemed to be a dirty city. But looks are decieving so we thought we'd give it a chance. Cheryl, Dan, and us decided to bargain for a cheap taxi to the ruins of
Knossos which is the center of the 3000 B.C. Minoan civilization. The ruins were pretty cool because they are some of the oldest ruins but many artifacts were pretty well preserved over time.
Got back on the ship in the evening for dinner and left for the island of
Crete which was my least favorite. It was an UGLY city and wasn't much to see. Perhaps if we had more time, we could have been shown things that were worth our viewing...
Rich and I finishing our day with a last minute swim!
The group having fun snorkeling
Keith and Rich dove down to the bottom several times to explore
Hello again!
Dan and Keith kept spinning the octopus around with a stick getting it very dizzy so it eventually inked us then sat down on the sand in a pile. I hope they didn't kill it!
What do you see? Yep, I caught part of the Octopus that we saw down there. COOL!
What do you see? Yep, it's a
Sea Snake! Keith pointed this one out to us.
Dan and I both had underwater cameras, so we took a silly picture of each other!
Charise gets ready to snorkle
This was our first beach that we stopped at, and my favorite of the two.
Rhodes Church
This historic Old City was built by the Knights of St. John during the Crusades. It was neat walking the cobbled old streets and seeing the ramparts and palaces along the way.
Wednesday, June 4th we had the whole day on the island of Rhodes. When we first arrived, we were going to rent mo-peds, but after walking all over the town in search of places to rent them, we gave up because no one would let us rent them without a motorcycle liscence. So, my mother, Cheryl/Dan and Rich/myself decided to split the cost of renting a car. We took off (leaving my father to sightsee) to find some good beaches.
We had a little bit of time left over so we decided to cool off in the water and do some snorkling!
(Dad, Charise, Dan and Rich or Keith)
Richard snorkeling in the ocean off the coast of Patmos.
On our hike back down to the village, Rich and I went a different route...below everyone else
Mom and Dad sit outside the entrance to John's cave before hiking back.
Charise outside the entrance
We just came out of the cave.
When we got to the top, there was a line to go in and see where John the Revelator was banished and lived in the cavity of a rock. We couldn't take pictures, but it was very small and dark in there. I feel bad for John...it was like a prison.
Our next stop after cruising southwest from Turkey, took us to the small island of Patmos where John the Beloved wrote the book of Revelation (the last book of the New Testament).There was an optional tour going up by bus to the cave of St. John, but we thought it a waste of money when we could hike up ourselves. It wasn't very difficult of a hike and saved us some money too.
My love of animals/bugs rages on when I saw this turtle by one of the ruins and just HAD to pick it up to play with him. I don't think he wanted to be man(or woman)-handled though!
After visiting Ephesus, we went on our designated bus to the town of Kusadasi where we saw how they made
Turkish rugs and had their famous Apple Tea. It was nice, but we were NOT going to spend thousands of dollars on a real Turkish rug, even if it did take years and years to make just ONE rug. Well, after we left, we walked all around the shops and I wanted to buy some
Saffron because that's a spice that Turkey is famous for and is hard to come by. I bought that, some
Apple Tea, and a nice green
pillow-case. When we boarded the ship, we found out that my parents bought a RUG!!!! It was over $5,000, but it is very beautiful and well made. It actually has the same design that is found in one of the castles there.
My mother and father in front of the ancient theater.
Here is another photo of me with a bug...Keith just had to get yet another photo of the
"bug-lover". These grasshoppers are so much more colorful than they are in Utah!
A beautiful female statue outside the Library doors.
This was the largest library of the day and was the
Library of Celsus.The façade of the library has been carefully reconstructed from all original pieces, and was built ca. AD 125 by Gaius Julius Aquila in memory of his father and once held nearly 12,000 scrolls.
These were anciently used as a bathroom, of which there was NO privacy whatsoever. How would you like to go to the bathroom with the next person sitting right next to you???
Shauna, Keith and the others measuring their armspan
Rich exploring ancient Ephesus ruins
The walk toward the Library
Tuesday, June 3rd
began with one of two ports; Kusadasi, Turkey. An optional morning excursion took us up to the fascinating Greek, Roman, and Byzantine excavations and ruins of ancient Ephesus (In the Roman period, and for many years, it was the second largest city of the Roman Empire; ranking behind Rome, the empire's capital. Ephesus had a population of more than 250,000 in the 1st century BC, which also made it the second largest city in the world.) Ephesus was one of the seven churches of Asia that are cited in the Book of Revelation. The Gospel of John may have been written here.
Overlooking the beautiful, and WINDY island.
The store owner keeps this Pelican as a pet of sorts. When we were there, he was shooing him out of his restaurant and I just had to ask if I could pet him...he agreed and then told me to hold my hand out so he could bite me...NO it didn't hurt...what a COOL pet!
The owner of this restaurant has a regular customer...non-paying of course!
These windmills used to harness the energy of the wind to grind their grain. Now, of course, they are ornamental and a popular tourist attraction of the island.
This was the only 3 wheeled car we saw while in Greece. When my parents were living in here, they said there were many more 3-wheeled cars back then. Now I think the majority of cars are small "SMART" cars that are fuel efficient vehicles but have 4 wheels.
Walking the narrow streets was a lot of fun!
While walking through the streets of town, we saw this lady making scarves to sell at the shops.
Richard standing in frong of a cool white-washed church.
Dad, Dan, Cheryl, Charise, Rich, Keith, Mom shortly after getting to Mykonos
Pelicans are found all over the island. This one is sleeping so soundly!
We arrived in
Mykonos in the early evening. It was a beautiful island with all their homes white-washed with blue window shutters and doors. I heard that it's the law to keep your home a stark white color and have your doors/windows blue (to represent the Greek flag colors) if you are to remain on the Island. So every year, the Islanders get out and white-wash their home. It really adds character to the small Island.
Mom and Dad listening to emergency instructions
Shauna and Keith await instructions
Emergency Drill
Monday, June 2nd. We awoke early to load up on the bus that took us to the port where we boarded our ship, the
Aquamarine. It took a while to get situated on board, then we all had to go through the emergency drill with our life-vests on. Here is a photo of what we had to do. We then spent the afternoon cruising the Aegean.
~ Our Greek Island Cruise ~
