September 30, 2014

The ship was docked in the New Port of Mykonos, Greece, when we got up.  Originally, we were scheduled to visit the island two days ago, but the forecast was for rain and very strong winds so the itinerary changed. It was also to have been a stop where we were to be tendered from the ship to the dock, but that changed too.  There was still a strong wind (Mykonos is known for its wind.) and everyone was happy that we are docked.  A look out the porthole revealed a clear sky, just as the sun was rising. Temperature this morning is 16 C with winds 25 km per hour. The forecast is for sun and a high of 23 C. We joined Norm and Sophia at breakfast in the dining room and after breakfast we met them at the Celebrity Theater to get the stickers for our sightseeing excursion of the island of Mykonos. Our tour group met on the pier before a short walk to the bus. Our guide was Thelia who spoke very good English. We were on the way for the scenic island drive before 9 a.m. toward the old port in the main town, Chora. We passed through the country side where there are many low stone walls dividing property.  We saw goats and sheep as well as a man riding a donkey along the side of the road. The buildings have whitewashed walls and coloured window frames and doors, with blue being the dominate colour. The first stop for photos was at Ag Ioannis beach for a view of Delos island. It is an uninhabited island where there are archeological ruins. Next stop was Kalafats beach, where the beach was ready for guests to claim the lounges under the umbrellas on the sandy beach. After that, we headed inland to the village of Ano Mera to visit the 16th century Panagia Tourliani Monastery with its marble fascade and marble bell tower. Marble is common building material in Greece. The Greek Orthodox church courtyard is entered where a second storey balcony houses the accommodation for the monks.  There is the main door to enter the church, which is ornately adorned with beautiful post-Byzantine icons. The dome has a stunning fresco representing Jesus Christ. It was a short walk to a restaurant near the town square for a Greek appetizer – olives, cucumber and yogurt spread with tomato and bread - and a taste of ouzo, the anise-flavored aperitif. Then it was back through the countryside to the main town, Chora. Along the way it was explained that many of the older homes had pigeon houses for the pigeons to roost.  The islanders in times past used the droppings of the pigeons as fertilizer and the birds as a source of food before sheep and goats were introduced.  At the 11:30 a.m. stop at Chora, most of the group elected to remain in the town for exploring and then later catching one of the ship arranged shuttle buses for a five minute ride along the coastal road back to the ship.

Here we wandered the town’s quaint narrow streets which gently rose and fell and wound around the old port harbour.  There were many shops and restaurants to capture your attention.  We headed for the five wind mills at the edge of town and, after several misdirections, they appeared in front of us on the southwest end of the town. After photos we strolled along the winding streets again toward the Old Port to find a restaurant with Wi-Fi and enjoyed Greek coffee and Greek baklava at Rouvera.  The baklava was delicious with its golden flaky layers with nuts and honey.  Refreshed, we found more streets and shops to explore, finding a narrow residential street with steps that led up a hill, where we found ourselves well above the windmills by the shore near the Old Port the view was wonderful, although we had the full force of the wind.  We found a different route back down to the Old Port for the shuttle ride and were back to the ship by 2:30 p.m.

After dropping off sunglasses, hats, etc., we went to have gelato on deck 5 followed by specialty coffees, before returning to the stateroom for composing the blog and a rest.  We were even able to dance just one dance in the Rendez-vous Lounge before dinner, since the Nightcaps beat was more for listening than dancing.  Tonight’s themed dinner is Top Chef at Sea, featuring some of the dishes prepared in previous seasons of the Top Chef TV show.  Our choices for dinner were Braised Beef Short Ribs for the appetizer, then Mustard Greens Salad or Minestrone soup, followed by the entrée choice of Veal chop & Choperlea or Flank Steak with cheddar, bacon potato and asparagus salad.  The dessert choices were strawberry in a creamy custard or Vanilla Tres Leches cake. After dinner we decided to shop in the Emporium shops to use up most of our credit balance.  Then we went to the evening show which was the final production with the singers and dancers, Celebrate the World, included an Irish river dance.  There were many ornate costumes and a different set for each chosen country.  Back at the stateroom, we listed all of the purchases for the trip and combined have less than half of one person’s customs declaration amount.

September 29, 2014

The ship was docked when we got up, looking out the porthole we were in the passenger ship harbour which had six ferries and more than eight passenger ships; among the names - Hellenic Seaways, Louis Cruises, Minoan Lines, Ventouris Sea Lines, Korais, and Cunard.  After breakfast in the dining room, we went to the Celebrity Theater to wait for our excursion of sightseeing Athens and visiting the Acropolis. The group was shuttled to the passenger terminal which we walked through to the parking lot full of buses. Our guide was Katarina, who spoke very good English, dispensed radios with earplugs to each passenger so that we could follow her commentary when we arrived at the Acropolis. 

The bus was on the road by 8:30 a.m. for a drive through Piraeus and its three harbours on the way to the Athens City Center.  Along the way, we passed three of the 2004 Olympics stadiums for soccer, basketball and wrestling and a Greek Orthodox Church as well as many bustling streets.  We learned that the Greek city states have been invaded by other Greek city states and other civilizations over the centuries - Roman, Persian and the Turks of the Ottoman times and more recently by Nazi Germany.

The bus was unloading at Acropolis before 9.  We had an 80 minute walk with commentary from Katarina as we walked up the Acropolis hill within the walled fortress, to the Parthenon. Acropolis comes from Greek words: Acro = heights and polis = the city.  The first temple of Athena built on Acropolis hill was destroyed by Persians in 480 B.C.   Parthenon means House of the Virgin.  Athena was a virgin goddess.  The Parthenon was also the Athens treasury.

At the Acropolis, which is a UNESCO World Heritage site, we climbed the winding pathway including approximately100 steps that lead to the top of the Propylaea Entrance, on the west side. It was erected between 437 and 432 B.C.  Looking to the east on the south side is an area of rock where is ancient times democracy arrived with the Athenians voting on issued there.  Those people that did not vote were given the name, “idiot”.  Facing the Propylaea Entrance again, on the left, is the small Temple of Athena Nike built in 420 B.C. with its columns in the Ionic style. The wind was very strong, blowing dust into your eyes and making it hard to stand still to take a photo.  You really had to hold on to your hat. Through the entrance, the scaffolding on the Parthenon can be seen and other temple ruins including the agora central open area, the Erechtheum which housed the statue of Athena that was made of wood and had the fabric gown replaced at the Athenian annual festivals as well as other female statues.  The Parthenon is a Doric peristyle white marble structure which was constructed between 447 and 439 BC then decorated between 439 and 432 BC with marble sculptures and also paintings high on the friezes. The statue of Athena in the Parthenon was 40 feet high and made of gold and ivory.  The Parthenon was badly damaged in 1687 when the Turks were using it as a storehouse for gunpowder and it was attached, by Venetians whose cannons shot at the building and the gunpowder exploded inside the building, making restoration efforts very difficult over the past 30 or so years.  Also Lord Elgin’s looting of many Parthenon sculptures and columns caused more damage in the early 1800s.

The new Acropolis Museum is now open, but there was no time in our schedule for a look inside.

Leaving the Parthenon, after two hours of taking in its history, we had a short stop at a reasonably priced souvenir store, then drove past other Athenian landmarks including Hadrian's Arch; the Temple of Olympian Zeus; Panathenaic Stadium, the white marble 58,000 seat site of the first modern Olympic Games held in 1896, which was reconstructed from the remains of the ancient Greek stadium; as well as the former and present parliament buildings.  Stadium comes from the Greek word, Stade = meaning a measure of 600 feet. Then we drove back to the Piraeus dock and passed the Theater of Piraeus. There were no line ups to pass through the terminal to get to the shuttle buses that took a 5 minute route to take us back to the ship.

We went to the Oceanview café on deck 10, after dropping off our hats and backpack in the stateroom (another 143 stairs), then went up to desks 11 and 12 for a few laps around the decks and to take some photos from the ship.  Then taking a break to read and write the blog for a few hours before getting changed for dinner then going for an Iglu cold drink at the Café Al Bacio on deck 5.  We were even able to dance a few dances in the Rendez-vous Lounge before dinner.

Our choices for dinner tonight were Shrimp and Scallops Creviche with lime & avocado for the appetizer, then a Caesar Salad or Wild Mushroom & Barley soup, followed by the entrée choice of Red Snapper or Seafood platter of mussels, clams and scallops.  The dessert choices were a Blueberry Pavlova or Ricotta Cheesecake.   After dinner we danced in the Rendez-vous Lounge and the band even ended the set with a Tango and there were four couples on the dance floor, some evening there have been up to 15 couples when a waltz has been played. The evening show singer is Peter Grant, billed as Britain’s Michael Bublé. Even a visit to the Casino was fit in.

September 28, 2014

We awoke to another cloudy morning. The coastline was slightly blurry.  The temperature was about 18, but there was a strong wind as the Captain had predicted. The surprise this morning was very little water pressure.  We found out that a water pipe on the portside of deck 2 had broken and leaked into a stateroom about 4:30 a.m.  There was no coffee, tea, orange juice or cooked cereal for breakfast at 7, but shortly after 7:30 the water was back at full pressure. There were few people in the dining room before 7:45 when the normal amount of people started to arrive.  We had time to go five decks up to the Oceanview Café and it did not seem too busy for a day in port. During breakfast the ship arrived at the Kusadasi harbour, but had to wait for the Regal Princess, which was late arriving, to dock first which only delayed the excursion group leaving the ship by 15 minutes.

  The Regal Princess also was sending passengers on tours so there were well over 35 buses and thousands of people trying to find their proper tour bus. Our group met our guide, Ilker, and we were on our way (for our eight hour tour) to the furthest point of our day, Miletus, Turkey, about a 70 minute drive from Kusadasi. On the bus, in each seat was a bottle of water and a small bag that contained a comment card, to complete at the end of the day, a map of Kusadasi, plus a souvenir pin and souvenir necklace. On the drive we learned that Anatolia is the name for the central Turkey region.  There are over 4,500 Greek and Roman ruins discovered in Turkey compared to only 2,000 in Italy and Greece combined.  Ner Roma was the first name of the settlement where Istanbul is now located, before the name was changed to Constantinople. Miletus is known as the native city of several philosophers and sages. One of the philosophers proved that the earth was round almost 2,000 years before Galileo, but the information was lost in the fire of the library in Alexandria sometime near the end of Cleopatra’s Egyptian rule. Near Miletus, there is a river called the Meanderer which has meandered in the area for thousands of years and deposited silt as it flowed into the sea, which eventually caused the sea to recede many miles away from the ancient harbours and the cities were abandoned hundreds of years after their founding.  The area is now a fertile farming region, where cotton is grown as well as corn, olive trees and fruit trees. To transport the local cotton harvests, the British were helping to build a railway in the area, in the 1870s.  At that time, they also excavated ruins of Miletus and other places, then shipped  many of the pieces to England. For our tour of the ancient Miletus site our guide distributed radios, so that we could hear him even if we were 50 meters away from him. The first ruin was the amphitheatre, which is pre-Roman and has a Roman addition which added arched tunnels and more seats and an addition of a shopping arcade. At this 15,000 seat amphitheatre, the apostle, Paul gave his last speech in Asia Minor before returning to the Holy Land and then imprisonment in Rome.  A short drive away is the Milet Muzesi, the archeological museum that traces the habitation of the area to the late Chalcolithic period, in the second half of the fourth millennium B.C. The people occupied the area from Anatolia to the Aegean Islands, but by the mid Bronze Age the Minovean tribe influence increased.  After an hour and a half walking around the site and visiting the museum, we headed for the next stop at Didyma which was an oracle center where the elegant Temple of Apollo was built. The first one was sacked and destroyed and a second one begun but never completed.  After Alexander the Great gave money to reconstruction the original Temple of Apollo, destroyed by the Persians, the people decided that since visiting dignitaries gave donations to the building, it should never actually be finished.  In 400 B.C., it was on an island, but there is no water near it today.  The Roman merchants of Miletus, decided to build a 17 km marble road to Didyma to encourage visits to their city, there is a 1 km recovered segment at Didyma, still in good shape. The marble used in the ancient building was quarried locally. Excavations of the Temple of Apollo began in the 1870s by French then German archeologists. Temples face west to the sunset.  When the Christian began to build churches, they faced them east to the sunrise. Purple was a difficult colour to produce in ancient times and in the Byzantine times it was reserved for royalty.  The colour purple was produced by boiling snails. The griffon, part eagle head and upper torso and part lion was the symbol of Apollo. There were many Greek and Roman carvings of Medusa in the ancient world, which was a warning for people not to damage a building. The Turks thought that she gave them the “Evil Eye” and had their own protection devised to protect themselves. By 12:30, we were back on the bus travelling on a four lane divided highway, on the way to Ephesus for a delicious Turkish buffet lunch at Cittantics including a table of a dozen hot foods and another table of salads, cheeses and cold cuts plus tea, coffee and a long table of desserts – pastries including baklava and an assortment of fruit. There were also some retail stores where Turkish tea, Turkish coffee and Turkish Delight candy in many flavours could be purchased and a souvenir store with books, jewellery, pottery and other souvenirs.

The guided walk through the Ephesus ruins was about 3 km, mostly downhill on stone flagged streets, with lots of photo stops. Only about 10% of this ancient city has been excavated. The first building to see is the Public Baths.  No one was allowed to enter the city without first enjoying the free baths, especially the sailors coming from long voyages. The harbour is now a valley. It took almost 90 minutes to stroll through the site with pauses of explanation from Ilker and exploration of the ruins. We saw the Magnesia Gate, Odeon (concert hall), Fountain of Trajan, Temple of Hadrian, residences where the mosaic floors are still visible, Library of Celsius (which was the second largest in the world after the library at Alexandria, Egypt, Grand Theater (which seated 25,000), the Arcadian Way and the Agora commercial market where the local residences had 77 shops on the four walls and the center area was for the visiting vendors to set up their wares. Then we had a 10 minute ride back to Kusadasi where the tour concluded with a brief Turkish carpet presentation just a short walk from the ship.

Other buses from three ships were returning, and after walking through the Grand Market and the shops on the pier, we lined up to go through port security. Then take the 400 meter walk to the ship as the wind continued to blow about 40 km per hour to board and go through ship security before returning to the stateroom to freshen up. We did manage to dance to a few tunes played by the  Ocean Band in the Rendez-vous, before dinner.  Our choices for dinner tonight were seafood crepe for the appetizer, then a Chicken Waldorf salad or New England Clam Chowder, followed by the entrée choice of Pork Schnitzel with hot German Potato Salad. The dessert choices were a white chocolate soufflé and Éclair dipped in dark chocolate. After dinner we went back to the stateroom to compose the blog.  Then went to the Café Al Bacio for a cold coffee, milk and crushed ice Iglu beverage, before turning in for the night. The evening show has been altered, since the multi-instrumentalist, Oli Nez’s arrival was delayed by weather. The replacement acts were Michael White with his close up magic and Kate Dowman, the singer. The Captain advises to walk carefully and grab onto walls if needed and do not go out on the decks. Tonight the ship was sailing across the Aegean Sea to Athens, in 4 meter high waves and strong winds.  

September 27, 2014

Today the sky is cloudy, temperature about18 C with 1 1/2 meter swells in the sea. Up on deck 11, the deck was wet from overnight rain. The first 20 minutes of walking, there was no rain, but it looked that as we travelled west, we would be sailing into rain before the ship turned south into the Bosphorus Strait. Once the rain started most of the walkers moved to deck 10 which is partially covered.  7,963 steps on pedometer before breakfast. We went for breakfast to the Dining Room, and sat with two French speaking couples.  During breakfast, the pilot came aboard for the Bosphorus Strait transit which took about 80 minutes.  The ship’s speed was slower through the strait, which is just over 700 feet wide at its narrowest point. We passed under Istanbul’s two suspension bridges.  After breakfast, we found seats on deck 4 in the Rendez-vous lounge, until we reached the Sea of Marmara and decided to go for cappuccinos at the Al Bacio café.

We had lunch in the Dining Room where we sat with a couple from Dallas, Texas and an English couple. Due to the popularity of the dining room on this rainy day, we had a leisurely 90 minute lunch.  Our choices were beef & chicken satay or mushroom soup for the appetizer, then seafood kebob on saffron rice and to finish banana crème brulée for dessert.  Then we hurried to the 2 p.m. wine and food pairing in the San Marco restaurant where we sampled combination of five wines with meats, fruits and vegetables with about 37 other passengers.  It was a nice way to pass 50 minutes.

The shops and casino are open all day since we are not in port.  There are features of Greek souvenirs including ouzo.  We went back to the stateroom to read and compose the blog.  The sea was a bit rough going through the Sea of Marmara, but was calmer in the Dardanelles Strait. 

Dress code for tonight is formal. The photographers are at different areas on decks 4 & 5 to take passenger photos from 5:30 to 9. We danced to the Big Band with Celebrity Orchestra before dinner and the house band, Emily and the Nightcaps after dinner.  Sophia was not at dinner this evening. During dinner we were cruising the Dardanelles Strait along the Gallipoli Peninsula, where the Turks defeated the Allies during the Great War, a major victory for the Turks. Our choices for dinner tonight were sea scallops for the appetizer, then a mixed & spinach salad or tomato bisque soup, followed by the entrée choice of beef wellington or haddock and there was also lobster tail. For the final formal night of the cruise the main dessert was baked Alaska, as well as citrus roulade (a jellyroll) The Nightcaps band even played a Samba, Quick Step and a Viennese Waltz in the set before the 9 p.m. song and dance show, The Land of Make Believe. The ship was sailing in the Aegean Sea by the time the show started.  The rain should end by tomorrow when we have a tour to ancient ruins at Ephesus, Turkey.

September 26, 2014

We looked out of the porthole shortly after 7 this morning to see land close by and we were on time to dock at 8 a.m.  We had breakfast in the dining room, with two couples from Blackburn, England, Bill from Malta and the Irishman that we met several days ago. During breakfast the captain’s announcement was broadcast to advise that the passengers were cleared to leave the ship.  Again today, the ship is the largest one to ever dock in the Sinop, Turkey, harbour.  Later we were told, by our guide, that a photographer from the local paper was taking pictures of passengers as they strolled the streets of the city of 30,000, for a feature in tomorrow’s local paper. This morning, the sky has blue patches and white fluffy clouds, with a forecast for sunny skies, the morning temperature was 18 C. There were shallow swells on the sea.

The hills of Sinop were more gently sloped than the hills of Trabzon. The ship was too long (290 feet) for the pier, (135 feet), so the forward port anchor was needed to stabilize the dock position for safe disembarkation. During breakfast, we learned that you can ask Guest Relations for a map of the town for each port, so we got map and a short guide to the town, in case we decide to explore on our own after our walking tour.

Our group of 40 met our guide, Murat, at the pier for the walking tour by 9:30. The city is named after Sinope, who was a Greek river goddess with an association with Zeus in Greek mythology. Our first stop was the Ethnography Museum, a preserved three storey wooden house built in the 1850s and is about 4,000 square feet.  In it were domestic scenes of the traditional lifestyle of a wealthy Turkish three generation family home at the end of the 19^th century, including a sewing machine and a loom, as well as jewellery replicas and swords, armour and rifles.  A ten minute walk away was the Sinop Archaeological Museum. The Museum is a modern museum, which contains various artifacts and art works belonging to the rich cultural heritage of Sinop. The ancient philosopher, Diogenes, was born in Sinop. They have a collection of religious icons. The icons are religious pictures painted on wooden panels which are equivalent to frescoes on the walls of eastern Christian churches. The Sinop icons are painted on chestnut wood. During an excavation for a construction project, a small horde of gold coins was found and is displayed in the museum. The marble and stone remnants found lying in the outside courtyard, come from various excavations near the city centre. These pieces cover Greek, Roman and later civilizations. It was explained that on the carrot shaped vessels of all sizes (called amphorae) had distinctive marks on their handles stamped there by the vessels manufacturers. The vessels were made for transporting or storing olive oil and wine and were traded all over the Black Sea shores. Sinop was on the ancient Silk Road and Royal Road trade routes. Many were camel routes, in ancient times, with a day’s travel estimated at about 26 kilometers.  Most camel stops had inns or some accommodation and food. Just beside the museum grounds are the ruins of the Temple of Serapis. Sarapis was a syncretic Hellenistic-Egyptian god in Antiquity. Under Greek Ptolemy Soter, efforts were made to integrate Egyptian religion with that of their Hellenic rulers. After another short walk, we entered the courtyard of the Aladdin Mosque, built by Aladdin Keykubat, the most renowned of the Seljuk Sultans. The mosque was badly damaged during the raid by the Byzantine Greeks, but restored in 1268 by Suleyman Pervane, a Seljuk Turk leader. Aladdin Mosque has had several restorations, one in 1322-1325 and another in 1850 to repair a pulpit collapse.  In the courtyard in front of the mosque entrance, is a fountain with taps near the bottom.  Here the faithful must wash their feet, hands, behind their ears, their neck, plus wash out their nose and mouth three times, each time they enter the mosque for prayers.  To enter the mosque, everyone must to remove their shoes. The whole interior main floor was carpeted, and the times for prayers posted on a neon sign by the entrance.  At prayer time, the men pray on the main floor and the women are praying up in the balconies.  Across from the mosque was a market place that is in a former madressa, one of the 13^th century schools.  It is the official handicraft market, selling clothing, spices, Turkish Delight, jewellery, coffee and tea.

As we continued the walk, it was explained that the Russian navy attacked Sinop on November 30, 1850 in a blizzard.  The attack surprised Sinop and most of its ships were destroyed, but one escaped to Istanbul and the Ottoman rules asked England and France for help which led to the Crimean War a few years later on the western shores of the Black Sea.

 Last venue of the tour was to the Ancient City Walls and some areas date back to 600 BC. Sinop has been occupied by Greeks, Pontus, Byzantines, Seljuks and Ottomans. The tour ended here so, we climbed to 70 stairs to the top for a view of the harbour and city.  Some of the steps were twice as high as a modern step and when we walked down our thigh muscles ached a bit from the large steps taken to ascend the steps. We had a leisurely five minute walk back to the ship for lunch.  The pedometer count when we got back to the ship was 8721 steps.

After lunch we sat by the pool and updated the blog and read until dinner time.

The Nightcaps were the pre-dinner band in the Rendez-vous and we were the only ones dancing before going to dinner. Part way through dinner the captain made an announcement throughout the ship that the itinerary for the following four days would be changed due to predicted weather conditions for Mykonos of 62 knot winds and 4 meter waves.  The stops at Kusadasi and Mykonos will be reversed in order to try for better weather for the Mykonos tendered port two days later that was originally scheduled. Dinner appetizers were the Seafood Salad containing squid, mussels, scallops and shrimp, followed by either Squash Soup or Cobb Salad and the entrée choices were beef Prime Rib and mashed potatoes or Chicken stuffed with banana and ham with rice.  The dessert choice was Sticky Toffee cake on a pineapple slice.

Tonight’s show presented Kate Dowman, who regularly performs Operas and Oratorio roles.  It was early to bed since the White Night Party with top 40 tunes did not appeal to us.  The Martini Bar was decorated in “icy” white with accents of purple for the occasion.