Two days in Greece

Not very long, I know, but that was all the cruise allowed. One day in Athena and one day on the island of Santorini.

Athens was a disappointment. The traffic was horrible and the Parthenon didn't live up to expectations. Maybe was expecting too much or we didn't have enough time, but outside of the Parthenon, Athens was relatively ugly and uninteresting. Our guide was knowledgeable and told us a lot about Greece and Athens, but the sites themselves were not what I was expecting. Here are a few pictures.

The theatre at the foot of the Acropolis










Temple to Athena for granting the Greeks victory over the Persians.









Part of the Parthenon









More Parthenon. Note the it looks pretty plain along the top. That's because Lord Elgin stole the marble carvings and took them back to England. You can now see the"Elgin" marbles art the British museum. They are regarded as some of the most beautiful carvings of antiquity.










Another temple to Athena (actually all the temples on the Acropolis are to Athena--she was the patron goddess of Athens). The statues are caryatids.









We sailed at night from Athens to Santorini, where we meet up with the brand new sister ship to the Star, the Viking Sea. This was the first time that both ships had ever been in the same port. The Sea was on its shakedown cruise.




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Santorini, if you didn't know is the site of a massive volcanic explosion centuries before Christ. The eruption left one major island, Thera, and several smaller islands. For practical purposes Thera and Santorini are the same. We had a nice tour till a couple of towns on a very photogenic island.
























We did see some unusual things. For instance, this is a vineyard.


We were told that at times the wind is so strong that grape vines have to be grown along the ground or else they are broken by the wind. Santorini has a long history of fine wines, mainly white and dessert wines.

One off the famous cave houses of Santorini. Most of the house is cut out of the rock behind the door.




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Turkeyia

Three stops in Turkeyia, although there were supposed to be only two. Viking decided to leave Istanbul early due to the bombing on the Saturday before we were supposed to board. This meant an extra stop to visit the site of the ancient city of Troy. From Troy we next went to Canakkale, the closest port to Ephesus.

We arrived in Istanbul a day before the ship was to leave and had scheduled a local guide to show us the main sights of Istanbul. Crowds were slight and we didn't feel at all threatened. Some photos from our tour.

A fountain on the Hippodrome, the center of ancient Istanbul.







The Blue Mosque







Inside the Blue Mosque








Hagia Sofia--once a church, then a mosque, now a museum








An interesting thing about Hagia Sofia is that when the Ottoman Turks converted it into a mosque, they didn't remove the Christian elements from the inside. They just covered them up. When the Hagia Sofia was converted to a museum, many of them were uncovered.







More from the inside of Hagia Sofia.








Troy and Ephesus had a lot in common even though they were from different eras. While they are interesting to visit, they are both essentially just piles of rock. Some reconstruction had been done in Ephesus but really none in Troy. They are both still active archeological sites, which somewhat explains the lack of reconstruction. The history is interesting and walking the sites gives one a special feeling.

Troy


















Ephesus








The facade of the library (reconstructed)







The great theatre where Paul preached to the Ephesians (Acts 19)







Next stop Athens.

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Location:Istanbul, Canakkale (Troy) and Kusadasi (Ephesus)