Day 8 – Mykonos (and Delos)

From Athens, the ship went east into the Aegean Sea. The next day we stopped in Mykonos, a Greek island that is part of the island group called the Cyclades. You may be getting a bit confused about locations at this point, so here is a map of our itinerary that I got from the Princess Web site:

It’s not the greatest map, but you can see generally where all the ports are.

On our day in Mykonos, we signed up for our second shore excursion of the cruise. This excursion left at 8:15 a.m. and took us to the island of Delos, about a 30-minute boat ride away from Mykonos. Delos is uninhabited now, but it was well-known in the ancient world for being the birthplace of Apollo and Artemis. Because of its prominence, it was the home of several temples and other fine buildings. It is mentioned several times in Herodotus’ Histories, which you may remember I was trying to read on this trip (but was not succeeding). Now it is the home of a lot of ruins, mostly unearthed by the “French School of Athens.” And in case you’re counting, it is the sixth UNESCO World Heritage Site we visited on this trip.

Our tour guide, Katerina, made some bold claims about Delos: it was the first place in the world to have a currency exchange, and the Delian League was the first defense league and the only one until NATO. I’m not sure how much of what she said was true, but the boldness of her claims was at least interesting. She told us about the history of the island and many interesting facts. For example, at one point in its history, there were no births or deaths allowed on the island (you could still be born and die; you just had to do it somewhere else), and no one was allowed to be buried there. Also, she told us that shops used to keep their perishable goods cool by digging holes to use as refrigerators. Here she is, singing the praises of Delos to us:

It was warm and dry on the island the morning that we were there. The island was barren except for some scrub brush. Here are a few pictures:

One of the more famous things about Delos, and something you’ll see in most pictures of the island, is the avenue of the lions. It had statues of at least nine lions made of Naxian marble lining the road. The statues you see here are copies made of the originals, which are in the museum on the island:

One of the original lions was taken away and put in Venice outside the armory. Its old head was taken off and a “hideous modern” head (according to the information placard in the museum) was put on it.

The only animals we saw on the island were these geckos scurrying around everywhere:

We returned to the ship just after noon, ate lunch, and took the shuttle into town on Mykonos. We spent the afternoon walking around and taking pictures of typical Greek Isle scenes – white buildings with blue trim, and the sea or mountains in the background. Both Mary and dad bought small canvas paintings at one of the shops.

Mary had to exchange some money, but when we got to an exchange office, there was a large pelican (whose name, we gathered, was Pedro. Or maybe Petros) blocking the way:

Mary decided to go ahead and change money anyway. While she was at the window, the pelican gave her a peck on the leg. She said it didn’t hurt, but it was certainly a surprise:

In the afternoon, I was feeling tired so I went back to the ship and read on deck. Mary and dad stayed in town another hour or so to get a drink and some baklava at one of the many cafes.

Day 7 – Athens

During the night after Katakolon, we sailed around the Pelopponese and docked in Piraeus, the port of Athens. A long time ago, Piraeus used to be a separate town, but now it is basically part of the Athens metro area. Finally, something urban sprawl has done right.

Even though we were a ways from the Acropolis and the rest of the city center, we decided to not shell out the cash for a shore excursion and go it on our own. Turns out it was the right move; we had just about all the time we wanted at all the places we wanted to stop, instead of being hurried through to stay on tour schedule.

So we got up early in the morning and emerged from the ship, ready to look for the nearest metro stop. 25 minutes (and one taxi driver telling us, “It’s too far to walk”) later, we found it, bought day passes, and we were on our way into town. I can’t remember exactly how long it took us to get to the Acropolis stop, but I think it must have been 20-25 minutes. What I do remember is that we were climbing up the Acropolis at 9 o’clock – not the first people to get there, but still before most tour groups. There were plenty of people there, but it was not as crowded as it was becoming by the time we left.

Here are a few pictures – first, the Theater of Dionysus, where many well-known ancient Greek plays were first performed.

Me in front of the Parthenon:

The east facade of the Parthenon – they were doing a lot of restoration.

After looking around the Acropolis for a bit, we walked north (we came up the south side) toward the Areopagus and the ancient Agora. The Areopagus (also known as Mars Hill) is well-known from biblical history for being the place where Paul made his speech to the men of Athens in Acts 17. Now you can visit it, but there are no ruins on it. To all appearances, it is just a rocky hill. Here it is, with the Acropolis in the background:

There is a bronze plaque on one side of it, however, but it is easy to miss for us tourists because it is in Greek. It is the text of Acts 17:22-32, which tells the story of Paul’s speech there:

After the Areopagus, we continued down into the ancient Agora (marketplace) and saw a restored stoa (portico), the Stoa of Attalus:

We also saw the Temple of Hephaestus, which is in pretty good shape considering how old it is:

After passing through the Agora, we got back on the metro at the Monasteraki stop and went to the National Archaeological Museum. It’s an impressive museum, and I’d recommend it to anyone on a trip to Athens. I took a few pictures, but wasn’t allowed to use the flash. Here is a tour group standing in front of a famous statue of Poseidon:

An old jar:

After 2.5 hours in the museum, we got back on the metro and took a look at the Parliament building in Syntagma Square, with its guards outside dressed in national costume. We didn’t stick around for the changind of the guard at 3, though, because we had to get to the Temple of Olympian Zeus – or what is left of it:

Then we took the metro back out to Piraeus and walked (15 minutes this time, since we knew where we were going) back to the ship. In the evening we went to Michelangelo’s as usual, and then watched the movie “Enchanted” up on deck.

In the end, we were very satisfied with what we were able to accomplish in just 7 hours of sightseeing. And it was all made possible by the Athens metro.

Day 6 – Katakolon (and Olympia)

Day six of the cruise took us to the mainland of Greece and a little “fishing” village called Katakolon. I put “fishing” in quotes because I’m not sure that anybody in Katakolon fishes anymore. We walked off the cruise ship and up the main street, and there was nothing but souvenir shops and cafes. It seems that the cruise ship industry has altered the economy of this town. I’m sure nobody’s complaining, though. I bought a couple of postcards and a gift for my brother and sister-in-law. Mary bought some earrings. I can’t remember if my dad bought anything.

Away from the shopping area there was a small beach, on which we saw this sign – Don’t use that sampoo:

At mid-day, we descended to Deck 7 to meet for our first ship-bought shore excursion of the cruise. I would like to take this opportunity to say that my life as a tour guide in Alaska lo these past three summers would have been MUCH easier had Princess handled Alaska shore excursions the way they do in the Mediterranean. Those of us who were on this excursion had to wait in the Wheelhouse Bar on ship, and were instructed to do so until all of our party was present. Then we filed out of the Wheelhouse Bar (where stickers were placed on us which indicated our tour AND our bus number) into the Princess Theater (also on Deck 7), where we were seated according to the tour we were on. Then we were dismissed one by one once our buses were ready, and we walked directly off the ship and onto buses. We were on our way within 10 minutes of getting on the bus. Probably closer to 5. No bus-loading drama, no “We’re waiting for people” who are actually on another bus, no people getting too hot or too cold as they wait on the bus for 30 minutes.

Our shore excursion went to Ancient Olympia, which is the main reason why cruise ships stop here these days. It is a 30-minute bus drive through lovely Greek countryside to the ancient site. Our tour guide, Maria, told us all we needed to know and more about Olympia and the area, including the fact that wildfires in Greece last summer got close to the ruins, but did no damage to the site.

When we got there, she took our group all around the site and explained the ruins to us. The most interesting part of the tour was her telling us that for the first several years of the modern Olympic Games, they did not light the torch at the ancient Olympic site and do a torch relay. The first time they started doing that: the 1936 Berlin Games. It was Hitler’s idea.

Here are a few pictures taken at the site:

Our tour guide. We gave her a nice tip, as all cruise ship passengers are supposed to do for their guides:

Ruins of the Temple of Zeus. These are columns that have fallen over. In this temple was a huge statue of Zeus, which was one of the seven ancient wonders of the world:

The Olympic stadium:

Hera’s Altar, where they light the Olympic flame every four years (starting in 1936):

The three of us standing on the ruins of the temple of Hera:

In the evening, we had dinner at Da Vinci’s (pretty much the same as Michelangelo’s, but on a different deck). Unlike most other nights, we shared a table with other people: Gary and Carolyn from Southern California and Brian and Maureen from near Manchester, England. Brian and Maureen had been on a Princess Cruise to Alaska, and had really enjoyed it. Made me proud.

Day 5 – Corfu

After Dubrovnik, we sailed down the Adriatic to the Ionian Sea and the island of Corfu, off the west coast of Greece and Albania (you can actually see Albania across the strait from Corfu Town). Up to this point, the trip was not incredibly fast-paced. We were in Venice for a little while, then we had a day off on the ship, then we stopped in Dubrovnik. But after Dubrovnik: 7 ports in 7 days. And these were not just Caribbean ports, where (I’m told) the only thing to do at some of them is find the nearest beach. No, these were Mediterranean ports, with thousands of years of history behind each one. Most of the time, we got off the ship as quickly as possible and rushed into town.

Corfu was no exception. The ship was docked just north of Corfu Town, so we walked the 15 minutes or so into town. The first thing I noticed about Corfu was the scooters. Scooters everywhere. Everyone had a scooter. This turned out to be not just the case in Corfu, but just about everywhere we visited in Greece. At least in Corfu Town, one reason for this may well be the narrowness of some of the streets. The first sight we walked by was the “New” Fortress, built about 400 years ago.

As you can see, it was a nice, sunny day, and not too hot (well you can’t see that it wasn’t too hot; I’m just telling you).

Old Town Corfu is a quaint little place, and wonderful for a stroll. It was named to the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 2007, so it was the third World Heritage Site (with many more to come) that we saw on this trip. The first two were Venice and Dubrovnik’s Old Town.

After walking through the town for a bit, we went to the Old Fortress (which was originally Venetian, just like the New Fortress, but a bit older).

From there you can get some great views of Corfu Town, the water and Albania.

There is also St. George’s Church, which was originally an Anglican church built by the British when they occupied Corfu in the 1800s, but is now a Greek Orthodox church.

After the Old Fortress, we wandered around the town some more (it really is a great place for wandering), and we each bought some Orthodox icons from a shop next to the church of St. Spyridon, the patron saint of Corfu. Then we went inside the church, and sat down to watch while a baptism was going on. The family and friends of the family of the baby were all gathered around the baptismal at the front, and the baby got dunked (as is Orthodox practice) rather than sprinkled.

We walked out the other side of the church and into a street of souvenirs, and discovered that Corfu is well known for its kumquat products. You can get almost anything imaginable made from kumquats: kumquat jelly, kumquat liqueur (which I tried), kumquat candies… we bought some kumquat nougat to chew on.

Around the time we were in the kumquat store, there began a torrential downpour that lasted for just a few minutes. We stayed in the souvenir shops long enough for it to pass, then walked back to our home away from home. In the evening, after sitting by the pool as we sailed away and before going to the dining room again for dinner, we found out that there had been an earthquake in Greece that day, though we did not feel it.

Day 4 – Dubrovnik

The ship got to Dubrovnik in the morning and anchored out in the harbor away from the dock. Instead of being able to walk off the ship directly onto the dock, we took tenders to shore. In case you didn’t know what a tender is (apart from the chicken variety you get at Burger King), here is a picture:

The ship takes six of these everywhere it goes, attached to the side just to the aft of the lifeboats.

Dubrovnik is the only port we visited on this cruise that I had been to before. In March of 2004, I rented a car with Judi, Sarabeth and Abi and drove from Budapest to the Adriatic coast for spring break. We drove through Zagreb to get to the Croatian coast, where we stopped at Zadar, Split and Dubrovnik. Then we turned around and headed back north further inland. On that trip, I read a history of the Yugoslav Wars (1991-1999) in which I found out that the medieval center of Dubrovnik had been shelled by the Yugoslav Army for no apparent reason. The authors of the book characterized it as bitter country boys in the army taking out their frustrations on a rich resort town.

Whatever the reason, Dubrovnik was a strategically unimportant town that was damaged. But you wouldn’t know that to look at it now. A lot of the roofs in the Old Town look new, and you can’t really see anything that is obviously war damage.

Princess was kind enough to offer free shuttle service from the dock to the Old Town, which we took advantage of. When we got there, the first thing we did was go up on the walls and walk around the city. It was cool and overcast (much like the first time I was in Dubrovnik), but it was not a bad time to be up on the wall. If it had been hot, we would have been baked by both the sun above and the stone below. By the time we went all the way around and came down, the weather was better and the line to get up on the wall was looooooong.

The Old Town was crowded, since there were three or four cruise ships in port that day. We went to a Dominican monastery and then the Cathedral, which houses the head, arms and foot of St. Blaise. You have to pay to see those, though. Since none of us is a devotee of St. Blaise, we decided to skip that.

When I’m traveling around, I like to buy just a few things: on the cheap end, patches (to sew on backpacks), stickers (to put on water bottles) and magnets (to put on a refrigerator, in case I ever own one). I also like to look into buying things that the place I’m visiting is known for. I heard that they produce lavender products in Dubrovnik, and that the necktie originated in Croatia, so I looked for the two of those. I bought a small bottle of lavender oil at an outdoor market right after we left the Cathedral, and then looked around for a tie shop. My dad and I looked all around the Old Town for a tie shop, and finally found one, but the cheapest ties there were 57 euros. So much for buying an authentic Croatian necktie.

After walking around for a little longer, we took the shuttle back to the dock, and the tender back to the ship. In the evening, we went to Michelangelo’s again. After this, we went to one of the dining rooms just about every night rather than the buffet. We usually had a four-course meal, with the menu changing each night. It usually took about an hour and a half, and it was a good way to relax after the long day of walking around ports all day, trying to get the most out of the short time we had there.

Day 3 – Venice (and at sea)

We left Venice at about 9 a.m. on June 6. The Emerald was docked on the west side of the city, and we went out through the Guidecca Canal, past St. Mark’s Square and Santa Maria della Salute (the dome with all the scaffolding) on the left. It was overcast and spitting rain, but the deck railings were packed.

It took about an hour to sail out of the lagoon that Venice is in, and then we were out in the Adriatic until Dubrovnik the next morning. The day passed with reading (Since we were going through the Mediterranean, I decided to be ambitious and bring along The Histories by ancient Greek historian Herodotus. By the end of the trip, I was about halfway through), participating in a muster drill, going to the fitness center, buying a Naples shore excursion, and going to a port lecture on Dubrovnik. In the evening, Mary and I went to one of the restaurants on board, Michelangelo’s, for formal dress night.

I found a couple of YouTube videos to give an idea of what the ship was like. Here is the plaza on decks 6 and 7:

Here’s a video of the ship moving through the Guidecca Canal in Venice:

Day 2 – Venice

Mary, my dad and I got up early (two words: jet lag) and wandered around a northern district of Venice called Cannaregio (our B&B was just across the Grand Canal from this district, in Santa Croce). Since it was early and we weren’t at St. Mark’s, it was quiet as we walked up and down the canals. We saw a couple of churches (San Girolamo and Chiesa della Madonna dell’ Orto, where Tintoretto is buried), but neither were open that early. This area holds the dubious distinction of being the oldest Jewish ghetto in Europe, and there still appears to be a small Jewish community there. Even though it was mild and overcast for most of our meanderings, on our way back for breakfast it started pouring rain.

After breakfast, we took the vaporetto to St. Mark’s Square. There was a long line, as there apparently always is, but it moves fast. There are some beautiful mosaics inside, though it was dark and crowded.

Afterward, we walked around the square to soak it all in (it was still drizzling), skipped the Doge’s Palace next door and walked to San Zaccarias, where John the Baptist’s father Zechariah is allegedly buried. There is also a shrine to St. Athanasius there, which I was surprised to see. It looked as though Athanasius was buried there as well, but after the trip I looked it up and apparently he used to be, but isn’t any longer. His body was buried in Alexandria, taken to Italy (where I suppose he was buried in San Zaccarias), but in 1973 Pope Paul VI gave his remains to Pope Shenouda III (of the Coptic Orthodox Church). Now he is buried in the St. Mark Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in Cairo. It’s great for the Coptic Orthodox Church, but too bad for me, because I was excited to see his tomb.

Why was I skeptical about Zechariah being buried there but excited about Athanasius? I am (at least initially) skeptical about most relics and remains that I encounter from the earliest years of the Christian era. My reason is this: for many years, Christianity was a very small movement. It wasn’t until later that Christians were able to build churches set aside for worship, and place relics in them of special significance. So in many cases, there is a long gap between the life of a particular saint and the finding of the relics associated with that saint. For example, Constantine’s mother Helena discovered pieces of the True Cross about 300 years after Jesus’ crucifixion. I think that the longer the gap, and the greater the desire of Christians to discover relics, the less likely it is that those relics are genuine.

By contrast, Athanasius lived well into the Christian era (c. 293-373), in a time when saints’ relics were already being venerated. He was also very popular in his own lifetime. So although I’m not certain, I think that the likelihood of the body people think is Athanasius being his body is greater than the likelihood of the body people think is Zechariah being his body.

After San Zaccarias, we walked back toward our B&B across the shopping district around the Rialto Bridge, where Mary bought a scarf. We also went inside another church: San Polo, where there are some nice paintings of the Stations of the Cross by G. Tiepolo. And a Tintoretto, of course. Then we got gelato again and sat in a square for a bit before we got our bags and set out toward our cruise ship, the Emerald Princess. I will not relate to you the harrowing journey that we took, lugging our suitcases, to get to the ship… but suffice it to say that it would have been MUCH easier had we known that Princess ran a shuttle to the ship from St. Mark’s Square.

But we made it, and spent the evening exploring the huge (3000 passenger), shiny and new (started service April 2007) ship.

Day 1 – Travel (and Venice)

Mary and I began our Mediterranean cruise by getting up in the middle of the night and boarding a bus for the Seattle airport. It took 2.5 hours to get from Bellingham to Seattle, and we were dropped off at 4 a.m. Our flight to New York left at around 6, and that passed without incident. We met up with my dad in JFK, had some lunch, and after two gate changes and a 3-hour delay, we got on our flight to Venice (I don’t remember having a lot of problems at JFK in the past, but after my most recent experience there, I never want to go there again. We experienced long delays both going and coming, and these delays were mostly because of traffic jams on the tarmac). We stumbled off the airplane, dazed and with only 5 or so hours of sleep over the last two nights, at 11 a.m. the next day.

We took a bus from the airport (on the mainland) to Venice, and were dropped off about a 10-minute walk from our B&B. On our way, we saw a typical street sign in Venice:

“San Marco and Rialto: Wherever.”

It takes a while to learn how to navigate Venice’s poorly marked and oddly numbered alleys, but there are lots worse places to get lost. We did find our B&B, dropped off our bags, and even though we felt like taking a 15-hour snooze, we went out on the town.

Our first stop was the Basilica di Santa Maria Dei Frari, a 14th-century brick Franciscan church with lots of tombs inside – some tasteful and some hideously baroque. There is a two-story tomb adorned with statues of skeletons next to an equally large tomb shaped like a pyramid. It also seems that a church just isn’t a church in Venice without some work by Titian or Tintoretto, and sure enough, the Frari has Titian’s “Assumption” above the altar.

After the Frari, we went to the Scuola Grande di San Rocco, the most famous guild hall in Venice and the only guild still in existence. Instead of Elks and Masonic lodges, Renaissance Venice had these groups pulling strings behind the scenes. Tintoretto filled this hall with paintings upstairs and downstairs. It was nice to sit down, admire a painting, take a five-second nap, wake up, and admire the painting some more.

In order to avoid passing out in front of paintings, we walked around Dorsoduro, one of Venice’s six districts. We walked into another church, we got gelato, we did whatever it took to keep moving. In the afternoon, we decided that we had stayed awake long enough to ensure that we were now on European time, so we returned to the B&B for a celebratory nap. In the evening, we had pizza and took a vaporetto (water bus) down the Grand Canal to Piazza San Marco (St. Mark’s Square) and back.

Mary on the vaporetto

Quintessential Venice shot: Rialto Bridge with gondola (and water on my camera lens)

The Return

Mary and my dad and I have now returned from our Mediterranean cruise. Soon, I’ll begin blogging through the trip day-by-day, giving a rundown of what happened and some pictures as well. But tomorrow, Mary and I are leaving to attend a wedding in Spokane, so there will be no blogging for a couple of days. But for now, I will leave you with a little taster of things to come: of course, it is a funny sign:

Get your genuine fake watches here! Accept no imitations!

Grad Photos

I moved away from Vancouver on Friday, and have been spending the last few days in Bellingham until we leave for the cruise on Tuesday. On Friday, I received an e-mail saying that pictures from my graduation have been uploaded here and here. Here are a few that I picked out and downloaded:

This is me receiving my hood. You can only see the top of my head because for some reason I decided to put my head down as if I were being knighted.

Shaking hands with the president:

My good friend Matt, who was the student speaker:

Iain Provan, who was the faculty speaker:

The row that I was sitting in, during the closing prayer:

The faculty sitting at the front: