www.jean-lombard.com
Tuesday 16th August, Athens.
We arrived into port this morning and said goodbye to our cruise yacht
and two blissful weeks amongst the islands.
This blog entry is about those weeks and the beautiful places we
visited, as well as life on the boat.
It has been a very busy time, besides the beauty of our surroundings
there was so much to see and so much to learn.
We started our holiday at Dubrovnik, where we spent three days before
the cruise.
It is a stunning town, there is no doubt. A gorgeous setting, and
with such history. A lot of the town was badly damaged in the homeland
wars in the 90s, but much of it has been repaired and rebuilt, and really works
well for visitors. It has been an important port since before Roman
Times, and especially during the times of the Venetian merchants, it is in that
triangle containing Venice - so close - Ancona in Italy and Dubrovnik itself.
The standards for tourism were very high and they make it comfortable
and easy with plenty of information available. But most of all the people
seem to care for themselves - they are so dependent on tourism, it really has to be
successful. They have taken a lot of
care in the presentation of their history, through well presented museums and
old architecture that has survived. The actual city walls are magnificent
– built to defend the city, they would have had canons in the towers.
We walked ourselves to exhaustion. The whole town is very
comfortable and clean and very well organised, with good public transport.
We bought a 3 day pass which took us on buses, and into museums and the
challenging walk around the city walls. They are special - and the views all
around were wonderful. I was amused to see Red Cross stations at various
places along the wall top in case of people getting exhausted – it was hot and
crowded! Someone mentioned that we should see a library that survived the
bombing, but we didn’t see it. Nor did we see any mention of it in the
tourist material.
Sunday was a pleasant day because there were no big cruise ships in….
We sat through two masses in the cathedral. The choir was beautiful and
the music excellent. I noticed a number of words similar to Russian in
the sermon!!!! The cathedral was cool and a blessed refuge from the heat
before we set out on climbing the hundreds of stone steps up and down as we
worked our way around the walls.
There are plenty of shady and nice places to have a beer and lunch so we
were able to recover quickly. However when the cruise ships come in, it is
not good. Monday was pretty bad, with 2 massive ships in so we escaped
and left the old town and took a bus south to a place called Cavtat, about 30
minutes drive along the coast which was very pleasant. There we visited
the home of an artist – now a museum - which had been recommended to us, and
after that had a refreshing beer and a salad. Everyone in the tourist
industry speaks English in varying degrees. I am glad we were not staying in a
hotel at the Old Town, but nearby at the port of Gruz and it was so easy to take a bus
each day whenever we wanted to. There were also lots of small restaurants
around for eating dinner away from the crowded places.
Anyone who is ever thinking of a holiday here, best to avoid the
European holiday season in July and August. May/June or September would
be much better and less busy. The big cruise ships with 2-3 thousand passengers
can really be very destructive. Imagine what they are doing to Vienna.
Our little ship with 200 passengers looks so small, thank goodness.
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| Old town of Dubrovnik, walls on the left. |
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| Old town taken from high on the walls |
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| Old town - showing new roofs |
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| steps of up old wall |
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| Maritime museum Dubrovnik |
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| model of fighting ship Maritime museum |
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| from the walls - formerly a canon space |
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| Our reward after the hard climb and walk in the heat |
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| The Rector's house in the old town. |
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| I don't know what this was used for - very large |
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| Exquisite embroidery |
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| Street in the old town - there were lots like this |
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| The Old town and the walls from the sea. |
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| First week's tour |
When we boarded yesterday, we pulled out of the port of Gruz and
anchored off the coast in sight of the Old Town, which looked magnificent from
the water especially with floodlights at night. The first morning we went on a
trip around the islands in a zodiac and had a swim in the beautiful clear
water.
At 7pm the
Commandant’s welcome cocktail party was followed by a gala dinner with caviar,
shrimps, dorade, fillet of beef, chocolate mousse, plus their usual array of
wine. The cocktail was in the open air at the back of Deck 6 with copious
quantities of Veuve Cliquot.
The sun is searing hot - and so many people are sun baking, burning
themselves to a cinder as they lie out on sun chairs. Bodies off all shapes and
sizes, many looking like old leather. It was too hot for me and I have
come inside where I can watch them through the window and write some notes.
Apparently there are 221 passengers - several families with children - 149
are French, and the rest mixed from mostly other European countries. We donated Claudette to the library, in both languages, so I
am waiting to see if I can spot someone reading it. We never see the
children except at meals sometimes, as there is an organised program for them.
Lots of fig trees around, but sadly it is not the season for fresh figs,
however, there is fabulous seafood and the olive oil is wonderful.
On the way to Paxos:
There is a heat mist this morning and the sun is shining through our large open
doors onto the balcony. I can hear the waves swishing past as we travel south
along the coast from Croatia to the Greek Isles. Fabulous coastline of
mountains, cliffs and caves and a beautiful clear sea. If I wished to
listen I would hear a running commentary of the places we are passing, about
their agricultural production - olives and wine mostly and fishing - We have
passed along the mountainous coast of Montenegro and Albania. Lots to learn
about the history - so much we don’t know. We are passing an ancient
monastery - apparently there are many archaeological sites where ancient coins
have been found. We went into the Bay of Kotor through a narrow entrance and
slowly moved around. Very beautiful.
Thursday morning: 4th august: I heard the anchors going down just
off Paxos, part of the smallest group of Ionian islands. it looks very picturesque and is an island of olive groves, and the neighbouring Anti-Paxos an
island of vineyards. We had a lazy
morning on board till lunch (fresh Paxos oysters and mussels).
Paxos and AntiPaxtos are the smallest group of islands in the
Ionian Sea with very few permanent
inhabitants. We could see mansions built high in the mountains - apparently
owned and built by rich Italians for summer houses. We were told one of the
houses was owned by the head of the Fiat company. Our guide told us that
all the material for building the houses is taken up to the site by donkeys.
I suggested helicopters, but she said oh no,no, donkeys. We have
four very good guides on the ship with us, all Greek women from Athens, they
speak English and French very clearly. They stay on the ship and give lectures and go on all the tours with us.
So they are always available for information which is great - very
pleasant. I suspect retired history professors.
We are wandering around feeling as if we are Ulysses or Poseidon (God of
the Sea) and this is our Odyssey. All amazing. We could just
imagine the ancient galleons rowing and sailing around. We went on the
tender to Gaios a small village built by the Venetians where some boats pull
in. These days the boats are mostly large private sea going yachts.
What a day, and what a place. We got on a quaint local boat – an
old wooden boat, possibly a former fishing boat, with an upper deck with a shade. I think there were about 30 of us - the boat was painted in
blue with floral painting along the sides and was run by a Greek family -
father and two sons probably. We chugged along listening to all sorts of
fascinating information - it appealed to me to learn about our use of Greek
words that are around 4,000 years old. For example archipelago - a group
of small islands, and another interesting one Fos greek word for light, and grasping
the light fotograficka, which became photograph. Echo, Farmacia,
pharmacy, aqua, aquamarine and so on. The grand old boat tootled along around the
limestone cliffs - the turquoise colour
of the water is absolutely magic. We then entered into a little cove and they
just kept driving until the nose of the boat crunched into large flat pebbles
on a beach. They put down wonky ladders back and front and we couldn’t
wait to get into the water. Just fantastic. Nobody wanted to get
out and move on - they had to keep calling us in.
Our Odyssey continued along the coast and into some huge caves, including one where Poseidon, God of the sea, hid
his mistress Amfitriti, daughter of King Aheron. - the water was very deep but so clear you
could see the bottom in most places. Apparently during the war a
submarine was hidden in one of these caves. The light is extraordinary. The
mountains are covered in scrub, olives
and some vines, and here and there ancient water cisterns for collecting rain
water - the Venetian merchants ships used to come in to buy or trade for water. After that
lovely swim we took lots of photos. We had a stop at the village of Lakka and
went to a little tavern where they had organised a plate of lovely Greek food
for us and a cold beer or wine. Small olives, tomato, cucumber, stuffed
vine leaves, lovely feta cheese, potatoes. Delicious. It was
getting late so we had to go back on the tender and get back on board. It
was an absolutely wonderful day.
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| Our cabin and balcony |
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| an example of the colour of the sea |
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| caves along the coast of Paxos |
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| Dora, one of our magnificent Greek guides |
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| inside the cave |
They keep you so busy - we have hardly time to think. I had my
hair cut yesterday in the hairdressing salon - the young hairdresser said she
had spent 2 years working in Australia, and is on a wonderful contract with
Ponant. The window of her salon has a magic view - and as she said, it
changes every day!! After this trip her next contract is around Vietnam,
Australia and New Zealand. What a way to see the world!
Every evening there is a show in the theatre at 10pm after dinner.
The first two evenings it was very good contemporary dance, and last
night a group did excerpts from Broadway musicals, including Mama Mia!
They had the whole theatre rocking and singing along, hilarious….
All very exhausting this wonderful stuff, we stay up too late, drink too
much, and we are enjoying very pleasant company of several different
nationalities.
John has gone on the tour this morning around Zakynthos, where the first
inhabitants arrived around 6,000 BC.
This afternoon one of the guides is giving a lecture in the theatre. A page of Greek modern history – there is a
lot of emphasis on the struggles for Greek independence from Turkey – from the
Ottoman Turks, stories and more stories of the brave Greeks who fought in the
battles, and ran the underground. The Greek Revolution 1821-27.
Next stop the island of Hydra, the name derived from the Greek word for water. It used to have a good supply of fresh spring water sources, but after many earthquakes they disappeared and now water has to be brought to the island each day.
Anchors are up with loud groans and creeks and we are swishing along
again - we keep our balcony glass doors open, the water sounds nice and
whispery as we sail along, and the colour is a rich turquoise, or aqua marine.
We approached the entrance to the Corinth Canal about 10pm, it was pitch dark with a warm breeze. Two small pilot/tug boats were roped one to front and one to back of the ship. They looked like toy boats and made our ship look very big. The canal was barely a metre wider than us each side. The front of our ship had huge floodlights shining ahead and we could see the pilot boat and the cliff sides of the canal which I could almost touch from our balcony. The canal connects the Gulf of Corinth with the Saronic Gulf in the Aegean Sea. It separates the Peloponnese from the Greek mainland. The builders dug the canal through the Isthmus at sea level, so there are no locks. It is 6.4 km in length and only 21.4 metres wide making it impassable for most modern ships. It took about an hour to crawl through and that was an excuse for the captain to put on a party on the top front deck with Veuve Cliquot and ouzo, accompanied by music from a violinist. It was dark so photos didn't turn out well enough to publish.
So this morning we arrived
at Hydra (from Greek word for water). It is hard to find words to describe these
different islands, all unique in their own way with some similarities. They seem to get better all the time. What a
beautiful place. Apparently earth quakes
played havoc with the fresh water springs and there is no fresh water any
more. Water is brought in by sea each
day. The town is very concentrated in a
kind of amphitheatre coming down to the sea. Most of the houses are sparkling
white, with brightly coloured blue shutters, and a few houses painted in a yellow-mustard
making them stand out amongst the others. Very picturesque. We are moored just
off shore outside the small harbour, and the tender took about 5 minutes to
take us into the town. There are no cars
or any motorised vehicles allowed here.
There were rows of donkeys lined up at the ferry stop where they were
taking loads of boxes for delivery. Some
of the tourists who arrived with suitcases had them taken by donkey to their
hotel. You could also take a pleasant tour
on donkey back if you so wished. We had
a marvellous walking tour with one of our guides. We climbed up the narrow streets on stone
steps early in the day before it got too hot. We learnt a lot of history about
how the islands joined the rest of Greece and became independent from the
Ottoman Turks. The war of independence
was 1821-27, and the islands became independent in 1827. We visited a house formerly owned by a Greek
shipping merchant. His family donated it
to the state as a museum. He made a lot
of money but was a great benefactor to his home island, building houses for the
poor and supporting the cause for freedom. It was all very interesting and I
was delighted to examine the family’s 19thC weaving loom and
spindles, wool winders etc, and some wonderful examples of the heavily
embroidered clothes they wore for special occasions such as weddings, as well
as furniture and icons. The kitchen and
cellars were very interesting. Everywhere we look the colours are stunning, the
water sparkling blue and the sky beautiful.
As long as they paid their taxes the Turks more or less left the Greek
community alone. With their excellent seafaring skills they were very useful.
It wasn’t until the Turks tried to increase the taxes and make the Greek women dress
like Muslim women that there was an outcry.
The Greeks had secretly preserved their language and their orthodox
religion. At night-time they would meet
secretly in the “closed” churches. They
brought their children with them at night to teach them the Greek
language. Not allowed to have any
schools in their own language, the children learnt their language through the
bible and Homer.
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| waiting for customers |
Well, after all that fascinating information we visited an orthodox
church which strongly reminded us of the Russian orthodox churches. Same sort of iconostasis and gold and silver
ornaments, and brightly coloured ceilings and arches. And another museum.
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| loaded up and waiting |
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| Inside the naval merchant's house |
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| The Greek shipowner/merchant who built this mansion |
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| Clothes used by family members |
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| handspun stockings |
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| Felt coat |
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| old counter balance loom |
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| spindles |
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| Linen ready to be woven |
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| kitchen |
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| Our lovely guide Ioanna |
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| Le Lyrial |
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| Magnificent embroidery |
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| houses on the hill at Hydra |
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| typical windmill |
Back at the boat for an Asian buffet lunch. With a choice of food from Japan, Indonesia, Vietnam, it was delicious. Then a little snooze before our afternoon exercise. The crew had set up an area on the 2nd deck at the back of the boat with floating buoys, (where we usually get on the tender or the zodiacs), making a good sized area closed off for us to swim in. We were protected by 3 zodiacs to make sure no other boats came close. The water was beautiful, they put down a ladder which made it possible for us to get on and off, some of the younger ones dived in. Absolutely heavenly, with the background of that beautiful little town sloping down into the bay and being able to float in turquoise water in front of it. A hydrofoil came past a few times on the trip from Pireaus – the port of Athens (2hr trip), and made some waves which livened things up a bit
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| swimming off the back of the boat |
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| The tender/life boat which takes us to shore |
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| swimming off the back of the boat |
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| Climbing out after a wonderful swim |
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| Farewell Hydra |
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| Dinner in the 2nd deck restaurant |
There is always entertainment on in different parts of the ship, jazz
playing somewhere, a singer somewhere else, a violinist or pianist playing
classical music in another lounge, yoga or dancing lessons. So plenty of
choice. Another beautiful dinner and bed,
no show this time, as we have an early start to go to Delos in the morning
before it gets too hot and crowded.
Delos – here I am
running out of words again – as we were returning to the ship I said to John
that it was like Lego Land of ancient Greece, all tumbled down and waiting to
be rebuilt or reassembled by our grandchildren and many other hands. It might take another thousand years to do
so, but gradually it will be done with funds from the European Union I
expect. It is just a small uninhabited rocky
island 5kms wide and 1.3km in width. Our
guide as always was superb. We heard
about the legend of Apollo and his sister Artemis being born there, the island
raised out of the sea to give their mother a safe place for their birth. It became a shrine to Apollo, a busy
religious and commercial centre for many years where people went to pay homage.
Delos was
the greatest commercial centre in the whole world. It has been called the Wall
Street of the ancient world. It was a free port from 2nd century BC to
2nd century AD. Rich merchants,
bankers and ship owners from around the world settled here attracting many
builders, artists and craftspeople who built luxurious houses with rich
frescoes and marble floors.
Today it is an archaeological gold mine and researchers are still working away finding all sorts of evidence of life in a former age. Earliest inhabitants were around 2,500 B.C. but its major development was by the end of the 5th century B.C.
There are masses of remains of sanctuaries to various Deities, a lot of
ruins, columns standing tall amongst the ruins, and the Naxian lions which were
apparently carved to protect the sacred lake where Apollo and Artemis were
born. They had to take the originals and place them in the museum for security, as some of the lions disappeared.
Some of the bigger houses owned by rich merchants still have remains of beautiful
very fine mosaics, usually covering the floor of an open central courtyard with
the water cistern underneath. The small museum had many stone carvings and
statues, and several of Apollo. They
also had a good collection of pottery and household tools used by its former
inhabitants. It is extremely difficult to
absorb the great age of this place.
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| Delos - the centre of finance and commerce |
There were the remains of many houses with wells or cisterns, market
places, a gymnasium, a hippodrome, and an amphitheatre. We walked around as
much as possible in the few hours allowed.
There was quite a strong wind blowing which helped to keep us
comfortable and cool. The entrance to some houses had the doorsteps in marble worn
down in a deep curve. Whose footsteps
had worn this entrance stone down? Imagine the men and women, the slaves who
worked here, and the busy lives they had.
The streets were very narrow, the houses stone without any outside
windows. This was for protection as they
were always in danger of an attack by pirates.
Research teams are continually working here, they are the only people
who stay on the island as well as the guards.
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| A house on Delos |
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| The entrance step - so well worn |
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| Portico of Philip V |
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| More well worn entrance steps |
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| The Oikos and the Colossus of the Naxians |
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| Temple of the Athenians |
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| The Poros Temple |
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| Copies of the Lions of the Naxians |
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| The original Lions of the Naxians in the museum for security |
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| These are the original lions |
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| Some fine mosiacs that have survived |
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| More mosiacs |
Back to a lunch buffet, this
time Greek food. As always
delicious. As we were eating we moved on
again, and we are now moored off Mykonos.
We will go in and have a wander around after a rest.
Mykonos
looked very dramatic from the sea, the houses whitewashed and stacked up in
terraces all over the hills. This is a
very busy place and a very popular tourist centre. We walked around and looked
for some museums, there were three, but all were closed. It was not as clean as the other smaller
places we had been too. Many Greeks are
here on their annual holidays, and many other nationalities too.
So Mykonos just wasn’t so
attractive to us, too busy and crowded, and not so clean, although it might be
better out of season. It looks really
beautiful, with the rich colours of bougainvillea spilling out in each narrow
cobble stoned street.
We were happy to get back to
the boat and spend another pleasant evening.
Apero time 7pm, with classical music being played in the bar. All the staff are so pleasant, and the bar
man always remembers our name. He always
greets us as Jean, and “Sir John”. The
staff seem to be very happy, and although they work hard and get little time
off, they are earning clear money and get all their accommodation and food. The young administrative staff seem to be
mostly French, and most of the household staff, waiters and bar staff are Filipino. I guess they are sending their money home.
One waiter is called June, his brother is called July and his sister April
May. There is another called Irish! They seem to enjoy talking and chatting away. The Executive Chef who looks like a Viking,
presents each day some delicious special dish. There are some very pleasant people to join
for meals, and we enjoy a variety of good company.
Today we are at the island
of Lesbos, anchored off the small
harbour at Petra. Another beautiful
quiet place, with no big boats here, not even millionaire’s yachts. Wonderful. It was much in the news as a
destination of refugees. We asked about
the refugees as there are still about 3,000 on Lesbos, but at the other side of
the island to where we were. You can see
Turkey very easily across the sea. Our
guide told us that the people on Lesbos were kind to the refugees and looked
after them, but that no more are coming now.
Tourism suffered on Lesbos as a result of them giving refuge to these
sad people, what a pity. The islanders
are worried about what is happening in Turkey, but Turkish people are still
coming on holidays.
We went on a bus tour, visiting Molyvos castle high in the hills, and then Limonos Monastery which dates back to the 16th century and was founded St Ignatius. which strangely enough is funded from Istanbul. They have a wonderful museum with ancient icons, and beautiful examples of old religious textiles, and ancient manuscripts dating back to 9th century. There are very few monks there currently. More slices of history to fill in the gaps and enjoy. Another lovely day.
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| Lesbos |
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| Turkey in the distance |
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| Molyvos Castle |
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| Molyvos castle |
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| Limonos Monastery |
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| Church in Limonos monastery |
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| Iounna our guide at Lomonos |
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| Storing olive oil |
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| grinders for wheat |
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| At the entrance to the monastery |
A farewell gala cocktail and dinner before some of the passengers disembark tomorrow.
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| The food was Very Good! |
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| Captain's farewell |
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| Dinner with horse loving Parisians Florence and Vincent |
The first part of our cruise
is about to come to an end with our arrival at Pireaus, the port of Athens tomorrow morning. Then tomorrow evening we start the second
part of our cruise coming back here amongst the islands for the rest of the
week.
John has had some kind of
delicious chocolate desert every single day with dinner. Can you imagine? He thinks he is in chocolate heaven. So last night I was dreaming of Ancient
Greece’s Legoland at Delos and he was dreaming of chocolate….
We have just had an hour on the ‘bridge’ with a talk by the captain
explaining how this ship works. It was timed so that we could be there
while the boat was pulling up anchor and setting off. There are always 3
people on the bridge, and they work 4 hours on and 4 hours off.
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| On the bridge of Le Lyrial |
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| On the bridge of Le Lyrial |
Pireaus and Athens
What a contrast to stop in a big city port – we are tied up quayside
waiting for the new passengers to board this afternoon. There are huge cruise ships around, and lots
of lots of large ferry boats. It smells
of a city instead of the beautiful fresh air of the islands. It is very busy – the water traffic passing
back and forth all the time. We decided
to take a taxi into Athens to the Acropolis and the Acropolis museum. We were lucky to find a very pleasant woman
taxi driver who we struck a deal with for 4 hours. She took us where we wanted to go and waited
for us everywhere, returning us to the ship at the end of our tour. Everywhere you go in Athens there is some
famous ruin, a temple of Zeus, the Parthenon, Hadrian’s arch and so on.
The Acropolis was amazing, the only downside was that there were
thousands and thousands of other tourists there. I find it hard to concentrate on the
atmosphere of the monument and all the stories it has to tell, when I am
surrounded by thousands of others. But
by golly it is very impressive. Massive
– on the top of a large hill, its high marble columns stand out for miles and
miles. A temple to the gods of the
time. Also hard to imagine the fact that
apparently it was brightly coloured. It
was the only such monument here that was not built by slaves. Who built it I don’t know, and how it was
built is another huge question. Athens
seems to be in a bowl with the suburbs stretching up into the hills. There are
other ruined monuments at the top of several other hills surrounding the city. It was a big climb up to the top in the heat
amongst the crowds of others, to see the building and read the information
boards, but so worthwhile. A lovely
breeze was blowing as we climbed higher and that was a relief. The marble stones and steps are very worn and
quite slippery. Very interesting to read
about the restoration going on at the moment, funded by Europe.
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| View of the Acropolis from the museum |
Our loyal taxi driver was waiting for us when we eventually made it down
again, and took us to the museum. That
was a great experience again and more information overload!! A lot of the stone carvings from the original
building are in the museum, and some very good examples of pottery and
tools. All very well displayed in this
great modern building facing the Parthenon on the hill.
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| Second week tour. |
We are back on board now, in the lounge on deck 3, listening to music,
having green tea and writing our notes.
I am watching the sea out of the window – its quite choppy and windy –
enjoying watching lots of ships toing and froing.
The crew are all lined up in their uniforms to greet the new arrivals –
I wonder what they will be like. We were
3 hours late leaving port as the luggage of some passengers was lost by their
airline.
Now we are guessing nationalities of the newcomers – sometimes we can
guess by what they eat for breakfast!!
Breakfast seems to be so different in each country and culture.
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| Dinner on deck |
Last night we had dinner outside on the back of deck 6, a little bit breezy
as we were sailing along, but very pleasant with a half moon and the waves
breaking gently on the side of the ship.
Sea gulls swooped around us playing with the breaking waves, as if they
were taking part in a complicated ballet performance. So lovely to be away from
the big city and out in the freedom of the open sea again.
Now we are on the way to Petra, on the island of Lesbos again, the sea
is very rough, so we are staggering along the corridors in zig zag fashion,
bouncing off the walls. There is a very strong wind, and I can see people being
blown wildly on the deck. Every so often
there is a thump when a wave hits us and the boat shudders. It is great not to have to rush out this
morning for an excursion and we can take our time.
At Petra we will visit a
petrified forest, apparently we have to drive in a bus for an hour and a half
to get there. More about this later when we have some information.
We are sailing along in the
north eastern Aegean Sea to the mountainous island of Lesbos again where the main source of income is olive oil, as well
as fishing, mostly sardines. I must
remember to look out for oil from Lesbos, it is top quality. We anchored off the little harbor, and the
tender took us to Petra where there was a bus waiting for us. Our first stop
was at medieval Molyvos Castle an impressive fortress standing on a hill. Inside the castle there seemed to be a Greek
dancing class going on!
After that a long drive
through villages and around hairpin bends to the other side of the island to
visit the petrified forest museum. About 20 million years ago the area was
covered with enormous trees, including oaks, cinnamon, pines, conifers, and
sequoia. After a huge volcano eruption
the trees were all covered with ash and preserved as they were. Later the water of the Aegean rose and many
of the remains were under water. A
museum area has been constructed to show the stumps of these ancient trees,
which seem to be partly covered in crystals and are varied and beautiful colours.
The museum built in 1994 to study, collate,
research, conserve and protect the petrified forest which is a Greek national
heritage. There were also some
casts of skulls and huge jaw bones with teeth and tusks of an elephant like
animal and people who populated the area in those very early times. All very fascinating stuff, but how can I get
my head around 20 million years ago??
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| A petrified tree |
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| Elephant like animal with tusks |
Back on board for another Commandant's cocktails on the deck followed by a gala dinner to welcome the new arrivals.
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| Dinner with some new arrivals - Jenny and Anne |
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| The staff coming down from Deck 7 for introduction to new arrivals |
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| Cocktails: Veuve Clicquot on the deck. |
We sailed all night, and this
morning, 11th August, anchored quayside at the island of Syros. It looks beautiful from where we
are on the ship. The houses climb up the
hill in terraces around the bay and towering above it all a Catholic church and
monastery – it will be a challenge to visit later. We set off with our regular guide for a 2
hour walking tour of the town.
Apparently on this island there are a large number of Catholics, more
than anywhere else in Greece, which is mostly orthodox.
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| Icon painting by El Greco |
Like the rest of Greece this
island has an ancient history of habitation, in 5th century BC the
Phoenicians came here and used it as a seaport.
The island passed through various rulers 18th and 19th
centuries, Turks and Russians, and during the war of Greek independence it was
under French protection because of the large number of Catholics living here,
and so remained neutral. However the island helped in the independence war by
being a refuge. It is now the
administrative centre of the Cyclades group.
We had a great walk, and
learnt about the history and architecture of the place. Key parts of our visit were to the Greek
Orthodox church, the splendid Town Hall building and the Catholic church. The Catholic church has a famous El Greco
painting – apparently he started his artistic career painting icons. Some years
ago his signature was discovered at the bottom of the painting – his full
family name Domenicos Theotokopolous.
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| A stroll through the town |
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| Town Hall and Civic Centre |
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| just steps and more steps |
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| figurine in the museum |
The two churches Orthodox and Catholic are
very similar inside, with silver framed icons and the iconostasis in front of
the altar, both were very colourful and heavily decorated with silver and gold,
and well endowed with gifts of paintings and silver.
Our guide made an interesting
comment in that she said – when things are difficult, people need something to
believe in, they need their faith. If they can believe and pray it helps them. The poor economic situation is not so
apparent on the islands except for unfinished houses here and there. Families ran out of money and had to abandon
the project. As a result engineers,
builders, architects could not get work.
Some of them gave up their profession and retired to the islands to take
up farming vines and oil.
We will go back and walk to
the top of the mountain later in the afternoon if we are able for it!! It is
hot.
We went ashore about 5pm and
gradually climbed to the top where the Catholic church stood. What an achievement! The old ladies sitting out on their steps
were worried about us and kept trying to direct us unto a road instead of the
steps!! They were very caring. When we descended we stopped at a tavern for
a beer and an ouzo before returning to the ship for dinner.
One of the
significant aspects of these Cycladic islands is the amount of marble. Syros
has marble footpaths and marble streets. There is marble everywhere you look.
One of the guides said the local joke is that marble is cheaper than wood.
There is certainly a lot more of it than wood.
After dinner a classical
music performance from the on board pianist, a Ukranian. Mostly Chopin and
Schubert.
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| On our way to the top, marble and more marble |
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| Looking down on Le Lyrial |
One day we had a most
interesting lecture from a former French Minister, Madame Monique Pelletier, who
later when retired from politics became a Constitutional lawyer. She had 7 children, and was Minister for
families, for violence against women, for protection of children, for prisons.
It
never ceases to amaze us – all of these islands are stunningly beautiful – but
each are different in their own way, and in how they exist, many of them self
sustainable. Mostly they show no
evidence of financial hardship, everything maintained well and very clean. Most have solar panels, and some have
windmills as well.
However
they are resilient, they have had years of practice. Such a long history of struggle with
invaders over thousands of years, and attacks by pirates always a problem,
hence their fortified towns are often high up from the shore. Apparently pirates used to come and capture
their children and take them away to be slaves.
What a world it was, and still is.
Still a struggle against Islam and the Turks as it has been for
thousands of years – previously it was the Ottoman Turks, the Venetians, then a
thousand years of the Byzantine period when Greece ruled Constantinople. Then
the Turks invading again, and at last independence in 1827, most of the islands
too, but some a bit later.
Paros yesterday.
Very picturesque villages. Like the other islands it has been inhabited
for thousands of years, and is most well known for the quality of its
marble. Everywhere you look there is
marble and more marble. All the houses,
streets, walls, pavements are made of marble. The main town Parikia has another
beautiful cluster of whitewashed houses and narrow little streets, with splashes
of colour from bougainvillea everywhere.
It has a busy harbour with huge ferries coming and going to
Pireaus. This is a long weekend here –
Monday is a religious holiday and there will be processions in the streets
where they carry the important icons of the Virgin Mary and place it back in the
church. In the ancient church of Ekatontapyliani
women were busily polishing all the candlesticks, cleaning the icons and the
silver frames, flags were being strung outside the church all in preparation
for Monday. After our busy morning
walking tour with our guide, we had a siesta but returned to the town later in
the afternoon just to have a walk around and again a beer and an ouzo. The tender goes back and forth to the ship,
so we can come and go as we wish as not everyone books into the tours.
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| small church/monastery |
Overnight
we sailed to Amorgos and this morning
we had to get up early to be ready for an excursion leaving just after 8am. That is why it gets tiring, because we rarely
get a chance to take it slowly in the mornings.
The excursions are planned so we can get out and about before the main
tourist crowds are busy and before it gets too hot. Amorgos was known as Minoa since the Cretan
Minoans lived here for many centuries. It has been inhabited since at least
3300BC. It is just 153 square kms, long
and with a chain of mountains, east of the Cyclades. It is very small and quiet, and very pleasant
to visit. Lots of chains of old windmills can be seen on the skyline. Apparently Luc Besson chose Amorgos as the
background for the first part of his movie “The Big Blue”.
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| 294 steps up to this monastery, difficult coming down |
Today
we had a mini bus for the English speakers which was quite luxurious! We set off – our guide talks all the time
giving us a run down on the facts and history of the island – and we came to a
monastery set into the high cliffs of Mount Prophet Elijah, hanging over the
sea. This was the main feature of our
visit. It is called the Holy Monastery
of Panagia Hozoviotissa, and we had to climb 294 steps to reach the monastery
which is 300 metres up above sea level. It is small and narrow, built into the
cliff, and we just cannot imagine how it was built – started in the 8th
century. Today there are only 3 monks
left keeping it going, but there were young students guarding the doors and
making sure everyone was dressed appropriately. They have several very precious
icons and documents which they keep there, and occasionally lend to museums
throughout the world. Inside we climbed
up small steep steps in the cliff and were invited to sit down in a small room
where we were given raki flavoured with cinnamon, lemon leaves and cloves, and
Turkish delight to eat. We listened to
several legends of how the most famous icon came there and inspired the
building of the church. Coming down the
294 steps was almost harder than the climb up.
The famous wind, the meltemi which comes in August to this part of the
world was blowing a gale, it was hard to stand up, but kept us fresh at least
in the heat.
After
the monastery we visited the main town of Chora, a lovely little town with
gorgeous winding narrow streets, all whitewashed with bright blue shutters and wrapped
in the vines of bright pink bougainvillea. The wind was so strong it was hard
to get around. We will go back to the
shore later in the afternoon to have a walk around.
Our
guide told us that in ancient times the women used to weave dark red material
from bamboo fibre, or a kind of linen, an interesting note for me. I see a few
hand-woven rag rugs on steps and seats and lots of lace and embroidery that is
old and attractive. I am told that sadly
nobody does any of these kind of handicrafts anymore. It hasn’t rained for 5
months, so everything is brown and dry, I noticed some wild thyme near the
monastery, several goats around and donkeys but not much else. Always olive trees and figs.
Symi The maritime skills of the Greeks
can be seen again and again. Now we are in the Dodecanese, at the island of Symi,
just northwest of Rhodes. When I look at
the map I realise we are very close to Turkey. The island has cypress forests,
vineyards and olives, and the people live off tourism, fishing and
agriculture. They have a thriving
industry of sponge diving here. Long ago it had a boat building industry and it
is said to have built 500 ships a year.
Homer writes that Symi sent ships to the Trojan War. The history is similar to the other islands,
Romans where here in 2nd and 1st century BC, followed by
the Byzantine period, then the Knights of Rhodes, then the Ottoman Turks in the
16th century. As Symi boats
were very fast there was an Ottoman post office an important responsibility. Early 20th century the island was
given to the Italians, then liberated at the end of the 2nd World
War. Apparently there are 500 steps we
can climb later to get a stunning view.
Don’t know yet if my knees will allow it, we shall see.
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| At the port |
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| gorgeous old loom in the museum |
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| oil jars |
We
went to a great lecture yesterday about Greek mythology – we saw a family tree
of of the Greek Gods, and were told various legends of which there
are always meanings that can apply to life at any time.
The
God Chrono (time) was jealous of his sons and killed most of them. Zeus survived and went through the same
situation. Every time his wife Heres had
a child, he would swallow it. She went
to her mother in law to ask her advice, and her mother in law suggested that
the next time she should hide the baby and give Zeus a stone instead of the
baby and he would swallow it.
The
outcome of it is that Zeus was forced to spit up all the babies and the stone
eventually and the children survived.
Lots of other legends of similar style.
When
I was writing before about water cisterns under houses on the islands that
don’t have any fresh water, and even those that do, I forgot to mention the
ancient method of making sure the water was fit for drinking. When the rain water runs off the roof into
the cistern, the dust and grit all settles in the bottom. However, they put eels in the cisterns who feed
on the bad microbes dangerous for humans, therefore making the water clean and
pure for drinking.
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| our view at lunch time |
We
had a magnificent day on Symios. We went
over on the tender this morning and climbed up the hundreds of steps to the top
of the town for a magnificent view, then we worked our way in a circle through
the little streets as we gradually went down again. We then took a small local bus - €3 - to
the other side of the island to a very small village called Panormitis, about
35 mins on winding narrow roads, a hair raising drive. Passing through rocky terrain, a ferry comes in daily which can take anyone who wants to Symios, and the bus goes 3 times a day. It is a place of pilgrimage mostly to the monastery. There were lots of goats wandering around here and there. We enjoyed the trip in the bus so much, such breathtaking views everywhere. It dropped people off and picked up here and there, it had about 20 seats I think. It couldn’t be any bigger on these small roads. We had to reverse - or others had to sometimes, to get around corners.
The road was
high in the mountains so we had terrific views each side, eventually descending
to the village and the 6th century monastery dedicated to Michael
the Archangel. It had a small beautiful
and heavily decorated church, the ceilings and arches were painted with biblical
stories and there were of course lots of icons.
Then we went to the small museum which was excellent and very
interesting.
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| lunch at local tavern beside the monastery |
It had sections dealing
with maritime history, with family agriculture, ecclesiastical items, such as
robes, icons, communion cups, crosses and ancient parchments. There was a textile section with a very old loom,
some woven items and embroidery, some old winding machines and bits and
pieces. Part of old distilling machinery
and huge jars used for olive oil. We
had a lovely typical Greek lunch in a small tavern overlooking the sea in this
very quiet little place. What a place it would be for a relaxing holiday.
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| Entrance to the monastery |
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| From the bus |
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| Back at port waiting for the tender |
Now we are back on the boat resting. Tomorrow is our last day, and we will take an excursion to another famous church on the religious holiday to watch what is happening. All the colours here are striking – all the houses so different to the other islands we have seen where everything is whitewashed.
St
John and the Apocalypse. Today we are at
Patmos island, a small island with
rocky mountains, it is the place where it is said that St John the Evangelist wrote the Book of
Revelations. An isolated place - and a place of exile. The island of Icarus is not far away, and
several other small islands and the coast of Turkey. It is not used generally as a tourist or
holiday place, except by upper class well off Greeks who have built beautiful
houses around the monastery area. A popular holidaying spot for the Athenian
wealthy, in contrast to Mykonos a popular place for the international
wealthy.
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| Knights of St John |
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| Huge stone dough bowl for making bread |
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| The Knights of St John |
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| Courtyard of the monastery |
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| View on our walk down to the Cave of the Apocalypse |
We
have had a wonderful excursion this morning to a monastery set on top of a
mountain built in memory of St John. A beautiful very old church with monastery
buildings. Our guide told us many
stories that have been passed on about the saint, about the icons, and about
words and meanings of the Greek language. Today Theologian appealed to me. Theos – a God – logian words, where logic
comes from - The Knights of Saint John
were active here, the Hospitaliers, and their sign – a cross with eight points
is carved into several stone archways.
The
rest of the day was basically packing up and getting ready to leave. A farewell cocktail party on Deck 6 again, followed by a magnificent dinner.
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| Crew farewell |
We
disembarked the next day and took a taxi to our hotel in Athens. We spent most of our full day in Athens using
the open top bus, and passed many fascinating hours at the Archaeological
museum. All the displays from the
islands were fascinating as we were able to identify with the places they were
found. It was a happy and interesting
full on three weeks. The ship is a
friendly and happy place to be, the staff so agreeable and seemingly enjoying
their work.
We are very much looking forward to our
next cruise, a 17-day cruise in August 2017 under the title of Ultima Thule,
the Horizontal Everest, which goes from Kangerluassaq in Greenland all through
the Baffin sea around the east coast of Canada to Straeling island, the
northernmost point reached by the Vikings.
Following are some favourites at the Archaeological Museum, Athens.
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| From the archaeological museum at Athens |
Check my web site:
So this morning we arrived
at Hydra (from Greek word for water). It is hard to find words to describe these
different islands, all unique in their own way with some similarities. They seem to get better all the time. What a
beautiful place. Apparently earth quakes
played havoc with the fresh water springs and there is no fresh water any
more. Water is brought in by sea each
day. The town is very concentrated in a
kind of amphitheatre coming down to the sea. Most of the houses are sparkling
white, with brightly coloured blue shutters, and a few houses painted in a yellow-mustard
making them stand out amongst the others. Very picturesque. We are moored just
off shore outside the small harbour, and the tender took about 5 minutes to
take us into the town. There are no cars
or any motorised vehicles allowed here.
There were rows of donkeys lined up at the ferry stop where they were
taking loads of boxes for delivery. Some
of the tourists who arrived with suitcases had them taken by donkey to their
hotel. You could also take a pleasant tour
on donkey back if you so wished. We had
a marvellous walking tour with one of our guides. We climbed up the narrow streets on stone
steps early in the day before it got too hot. We learnt a lot of history about
how the islands joined the rest of Greece and became independent from the
Ottoman Turks. The war of independence
was 1821-27, and the islands became independent in 1827. We visited a house formerly owned by a Greek
shipping merchant. His family donated it
to the state as a museum. He made a lot
of money but was a great benefactor to his home island, building houses for the
poor and supporting the cause for freedom. It was all very interesting and I
was delighted to examine the family’s 19thC weaving loom and
spindles, wool winders etc, and some wonderful examples of the heavily
embroidered clothes they wore for special occasions such as weddings, as well
as furniture and icons. The kitchen and
cellars were very interesting. Everywhere we look the colours are stunning, the
water sparkling blue and the sky beautiful. 
