Ephesus

Leaving Rhodes was quite easy - we just barely squeaked by with enough cash for the port taxes - I had 25.00 Euros cash left in my pocket and the taxes were 12.00 Euros per person.  Once we were on the ferry to Marmaris, Turkey, it only took a little over an hour to cross.  Turkish visa, $60.00 USD per person, (a little steep considering this is a flying visit, but we have to pay it nevertheless) and then through passport control.  Once through the passport check we found our driver easily and loaded into the minivan for the 3 hour drive to Kusadasi.  This was a tiring trip, particularly since it was after 7:00 pm by the time we cleared customs.  We also stopped along the way for a  bite to eat.

At Kallithea Spa, Rhodes - pebble mosaic paving typical in Dodacanese  This site is famous for many movies that have been filmed in area, including Zorba the Greek and Guns of Navaronne.

Today we visited Ephesus, which is a huge site, only partially excavated.  In fact, they estimate that they have only excavated approxiately 20% of the site so far.  I hadn't realized before today that many of the impressive structures were not actually excavated intact, but have been constructed using materials found on site.  In cases like this, I always wonder how accurate the representations are.

Ephesus

Stewart finds another kitten

Multi-seater public latrines

Piping system inside the Terrace houses

It is a very beautiful site, however, and and the library of Celsus is a very imposing, impressive feature.  We were in a small group for our tour, only 13 people all together, and our tour was not scheduled to include a visit to the so-called terrace houses.  One woman in our group was incensed to find they were not included in the tour, as she had particularly come to Ephesus to see them.  She was like a dog at a bone, and would not give up harassing the poor tour guide until he said we could visit it for an additional 15.00 Turkish Lire per person.  (The Lire is a little more than half a dollar, so this was about 8.00 or 9.00 extra each.)  I did feel sorry for our poor guide, being harassed, but once we got inside, I was very grateful that she had been so insistent.  These houses were well worth the visit.  They have been excavated largely intact, many with beautiful marble surfaces on some of the walls, lovely mosaics on the floors, and some truly beautiful frescoes on some of the walls.  Many of the houses showed multiple levels, and it was easier to get a feel for what these houses must have actually looked like.  Truly stunning!

Mosaic floor - perspective weird because I had to photograph upside down

Frescoes - same house as lion mosaic

As above

Library of Celsus

Immediately beside library

Stewart is not feeling well again.  He has a sore throat, a cough and is very tired.  He just wants to to home.  Another expensive trip to the pharmacy to find him some cough drops, which are not actually helping all that much.

Rug knotting - I even tried a bit. This is worked in silk. 

Small finished rug - very fine gauge.

The video shows winding/spinning the silk off of the cocoons.  The filaments are so fine you can't see them in the video, but you can see the wheel behind, winding off the spun thread.

Rhodes

Made it to Rhodes late last night.  After waiting at the hotel for the transfer to the airport for some time, when we finally arrived, the travel agent had allowed us one hour to check in and clear security.  There were lineups for security like you would not believe.  Stewart was extremely frustrated and cursing people (luckily under his breath!) for pushing past us in the line.  He was mad at his Canadian mum who doesn't usually push back and isn't aggressive in lineups.  His being frustrated actually helped me, though, as I was able to calm down and focus on keeping him calm.  The plane ended up leaving about 20 minutes late, and though the flight to Rhodes is only about 45 minutes, it was after 11:00 pm by the time we made it to the hotel.  It was a very small twin prop engine plane with only about 40 passengers - loud and somewhat less smooth in flight than a jet, but it got us here!

Entry to the Palace of the Knights

 We woke up this morning and examined Stewart's feet - he has been having rashes on his hands and feet, and this morning it looked like the sandals we bought him are irritating his feet.  We needed to find a pharmacy, but it was quite a walk to get there.  We got him some cream for the rash and then bandaids to protect from the sandals, however the bandaids were practically useless at staying attached.  He didn't complain too much, so I don't think there is too much pain.

Entry facade of Knights palace

After medical treatment, we carried on to check out the Palace of the Knights.  Rhodes was the centre of a large group of knights in medieval times.  They came from various parts of Europe and so the Street of the Knights has houses from different areas of Europe.  (I believe this group of knights became the Knights Hospitaller.)  The Palace is an immense building in excellent repair and houses, prinicpally, beautiful mosaic flooring.  We saw the Medusa mosaic, a mosaic of the nine muses, and several others, including many of geometric design.  After visiting the Palace we walked down the road to the Hospital building which is now an archaeological museum.  We saw more statuary, pottery, jewellry, etc., from various historical eras. It was the building itself, however, that enchanted me.  Built around a central courtyard, there were gardens, porticos (portica?) staircases, pergolas, and fish ponds - all kinds of little nooks and crannies.  If I had to recover in a medieval hospital, I think this would be the one I would chose!  Also accessible from the hospital was a small home from the era, decorated in a very eastern style with long bench-like seating covered in cushions.   

Medusa mosaic

Roof top courtyard of Hospital

Mosaic on rooftop of hospital

We continue our shopping; Stewart has now found a Japanese katana in one of the shops that he desperately wants to buy.  (There are several shops selling a variety of swords.)  It will not fit in the suitcase, so we are trying to work out whether mailing it home would work.  I have determined that weight wise, our suitcases are still ok - so does that mean I can keep on shopping?  :)

Water Slides

When we rented the car in Heraklion, the agent gave us a map of the island of Crete.  Featuring large on the cover of the map was a huge ad promoting Water City water slides, just a few kilometers east of Heraklion. Stewart had his eye on that water slide activity from the time we got the map, and I thought it was only fair, after dragging him through all the archaeological sites and museums I could, to give him some time in the water park.  Sadly, I don't like sliding down monumental slides into large pools of water, so Stewart didn't get his wish to have me go double with him on the double tubes.  However, he did enjoy quite a few of the slides, and got a bit of a sunburn as well.  The cost was quite high - 25.00 Euros each, which is around $30.00 per person.  I think that Splashdown in Tsawwassen is only about $18.00 or $20.00 per person.

Taking photos was a bit challenging as you go down the slides so quickly, but I managed to snap a few.  After the slides, we returned to Heraklion to find the hotel we stayed in our first night on Crete.  I thought it was going to be a challenge to find it again, and at first, I thought we were miles away from where we were supposed to be, but when we stopped at a gas station to ask directions, we were actually only about three or four blocks away.  If I had carried on the road we were on, I would have found it within a couple of minutes.

Fast

Faster - found a sliding buddy

End of the line

This morning, we got up and drove to Knossos, which is just 5 or 6 kilometers south of Heraklion.  There were about 50 buses that had just unloaded all their passengers.  It took longer to get inside Knossos than the Acropolis.  There were mobs of people everywhere and Stewart said that it was impossible to appreciate the site with all the people around.  I agreed, but I did want him to see it, so we pushed on through and managed to see quite a lot of the site.

After Knossos, we headed east again, past the water park, to the CreteAquarium, which was a disappointment after having visited the Vancouver Aquarium.  Finally, we returned to Heraklion to visit the extremely small archaeological museum here, and the exhibition of statues from the Greek classical period, and the Roman period.  We wandered around the city and down to the breakwater and Venetian fort at the port.  We still have three hours till we are picked up for our plane!!!  So we are waiting in the lobby of the hotel.  Yes, it is a shame when we could be out experiencing the city, but there is only so much walking you can do in a day, and the boy, though valiant, is wiped out.  We are recouping our strength!

Knossos - mostly reconstructed parts here

Knossos

Pithoi - with Stewart for scale

A hobbit hole

Access to internet has been difficult for a couple of days, but we are now in a beautiful hotel in the old town of Rethymnon, Crete, and I can catch up a couple of days.

We arrived in Heraklion later than the time posted on our itinerary; there must have been a mistake as it was posted as 20:20 arrival, when the time was actually 21:20.  So, for an hour and a half on the ferry I was anticipating imminent arrival!  However, we were met at the port by a representative of our travel agent and delivered to our hotel in Heraklion. It was a brief stop as we rented a car in the morning and left right after breakfast.  I had thought walking around crazy drivers was a challenge - well driving through a town you are completely unfamiliar with, with road signs in Greek (albeit with English lettering as well), in a standard transmission car (which I haven't driven in over 10 years) with drivers who don't really follow lane markings or speed limits driving all around you - let's just say it is interesting.

Agia Galini - 34 years later...

Pithoi at Phaestos

Phaistos

We found our way down to the south coast of Crete, to visit the archaeological site of Phaistos, which is another Minoan site, like Knossos.  The site is quite large and many of the rooms are still quite apparent, as well as a magnificent staircase.  There are a few pithoi (clay jars) around, but most of the finds have been transferred to the museum in Heraklion or Athens.  After our visit, we drove another 25 minutes or so to the small town of Agia Galini, on the south coast, which I visited in 1978.  At that time, there were perhaps 2 or 3 small hotels in the village, very rustic and very cheap.  There was a small coffee shop/bar on the harbour, with perhaps 10 tables.  It is now quite a tourist stop, with many many hotels, and the harbour front houses a large parking lot and several upscale restaurants.  The hotel we stayed in was simply charming - hosts Stella and Niktarios run a small seven room hotel in the summer months only.  Stella is a teacher and Nikarios is a civil engineer, so they can't keep it open all year.  Stella has done the decorating herself; our room had a glass fronted door and Stella has painted the door with green leaves and yellow background so that the door is opaque.  The room has a small balcony and the main door leads in from an inner courtyard, so there were plenty of outdoor spots to sit.

This morning we got up and headed towards Prevelli, where there is a lovely beach down a cliff.  Again, navigating through Crete where road signs are limited and roads are not marked proved a challenge, but we eventually located the cliff top, and then decided the hike was too much on an incredibly windy day!  We took some photos coming through the Gorge and then made our way to Rethymnon.  Again, it was a real challenge to locate our hotel; with Stewart navigating, we started down some streets and got ourselves into a road/alley way that was clearly not for cars - so narrow it was barely  wide enough for the car - and we couldn't get out!  Luckily a very kind pair of brothers helped us out and sent us to a parking lot, whence we walked to our hotel.  Whew!  What an adventure!

Yes, I drove down this street

Yes, I  got stuck trying to make this corner

So!  The hobbit hole!  The hotel we are in is a renovated nobleman's house dating from the Venetian period (1211-1669).  Our room is his old wine cellar.  The door to the room is very wide with a round top.  Stewart fell in love with this hobbit hole!  There is also an ultra-modern massaging shower with shower jets coming from all directions.  Stewart, who I have had to order to take showers, suddenly wanted to try out this cool shower.  He really likes this room!!!

The hobbit hole

Cool shower!

Beaches - or not...

White beach

Red beach

Today was somewhat chaotic as the tour we were scheduled to be on was cancelled last night around 9:30 pm.  Our travel agent assistant here in Santorini, Stella, told us that we would still be able to visit the beaches and the archaeological site of Akrotiri, just using local buses instead of being on a tour.  That suited us as we weren't really interested in the whole tour concept, but we wanted to get to these interesting beaches and bring back some sand from each of them.  So we planned to go to the red and the white beaches this morning, both right near Akrotiri, and then the black beach in the afternoon, with our swimming gear.  They were on two separate bus routes, so in my mind we wouldn't need swim stuff till the afternoon.  When we got to Akrotiri, we got off at the wrong spot, and couldn't see the red beach.  Then, we heard a man shouting "Red beach, white beach, black beach!" from the pier.  For 5 Euros, he would take us on his boat to each/any of three beaches.  This sounded fine, but what we didn't realize that there were no piers on any of the beaches, and he just brought the boat up to shore and you were supposed to wade in.  Stewart was wearing long pants and was angry with me for not advising him to wear swim stuff.  Yikes.  So we didn't get off at any of the three beaches, just took a few photos from the boat - which was nice anyway.  We also saw that the beaches were mostly pebbly, with little actual sand.  When we got back to the pier, we walked up the road to the entrance to the archaeological site and saw the road the leads to the red beach, which we could have walked to.  We decided to visit Akrotiri, and then head back to the hotel.

Pottery at Akrotiri

In the afternoon, we took a second bus to Perissa, which is famous for its black beach.  Well, I'm not big on beaches, sand or sun, so it was only for the sake of giving Stewart the opportunity to swim that we went.  The sand was boiling hot and I took a quick wade into the water, then back out so Stewart could go in.  I didn't want to leave our things unattended on the beach.  Stewart went in briefly, also, not really swimming, and then we sat in the sun for a bit to dry off.  Came back to the hotel for a swim in the hotel pool!!!

Swimming pool at the Nissos Thira - cold, refreshing swim

Random strangers and Stewart in the water at Perissa

Santorini

Six am departure from the hotel this morning in order to make the seven am ferry to Santorini.  I woke up just after four and so am pretty tired now.  The ferry was about four and a half hours, which was longer than I had anticipated.  My foggy brain had taken 7:00 from 11:30 and gotten two and a half hours somehow.

The town of Thira (or Fira) is a small town with only about 4 roads, perched on the side of the volcanic crater looking down into the sea.  It is horrifically tourist oriented.  There are likely ten to fifteen times as many tourists as locals, probably more, and the economy of the town reflects it.  The first place we stopped for lunch had prices easily 10% or more higher than any we have yet seen.  Mind you, that restaurant was situated with a beautiful view of the caldera, or crater.  In any case, we felt it a bit too rich for our blood and looked elsewhere.

Thira, looking northwest

Another lovely lunch spot in the shade!

I was thinking that when I hit Greece, and particularly the islands, I might find some of the culture and small town feeling I remembered from 30 years ago, but sadly, so far, everything is commercial and tourist.  I know it was rather naive of me to think that I could recapture some of that feeling, or that nothing would have changed, but it is nevertheless somewhat disappointing.  I've been told that Turkey is more like what Greece was 30 years ago, so we may yet experience that.

For tomorrow, we have booked a tour that will take us to the black sand beach, the red sand beach, and to an archaeological site of a town that was buried under volcanic ash when the mountain exploded.  We will be able to swim at the black sand beach.

Acropolis

View of the Acropolis from our hotel's roof at night

Another hot day here in Athens - around 35 Celsius - although we are told that last week, the temperatures were running in the mid 40s, so it depends on your point of view.  We had an organized tour of the city of Athens and the Acropolis today, and it was much poorer than the previous tour.  For one thing, the bus was full, whereas the three previous days there were only about twenty-five people on the tour.  For another, I wasn't too impressed with the stops they chose to make before the Acropolis - we could only get out at one of the spots, and it was the stadium built for the 1896 Olympic Games, which was not of too much interest to me.  Finally, because there were so many people, more than half the time I couldn't hear the guide.  Also, the Acropolis is always teeming with people, so it was a challenge to stay together as a group.  

Luckily, we had the option of leaving the group and returning to the hotel on foot, via the Plaka. Stewart was tired, but he preferred to remain with me rather than miss finding the bus and then the hotel on his own.  We had a slightly pricey lunch in the Plaka and then wandered a bit about the tourist shops, and managed to spend some more money.  Well, we are doing what we can for the Greek economy!

the Parthenon

The Karyatids of the Erechtheion

Byzantine church in the Agora area

Stewart found that the Acropolis was worth the visit, even though it was at the top of the hill!  The Acropolis has changed since I was in Athens in 1978 - the Prophylia (I think it's called) is the entry building to the summit.  This building was not there in 1978 - the reconstruction has used some of the original pieces, but most of the building has been made with modern materials.