Europe (Asia/Africa) 2012
Being retired has its advantages, not the least of which is the freedom to pick up and go at a moments notice. The riots in Egypt and the strikes in Greece apparently resulted in cruise ship cancellations a week before the scheduled sailing. We got an email from Princess offering a 2-week Mediterranean cruise for $599 plus airfare at a very competitive price. There were two (back-to-back) cruises available and they could be combined for a month long adventure. The cruise made port on 3 continents and visited 4 of the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World (or at least their original locations). How could we pass-up a deal like that?
Our
cruise left out of Rome and it was 1,100 sea miles to our first port of call
in Egypt. Starting the trip with 3 sea-days gave us time to acclimate to the
10-hour time difference from home. Our ship docked in Alexandria within sight
of where the first official lighthouse in the world was built (the 1st of
our 7 Wonders). That lighthouse was destroyed by and earthquake in the 13th
century and its replacement leaves
something to be desired. Alexandria was founded in 332 BC and served as the
center of learning under Greek and Roman control. Now it’s a crowded
Arab city of 4 million people and the streets are
littered with trash. There were excavated ruins right in the middle
of town. We toured the catacombs and Pompey’s
Pillar (and we’re proud to say that we once visited it’s namesake in Montana
too). Patty is serious about her photography and she was disappointed to find
out that cameras are not permitted in the catacombs. In the evening a local
dance company visited the ship and demonstrated ethnic routines like belly
dancing and the whirling dervish
A
visit to the pyramids (the 2nd of our 7 Wonders) has to occupy a prime spot
on everyone’s bucket list. This was our first time seeing them, and they are
MUCH bigger that you could imagine! Cairo
is a 140 mile bus ride from Alexandria and we had a lot of time to think and
observe on that 4-hour bus trip over flat, featureless terrain. Some observations:
1) We didn't see a single one-story houses in or around Cairo, a city of 17
million people. Most noncommercial buildings appeared to be a multi-floor
apartment complexes. 2) There are strange outbuildings
next to many of the 'suburban' homes. These are pigeon rookeries (a staple
food source in the region). 3) The city backs up almost to the base of the
pyramids. Fortunately, these historic structures are located on a hill above
the city, and the area beyond is open desert. The pyramids appear to be close-by
when viewed from the city, but the city can
barely be seen from the pyramids. Like any
big city (except maybe Venice), we wouldn’t want to play tourist walking around
town. Some friends that have toured Cairo in the past told us they needed
to be accompanied by armed guards everywhere they went. There were no guards
on our tour and we never felt threatened. We were pretty secure though, sleeping
and dining on our big ship - far from the religious/political turmoil.
The
next leg of our journey took us 775 sea miles from Alexandria to Istanbul.
On the way I read a book about the lives of Julius Caesar and Alexander the
Great and was moved by the thought of how daunting that trip must have been
2,000 years ago!
In spite of the horrors that the movie Midnight Express burned into our minds, we found the Turkish cities that we visited to be cleaner and (seemingly) safer than counterpart cities in Europe or America (and most certainly Egypt!). We spent a day on our own in Istanbul (a city of 13 million people) walking all over the ancient part of the city. We even managed to get ourselves lost and had to rely on the 'kindness of strangers' to find our way home. We visited Hagia Sophia; it did duty as a Christian cathedral for 1,100 years and as a mosque for 500 years, and is now a secular museum. We also toured a 1,500 year old “sunken palace” that was actually an old underground water storage/distribution site called the Basilica Cistern.
Next
we sailed 300 miles along the coast of Turkey to the ancient and once-bustling
city of Ephesus. Saint Paul did a bit of corresponding with them as I remember
from Catholic Mass: “an epistle from Saint Paul to the Ephesians”. Ephesus
was a major seaport for both the Greeks and the Romans. The river running
through it silted up the harbor and the sea is now more than a mile away.
When the Greeks occupied Ephesus they built the Temple of Artemis around 550
BC (the 3rd of our 7 Wonders). Most of the ruins we see now date from Roman
times. Upwards of 250,000 Romans called this place home beginning in the 1st
century BC. In addition to the ruins that 'everybody' visits along the ancient
Roman road, the remains of private homes have recently been excavated
and opened to the public. We were able tour
those ruins and see how comparatively well they lived.
It
is a short 200 mile hop across the Peloponesian sea from Ephesus to Athens.
There are nearly 4 million people in the Athens metropolitan area, but we’ve
been there before and think it feels relatively safe. Our intent was to take
a subway/tram from the dock in Piraeus to the Acropolis
in Athens. Unfortunately, the unions had called a wildcat strike the day we
arrived and all public transportation in the city was shut down. We quickly
signed up for a last minute tour just for the transportation. We missed out
on the experience of finding our way around a town where not only the language,
but the alphabet is “foreign”. I was disappointed to see that the scaffolding
on the Parthenon is still in place. Fortunately for the photographer
in our family, the front side of the structure and many of the outlying
ruins are clear.
Our
next port of call was in Venice, 860 sea miles from Athens. The cruise itinerary
included a 3 day layover there which gave us an opportunity to 'rest up' in
familiar surroundings. Venice is the most walkable city on earth (motor vehicles
of any type are banned in the city). The canals are actually narrow passageways
separating 118 small islands. Canals run in every direction and are a primary
transportation corridor. Buildings are all
multistory and most are connected to one another. The openings between buildings
are alleys (either paved or water),
and most of those alleys serve as main thoroughfares.
We walked all day and half the night and
were probably lost most of the time. Being lost is not much of a problem in
Venice though because the area isn’t that big and sooner or later you happen
upon a landmark.
Our
next stop was 300 miles down the Adriatic in Dubrovnik, Croatia. During the
middle ages Venice superseded Rome and Greece as the major world power. And,
for a time, tiny Dubrovnik was a competitor. The Old City is completely surrounded
by a wall built between the 10th and 12th centuries. For 70 Kunas (about $12
US) you can climb the steps and walk the
battlements along the top
of the wall, which is about a mile and a half around. The old city located
within the walls is still occupied. The narrow
streets are paved in marble and the bright orange
tile roofs on the houses just amplifies the beauty of a spectacular
coastline. This may be the most photogenic village in Europe.
Coming in a close second in the “photogenic village” category would be any one of our next stops in the Greek islands:
Mykonos
is a lovely island; a photographers delight.
All of the buildings are painted white with a unique
blue trim. According to legend, during WWII the islands were occupied
by the Turks and the inhabitants were not allowed to fly their (blue and white)
Greek flag so they painted their houses in the (forbidden) state colors. An
advertised tourist attraction in Mykonos is a pelican
named Petro. According to village lore, he was rescued from a storm in
1954 and stayed on to become the town mascot. We were lucky enough to run
into him, but he certainly doesn't look like he's 60 years old to me!
Corfu
is very walkable Greek island with a couple of interesting old
forts. We stumbled upon the lesser known of the two and had the whole
place to ourselves. It was a huge place with lots of dark and foreboding
passageways. We saw a sign indicating that catacombs
were below and followed it to a really remote spot with a definite aura of
death.
Next, the ship made a brief detour to the mainland for a visit to Olympia, site of the first Olympics and the (former) location of Statue of Zeus (the 4th of our 7 Wonders).
The
final stop in our tour of the Greek Isles was Santorini (Saint Irene). It
is a spectacular island with houses perched right on the edge
of a cliff overlooking the caldera of a super volcano. The event that
formed the caldera 3,600 years ago was one of the largest volcanic eruptions
in recorded history. We took a boat out to an uninhabited and lava
encrusted island in the center of the caldera. There we hiked to a point
overlooking the still smoldering throat
of the volcano. On the boat ride back we had an opportunity to jump
overboard (into the cold ocean) and swim to a cove whose waters are heated
to the point of discomfort by an underwater hot spring.
The
final leg of our trip took us 700 sea miles through the Straight of Messina
to Naples. Naples is a crowded city (with
a big parking problem). It is situated
on the flanks of an active volcano whose most recent eruption was in 1944.
Its most well known eruption, however, was in 79 AD when it completely buried
two major cities, Pompeii and Herculaneum. While Pompeii was just covered
in ash, Herculaneum was buried by a huge mudflow and had to be
dug out of the ground. We had toured Pompeii a few years ago so this time
we went to the smaller site at Herculaneum. The extremely well preserved frescoes
and mosaics provide an insight into the living
conditions of the nobility 2,000 years ago.
The final 150 miles of the cruise took us back to Rome where we had a LONG flight to Las Vegas waiting for us. By the way, have you ever had to change planes in Frankfurt, Germany? What an ordeal (can you say strip search)!
Home Page
