The Trip to Greece
Written and Photographed by Randy Mays
Copyright 2007 All Rights Reserved
This page will provide
readers with information about a trip to
Athens, Greece, and a cruise to the Greek islands, with a scheduled
stop in Turkey. The plan is to leave JFK on Friday March 9th
and
arrive on Saturday March 10. Long distance flights cross time
zones so the plane leaves New York on Friday night and arrives around
10
a.m. on Saturday.
This map was posted near the reception desk on the cruise ship. The map shows the route of the ship around the Aegean Sea. The first stop was in Mykonos. This was a brief visit with an arrival near sunset. Many of the shops were not open, and it was cold and windy. The ship left Mykonos and sailed through the night to the Turkish coast.
Seats shown on the left are the original marble. Seats to the right of the stairs are modern replacements.
The next stop on the trip was the island of Patmos where St. John the Theologian wrote the book of Revelation. Patmos is a very small island with a small population. The route from the Turkish coast to Patmos runs through a narrow strait near the Greek island of Samos.
The nearest town to Delphi is located high above a valley. In winter this is a popular area for skiers.
Words by themselves, while
they can be illustrative in the hands of the
capable writer, are no substitute for good pictures. It is my
intention, following this very interesting and informative
introduction, to put as many decent images on this Web site as
possible.
"Athens at Night" is a dinner show for tour groups.
One of the "Flying Dolphins," inter-island hydrofoils built in Russia, returning to Athens.
"Athens at Night" is a dinner show for tour groups.
Nightlife can be pretty
exciting in Athens.
This is the Akropolis in
Athens. Little by little, the Parthenon is being rebuilt.
Just below the Akropolis,
this is the
rock where St. Paul came to speak to the Athenians. On the
Akropolis there was a temple built for the "unknown god" to make sure
none of the gods went unrecognized. St. Paul said that he had
come to Athens to tell the people the name of this God.
Ancient medicines were
based on snake
venoms, and the snake became associated with the practice of medicine.
The word "pharmacy" is derived from the word for snake in
Greek.
Doctors take an oath that dates to ancient Greece that
includes a
timeless phrase, "First do no harm."
This is the main university
in Athens.
Like students everywhere, the Greek students are unhappy with
the
world they will soon be responsible for so, while waiting to assume
power and influence, they protest the wrongs they perceive.
In
this case, and my Greek is a bit rusty, I believe the students are
protesting the introduction of something called "Vista" into Greek
culture.
While the Athens Metro was
upgraded for
the Olympics, it is not hard to recognize the older stations.
Monastrion is the station for the flea market.
Times and
styles change, but the character of some areas does not.
The suburbs in and near
Kifissia have
always been an upscale haven high above the city smog. In the
80s, a policeman would stand in the blue structure and direct
traffic. He was referred to, with the usual respect given
local
cultures by Americans, as the "cop in the can."
Pappa's Pizza is a favorite restaurant in Kifissia.
Pappa's Pizza is a favorite restaurant in Kifissia.
This is a picture of
housing in the city
of Athens. It is a lot more crowded than the suburbs.
Over
four million people live in and around the capital city of Greece.
One of the "Flying Dolphins," inter-island hydrofoils built in Russia, returning to Athens.
This map was posted near the reception desk on the cruise ship. The map shows the route of the ship around the Aegean Sea. The first stop was in Mykonos. This was a brief visit with an arrival near sunset. Many of the shops were not open, and it was cold and windy. The ship left Mykonos and sailed through the night to the Turkish coast.
This is ancient Ephesus.
Reconstruction of an ancient city is made more difficult
because
over the centuries previous occupants built new cities with the
materials found in the
older cities. Notice the addition of concrete sections to
make
the columns look more as they did when first built.
Seats shown on the left are the original marble. Seats to the right of the stairs are modern replacements.
This is a picture
of Ephesus that represents the number of visitors there each day.
Since just one cruise ship was in the the harbor, this was a
"light" crowd. With two or three of the larger ships in port,
along with tourists who arrive overland, there can be several thousand
visitors on a given day. The large structure shown here is
the
old library.
Each tour bus stops at a
carpet store
before returning to the ship. The Turkish carpet industry is
well
organized, and subsidized by the government. This equates to
reasonable prices and no additional charge for shipping a carpet back
to the states. Unlike the U.S. where fewer than 10 percent of
the
population are involved in farming, around 30 percent of the people in
Turkey work in agriculture. The men work on the farms and the
women, after training, are given looms to make carpets in the home and
these carpets are sold by dealers. Carpets are made from
cotton,
wool or silk, and the value of the carpet is based on the material and
the number of knots per inch. Most of the tourists shown in
this
picture are from Texas and a few appeared to be serious buyers.
Regular readers of "The Economist" and students of world affairs are well aware that Turkey is not a member of the European Union, but would very much like to be a member. Our guide asked those on the excursion bus to Ephesus spend a few extra minutes when returning to the States to mention Turkey. Issues like immigration, the division of Cyprus, and other disputes have delayed Turkey's entry into the EU. Both Turks and Greeks express pride in their countries.
Regular readers of "The Economist" and students of world affairs are well aware that Turkey is not a member of the European Union, but would very much like to be a member. Our guide asked those on the excursion bus to Ephesus spend a few extra minutes when returning to the States to mention Turkey. Issues like immigration, the division of Cyprus, and other disputes have delayed Turkey's entry into the EU. Both Turks and Greeks express pride in their countries.
The next stop on the trip was the island of Patmos where St. John the Theologian wrote the book of Revelation. Patmos is a very small island with a small population. The route from the Turkish coast to Patmos runs through a narrow strait near the Greek island of Samos.
The next stop after Patmos
was Rhodes. While a cruise ship is capable of
getting alongside a pier by itself, when the water is rough and the
winds are high, there is no substitute for a tug.
Rhodes is like the other
islands with a lot of small shops and tavernas.
This is the "Sea Diamond."
This
ship holds around 1,600 passengers. There are two main dining
rooms and a buffet, a forward disco lounge, and an aft lounge for shows
and for passengers to assemble prior to shore excursions. The
long vertical windows just behind the ship's bow are the disco lounge
area. There is ample area for sun bathing during the right
time
of the year.
The next stop was Crete.
Seas were rough as can be seen from the waves breaking over
the shoreline.
In the movie "My Big Fat
Greek Wedding,"
the father of the bride talks about how so many family names can be
traced back to Greek, and that the names of both families are names of
fruit. He ends the toast to both families by saying, "We are
all
fruit."
This is an old train
engine on the island of Crete.
The harbor at Crete
handles more than just cruise ship visits The red boat is a
fire boat.
An old man standing on the docks agreed to have his photo taken.
An old man standing on the docks agreed to have his photo taken.
There is no pier at
Santorini. These tenders were used to bring the passengers
ashore.
Santorini was formed by a
volcanic
explosion that left a caldera with water inside. A still
active
volcano continues to rise back up in the center of the harbor.
The zig zag trail up the side of the island, shown on the
left
side of the picture is one way to get to the top. Donkeys can
be
ridden to the top, or there is a tram.
The
Lifeboat Drill Is Not A Waste of Time
This caption was written after this Web
page was first published. This is a picture of the cruise ship
Sea Diamond sinking off the coast of Santorini, very close to the same
spot where the previous picture was taken a few weeks before. The
picture, from press reports, show lifeboats waiting to be towed into
the port of Santorini. Preliminary reports are often wrong, but
articles have said that the captain was on his maiden voyage and may
have misjudged the speed of approach. As a Navy veteran of many
years, I know better than most that a ship has an identity much like a
person and the loss of a ship, while not equivalent to the loss of a
human life, is still a sad event. In the case of the Sea Diamond,
it appears as though rapid flooding of a cabin may have cost the lives
of two passengers. This news decreased the great and justified
pride of the sailors who rescued so many people in such a short time.
To put the surviving passengers' loss in perspective, the ship sank on the last evening of the cruise. Cabins were filled with all sorts of purchases from the islands visited in previous days. In many cases, these items may have included very expensive carpets from Turkey - and the receipts for their purchase. On a normal schedule, when the ship arrives back in Athens on Friday morning, the passengers leave around 7 and a new set of up to 1,600 passengers comes aboard for their cruise. It is possible that some of the passengers stayed in their Athens hotels when they heard the news, and the travel guides took care of changing their arrangements, but it is still reasonable to assume that 1,600 people were "stranded" with no plans for Friday.
Sadder still is the fate of the crew, and the other captain who had guided our ship so well. Their home away from home, their workplace, and their next adventure all went down with their ship. It appears that two people died, and also appears that many more people were impacted by what may have been a momentary error in judgement. The sea, like the stratosphere, is unforgiving of the slightest mistake, whether it be mechanical or human in origin.
To put the surviving passengers' loss in perspective, the ship sank on the last evening of the cruise. Cabins were filled with all sorts of purchases from the islands visited in previous days. In many cases, these items may have included very expensive carpets from Turkey - and the receipts for their purchase. On a normal schedule, when the ship arrives back in Athens on Friday morning, the passengers leave around 7 and a new set of up to 1,600 passengers comes aboard for their cruise. It is possible that some of the passengers stayed in their Athens hotels when they heard the news, and the travel guides took care of changing their arrangements, but it is still reasonable to assume that 1,600 people were "stranded" with no plans for Friday.
Sadder still is the fate of the crew, and the other captain who had guided our ship so well. Their home away from home, their workplace, and their next adventure all went down with their ship. It appears that two people died, and also appears that many more people were impacted by what may have been a momentary error in judgement. The sea, like the stratosphere, is unforgiving of the slightest mistake, whether it be mechanical or human in origin.
Back to the previous happier
story. The "Sea Diamond" arrived
in Athens at
4:30 a.m. on Friday morning. There was one last meal and the
passengers were all
disembarked by around 7 a.m. Luggage was waiting on the pier,
and
so was a tour bus for the trip to Delphi. The columns shown
in
this picture were placed in these positions after being excavated in
the 1890s. There is an excellent museum at the site.
This
museum, like many others in Greece, was refurbished prior to the
Olympic games of 2004.
The road to Delphi runs north of Athens, through farmlands and industrial areas.
This is an example of the extraordinary art to be seen in the museum at Delphi.
This is another example from the Delphi museum.
The road to Delphi runs north of Athens, through farmlands and industrial areas.
This is an example of the extraordinary art to be seen in the museum at Delphi.
This is another example from the Delphi museum.
This is one of the many
treasure houses
at Delphi. This one was reconstructed after excavation.
It
is interesting to
read about Delphi, why it was there, who went there and for what
reasons. People came from all over the ancient world to ask
the
oracle at Delphi for advice on peace and war. The priests
operated an elaborate espionage organization that collected
information, and the quality of careful and often ambiguous advice
given would not sound unfamiliar to a 21st century politician.
This is the training
grounds for athletes just down the mountainside from the oracle.
Notice the circular pit on the right hand side of the
picture. This was a pool where the trainees could spash
around after a hard day's activities.
The nearest town to Delphi is located high above a valley. In winter this is a popular area for skiers.
There is more than one way to see Europe.