Athens--Cruise--Spain 2022

Wonderful walking tour going too all kinds of interesting places: Aiya Sofia, the area that was a Roman Hippodrome, the Egyptian Spice Market and more. Then back to the ship. 

Relaxed morning on board, nice views of Istanbul as we arrived but then the fun began. It turns out today was "Victory Day", a holiday which meant transit was free and there were tons of people everywhere. We managed to squeeze on the tram and made it to the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Art. Nice. I particularly liked the illuminated manuscripts of the Koran. The cruise ship terminal is HORRIBLE. It's new, but the setup means at least a mile of unnecessary walking. Grrr. Oh well--pretty minor ink the grand scheme of things.

Shore day in Mykonos. Cute town that looks like the photos we've always seen. Lunch at a bakery that's in a house built in 1420. The foods was not as interesting as the building. Very hot, though, so glad to get in the water (just wading--didn't have our suits).  Departure at 5pm, headed to Turkey...

Morning at the Ancient Agora. Really interesting. Photo of the Temple of Hepaistus Nice lunch, then rest of the day getting to the ship and getting settled. Email probably iffy from now until Barcelona. Well see!

Started with a walk through a farmer's market. Could have been California except for the egg vendor displaying the quality of the eggs (and having so much variety--only two kinds are shown) and the olive vendor. Rest of the day at the National Archaeology Museum. Spectacular, and overwhelming. Late lunch, nap and then a wonderful folk dance performance of dances from all over Greece at an outdoor amphitheatre just below the Acropolis. 

Spent the morning running ing errands, e.g., finding the kind of lotion Brooke needed. I love doing that sort of thing--wandering around, but with a bit of focus. Then to the Benaki Museum. Lots of interesting stuff. I loved the costumes, of course. Most were bridal or festival dresses, and quite spectacular. I thought the lead water bottles were interesting... Then observed a bridal party going into the Cathedral (I guess it was a day for wedding stuff), and--hooray--all four of us tested negative for Covid so should be good to go for the cruise. Dinner was yummy (as usual). Henry and I split a spinach salad with a balsamic dressing, a chicken breast sauteed with a creamy mustard sauce, for dessert, yogurt with plums soaked in brandy!

Started the day with a good-oriented walking tour. Wonderful. We learned about everything from Greek pies (spanakopita is just one kind--different kinds of bread/pastry and different kinds of fillings) to how proper Greek coffee is made (using heated sand to keep the temperature just right so the coffee isn't bitter). Learned about different kinds of fish, and tasted various kinds of honey (lavender is apparently very popular boy I liked the chestnut even better).  Smoked sardine gyros for lunch, then home for a nap to wait out the thunderstorms. Then up to the Acropolis. It's one of those magic places that it's hard to believe you're actually there. At that point, the sun was low enough to make the colors warm and there was even a rainbow--spectacular, even with the scaffolding.

Travel buddies, Brooke and Nobi, are here! Spent the whole day at the Acropolis museum. Not much I can say other than it's so amazing to see these carvings up close and in person. Many are plaster copies since Elgin carted off so much to the British Museum, but still... The photos are of real stuff: some horses that seem to be sharing a secret and a whole pile of beautiful spindle whorls. Fixed menu dinner with WAY too much food, but the four of us made s valiant effort. Appetizers& salads would have been too much already, but then there were the fried fresh sardines, anchovies and shrimp and a sort of pork stew. Dessert was some kind of orange cake and a semolina something--both tasty, but I couldn't manage more than a taste.

Started at the Jewish museum. Jews in Greece, of course, have a really long history in Greece. What I didn't realize it's that they were there a separate group, not Sephardic or Ashkenazi. They were called Romaniote, and (for eastern, like Romania--nothing to do with Roman). Some interesting wooden Torah covers. From there to the cathedral from the 1800's. The church is actually rather plain for it's type. Small museum with very elaborate robes and other ecclesiastical stuff. Apparently intertwined serpents are an important church symbol (for calmness, not the devil) After gelato and a nap, went to the Centre for Popular Craft and Tradition, another museum in a house. The house was beautiful, and the museum ok but I was hoping for more costumes and signage was minimal. Time for a snack and more wandering around. Got to take refuge in the doorway of a fancy restaurant during a driving thunderstorm.  Out travel buddies flight was delayed, so off to perfectly adequate thou...

Spent the morning at the museum of Greek folk instruments. A small museum in an old house (just old, not ancient). Very cool. I'm not convinced about bells on a bow (though they weren't violin bows, to be fair). Fireplace tongs with cymbals attached were interesting to look at... Wonder how they sound. So far, no luck finding concerts (or dancing)--summer vacation, apparently. After a nap, some time just wandering around, them yummy dinner of sardines and Greek salad. 

No lines at the airport, flights on time and hotel let us into our room early! After a nap and a shower, we went for a wander, then lunch/dinner followed by a 3-hour walking tour. Nice intro to the city, focusing more on some modern history. We had no idea about the symbolism of the guard's clothing: red symbolizes blood (from the many wars) the tassel represents the mother's tears, the pleats represent the number of years Greece was ruled by Turkey, etc.  Great start to our trip. 

 Trip starts Aug. 20, with flight from RDU-->Philadelphia-->Athens, we hope. I'm not expecting to have anything to post on the 20th, so I'll just do this now (a week and a half early) to get the blog set up!