Month: June 2016

We started our final day at the Basilica Cistern. This is the largest of several hundred cisterns under the city, and was built in the 6th century. It is hard to convey the scale of this place with a picture, so here are some numbers. It is over 100,000 square feet in area, and capable of holding 2,800,000 cubic feet of water (that’s 100,000 tons of water). There are 336 marble columns, each 30 feet high, supporting the ceiling. Now there are only a few feet of water in it, but plenty of fish swimming around. A walkway has been constructed so visitors can walk through the cistern.

We went next to the Spice Market, where all sorts of things are sold, and chose to buy our Turkish Delight from the one shop owner who did not chase us down the corridor, shouting at us!

A two hour boat ride on the Bosphorus included this mosque, right next to the modern bridge spanning the river.

Finally we went up the Galata Tower for views of this beautiful city, which we hope to return to some day.

Thanks for reading!

We landed in Istanbul at 7 AM, and decided to take a tour in the morning before being dropped off at our hotel.

The first stop was at the Blue Mosque, and here’s one very small detail on the ceiling of this amazing building.

The Topkapi Palace was a residence of the Ottoman sultans for 400 years. At the end of the Ottoman Empire, almost 100 years ago, the palace became a museum. It is in amazing condition, and in addition to the many buildings and courtyards, we saw priceless jewelry and other artifacts. Sadly, tourism is way down as people are afraid to visit the city. But for us, this meant lots of sightseeing with virtually no queues.

Our last stop on this tour was the Grand Bazaar. It’s the first indoor mall…

When we told our guide we were interested in pottery, she showed us to a very nice shop. All of the shops are desperate for business, and it’s pretty stressful to walk along as they follow you, shouting the whole way. So it was great having the tour guide advise us where to go. As is the custom, they gave us apple tea as we looked at their wares, and we bought a set of tea cups and a platter.

After we checked into our hotel, we went to the Hagia Sophia, the world’s largest cathedral for nearly 1000 years. Built as a Greek Orthodox church, converted to a mosque, and now a museum, it is a fascinating mix of Christian and Islamic art.

Many astounding mosaics at the Hagia Sophia…

In cruise lingo, At Sea is a day cruising, without stopping at any port. But the dictionary also says it is “to be confused; to be lost and bewildered” so the term sounds funny to me…

We spent the day following the coast of Turkey north and then going through the Dardanelles toward Istanbul. Wendy visited the spa, Buzz read and took pics of the scenery. We ate more great food. The ship was very comfortable to hang out on. It only holds 148 passengers, and on this sailing there were only 115. It does have the smallest pool I’ve ever seen – one lap equals almost one stroke.

There were many castles to defend the strait as we passed from the Aegean into the Sea of Marmara. This one looks like a heart shape from this vantage point, but is apparently in the shape of a three leaf clover.

One of the crew members who maintains the ship badly injured his hand. Fortunately we were close to the coast so he could get to a hospital quickly. The process of transferring him from the ship to this Coast Guard boat was quite complex. We hope he will be ok.

Kusadasi is our second stop in Turkey. We went first to the house where legend has it that Mary was installed by the Apostle John after Jesus’ crucifixion, and lived in till her death at a ripe old age (about our current age, actually).  The house is up high on a hill.  We are told that there were those who wanted to harm Mary (Romans) and so she was kept hidden there.  Three popes, at least, have been here and can attest to this being the very spot.

Kusadasi means “bird island”. Which confuses visitors, because it is not an island, it is very much on the mainland. Below is the actual bird island that the city was named after.

Ephesus was a port city, but now it’s 4 miles inland, because back in about 700 A.D. it became marshy and malarial and then covered by several meters of silt. No one knew anymore where it was, although it is a very important biblical city, until engineers for the railroad happened upon it in the late 19th century. (Paul got kicked out of Ephesus and later wrote a letter to the Ephesians…) Archeologists have been excavating ever since, and they have only uncovered a third of the ancient city. This is the reconstructed library, which is 80 percent original (the rest being concrete, where the marble hasn’t been found). It was the third largest library in the ancient world (Alexandria had the largest).

This little guy doesn’t need to hunt mice, as the keepers of Ephesus put out cat food and water in bowls. There’s a box for donations for the cats…

Here’s the theater at Ephesus, which held 24,000 people, and is still used for concerts – the acoustics are great even by modern standards.

Bodrum has been a port town since at least the 11th century B.C. One of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World was here – the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus (turns out the word comes from King Mausolus), built in the 4th century B.C. But in the 15th century A.D., the Knights of Saint John – same guys who ran Rhodes, our last stop – dismantled the mausoleum to build their Castle of St. Peter.

Our guide in Bodrum described the town as the St. Tropez of Turkey. Americans mostly come here on cruises, but many wealthy Europeans have second homes here on the Turkish coast. These boats, called gulets, are made right here in the area.

Local wildlife…

The Museum of Underwater Archeology is housed in the castle. Contrary to our initial guess, one doesn’t go underwater to see the museum. It is rather the foremost museum in the world devoted to finds from shipwrecks, dating back as far as the 14th century B.C. This chalice is from a 3400 year old shipwreck, which also held a gold scarab inscribed with the name Nefertiti – the ancient Egyptian queen.

The castle grounds feature samples of almost every flora found in the Mediterranean.

After our aerobic hike around the castle and museum, we are chilling at the ship this afternoon. Today is the second day that the sports deck is open (because the ship is anchored, not at the dock). But I (Wendy) have already crossed Kayaking in the Mediterranean Sea off my bucket list – the pic is from Sunday in Mykonos – and so my water sports plan now is to go sit in the jacuzzi.

Santorini is a “candidate for the lost kingdom of Atlantis” according to the guidebook. It’s a tourist trap with incredible vistas. The towns on the island perch atop steep cliffs.

There is a long, winding set of wide shallow steps that you can climb to get to the top of the cliffs rimming the island.  A popular tourist thing is to either take the funicular up or ride a donkey up.  We took the funicular up and walked down.  These are two of the many donkeys available for riding.  (If you walk, you get to step through donkey poop the whole way.)  Notice the wire muzzles on them.  Do donkeys bite?

At the top of the cliff is a community with more white boxy houses with blue trim.  This one seemed the most elegant:

This is Mykonos, a Greek island in the Cyclades.  Like other Greek islands, it has white, cube shaped houses and blue windows/doors/domes.

There is a story people tell about how Jackie O brought a female pelican to the island to mate with a pelican named Petros who had become a mascot on the island.  But it turned out that Petros was also a female…  Anyhow, Petros lived for 29 years and was apparently stuffed after he died.  We went looking for Petros, who was supposed to be somewhere on the island. We thought we had found him – see below – and I was taking pictures of the stuffed pelican when he suddenly moved.   Oops, it turned out that this pelican is alive.  Just after I took this shot, a woman entered the red door behind the pelican, and when the door closed, his beak got caught in it. (But he pulled it out and seemed to be ok.)  Notice how tall he is – about 3 feet.

I (Buzz) just finished a class at Iliff on the philosophical search for happiness (Aristotle, Augustine, Aquinas, etc.)  But then we found happiness right there on Mykonos…

From Mykonos, we went to Delos a UNESCO World Heritage Site, to look at ancient ruins from about 1000 BC through the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC. The twin gods Artemis and Apollo were born here, and our very knowledgeable tour guide told us the story of their birth, there at the center of the Cyclades Islands (and believed to be the center of the ancient world, as well).  Below is the remains of a house, with its marble entrance still intact.

Kerameikos is the most ancient cemetery in Attica.  It was also an area occupied by potters, and it sat both inside and outside the Athens city walls.

There are very few tourists at the archeological sites.  But we did find this one fellow at Kerameikos:

We caught our boat at the port in Athens and are currently out at sea.  This is a view off the rear of the boat as we were leaving the bay area.

I overheard a young women who had recently graduated from Princeton telling her mother that her boyfriend at college was a great guy but she wasn’t so sure she could really stay with him.  He isn’t from a very good family and he has like zero connections in the world…   At Iliff we call this White privilege.

Buzz

Foodie update: Beet risotto with horseradish and fennel for my first cruise dinner. It was lovely, but sadly I didn’t take a pic.

Wendy

We’ve been trying to get the place fixed up, but it’s hard to find a good contractor in Athens…

The garage is almost done, though: 18 cars.

We have some problems with the guest house being a bit overgrown…

Now, I don’t want any juvenile remarks about this one…

Buzz

Speaking of juvenile, tomorrow I’ll do the commentary…

-Wendy

“Business First” food on United is really something else. I guess when you pay that much for a plane ticket (we used flight points to upgrade), they figure they should give you something besides just a trip across the ocean and a seat that reclines. Dinner consisted of:

• Dish of hot roasted nuts.
• Pick your own warm roll from a selection.
• Appetizer of salami and melon (“You don’t want your appetizer? Can I get you another drink?)
• Tossed salad. (Would you like another roll?)
• Entree – Shrimp and bream fish with lobster sauce, lentils, and julienned vegetables; Buzz had chicken with white beans, greens and onions.
• Cheese and grapes platter. (You don’t want your cheese? Can I get you something else?)
• Ice cream with choice of hot fudge, caramel, whipped cream, nuts, strawberries, cherries. Or all of the above.
• And of course all the alcohol you wish. We each had a beer…
• Breakfast 6 hours later.

– Wendy

Athens is pretty down and out.  Many of the store fronts are empty and/or abandoned.  There is graffiti everywhere; there must be an army of kids with spray paint cans that come out every night.  There are piles of garbage bags that apparently have not been picked up in weeks or months – with men my age picking through the stuff and pulling out junk, presumably to sell.  Many of the shops that are open are selling stuff that looks like it was rescued from one of the garbage heaps.  -Buzz