Kusadasi (and Ephesus) – November 3rd

Our next stop was the small port city of Kusadasi, on the west coast of Turkey, our only stop outside of the EU.  Kusadasi itself has remains of medieval walls, white-washed stone houses, quaint alleys and cafes, carpet “factories,” and shops – lot of shops.   If memory serves, this may the place where we saw the sign advertising “Genuine Fake Watches.”  (It was also in Kusadasi that our dinner companions were whisked from shop to shop in wheel chairs.)

But, we were on an Antiquities Quest so we were more interested in a place about 10 miles away: 

Anna and what's left of the Temple of Artemis

Ephesus.  Ephesus dates back to pre-Ionian times when the locals built a temple to the Mother Goddess.  Later this site became the Temple of Artemis (Diana) and one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World–now sadly just  a heap of stone and debris.   The Ionians landed in the 11^th century BC, and, for the next three or four centuries, Ephesus became a prosperous center of trade and banking.  The subsequent years brought rule by Persians, Alexander the Great, Syrians, and, in 133 BC, Romans.  It was also the site of one of the first significant Christian communities, as in Paul’s Letters to the Ephesians.  There was so much to see that we were glad we had elected again to take a guided tour.

Library of Celsus

We were amazed by the size of Ephesus! The ruins are spectacular, covering a very large area.  Among the most impressive and beautiful ruins is the recently restored Library of Celsus, built in 135 AD.  Its main reading room, 55 feet by 36 feet, is reached through a marble-paved yard 70 feet wide, and the façade is 53 feet high and boasts columns, reliefs, and statues.  And, what would a Roman city be without a theater?  The Great Theater of Ephesus seated about 24,000 and is referred to in the Acts of the Apostles, Chapter 19, verses 23-41.  (Our guide pointed out that St. Paul had spent three years in Ephesus, preached  in the Great Theater, and had been imprisoned in a rustic building on the hillside.)There are also ruins of houses, forums, baths (with their hypocaust systems -a type of heating system- still intact), theaters, a variety of fountains,

Marble Street

public restrooms, etc.  Restoration and excavations are ongoing and have recently revealed houses of rich merchants with colorful frescos, mosaics, statues, and inscriptions.  Then there is the Marble Street!  It was built in the 4^th century AD and is huge.  It has a drainage system (that still works) right down the middle, and, if you look closely, you will see the ruts left in the marble by wheeled vehicles.  Ephesus was obviously a very large, prosperous city until its harbor became so filled with silt as to be unusable and the city went into decline and eventually ceased to exist.

After a short bus ride, our next stop was the

Basilica of St John the Evangelist

ruins of the Basilica of St. John the Evangelist, once one of the largest churches in Christendom.  There are a couple of legends regarding the church, including that it is the burial place of St John.  It is also said St. John wrote the Fourth Gospel here. 

Then we all piled back into the bus for the ride back to Kusadasi and some free time to explore and eat lunch.

Day at Sea – November 1st -- Then Piraeus [Athens] – November 2nd

Pireaus is actually one of the largest cities in Greece and has been the port of Athens since ancient times.

This stop was one of the primary reasons for this trip.  Athens!  We had heard about it forever and were anxious to see it in person.  We were not disappointed!  Athens is of course regarded as the Cradle of Western Civilization, and we are still much influenced by Greek literature, architecture, and philosophy. 

We took a guided tour of the Acropolis, which is a natural high point of the city and visible from

Here we are about to enter the Acropolis.

many parts of the city below.  Our guide was extremely good; she balanced a lot of factual  information with time for independent exploration.   Just climbing the stairs of the Prophylaia between impressive Doric and Ionic columns to enter the Acropolis was awe inspiring.

First stop was the Parthenon, the temple to

In front of the Parthenon.

Athena, patron goddess of Athens.  It is impressive for its size as well as its architecture.   Time and the elements have had a definite impact; it was once brightly painted but now the remaining fluted marble columns are a creamy color.  Here, as in many other places, restoration is in process.

Opposite the Parthenon is the Erechtheian.  It is a smaller and more delicate than the Parthenon, but also extraordinary.  In its Porch of the Caryatids, six, larger than life statues of

The  Erechtheian and  the Caryatids

maidens (now replicas), support the entire weight of the porch’s roof on their heads (while appearing to remain relaxed and charming).

Just walking around in the Acropolis was an experience we will long remember!

Our guide also pointed out the Theater of Dionysus, the Odeon of Herodes Atticus, Hadrian’s Arch, and the Temple of Olympian Zeus.  We were definitely on the verge of “Antiquity Overload.”

Then our guide mercifully took us to Old Town Athens and an area called the Plaka.  Here we had lunch in the shade of trees at an interesting café and then explored the maze of narrow, winding streets with their small shops and tavernas until it was time to return to the ship.

What an amazing day!

Corfu – October 31st

Our next stop was the city of Corfu on the island of Corfu.  This island is the northernmost Ionian Island and is off the west coast of mainland Greece.  Its history began in 734 BC when the Corinthians colonized it.  It was governed by Rome from 229 BC to 337 AD, and then the Byzantines took over. In 1267 the Angevins moved in and ruled for 120 years that were rather unpleasant for the natives.  So unpleasant, in fact, that the locals sent representatives to Venice to ask for

The British Governor's Palace

protection.  The Venetians were more than happy to oblige and ended up ruling for over four centuries.  In 1797 the French and the Russians took over.  After the fall of Napoleon, the island became a part of a British Protectorate for 50 years.  (A part of the British legacy is a cricket pitch where games are still played most Sundays in summer.)  Then in 1858 the British ceded the island to Greece.  Got all that?  There will be a test at the end!

Again, the weather was lovely, and armed with a great map and tourist guide, we decided to wander around on our own.  There was a lot to see and explore!  We checked out the Old Fort with

The Old Fort

its gorgeous views of Corfu town and then explored the “New” Fort which the Venetians built in the 16^th Century.  The New Fort still has heavy gates bearing the winged Lion of St Mark of Venice as well as tunnels, and dungeons.  But, its most dominant feature is the British barracks on the top of the hill in the fort.   We also walked through the Palace of St Michael and St George, or the Royal Palace.  And, we made sure to walk through the town of Corfu and the Spianada, a lovely, large park

Anna with the New Fort in the background

complete with bandstand and the aforementioned cricket pitch.  (The Spianada is said to be one of the largest squares in Europe.)  After that we treated ourselves to a leisurely lunch in one of the charming, small cafes located at the edge of the park with a view of the water.

Then we took our time returning to the QEII.

Dubrovnik – October 30th

Our first stop was this small, old port city in Croatia.  Had you asked either of us beforehand, Dubrovnik wouldn’t have been on the list of sites we wanted or expected to see on this cruise.  Fortunately, the ship provided “Port of Call” sheets for each port so we could read about each stop in advance.

A little background…Dubrovnik (known as Ragusa in earlier times) has a long history, and has often been under the control of other countries/city states.  Its glory days were from the mid-15^th to the

A section of the city wall with one of its forts in the distance.

mid-17^th centuries when it was a wealthy city state and a great mercantile power with a fleet of around 200 ships.  In its more recent history, Croatia declared its independence from the then Yugoslavia in June 1991; we are all much too aware of the horrific war that followed.  Dubrovnik was itself was targeted a number of times, and the picturesque, walled Old City received a 12-hour long bombardment by land, sea, and air. As a result 63% of the buildings in the Old City were hit and pretty much destroyed.  Surprisingly, the Old City has been almost completely restored and is once again worthy of its designation as a UNESCO World Heritage site.  Armed with this information we were off to explore Dubrovnik.

A view of the "new" city from the Old City wall.

The weather was great – sunny and about 68 degrees.  We elected to explore Dubrovnik on our own rather than join a tour.  We spent the majority of our time in the Old City, a small old walled city that had at one time been allied with Venice.  It was hard to imagine that it had been pretty much destroyed; its restoration was incredible and not really obvious.  No small feat as we saw in the “before” pictures!  We strolled through some of the narrow streets, and then went up on the wall for the 2-mile circuit of the town and its gorgeous setting on the Adriatic.  The views from the wall were spectacular in every direction!  The wall’s original

A view of the harbor from the Old City wall.

purpose was obvious as we passed St. Ivan’s Fortress and the 15^th century Minceta Fortress, both part of the wall.

Our lunch café and David with glass in hand.

After our hike, we enjoyed a leisurely lunch at a nice café on the waterfront, sampling some of the local wine.  Anna purchased some beautiful needlework items being made by a local woman seated on a wall near one of the city gates.  It had been a very pleasant, interesting day, and we were glad the stop was included in the cruise.

Venice!

We flew into the Venice airport, which we found small, logical, easy to navigate, and having great bathrooms.  (A definite plus when traveling abroad!)  David got our tickets (15 € each) for the Alilaguna,  a sort of ‘water bus,’  and we were off on a scenic  hour and a quarter boat ride to our S.

A view from the Alilaguna

Zaccaria stop. 

 

 (Venice is built on 118 small islands and has lots of boats of various sizes used for transportation.) 

 

Hotel Owners

 Then, armed with our map and directions, we made our way down narrow streets and over a small bridge to our hotel, the Hotel al Piave  (which we would recommend, by the way).  The hotel was charming – with Murano glass light fixtures, helpful staff, good breakfast buffet, with cappuccinos made to order - plus we were in easy walking distance to many of the sights.  This hotel has been in the same family for generations, and we were told Rick Steves stays there when visiting Venice on his own.

A View of the Doge's Palace from the Piazza

We do have to admit Venice was a bit of a disappointment.  Maybe it’s because we had heard about it for so long and expected too much?  While it is a fascinating city because of its history and setting, most of the buildings appear to be in poor repair, and a declining population has resulted in many restaurants being owned by non-Italians, serving rather poor food.  (It's good to know that the condition of the buildings, etc. has received international attention to the point that UNESCO has set up a "Venice in Peril Fund.")Even in late October, the major streets and squares are overrun with tourists and with shops and booths selling shoddy souvenirs.  The matriarch of the family that owns our hotel told us that she no longer liked Venice, as it had become ‘Disneyland’.   That being said, we enjoyed seeing the sites that we had heard about for so long, such as San Marco Square, the Doge’s Palace, the Grand Canal, etc.  [Starting around the 6th century,  Doges were the rulers of the independent city-state of Venice; they were essentially  elected princes whose heirs had no hereditary rights - when one Doge died, a new Doge was elected.]  We also had some fun experiences in some of the restaurants and shops, as many of the wait staff seem to have assumed the role of entertainers when interacting with customers.  Most spoke English, which was a good thing as our Italian was completely non-existent. 

There are some astonishing churches with beautiful works of art in Venice – it’s truly amazing that

Basilica dei Santi Giovanni e Paolo
(with scaffolding on exterior)

such huge structures could be built on what amounts to marshy islands. One of our favorites was the Basilica dei Santi Giovanni e Paolo.   It dates back to the 1200s and is the final resting place of a number of Doges and other notables.  It is huge, beautiful and contains lots of great art, including Bellini.  As usual, there was an irritating group of particularly noisy tourists who ignored the signs stating that this is a church and requesting soft voices.  We were impressed when a priest actually told the group to quiet down – good for him! 

Then we were off to see the “must sees" such as  the Basilica San Marco (alas, only from the outside), the Doge’s palace (VERY impressive!), and the Bridge of Sighs.  Even in late October, the piazza was 

Bridge of Sighs

packed with tourists and, of course, pigeons.  We had pizza for lunch (in a restaurant run by Chinese) and then a delicious soup for dinner (our server was from India, and, alas, the place was packed with Americans).

The next day we were off exploring again (Venice is a very “walkable” city).  We walked as far as the train station (Venezia Santa Lucia).  It definitely seemed odd to see a highway with cars, trucks, and a bus on it in the distance – it sure didn’t take us long to get used to the larger “streets” being canals!  At lunch our server was the son of Hungarian and Romanian parents and the owner is Egyptian.  (According to our server, about 65% of restaurants in Venice are now owned by Egyptians who came to Venice 25 years ago and bought them from Italians.  Interesting.)

A View of the Grand Canal - which is lined with lined with

some impressive homes in a variety of architectural styles.

We wanted to do more exploring on our last day in Venice so that morning we headed off towards the Arsenale district.  What a difference!  This area was refreshingly free of the mobs of tourists and vendors and appeared to be largely modest buildings, and shops catering to locals. 

Then it was time to board the QE II and get ready for its departure on Tuesday, the 29th.  We were off on our next adventure...

Our Mediterranean Adventure -Fall 2013

(Apologies for the delay in publishing our notes.  We’re sure we could provide a variety of excuses, but we are just happy to share this with you at long last.)

We had a short visit to Lyon in the Fall of 2013, leaving after less than six weeks.  Anna’s mother had read to her about the wonders of early civilizations when Anna was a child and had “infected” her with the desire to actually SEE some of these places herself.  Since Anna had been wanting to visit some of the famous sites and sights in the Mediterranean area, we hit upon the idea of a cruise as a good way to do it.  With a cruise, there is no traveling between hotels, with all the packing and unpacking, plus we could have the option of organized tours available if we wanted.  We had had a good experience on the Cunard liner Queen Mary II while coming home from Europe in 2011, and had been impressed with the organization and management.  David has not been at all impressed with the professionalism overall of the cruise industry, what with the various mishaps that have occurred over the past few years.  The sea is a very unforgiving and dangerous place if you are unprepared; Cunard, with its largely British officers, appears to know more about what they are doing in terms of seamanship.

So, we signed up for a twelve-day cruise on the new Queen Elizabeth going from Venice to Rome with stops at Dubrovnik, Corfu, Piraeus [Athens], Kusadasi [Ephesus], Rhodes, Santorini,  Messina, and Salerno [Pompeii].  We took advantage of the schedule to spend three days in Venice before the cruise and three days in Rome after.  As mentioned before, with the exception of a few very rainy days in London, we have spent time only in France, so this was a great opportunity to make short visits to several other places we’ve heard about for much of our lives.

Except for one rainy day in Rome, we enjoyed mostly dry, temperate weather for the times we were ashore.  We did run into a gale while at sea one day and night, with 80-mile per hour winds.  Even the 90,000 ton Queen Elizabeth did a bit of rolling and pitching, such that it was difficult to sleep that night. 

We met some fascinating people on board – mostly British, including two older ladies who were at our table at night.  They were both widows, one of whose husband had been a Member of Parliament, and the other whose husband had been his manager.  In addition, the daughter of one had married the son of the other which added another layer to their friendship.  They would regale us in the evening with some the madcap adventures they had had ashore that date, including the time they had hired rickshaw-like conveyances in Turkey.  When they came to an alley that was too narrow for that conveyance, they were scooped into wheelchairs which were pushed at a rapid pace up and down the alleyways and into and out of shops.  They were mock-outraged that they had been put into wheelchairs but had all of us laughing through dinner!