Sim and I together with John and Carol, and 2 friends of Sim's from NC, went on a 9-day cruise from Venice to Istanbul. I shall think of it as the trip with many time changes. Not only did we keep changing time zones but daylight savings time went on different days in different places. It's nice that Apple will automatically change the clock for you.
We travelled over 1700 nautical miles on the trip. Because of terrorist activity in Istanbul, Viking decided to forgo the port visit in Istanbul and substitute a stop in Troy. The ship sneaked in late Saturday night to port so folks could get their early Sunday flights home. Sim and I stayed 2 nights in Istanbul separately from the tour.
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| John, Carol, and Sim in Pula |
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| Our ship |
We arrived in Vence and were met by the Viking folks. After settling in our stateroom we took a water taxi to Piazza San Marco and toured the ducal palace and St. Mark's Basilica. We walked around the little streets to the Rialto Bridge then walked back to San Marco and rode a vaporetto down the Grand Canal back to the pier. We left Venice at midnight.
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| San Marco Square, Venice, Italy |
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| San Marco Basilica |
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| dome in San Marco Basilica |
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| Venice canal |
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| Rialto Bridge on the Grand Canal |
We saw John and Carol at breakfast as we pulled into Pula, Croatia. We saw an ancient Roman amphitheater and walked around town. I found the sushi bar in the World Cafe on the ship. We ate all our meals on the ship in several different restaurants. See my cookbook for delicious recipe from the
Viking Star chef for
Dark Chocolate Amarone Cremoso.
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| Roman Amphitheater in Pula |
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| Temple of Augustus, Pula |
The next morning we docked at Dubrovnik and had a very good tour of the town. They were under siege for 6 months during the 1991 Balkan Wars. The town has constantly been under siege by the Romans, Venetians, Austrians, Nazis, and communists. They know how to store water and food. We were there on Palm Sunday so lots of folks coming and going to church with their plaited palms.
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| Dubrovnik, Croatia |
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| Central square in Dubrovnic |
The third port was Kotor in Montenegro. John and Carol took a mountain bus ride excursion while Sim and I walked around town. I bought a cute top made in Serbia and Sim bought some
Slivovitz. I mostly remember children and mothers begging for money but they did not look poor or under nourished.
The next day was at sea, down the Adriatic into the Ionian Sea. I think I watched Lawrence of Arabia on the TV for most of the day. We also ate all our meals plus afternoon tea.
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| Chateaubriand for dinner!!! |
The day we landed in Santorini, Greece was very cold and windy (like gale-force winds). We took a tender to the port and had an excursion to ancient city, Akrotiri, buried in 100+ feet of ash from a volcano eruption. Minoans from the Bronze Age may have come from Crete or fled to Crete because no bones were found. Thankfully the archeology site was covered but the walk around the town of Oia was downright unpleasant as a Saharan sand storms whipped us mightily. We took a cable car down the mountain to a pier to get the tender back to the ship. Soon thereafter the cable car was discontinued and folks took a bus to another pier to get a tender. I was happy I got back in time for lunch and my Swedish massage.
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| Pots in Akrotiri buried under ash |
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| remains of wall fresco found |
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| Oia on the Island of Santorini, lot of blue-domed churches |
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| Cute fence idea in Oia |
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| Thira where cable car runs down to pier |
In Athens we took a tour of the Acropolis which was totally fabulous. I never imagined I would ever actually be there. We saw the Olympic Stadium built for 19th C return of the Olympics then up on the Acropolis, we saw the Temple of Athena, the Parthenon, and the Nike temple.
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| Carol and John in front of the Olympic stadium |
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| View of Acropolis from below |
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| Poppies growing in the Acropolis |
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| Sim and I in front of the Temple of Erechtheum |
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| Parthenon |
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| Sim and I in front of the Parthenon |
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| Temple of Athena |
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| Hadrian's Gate in Athens |
The next port was Kusadasi, Turkey where we took an excursion to Ephesus. The port moved away from Ephases ages ago as the river's mouth filled with silt. The town was hopping during the Roman rule and was second to Rome. Cleopatra and Antony spent a summer there and of course, St. Paul was there trying to get converts. The disciple, John, and Jesus's mother, Mary, lived and died there as well. Paul spoke to the Ephesians in the great theater but was run out out of town by the craftsmen who sold statues of Diana fearing loss of business. That's why he wrote them a letter. There was a huge library next to a brothel and still some houses to view -- next time. Then we went rug shopping back at the port.
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| Main street of Ephesus |
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| Public latrines- send your slave at 5am to warm up your seat! |
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| Celsus Library |
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| Great Theater at Ephesus, host to 25,000 spectators |
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| Great Theater seating |
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| Preserved entrance in Ephesus |
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| Runner I bought in Kusadasi (tribal design from eastern Turkey) |
In Troy we visited the ancient city which is all in ruins. All the allied Greek nations joined together to defeat the Trojans according to Homer's Illiad in 1200 BC. Fact or fiction? But definitely a series of cities at that site. It's just across the Dardenells from Gallipoli so a very strategic land to control.
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| Replica of the Trojan Horse hiding the Greeks inside |
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| Theater in Troy |
At last, Istanbul! We said goodbye to family and friends the night before and disembarked around 9:30am (Eastern European daylight time) and got a taxi to our B&B in Sultanahmet part of town which is between the Golden Horn and the Sea of Marmara. We walked up to see the musts including Hagia Sophia, Topkapi Palace and the Blue Mosque. The next day we walked through the Grand Bazar and the Spice Market. Of course, I bought another rug, this one for the dining room to replace my nice rug that Zelda put a hole into while I was in CA. Plane returning at 6:00am tomorrow morning so off to the airport tonight at 2:30am. Hope the taxi arrives!
I have been wanting to see the
Hagia Sophia since I was in college. The mosaics were every bit as wonderful as when Justinian restored it in the mid first millennium AD. It was turned into a mosque when the Ottomans took over and then partially restored and turned into a museum under Ataturk.
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| Hagia Sofia in Istanbul |
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| Dome in Hagia Sofia |
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| Famous mosaic of Christ |
In the
Topkapi Palace, I was fascinated by the
Iznik tiles in the Harem. We did see the famous diamond and dagger but the light was not good -better displayed in the movie with Melina Mercouri.
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| Gate into Topkapi Palace of the Sultans |
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| Beautiful tiled room in the Harem of Topkapi |
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| Harem in Topkapi |
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| Tree of life tiles on the wall of a palace room |
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| Sim under porch of the Sultan overlooking the Sea of Marmara |
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| Summer room of the Sultan in Topkapi |
The Blue Mosque also had beautiful tile work
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| Large open worship space with no internal walls |
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| Spice Market shop |
All three air plane flights worked well to get us home Tuesday afternoon. Security in Amsterdam was very tight with about 5 separate security spots where we had to show boarding pass and passport. We saw hardly any other Westerners in Istanbul, most were Muslims from somewhere. The terrorist attacks have dried up business in the Grand Bazaar.
If you would like to take this cruise, I suggest that you make your own plane reservations, go with several friends, stay longer in Venice and Istanbul, go in April or May rather than March. We could never sit on our veranda deck because of coldness and wind. Oh, and don't buy any rugs!
