alexandriacardinals

KUSADASI

[Yeah, I hear ya?  It’s in Turkey.  We’ll get to it.  But here we are coming into port, with Bill and Anne at the rail.  Also at the rail is a person of interest we mentioned earlier – the blonde to their left who appears to be a Scandinavian photographer and always seemed on the aft deck in the mornings with us.]

[So, welcome to Turkey.  Kusadasi is our port entry to Ephesus and the House of the Virgin Mary, both near the town of Selcuk (sell-chuck).  Let the antiquity begin!]

[From whence we came.]

[Everywhere you go, there’s a statue on the city’s highest hill.  I don’t believe this guy was Stan Musial (because he’s Polish).]

[We are onboard our land ferry, heading out of Kusadasi to Meryemana, a sacred place to both Christians and Moslems.  Kinda looks like you’re driving in Key Biscayne, n’est-ce pas?]

[The sign is self-explanatory.  Kinda felt like we were entering a national park in the Western U.S, all woodsy and stuff.  🙂 ]

[Our guide, Yetkin, is in the red [Editor’s note:  The supervisor subsequently advised it’s “pink.”] and white striped shirt.  It made him easy to spot.  Which was great, because at any one time there are 42 gazillion tour buses here.  We faced our slowest lines of the entire trip here as it was like an 8-lane walking interstate funneling down into a single lane as we approached our final destination.]

[We made it to a sign!]

[Yetkin let’s us know where should meet him after we visit the site.]

[A hole in the ground that obviously had something to do with the storage of water.]

[The line inches along.  I didn’t notice any beer vendors.]

[Information . . . we had plenty of time to read.]

[There was food product hanging from this tree?]

[More information.  Again, plenty of time to read as the line millimetered along.]

[I  believe No. 9 was a Princess Cruise Excursion leader, or possibly Roger Maris?  At least it was shady, and at elevation, so the temperature was not intolerable while standing in line(s).]

[We’re getting closer!]

[The line extends back to infinity . . .]

[We made it!]

[The Joaquins, from the Chicago area, became our new BFF’s during the trip.  With Bill and Anne, the six of us had almost a private tour, by some luck of the draw, in Istanbul.]

[And in we go.  I was chastised for not seeing the sign about no photos inside.  I think I do now on the right side door frame?]

[Bill and Anne come out the other side, none the worse for wear.]

[A highlight that reminded me of days of yore in Okinawa and Japan.  This is our view from the public urinals there – likely the best urinal view of my life.  Bill and I lingered there despite the crowds.  😉  . . .]

[Anyway, I didn’t realize until I turned to exit that our deeds were on full display for the public.  In some places in the world, public restrooms are . . . very public!]

[I guess I didn’t take any further photos at Meryemana?  We had to meet up with Yetkin in the restaurant/touristy shops area of the park to make our exodus.  Now we’re on the road to Ephesus, seen in the distance middle-left side of the photo.]

[A final farewell to Meryemana.]

[Entering Ephesus, through the turnstiles that date back millennia . . .]

[As we all remember from our schooling, Ephesus was one of the 12 cities of the Ionian League (wink, wink, nod, nod).  In the first century B.C., it had a population of 250,000, which makes it slightly larger and older than Osakis.  Delta/KLM flew there several times a day in those days.  BTW, the Ionian League was the immediate predecessor of the National League, the American League, and the League of Women Voters.]

[So now we’re talkin’ some really old stuff.]

[We begin our tour at the top of the town.  We will wend our way down through spectacular ruins and views, and be delighted that in the blistering noonday Turkish sun, we did not have to walk back up!  🙂 ]

[Umbrellas and broad-brimmed hats were really good ideas!]

[At this point, the supervisor was really beginning to fall in love with Turkey – and we haven’t been to Istanbul yet!]

[What time does the main event start?  And do we get a senior discount?]

[Photo courtesy of the Ruizes, from New Jersey.  Sorry Nanner, but I really needed the hat!]

[That’s Mr. Ruiz on the right.  We kidded they were always last to show up in the mornings for the tours – on time, but without a minute to spare!  😉 ]

[The setting.]

[Very odd to have different column styles (the designs at the top) side-by-side?]

[Different “colors” within a column indicate restoration.  I would guess almost all places of antiquity are undergoing various degrees of restoration.  It’s very expensive and time consuming, so tourists will be seeing this type of activity for many decades to come.]

[The downhill begins . . .]

[Isn’t this fun?]

[One just can’t take enough photos of this history (though, lord knows, I try).]

[People actually carved this stuff, though probably not until the TV re-run season began.]

[Boulevard shops, back in the day.]

[Here’s a hammer and chisel – now go make something really neat and historic.]

[A restored arch.]

[A mini Stonehenge?]

[Yetkin and the supervisor.  Oh, you knew that.]

[Me and a frieze!  Hey, how did this escape the British Museum?]

[People are coming back up?]

[Mrs. Ruiz, totally dressed for an event.  Not wanting to be nosey, we didn’t ask if they were on their honeymoon.  😉 ]

[The downhill slalom continues.]

[Now we’re really starting to see the view!  At least if you trip going down the stairs, you have plenty of people to break your fall.]

[Totally Headless Nick?]

[The Ruizes, Yetkin, the Joaquins as we head down to the Library of Celsus.]

[Up close and personal.]

[An obvious photo op – go get it, Bill!]

[A 2,000+-year old bathroom floor?]

[Early pizza ovens?]

[Public baths – cleanliness is next to godliness.]

[A lovely bath frieze?]

[We’re at the bottom, with the Library of Celsus and its square.]

[Yetkin says, “Wander around for a half hour and then meet me over there.”]

[Looking at whence we came.]

[Don’t get lost in another tour group!]

[The library façade.]

[Quite a place.]

[Thar’s gold in them thar tours!]

[Inside the library, there’s a side door to a place of the world’s oldest profession.  And in this place, there is what is considered the world’s oldest advertisement, for the world’s oldest profession.]

[Inside the library (and below).]

[Heading out of town.]

[A parting shot of the library.]

[The Ephesus Theatre has 25,000 seats.  But I understand tickets are only available through Ticketmaster.]

[There once was a port at the end of this road.  The water has moved.]

[Henny Youngman played here.]

[You can see the water in the distance . . . and the supervisor in the nearby.]

[The Ephesus bazaar.  Bought nada.]

[Back to our VW minibus.]

[Back to Selcuk and a visit to a pottery store.]

[The Selcuk pottery shop is where the supervisor made our one and only vacation purchase (shot against the backdrop of a log home on Lake Darling.]

[While the womenfolk shopped, the menfolk sat outside . . .]

[And partook of Turkish coffee, which consists of 4 pounds of coffee to one drop of water for a demitasse . . .]

[Which induces immediate coma.]

[I have reason to believe the Selcuk fortress.]

[All that’s left of the Temple of Artemis . . .]

[One of the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World.]

[On the way back to the ship, the largest water park in Turkey.  I think we were more interested then in the water park that is our ship!]

[Lots of sailboats.]

[According to Yetkin, Turks prefer BK to Mickey D’s.]

[Heading to the Kusadasi waterfront.]

[Beaches!]

[Our boat is still there!]

[Welcome to Miami Beach?  😉 ]

[Tourists doing what tourists do.]

[We hung out on the “dark tier,” 2nd from the top.]

[Hi, Mom!  We’re home!]

[Sayonara, Kusadasi.]

[Anne and the supervisor in the hot tub.]

[The Alegria String Quartet, from Ukraine.  Proved to be among our faves!  🙂 ]

[And the Orphea Band again.]

[Apologies, meant to do this more often.  “Weakie” wants to see the food.  Can’t remember what this was, but it was wonderful!  🙂 ]

[And this was the supervisor’s.]

[Back to the atrium before to the room and bed.]

[Ooops, wrong continent and decade, but I figure I’m in many scrapbooks all over Japan!  🙂 ]

Up next:  Istanbul.

ATHENS

After two days at sea, we were ready to get our land legs again.  We are arriving in Athens, home of Plato, Socrates, Hippocrates, and the Georgia Bulldogs.  Actually, we are arriving in Piraeus, the port city for Athens.  But since Athens contains 5 of the 11 million Greeks, Piraeus is now actually considered part of Athens.  In other words, Greece is Athens.

[One of the advertising ploys of the new ship was that it has a see-through skywalk, where you can look down thousands of feet below you.  The supervisor caught me doing the death defying act of trying to maintain my balance as I crossed over the dangerous chasm!]

[And this was my view.]

[Yeah, I thought I was brave!]

[Land-ho!]

[Piraeus port.]

[The supervisor said, “I’m ready!  Let’s do it!”]

[Our first guided land excursion – our guide was Christiana and our driver was Demetrius (“Jim” if that was too complicated).  In Christiana’s first encounter with the group of 17, who just happened to be Chinese-Americans, she defused it nicely by saying that while the whole world describes something incomprehensible as It’s all Greek to me, she said Greeks say It’s all Chinese to me.]

[A touch of home?]

[Our first sighting of the Acropolis.  Not an attractive photo but just wanted to show the difficulty of shooting from a moving vehicle.  So many of the places we visited, the antiquity involved looking through modernity, which meant power and communications lines.  😦 ]

[You hope for a good shot you can clean up by cropping.  We would shortly climb up there in 95-degree heat!  🙂 ]

[But first, the Panathenaic Stadium . . .]

[Built for the Olympics in 1896, the only stadium in the world built entirely of white marble.  The supervisor hies to check it out – or look for a WC, whichever occurs first.]

[The WC was off to the right.  It required money.  We were running around trying to get change for the coin slot!  I believe this was the only time we paid to pee.]

[The crowds arrive to simultaneously shoot into the stadium.  I’m glad we were among the first to arrive.]

[Do we really have to pay?]

[The Parthenon from the stadium.  Tourists already gathered on the far right, under the flag.  Don’t get too close to the edge!]

[The Parthenon is undergoing a restoration that appears likely to take decades.]

[A city park.]

[“The Runner,” 1988, a 30-foot high statue made of stacked panes of green glass.  Christiana mentioned how many tons the thing weighs, but do you think I could find it on the internet?]

The Parliament building.  Christiana made some remark about the capabilities of the members therein that sounded strangely familiar to what we hear back here.  😉 ]

[As we were watching the Presidential Guards in front of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (an international recognition?), a police presence swooped in and started moving all the tourists off to the side.]

[It turns out we were there, by pure dumb luck, for the changing of the guard, which on Sundays only is preceded by a parade!  🙂  ]

[Let’s just watch the parade go by . . .]

[Bill snaps stills; the supervisor shoots a video.]

[Go get ’em, Soupie!]

[The crowd raise their arms . . .]

[The supervisor shoots the changing.]

[Shooting blindly over the top.]

[Kick boxing?]

[What now?  Souvlaki?]

[The park across the street from the Parliament plaza.]

[The crowd disperses as the ceremony concludes.]

[Voted No. 1 fan at the parade.  I had the only vote.  I wonder if she plays hockey?]

[The parade reverses and goes home.  The guard changes every hour which is nice since it was 95 degrees on this day.]

[Christiana leads her flock in search of the bus, which was detoured because of the parade.  The Ravi Shankars help me bring up the rear.]

[I think it’s this way?]

[A parting glance at the Parliament.]

[How can one not take a photo of the Athens Happy Train?  😉 ]

[Hadrian’s Arch, 131 AD.  Roman Emperor Hadrian was noted for his peaceful reign.  He did not destroy the civilizations under Rome’s control.  In fact, he helped enhance beauty and architecture of such places.  Thus, it seems one finds monuments to Hadrian all over this part of the world.]

[Christiana rounds us up for an assault on the Acropolis.  It’s billed as 80 steps up – that excludes the 100’s of feet of sloping walkways!  Maybe if it was about 40 degrees cooler!]

[To the summit, team!]

[The thoughtful tour guide tries to find shade – for a rest and more tutoring.]

[Our goal!]

[The view the other direction.]

[It’s not unlike a safari.]

[An amphitheater half way up.]

[A good place to check out what’s new in backpacks!  😉 ]

[Time for an oxygen hit.  Looking back down into the city.]

[CSI, Athens?]

[Climbers assemble for the final approach.  Oh, the humanity!]

[With Bill and Christriana, HELLLLLOOOOOOO, ATHENS!]

[The Leaning Column of the Acropolis?]

[You can see all of Greece from here!  😉 ]

[An amazing place.  And don’t let the crowds dissuade you – they are part of the excitement.]

[And we’re still not to the top?]

[Love the “layers” in this shot, if I do say so myself.  Wasn’t planned, every once in a while you get lucky.]

[At long last, at the entry arch.]

[Temple of Athena, in front of the Erechtheum.]

[Unique columns therein.]

[Parthenon reconstruction.]

[The supervisor and Athena.]

[I removed my hat, for The Nanner, and my head immediately blistered!]

[A room with a view.]

[The Erechtheum.]

[The Parthenon . . . and some fans.]

[The backside of the Erechtheum.]

[Shooting the Parthenon down its length.]

[Greek flag.  Q:  What’s a Grecian urn?  A:  About 200 drachmas per hour.  Oh, you heard that one already?]

[I forgot.  But SE of the Acropolis.]

[I forgot, from farther away.]

[Looking NE from the Acropolis.]

[It’s time for photo ops with the Parthenon!]

[Like African herd animals on the Serengeti.  Hey, it was really hot!]

[The Parthenon’s rear.]

[Young love, true love . . .]

[A theatre.  Good acoustics.]

[The pieces to the jigsaw puzzle of antiquity.]

[Somewhere around 9:00, I used to be able to see the arena that was built for basketball and volleyball for the 2004 Olympics.]

[I believe the Salty Dogs open here in October.]

[We’re heading back down.]

[The Plaka District.]

[To my knowledge, not Amish.]

[Following Christiana in search of food.]

[Acropolis Museum – we were too time starved.]

[Still searching . . .]

[Aha, a genuine back alley Greek restaurant, so we had to try Mythos beer.]

[Remember this?  Hadrian’s Arch.  Where we met up after dining to “go home.”]

[A fine looking building on the drive back to the ship.]

[Back on the ship, checking the adult pool area . . .]

[Once again, no skinny dippers?]

[Well, we found our way back on this night.]

[Rita, we missed you!]

Up next:  Kusadasi.

AT SEA

[Our first wake up at sea, Saturday, August 24 (from our room).  We left Venice the previous morning and will have another full day at sea this day.  It’s 851 miles from Venice to Athens.  We had different feelings about two days at sea.  If you were a first time cruiser, you probably liked it.  It gives you a chance to recover from the trans-Atlantic flight, time to discover the ship, and time to just relax around the pools.]

[Hmmm, 7:21 am – time to meet the Grosses for breakfast.  🙂 ]

[And Here Comes the Sun (diddle, diddle)]

[Our route – the blue dot with the circles around it by Italy’s “heel” indicates where we were at the time.]

[The supervisor finds our morning refuge aft (or it could be aft refuge).  A ship’s mate is giving a tour to a group of two interested parties.]

[It’s time to par-tay!]

[The several hot tubs around the pools were a big attraction – often sought out by the supervisor, Anne, and Bill while I minded the table and the cold beverages.]

[A great place for people watching.]

[Our attendance at the overwhelmed small theatre for the travel briefing on Athens.  After this day, we watched the daily presentations on TV in our rooms.]

[OK, now it’s really people watching time.]

[We’re at “our table” in the atrium (a/k/a/, the piazza) waiting to go to the formal dinner.]

[Someone decided I should be in the photo, too.  So I gave my camera to a complete and total stranger for this shot.   You will note I’m not quite as “formal” as the others.  It’s a technical thing.  Guys are suppose to wear coat and tie, or at least a long-sleeve shirt.  I brought neither.  As we attempted entry at the restaurant I was confronted by the powers that be where I simply pointed out my outfit is considered “formal” in Hawaii.  I was granted access, thus squelching a possible international incident.  I thought I suffered enough merely by having to wear long pants for dinner every night.  BTW, the blonde attendant over my lefty shoulder is Tamara, from Serbia.  Just thought you should know that.]

[Prior to and after dining, it was a fine night to observe the beautiful people.  So, I engaged my role as paparazzo.  I like to take pictures of people taking pictures.  I believe this photographer was Scandinavian, and possibly a professional photographer as we saw her around with a variety of such equipment.]

[People watching and photo ops abound as the crew constructs the champagne tower.]

[And here’s where we first got involved in what sister Gretch would call a “celebrity sighting.”  We suspect the woman taking the photo is, or was, a professional model.  We believe the long-haired guy standing behind her to be her husband.  We believe their suspected three daughters to be professional models.  We believe they are Russian (there were lots of Russians on the cruise).  We believe all this because they all posed for photo shoots – and I don’t believe any of them ever wore the same outfit during the cruise.  Not that I was keeping track . . .]

[How’s that champagne tower comin’ along?]

[A professional camera shoot area.]

[Momma model modeling while the Orphea Band performed in the background.]

[Capping the tower.]

[A young photographer shoots the tower – Oy, the competition!]

[One of my faves – a tripleheader, three photographers at once!  😉 ]

[Begin the pour!]

[Momma model with daughter No. 2]

[Momma model with daughter Nos. 1 & 2.]

[The champagne lady?]

[The champagne lady and her escort.]

[Our young photographer being photographed.]

[And reversing the roles.  Oh, and the woman in the right foreground snapped the photo the champagne lady and her escort.]

[And I already forgot who shot this?  But it was previously e-mailed with the following note:  Voted most likely to be identified as Minnesotans should the cruise ship be boarded by terrorists.  Not really a concern for us, but the ship “gathered” all American passports for the three days we were in Turkish waters.  When we went ashore we could only be
identified by our Tommy Bahama shirts.  Nevertheless, Ruthie would really like to go back to Turkey again.  I think she wants a rug.  A hand made silk one may take two years to weave, cost more than a Buick, but will last for 300 years.]

[Our photographer being photographed.  There will be a scorecard at the end.]

[Meanwhile, back at the tower . . .]

[If you look in the center of this photo . . .]

[You will see Ravi Shankar.  Yes, Ravi Shankar.  And we had to laugh when we got on the excursion bus in Rome and even our Italian tour guide had to ask . . .  I did ask if he was related (dumb, he must hear that all the time), he politely replied it’s just a common name in India.  He and his daughters were always part of our shore excursion group.  Members of the group would approach them (because his 16 and 17-year old daughters were as striking as the Russian models) hoping they were from some exotic place.  They’re from Boston, which the askees always found disappointing.  🙂 ]

[He’s out of focus here, but over the course of the trip he would take pictures of us and we of them.]

[Meanwhile, back at the champagne tower, our photographer photographs her husband.]

[Our photographer’s husband photographs her and the lead singer for the Orphea Band while the Russian models relax stage right.]

[Meanwhile, the champagne tower continues to perform as a photographic background.]

[3 tiers of onlookers.]

[I’m not sure what his title was, but last guy to pour the champagne must be well up the hierarchy . . .]

[As such he’s entitled to one guest pourer(?)]

[Then on to the outdoor movie (see all the people in the deck chairs?) . . .]

[“Life of Pi”]

[A good night to the adult pool.  And now you know the cast of characters for the rest of the cruise!  🙂 ]

Up next:  Athens.

VENICE

[A canal . . . a sign we’re arriving in the city of canals?]

We’ve established that our cruise began in Venice.  We arrived the afternoon of Thursday, August 22 – the ship would be departing the following morning for Athens.  This was our only chance to tour Venice.

[It appeared we would be landing in a large bowl of Gazpacho?]

[The Outer Banks?]

[Welcome to Venice!]

[Ooops, I think we’re overshooting?]

[We did overshoot – the city, not the airport.  But, of course, our Princess representative was there to greet us and make sure we got on the right bus for the ship.  A nice trip through the area neighborhoods.]

[And you have to go over water to reach the city . . .]

[Serviced by all manner of public transportation.]

[After checking in and finding Anne and Bill, it was off to the city.  We were flying by the seat of our pants – which happened to include some maps and ideas.  😉  We were looking to ride the Vaporetto up and down the Grand Canal.]

[After some discussion among ourselves and another pod of tourists, we determined we should take the light rail for one stop to the city.  Fortunately, Bill came prepared with Euros.]

[Now where?  We were at the Grand Canal but weren’t sure where to go?  Someone directed us over this foot bridge – didn’t seem to be the place when we got to the other side?]

[Here comes a boat.  Is it the one we’re looking for?]

[The canal is busy; the domes look important?]

[Are we s’pose to go to that side canal?]

[The place is certainly unique!]

A pause for some notes:  You may have noticed that the sky is blue.  It was blue the whole two weeks.  Apparently, it never rains in the Mediterranean in summer.  Absent clouds, it was hot.  Probably mid-80’s here in Venice (northern Italy), but going around through Athens, Kusadasi (KOO-sha-dah-sah), and Istanbul, the temperatures were in the mid-90’s, hitting 100 in Mykonos.  Anne had a good pedometer.  Shore excursions were usually for 8 hours, and the pedometer generally showed we walked 5 – 6 miles at each stop, sometime with climbs.  This caught a lot of our elderly tourists by surprise – a lot of grumbling.  Just be aware before you go.

By now you are aware these cruise ships are monsters.  And because all our stops are popular tourist destinations, the ginormous cruise ships would arrive in packs!  With up to 4,000 passengers per ship, just think of the number of 60 passenger tour buses waiting for us at each stop!  Can you imagine one of these bad boys pulling up to the Arrowwood marina and have 60 buses waiting in the parking lot for a full-fledged assault on Alex?  Mykonos has less than 10,000 residents – more than twice that many tourists visit there, every day!  You can tell the locals get a bit exacerbated, but tourism is their entire economy.

Oh, and if go you in a group, put the entire group under one name!  At every stop we had a group of 17 who always wanted to be together but they were listed under different names in groups of two or four.  Drove the tour guides crazy trying to figure out if they had everybody.  And be prepared to be in mobs wherever you go – it’s now just the nature of the beast.

[Since we did this on the fly, we were just looking more than studying.  They had a tour guide audio if you sat inside the boat, but we wanted to be outside for photo purposes.  So, we’ll just have a series of photos along the Grand Canal, not noting any specific place because I really don’t feel like looking through a guide book for each.  We were just enjoying the experience.  And away we go . . .]

[Like the boat we were on.]

[A gondola, obviously.  We did not partake – not enough time.]

[Bill stands inside for a photo op.]

[Ain’t we got fun?]

[Bill says, “I got it!”]

[Bill says, “I got it!”]

[Woo-woo!]

[35-foot tall statue by Marc Quinn of fellow artist Alison Lapper (who was born without arms) in the piazza on the island of San Giorgio Maggiore.  Apparently, somewhat recent and somewhat controversial.]

[Not mine.]

[Now we do see these on . . . Lake Minnetonka?]

[Coming up to San Marco and our hop off.  The on-and-off boats allow you to get off or on at any stop.]

[The Plaza at San Marco is the major draw in Venice.  We did a lot of walking here.  We didn’t get started until late afternoon, but Anne reported 5 miles on her pedometer at the end.  Certainly, a must see place.  The rest of the photos on this day will be in the plaza, and then wandering through the back alleys of Venice to another boat hop-on spot.]

[Happy American tourists!  🙂 ]

[The bell tower . . . well, the bottom half of it.]

[Oy!  The architecture!]

[How much is that in Euros?]

[I think it’s a buck-two-eighty.]

[Leaving out the back door . . .]

[The Plaza has long been famous (?) for its pigeons.  That has long term consequences.  While there are many still here, it’s now a $800 fine for feeding them.]

[Let’s get lost!]

[Which way?]

[We could swim for it?]

[The blondish-gray guy to the supervisor’s left certainly looks like Brother Cam?]

[Ben Franklin?]

[Just out window shopping with a couple thousand of my closest friends.  Is that Miley Cyrus in the left foreground?]

[The are 27 different nationalities on this staircase.]

[Aahhh, we’re getting close!]

[But which side?]

[Where we were.]

[One if by land, two if by sea?]

[You will soon see a string quartet on the Royal Princess – ours were from the Ukraine, and I’m pretty sure these are Italians.  😉 ]

[It’s the next morning.  This our neighbor.  We’re getting ready to leave Venice to two days at sea – destination Athens.]

[A faithful tug is there to help guide us out.]

[But another ship is coming in.]

[Alcatraz?]

[And we have departed our mooring.]

[The railing is cluttered with tourists bidding ciao to Venice.]

[The supervisor has snared a box seat.  🙂 ]

[There’s a photographer’s courtesy that allows access to the railing.]

[And now what we saw as we cruised out the Grand Canal.]

[The crowd depth.]

[Back at San Marco – a few people here!!]

[Ciao, Venice!]

[Anne, Bill, and the supervisor wax nostalgic.]

[And the supervisor shoots a video as we sign-off from Venice!  🙂 ]

Up next:  At sea, on the way to Athens.