Monday, June 21--Syros

There was a "swim stop" in the morning, where Hal and I took the two single kayaks into this little bay.

We hit the port of Ermoupoli (Hermoupolis) at about 2 pm. Christian, our "cruise coordinator" did a guided tour of the old part of town, the architecture of which reflects the Byzantine occupation rather than more traditional Greek style. There is a Casino in town right next to a church but we didn't go in--to the Casino, that is--we did go in the church later that day. The town is built on two hills and the other hill, AnoSyros, is the older part of town with houses stacked upon one another, a monastery at the top. It was hot and the hill was steep so a bunch of us piled into cabs for the ride up and the walk down.

I have attached a partial copy of the brochure asking visitors to please respect the privacy of the homes in this area.
The views from the top of the hill were spectacular and Syros seemed more an ordinary island with regular shops for clothes and hardware rather than just  endless rows of tourist shops. Of course, tourism counts for a whopping 25% of the Greek economy, so it's not too surprising that it seems so predominant on some of the islands.the economy of Syros, however, is focused on  textile, dairy and horticulture, and some remnant of their glory days as ship builders. there was in fact a huge cruise ship in the docks being retrofitted and offered for sale--didn't catch the price;-)
This was a town with more than the usual number of feral cats.

Sunday, June 20--Antiparos & Paros

We anchored off Antiparos for a "swim stop" in the morning. Also had a Greek language lesson with our "visiting" cruise coordinator (Iossif was his name) from another one of Variety's ships. Then we docked at Paros' main port of Parikia.
The island of Paros is the home of fine white Parian marble, used throughout the ages for sculpture and temples. Ihla had arranged a bus for whoever wanted to check out the beach on the other side of the island and then the fishing village at the north end, Naoussa. We drove through but didn't stop at the small mountain village of Lefkes (Lefkas) which is supposedly known for it's weaving...wish we'd had time to stay there. We weren't really into beach bathing, so took a walk up the beach and had lunch with several of our comrades at the "Blue" cafe--very pleasant.
Then back down the beach to take the bus up to Naoussa (spelled various ways). In this little fishing village was a small church for sailors (dedicated to St. Nikolas), remains of a very small Venetian castle, and some octopus drying on racks. Back in Parikia we went to "Our Lady of the Hundred Gates" church (Byzantine).
When we got back to the boat for "Greek Night" --dinner and dancing-- we actually had ouzo and octopus for "mezedes" (appetizers). I liked the octopus, but never could get used to the ouzo, even ice cold. This dinner, like every other meal on the boat, was very good and way too much food. The only reason we didn't gain weight was because of all the walking we did during the day. Paros was definitely one of my favorite islands--I wish we could have spent more time there.

Saturday, June 19--Ios and Santorini

In the morning we stop in a bay on the island of Ios and Hal and I have our first go at using one of the little plastic kayaks. It's a two-person one and the paddling isn't too well coordinated, which I'm sure provided entertainment for the Galileo's passengers. At noon, we head on to Santorini and dock at about 2 pm. Santorini (aka Thira) is a remnant of a volcano and the caldera forms the bay in the remaining crescent of rock. When we first came in, I thought there was snow on the cliff tops, then came to my senses and thought perhaps very white strata of rock, and then I finally donned my glasses and realized they were the stacked white houses of the towns, Santorini and Oeia.
We were advised against the stinky donkey ride up from the harbor to the town proper, so opted for the cable car instead. This was our first outing so we stuck pretty much with Ihla's group, cruising through the congested touristy town of Santorini and checking out both the Orthodox cathedral and also a Catholic cathedral. Finally we all met up and grabbed some cabs to take us to Oeia, where everyone goes to watch the sunset. We were so hot that, after a short walk through the main street, we found a shady ledge in front of beautiful church and dozed off for a bit. Then we went hunting for food and found a nice little place overlooking the caldera for dinner. We were early so we had plenty of time to cruise through town but eventually gave up on staying for the sunset and headed back to the town bus stop for a return to Santorini town. There are LOTS of pictures of Santorini/Thira and the town Oeia on the Flickr site, so I've only picked a couple of my favorites for this post.

Still Friday, June 18 -- on the boat

We head south to Zea Marina (near Piraeus) to board our new home for the next 7 days, the Galileo.
The captain is Greek (Georgios Madafunis) as are some of his immediate crew and the sailors. The service staff are mostly Ukrainian, and our cruise coordinator is a cutie from Austria named Christian who effortlessly slips from English to German to French to Greek...well you get the picture. (Actually I will attach a picture of him as soon as I round one up.)
Hal and I stand on the deck and watch the city of Athens (now 5.5 million inhabitants) slide by as we head south for the Cyclades. We head past Sounion, where the temple of Poseideon overlooks the Aegean, and then head directly to Santorini to try and get ahead of some weather. 

Friday, June 18, 2010--Athens

Up early to do the Acropolis before it got really hot. It was a relatively short walk from our hotel and we took lots of pictures. Hal remembers when he came here in the 70's and you could walk inside the Parthenon and actually touch the columns--no longer. In fact everything has scaffolding around it and reconstructive work is ubiquitous at this site. There are lots more pictures on our Flickr site which I promise to organize some day... We then headed down the hill to the new Acropolis Museum. It's lovely and light and houses many of the original pieces from the Parthenon frieze--set into a similarly sized/situated exhibit-- as well as the the remaining actual statues of the Caryatids (the replicas are seen here 'in situ') from the Erectheion (translation to Latin alphabet spelling varies) temple on the Acropolis. The Caryatids are beautiful and I was awe struck--as I would be many times over--at the ability to capture the details of flowing clothes and elaborate hairstyles in stone. One of the coolest things about the museum is that it is situated over a working archaeological site and the floors in many places are glass, allowing you to see the partially excavated ruins under your feet. We got lost on our way back to the hotel and for the first time of many, struggled with the fact that street signs are in an alphabet different from our own and not resembling anything on an English version of the maps.

Retrospective travel journal--Days 1 & 2: Getting there

We left at 6:45 on the morning of June 16, a Wednesday, and with a 3 hour layover in Newark and a 10 hour time difference, arrived in Athens around 10 the next morning, Thursday, June 17. Neither of us slept much so we were beat, but rummaged around our lovely room with a view of the airshaft for a few minutes then headed out with some others from our group to find food on the Plaka a few blocks away. No pictures of the hotel Herodion, but you can link to the website here. It had a nice lobby and bar/restaurant, with a roof deck that provided a view of the Acropolis--very pretty at night. The original 14 people from the Las Vegas area (LouAnne, Anne, Jason, Mary, Sean, Erin, Judy, Johnna, Steve, Nancy, Ihla, Chris) were joined by a couple from California, Ron and Sharon, and two young women from Chicago, Wendy and Stefanie.