A Wonderful Trip Draws to a Close

September 2014

Sadly, all good things must come to an end. We arrived in Athens on Saturday morning after a wonderful week sailing around the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas. Our final stop of the tour was Athens. I'm sure we could have spent much more than 6 hours exploring a city of such cultural and historical significance, but we tried to fit as much as we could in the time that we had. Of course, our first stop was the top of the Acropolis to see the Parthenon. Here's our view looking up as the tour bus traveled there:

The steps leading up to the top of the Acropolis were much more crowded than any of the other sites we toured, almost uncomfortably so. I think I was spoiled on the rest of the trip. Since the 1980's, the Parthenon has been undergoing an extensive renovation effort. When we were there, the whole front side was under scaffolding:

This side has already been restored - the lighter stone was added during the restoration effort:

There was no scaffolding on the back side - perfect for pictures!

This temple, called the Erechtheion, also stood on top of the Acropolis

The views from the top of the Acropolis were amazing. Athens is a HUGE city!

Far below me is the Temple of Athenian Zeus:

This theater is the Odeon of Herodes Atticus - concerts are held there even in present times - how cool would it be to attend one of those?!:

When we left the Parthenon, we stopped briefly at the stadium where the first modern Olympics were held in 1896. Just long enough to take a few pictures:

From there, we headed to the Acropolis museum. It was constructed to house artifacts collected at the Acropolis and was a really cool place! These are the Caryatids that once stood atop the Erechtheion:

My favorite part of the museum was a room with a huge glass wall with this view of the Acropolis and the Parthenon:

Inside that room was a life-sized replica of the frescoes that once adorned the top of the Parthenon - all four sides. A very small piece of the replica was actually from the Parthenon - the rest had either been destroyed or stolen by invading cultures - the Venetians, the Ottoman Turks, and the British. It was evident from our tour that the Greeks are quite bitter about what was taken from them by the British in the name of preservation. The British Museum now houses at least as many treasures from the Parthenon as the Parthenon Museum - arguably to protect them from destruction at a time when Greece couldn't properly protect them. With this beautiful new museum, Greece would love the return of their treasures, but Britain has been reluctant to set such a precedent.

This is a replica of the statues that once stood atop the front of the Parthenon. I loved this whole display!

This museum marked the last stop on our trip of a lifetime. From there, the tour bus drove us back to our hotel - the Sofitel at the Athens Airport. Our flight left at 6 am the next morning, so we had an early dinner at the hotel, set our alarm for 3:30 am and called it a night. We are so fortunate to have been able to take such an amazing trip and I will remember it fondly for the rest of my life. Happy 10th Anniversary, Tommy!

Discovering Mykonos and Delos

September 2014

Sadly, our amazing trip was quickly drawing to a close. Our second-to-last stop of the cruise was the beautiful island of Mykonos. The excursion we chose for the day wasn't even on the island of Mykonos itself, but on the tiny island of Delos. They had the ship's sails fully unfurled, so of course we had to take a picture as we sailed away in the tender boat.

We hopped on another tour boat and took a 15 or 20 minute ride out to the island of Delos.

This was our view of Delos as the boat approached:

Delos was the major center of the ancient Greek world and the mythical birthplace of the God Apollo and his sister, Artemis. The son seemed to shine much more brightly on this little island, so it is easy to see why this was reputed to be the birthplace of the Greek sun god. Given its significance, and although it had no natural resources of its own, Delos became a meeting place and trade center under Greek and then Roman rule. During the Greek reign of the island, no one was allowed to give birth or die on the island due to its sacred importance and to preserve its neutrality in commerce, since no one could then claim ownership through inheritance. The Romans were attacked by pirates in the 1st century BC and the island eventually became uninhabited given its lack of natural resources.

Similar to Ephesus, Delos had streets lined with what were once store fronts:

Ruins of what once were grand homes inhabited by the wealthy with beautiful mosaics and beautiful places of worship.

They also had a really advanced system of sewers, aqueducts and wells:

The Terrace of the Lions is a famous monument dedicated to Apollo:

The lions currently standing on the terrace are replicas. The remaining original lions that weren't stolen or destroyed are housed in the small museum on the island, away from the elements.

We finished our tour of Delos and headed back to Mykonos. Mykonos was another scenic, whitewashed island with brightly colored accents of doors and balconies and bougainvillea. We wandered the island for a few minutes when we arrived back, and even caught a wedding procession marching through town.

We met our friends from the cruise, Bonnie and Jack from New Jersey for lunch in Little Venice.

These were the views we enjoyed as we ate:

 

After lunch, we walked over to the famous Mykonos windmills to take a few photos:

From there, we wandered the narrow streets and popped in a few souvenir stores. It really was a beautiful town:

We headed back to the ship in the mid-afternoon to take a little rest so we could enjoy our last night on the boat. Sadly, tomorrow we disembark the Wind Star for good in Athens.