Cruise
It threatened 41 Deg C but stopped at 32. Quite warm enough especially for narrow streets, over-run with tourists everywhere. We were bus number 30 from two Viking vessels plus two other huge cruise ships, Holland America and something else. Many of the buildings in Corfu city look decayed
Cruise
The 38DegC heat didn't help! We toured the original Olympic games site, with guide Angela, which exists as it was and is very ordinary in appearance.The Temple of Zeus would have been spectacular but not as a few columns and a collection of big broken bits. The
Cruise
Today we finished the circumnavigation of the Acropolis via the ancient Plaka settlement under the rock. It was very satisfying to have completed it, though very slowly in 33DegC heat. It really does resemble Santorini except near the top where many homes are in a very dilapedated condition. How you
Cruise
The ship is a sort of mix of the connectivity and communications of the Starship Enterprise, the cleanliness and perfect finish of a pharmaceutical sterile production facility and the uniformed staff nearing the polish and dignity of the staff of the English Royal household . Quite an achievement. The goal of
Cruise
A short coach ride to the Archaealogical Museum. Spoiler alert. Nudity! (and beauty --they're Greek!) The guide again spoke very fast and a heavy accent meant that many of us 'tuned out' for relief now and again and read the notes by the items. Some amateur
Cruise
Like me, you may not know the name of Crete's capital city. It was a short bus ride there to the museum where we received a detailed account of the development of Crete from neanderthal times, to Minoan culture then Mycenian then finally Greek from 1913. The artefacts
Cruise
What a contrast to Troy! The immediate sight is of many narrow, wonky tiled or cobbled streets passing, between very ancient,undecorated walls of buildings, reminiscent of Santorini, with hills and small flat areas but no brightly coloured walls. It's a real gem of a place. I took
Cruise
Everybody wants to see Ephesus so the restaurants quickly emptied this morning as bus after bus left the dock. We were last at No 30. This pic this morning from our balcony on the docked ship. It became very hot, even for the locals and the smooth marble flagstones on
Cruise
Apart from the Horse, shown here, which was built for the film set, the archealogical sites are a bit underwhelming, not helped by a young , male, cocky guide with no audience empathy. He couldn't get his microphone right and when asked by another person and myself what the
Cruise
Unfortunately Mary 'not fit for travel' so I joined the coach party after getting 'shore pass' for day- Viking coach number 24 I think; a huge operation, just like the Viking invasions of Britain. We visited the Blue Mosque again but it was a wholly different
Cruise
Embarking took forever--they have to be so careful that all bags get onboard and then there's immigration and in the case of cruise lines, a brand new, humungous underground corridor structure looking like long metro train tunnels before the lines go down--concrete hardly dry, about half
Cruise
A much longer itinerary today than we had imagined! Viking had about 13 large coaches ferrying people everywhere. I'd had no idea of their scale of their operation. First to Hagia Sophia mosque. We'd overlooked doing this today, so I was inapropropiately dressed and had to