All of the destinations on this cruise were interesting, but I particularly wanted to see Greece and Turkey, and I was not disappointed!
Our first Greek port was the island of Corfu, which is the extreme northwestern corner of Greece with Albania easily visible across a narrow sea. (It's also the setting for the Mary Stewart novel This Rough Magic.)
The island has an abundance of history and has been under many rulers, including the Venetian Empire and the Ottomans. (The same is true of the rest of Greece.) Our Viking cruise had numerous excursions options, but we decided to for "See Corfu by 4x4." This meant joining a small convoy of itty bitty Suzuki four wheel drive vehicles and climbing up up a dramatic mountain.
We shared the vehicle of the group leader, which meant the Mayhem Consultant sat in front with her and contorted myself into the very small back seat. Not recommended for anyone over 5'3". <G> But the ride was fabulous! Marie kept careful count of the 8 vehicles she was leading, and after we got through the town, we began to climb and climb and climb! The road zigzagged back and forth like a crazed puppy, and Marie told us there were said to be 27 hairpin turns, not that she's ever counted. Some of the hairpins are in the picture above, and I think that is Albania across the water.
She also said that a James Bond movie, For Your Eyes Only, had been filmed mostly on Corfu, so naturally I got a DVD of the movie from Netflix when we got home. The Mayhem Consultant, who has watched a lot more Bond movies than I have, said it wasn't one of the best, but there was great scenery, lots of action, Roger Moore's stunt doubles certainly earned their pay, and there was a fabulous car chase scene that roared through some of those hairpin turns. (In fact, that part of the movie was supposed to be in Spain, but but I recognized those curves were unmistakable. <G>)
At our highest point, we stopped in a small village and had a great snack of wonderful fresh tomatoes and cucumbers, a large meatball, slices of delicious local sausage, and some very drinkable red wine made by a villager. It was a perfect sunny day with just the right temperature, and was one of the high points of our cruise.
Olympia:
The small port of Katakolon is the gateway to Olympia, the historic site of centuries of Olympic games. The site is vast, with the ruins of temples and competition sites. The games were dedicated to the god Zeus and his temple was one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world. What interested me most was that there were also Olympic games for women, held either before or after the games for men. I hadn't known that, but way cool! They were under the auspices of the Greek goddess Hera, who also had a temple on the site.
This is another gorgeous rugged island, the setting of Mary Stewart's The Moon Spinners. We chose an excursion that took us high
into the hills to the ancient monastery of Arkadi. It's still an active Greek Orthodox monastery and was the site of one of the great historical tragedies of Crete. In 1866 during the Cretan war of resistance to Ottoman rule, hundreds of refugee families took shelter in the monastery.
Overpowered by Ottoman troops, the monks blew up the powder magazine, killing most of the refugees and hundreds of Ottoman soldiers. Their martyrdom drew attention and sympathy all across Europe and North America. Though Crete didn't gain its independence until 1898. after the Arkadi massacre and martyrdom the Ottoman rulers allowed more religious freedom and self rule.
Piraeus, the post of Athens
We took an excursion to Cape Sounion, site of one of the most dramatic legends of ancient Greece, Athens has to pay a tribute of young men and women to the Minoans, so one year Theseus, son of King Aegeus, joined the group of seven brave young men and seven beautiful young women and traveled to Crete, hoping to end the horrible sacrifice. If you remember your myths and legends, Theseus ended the tribute by slaying the bull headed Minotaur in the Labyrinth. There's lots more to the story, but Aegeus has told his son to change his ship's sails from black to white if he survived the Minoans and was coming home.
Theseus was rather busy and forgot, and it's said that when Aegeus went to watch for the ship at the Temple of Poseidon on Cape Sounion, he saw the black sails, thought his son was dead, and he leaped from the cliff. The Aegean Sea was named for him. Having visited the site, I have a theory that Aegeus didn't jump, he was blown off by the wind, but the legend is much more dramatic. <G> (The columns on the left are part of the surviving Temple of Poseidon, where the god could gaze out on his sea.)
Our last stop in Greece was the island of Rhodes, very close to Turkey and one time home to the Palace of the Grand Masters, the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, heirs of the First Crusade that had conquered Jerusalem in 1099. When they were driven out of the Holy Land, they took over the island of Rhodes. Getting up the morning we docked there, I saw the ship was parked right by the Palace, and a stunning sight it is. The city of Rhodes has one of the largest active medieval historic districts in Europe. Eventually the Knights were driven out of Rhodes and set up a new headquarters on Malta.
These anecdotes don't begin to cover all the wonderful aspects of visiting these amazing places! I hope you enjoyed this armchair travel. Has anyone here visited any of these places? If not, would you like to?
Mary Jo
PS: I'm having trouble uploading pictures. I'll see if I can add more tomorrow