Day 6: Heraklion, Crete & Santorini

As we arrived at the island of Crete, day six was a day where the group decided to do a number of different things. We had a small group get up early and go on a "Taste of Crete" excursion. The group had a chance to try the food and drink of the island as well as be entertained by the various folk dances of Crete. They loved the tour!

Another group stayed on the ship for the day and slept in, catching up on some much needed rest and relaxation.

Then our tour director Shemy took several of us into the town of Heraklion. We caught a shuttle bus to the city, and spent the morning just walking through the streets of Heraklion. The small port was nice, as well as the fortress that sat at the end of the port. Crete has many influences due to all the various empires that have controlled it. The Turkish/Islamic influence is seen in the architecture of the church that is located in the city...it was once a mosque. There are also signs of Venetian architecture throughout the city as a result of Crete being controlled by the Venetians in the 11th and 12th centuries AD.

We all agreed that this wasn't the best city to visit in Crete, but we managed to find some interesting things while there. It was a nice morning, and the weather was slightly cooler...which is always welcomed.

Next we made our way back to the ship and had lunch out by the pool while we made our way to the island of Santorini. Once we made it there, we once again had to take a tender boat to get to the island. We were lucky, there were only 3 cruise ships docked while we were there. So not too many people to have to work around while on the island. Some of us took donkeys up to the city above, some took the sky lift and others made the walk by foot. This is a gorgeous island, and we were there right as the sun started going down. Most of us walked around the city and tried to get as many photographs as possible, since we only had a few hours on the island. Most of our group ended up at the same little cafe that was hanging over the ocean. It had an amazing view of the cauldron below. Santorini is an inactive volcano. But it is very easy to see what happened to the island once the volcano blew. It was once a circular island, and now there is a huge part missing..and has left what they call a cauldron.

Dinner was amazing, if rushed. It was very peaceful and we were all smiles as we watched the sun going down. We made it back to our ship for the sunset. Everyone was very happy with Santorini. It lived up to what we had hoped for.

Day 5: Rhodes and Lindos

So day 5 we headed to the island of Rhodes. There we walked around the Medieval fortifications found there. It was quite different from all the ancient Greek ruins we had been around the previous days... The fortification there was built by the knights of St. John, they were known as the hostlers. The fortification had a double moat that never had any water, because it was above sea level. The knights of St. John had gun powder stored in the fortification and a large part of it blew up when the Turks attacked with canon.

We then headed to Lindos, and visited the ruins there, on top of this huge cliff. It was a slow climb up and down because of all the people. It was also a very hot visit because we were on top of this cliff with no shade. We managed to still love the view...and took a great group shot there!

The kids and most of the rest of the group went to a beach in Rhodes after the morning. The beach had a big platform about 100 yards off shore and many from the group took some dives off the 30 ft platform into the ocean...including Mike Patton, Marshall Crenshaw...some real daredevils!
Cyd Daniel and myself walked around Old Town after the tour and had a great time visiting the various markets, and finding various hidden alleys.

Day 4: Turkey (June 21)

So we woke up to our ship docked at the port town of Kusadasi, Turkey on this morning. Had breakfast on the deck of the ship overlooking the view pictured here (left). We were now on mainland Turkey.

Some of our group went on a tour of the Chapel of St. Mary, and then went on to Ephesus, while others went straight to Ancient Ephesus. I did the latter. Ephesus is so impressive. The most memorable part of it is the facade to the library there. Just stunning. (I used that word a lot on this trip.) It was not so hot, since we got up early and got out there before the real heat of the day set in.

We all returned to the ship, and it took off for the island of Patmos. This is the island where John wrote the book of Revelation. We all loved Patmos. It was a great little port town. Most of the group headed to the beach to lay out. Marshall and John Crenshaw, and Ethan Knoch and myself found a mo-ped rental place and for ten Euros we rented bikes and rode around the island. We took of to the top of the mountain where the monastery is located...and where you get a fantastic view of the port and water below. Amazing. We also took a run over to the other side of the island...where there were more beautiful beaches. Finally most of the group ended the night walking around after a great Greek dinner once again.

We jumped on our tender boats that took us back to the ship...and we were in for the night.

Day 3: The Cruise (June 20)

So we boarded our cruise ship without any problems. Most everyone was pleased with the size of the cabins on the cruise ship. I've never taken a cruise before, so had no way to measure if they were big or not... but everyone seemed happy with that part of the cruise. The food on the cruise ship left a bit to be desired, but we usually just grabbed breakfast there, and headed out to the islands to eat the REAL Greek food! SO GOOD! We have been eating some great stuff.

The kids (and Tim Doty...oh yea and Marshall as well) enjoyed playing out by the pool, and playing the different games that the cruise directors set up for the guests (our group pretty much dominated that stuff...Tim especially (he had to kiss more women in 1 minute than the guy running the show...it was no competition...they were basically lining up to kiss "Apollo"...our 60 something year old tour guide in Athens, was talking about Apollo and reached out and started stroking Tim's hair as she talked about the perfection of Apollo...like he needed THAT to make that ego grow! ha ha). So they had a blast out by the pool each day they had time for it.

Everyone cleaned up and got ready for our first island visit. The first island was Mykonos. We arrived just in time to sit down and have a nice dinner, take a few photographs and enjoy a gorgeous sunset. By the time we returned to the ship, it was night...and walking through the little town there at night was magical to say the least.

Everyone returned to the ship and headed to the lounge that had Kereoke... needless to say...the room went crazy when I pulled out "Dude Looks Like A Lady" by Aerosmith...the boat was rockin'! I think there will be video/photos of that to show up at some point...sheeeesh. Ha ha. But our whole group was there, and we had a blast doing the Kereoke. Tim, Hittle and I believe Steve and Mike made it to the casino on the ship. Tim and Andrea did pretty well. I was already in bed by this time. We had many more islands to visit over the following three days...not to mention...we were headed to the country (mainland) of Turkey the next morning!

Day 2: The Acropolis

Today was a very hot day...but we had a great time at the Parthenon and climbing around the Acropolis. After crawling up to the top (and it is little bit of a hike up there), we went to eat lunch and do some street shopping at Plaka. Our group ate at the Thanasse cafe in one of the "alleys" in this district. We ordered a huge plate of food..with a little bit of everything; lamb kabob, pita bread (amazing), roasted tomatoes, chicken souvlaki, onions, fries, and tzatzidki sauce (cucumber, yogurt, and garlic) which is AMAZING as well! We were entertained by two or three children playing accordions or some sort of small stringed instruments as we eat, and of course for some change. We came back to the hotel after a 50 minute tram ride back to our hotel. My feet were KILLING ME...I bet I lost 5 lbs just sweating! It was fun. We had a great meal when we returned at a place down the street from our hotel. The Pattons and Mindy Merrell had dinner at a restaurant down the street called Petrino and loved it. Not only did they love the food, they also were treated to extra "entertainment" with a Greek Wedding (dancing and all) going on. Everyone is exhausted but having a fantastic time. The kids are getting along so well and have a great time with each other...which is always nice to see...especially when you see kids that don't ordinarily hang out, playing cards, laughing and having fun.

The Crenshaw clan went out to dinner with an old friend (from Vanderbilt) of Marshall's. John Franklin said he really had a great time, getting to listen to someone from Greece talk about what is happening here. (We took a detour today around one of the protests to catch our tram ride. We never saw or heard a thing, but we did take a different route that took a little longer because of the protests.) Some of the kids were interviewed about what they thought about coming to Greece during the riots by a local television station (Savannah Patton...good job!).
I only got about 2 hours of sleep last night and I'm cross-eyed! Not sure how much I'll get to post after we get on the boat tomorrow...but will try to update as soon as I can.

Day 1: Arrival

So we made it!

We had a very easy travel schedule from Nashville to Atlanta (making it in less time than scheduled), and then from Atlanta to New York (JFK). No problems. Everyone on top of their game. Then we boarded the plane in New York...and had to sit there for about 2 1/2 hours...thunderstorms had closed down take offs. We finally made it up in the air...smooth take off and very smooth landing in Athens. The pilot took about an hour off our flight and we made it to Athens around 11:20am this morning.

About 2/3 of our crew managed to get some good sleep on the flight. Marshall and Syd were stuck in front of a set of twins about a year old...that kicked their seat, cried, kicked the seat..cried..screamed...etc. NOT a good way to spend a 9 hour flight. They were real troopers though and made it through the rest of today chugging along. After the inflight dinner I had my Ambien (sp?) and one Unisome....and was off to la la land very fast! I think I was awake for about 8 minutes and then CRASH. I didn't wake up until we had one hour left in the flight and they were serving a small breakfast...and a couple of baby cries helped wake me up (God love Syd and Marshall).

We land and meet our tour director, Shemy. Everyone grabs their luggage and we hit the ATM machines. Marshall and Mike Patton couldn't get their ATM cards to work at any of the ATMs in the airport. So they are going to try somewhere else later. Everyone else that used the ATMs there didn't have any problems.

We arrived at our hotel to check in and freshen up for about an hour. We then took a walk down to a small area that had different places to eat and grabbed some lunch at a great place called ZAXOE. We loved it. I had some sort of Greek chicken wrap. It was GREAT! Most everyone loved their food. The service was great the people were very nice. (images right & above right)

Then a short walk down to the beach. Most of the group decided to go to a pay beach (7 euro) and hang out for a couple of hours. Andrea Hittle wanted to just hang out at the public beach, so I accompanied her so she wouldn't be alone. She hung out on the beach while I walked around taking pictures (photo below). I must say, the little time I've been here, the difference between Greece and China is striking. I just can feel that Greece is certainly on the decline....empty buildings, closed businesses, etc...just a general feel of "run down" is all around. It could be just the area we are in, but I doubt it. Whereas China was busy busy busy and just felt to be growing growing growing.

Our hotel is clean...quaint is the best word. No major complaints. It has an interesting exterior (image right) to it...that has stained glass windows worked into it, that are at the end of each floor's hallway.(image left) It was nice to have some relaxing time today, before we hit the ground running tomorrow hitting tour site central!
The dinner at the hotel was rough...so we are going to try something else tomorrow night. After dinner we all took off to find some ice cream/gelato (sp?) and just took in the coolness of the night. The weather is amazing...the breeze off the water as we sit at an outdoor cafe...amazing. (The kids were in the hotel with a few of the adults, while another few of the adults hung out with some of the kids down the street taking in the vibe of the street...good stuff).

All Greek to Me

How about that title for this post? You knew I'd have to get that in somewhere...not to mention I'm sure we'll be saying it on the entire trip!? heh.

Some important words to know in Greece, but they certainly aren't EASY words to pronounce. YES looks like it should be NO...and PLEASE...really? Five syllables?

Hello	Yiasou	(Yah-SOO)
Good-bye	Yássu	(Yah-SOO)
Please	Se Parakalo	(SEH pah-rah-kah-LOW)
Thank you	Efharistó	(eff-hah-rees-TOH)
Yes	Ne	(neh)
No	Ochi	(OH-kee)

Time

So the time difference between Nashville and Athens, Greece is 8 hours. As of this writing it is 2:13am in Greece while it is 6:13pm here in Nashville. They are 8 hours ahead of us.
(click the map for current time in Athens, Greece)

Tour Director

So it was nice to get a photograph today of our tour director. She sent the photo so we would be able to spot her once we get to the airport in Athens. (And I'm glad because her name is Shemy and I couldn't figure out from her emails if Shemy was a guy or a woman...the pic helped! ha ha)

She looks fun.

She also gave a little overview of the protests in Athens right now. It was pretty much what I expected, but I had one parent send me an article about the most recent protests...so I thought it would be nice to hear it from the "horses mouth" so to speak. (Um...not that I'm calling Shemy a horse by any means...but anyway).... I'm including her response here as well as her photograph.

Hello Paul
It's true that, this period has been rough for Greece due to the economic crisis and new austerity measures. Also true is that we have had demonstrations and strikes but all of this is blown out of proportion by the media. Don't believe everything you read or see on the news. For us, demonstrations and strikes are part of the Greek way of life and we adjust our everyday lives around such events. It is important to remember that none of it is aimed at foreigners and particularly tourists visiting Greece. Please know that the Greeks realize tourism, which is vital part of the Greek economy, needs to be protected and EF, a world leading company in tourism, always has the safety and well being of their clients as its top priority , thus we only travel in places that are safe for our groups. I have to mention that EF cancelled all tours to Egypt at beginning of 2011.
I hope I managed to answer your questions.
Best regards
Shemy

Preparation

So we leave for Greece this Friday. It has been a long time coming, and yet in other ways it seems like the time flew by. I always seem to be so busy with work, and other things, that I can't really think about my trip that much until it is right upon me. This trip was no different. Even when I have meetings about the trips, or I'm putting together paper work and sending out emails...etc... All of that is just "business." I don't start getting excited about the trip and really thinking about it until I start thinking about what I need to pack. I actually PRACTICED packing this time. I'm glad I did, because it helped me know what space I have. I'm taking two bags, and I'm carrying both of them. I'm not planning to check anything. I'm including the PORTAPORTAL page I created for this trip a few months ago. It has links to places we are scheduled to visit on this trip. We will fly from Nashville to Atlanta and then Atlanta to New York then New York to Athens on Delta Airlines. Not my first choice...but it is what EF, the tour company set up. I've been in contact with our tour director, in Greece for about a month. I'm not sure if our director is a man or a woman, the name is "Shemy" and I've never been able to figure out which she/he is. ha ha . But he/she has been really helpful so far.

I am going to try and keep this blog going throughout the trip, but of course that will all depend on what sort of WiFi access I have on the trip. So this might just be a ONE entry blog! ha ha. I'll post photos here as well.

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