London – Canterbury – Brighton

 

Photo 1: Houses of Parliament
Photo 2: Tower Bridge
Photo 3: Buckingham Palace
Photo 4: Royal Pavilion at Brighton

London has given us a wet, cool welcome weather-wise, but the people we have met have been very friendly and helpful. We have used these first couple of days before our British Isles tour starts to orientate ourselves by taking a quick tour of London’s highlights. On our first night we had dinner at a pub. The fish and chips were great as was the atmosphere – a real London experience. After that we took a cruise on the Thames and took in views of sites like the Houses of Parliament by night. We have also been through St Paul’s Cathedral and made an abortive attempt to see the changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace (which was cancelled due to the rain – the band can’t have their instruments get wet).

At St Paul’s we learned the origin or the saying ‘robbing Peter to pay Paul’. At one stage the money to finish decorating the dome of St Paul’s ran out so the church raided the funds of Westminster Abbey (also known as St Peter’s of Westminster) to pay for it.

Our tour guide had lots of little bits of interesting information like that. For example, we didn’t know that Gringott’s Bank in the Harry Potter movies was Australia House. We wondered if Foreign Affairs provided the gnomes too J. She also told us about the congestion tax of 10 pounds per day (i.e. about $15) for bringing a private car into the City of London. As the traffic is still very heavy we don’t know what it would be like without the tax. Nice revenue raiser eh!

On Wednesday we started our Globus tour. Our guide is a local who is a lot of fun and very knowledgeable. He regales us with lots of entertaining stories and many interesting bits of trivia. As we were leaving London and passing Marble Arch he told us the origin of the saying “one for the road”. In times past prisoners were executed near Marble Arch after being taken for a walk from the nearby prison. On the way they were taken into a pub for a final drink to make the final walk on the road to execution a bit easier, i.e. they had one for the road. The saying “gone west” also comes from this final walk – the prisoners walked west from the prison to the execution.

The first stop was Canterbury Cathedral, famous as the site of the murder of Thomas A’Beckett.  We were expecting it to be just another cathedral, but like all the others its vast interior was awe inspiring in its dimensions and beautifully decorated in paintings and sculptures with some stained glass – not as much of the latter as in continental cathedrals due to the vandalism of Henry VIII and the puritans.

We arrived in Brighton and visited the Royal Pavilion, built for King George IV when he was Prince of Wales about 200 years ago. As we approached we wondered if we had come across a mosque. We soon learned that the pavilion was built in the Moghul style (i.e. Indian Islamic) and is a remarkable building. The interior was decorated to represent Chinese culture and is filled with paintings of Chinese scenes, red and gold decorations, massive chandeliers and dragon images many of which are made of gold. Very over the top and apparently very unpopular with the taxpayers of his time. But stunning anyway.

We will get on well with the tour guide as he is a sports “nut”, and his first words were” Who holds the Ashes for cricket???”  He is a hoot, and has a very dry sense of humour especially as this tour is about 75% Australians.  His only failing was referring to AFL as “football” – he is now sorted out on that score!! We are anxious for the Wallabies to give the visiting British Lions rugby team a hiding so we will have “bragging rights”!!  Go Wallabies and Brumbies!!

Paris - photos

Photos 1 and 6: at the Moulin Rouge. You wanted to to the action at the Moulin Rouge and you scored pictures of the Knights. Lucky you!

Photo 2: dinner at the Eiffel Tower. Magic!

Photo 3: traffic on the Champs-Elysee. This photo gives you some idea of how they treat the concept of giving way.

Photo 4: inside the Galeries Lafayette shopping centre. Very opulent ... with prices to match.

Photo 5: Seine River with Paris' mini version of Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Paris

 

Photo 1: enjoying the sights from the top deck of the bus. The temperature is about 8 degrees and the smiles are frozen onto our faces :-)
Photo 2: the Eiffel Tower in the cold evening light.

On Monday we arrived in ‘grey Paree’. Yes the weather gods have finally deserted us and we have had quite a bit of rain and about the same temperatures as home (9 degrees maximum on Thursday)! But a bit of bad weather hasn’t stopped us enjoying ourselves. Tuesday night was Sue’s Christmas present night – dinner at the Eiffel Tower, a one hour cruise on the Seine and the 11.30 pm show at the Moulin Rouge.  Dinner was first rate, as was the view. The river cruise was very relaxing and gave Sue her first sight of Notre Dame and other beautiful buildings and monuments. As for the show, it was awesome! We have seen some great shows and Moulin Rouge is up there with the very best. The dancing, singing, costumes, music, choreography and everything else were superb. Phil particularly appreciated the visual splendour of the women’s costumes … and what they almost covered J.

We are very close to a metro station so it is proving easy to get around.  We have taken train and tram rides to various places including the Louvre and the beautiful Tuileries gardens (Jardin des Tuileries) and the huge shopping Centre Galeries Lafeyette. The hop on hop off bus has once again proven to be a great way to get around and see special sights including Notre Dame, Arc de Triomphe, Place de la Concorde, Musee d’Orsay and lots more. The shopping has been great, especially on the Champs-Elysees.

The food has been marvellous, though as Phil learned the hard way it is risky to be too adventurous. On Thursday we had lunch at one of the many kerbside brasseries and Phil decided that he felt like ordering something very French. He saw ‘chitterlings sausage’ on the menu and ordered it. The waiter looked a little startled and muttered something about it being a very French dish. The lady who brought it looked apprehensive, said ‘you know what this is?’ and made some strange hand signals. Phil just nodded then looked at this strange tubular concoction that appeared to be a mixture of meats and other pale organic material. He took one bite and it tasted horrible, so he helped Sue with her pork. Later we googled chitterlings and discovered that it is pig’s intestines! Makes even escargot sound attractive!

We have seen some odd and interesting sights in the past few days. Seeing cops patrolling the beat on roller blades was a surprise, but they looked pretty cool. We also noticed that a lot of beggars have a new way of getting attention – they sit with sleeping cats in their laps or in little baskets next to them. At least they are not aggressively looking for handouts as in Spain.

While on the bus we passed a footbridge over the Seine that had what appeared to be chicken wire fencing on both sides and thousands of shiny bits of metal all over the wire. We were told that the metal bits are actually padlocks. Lovers put the padlocks there and throw the keys into the river as a way of committing themselves to each other. Such romantics these Parisians.

We thought we had been pretty clever in the wardrobe department, until we reached Paris.  It is sooo cold that we even purchased scarves to help keep us warm, as we were told (by one who must be obeyed!!) that we HAD to sit upstairs and outside on the hop on hop off bus.   Well if we come down with pneumonia we will know who to blame!!  Phil was at a bit of a loss as to how to do up this “scarf thing”, but I did it for him, and he looked tres chic, until I realised I had done it the way the girls wear them!!!  No wonder he got strange looks!!  At least he wasn’t propositioned!!  I had my hair cut this morning, as we are about halfway through our tour, and once we reach London we will join up with our UK tour.  Well I asked for a trim, but the language must have been lost on this girl, as I have been almost shorn, especially at the sides!!  Phil has a most unkind phrase to describe it, but at least it will grow back before we get home – just hoping she left enough blond to hide the grey bits growing through!!!  Sherree would have kittens if she could see me now!!

Doha

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo 1: view from Christopher's apartment. Note the imaginative modern architecture and the dusty air.

Photo 2: Phil and Christopher at the Museum of Islamic Art.

Photo 3: Dhow with very common background scene i.e. construction site.

Photo 4: Us having pretend gondola ride at Villaggio Mall.

Photo 5: inside Villaggio Mall.

Photo 6: Brunch at W Hotel with Christopher's friends from the local theatre.

Photo 7: Souk at night.

Doha is a real revelation for us. The city comprises an older, traditional part and a massive new area of skyscrapers most of which have been built in the last 15 years. The Qataris have a huge national income from oil – so much that there is no income tax and money is no object when designing and constructing buildings. As a result the modern buildings reflect a great variety of imaginative designs. The ACT Government could learn a hell of a lot about modern art and architecture from the Arabs.

Construction is underway everywhere in this town. There are huge numbers of foreign workers on the building sites, most apparently from Bangladesh, Syria and some other Asian countries. They certainly make a big contribution to the local economy.

The city is very vibrant and full of life at all hours except the afternoon when it is too hot to even think! The traffic is heavy most of the time and the most favoured approach to driving seems to be rather Darwinian – the most aggressive driver with the fastest car survives, the others get stuck in traffic purgatory or die trying to get out. Thank goodness Christopher knows how to drive to the conditions.

One unfortunate feature of the environment is the cloud of dust from the Saudi Arabian desert that constantly hangs over the city. Apparently they only get about 20 clear days a year. You can see from our photos that it tends to dull what would otherwise be stunning distance views of the city and environs.

On Thursday we visited the Museum of Islamic Art. The MIA has the most wonderful collections of Islamic religious and secular art including pottery, rugs, glassware, sculptures, paintings and much more dating back in many cases to the 7^th and 8^th centuries. There are Qur’ans dating from those centuries that are beautifully decorated in geometric and floral art (the depiction of people and animals is not permitted in the religious context but is in the secular). There is currently a display of swords some of which were owned by Moghul and Ottoman emperors which, despite their obvious purpose, are covered in beautifully crafted scripts. In one case the scabbard is encrusted with jewels!

That night we went to the Souk Waqif for dinner. The Souk is an old area comprising shops in crazily winding alleys, rather like a bazaar. It is very easy to get lost there – in fact it is hard not to get lost if you want to have a really good look around. The shops sell a huge variety of things from clothes to brassware, rugs, art works, food and so on. One thing we noticed about the shopkeepers is that they are very polite and not pushy. They will invite you into their shops but they know how to take a polite ‘no thanks’ for an answer. This is in complete contrast to the shopkeepers in the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul who practically tackled you to the floor J.

We went to a sea food restaurant and Phil had hammour, a local variety of fish. He is not a great fan of fish but really enjoyed it, thereby proving that it can be good to be a little bit adventurous on holidays. Mind you, the memory of ouzo is still a caution J.

We also visited the nearby Gold Souk. It is a sort of gold and jewellery mall in a modern building. Nothing cheap there! We think the locals might cash up to shop there by selling an oil well or two.

Friday is their Holy Day here, so shops etc don’t open till about 4.30pm, and no one goes to work.  We went to an international hotel to meet up with Christopher’s theatre friends for a “Brunch”.  It is a 4 hour eating and drinking fest.  You can have the drinker’s package or the soft drink package.  We had the soft drink package, however that does include the cocktails of the day, so we did have a couple of drinks too.  There are food stations around the room, and you just head for whatever takes your fancy.  The food is wonderful, and the sweets buffet had to be seen to be believed!!  We did make several trips, as we found out the chef cooked deep fried ice cream balls while you waited!!!  Thank goodness we have also been walking our feet off!!  Christopher’s theatre friends are a hoot (and I suppose after 12 jugs of mojhito and copious quantities of champagne they would be!!!)  We have taken some photos to share with you, and some that will have a restricted audience!!!  We came home and had an afternoon siesta before deciding that none of us needed dinner.  Christopher went for a short sleep at 5pm, and woke up the next morning around 7am!!  Short sleep???

On Saturday morning we went to the Villaggio Mall. As soon as we walked in the door we thought we had been magically transported to the Venetian Casino in Las Vegas. We were confronted with a street scene from Venice with the ‘sky’ painted blue with scattered clouds and a ‘canal’ with gondolas – as if the whole thing was created using a photo of the entry to the Venetian. As with every public building in Doha everything is done on a grand scale, opulence is the order of the day and money has obviously been no object.  Villaggio caters for a range of markets but the high end section really takes the cake. Name an expensive international brand and you’ll find it there.

That night we visited The Pearl – the main upmarket shopping district. When you see the Ferrari, Maserati and Rolls Royce dealers all together in one spot you know you won’t be able to afford anything in the place. Christopher took us to a huge amphitheatre built not long ago that has hosted some big productions.  It seats about 1500 and is built following the amphitheatre built be the Greeks of ancient times.  We had dinner at the Seafood Market which was great. The service we received was excellent. We were invited to select our seafood then discuss with the chef the numerous options for cooking it. The result was some of the best seafood we have ever had.

Being with Christopher again has been just fantastic!!  He has lost about 15kgs and is soo fit.  He is keen to tell Sue it is because he is sooo much younger than here – a whole 2 years that she ism reminded of every time we catch up!!  He has such a huge knowledge of Doha after only 2 years here.  He has just signed on for 2 more years, which will take him up to retirement, before he moves back to Australia.  We have shared many stories and much laughter while we have been here, and no doubt will all shed many tears as we say farewell.

 

Barcelona

 

Beautiful Barcelona! We left the ship by way of a tour to the 1000 year old monastery on a mountain called Montserrat (see photos 1 and 3). The monastery is magnificent and since it has been attacked, severely damaged and repaired numerous times it includes buildings and features dating from mediaeval times right through to the more modern additions after the civil war of the 1930s. The views from the mountain are magnificent, even allowing for the mist that kept drifting over us.

Our hotel was in Catalunya Square in the heart of the city. We took the hop-on-hop-off bus as a way of having a good look around without making our poor tired feet and legs suffer any more. The city is very clean and everything looks well maintained. We loved the variety of architecture which includes the apartments with pretty iron lace balconies that we have seen in other Mediterranean cities, 19^th century public buildings and modern office buildings (see photo 4). The avenues are wide and tree lined and there are many spacious public squares usually adorned with beautiful classical fountains and displays of flowers.

The most fascinating building we saw is the Sagrada Familia Cathedral (see photo 2). Construction started in 1882 and even through it was opened in 2010 construction is expected to continue until 2041! Because it is being built in stages you can see the differences in the older and newer building materials and the variety of architectural styles. It is an amazing mix of gothic and other styles including modernist and art nouveau.

Barcelona has a reputation as a haven for pickpockets and the like, so we were very careful. We found it interesting that at least two restaurants that we checked out on our first night urged customers to clip their bags to security devices they provided under the tables. But even with the need to be careful we did not feel uncomfortable – quite the opposite in fact. It is a great place to visit.

We are uploading this from Doha where we are spending a week with our very dear friend Christopher.  So we will blog again sometime in the next few days.  It is great to stay in a home, and he is just as thrilled as we are to see each other again. 

Cruise photos 3

Photo 1: Phil in front of the Colosseum (right background) and the Arch of Constantine (left)
Photo 2: Us at lunch in a taverna
Photo 3: One of a huge number of magnificent ceiling art works right throughout the Vatican Museums
Photos 4 and 5: in St Peter's Basilica.

Cruise photos 2

Photo 1: inside the Blue Mosque, Istanbul
Photo 2: Hagia Sophia, Istanbul
Photo 3: Phil and Sue at taverna, Mykonos
Photo 4: town of Mykonos with our ship (the closest one)

Cruise photos 1

Photo 1: Sue's birthday dinner at Cagney's Steakhouse on the ship, 29 April.
Photo 2: Birthday cake provided by Restaurant for free. Nice.
Photo 3: the Parthenon
Photo 4: Izmir - Sue and I in the ancient Agora.

Photo 1: Leaning Tower of Pisa
Photo 2: Baptiste - where children are baptised before being allowed into the church
Photo 3: view of Marseilles from the Basilica

Livorno - Pisa

On Thursday we docked in Livorno and took a tour to Pisa. After our exhausting day in Rome it was good to have a leisurely four hour tour spent mostly in a bus and then in a trolley bus. Buses are banned from the town area so the trolley bus was welcome as it saved us about 20 minutes walking – our feet and legs practically cried with thanks.

The leaning tower is very impressive even though we had seen photos of it hundreds of times. The white marble is beautiful. The tower was built as the bell tower for the nearby cathedral, which is big but a bit ordinary after St Peter’s. We took photos from different angles and will upload a couple once we get off the ship and get decent wifi. It was built in two stages – the base and first two levels before it started to lean (due to the sandy soil), then the last four stages a century later once the leaning had practically stopped. The last four stages were built with the pillars thicker on the side opposite the angle of the lean and you will be able to see the bowing effect in the photos.

Of course we were hounded by hawkers as usual but we were smart enough not to buy anything from them, especially as we were warned that their stuff is generally not locally made.

Toulon, Marseille and Aix En Provence

If this is Thursday this must be France J. We are just about toured out but really enjoyed our day on the Cote D’Azure. The weather gods continued to smile on our cruise as we had another perfect day of sunshine and temperature in the mid-twenties. This is certainly the time to visit the Mediterranean.

Toulon is one of the two biggest military bases in France and is quite modern having been levelled in World War Two. The port area is very pretty with marinas and yachts and the coastal mountains in the background. We drove from there to Marseille through the mountains and enjoyed beautiful scenery including farms, vineyards, forests and glimpses of the sea. Marseille is the more historic part of the port area (newish for the same reason as Toulon) and is the second largest city in France with around one million people. Marseille is actually a collection of what were originally separate villages, and this is reflected in the little village squares and fountains dotted through the city. Wonderful!

While we were sitting at an ice cream shop at the waterfront enjoying the view we saw an elderly woman begging. She approached someone from our bus and asked him for money and when he said no she made a grab for his wallet! He grabbed her wrist and squeezed it till she let go. That is the first time we have seen such an attempted theft and it was a good warning. She continued to hang around after that and accosted others on our tour (including us) so I suppose she gets full marks for persistence.

We drove up to the Notre Dame de la Gard basilica atop a hill and enjoyed sweeping views of Marseille and environs. After that we drove to the old provincial capital Aix En Provence for lunch. Another lovely town.

 

Naples

While Sue took a scenic tour of Naples I took a tour to Pompeii. No matter how much you read about a place like that it is fascinating to actually be in the well preserved remains of a Roman town from 79 AD. I was surprised to learn that the explosive eruption that buried Pompeii did not originate from Mt Vesuvius but from its adjacent neighbour Monte Suma. The eruption blew away two-thirds of the mountain and the sulphur blast is believed to have killed thousands of people in seconds. Any survivors who fled to the sea shore were killed by a massive tsunami. All I can day is bloody hell!

Many frescos and original paved and tiled floors were buried under volcanic ash and are well preserved. Sadly the frescos are now slowly fading from exposure, and there is not much they can do to protect them except ban flash photography.

We learned lots of things about life in the town, including that the population tended to eat fast food for lunch. There were about 40 shops in Pompeii that sold prepared meals mainly of lamb and chicken on bread to their customers. The city had 23 official brothels and 17 private brothels for a population of 20,000, which led our female guide to make some observations about Italian Prime Minister Berlusconni and suggest that Italian men haven’t changed much in 2000 years. We visited one and saw some frescos that were … interesting (yes, I have pictures :-). The worst aspect of this flesh trade was that all the prostitutes were slaves and the owners sold their services for less than the price of a drink. There is so much to admire about the Romans but they could be a terribly cruel people.

Sue was well and truly over history and more bloody ruins, so I took a leisurely coach run through Naples, highlighting the building styles of the city, and how 2 buses can pass in the narrow spaces that pass for roads!!  It was quite laid back after the pace of the last few days, and we knew that tomorrow (Wednesday) was going to be a long day.

Rome and the Vatican

Rome is overwhelming and the Vatican is doubly overwhelming! Everyone knows the main attractions – the Colosseum , The Sistine Chapel, St Peter’s Basilica – and it is awesome to be here and experience these places.  But the scale of history and art in this city is so massive that there is no way to do it justice here.

At the Vatican we had to take the long route through the museums to the Sistine Chapel due to the huge number of visitors. As we moved from room to room we saw so many beautiful sculptures and paintings (those by Raphael being particularly brilliant) that by the time we reached the Sistine Chapel (awesome, as expected) we realised that we had been seeing hundreds of artistic wonders most of which seemed just as impressive as Michelangelo’s stunning work.

Next we entered St Peter’s Basilica. We have seen many impressive churches and cathedrals – Phil has seen St Paul’s in London and Notre Dame in Paris – but nothing can compare with this! The vast interior of the cathedral is a multifaceted work of art made up of hundreds of paintings and beautiful stonework.

The only drawback was the walking – not just walking, but stairs!!! Holy Mother of Mary!!!  If we went up 100 stairs, then I think that would be an understatement, and what goes up has to come down again!!!  Lifts were not invented, so stairs it was.  We walked continuously from 1pm until 4.30pm.  We thought we were meeting up with the bus, but no way!!!  The bus was there to pick us up, but so were the Carabinieri, and they told the driver to move on!!  We then proceeded to play cat and mouse with the local police –every time the driver appeared to collect us, the police arrived and said no way. 30 minutes of exhaustion and more walking saw us do the quickest loading of a bus ever to be seen!!  We got back to the boat after curfew, but as we were on a tour through the boat company they guarantee not to leave port before all their tours returned.  It was a close run thing.  The only positive was that after ALL THAT WALKING we felt justified in having a gelati, and had no guilty conscience!!

Istanbul

Sue and I took separate tours, with hers focussing on shopping and mine on historical sites. Everyone was a winner!

My tour visited the Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sophia. The Blue Mosque is so named for the magnificent tiled interior in which the colour blue predominates. It is a shame that we can’t download photos at the moment because the art work is beautiful. The Hagia Sophia was built in the 6^th century and has served as a Christian church till 1453, a Mosque until the 1920s, and is now a museum. It was a great experience to be in a building that he been functioning for nearly 1500 years and see wonderful Christian and Islamic works of art side by side.

Our next stop was the Grand Bazaar. Under Ministry of Tourism rules the tour had to include an excursion to a local carpet factory, but our tour guide told us that we didn’t have to do that if we didn’t want to. Many of us did not. I teamed up with some Americans and we went in search of a local restaurant that did not look touristy. We found one in a back street that looked good and one of the locals eating there called out and recommended we try it. We did so and were not disappointed even though the guy who recommended it turned out to be the owner’s dad. The food was great! We had local lamb and beans, chicken and rice – fabulous.

We then walked to the Grand Bazaar. Four thousand shops!! Mind you, I reckon about half are jewellers and I have no idea how they all survive. The downside of shopping there is the numerous aggressive people who shove products like perfume in your face and practically demand you buy. I have become very practised at being outright rude! But for all that it was a great experience.

Now for Sue’s day: OMG!!! The Grand Bazaar was amazing. There were more people in one place than I have ever seen before.  But it is a small world when I talk to someone who used to live at Bilgola Plateau and went to Newport Primary School!!! We worked out she was there before I taught there, but you can imagine how surprised I was to see a Sydney “local”!!!  She was inviting me to spend money in her shop, and I did as she gave me some terrific prices!!  As you all know, I am never one to pass up a bargain!!

We went to a Cabaret Show on board last night, and 2 of the singers came over to us afterwards.  They both said how great it was to have people in the audience singing along and thoroughly enjoying themselves, and how much better it made them feel. One fellow, Ryan, spent about 15 minutes with us, just talking about singing and how he got into it through his Primary School teacher at the age of 10.  You can imagine we had heaps in common, and he invited us to wait till after the .Broadway Show is over tonight and he will bring the cast out to take photos with them.  That will be a bit special!!

Mykonos

Our wonderful taste of the Greek Isles! Mykonos is only 60 square km of mostly dry, rocky land and yet the whole place is beautiful. As we approached shore in a tender we wondered why the whole town of Mykonos looks dazzling white. Our guide said that under local law all buildings have to be white or they cannot be connected to services. Also, because the winter rains always carry lots of yellow dust from the Sahara that colours the houses the local council requires that all buildings be repainted by the end of April. It certainly makes the town look terrific.

There are lots of churches and family chapels scattered around the island, many with sky blue cupolas. It reminded Phil of the typical photos of Santorini with the white hotel built in steps down the hill.

We had drinks by the beach and later a tasting plate of local food in a tavern where we were also served Ouzo. Phil tried the Ouzo without water and is still trying to pop his eyeballs back in. But we knew our Greek experience would not be complete without the local baklava, which we found at a tavern on the waterfront. It was delicious of course and rounded off the most relaxing and enjoyable day of the cruise so far.  Sue also managed to find time to pick up a few “trinkets” as we walked back to the port to pick up our tender back to the boat.

Athens

After two days at sea we reached Athens. Our ship, the Norwegian Spirit, is one of the older ships in the NCL fleet but you wouldn’t know it. Everything is fresh and new looking after a recent refit. The food is great as we discovered right from the start when we celebrated Sue’s birthday on our first night aboard at Cagney’s Steakhouse, one of several fine dining restaurants on board. The staff bought in a birthday cake and sung Happy Birthday…all in all a great night.

We took a four hour tour of Athens on Wednesday morning which included city highlights and the Acropolis. Of course the Acropolis was the biggest highlight. Phil has wanted to see the Acropolis since he learned ancient Greek history in high school – too long ago to think about. The Parthenon –the temple to the Goddess Athena – is the central feature and is undergoing its ninth restoration in 200 years. It looks great in pictures but is truly magnificent to see.  Mind you, the ground is very uneven and consists largely of very smooth stones so we had to walk very carefully. We can’t afford twisted ankles with so much still to see.

While the Parthenon is the feature of the Acropolis you always hear about there are other classical structures on the site that are also fascinating, like the Erechtheion which is a small building containing ancient relics and the site of the very first olive tree which, according Greek Mythology, was planted by Athena. The south portico of the Erechtheion is supported by six pillars called the Caryatides which are sculptures of beautiful girls. Sadly, one is a plaster copy of the original which is in the British Museum and the Greek Government cannot get it back – or any of the many statues from the top of the Parthenon also taken by the British in the early 19^th century. How wrong is that!

We saw many other classical structures including the pillars of the Temple of Zeus and Hadrian’s Gate. We also saw the stadium built in 1894 for the first modern Olympics in 1896, but not the 2004 stadium which is way out of town.

The tour took four hours mainly due to the horrendous traffic. Talk about drive to survive!  How the bus drivers ever get those huge vehicles down the narrow streets and avoid collisions with the mass of cars driven by suicidal locals I’ll never know.

The entertainment and food on the boat is truly awesome.  We have been treated to wonderful evening shows, and have taken line dancing lessons (despite the fact that Phil has 2 left feet) to try to work off the over abundant food available 24/7.  We also played Bingo, and tried many of the cocktails readily available!!

Izmir

After a night crossing of the Aegean we reached Izmir, Turkey’s third largest city. Izmir is a real eye opener for us. We knew that Turkey is a modern democratic state but we did not realise the extent to which western culture has penetrated, at least in this part of Turkey. The street scapes and shopfronts look typically European for the most part, and window advertising shows familiar brands.

Our tour of Izmir was interesting not only because we visited the excavations of the Agora (i.e. market place) of ancient Smyrna which dates from the Roman era, but also because the rest of the tour seemed to bear little resemblance to the itinerary. The Agora was fascinating for Phil – his first sight of ancient Roman and Ottoman ruins. After that we were taken to a street of shops where Sue did some retail therapy (without going nuts – good one Susie!) and then to Konak Square and the beautiful Konak Mosque which is decorated in marvellous Islamic mosaic art. Unusually, Konak Mosque was actually on the itinerary! After that we returned to the bus and the guide collected our customer surveys which would have been pretty good as the tour had been interesting to that point. As time was getting on we expected to return to the ship but found ourselves being taken to a carpet factory where we were shown aspects of the making process then heavily pressured to buy carpets. Not happy Jan! No wonder the guide collected the surveys before that. We have no doubt he was getting kickbacks from these guys. The tour guide was a jerk – we ended up being shut in this room and shown Persian carpets that no-one was interested in, and fed apple tea.  The hard sell was a shocker – never just 1 person going at you, but several, and NO!!! didn’t register.  This was not part of the itinerary, and quite a few people were coming back to the boat to complain….I may even add my voice to the list of whingers as we were a real captive audience.  He was a shyster of the first degree!!! Still, for all that we had a pretty good morning. 

 

Well I have just spent 21 minutes trying to upload 1 photo (and at .72 a minute that is highway robbery, and it still wasn't downloaded!!!), so no more photos on the blog till after the cruise!!!

 

Jamie- Gary would be in his element - and a little more enthusiastic than moi!!!  Do not find new playing buddies - I will be back!!!

 

Lorraine W - Hope the carnival went well, and you were not too stressed!!!

 

Kay - hope you have a wonderful birthday!!!  Will try to email you, but connection can be dodgy. Love Poo XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 

Love to all,

 

Sue and Phil xx