| Subject: Greece |
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Since you asked where we went in Greece, we've been there a couple of times.
1. We stayed in Athens with a group, taking the usual full day cruise and
tours.
A good tour was the place up in the mountains where the Oracle was, it's
called the 'naval of the world' but for the life of me, the name escapes me.
It's on all the regular tours, though. We missed going to Mycaenae (sp).
Then we took a plane over to the island of Samos (unfortunately no time to really see it) then a ferry to the coast of Turkey. It was just wonderful. Then we started at Ephesus, Pamukkale, and up the coast visiting Troy on the way, crossing the Dardanelles, then to Istanbul, but our stay there wasn't long enough. 2. So we went back. We took a Greek island cruise this time, visiting Rhodes, Ephesus (again) and Patmos. After seeing Ephesus where John was arrested, it was quite an experience to visit the island Patmos where he was exiled for a few months. It is beautiful. We were supposed to stop at Mykonos, but the water was too rough to put into port, and when we got to Santorini it was raining buckets. Don't take this cruise too early or too late in the season. It gets dark very early, and the weather is more unpredictable. We were on the last cruise of the season. Bad timing. 3. In Turkey on a later trip we started in Istanbul, visited the Grand Bazaar (be sure to take a map so you won't get lost in this place) the spice market, Blue Mosque, Topkopi Palace, St. Sophia's (the usual touris stops) but then went to Bursa, where we saw King Midas' tomb, Ankara, and then the high point of the trip - Cappadocia. It was just unbelievable ith the fairy chimneys and cave homes and churches. We went on to Antalya, Pamukkale, Ephesus (3rd time) saw the legendary house of Mary, Pergamum, Troy, and back to Istanbul. Back to Istanbul on Market Day, and what a sight that was. You could hardly get into the spice market because of all the people who had spread their wares out on the pavement. We had to hold hands as we snaked our way through the mobs to keep from getting forever separated. Even so, I would definitely go back to Turkey - the food is wonderful (it suited our taste better than Greek food), the people are still living in another age, but our guide was absolutely great and made the country and its history live for us. Friends of ours cruised up the coast from one of the seaside towns and entered Istanbul by way of the Dardanelles. I hope I didn't answer too much ! Rosemary |