Hello! Three days ago we docked in the port I’ve been the most excited for all along… Athens, Greece! We learned about the Ancient Greeks in 3rd grade, and since then I have always hoped I would see Athens.
We actually docked in the port of Piraeus, but Piraeus is only about twenty minutes away from Athens. The first day we went into Athens in the morning and stayed in town all day. We went to the Hephestion and the Agora Museum once we got there. We all did a little sketching and resting until we decided we were all quite hungry. We had a spectacular lunch that included meatballs, souvlaki (kebabs), some unknown meat that tasted delicious, chicken, French fries, potato salad, and chopped vegetables. Then we started the hike up to… guess where… the Acropolis! The Parthenon, the Athena Nike, and some other temple where Athena and Poseidon supposedly had their legendary fight were all incredible. Dad and I got about a million pictures each, and we were all so stunned at how amazing everything up there was.
After lunch we descended onto the Parthenon museum. The museum was really cool for many reasons, one of which was that the floor was glass, so you could see the foundations of the Ancient buildings that used to stand there. We had a small snack in the café in the museum. Mom, Dad, and Dad-Dad got coffee, while we kids had a drink called frozen chocolate. It was basically a chocolate milkshake, but for some reason it tasted so much better than any chocolate milkshake I’ve ever had. I’m not sure if it was the fact that I ate it in Athens or that they most likely used real chocolate and real sugar, but something made that milkshake amazing.
Next came shopping, then dinner. We had hunted out a place to eat in our Athens guide book, but it turned out that it closed down six months ago. We found a great little restaurant nearby, however, and enjoyed our dinner sitting near the bottom of the Acropolis. What a great way to end the day.
The next day we took an SAS trip to Delphi, which is an ancient ruined city not unlike Ephesus. It was built on the side of a hill and wasn’t excavated until very recently. We also visited the Delphi museum, which has lots of very interesting artifacts. After a relaxing lunch, we visited a really cool Orthodox church that had a beautiful courtyard and an even more beautiful interior. The ceiling was a humongous mosaic made out of real gold tiles. The pictures depicted in the mosaic were SO pretty!!!
Yesterday we felt wiped out, so we all had a sort of rest day on the ship. In the evening we took the city metro into town and had a wonderful dinner with a view of the Acropolis. Greek food is SO good! I don’t know how I’m ever going to go back into the routine of ship food for three whole days! After doing still more shopping, we had a great dessert which consisted of coffee for the adults, more frozen chocolate, and baklava. The café also had a view of the Acropolis, so we were able to see the lights turn on and see the whole Acropolis light up.
One more day in Athens, then we sail to Italy!
Kusadasi – Nathanael’s POV
Our two days that we spent in Kusadasi were filled with action-packed adventures like sleeping, field labs, old rubbl- I mean, ancient ruins- and a village in the mountains. Ready? Let’s dive right in! Literally, because the first day the girls went to the beach, encountering stray dogs and sea glass while building sand castles. I slept in, of course, but I was there in spirit. Dad was not present because he was taking his students to Ephasus, an ancient Roman city with an intact amphitheater and a recreated library facade, for a field lab. After we experienced a great lunch, we walked around the lovely touristic city, with its bustling markets and expensive rug stores, along with the Carruccios. We met dad for dinner after shopping and then returned to the ship for quality sleeping time. The second day, we went to Ephesus without dad (because he had already gone) for a half day, had lunch and went to a quaint town 40 minutes out, with a great view of a valley. We drove back and had dinner at the same place that we had lunch the first day, which was fabulous again. So, that’s my experience of Kusadasi – it was pretty fantastic. I hope you continue to have a great summer!
Perri’s post from Antalya…a bit out of order
Antalya blog by Perri
Our next port was Antalya, Turkey. The first day we went to the Roman sites of Perge and Aspendos. Aspendos is a ruin of an ancient amphitheater. I don’t know very much about the history of Aspendos (you can ask my dad about that) but we were told that lots of fights took place there. Perge was a whole bunch of ruins including ruins of bathhouses, which were really interesting. The heating system that would have been beneath the baths was still there, which was cool to see.
The second day we walked around Antalya. I loved eating all the delicious döner, and kebabs, shopping, and seeing the shore and all the little sailboats. We traveled with some new friends of ours- the Caruccios. They live in Charlottesville and Mrs. Caruccio works at UVA, but interestingly enough, we hadn’t met them before this trip. Mr. Caruccio is not embarking for a little while yet, but both of the kids, Evalina and Francesco, are on board with us, as is Mrs. Caruccio. We walked around the city and ate dinner with the Caruccios.
The third day we went to the Antalya museum, which has lots of really old artifacts (the oldest that I saw was 8000 BC!!) and lots of cool Roman statues. They also had two paintings of St. Nicholas (funnily enough he was not fat nor did he wear a red suit…. curious…) and a painting of the Angel Gabriel. In the afternoon we went to the Antalya aquarium, which was also quite cool. There was a tunnel that we went through that had sharks and other sea life swimming around us. We were also able to see a guy in a diving suit cleaning the underwater structures that were placed in the tanks. They also had lionfish, eels, lobsters, and shrimp.
The fourth day was an SAS first. It was a class day, but we were also allowed to get off the ship and go into town. In the morning 36 family members (mostly kids with a few parents and caretakers thrown in) crammed into a bus and headed for the beach. The beaches in Antalya are not sandy. They are quite rocky and sometimes painful. However, everybody enjoyed themselves immensely despite the rocks and all crammed into the tiny bus again to go back to the ship at around lunchtime. Apparently not too many students missed class, because we are going to have two more of those class/port days.
Bye for now! We are missing everyone at home (though we are not finding it hard to enjoy ourselves!).
Pics from Kusadasi, Turkey
Perri’s shot of the ship at sunset
A spectacular dinner in Kusadasi…the man in the background made amazing flat breads in a stone oven
The Temple of Artemis…the most interesting thing was this crane
Parker being, well, Parker
Inscriptions at Ephesus
another cute cat
Ephesus was amazing
sculptures from Ephesus
Dad lecturing to his students at Priene, an ancient Greek city
Sunset from our cabin
A shot of the recently excavated ancient Roman terrace housing at Ephesus.
Siringe, a town up in the mountains. It was mostly 18c and 19c houses with a mosque and a market. Really interesting.
This is a reassembled tomb facade in Ephesus. It was hard to imagine the entire city equally spectacular.
Parker’s best friend
Parker’s Crete Blog
Hello to everyone back at home and following our blog. Today, I will tell you of our travels in Crete.
On the first day, we went to the great palace ruins of Knossos, where the myth of Theseus & the Minotor was based. It was great! We even had our own tour guide, Dr. Louis Nelson, though I don’t think he was licensed.
On our second day on the lovely island of Crete, we went to the little town of Rhythmno. To get there, we rode a nice, air conditioned bus. the views were spectacular! For lunch we had our first gyros (heroes). They were really yummy, even though there was a sauce that tasted oddly of mayo, and the French fries were in the pita as well. All of us enjoyed it, except Perri, who does not like mayo.
The ride back was just as enjoyable as there, minus the bus sick duo (Perri & Me). Over all, Crete was neat!
More pics from Crete
We take a break to play in a city park with some local families…
My baby girl…
My beauty….happy anniversary!!
Perri sporting her fashion shades
sketching is contagious
our AMAZING meal in Heraclion
Nathanael and his little buddy Francesco…
Yes, those are backed goods! Have a little dragon for breakfast?
Perri’s pictures from Crete
Gorgeous….
A bakery….that white sheet is the very thin pastry that eventually becomes….BAKLAVA
A boat in the Heraklion harbour
The Harbor in Heraklion
A spectacular Bronze bull’s head from the excavations at Knossos
Mom and Dad in a less than serious moment
two pics from the Sea Olympics
Nathanael wins a ship-wide Rock-paper-scissors competition
Parker’s team wins the synchronized swimming competition
And a few shots for the architecture folks…
Why not?
The theater at Aspendos
The baths at Perge
Interior of the 14c mosque in Antalya
And, again,…why not?
Pictures from Antalya
The kids in the tunnel of the Antalya aquarium
Parker also sketching with Nathanael in the background
Perri sketching Roman fragments in the Antalya Museum….which is simply amazing.
Kristine and Louis go out for a dinner date in Antalya…this is just the soup course…..
Overlooking Antalya harbor…
The Nelsons in the Roman city of Perge
Parker with the Caruccio kids and Reid in the ruins of the Caldarium of the Roman baths at Perge
Dad-Dad chats with some locals….
Yes, a special cross-walk just for Ya-Yas….
View from the aft deck as we disembark
A beach in Antalya…by Perri
The kids in the tunnel of the Antalya aquarium
Parker also sketching with Nathanael in the background
Perri sketching Roman fragments in the Antalya Museum….which is simply amazing.
Kristine and Louis go out for a dinner date in Antalya…this is just the soup course…..
Overlooking Antalya harbor…
The Nelsons in the Roman city of Perge
Parker with the Caruccio kids and Reid in the ruins of the Caldarium of the Roman baths at Perge
Dad-Dad chats with some locals….
Yes, a special cross-walk just for Ya-Yas….
View from the aft deck as we disembark
A beach in Antalya…by Perri
Nelsons Summer voyage 2013 