Υπέροχες Ελλάδα

This entry captures the past three days with pics at the end....  we are adjusting to life on a cruise ship, as hard as that is....  :-)  Everything has been fabulous so far and we know this won’t be our last...

July 20

Woke this morning to blue skies and a sparkling Mediterranean sea.  Had breakfast in our room, ordered via the TV room service menu, and celebrated Hana's 14th birthday. The ship anchored on schedule at 2pm in Santorini. The blueness of the water here is absolutely incredible and we frequently find Hana staring into it from our balcony.  It was amazing to sail into the caldera harbour of this ancient volcano and see the rim dotted with white houses. Tendering off the Equinox and onto the dock in the harbour was a bit of an adventure as expected, followed by a steep cable car ride, complimented by more mime by Edward, up to the town of Thera. The cable car operators were in a bit of a dither about getting Laurel and the wheelchair up to the top but we convinced them that it was not a problem.  Once at the top we poked around various lanes and allyways shopping for souvenirs.  Hana had a Santorini Salad in Greece on her birthday and note: the Greek call “Greek Salad”, “Greek Salad”, as it turns out.  Santorini Salad is essentially Greek Salad on a bed of shredded lettuce. We returned to the ship for late buffet dinner, enjoying the cool comfortable atmosphere after the heat and humidity of the day.

July 21

We awoke this morning to find ourselves docked in Pireaus, the port city of Athens. We made contact with Paul who is the brother of our friend George from Toronto (Paul and George grew up in Athens).  Paul met us at the port gate and we set off for the Acropolis area. We drove past the parliament and various government buildings and thankfully the protests and blockades present the last number of days were limited to a group of several dozen with banners and flags in front of the parliament.  While the temperature was around 34 today the breeze and lower humidity made it more bearable. 

After making our way to the Acropolis "park" we found ourselves at the final entrance point for wheelchairs to the Acropolis hilltop; essentially a construction freight elevator pinned to the side of the 2000 year old wall. This elevator was built in 2004 for when Greece hosted the Olympic Games. We've had odd ways of getting places before but this one takes the cake so far.  Perfectly safe as it was, rising up the side of a wall in a wire cage was a bit unnerving.  The site is under some measure of reconstruction as the country wishes to restore as much as possible that which was destroyed or removed since the 19th century. Paul described much of the surrounding area and significant sites that can be seen from the top.  Hard to fathom those who have walked before in this place over the centuries wearing smooth the pink and brown marble like stone on the ground.

As it was quite hot and Laurel's batteries continued to give us some grief we decided to proceed down to meet Meni, Paul and George's mother, for lunch. Meni visited George in Canada on a number of occasions while we were living in London, Ontario, and one summer regularly looked after Hana while we were working out of the house.  Meni was very pleased to have this opportunity to see us again and marvelled over how the girls have grown.  We enjoyed a nice lunch together in the cool of a restaurant.  It was nice to have more of a local meal which included Dolmathes, Mousakka, and Greek Salad (for Hana) among other things. 

At this point we decided not to risk being late for departure or get caught in some impromptu protest and returned to the ship.  Thank you to Paul for chauffeuring us around and for the opportunity to visit with Meni!

Dinner again in the formal dining room was lovely and we were able to surprise Hana with a Birthday sing-song and cake from the wait-staff.  We had not been able to do this on the previous evening due to our late return to the ship from Santorini.

While the girls watched a movie in their room after dinner, we enjoyed watching couples embarrass themselves in a “newlywed and not so newlywed” gameshow in one of the theatres.  Lots of laughs and good fun.

July 22

A leisurely day at sea.  Edward participated in a kitchen tour; the numbers are impressive.  The ship serves approximately 13,000 meals a day to the 3,200 guests and 1,300 crew. Over 700 of the crew are involved in some sort of food service capacity.  All the food on board is prepared from scratch; no commercial preparations of anything; baking and pastry from scratch, soup stock from bones....  etc. All provisions except for highly perishable goods are supplied through Rome when the ship is in the Mediterranean.  Much of the water consumed is manufactured on board through desalination or recycling. 

The journey to Istanbul today took us through the Agean Sea and along busy sea traffic lanes with other cruise ships, fishing vessels, and various freight carriers all around us heading in different directions. The kids chilled out and we have been amused by their interest, particularly Emily’s, in watching Golf on the telly! We had another nice dinner in the formal dining room followed by a stroll around the upper deck of the ship chatting with other guests and watching the amazing sunset.

We realize we are so fortunate to be enjoying the sites, sounds and tastes of the countries we are visiting.  It truly is remarkable to walk along ancient roads and consider the history behind the various places we are visiting. Sitting on our balcony this evening, watching the distant lights of the coastline pass by and the stars twinkling in the ink black sky was another one of those “ahhhh” moments.... 

Tomorrow we start our exploration of Istanbul....

Santorini

Athens

Meni and the girls 

 Entrance to the Bosphorus