May 12 - 14, 2024 - The Greece Trip - The Final Days of the Tour - 10, 11, and 12.

Sunday, May 12th - Day 10:

Once back on the ship we cruised to Heraklion, Crete.

Near Heraklion, on the Island of Crete, we visited the great remnants of the Minoan Palace of Knossos, pronounced Kuh-nuh-SOS, the home of King Minos and the legendary Minotaur. In Greek mythology the Minotaur is a mythical creature with the head and tail of a bull and the body of a man.  

Knossos was the principal centre of the Minoan civilization, the earliest of the Aegean civilizations. The site of Knossos stands on a knoll between the confluence of two streams and is located about 5 miles inland from Crete’s northern coast. The palace was destroyed and rebuilt three times and was finally ruined around 1350 BC. Excavations were begun at Knossos under Sir Arthur Evans in 1900 and revealed a palace and surrounding buildings that were the centre of a sophisticated Bronze Age culture that dominated the Aegean between about 1600 and 1400 BC.

This Minoan palace is a place of history, legends, and is Crete's most extensive and important archaeological site. The Minoan palace is the largest, most complex, and most fancy of all in Greece.  The area where the Knossos Palace is located was inhabited for several thousand years, starting somewhere in the 7th millennium BC. It was abandoned after its destruction in 1375 BC, which also marked the end of the Minoan civilization. Here are some pictures of the homes and market areas at this magnificent site. Peacocks freely roam the area and their ancestors have probably been around for several centuries based on a diadem (headband worn as a symbol of sovereignty). It is hard to imagine that this city was built over 9,000 years ago.

The Minoan columns were all made out of wood and painted bright colors thus they are long gone. The columns now in place are reproductions to help visualize what the buildings looked like.

The bull and Minotaur were very important in their culture. Depictions were found throughout the community. The portion of the bull horns on the left in the picture below is original. The bottom and right horn were constructed to show what this monument on the central court looked like originally.

Here is a three-dimensional depiction of a bull on the palace wall.

The administrative and ceremonial quarters of the palace were on the west side of the central court, and the throne room in this area still contains the gypsum chair in which sat the kings of Knossos. We were lucky since this area was only opened to the public a month ago!

Immediately outside the throne room there was another throne made out of wood. It has long ago rotted away but there is a reproduction. Apparently, looking at the size of the throne, the Minoans were small in stature. No one knows why the outside wooden throne existed. Maybe to accommodate more people.

This area of the palace also had long narrow basement rooms that served as storage magazines for wheat, oil, and treasure. Here are a couple of pictures of original pots they unearthed. The larger pots are about five feet tall and could hold a thousand liters. The large pots had numerous handles to help with moving them, which couldn't have been an easy task empty or full.

Workshops were located on the northeast side of the central court, while residences were situated in the southeastern section. An elaborate system of drains, conduits, and pipes provided water and sanitation for the palace.

All walking areas of the city were paved with stones and stone steps were built throughout the city.

Here are pictures of the original main staircase from the central court to the lower levels. This amazing stone work was completed well over 4,000 years ago and remains fully functional today.

This whole urban complex was connected to other Cretan towns and ports by paved roads. What a truly magnificent ruins site.

From Crete we cruised to the Island of Santorini, Greece. Here the ship dropped anchor and we reached land on tenders. The white buildings at the top of the mountain in the picture are in the town of Santorini.

Once on land we took a bus up the mountain and to the town. The road up the mountain was steep with about thirty switchbacks. Of course there were no guardrails and there was two-way traffic on this narrow road.  Here is a view of our ship as we reached the top to board our bus into town.
 

Santorini is the most visited island in Greece and the vacation spot for Greeks. It has a population of 15,000 and 3.8 million visitors per year. There is not enough water so they have a desalination plant. The entire island is electrified by generators year round. I can't imagine how many gallons of diesel fuel they go through in a year.

A view of the port side of Santorini with the dock area below.

You can see a tender heading to port.

On the bus as we approached the town we passed large areas of grape vines. Grape vines in Greece do not grow tall. Instead they are shaped like a bush. This growth pattern allows the upper leaves to shade the lower part of the plant in the extreme heat. So different than vines in other countries. 

Our local guide took us to several noteworthy places. This one is the famous blue domed church, which started the blue dome craze in Santorini. It was painted blue because the Greek flag is blue and white. Many other buildings now sport a blue dome or roof as well.

After a short tour our guide turned us loose in the square to explore the vistas, shops, and restaurants on our own. 

There is only one street from one end of the city to the other. It was full of tourists. There are a couple of lookout points between the buildings which you had to walk to for viewing and picture taking. With the large number of people around you had to take turns getting your pictures of the view. It was worth it. If ever in Santorini go to the SECOD lookout spot.  Tourists go to the first where the queue can be 30 minutes to an hour.  At the second we got right on the platform with a little help from Annie who has a New Yorker sensibility.

The lower levels on the mountain are hotels. All had many steps down to reach them. There isn't a lower secondary road. Can you imagine dragging luggage up and down? But once you are there, what a view from those verandas or hot tubs!

We continued our walk down the long street. The multitude of shops had everything you could think of to buy, not just souvenirs. We had to be back at the square to catch the bus back down the mountain at 8:00 p.m. So, after walking a considerable distance, we decided to stop for a drink and a couple of hors d'oeuvres. We just had to savor this experience. The restaurant we picked had a steep set of stairs up with no handrails but a nice terrace to sit out on with an exceptional view. 

The views from the restaurant, looking back over the city, were mesmerizing. We saw a couple of sailboats come into the harbor for the evening. I don't know how those folks got up to the city.

Our drinks and hors d'oeuvres arrived promptly and were absolutely marvelous. The Greeks are so talented at making mouthwatering dishes with bread, vegetables, herbs, and cheese. Butter is never served with bread. Instead olive oil with herbs or various spreads are provided. 

We ordered two hors d'oeuvres . One was zucchini stuffed with melted cheese and a spread to put on top. The other was a baked cup with Tzatziki sauce. We left nothing behind! We even ate the flowers!

We had been told that donkeys often carry cargo and passengers up and down the lane. From the restaurant we were fortunate to see an unloaded donkey train being led through the crowd back toward the center of town. So cool.

What a delightful, delightful evening on Santorini. The pictures do not do this town justice. I did not imagine that the city was on the side of the mountain with such fabulous views. I can certainly see why the Greeks come here to vacation. You can't get enough of the view or the good food available.

The ride in the bus back down the mountain in the dark was of interest. The road is so narrow that to make the hairpin curves, one after another, the driver has to drive straight toward the rock wall and then, at the last second, turn hard. In doing so he takes up both lanes. Other vehicles have to wait to enter the turn. As I said, their were about thirty such turns in all.

Monday, May 13th - Day 11:

Overnight the ship cruised back to Athens. We had an hour long bus ride from the dock back at our hotel. Due to people flying out at different times the next day, this was a free day in Athens. We bid our tour guide for the cruise, Korina, goodbye and thanked her for a wonderful, informative tour. She was immediately beginning another tour at that time. She said during the season she gets no days off. 

After checking in at the hotel and with the airlines, we walked around the local area.  We stopped for a leisurely frappe at a coffee house with lovely outdoor seating.  We people watched for a long time.  Then we looked for a nice restaurant to have lunch. We found a place we liked because it had shady tables set up across the street adjoining a park. A nice, relaxing place to spend our last hours in Athens. Don't ask me the name of the restaurant but here is a picture of the card.

We ordered wine and a couple of different dishes off the menu. Every item was so flavorful. The building with the blue awning was the restaurant across the street from our table.

These were the largest shrimp I believe I ever saw and they were cooked to perfection. I do love my shrimp.  Kelly ordered a spicy feta/zucchini dish with paprika and pita bread - delicious. Of course there was the requisite tzatziki.  

We really liked this restaurant. I asked the waiter for a card that I could give to the hotel desk so they could tell guests who asked for a recommendation about it.

Walking back to the hotel I took this picture of the apartment buildings in the area. All apartments have awnings to help deflect the extreme summer heat. We paid extra for a tour at this time of year before the summer heat set in. We were blessed with extremely good weather for the entire trip.

This is a picture of our hotel in Athens, "Zafolia Athens". We arrived there at the beginning of the tour and our tour ended there. It was a first-class hotel, with nice rooms, and a very helpful staff. We couldn't have asked for more.

Tuesday, May 14th - The Trip Home

We needed a cab for the trip to the airport, which was about forty-five minutes away. Annie's flight departed one hour before ours. We decided to all leave for the airport at the same time. The cars in Greece are small and cabs are no exception. There was no way the four of us and our luggage could fit in one cab. We inquired at the front desk for another option and they found us a mini-van service which could accommodate the four of us. The cost was 90 Euros paid in advance. We booked it for 7:15 a.m. the next morning. Two cabs would have cost at least 45 Euros each so this made much more sense. The van driver arrived right on time and was a delightful young man who had lots of questions about where we were from and what it was like where we lived. 

Annie had a three hour "Turkish Air" flight from Athens to Istanbul and from there thirteen hours to San Francisco. Our flight was "Air Canada" to Montreal, nine hours, and then three hours from Montreal to St. Louis. 

After dragging our luggage into the airport terminal we all hugged goodbye. Annie checked in and headed for her gate. Kelly, Alexa, and I were so early for our flight that the "Air Canada" ticket counter didn't open for another hour. We didn't want to venture far dragging three suitcases and our backpacks so we milled around the area until we found a place to sit and wait.  Once the "Air Canada" counter opened we had an easy time checking our bags and getting our boarding passes. 

We had plenty of time to proceed to our gate where we still had a long wait. Interestingly, to get to our gate we had to go to the end gate which was down a flight of stairs. I had never done that before. The plane was small and we boarded by walking outside and then up a set of those rolling stairs and into the plane.  

The flight to Montreal and to St. Louis were both fine. It was a day flight so none of us slept. We landed in St. Louis close to 10:00 p.m. Aaron picked us up in our car. We drove to Alexa's apartment where she unloaded her bags and we headed to Perryville. We hit the sack at exactly midnight. A long but fortunately uneventful day. The very best way to end a tour.

I hope you have enjoyed the blogs of this trip. While we had been looking forward to this tour, which we booked many months ago, we both felt it far exceeded our expectations. We had never taken a Globus tour before. It was a little different that previous tours with other companies but we were completely satisfied with how everything was handled. All hotel accommodations were great, the cruise ship was great, all local tours were great, all food was great, and our tour guides did an outstanding job. We had great weather the entire time as well. What more could we have asked for?