Two Days in Greece

Well sort of anyway!


Monday, yet another sunny and warm day, and another early morning, this time in Piraeus, the port city for Athens. As we had been to Athens last March and done all the “touristy” things then, we and the Ortofskys decided on different tours. They were off to Athens and the Acropolis, while we were off to Ancient Corinth (as in Paul’s Letter to the Corinthians - and you thought the church just made up those titles!) and the Corinth Canal.

Our tour included a sail down the canal and a visit to the ancient city of Corinth. It sounded interesting and maybe one day we will actually get to see it. You may have read about the political troubles here in Greece? Well, after they trooped us all out to the bus and got us loaded, we sat. And we sat. And we sat. Finally, the Shorex Manager himself came on the bus to tell us the local truckers unions had picked Monday to have a general strike. The backup on the highway we had to use was 15 kilometers long and growing. Since the local tour operator couldn’t promise we could get TO Corinth, never mind back, before the ship sailed, the tour had been cancelled. They did offer a couple of options, but they all included the Acropolis, so we decided to have a “sea-day-in-port”. We spent a leisurely day finally getting the laptop connected, updating the blog, having a lunch and lazing about the pool. With three big, long touring days coming up later this week in Ephesus, Cairo and Alexandria, it was kind of a nice way to spend the day. The tour Norm, Barb and Mitch were on went without a hitch and they too had a very nice day.

If it’s Tuesday, this must be Rhodes. This is one of the largest of the Greek Islands and today’s tour was a walking tour of the Old City. Our guide, Eva, may have looked like a stereotypical “Greek Mama”, but she knew her stuff. She also knew her politics and wasn’t afraid to share her views. Turns out we had just missed the trucker protest at the dock earlier that morning. They are protesting a new law passed today that opens up the trucking industry to more competition and the union doesn’t like it.

The “Old City” was established in its current form by the Knights of St John the Baptist, successors to the Knights Templar of the Crusades. The city itself is completely surrounded by 30 foot high walls with only six gates into the city. Our tour included The Knight’s Palace, The Knight’s Hospital (currently the Archeological Museum) and lots and lots of cobbled streets and stairs. LOTS of stairs!

One of the gates in the City Wall

This town is a photographer’s paradise! Every time you turn around there’s another medieval building, flower-covered alleyway, or Taverna worth taking a picture of.

One of the boat vendors in the harbour selling shells and sea sponge loofahs

Down one of the side alleyways

See what I mean?

Following our tour we set off to explore the Old Town in search of lunch and the Jewish Synagogue, the only one in Greece. Our map wasn’t the greatest, but we somehow managed to find ourselves in the square of the Jewish Quarter (quite by accident, much like in Rome), a fact confirmed by the owner of one of the many restaurants on the square.

Eros, the restaurant where we had lunch

After he helped get us oriented, the least we could do was have lunch at his restaurant. A wise decision as it turned out! After we had placed our orders, the owner suggested we sample some “authentic Greek appetizers”. We’re still not entirely sure what a couple of them were, though we did enjoy the “authentic” Greek Salad. Actually, it was an excellent lunch and, as you can see from these pictures, a good time was had by all.

Mmm, mmm, good!  Mitch and his half-litre of beer

You want me to DRINK this???
(check out our lunch)

The only trouble is, that now whenever we think of ordering anything Greek at home - Dolomedes, Tzatziki, Souvlaki and Gyros - it won’t taste anything like what we just ate!

We did eventually find the synagogue, a tiny door down a long alley, but it was closed for the day. Sound familiar? Mitch wasn’t sure why it was that we needed to find the synagogue at all, but Norm insisted that it was part of his history. To which Larry added: ‘You never know if there might be an Ortofskodopolous branch in your family tree.’ Which had everyone in paroxysms of laughter - much to the confusion of those sitting nearby. We’ll have to look the name up when we get back…

And finally, a picture of the ship behind a medieval Greek windmill

We sail from Rhodes at 6:00 this evening on our way to Kusadasi, Turkey tomorrow morning. There we have a private tour booked to the ruins of Ephesus (Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians - see a pattern developing here?) with a local tour operator Larry found through his office. But before that we first have to survive tonight’s “70’s Disco Extravaganza” in the Royal Promenade!



Next update, Thursday at Sea. See you then.