Athens & Crete

We pulled into Athens Sunday morning September 30th at dawn with a full moon.  What a beautiful site.  We had a full day taking the train into Athens from the port Pireus, trying to find our way around in the 95 degree heat and finally making it to the top of the Acropolis with way too many people and tour groups.  It was worth the effort though to see such a magnificent site that has been there for thousands of years.

We left Athens that night to sail for Crete, the largest of the Greek islands.  At breakfast that morning we decided that the 6 of us old duffers would rent motorcycles and scooters for the day and explore the island.  We ended up with a mix of vehicles.  Cindy and Mike were on a Kawasaki, Jerry was on a Honda and Bob and I and Shelley were on 4 wheelers.  The 4 wheeler was not exactly the image we wanted but we tried to pretend we were bad-ass anyway!  That's what our son-in-law calls us so hopefully we aren't tarnishing our image.  We had tons of fun and arrived back to the ship safely and on time.

Today, Tuesday Oct. 2nd we arrived in Kusadasi, Turkey.  We rented a taxi, driver and tour guide for the day and saw a lot of wonderful sights but the highlight was of course Ephesus.  It really brought the bible alive to walk where Paul walked and to sit in the great theater where he preached.  Pretty exciting.We were absolutely amazed at the size of the ruins that have been excavated and what has been uncovered is only 13% of the original city of 250,000 people.  Some of the people lived well with indoor plumbing, in floor heat and beautifully decorated homes.  We've seen a lot of ruins but Ephesus was impressive.  Tomorrow we arrive in Santorini!

Athens port at dawn

Acropolis and the Parthenon 

Crete - 4 wheeling

The old but adventurous duffers

Leaving Crete

Ephesus library

Theater where Apostle Paul preached