Santorini - More Excitement Than we Bargained For!

 March 4

Santorini (also known as Thira) is a crescent-shaped volcanic island.  It is about 16 km long and 6 km wide. 

imagecredit https://www.charismasuites.com/frequently-asked-questions-about-santorini/

Santorini was formed by a massive volcanic eruption in the 16th century BC.  The island overlooks a flooded volcanic crater.

imagecredit https://www.topoguide.gr/islands/southern_aegeo/advs_santorini/santorini_geosites_en.php

Santorini is famous for its white-washed building and bright blue domes.  The white-washed paint is made of chalk or limestone.  They only started painting this way in the early 20th century, using limestone to sanitize against cholera.  They continue to white-wash (at least once a year) because it reflects the heat of the sun and helps to keep their homes cool.  We saw a lot of white washing going on today.  The white and blue promote national colours.

The Bible does not mentioned the Apostle Paul ever visiting Santorini, but it does mention several nearby islands including Crete, our next stop.

Santorini has 15,000 - 16,000 permanent residents  In early 2025, about 13,000 of its residents left the island temporarily because of a series of earthquake swarms (a series of numerous small earthquakes with no mainshock).  The island becomes very overcrowded in the summer with tourists, so in 2025 they imposed a limit of 8000 cruise ship passengers a day. 

The cruise ship can't dock here, so you have to take a short tender ride to the island.  Once you land, you either walk up the cliff 587 steps, or take the cable car up (€10 each way).  In the afternoons, the line for the cable car back down can be 2 hours long.  Walking down the steps takes about 20 minutes, but the steps can be slippery and you have to watch out for donkeys and their presents (because some tourists ride the donkeys up and down the steps, poor things!).  You can try for a taxi, but there are only about 25 of them on the island, so good luck!

We decided to be independent today.  That meant we had to wait until all the excursion people had been tendered in.  It is required to use the island tenders (not the ship tenders), so there is no accounting for how many or how often or how fast they will run.  Our cruise director told everyone to take a patience pill this morning LOL.  THANK GOODNESS we are the only cruise ship in port today!!!!!

We finally made our way off the ship after collecting our cable car tickets at around 9 am.  The lineup for the cable car would be a lot worse if there were other cruise ships in port.  Plus the excursion people get tendered to Athinios Port and we got tendered to Thira port.

imagecredit http://www.emmanouelastudios-santorini.com/santorini-map/

Today we booked a 2 seater buggy for the day.  The whole island is full of people on scooters and buggies.  We had to take the tender to the Fira port, take the cable car up, and then meet at the location a 5 minute walk away.  We thought that was the location of the buggy, but a guy met us there and loaded us into his van for a 15 minute drive.  We were supposed to get helmets, nope.  We were supposed to get a map.  No map.  Oh, and please put 10 euros of gas in because the tank is empty.

We started by going up to the highest point of the island, Profitis Ilias Monastery.  The monastery is closed until April, but we got some pictures and off we went.

We saw a spot where we wanted to take some pictures, Anton signaled left, and then BANG!  A motorcyclist hit us right on Anton's side.  He basically landed in Anton's lap since it was an open buggy.  We helped him pick up his motorcycle, which had very little damage.  But the buggy was quite smushed in, Anton was lucky not to be hurt.  We asked many times if the motorcyclist was hurt, he said no.  We called the buggy renters, they talked to him for 15 minutes on Anton's phone (in Greek).  When we got the phone back, the buggy people told us it is a matter for insurance and has all been taken care of, you can go.

The motorcycle driver shook our hands and drove off, so we continued with our day.  We found Red Beach and stopped for some granola bars.

Then we drove all the way across the island to the town of Oia.  Hmmm, is the buggy a bit louder now?  Hard to tell.  Oia is the town with the iconic pictures, all the homes built on terraces on hills.

We drove back to Thira and decided to return the buggy at 2:30 instead of 3 pm as we had agreed.  When we got there, whoa!  There were a number of police officers waiting for us who did not seem very happy.  The motorcycle driver was also there claiming injury and showed us a scrape on his leg.  The rental people kept telling us that it was a matter for insurance.  But the police made us follow him in the buggy back to the police station.  Why did you leave the scene?  Where is your paperwork?  Here, take this breathalizer test.  What is your father's name (really????).

Eventually the buggy renter showed up and did not seem too concerned.  Apparently the motorcycle driver had changed his story and that's why we needed to go fill in a police report.  We got to the station at 2:30 pm and were getting quite stressed because the last tender was leaving at 4:30 and we had to do the cable car first.  We contacted the ship and they were in touch with us the whole time.  They said they would arrange a hotel if we missed the ship.

The police officer FINALLY gave us a copy of the police report and finished up right at 4:30.  Oh oh. The police offered to take us to the cable car, but Viking had a driver ready and waiting right there at the police station (20 euros for a 10 minute drive! the police would have been cheaper). The Viking rep walked us to the cable car where we were met by another Viking rep who took the cable car with us down to the last tender.  We were literally the last ones there, the tender left with only 6 passengers and a few crew members.  So by the time we got on board the ship, it was 5:15.  Phew!  They didn't leave without us!

So that was a bit more excitement than we had bargained for.

Rhodes

 March 3

18C.  Today was the first day we've seen another cruise ship docked.  Oops, not a cruise ship.  A $150 yacht.  This is the PERFECT time of year to come!

Rhodes is the 4th largest Greek Island with a population of 125,000 (many more in the summer).  It is 1404 square kms and is only 19 kms off the coast of Turkey.   So we really don't know where the ship was sailing all night.  We only docked at 7 am.

imagecredit https://www.britannica.com/place/Rhodes-Greece

We have been finding it interesting to track places where the Apostle Paul travelled, and in our last blog we mentioned that the Apostle Paul was in Ephesus from 52-55 AD.  After he left Ephesus, he stopped at a number of places briefly on his way to Jerusalem. These visits were part of the final leg of his third missionary journey.  At the time of his stop in Rhodes (sometime in 56-57 AD), the city would have been a major cultural and trading hub.  He travelled there with Luke, who wrote about it in Acts 21:1

After we had torn ourselves away from them, we put out to sea and sailed straight to Kos.  The next day we went to Rhodes and from there to Patara.

Rhodes is known as the Island of Knights because it is one of the best-preserved medieval settlements in Europe.  The Old Town features the Palace of the Grand Master and the cobbled Street of the Knights, earning a UNESCO World Heritage Site designation.

In 280 BC construction began on the legendary Colossus of Rhodes, a 33 meter (108 feet) tall bronze statue of the sun god Helios and one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.  It only stood for 56 years before an earthquake snapped it at the knees.  It lay toppled to the ground attracting many visitors until 654 AD when invading Arabs dismantled it and sold the bronze.  There is supposedly a plan in the works to rebuild the statue at $283 million.  Who knows if it will ever happen?  They're trying to raise the money with crowdfunding LOL.

This is what the medieval myth thought it looked like.

imagecredit https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/a18877/architects-want-to-rebuild-colossus-of-rhodes/

However, this stance would have required the harbour to be closed for years, plus the statue could not have held its own weight and would have collapsed.  It is much more likely that the statue followed Hellenistic designs of the time:  a fit young man standing on a single pedestal with feet together or slightly apart, and possibly shielding his eyes.

imagecredit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpcx-u4u1SE

Our included tour this morning was a Town Walk at 8:15 am.  The Old City is surrounded by a huge crescent shaped wall built by the Knights of Saint John in 1309, atop the existing Byzantine wall.  The wall originally stood 8-10 meters high with a thickness of 2 meters.  

imagecredit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fortifications_of_Rhodes#/media/File:Rhodes-sketchFortifications.jpg

We entered through the Virgin Mary's Gate.

It was a great medieval town to walk through, but people actually have homes in the Old City.  Yes, and lots of shops.  But what threw us was that vehicular traffic is allowed.  What do they do when the streets are packed with tour groups?  That starts in May.

Our tour guide talked.  And talked.  The only thing we remember is her saying that most of the stray cats on Rhodes are now neutered.  They invited some vets over for free vacation time on Rhodes, and the vets caught and fixed a bunch of the strays.  You can tell if a cat here has been fixed because it will have a notch taken out of its ear.

The Street of the Knights is a narrow byway with medieval structures rising on either side.  We thought it would be too narrow for traffic, but nope.

The street ends at the Palace of the Grand Master, originally a 7th century Byzantine citadel and claimed by the Knights Hospitaller during the 14th century.  Who are the Knights Hospitaller (Knights of Saint John)?  They were a Catholic military order founded in the 11th century to provide protection and medical care and protection for Holy Land pilgrims.  They are now a humanitarian organization.

The Palace of the Grand Master:

Our tour was a bit boring, just walking through empty rooms.  Oh yes, and a big sign stating that Mussolini was here.

Well, there were some very nice mosaics on the floors LOL.

After the tour, we had time to explore on our own.  We thought it might be fun to walk along the city ramparts.  But alas, they don't open until April!  Too bad!

imagecredit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fortifications_of_Rhodes

We found a pharmacy to pick up some medicine, then looked for a public washroom for a mirror to apply the medicine.  Never mind, they charge.  Anton decided to use a store window, but the lady saw and told him to use the mirror on her motorcycle instead.

The other cool thing to do here is to walk the moat which runs along the western and northern side of the city.  It is about 2.5 km long and is supposed to take 1-2 hours at a casual pace.  We walked it in 45 minutes.

It is a "dry moat" meaning it was never intended to be filled with water.  It is between 20-30 meters wide at various points, and about 10-15 meters deep.  It is just a walking path, not particularly maintained.

We did have fun watching the Pelasgian Rock Lizards scurrying up the walls.

After walking the whole moat, we wandered back into town.  We ran across a guy who sold us some olive oil and more halva and turkish delight.  Our suitcase is going to weigh a ton!

We met up with Kelley and Kathy Crawford again for dinner.

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Kusadasi (Ephesus) Turkiye

 March 2

Toto, we are not in Kansas anymore!  Or Greece!  We are no longer in Europe, actually.  We are in Asia for one day.

We were supposed to be tendered today, but we were docked, yeah!  Must be because we are the only cruise ship here.  That's actually been true of our whole trip so far.

Today the ship was docked in Kusadasi Turkey.  But in 2022 the country formally requested the UN that its name be changed to Türkiye.  Too many bird jokes, apparently.  The city name Kusadasi means "bird island".  The city population is around 69,000. However, the population grows to between 500,000 to 2 million during peak tourist season.  Thank goodness that is not now!  

imagecredit https://monterey.gov/your_community/community_engagement/sister_cities/kusadasi,_turkiye.php

Today we had booked 2 excursions but cancelled the 2nd one because it seems it was a repeat.  The excursion we kept was Homes of the Ancient Roman Elite in the ruins of ancient Ephesus, a half hour drive from Kusadasi.  On our drive, we saw peach trees in blossom.  The peaches will be ready in May.

 

imagecredit https://ephesiantourism.com/kusadasi-cruise-port-to-ephesus/

Ephesus was at its height during Roman occupation in the 1st and 2nd century AD.  It was the fourth largest city in the ancient Roman world.  More than 250,000 people lived here, but only Roman citizens could live in the city center.  

imagecredit https://www.ephesus.co/ephesus-map.html

imagecredit https://www.bestephesustours.com/blog/detailed-history-of-ephesus-rise-and-fall.html

We started the tour at the Magnesia Gate which is the upper gate, and we walked through the remains to the lower gate.  This is the usual path because it is slightly downhill the whole way.

imagecredit https://www.bestephesustours.com/blog/ephesus-map.html

Temple of Hadrian, 2nd century:

The remains of the homes we saw today were the homes of rich Roman merchants and prominent city leaders.  The remains have been protected by a modern roof which helps to protect the colourful mosaics and frescoes on the walls.  They began excavations in 1970 and opened it to the public in 2006.

The homes were constructed on terraces.  The homes had advanced engineering such as private indoor plumbing, bathtubs, toilets, and underfloor heating using clay pipes to carry hot air.  They were multi-story homes built around open courtyards with rows of columns to support roofs and let in natural light and ventilation.

The Library of Celsus was commissioned in 110 AD by a Roman consul as a funerary monument for his father Tiberius Julius Celsus Polemaeanus.  Celsus was a prominent Roman senator and governor of the province of Asia, and his sarcophagus is interred in a crypt beneath the main chamber.  

The library was designed to hold between 12,000 to 16,000 scrolls in niches along the walls.  It was the third largest library in the Greco-Roman world.  The library was destroyed either by fire or invasion in 262 AD but reconstructed in the 1970s by German archaeologists using the original fragments.

The Great Theater was built in the 3rd century BC and accommodated 25,000 spectators.  It is being restored and will be open for visitors probably in September.

Ephesus is another city with connections to the Apostle Paul.  He visited the city twice:  the first time briefly, and then returning for about 3 years from 52-55 AD.  He first preached in the Jewish temple for 3 months but faced opposition and moved to the lecture hall of Greek philosopher/teacher Tyrannus (the Library of Celsus was not yet built at this time).  This is where the lecture hall was.

He taught there daily (for 5 hours a day!) for 2 years, preaching to both Jews and Greeks.   At the time, many people worshipped the goddess Artemis, called Diana by the Romans. A silversmith named Demetrius had a booming business making idols.  

imagecredit https://www.thebiblejourney.org/biblejourney1/11-pauls-journey-to-ephesus-philippi-corinth16291/the-silversmiths-riot-in-ephesus/

While there, God used Paul to perform miracles such as healings.  Many people converted to Christianity and no longer worshipped Artemis.  Demetrius was losing business!  He incited a riot in the Great Theater, and eventually Paul had to leave the city.  He then travelled through Macedonia and Greece.  After Paul left, Timothy took over as leader of the Ephesian church.

Paul wrote several of the Biblical books while he was in Ephesus, such as 1 Corinthians and possibly Philippians, Philemon, and Colossians.  Later while he was imprisoned in Rome he wrote the Biblical book of Ephesians to the people here.  The first 3 chapters focus on Christian theology, and the final 3 chapters focus on how we should practice our faith:

For by grace you have been saved through faith.  And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

We only saw about 15% of the remains.  Ancient Ephesus is one of the largest and most extensively preserved Roman archaeological sites in the Mediterranean, second only to Rome.  

At the end of the tour, we were taken back into Kusadasi for a carpet making demonstration.  The seller's claim to fame is that he sold a carpet to Queen Elizabeth.  This was a surprisingly fun demonstration.  They gave us apple tea and Turkish tea.

They showed how their carpets are special because they are hand-made, double knotted with 2500 knots per square inch.  Some are silk and some are a combination of silk and cotton.

They must have rolled out hundreds of rugs for us to look at and walk on (shoes off).  The pile of rugs must have been a foot tall by the end.  

Some of the rugs changed colour depending on the direction you were walking.  And they did some cool twirling as well.

A keen eyed seller saw Frankie admire the Tree of Life small silk carpet.  Absolutely beautiful.  Only $22,000.  Okay, this one part silk we give you for only $4600.  Hard pass.  But we do know a couple who did buy a carpet!  This is the one we liked.

The tour buses are allowed in to pick up passengers for tours, but they are not allowed to drop them off by the ship.  All passengers are required to walk through the gift shops to get to the ship.

We went back onto the ship for gluten-free pizza for lunch.  A woman at our table choked and asked for help.  About 20 crew members tried to give her the Heimlich maneuver.  But because Dr Heimlich released some controversial reports, the American Red Cross has renamed it Abdominal Thrust.

After lunch we walked along the waterfront promenade for a bit.

Then we wandered around the maze of shops and slightly aggressive shop keepers.  Anton's favourite shop was the turkish delight shop because he gave us a dozen free samples of different flavours of turkish delight.  Anton was talking abut maybe getting the halva, it was 7 euros.  The guy threw it in the bag and said yes, you buy for 5 euros.  

Frankie's favourite shop was a little souvenir shop, we spent lots of time there.  We spent more money here than we have the whole trip combined so far.  Notice how we were in light sweaters and they were in heavy coats (with a vest underneath!).  It was 17C.

Tonight for a change we ate at the specialty restaurant called The Chef's Table.  They made our reservation for 8 pm but told us to go ahead and show up at 6 pm.  Apparently the system can't show more than a certain number of tables???

The meal was 5 courses, preset.  There was a different wine pairing for each course.  Anton did not partake.  Frankie did, and there was a notice in our stateroom when we got back that water would be shut off between midnight and 3 am.  Oh oh......

In the evening, we went to the theatre for a recorded orchestral concert.  Very nice.

Tonight we roll back the clocks again.