Kusadasi

First and foremost, I would like to apologize to each and everyone of you. The internet on board ship was very, very, very slow - I purchased 250 minutes and that just enabled me to get the post on Santorini done. I refused to buy any more minutes, so you have had to wait and for those of you who were disappointed, I am sorry.

To make matters worse, my home computer died and that has just added time to this process. I will try to get the posts updated first and then I will try to get the pictures organizes and posted.

Today (October 3) was our first stop in Kusadasi. We will be returning here next week, so we chose to take a day off today and just sleep in (we all know how Graham likes to sleep in) and relax around the ship. Graham spent his day relaxing and sleeping while I spent my day in the spa.I won a spot prize in the casino last night which included 20% off 1 service in the spa. I choses to book a hot stone massage - pure delight. The rest of my day was spent relaxing and reading.

Santorini

Santorini………..one of the most beautiful places that we have ever been. This amazing island (also known as Thira) owes its dramatic landscape to one of the most dramatic volcanic eruptions in recorded history. In approximately 1600 BCE, the volcano that made up this island erupted in a catastrophic explosion known as the Minoan eruption. What was once the island of Thira sank to the bottom of the caldera and the sea rushed into the abyss to create a large bay. This bay, once the high point of the island is 1300 feet deep in some places. This sunken portion of Santorini is widely believed to be the lost civilization of Atlantis.  The caldera measures 32 sq. miles and is 300 – 400 m deep. Along the caldera are cliffs rising 1100 feet with the white clusters of the towns of Fira and Oia perched along the top.

Unfortunately, the first thing that we had to do on arrival in the port from our tender was take a cable car ride up the side of the mountain to the town of Fira at the top. Ryan – do you remember the Dominican Republic????? Cable cars are not my favourite mode of transportation – they don’t even come close. On the way up, we shared our car with a lady who was even more terrified than I was. She was actually kind of funny – there is an alternate way to get up the mountain – donkey - and that is the way that her husband was getting to the top. Apparently though, this lady was more afraid of the donkeys than she was of the cable car.

We made 2 stops on this island – the first stop was at an ancient city called Akrotiri – also called the Minoan Pompeii. Akrotiri is at the very south of the island and was apparently discovered when workmen were cutting stone for use in the Suez Canal and they started to come across this amazing, very sophisticated village which existed for centuries before that catastrophic eruption. The village consisted of 2 and 3 storey homes city squares, shops and working areas, well laid out on identifiable streets. The village was covered by ash during several different volcanic eruptions and was finally completely buried by the massive Minoan eruption and is still being excavated. One of the most amazing things about this archeological site is that a biosphere has been built completely around it.

Our second stop on Santorini was the village of Oia at the northern end of the island – the most photographed village in the world. All of those pictures of the Greek Islands that feature the blue-domed church were all taken in Oia. This village is built into the side of the mountain. Many of the homes are actually cave homes with just the terraces visible from above. Everything is painted blinding white - the terraces, the stones, the walls, the rock. The 2 pedestrian streets are very picturesque – 1 is paved with marble, the other cobblestone.

Olympia

Today we were fortunate enough to spend some time at Olympia – the site of the original Olympic Games.  The sacred grove at Olympia took shape in the 10^th and 9^th century B.C. The first monumental buildings were erected in the 7^th and 6^th century BC. It is an amazing place and it is absolutely huge.

The games were already held at this site in pre-historic times, but were reorganized in the 8^th century B.C.. From that time on, the games were held every 4 years. The athletes competing in the games had to be true-born, free Greek men.  Women were not allowed to watch the Olympic Games.

When the pagan religions were suppressed, the institution of the Olympic Games which had flourished for twelve centuries and made a brilliant contribution to the history of sports, fell into disuse.

As well as being host to the Olympic Games, this was also the site of many temples to the original Greek gods and goddesses, including Zeus, Artemis, Demeter, Cybele and Hera. Although we did not see the actual location, apparently, to this day, the Olympic torch begins its journey from this site for every modern day Olympic Games.