Live from Silver Cloud 1432 - Istanbul to Piraeus

[duct tape]

Wow. Just began the unlimited access plan so I have read this thread from day 1. I am breathless! In a very good way. As usual, you are doing an outstanding job of sharing this glorious trip with us. Many thanx! All is well on the Shadow.

[mjnvoyager]

I too have read your thread with great interest. Fabulous pictures and what attention to detail in your planning. I am full of admiration. By the way if it's the same Jackie and Derek that we know who travel several times a year with Silversea, do say hi from Jane and Roger if you run into them again. Lovely couple.

 

 

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[jpalbny]

Thanks JP! I use Tripadvisor a lot as well, however my experience with renting cars in Europe is limited to Germany-love the autobahn. I looked at your other trip reports and I admire how much you see! I was enthralled by the Cappadocia report and that is definitely a must do destination for me now, whether cruise or land travel!

 

I also like that you seem to be a kindred soul in the value department. I use public transport from airports to town and for getting around cities unless it's overly inconvenient not to, but then I prefer business class airline travel and luxury cruises!

 

I will definitely be referencing your trip reports in the future! Thanks!

 

Ah, the Autobahns... Even better than a rental car is taking European delivery of a new (fast) German car. Then you can really punch it!

 

No doubt that public transport in Europe is almost always the way to go, and it's almost always a win-win in terms of convenience and cost.

 

We have mixed adventure travel and luxury for years. My favorite experience in this regard is staying at a fancy hotel in Hawaii and then going out to hike in the rain forest. You get really funny looks when you wander back through the lobby of the Four Seasons, all covered in mud!

 

Thanks for your kind comments and hope you get to visit Cappadocia soon!

[jpalbny]

Wow. Just began the unlimited access plan so I have read this thread from day 1. I am breathless! In a very good way. As usual, you are doing an outstanding job of sharing this glorious trip with us. Many thanx! All is well on the Shadow.

 

Glad you're enjoying - love that unlimited internet. Have a great trip on the Shadow. We are looking at some of the Asia itineraries but haven't taken the plunge yet!

 

I too have read your thread with great interest. Fabulous pictures and what attention to detail in your planning. I am full of admiration. By the way if it's the same Jackie and Derek that we know who travel several times a year with Silversea, do say hi from Jane and Roger if you run into them again. Lovely couple.

 

 

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Yes, it's the same Jackie and Derrick. They were the top cruisers on our voyage with over 800 days! Wouldn't be surprised to see them again some time.

 

Thanks for following along! Attention to detail isn't too far from OCD but it's fun. :)

[duct tape]

Jackie and Derek, 2 of everybody's favorites!

[RachelG]

JP, laughing-- I have walked into the lobby of the four seasons on Maui covered in mud too. You get a lot of looks. I think you and Chris are kindred travel spirits with George and me. Hope to meet one day.

Edited November 8, 2014 by RachelG

[jpalbny]

That would be fun, Rachel. No other way to travel!

 

Thursday 10/23 – An unexpected sea day...

 

First off, who are these people and why haven't I seen them on board yet? And more importantly, it's formal night - get a jacket already!

 

 

Lazy restful sea day today, which was actually a nice break after the hustle of our Cappadocia trip. We actually took the time and had a sit-down breakfast in the main dining room – waffles with strawberries and cream, French toast with acacia honey. Both very tasty. We sailed by the Gallipoli Peninsula in the morning and could see a monument... We have visited before and the significance is looming large as the 100th anniversary of the campaign is drawing near.

 

 

You can see that it's a little rough water this morning but so far, so good. Destination lecture this morning on Kusadasi and Ephesus from Corey Sandler – OK but not much new.

 

The cooking demo at 11:15 was fun though, with Chef Grant and his assistant, none other than the head sommelier Biljana.

 

 

The smells from the food were incredible - and Grant is going to place both items on the menu over the next few days. On the left is a Beef Massaman Curry, and on the right is Honey Spiced Duck over sautéed sweet and sour cabbage. Yum!

 

 

We had a later lunch at the buffet, because we have dinner at 8 tonight. Somehow we have been seated at the CD's table for formal night! We are excited to dine with him, but hoping it doesn't drag on really late. Sometimes the formal dinners at large tables can go on for hours...

 

One more destination talk on Marmaris, Alanya, and Antalya at 2:00 and then we were pretty much free for the afternoon so we caught up on labeling our pictures from Cappadocia. The sea is getting rougher this afternoon so some movement but nothing terrible.

 

Captain's welcome party and dinner tonight which was fun. Appetizer – Burgundy snails, then the second course was mushroom veloute soup and pasta with lobster chunks, and the mains were beef wellington cooked nicely medium rare and lobster tails. Dessert was chocolate 3 ways.

 

We were seated with Ed and Marilyn from Alberta, and CD David Lawton and his wife Fiona who is visiting for the week with their daughter. Nice time, and because David has to get ready to introduce the 10PM show, dinner is not a long drawn-out production. Awesome!

 

After dinner we were too tired to go to the show so we had a dance or two in the lounge before bed. Unfortunately the quartet is kind of a dud; they are stuck on playing slow foxtrots which are quite soporific. We prefer up-tempo rhythms like cha-cha or swing. Better I guess... We have to get to bed at a reasonable hour for a big day tomorrow; ship's tour to Ephesus and the Terrace Houses with an expert archaeologist. This is the only ship's tour we're taking on this cruise, and it is using a decent bit of our OBC but hopefully it's worth it. We have visited Ephesus on a previous cruise, but not the terrace houses. Looking forward to it, and wondering who the expert archaeologist will be!

Edited November 9, 2014 by jpalbny

[brimary]

Following your superb reports with interest.Give our best wishes to David &Fiona who we have sailed with on numerous occasions and we met them when we disembarked at Southampton as David joined the Cloud.(the Chapmans from Yorkshire).Looking forward to the rest of your adventure in the Eastern Mediterranean.

[jpalbny]

brimary - will do if we see them again. Unfortunately we disembarked a week ago, and we're home working! Boo!

 

10/24 Kusadasi:

 

Up a little early and had time for breakfast in La Terraza. We docked in port a little early, and we were ready to head out on tour at 8:30. A quick ride through town, which seemed much faster than I remember from prior visits.

 

Then on to Ephesus where we met our expert archaeologist – none other than Cengiz Icten, who is/was one of the museum curators (couldn't tell whether he'd retired yet). But the big claim to fame was that he's excavated in Ephesus for over 40 years before retiring from full-time archaeology. Some expert! What a great tour.

 

We started up top where we saw the water pipes ready to assemble. Looks like something you'd buy at Ikea, right? Even though they are 2000 years old, it looks like you could just pick them up and put them together again. Neat!

 

 

Further down at the Hercules gate, Chris patiently waits for us to get to the terrace houses:

 

 

Here's a symbol of Asclepius, and Nike:

 

 

After a stop a Hadrian's Arch, we were almost ready to explore the terrace houses!

 

 

But we needed a restroom stop first...

 

 

Off we go! Will the terrace houses be worth it?

Edited November 10, 2014 by jpalbny

[jpalbny]

The Terrace Houses at Ephesus

 

It's hard to capture the essence of the Terrace Houses in photos. They were a group of dwellings marching up the hill off the main street, occupied by wealthy Roman citizens. They were large (for the time) multi-room dwellings with hot and cold running water as well as a heating system.

 

The rooms were luxurious, with marble and mosaic designs as well as lots of nice wall frescoes that reminded us of Pompeii and Herculaneum.

 

Here are a few pictures that capture a little of the essence of what we saw:

 

The restoration work is painstaking and amazingly precise... They are reassembling the marble wall panels and mosaic floors of one of the rooms here. Cengiz said something to one of the workers, who brought over a piece of marble for us to pass around.

 

 

Good thing we didn't drop it, or it would have set them back a little! All the while, Cengiz entertained us with stories of his 40 years of excavating here - it's great to hear about what was discovered here, from one of the people who had actually discovered it! It's great to hear his perspective about how things were here 2000 years ago, and what's in store for future restoration work. This tour is so much better than the last time we were here!

 

The wall frescoes remind us so much of Herculaneum - guess that makes sense:

 

 

This photo also shows how you're walking around on catwalks, enjoying the view from above the ruins. You're also protected (as are the ruins) by a roof. It's nicely done.

 

Here are a few representative shots of the numerous mosaic pieces you see here. Excuse any funny perspectives, as you have to shoot some of them upside down and rotate them...

 

 

 

 

After we exited the terrace houses, Cengiz took us off "behind the scenes" for a little extra... As I have hit the 6 picture limit, that will appear in the next post!

[jpalbny]

After leaving the terrace houses through the upper exit, Cengiz led us beyond the rope barriers, and we climbed further up above the terrace houses. Here we were off the beaten path, in the middle of a work zone:

 

 

We gathered around what looked like a circular rock lying at ground level, to hear what Cengiz had to say. First off, that was no ordinary rock - he said was the top of a column that marked the next row of terrace houses here at Ephesus, which were still unexcavated.

 

 

In our tour group there was a family with 3 teenagers. He gathered the three of them by his side at the top of the column, and told them that his generation had excavated the terrace houses we've already seen, but his work was done. It was now up to their generation to excavate the next row. And with that, the torch was passed! What new discoveries are waiting to be found here?

 

We enjoyed the overview from our vantage point - imagine the view that the former inhabitants had from here, out of the crowds, above the bustling city. No wonder this was the high-rent district!

 

 

Here is a close-up of the Commercial Agora, where St. Paul delivered his message. This did not sit well with the merchants who had been making a living selling statues of Artemis:

 

 

From our vantage point, we could see clearly all the way to St. Paul's Prison:

 

 

Of course, we had to pose for the obligatory tourist photo op...

 

 

We enjoyed the peace and quiet up here for a few minutes, taking in the view, before descending back into the crush of people at the Celsus Library.

[RachelG]

Awesome pics. And you are lucky to have Grant as your chef. A really nice guy as well as great chef.

[jpalbny]

Awesome pics. And you are lucky to have Grant as your chef. A really nice guy as well as great chef.

 

Yes - we've sailed with him before and we enjoyed cruising with him again. He's quite personable, and the food on this voyage was quite tasty. We saw him out and about the ship much more often than other chefs. In retrospect, maybe that was because his job was easier, with the ship only being half full?

[jpalbny]

We walked down the stairs to the Celsus Library, for the standard view that everyone brings home from Ephesus - the iconic façade, with tourists lined up twenty deep!

 

 

I will say that the crowds didn't feel as terrible as we remember from last time. Maybe the Quietvox systems had something to do with it? We didn't feel like we had to rush to keep up so we didn't miss anything. And we'd been there before so we just soaked in the sights without worrying what we were missing. While the group went ahead, we went up the steps into the library to see the back of the façade (trust us, you aren't missing anything)...

 

We wandered out through the lower agora and caught up with the group. The Quietvox system worked the whole time, and we'd heard the guide explaining how St. Paul preached here, which hurt the bottom line of the merchants selling statues of Artemis, and in turn led to his arrest and imprisonment.

 

 

And from there, we ran the gauntlet of shopkeepers at the exit, through the parking lot, to our bus. When the shopkeepers saw that Cengiz was leading our group, they all tried to sell us a book that he had co-authored about Ephesus. It was pricey, at 90 TL so we passed.

 

Off to the Basilica of St. John, where his gravesite is guarded by an imposing fortress further up the hill:

 

 

We had an overview of the Temple of Artemis (one pillar standing from this former wonder of the Ancient World), but this 14th Century mosque was in better shape:

 

 

We went to a local restaurant for lunch which was a great seletion of meze, followed by tasty kebabs. Cengiz stayed with us, and signed books for anyone who had bought them. What a great tour! We had a nice perspective of just how small and cozy Silver Cloud is upon our return to port:

 

 

The only annoying part of the tour was the obligatory stop at a carpet shop upon our return to Kusadasi. But they were not too pushy so we left after the demonstration, and returned to the ship. On the way, we stopped at a restored caravansary for a quick look around, but that was enough of Kusadasi for the time being!

[jpalbny]

10/24 - finishing up at Kusadasi:

 

We spend a relaxing afternoon on board the ship. We enjoyed our bottle of Dom with a snack from room service. This ship sailed early, at 6:00, because of the schedule change – we were originally supposed to leave at 11:00 PM, and have a sea day tomorrow, but the sea day already happened yesterday. No great loss with the early departure, as we've been here several times before. But we were planning to dine at Hot Rocks tonight so it might have been nicer to stay in port for that. We shall see!

 

The weather turned ugly for a while with driving rain, lightning, thunder, and I thought about canceling our dinner at Hot Rocks. The Maitre D' actually called around 6:30, while it was raining cats and dogs, to see if we wanted to cancel, so I was getting worried... I wandered up to the grill about 7:00 during a lighter portion of the storm, and saw Grant (head chef) there, who said the weather was nothing to worry about and not to cancel. True to his word, it stopped raining shortly thereafter, and we decided to try to to have a nice dinner at Hot Rocks.

 

Here is Chris enjoying some appetizers (salsa and chips)

 

 

Of course, you still have to wear the bib to guard against some of the splattering from the oil on the hot rock. Here Rodolfo gets us ready to chow down:

 

 

And we are watching our dinners cook - the smell is fantastic!

 

 

One thing you'll notice different here (or at least we did) is that they don't bring the meat out fully cooked any more. They bring it raw, covered with herbs and olive oil. You add salt and pepper at the table, and they start cooking it for you on the rock as you watch. Here is my rib eye, just starting to sear:

 

 

That's good we think, because our past experience was that they would bring the meat to you already cooking on the rock, and you had to take the meat off the rock as soon as it arrived otherwise it would be cooked too far past rare. If you like your meat well-done, though, it may take you a while to get there.

 

We had a great meal, especially since the weather cooperated. We really love this venue! It was strange to see that it was almost empty tonight but I guess the threat of storms scared too many people away. Off to bed to see what will come of our last-minute plans for Marmaris!

[2MidwestCruisers]

Thanks to both of you for the day-to-day journal of life on and off the Cloud. We board on 11/22 and it's fun to have a hint of what's been happening on board (and in your adventures, of course) just before we embark. Your photos are remarkable.

[jpalbny]

Thanks to both of you for the day-to-day journal of life on and off the Cloud. We board on 11/22 and it's fun to have a hint of what's been happening on board (and in your adventures, of course) just before we embark. Your photos are remarkable.

 

Thank you! Unfortunately, we don't have a future cruise booked so we will have to live vicariously through you. Have a great trip!

 

************

 

In my haste to get to the Ephesus tour, I didn't post this - so, out of order, here's the beginning of 10/24 in Kusadasi. It looks familiar, just less crowded!

 

 

Now, really, we can head off to Marmaris tomorrow!

[jpalbny]

Saturday 10/25 - Marmaris

 

 

So, here we were at a port that we hadn't expected to visit, and hadn't researched ahead of time. We'd spent some time Thursday reading our guidebook to get ideas, and had arranged a rental car from an agency located in the Yacht Harbor. We disembarked as soon as we were cleared, and located the rental agency without a problem. Our car was a nice Renault and we headed out.

 

Our choices today were to try something relatively close - Dalyan, about an hour away, where you can catch a boat ride across the river and then hike to Ancient Caunos to see the rock tombs that are pictured on the cover of today's Chronicles. Or we could drive about 2 hours to Fethiye, a seaside town that also had Lycian rock tombs to visit. Since the weather was looking iffy, we decided that a hike to Caunos wasn't the best idea, so we drove to Fethiye.

 

We eventually found Fethiye Castle, a rock formation that you could climb for views of the harbor and the town. The "Castle" was kind of sketchy, but the view of the harbor was pretty nice as it was. However, this unexpected rainbow made it a beautiful sight!

 

 

Boy do those clouds look dark and nasty, though! Next up were the rock tombs, for which we really didn't know the exact location - the guidebook was quite vague! Luckily, they were carved into the cliff side above town, and we could see them well enough to navigate to their general location.

 

 

 

Once we were near the tombs, we parked on the street and wandered up the hill, where you can pay an entry fee to climb up to the largest of the tombs, the Tomb of Amyntas. It looks impressive up close!

 

 

And the view from inside the tomb is nice too:

 

 

Now there were more choices to be made - do we visit the archaeological museum in town? Do we try to find some ancient ruins at Kadyanda, which our guidebook says are "off the beaten path" up a "remote" dirt road in the mountains? Or do we head back closer to the port and try to visit Dalyan and Ancient Caunos?

 

Since the weather was still looking ugly, we almost went with the museum, but we've seen a lot of archaeological museums lately and didn't really want to see another. We decided to be bold and try to find Kadyanda. We're hoping that "remote" doesn't mean that we will end up getting lost in the mountains and missing the ship...

[RachelG]

Too much suspense! We are waiting on pins and needles!

[jpalbny]

We had an idea of where Kadyanda was from our guidebook, and some vague directions, so we set out to the North and tried to find it. My GPS had a POI called Kadyanda which looked like it might be right, but it didn't match the directions in the guidebook...

 

We made it to a small village where we saw signs for Cadianda, and realized that the reason the book and the GPS aren't matching up is that everything is spelled differently here! We had been trying to find the village of Üzümlü, but in our GPS database it was called Yesilüzümlü...

 

We headed through the tiny village of narrow streets to the outskirts, then turned off on a dirt road that was signed (now they are spelling it Kadyanda; go figure!) and started climbing the mountain. There were hairpin turns, rough washboard sections, and a few areas that looked like they were in need of serious repair! This is a relatively good section of the road:

 

 

Eventually after about 5 miles of this, we pulled up to a shack with two motor scooters parked outside - and believe it or not, we had made it - we were the only visitors here!

 

 

And here the village is called Yeşil Üzümlü... It was also comforting to learn that we'd been traveling on a "stabilized forest road" for the last 8 km...

 

The scooters belonged to the two men working the admissions booth. They seemed surprised to see us, but they spoke English well enough to welcome us and show us the walking trail, and explain the route. So off we go exploring!

 

 

The path led to a number of rock tombs; here's a typical example:

 

 

The setting looks very interesting; unlike other sites, there has been no real attempt to rebuild or reconstruct any of the ruins. We also loved the contrast between the green pines and the red needles blanketing the ground. Somehow it softened the effect of the ruins - here's what's left of part of the city walls:

 

 

From another (more stable) part of the wall, you can climb on it and get a view of the valley below:

 

 

And of course, those clouds are stubbornly insisting on staying put. We had an occasional raindrop but for the most part, it's dry under the canopy of pine trees. Off to finish this trail and see more ruins! So far, we've not seen another person here. I don't think many ship's tours go here!

[jpalbny]

This is an interesting place to wander around. We were all alone the entire time, and you could feel the emptiness around you. The forest is making a concerted effort to reclaim the city. Here are a few landmarks - first, the site of a Hellenistic temple. Only the platform survives, and it's covered in rubble, presumably the remains of the actual temple:

 

 

And the Roman Bath - with a tree growing out of one of the walls:

 

 

Another structure, still maintaining a lonely vigil among the advancing trees:

 

 

The Roman Theatre is in poor shape but still recognizable:

 

 

Though even here, the trees are at work reclaiming this spot:

 

 

You can still enter and climb up the remaining seats, but not much to see compared with other more preserved ruins - my vantage point from high up on the first tier:

 

 

We climbed back down to our car and headed back down the "stabilized forest road" to civilization. Places like this make you really think - what great cities of ours will look like this in 2000 years? Well, not for us to worry about!

 

More importantly, it was past 2:00 and we hadn't had any lunch yet. The ship was about 2 hours away, so time to get a move on!

[Nigella]

Great pictures and trip report as ever ! Thanks for sharing.

 

Did you write a report for your Cape Town cruise in 2011 ? I don't see a link to it and I tried to search but couldn't find one. We're doing a similar itinerary on Seabourn in December. I probably have loads of questions if you didn't write a report, but of course I don't wish to derail this thread. Just one for now - how bad were the seas? We've heard some horror stories about the ocean down there.

[fdnycruiser]

Breathtaking pictures,and a great review. Thanks for sharing.

[badgerdee]

jp, my other half has been lobbying to do this cruise (or similar) for some time now and I have resisted. However your trip report and especially these latest photos have convinced me.

 

Loving the fact you guys got off the beaten track by hiring a car and striking out!

 

Thanks for sharing; you have inspired us (well, mostly me as the other half was sold years ago!).

[jpalbny]

Great pictures and trip report as ever ! Thanks for sharing.

 

Did you write a report for your Cape Town cruise in 2011 ? I don't see a link to it and I tried to search but couldn't find one. We're doing a similar itinerary on Seabourn in December. I probably have loads of questions if you didn't write a report, but of course I don't wish to derail this thread. Just one for now - how bad were the seas? We've heard some horror stories about the ocean down there.

 

Thanks, Nigella. I didn't write anything for that trip - though I did post a ton of pictures on Picasa, which include the pre-cruise safari, the cruise stops, and some post-cruise time in Cape Town and the surrounding area. You'll be surprised to hear that we rented a car in CPT and drove all over... :eek:

 

The link is in my signature block, or here: South Africa Pictures

 

Happy to share whatever I can remember from the cruise, ports of call, and pre/post adventures. I use gmail and my email handle is jphafnermd.

 

Breathtaking pictures,and a great review. Thanks for sharing.

 

Thanks for following! It was a great time. We had heard that there were many fascinating archaeological sites to see in Turkey, but it still amazed us when we were there.