Live from Silver Cloud 1432 - Istanbul to Piraeus

[carefreecruise]

JP thanks for taking the time to post all this great stuff....

 

Question: do the car rental companies provide no fault and comp insurance you can purchase? We had a bad experience with a out of the country rental company. Also do you print your own road maps or do you use the rental company's ones? or use a portable gps with updated country software? I had trouble using AMX card in Turkey. Did you find the same thing?

[jpalbny]

JP thanks for taking the time to post all this great stuff....

 

Question: do the car rental companies provide no fault and comp insurance you can purchase? We had a bad experience with a out of the country rental company. Also do you print your own road maps or do you use the rental company's ones? or use a portable gps with updated country software? I had trouble using AMX card in Turkey. Did you find the same thing?

 

Hi carefreecruise,

 

To answer your questions: (1) I think they offer additional insurance but I must confess that I didn't pay attention to this. (2) I use a GPS with Garmin Europe maps - bought a lifetime map update several years ago and have used it to death. It's supplemented occasionally by the maps in our guidebooks , just to make sure the directions make sense. (3) Occasionally there were problems with AMEX but not too much of an issue.

[carefreecruise]

Thanks JP.

We broke a windshield on a rental car and they charged us for 10 additional days rental and for the repairs due to the vehicle being off the rental fleet while repairs were done. We did not accept additional coverage and now I look very closely at rental contracts now.

Thanks again for all your posting.

[jpalbny]

Thanks JP.

We broke a windshield on a rental car and they charged us for 10 additional days rental and for the repairs due to the vehicle being off the rental fleet while repairs were done. We did not accept additional coverage and now I look very closely at rental contracts now.

Thanks again for all your posting.

 

That sounds unpleasant... Over the years we've rented so many cars and declined the extra insurance. One day the other shoe will drop, I'm sure. Hoping that the $ saved in the past will cover the cost at that time. Have had the occasional close scrape! :eek:

[jpalbny]

10/28 Rhodes Town:

 

After Lindos, we decided to head back in the direction of the city rather than go on an circumnavigate the island, because there were a few sites in town that we wanted to see. Old Town Rhodes was a former base of the Knights of the Order of St. John, before they moved to Malta. We'd visited a museum about this order a few months ago in London, so we were interested to visit the Old Town to learn more about them.

 

We decided to stop by Profitis Ilias along the way, which wasn't much, though the drive through the interior of the island along the way there was pretty. We encountered a few curving mountainous roads but eventually got there. There is a hotel atop the mountain.

 

 

There was nice outdoor seating on the patio, and we debated stopping for a snack, but after a brief look around we decided to keep moving. I think if we'd had more time here it would have been more fun - there are nature trails, and some nice places to relax and spend a few hours. A different sort of place compared to the coastal cliffs...but there are only so many places one can explore in a day.

 

Since we didn't have a few hours to kill, back to old town! We parked our car on the street by the rental agency and walked into the Old Town through the nearest gate. Nice place! Here you can see a typical gate in the city walls, and in the distance, the spot where the Colossus once stood...

 

 

Some impressive ruins scattered about town! In contrast to some ongoing archaeological digs (which didn't look like much), the ruins of the Church of the Virgin of the Burgh were recognizable as a former cathedral:

 

 

Because of the National Holiday, the museums in town were also free today. We started off with the archaeological museum, housed in the former Hospital of the Knights of St. John. The first shot is taken in the main hall of the former Hospital. Lots of good statuary and other exhibits in the museum, but somehow, someone is always distracted by a good Aphrodite statue...

 

 

Outside the museum, the Street of the Knights led upward towards the Palace of the Grand Masters, our next stop. This description of the Street of the Knights explains its significance in the history of Old Town:

 

"The Street of the Knights (Ippoton on maps) is one of the best preserved and most delightful medieval relics in the world. The 600m (1,968 ft.) - long, cobble - paved street was constructed over an ancient pathway that led in a straight line from the Acropolis of Rhodes to the port. In the early 16th century, it became the address for most of the inns of each nation, which housed Knights who belonged to the Order of St. John. The inns were used as eating clubs and temporary residences for visiting dignitaries, and their facades reflect the various architectural details of their respective countries."

 

http://www.rhodesguide.com/travelguide/rhodes_monuments.php?ssp=11

 

 

The town wasn't actually this deserted... Guess we got lucky with this picture.

 

With that, we are off to the palace!

[jpalbny]

10/28 Rhodes Town:

 

We headed into the Grand Masters Palace - again, free entry today! We are saving Euros hand over fist! This 14th century building was destroyed in the 1800s because of a gunpowder explosion in the Church next door (Makes perfect sense...I always store my spare gunpowder in the local church)! It was rebuilt in the 1930s by the Italians.

 

http://www.rhodes.gr/en/ipolimas/touristikosodigos/sites/mouseia/

 

The entry gate leading to the main courtyard:

 

 

The interior had excellent mosaic work all throughout:

 

 

The grand staircase was impressive as well:

 

 

Off to visit a few more sights. We haven't climbed enough stairs today, so there's a tower that we should visit...

 

On the way to the clock tower, we did pass the ruins of the Church of St. John (AKA gunpowder storage facility). The information plaques there corroborate the story. The church is being restored but you can't visit yet. Maybe next time!

[jpalbny]

10/28 - Rhodes, finishing up:

 

We headed over to the clock tower, which is privately owned, so it's the only attraction in town that wasn't free. But the admission fee includes a drink at the café next door, so we decided to visit. We were worried that this fellow wouldn't let us in, but he gave us no problems:

 

 

The views were nice, and we had it all to ourselves. Here is the Palace we've just visited:

 

 

And Silver Cloud looking beautiful, waiting at the pier:

 

 

We enjoyed a relaxing few minutes at the café with a glass of Greek white wine after the climb.

 

We headed back to the car by way of a few minor sights in town, and closed out the evening at the Ancient Acropolis, a short drive from town. The evening sky was pretty, set against the backdrop of the Pythian Temple of Apollo:

 

 

We drove back to the rental agency to drop off the car which was quick and painless. We headed back to the ship to relax before dinner, stopping for a minute to enjoy one last view from the pier before boarding:

 

 

Since we hadn't had lunch, we passed the early evening with some room service – bruschetta, Greek salad, and a tramezzino sandwich. This was accompanied by plenty of Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc. The view of Old Town from our balcony is even nicer as the evening comes to a close:

 

 

Unfortunately Hot Rocks is fully booked tonight, so it's the dining room for us... Dinner was nicer than expected, with the theme being Greek night. Appetizers were Greek Meze (feta which was incredibly creamy and beautifully salty, stuffed grape leaves which were disappointing as the filling was bland and gloppy, and a fishy mousse on a cucumber slice) and spanikopita, intermezzos were spinach salad and pasta with olive oil, garlic, and chili pepper. The entrees were mousakka and kefthedes (meatballs) which were both quite tasty. No Greek wine to go with it, though...

 

Relaxing evening after dinner – we downloaded pictures, and relaxed after four very busy days in port. Tomorrow should be relatively easy in Patmos. We plan to just go ashore for a little bit and walk to the monastery of St. John. No bigger plans - no car rentals, no driving, no long days ashore... Blissful!

Edited November 26, 2014 by jpalbny

[duct tape]

Thanx for the views of one of my favorite places. By the way, that was the hospice you were in, not the hospital. Sacred ground to hospice people!

[jpalbny]

Thanx for the views of one of my favorite places. By the way, that was the hospice you were in, not the hospital. Sacred ground to hospice people!

 

ducttape, thanks for the info. But can I ask you to elaborate more?

 

Your post inspired me to read more into this issue. I had been hung up on the modern meanings where hospital and hospice are very different terms. But an old definition of "hospice" is a facility offering shelter/lodging for the destitute, rather than the terminally ill which is the current definition.

 

I remember getting the impression that they mainly cared for the sick in this building, so my first thought was that the building was more of a hospital than a hospice. I'm also thinking that because they referred to themselves as the Knights Hospitaller. But who knows how they used these two somewhat related terms, hundreds of years ago... Words and languages evolve; both hospital and hospice come from Old French, and prior to that, from somewhat similar Latin words - both implying a hospitality / host role.

 

But in another article, I read that the original "hospital" in 11th-century Jerusalem was built to care for BOTH sick and poor pilgrims. Sounds like they functioned as both! Thanks for making me dig deeper. :)

 

Now, etymology diversion over... Off to Patmos!

[jpalbny]

Wednesday, 10/29 - Patmos:

 

 

Slept in past 7:00 this morning, and had a leisurely breakfast outside at La Terraza. We got on the 9:00 tender which was pretty much empty (only 6 passengers in all) and we were ashore, ready to hike, by 9:15. It was too early for ice cream but we liked this fellow hanging out in the back streets of Skala Town:

 

 

Up above us, the Monastery of St. John... That looks like a big climb!

 

 

Halfway up the hill, we came to the cave of the apocalypse, which was crowded with local visitors. We didn't see any other tourists. You can't take pictures in the cave itself but here's the entrance:

 

 

The local visitors are making us feel underdressed for the occasion! Here is a view of the church tower of the chapel at the site. Wish there was some blue sky to make the bells stand out better!

 

 

After a steep incline, but not too far of a distance, we arrived at the Monastery of St. John. Worth seeing, and the museum in the monastery was interesting. Again, no photos allowed inside so we have to content ourselves with this view from the entrance. On second thought, maybe it was a big distance too. We have climbed a decent amount!

 

 

Today's weather isn't the greatest, just under 70 and cloudy, but the rain is holding off for the time being... Time to head back down the mountain, and see if we can avoid getting soaked!

[jpalbny]

We left the Monastery behind,

 

 

and headed down the hill.There were a few scenic windmills along the way.

 

 

Luckily the rain held off because the cobblestone pathways were a little slippery, even when dry. It would have been ugly had they been wet!

 

***

 

We headed back to the ship on the 11:00 tender which almost didn't run - we reached the pier just at 11:00, and as we approached the boat, we overheard them calling the ship to say that there were no passengers to return to the boat. Then, they saw us and radioed back that there was a change of plans. Another couple came on just after us, so we headed back to the ship on our semi-private boat.

 

Lunch outside at La Terraza was again a ghost town, with only the other couple from our tender joining us. Since we weren't driving, we asked Yudi to bring the rest of that nice Turkish rose wine! He was happy to hear that we liked it - so happy, in fact, that he brought a second bottle...

 

Lazy, restful afternoon...spent some time in the hot tub, downloaded pictures, looked at future voyages, and perused the connoisseur's wine list. We've only done one ship's tour and bought the unlimited internet package, so we have about $300 left in OBC to spend. Thinking of a 1997 Sauternes from Chateau d'Yquem - which fits the price requirement, and it's a half-bottle, so it will be easy to pack up for home. They have Dom Perignon rose, but the price is now $430 instead of $360, so that's a little much for what you get.

 

The view from onboard at sunset is pretty too:

 

 

The Captain's farewell party is tonight... The quartet played a few songs that had a slightly upbeat tempo, so maybe they are learning - just in time for us to leave. But we have another nice dinner in Hot Rocks to look forward to! Let's eat!

 

 

Great dinner; green salad tonight, followed by a filet (with prawns) for Chris,

 

 

And another rib eye for me. Windier tonight and a touch chilly out on deck, which cooled the rock a bit faster than we expected. That's fine for us because we eat the meat pretty rare. If you want your meat more well-done, I bet it would have been a challenge tonight. Luckily, the wind was behind us, which kept the smoke and splatter of the cooking meat away!

 

One more stop tomorrow in Nafplion. Back to our usual plan; we have a car rental and lots of stops planned. If we get to all of them, I will be pretty surprised...

[duct tape]

Jp, I appreciate your intellectual curiosity. One of these days when we all get together, I will bring my thesis so we can discuss the knights some more!

[jpalbny]

Jp, I appreciate your intellectual curiosity. One of these days when we all get together, I will bring my thesis so we can discuss the knights some more!

 

Looking forward to a fun discussion! Really enjoy discovering new layers of complexity about the History we learned about in school. It seemed so simple then, but the thread is woven in such a complicated manner, with different bits belonging to different nations... It's great seeing little bits and pieces of it in our travels.

 

I will buy the first round. :)

Edited November 26, 2014 by jpalbny
typo

[jpalbny]

Thursday, 10/30 - Nafplion:

 

The first challenge here is figuring out how you spell the name of this town. Nafplio, Navplion, Nauplio... Lots of possibilities.

 

 

We had big plans today, and we were ready to go by 8:00. We headed down to get on the first tender as soon as David made the announcement, before all of the ship's tours left at 8:30. We got to the gangway and it was still blocked off. We were the only ones there so we waited a few minutes...

 

About 10 minutes later David walked down and wondered what was going on - he checked, and said they would be a few more minutes. So we figured we had time to grab my passport for the rental agency - did that, came back, still not boarding the tender... Another couple joined us in line and we finally got on about 8:20...

 

And we sat on the tender, waiting... Turns out they waited until after 8:30, so all of the ship's tour groups could load up and take the first tender. That was really annoying! Why announce that the tender service is starting at 8:00, and load us up, only to wait endlessly? We didn't get ashore until after 8:45.

 

Headed to our rental agency to see if the car was ready, and they said to come back after 9:30. So we headed out to the edge of town to climb Palamidhi Castle - which we had planned to do as our first stop. http://www.kastra.eu/castleen.php?kastro=palamidi

 

It was a 5-minute walk from the rental agency so not too far out of our way. It did look like a decent climb, however!

 

 

We attacked the stairway up with great determination, and stopped occasionally to enjoy the scenic views opening up below us. Silver Cloud looked beautiful, anchored in the bay below us, with the rolling hills in the background.

 

 

A few more scenic views from the climb up:

 

 

Finally we made it to the top after about 15 minutes of solid climbing, and took a well-deserved rest! I lost track of how far we climbed but later learned that it's almost 1000 steps up from the town to the castle. Phew!

 

 

Time to go exploring!

Edited November 27, 2014 by jpalbny

[jpalbny]

10/30, Nafplion - Palamidhi Castle, continued:

 

We soon realized there was much further to go, unfortunately! This castle is deceptively huge!

 

 

There are some more incredible views from the castle. The colors of the water and the sky are stunning.

 

 

 

 

Oh look - another tender leaving the ship. Did they have to wait as long as we did?

 

 

We managed to explore most of the ruins in a half-hour - not enough time to take in all of it, but enough for an overview. One last view of the surroundings from this great location:

 

 

The castle ruins were nice too but they couldn't compare to the view. That's the main reason to come here. It's time to head back down to pick up our car, and start driving!

Edited November 27, 2014 by jpalbny

[RachelG]

Naphlion-- one of my favorite cruise stops ever, but we didn't get to see the castle because it was Election Day when we were there, and apparently all national monuments are closed on Election Day in Greece, we need to go back as the castle looks interesting. So we did what you all did and rented a car. Great fun driving all around, but we couldn't get into any historical sites because of the closure for the election.

[jpalbny]

Naphlion-- one of my favorite cruise stops ever, but we didn't get to see the castle because it was Election Day when we were there, and apparently all national monuments are closed on Election Day in Greece, we need to go back as the castle looks interesting. So we did what you all did and rented a car. Great fun driving all around, but we couldn't get into any historical sites because of the closure for the election.

 

I would vote to repeal that law... How disappointing!

 

We have been lucky with National Holidays while visiting Greece. Twice now, we've had free admission to a number of museums and other nice sites because our visit happened to coincide with a Holiday.

[jpalbny]

10/30, Nafplion - continued:

 

The first stop on our way out of town was Tiryns, consisting of ruins on a small hill. Apparently it was famous in Homer's day but the site didn't look like much now. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiryns

 

We saw some excavation work going on but not much else. The remnants of the once-mighty walls were still impressive, and some of the rocks are impressively large, but little else remains:

 

 

The setting is nice - apparently it used to be in a coastal location but the bay silted in and now the coastline is several km away. We heard the same thing about Ephesus as well. Still a nice view of the surrounding countryside:

 

 

 

There is one impressive sight here, the masonry tunnel. It's still standing and it's hard to imagine how they stacked these huge stones like they did. The lighting is terrible, and you can't go in for a better picture.

 

 

With that, we headed out to our next site, the ruins of Ancient Mycenae. Making excellent time so far!

[jpalbny]

10/30, Nafplion - Ancient Mycenae:

 

We drove a few minutes from Tiryns and arrived at the site of Ancient Mycenae. This is Agamemnon's city, supposedly founded by Perseus (of Medusa-killing fame) several generations prior.

 

It's in a very defensible spot, on a high hill:

 

 

The main entrance is the Lion Gate, which was too backlit at this time of day for a zoomed-out picture:

 

 

From the other side, the structure is more visible - but not the lion carvings.

 

 

This is a grave circle - some view here!

 

 

The ruins were fairly nondescript, and only a few stones high in most places. The views of the surrounding countryside, though, were spectacular! I think this mountain is also called Profitis Ilias (like the one yesterday in Rhodes).

 

 

We admired the scenery in every direction. They chose some amazing building sites here.

 

 

There were a few other spots to explore - an old cistern, and some tombs. So after we'd had our fill of the scenery, we ducked down underground.

[jpalbny]

Mycenae, continued:

 

We climbed down some rickety steps into the old cistern. Once we turned the first corner it was pitch black and even though the steps looked OK, it was reminding us too much of the crazy tunnel at Alara Han a few days back. We decided not to push our luck twice, and turned back.

 

 

A little more scenery before exploring the tombs:

 

 

We headed down the hill from the ruins to the Tholos tombs - or "beehive" tombs - which is understandable if you imagine how the tombs looked when they were intact. Large circular structures, with sloping roofs that came together in the center to form a domed ceiling.

 

Here is the entrance to a typical tomb, and a view of the ceiling from inside:

 

 

This one has no roof so you can clearly see the rocks that make up the wall. The structures are quite large.

 

 

After visiting the ruins, we visited the museum which helped put things into perspective. Lots of small artifacts and items from the varying excavations that have taken place here. A few hundred meters back down the road is the "Treasury" which is really just another of the Tholos tombs. It's nothing too different from the other ones, but since it's included in the entrance ticket, we stopped there for a few minutes.

 

It looks a little more original than the reconstructed ones at the site proper, but otherwise no real difference.

 

 

So far we are on track and making good time. We have a little longer drive now, to Corinth. There's lots to see here; the canal, the ancient city ruins, and also the acropolis (Acrocorinth) which is a few km out of town. We'll see what we can get to...

Edited November 28, 2014 by jpalbny

[duct tape]

Great memories!

[jpalbny]

10/30 continued - Acrocorinth:

 

We made it to Acrocorinth which was easier than expected. Some of the driving was on a nice 4-lane superhighway which was pretty fast but the final approach was a typical rough mountain road. We made it to the parking lot and looked at the climb ahead of us...

 

 

We approached the gate in the fortress wall, only to learn that the acropolis was guarded by not just one wall, but three separate walls! We were surprised to learn that it had been taken by force on several occasions. Impressive! We were much less impressed by the amount of climbing this would take...

 

 

Onward we climbed, stopping every so often to enjoy the view - the Gulf of Cornith stretched out in front of us:

 

 

After passing through three gates, and climbing more stairs, then climbing the walls (literally, not figuratively) we came to a spot with a view of the northern end of the Corinth Canal. Hopefully, we'll get a closer view later today!

 

 

Other than parts of the walls, most of the structures are in ruins. Here's some of the ruins, but again the main attraction is the incredible view:

 

 

This Church of Agios Dimitrios is apparently still functional. In addition to this church, there are ruins of a mosque and ruins of an older basilica.

 

 

Acrocorinth is huge and in the interest of time, we only covered a small part. Just enough to get some nice views, and explore a few of the ruins. Time to head back down the mountain, and on to the ruins of Ancient Corinth itself.

[duct tape]

Great thighs and a strong back for all that climbing! Take advantage of it while you can! Love your reports.

[spinnaker2]

What an adventure! Thanks for bringing us along!

[jpalbny]

Great thighs and a strong back for all that climbing! Take advantage of it while you can! Love your reports.

 

They aren't as strong as they used to be but we are still trying to pretend otherwise. I will vouch for the fact that these muscles were quite tired by this point of the cruise! The consecutive climbing trips that we did in Alanya, Antalya, Rhodes and Patmos were catching up to us today, and that climb to Palamidhi Castle was a heck of a way to start the day! Mostly forgotten when you see the beautiful vistas unfolding beneath you...

 

What an adventure! Thanks for bringing us along!

 

Thanks - glad to share. Almost done! Just in time to start planning the next one. :)