Live from the Spirit: Aegean Overtures

[Fletcher]

1: SILVERSEA FOR SKINFLINTS

Now, where was I?  Oh yes, I was in Athens at the Grande Bretagne Hotel, having breakfast overlooking an old ruin that long ago lost its marbles.  A bit like me. The previous day I had disembarked the Silver Cloud having sailed from Muscat via Djibouti, Saudi Arabia and Alexandria.  You may well have read my positively Homeric bloggy thing last April and May.  Well, here I am again in Athens about to embark the Silver Spirit, bound for, well, that’s only the half of it.  And about to embark on another bloggy thing. You can’t have one without the other.

 

This time things are a bit different.  To begin with, the Spirit is a much bigger ship than the Cloud and about as big as we are prepared to go.  Unlike our Cloud trip and unlike our forthcoming voyage on the Silver Wind, both of which nearly broke our piggy bank, this little pleasure cruise on the Spirit came at a knockdown price and we knocked it down even further.  Welcome to our world of budget travel.

 

In full skinflint mode, we left home at 2am and drove down to Heathrow Airport because we were too mean to shell out for a grotty airport hotel.   To get to Athens we flew economy on Finnair/BA using a companion fare and some Avios points.  We shunned the Grande Bretagne or any fancy hotel in the centre of Athens because it’s pricey, noisy, choked with traffic, choked with tourists, defaced by graffiti and ravaged by everything else that typifies most cities these days.  I’m sure Pericles said the same thing back in the day.

 

From the airport we took the train to Piraeus, a journey lasting about an hour and costing 9 Euros each as opposed to the 90 minutes and 100 Euros it would have been by taxi.  This turned out to be a trip we would recommend to anyone as the train is almost always above ground and gives a close-up view of Athens’s backside.  It trundles right through the centre of neighbourhoods, stopping frequently, and where else would you find a station called Metamorphosis?  I guess people tend change there.   We peered into apartments, marvelled at the greenery on people’s balconies, and we saw many shops selling car tyres and alloy wheels.  We also had some glimpses of the Parthenon.

 

We are staying at a pleasant, newish hotel called Port Square for a relative pittance which gives us a penthouse suite, a terrace and a distant view of the . . . yes, you’ve guess it, that bloody Parthenon again (see photo).  They must have more than one as it pops up everywhere.  Crane your neck and you can also see the cruise port.  Open your ears and sounds positively melodic compared to the theme from Zorba the Greek.  In an hour we skinflints will venture out to see if we can scavenge some food off the pavements that the seagulls don’t fancy.  I’m kidding about that last bit, we might just fork out for a restaurant.

 

Tomorrow afternoon we board the Spirit where we have booked a Vista Suite, the cheapest category. We are treating the Spirit as we do all cruise ships, a little disrespectfully, like a hop-on-hop-off bus if you will, a conveyance to get us from Athens to Athens via a few places in between.  If you fancy reading what we get up to, hop on board!  Feel free to hop off anytime you like.

[lincslady]

Really looking forward to this.  I guess you will not be dining  at La Dame?

[Stumblefoot]

Congratulations on your 5 points.  What do they get you?  

[Host Jazzbeau]

43 minutes ago, Stumblefoot said:

Congratulations on your 5 points.  What do they get you?  

Odd.  Laura told us Hosts not to bother with the points, because they don't get you anything.  Maybe something is in the works?  [Princess just added a hidden door to the Magic Castle on Sun Princess.  Maybe Cruise Critic will have a hidden door?  Enquiring minds want to know!  Actually, I'll just have another glass of wine and forget this whole thing...]

[Balian65]

Greetings from a similar hotel in Piraeus. Did a similar trip yesterday and I can assure you the taxi was only 66 Euros and took about 45 Minutes. Found a nice taverna in a side street for dinner and paid less than for the beer and wine in the hotel bar.

 

Hope we will have the right spirit to board in a few hours. The weather perspective looks great for the next days.

[jpalbny]

We finally tried a "big" ship (Silver Spirit) 2 years ago, after many Cloud and Wind cruises, and we were surprised how much we liked it. Hope that your experience on board is as fun as ours was.

 

I didn't realize there was a train from the airport to Piraeus! Last time (probably 10 years ago) we just took the airport bus to the port. Good to know for future reference. Thanks!

[spinnaker2]

Looking forward to being inspired by this Fletcherian odyssey!!!

[Fletcher]

2: THE PERUVIAN BLUE ANORAK SOCIETY

There is a fancy Michelin-starred joint hereabouts in Piraeus, down by the yachties, which has decidedly mixed reviews so we saved ourselves a few hundred Euros and a trek through the crowded and polluted streets where people constantly blow cigarette smoke at you. Instead we had dinner at the restaurant adjoining our hotel which was busy and buzzy and served remarkably good, sensibly priced  food, washed down with a sturdy red from the Macedonian region. My main dish was described as ‘Black Angus’ but I would have put money on the pale-coloured meat being veal.  The waiter insisted it was beef so I wonder if it’s all to do with the grazing the cows get in parched Greece as opposed to the lush grazing they get in the UK.

 

We had a morning to kill in Piraeus.  Like most port cities, it’s a bit scruffy  and almost everyone seemed to be killing time and defending their kids and suitcases from marauders. We strolled around the ferry port and looked across to the cruise ships.  There were a great many here today, including one of those tres elegante Ponant ships, the Seven Seas Voyager and of course our own Spirit (see my photo).  We were glad to get on board at midday and have a buffet lunch on the back deck.  We were even gladder to discover that we had been upgraded from our GTY Vista Suite to a Deluxe Veranda Suite, amidships on Deck 8.  This is only our fourth Silversea cruise, with another one already booked, so if they want to encourage loyalty they are going the right way about it.

 

We like the look of Deck 8 as it’s only a quick stroll to the back of the ship for an early morning coffee on the outside deck, a location we are always drawn to on any ship.  It’s quite a handsome vessel, the Spirit, and you wouldn’t know that Silversea cut it in half and added a section to make it longer, bigger and more profitable.  As it hasn’t yet split in two I guess the joins are fairly secure, like the titanium plate my wife has in her wrist, thanks to a floating jetty in Fiji.   It seems to vibrate a bit, not as bad as the Seven Seas Vibrator (sorry Seven Seas Navigator)  but we’ll monitor that for you.

 

I now want to be frank.  No, not Sinatra, just open and honest.  This cruise was originally going to Israel and we had booked up the two-day, overnight excursion to Jerusalem and Masada, the latter being the scene of the Jewish War which was written up most eloquently by the historian Josephus.  I had a well-thumbed copy ready to go. Going to Jerusalem and Masada was the main reason - maybe the only reason - we booked this cruise.  And now, for the saddest and most tragic reasons imaginable, we are not going to Israel. Silversea has tacked on three more Greek Islands - Patmos, Mykonos, Syros - and I must commend them for the speed in which they handled this situation.  Getting a 600 passenger ship into little ports at short notice, with all the logistics required for shore excursions and so on, must have been quite quite a challenge.  I must say we are slightly queasy about going anywhere near the Eastern Med at this time and we did think about asking if we could transfer our booking to another cruise because we would never have booked it as it now stands.  But we thought let’s not mess around.  Let’s just go and enjoy the ship and the scenery.  So here we are, ready to cast off.

 

Which we did at 7pm.  We have long given up on Silversea for dinners.  We have great breakfasts and lunches and use dinners simply to quaff cheap table wine and people watch.  Tonight we were in La Terrazza and had a mud bath.  They called it Osso Bucco. We called it mud bath.  People watching was far more rewarding.  One woman wore a black leather mini-skirt and sparkly anklets and her man wore shorts and flip-flops.  Jeans were commonplace.  One man was wearing a suit and tie.   And then there was a group of maybe sixteen people, all wearing blue anoraks.  We enquired and discovered they were all from Peru and they didn’t speak English and they wore these anoraks so that they could recognise each other at a distance.  Isn’t that cute?  That’s what we like about Silversea.  Does Seabourn offer a dress code: blue anorak night?  Of course not.    

 

[Balian65]

I suppose there was always a Plan B to substitute the israelian ports. Not for the reasons we have encountered now but for the general risk. 

Recognized the blue anoraks as well but at least some of the party do speak English as good as we do. There is also a big group from the Philippines. I was surprised at the demographics of the passengers. Usually we (end fifties) are amongst the youngest on. silver

[Balian65]

Silversea cruise, but this time it is different,

 

Hasd a great evening in Silver Note and Panorama Lounge and looking forward to the rest of the cruise.

[MHF]

I saw on YouTube that the Spirit broke down and had to be towed back to Pireaus???

[Balian65]

That is definitely fake news. We are docked at Kusadasi

[jpalbny]

4 hours ago, MHF said:

I saw on YouTube that the Spirit broke down and had to be towed back to Pireaus???

 

From the article that I read, there was a problem with an engine which occurred on the last night of the previous cruise. Two tugs were dispatched to assist the ship to Piraeus. The issue must be fixed, as this cruise seems to be progressing normally.

 

Here is an article:

 

https://crew-center.com/silver-spirit-safely-towed-piraeus-after-engine-problems?fbclid=IwAR3kr8W6OvHFQFipUMGp3HEyEA0tHDdZfrgnmFMK2gk_ZRTyl8EsikkVIX8

 

and another:

 

https://www.ekathimerini.com/news/1222822/cruise-ship-towed-to-piraeus-port-after-mechanical-issue/

 

Glad that all is well and we can continue to enjoy updates from on board!

Edited October 19, 2023 by jpalbny

[MHF]

I'm so glad you all can continue on your Greek Isles tours!  Thanks JP for finding the links as I did a search and couldn't find one.  It was a cruise blogger on YouTube who didn't indicate it was towed into port, he said towed back to port.  My bad for assuming.

[lincslady]

Cruisemapper suggests she is still in Kusadasi - so maybe the musical evening in Ephesus?  Hope so, it is slightly kitschy magic.  I have enjoyed it  a few times.

[Fletcher]

3: AT THE RACES

We were in Kusadasi today, one of the premier resorts on the Turkish coast.  We first went here in 1974 - yes, we are that young - when Turkiye’s tourist industry was in its infancy and when Turkiye was spelt Turkey.  We were on a coach tour organised by a firm called Wallace Arnold.  Remember them?  The tour began in Istanbul and headed south through Troy, Pergamon,  Ephesus, Pammukale and on to the south coast near Antalya.  The roads were dreadful, designed mainly for horse and carts, though big trucks thundered through, headed for Iran.  On board our battle bus was an interesting group of intrepid souls, from teenagers to an elderly priest.  Kusadasi was a sleepy little fishing village with two or three hotels.  I doubt if there were more than fifty people wandering around the ruins of Ephesus.  The library in those days was a heap of rubble.

 

We went back in 1990 as independent travellers.  Kusadasi then was a sleepy little fishing village with four or five hotels.  We stayed at a rather sophisticated little place called the Kismet which was apparently demolished only last week.  I doubt if there were more than 200 people wandering around the ruins of Ephesus.   The library had been bolted back together again to make it as good as old, as authentic as a movie set.  That year we also took a taxi out to Turkey’s grandest ancient ruins, the Graeco-Roman city of Aphrodisias, which was awash with red poppies, a blissful sight.

 

Today Kusadasi is a bustling city with scores of hotels and a busy cruise terminal.  There were four ships in port today, including the Spirit, with a potential 6500 passengers all headed for Ephesus.   We were  not. We booked a private car which turned out to be a van for 20 people, just for the two of us.  Our destination was a Roman site called Magnesia am Meander, about 20 miles south of Kusadasi and way off the tourist trail, so we had the place entirely to ourselves.  A vast amount of archaeological work still needs to be done here, and it probably  never will be, so it’s not going to appeal to your average jolly Ephesian cruiser. There are hints of monuments, huge numbers of bits and pieces, made of marble, elaborated carved and sculpted, a sort of jumble sale.

 

And then there is Magnesia’s showpiece.  We drove there and had to have the place unlocked, unfortified, for a great secret lay behind these steel gates and fences.  It is a Roman stadium, one of the greatest in antiquity, a rival to the one in Aphrodisias and also the one at Tyre in Lebanon.   A stadium was built for racing with chariots and is not a theatre or an amphitheatre and very few have survived.  This one was excavated about ten years ago and has been allowed to fester so the weeds are taking hold.  Even so, and perhaps because of its overgrown nature, it was a majestic, sublimely romantic site that lived up to all our expectations.  After Magnesia we went to another Classical site, Milet, or Miletos, which we have been to twice before.  There is a fabulous theatre here, perhaps more spectacular than the one at Ephesus, and we saw some tortoises mating in the Roman baths.  What a bonus that was.  If only I had Pausanias’s gift of the stylus to describe it.

 

 

Edited October 19, 2023 by Fletcher

[Fletcher]

4: SHAKEN NOT STIRRED

Let me fill you in on our situation on the Spirit.  As soon as we boarded this ship back in Piraeus we became aware of vibrations.  Not good vibrations as in Beach Boys but bad vibes as in rattling, shaking and shuddering.  Far more than normal.  In the restaurant you could see everyone’s water moving in their tumblers and it was particularly irksome when we tried to have our pre-dinner drinkies on the Panorama Deck where our martinis were shaken not stirred, all by themselves.   And when we climbed into bed, amidships on Deck 8, we could see the sheets quivering, you could hear a sort of rumbling in the bowels of the ship, and if you put your head on the pillows or the headboard you got the full cranial massage.

 

We addressed our concerns to Reception where the woman said no one had ever mentioned this before.  She said we should have called them at 3am and got someone from the engineering department to get into bed with us to check the source of the problem.   I said the source of the problem was the entire ship.  Then another passenger chimed in and said her cabin had the same problem as well.  That was oddly reassuring.

 

The upshot is they have moved us and they couldn’t have been sweeter about it.  We are now about 10 cabins nearer the bow, and on the port side this time, and that has made a big difference.  The vibrations are now imperceptible and we can have a proper night’s sleep.

 

Today it was Bodrum.  Another once sleepy village transformed into a bustling resort, noticeably prettier than Kusadasi.  Outside the town there are several mass market mega-resorts catering to Russians and there is also a Mandarin Oriental that charges as much per night as Silversea charges for an entire cruise.  And an Amanresort that charges as much as two cruises.  And for that you don’t even get a beach, just a short strip of pebbles and a bit of wooden decking.

 

In the morning we ventured out on a ship’s tour to a Hellenistic site called Euromos.  Our guide would have won any competition for non-stop chatter.  They have no idea how exhausting they can be at 8.30 in the morning. On reaching Euromos we did our usual thing and let everyone else take half an hour using the facilities while we strode up to the site and enjoyed it for ourselves.  That way I can climb over a fence and get a better camera angle without anyone noticing. There is a temple here which is currently being subjected to perhaps the least sensitive restoration I have ever seen.  They are actually making Corinthian columns and pediments from phoney white marble and erecting them next to the real ones which have turned black with age.  The site was right on a main road and that spoiled the ambience somewhat, though the setting was lovely, all pine and olive trees with dappled sunlight on the fallen masonry.

 

We are berthed next to the Seabourn Encore.  We have sailed on its sister ship, Seabourn Ovation,  and love the design of all the Seabourn vessels.  Looking at this ship I felt quite homesick. Lunch aboard the Spirit at La Terrazza was enlivened somewhat by an aerial display by an enthusiastic member of the Turkish Air Force.  This guy swooped, dived, looped the loop, did everything in fact except launch a guided missile.  Apparently they are practising for the 100th anniversary bash for Turkiye's rebirth under Ataturk.  

Edited October 20, 2023 by Fletcher

[greenchili]

Seriously, thank you.  I wonder what was amiss with the marine diesel there?  Glad they were kind enough to move you.  
Im guessing the ship won’t be going anywhere near Suez or the Red Sea.  Hear there’s a battleship shooting at rockets down there….😬 

Look at the bright side, weather is good and so is the food.  Enjoy .

LH

[English Tim]

We had a lovely day on a Turkish boat, I’m not sure of the type, but we laid on cushions, did lots of snorkelling, talk to some very interesting people, a couple of whom were on the Seabourn encore, and the desperately worried that we weren’t back at 5:30 when the ship was about to sale, unfortunately it didn’t leave until 6 pm and they waved to us as we drunk our champagne. What a grand life.

 

we had hoped to dine in Silver Note, but they rang us to say they were full, so hopefully in two days time on my wife’s birthday, they will be more accommodating.

 

We also missed being on Seabourn encore, but we are very happy here and on any cruise ship, particularly when we like the champagne and it’s free.

[Fletcher]

5: MEETING CAPTAIN MALLORY

Today we were in Rhodes, one of the most spectacular places in the entire Mediterranean, a harbour protected by massive walls and gates, and with numerous buildings preserved from the 14th century when blokes called the Knights Hospitalier clanked around barking orders at everyone.  Long before that, a bloke called Mr Colossus stood at the entrance to the harbour and was big as the Statue of Liberty.  Myths arose that he allegedly stood astride the harbour and boasted he was a wonder of the world.

 

Rhodes is best seen from the ship. The walls are most impressive, especially the imposing Marine Gate. There are other gates of note, including one named for the Virgin Mary who opened an Airbnb here along with her place at Ephesus.  Inside the walls most of the Old Town is full of tourist tat, befitting a UNESCO World Heritage Site, except for one street called Ippoton which is perfectly preserved and serves several fine buildings, including the Palace of the Grand Master.  This is today’s photo.  The eagle-eyed might glimpse the funnel of the Spirit.

 

All this is by the way.  To me, Rhodes is first and foremost the main location for the 1961 film The Guns of Navarone.  I loved this Boys’Own war adventure as a child and I love it still.  The film unit used every corner of the old town and also Lindos for the Roman acropolis.   The cliffs and the cave where the Germans had installed the mighty guns were faked in Shepperton Studios.  A few years ago we spent a week in Rhodes soaking up the scenery and the history.  I spent several hours trying to find the spot where the German pillbox was and had to give up.  I subsequently learned from the film’s director, J Lee Thompson, that they built that entire section of the town outside the ramparts.

 

Apart from Thompson I was able, through my job, to spend some time with several other people who made the film - the writer and producer, Carl Foreman, the cameraman Ossie Morris, and three of the actors - Bryan Forbes, who had a small role, and Anthony Quinn and Gregory Peck who were the main stars.  Today I am wearing glasses named Gregory Peck, made by Oliver Peoples and modelled after his specs in To Kill A Mockingbird.  They make you look quite bookish.

 

My favourite memory of Mr Peck is meeting him in the mid-1980s.  I was staying in Los Angeles with my friend Donald Spoto who had written two books on Alfred Hitchcock and many others besides.  A trained theologian and a full-time professor in New York, he was an unusual and talented man who had gained the trust of many of Hitchcock’s collaborators, including Mr Peck who made two films with the master of suspense.  In LA Donald and I rather childishly traded celebrities.  I offered to introduce him to Billy Wilder and he offered to introduce me to Gregory Peck.  We had a deal.

 

Donald was quite specific. “Mr Peck is very formal,” he said, “we should dress accordingly.”  The next morning we drove to see Mr Peck at his house at 375 North Carolwood Drive in the Holmby Hills, an enclave tucked between Beverly Hills and Bel-Air.  The house, arguably the swankiest I have ever seen, lay behind a black steel gate and looked like a French chateau.   A golden lab with three legs hobbled up to greet us, tail wagging.  A maid opened the front door and ushered us inside to a gorgeous hallway and then into a living room so big you could stage the Wimbledon singles finals in it.   In one corner, far away, there was a grand piano and facing us a wall of windows and beyond that the lush garden and a glimpse of a pool.

 

We were asked to sit and make ourselves comfortable.  Coffee and iced water were brought.  Something to nibble as well.  We were told that Mr Peck wouldn’t be long.  He was just coming back from his morning jog which he did without leaving the grounds.  So we sat, sipped and nibbled in our smart clothes.  I was particularly proud of my Gucci loafers.  They seemed quite at home.   

 

Then Mr Peck strode into the room, offering us an outstretched paw the size of a tennis racket.   I noticed how grey his hair was and how black his eyebrows were.  He was still arguably the handsomest movie star who ever lived.  He was amazingly Presidential.  He was also sweating profusely, apologising profusely, wearing an old track suit and muddy trainers.  And people wonder why I don’t give a damn about dress codes on fancy cruise ships.

 

 

   

 

 

[Fletcher]

6: ANTALYAOVSKA PROSPEKT

I went to Antalya back in 1974, again in 1975, and yet again in 1982.  It was a pretty little place with a dramatic coastline and some fabulous ancient ruins close by.  On that 1982 trip I attended the local film festival and one night the hotel where the jury was staying was sprayed with machine gun fire.  No one was hurt.  Turkey in those days was a fairly unstable place.

 

The expansion of Antalya has been dramatic.  The town I knew of about 150,000 people has grown into a city of more than three million in a very few years.  Apartment blocks are everywhere and every inch of land is being farmed, often with gigantic poly tunnels.  They are even farming bananas in them nowadays.

 

We learned that after Covid the government was on its knees financially so President Erdogan had the idea of selling Turkish citizenship to Russians for 450,000 Euros.  If they bought a house for that amount or more they could become residents.  This meant a boom in housing developments and a massive hike in prices.  This stretch of coast, all the way to Alanya, is now full of exiles from Putin’s terrorist state.  So no longer a good choice for a cheap package holiday.

 

We learned all this from our guide as we headed out to see two Roman sites, Perge and Aspendos.  I’d been to both of them on previous visits.  Perge is hugely impressive.  In fact, I’d rate it above Ephesus and second only to Aphrodisias in Turkey.  There is a very rare free-standing stadium, vast groves of columns, massive baths, city gates and one of the greatest theatres of the ancient world.  We did our usual thing and wandered around on our own and only when we got back on the bus did we realise that our guide did not take our group to the theatre.  The rationale being that there was a theatre at Aspendos so why bother with the one at Perge?  Big mistake that.

 

The Roman theatre at Aspendos is famous and in 1973 it was the first we ever saw.  It made a huge impression on us and we always rated it as one of the three best preserved in the world, alongside Orange in France and Bosra in Syria.  How wrong we were.  Today it looks rather phoney with a lot of renovations dating from the medieval period.  It was also set up for a pop concert with a stage, projection and sound equipment.  Frankly, I would have preferred to have given it a miss and I felt sorry for the people in our group who missed the pure spectacle of the theatre at Perge.

 

We have taken to the back deck of the Panorama Lounge for our evening drinkies.  Although we are in Antalya’s container port, the view is quite special.

 

 

 

 

 

[jpalbny]

We visited Perge and Aspendos on our own from Alanya, nine years ago.

 

The theatre at Aspendos was worth visiting, we thought. The dilemma of course is whether to leave it in its original state, or renovate it enough to make it useable according to modern standards. One of the most dramatically situated theatres we've ever seen is nearby to Aspendos, in Termessos, which we drove to when we visited Antalya. I don't think I've ever seen a more impressive vista from a Roman Theatre. And there's no way it will ever be restored given its remote location. 

 

If you want original/unrestored ruins at Aspendos, there are a lot of them just behind the theatre. Including the remains of an Aqueduct.

 

Perge is a great site, I agree. That colonnaded street is really impressive. We wandered into the stadium before we got to the main site and it was really cool to be the only ones there. But we did not visit the theatre. Maybe because we had just come from Aspendos? 😉 It was the end of a long day where we already visited Alara Han, Side, Aspendos, and by the time we got to Perge it was getting late. And we had a 2h drive back to Alanya. Next time? 

Edited October 22, 2023 by jpalbny

[kismetique]

On 10/17/2023 at 9:52 AM, Fletcher said:

The previous day I had disembarked the Silver Cloud having sailed from Muscat via Djibouti, Saudi Arabia and Alexandria. 

 

NCL has a cruise leaving November 24 going to Saudi.  We're having a huge discussion on our roll call about the requirements of a Saudi Visa.  NCL is NOW, less than 30 days before sailing, telling us that we need a Saudi Visa to even be allowed to board the ship.  Did you have to have a Saudi Visa and if so, can you please tell me how you applied and how much you paid for it and how quickly you received it?  Some of us have applied a month ago and have heard nothing from them. Thank you ever so much for any information and help you can send my way!

 

Kismetique

[greenchili]

Yes, you need visa.  Did mine online and like others had problem getting site to accept pic from my iPhone.  Took a while.  I’m guessing 2-3,weeks.  Like others I paid $100.   
good luck

LH

[Fletcher]

5 hours ago, jpalbny said:

Termessos. I don't think I've ever seen a more impressive vista from a Roman Theatre. And there's no way it will ever be restored given its remote location. 

 

 

Yes, Termessos is fabulous.  We had wild goats in the theatre.