TELGEN VACATION REPORT

Greece, October, 2000

One very nice thing about living abroad is that you get all the host country's holidays and school breaks. That meant we had a whole week in October to play around with, and since we didn't particularly want to spend it all in one place, we opted for a short cruise around the Greek islands. Since the ship left from just outside Athens, we got there a couple of days early, so we would have plenty of time to explore the city itself. And explore we did! Although Athens is a huge metropolis of some 176 square miles and 4 million people, most of the major sights are within about a mile of each other. This meant we could make the most of our limited time, as it was only a fifteen- or twenty-minute walk from our hotel near Syntagma (Constitution) Square to things such as the Acropolis, which you can see behind us in the picture. Now, getting up the hill to the Acropolis took another fifteen minutes in itself, but we made it without much trouble, especially since we stopped often to admire the views on the way up. The Acropolis is a complex of buildings, so there was much to admire. At the very top, of course, is the columned Parthenon; this temple to Athena is missing most of its sculptures (they're in the British Museum in London), but there are many interesting archaelogical finds from the same period in the Acropolis museum (which is a very low building you can barely make out to the right of the Parthenon). David actually enjoyed looking at the sculptures, as we explained them by telling about the various gory Greek myths they depict. Now, if you look to the bottom left of the picture, behind the trees, you might also make out the arches of the Theatre of Herodes Atticus, built in AD 161 and since restored to host concerts. In the distance, just next to my elbow, you can also make out Lykavittos Hill, which has a church on its summit. We spent a good deal more than twenty minutes tramping up, down, and around that hill looking for the funicular railway that supposedly will take you to the top. Being stubborn, we finally walked all the way to the top, whereupon we discovered the train—underground. At least we had a pleasant ride down...

After all that tramping around, we were somewhat relieved to board the Olympic Countess and have someone else direct the trip. We headed east, across the Aegean, and our first stop was actually in Turkey, at the port of Kusadasi. It took a good twenty-minute bus ride to arrive at the star attraction of the area, the ancient city of Ephesus. When the city was founded by the Ionians in the eleventh century BC, it sat on a bay where a river met the sea and was an important center of trade. Ephesus was home to one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, the temple of Artemis (aka Diana). The city eventually became part of the Roman Empire, and was later a Christian city, purported visited by St. John, St. Paul, and the Virgin Mary (although only Paul's visit is in the historical record). The river silted up the bay, however, and the city was abandoned as it became too distant from the Aegean to be commercially useful. Today, there's virtually nothing left of Artemis's temple (save little pieces held at a local museum), and the site of Ephesus is still undergoing major archaeological excavation and renovation. It's an amazing place, however; although at first glance there isn't much more than a few lonely columns, eventually you come to where they've uncovered huge areas of marble roads and reconstructed various arches and even buildings. This picture is of the facade of the restored ancient library, which is two stories high and has full-sized statues along the front. (I liked this shot because of the sunrise on the statue and the hilly background in the distance.) It's by far the most impressive building there, although our very enthusiastic guide also showed us the communal toilet (you've heard of a two-holer outhouse? this was along the lines of a dozen-holer); the carved stone which indicates the direction of the, um, sailors' entertainment house; and the theatre situated directly on a hillside with a view to the ocean. It was a very impressive site, and it would be interesting to visit in ten years' time to see what else they uncover.

From Kusadasi we headed out into Dodecanese, the most southerly group of islands and the last to be incorporating into Greece. Our first stop was the island of Patmos, home to the Holy Cave of the Apocalypse. The title may sound like something Robin would say to Batman, but it's actually the place where St. John received his vision of fire and brimstone, heard the voice of God, and dictated the book of Revelations. It's long been a place of pilgrimage, and so there is also an monastery dedicated to St. John that has been on Patmos since 1088. It looks more like a fortress than a monastery, since it was built to house many holy treasures; unfortunately we couldn't get any pictures of treasure or cave.

From Patmos we turned to the largest island of the group, Rhodes, also home to one of the seven ancient wonders of the world. At the entrance to the port was once a huge statue of the sun god Helios, standing some 120 feet high. It was destroyed in an earthquake in 227 BC, but today in its place there are two pillars holding statues of deer. The town of Rhodes was home of the Knights of St. John from the early fourteenth century to their ouster by the Ottomans over 200 years later, and has a lovely medieval castle with some striking Hellenistic mosaics taken from archeological sites in the islands. Our favorite place on Rhodes, though, was the village of Lindos, which has its own Acropolis. Here you see the three of us, some 410 feet and more than 200 steps above the village, with some of the restored stoa (columns) in the background. Its Temple of Lindean Athena, built in the fourth century BC, was one of the most sacred of its era, and was visited by Alexander the Great—not to mention, if legend can be believed, Helen of Troy and Herakles. We just thought it had some of the most spectacular views of the trip.

Our next stop was to the island of Crete, once the home of the mighty Minoan civilization. We were looking forward to the palace of Knosos, originally built in 1900 BC and rebuilt after an earthquake 200 years later. This was the legendary home, after all, of the Minotaur and its labyrinth. The reality was a bit disappointing, however, because although the palace complex is large, there is little left in the way of buildings, and what remains there besides some of the excavated ruins are mainly replicas of frescoes and interiors. (We saw some of the originals at the Archeological Museum, in a whirlwind tour.) But I guess if you think about the size of the original, with its four or five floors, flushing toilets, and paved roads, it is rather impressive for almost 4000 years ago. Unfortunately we only had a few hours in Crete, when it really deserves at least a couple of days.

So it was on to our last stop, which didn't disappoint us in the least. After all, how could an island resulting from a volcanic explosion fail to excite? Santorini was originally a circular island with three volcanic peaks that had a major eruption around 1450 BC. (Some say it was the fate of Santorini that led to the legend of Atlantis.) Now the island is crescent-shaped, with a couple of very small, still-active peaks in its harbor. That harbor is at the foot of an 890-foot cliff; to reach the town of Fira at the top, we elected to journey by donkey up a winding pathway. (I was picturing the headline "American Tourists Killed in Tragic Donkey Drop Accident" all the way up....) The whitewashed skyline of Fira, with the domed church at the edge of the cliff, frequently appears in  Greek postcards and calendars, and here you see it behind the boys. The town itself is obviously set up for tourists, but it's tastefully charming even so, especially when you can rest in a clifftop cafe and watch the sun set behind the volcanic inner islets. We could have stayed there much longer, but it was onward and outward....

Lucky us! Having finished our brief tour of the Greek islands, we had one last afternoon to spend in Athens before heading back to England. Thus we had the chance to see the most impressive Roman relic of the city, the Temple of Olympian Zeus. The temple was dedicated by the emperor Hadrian in 121 AD, but the foundations of this huge building were laid some 700 years earlier. Only 15 of the original 104 Corinthian columns remain standing, and the complex also has ruins of Roman baths, a law court, and everyday homes. An arched gate dedicated to Hadrian also stands at one entrance to the complex. Mighty impressive, especially with the Acropolis in the background.

Such was our trip to Greece! I couldn't resist adding this last picture, of the sun setting over the caldera of Santorini. We only wish we'd been sailing on the four-masted schooner in the foreground... Perhaps some day, if we have some lazy days left, we'll return to some of the Greek islands we saw and explore them a little further. In the meantime, we've still got several countries we've yet to see, so keep checking this website to read about our next adventure!

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Copyright © 2000 by Diane Telgen. All rights reserved.