Athens

Athens I'm afraid is a sad and depressing city. It's economic state is very much in evidence everywhere you look.  It is dirty and crowded, run down and full of graffiti.  With 69% youth unemployment it's not surprising.  There are streets full of abandoned cars for sale from those unable to pay for them.  The average rent us 200E a month but the average wage is only  500 ( if you can get work)
Our tour, once we had made our way through the hectic traffic took us to the Acropolis which we climbed in 35c heat with thousands of others. 
The impressiveness of the ruins were somewhat tempered by the disorganised chaos with the throngs of people, but impressive still it was. 

After a couple of hours on the Acropolis viewing the ruins we ate lunch in the Plaka,  a busy shopping area where we ate at a Greek taverna and wandered the streets window shopping for a while before heading back to the tranquillity of the ship.  Athens was the first city on this trip I don't feel the need to return to..

Ephesus

Prayer wall at house of Virgin Mary

Prayer wall at house of Virgin Mary

We docked at 1pm at Kusadasi. A great port as the dock is adjacent to the downtown area.
We had booked a small group tour to Ephesus.  Once again no adjectives describe adequately this place.
Our tour started with a visit to a reconstructed house proported to be that of the Virgin Mary. There is circumstantial evidence that it could be true. Certainly many believe as can be seen by the wall of prayers which was interesting to see.

Our next stop was the ancient town of Ephesus.  John the Apostle lived and wrote here.  Only 10% of this town has been excavated to date and the ruins I think are more impressive then Pompeii.
I could have spent hours wandering here. The weather was threatening and loud thunder along with massive lightening bolts added to the atmosphere. You could feel the history hovering around you.

In particular the excavation of a series of terraced houses was most interesting.  These houses has internal plumbing, sewerage and underfloor and in wall central heating.  By piping hot water through terracotta pipes the houses could be heated.
Frescoes adorned the walls and mosaics the floors.  excavation is still ongoing funded by an Austrian corporation. Turkey welcomes archaeologists from all over the world to assist with restoring abs excavation of their history.

Probably the most impressive structure is the facade of the Library of Celcus.  This was the third largest library in the ancient world holding 120000 papyrus scrolls.
The site also contained a large auditorium.

After a stop at the ruins of the temple of Artemis, and a carpet weaving demonstration we had time for a few minutes of fun shopping in Kusadasi..  This place definitely warrants another visit.

Istanbul

Inside Topkapi Palace

Inside Topkapi Palace

Cruising into Istanbul was quite eye opening. A city built spanning two continents,  it relies on ferries a lot for transport and hundreds of them criss cross the harbour and the Bosphorus, seemingly with no regard for each other!
We took a private tour here abd were met at the port by our guide,and we first drove to the Topkapi Palace. This huge building was most interesting to see and was built over many centuries for various sultans.
The jewels held in the treasury were astounding, including an 83 carat diamond

Next we walked to the Blue Mosque. This is an active mosque so women needed to cover our heads and we all had to remove our shoes to enter (along with thousands of others.. everywhere has been so crowded)
The blue mosque is huge!! There is no way to adequately portray it in photos.  it's not as blue inside as I thought it would be either.  The tile work is stunning.

The blue mosque was huge but the Hagia Sophia dwarfed it!. First built as a church by Roman emperor Justinian and using pillars taken from the Temple of Artemis.This building is immense. It later became a mosque and most of the Christian art was covered up and painted over.  In the 1920s it became a museum and gradually restoration work has uncovered many beautiful mosaics in gold which are on view

Underwater cisterns

Our next stop was the underwater cisterns. this was the Roman water supply.  These days it has only a foot or so of water but in Roman times it contained a lot more as evidenced by the tide mark on the columns. Many of the columns inside were also recycled from other buildings.  The Romans really were extremely advanced.This visit was a highlight of the day and somewhere I'd wanted to visit so another bucket list item checked off!

Last stop of the day was the Grand Bazaar.  This was much anticipated but didn't quite live up to my expectations.  Thousands of stalls, but many just duplicates of each other.  It seemed that the vendors weren't particularly enthusiastic to sell either and prices were much higher here than they were in kusadasi which we were to visit the next day.  There were lots of leather jacket shops and lots of Turkish delight shops (so much better than what we can get in NZ) and ceramic shops. Also fake brand t shirts handbags and watches.
A long day but one of the best!!

Mykonos

Island princess at Mykonos

We docked early in Mykonos at around 7am. As we have throughout this trip we had woken early so after a quick breakfast we disembarked.  We hadn't booked a tour because we had decided just to walk around the main town area. 
What a gorgeous place.  Ironic whitewashed stone buildings with blue accents (red for some churches)  with bright pink  bougainvillea. 

Windmills at Mykonos

Bougainvillea over a church

One of the many churches in mykonos

We made the right decision to just wander.  We had several hours to get lost in the narrow lanes of shops and hotels.  There were lots of art shops with great handiwork. I wish we weren't weight limited!!

We stopped at a taverna for a drink, not intending to eat but after reading the vast menu we couldn't resist and ordered a platter of cold appetisers to share.  It all was delicious.

The lanes that divided the rows between the houses and shops were barely wide enough to stand with your hands outstretched but still small trucks zoomed down them..but barely!! It was quite stressful trying to avoid them!!!
We only had half a day in Mykonos but it was enough to explore and do a little shopping.  We reboarded at 1pm and enjoyed a relaxing afternoon on board.

Pompeii and Sorrento

Our excursion today from the rather gritty (that's a polite way of saying ugly and dirty)  ports of Naples.  we made our way to Sorrento via some scenic winding roads. Once there we were taken up to a farm where we tasted several cheeses and limoncello blends,then we went down to the township of sorrento where we were free to wander. We werent hungry so we browsed the shops which were filled with limoncello and lemon flavoured candy and soap. The whole town smells of lemon mixed with jasmine.
Had a lovely lemon gelato instead of lunch. It's so easy to over eat on the ship. 4  course dinners every night.!
After leaving Sorrento we made our way to Pompeii.  Unfortunately for some reason it was closed when we arrived so we had a reduced time inside. 
It was over 35c and extremely humid and our guide moved very fast making it a little uncomfortable however it was most interesting. 

It certainly is a place that warrants more time than 2 hours, but we got to see a very intact bath room, original lead pipe plumbing,  a brothel complete with pornographic art on the walls (!) some temples and apartments,  a bakery complete with mills and ovens and a theatre

Roman Porn art inside the brothel

Its been an exhausting few days..  We are looking forward to a sea day to recuperate a bit

Rome for a day

This was our first private ( not ship organised) tour.  We were a small group of 8 and were picked up at the dock by our driver Maurizo from Rome in limo.
We drove for an hour into Rome from the dock at Civitivecchia.
Immediately it was obvious this day was going to be a highlight. Nothing I knew prepared me for the scale nor the condition of the ruins of ancient Rome. The ancient city was huge and much of it is still obvious and some looks like it is not even 200 years old let alone 2000!
Our first stop was the colloseum where we spent an hour looking around this iconic stadium.

Next stop was a lookout over the forum.  Unfortunately we couldn't explore further due to time constraints. Next time!! The forum ruins are huge.

We then drove around Rome through narrow lanes, while Maurizo pointed out various structures and landmarks such as Egyptian obelisks, Spanish steps, the Victor Emanuel monument, and various piazzas including a stop at Piazza Navona which was a highlight.  I bought some prints of drawings of Rome here as a souvenir.

Everywhere there are reminders of ancient civilisation such as this fresco which was on the side of the road.This was part of a partially excavated Roman house.

After a lunch of wonderful pizza and salad we met our private Vatican guide who took us on a 2 hour tour including parts of the Vatican museum,  Cistene chapel and St Peters.

St Peters was incredible. There was a special service on while we were there so the main alternative was lit up and the were bands and processions.
Sadly one day is simply just a tiny taster. We really need to come back for at least 3 or more days.. 
Each day is better than the last. We love this method of travelling. After the hustle of Rome it was great to come back to the elegant peace of the ship.
Tomorrow we are in Naples.. Pompeii beckons...