Our Great Big Fat Greek Holiday Episode 3

Overtourism

Over the last few years I have read a number of articles but it has taken our 2022 travel to bring it home. The wonders of our world are being loved to death. Just type this sentence into Google and you will be presented with dozens of articles reflecting on this destruction.  They have created a word for it,  “overtourism”.

 

Sampling the UNESCO World Heritage List, I found several sites suffering  from overtourism that have put in place some forms of control to reduce the impact and/or the number of people allowed to visit. They include Venice, Amsterdam, Machu Picchu, Stonehenge and Easter Island. The problem is not just isolated to heritage sites but over crowding is problem for popular tourist sites around the world. Even Disney is limiting maximum daily attendance to some of their parks. 

Our cruise really brought home the realization of the problem. At each stop we were joined by at least 3or 4 other cruise ships.  New cruise ships can accommodate over 3,000 passengers. Our ship maxed out a 3,300. One of the ships stalking us was the Odyssey of the Seas capable of hosting 4,200 passengers which is becoming the norm for the new cruise ships.  

 

So, do the math, 4 X 3,000 means the potential of 12,000 people coming ashore all fighting for space. The island of Mykonos has a total population of just over 10,000. During the high season it is estimated that there can be as many as 50,000 tourists wandering around the island. Seeing it with 12,000, I can only imagine what another 38,000 visitors filling these tiny streets would be like. 

Day 6 found us at the city of Volus on the Greek mainland. We had booked a shore excursion to the Eastern Orthodox Monasteries of Meteora. They were built atop steep rocky pinnacles almost 600 years ago so the monks and nuns could isolate themselves from the world. 

 

Originally there were 24 monasteries but only 6 remain. We  were to visit two. Arriving at our first monastery, we were confronted by five buses ahead of us and two more arriving behind us.  Joining the line we slowly made our way through the monastery and then crammed into the church. The church is tiny with every surface from the ceilings to the pillars covered in religious frescos and icons. It was a challenge to hear our guide’s presentation over those of the other guides. 

The second monastery was a repeat of the first, so feeling a little claustrophobic I ditched the tiny church and made my way outside to enjoy the incredible scenery. The purpose of isolation was to allow the monks and nuns to become closer to God. Not happening today.

 

Day 7 and we woke with the island of Mykonos and the village of Chora moored to the ship. We were up early so we could walk off the ship as soon as we were allowed as there were two more ships dropping anchor. We definitely wanted to beat the crowds.

 

The weather was sunny, with a very stiff chilly wind which seemed appropriate as our first planned stop was the iconic Mykonos windmills.

 

Next stop, Little Venice, a section of Chora built on the waterfront and with the wind today, the waves were crashing over the walkway. 

The area is populated with cafes, bars and restaurants. The line-ups were already starting. 

We managed to elbowed our way into a bar and enjoyed our first drink of the day while the waves crashed at our feet. Had a pretty darn fine Mai tai all be it very expensive.  

For the next few hours we just wandered around the town. No destination in mind just mindless movements up and down the tiny streets filled with souvenir shops. The town is postcard pretty no matter where you found yourself.

 

White and blue seems to be the only colour allowed. As we made our way back down to the port, the crowds were definitely larger with another cruise ship parking itself in the bay.

 

Day 8 brought us to the island of Rhodes.  It was home to one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The Colossus of Rhodes, a giant bronze statue of Helios, the Greek sun god erected at the entrance to the port of Rhodes. The statue stood 70 cubits high and  was erected to commemorate the city state of Rhodes’ successful defense of an invasion by some other Greeks.

 

The word colossus was created by the Greeks to describe the statue. 

Sadly, it was colossally underwhelming in real life. To be fair, the original statue was destroyed by an earthquake in 226 BC and someone thought this cute deer would make a nice replacement?

 

We awoke as the only cruise ship visible in port. Headed out for a walk on the old wall that encircles the Old Town. While the earliest fortifications were erected on the island in 7^th Century BC, these walls were built by the Knights of St. John in the 14^th Century to defend against the Ottoman Turks. 

 

We found that the “Old Town’ resembled most of the “Old Towns” we have visited with the usual immaculately maintained buildings from the 14^th Century filled with plenty of souvenir shops. However some of the old buildings were being used as offices, museums and other commercial services. 

Our first stop was the “Street of Knights”, a 600 metre cobbled street consisting of 7 beautiful buildings constructed in the 16^th Century by the Knights of St. John with each building representing one of the 7 different languages spoken by the Knights. We found the street surprisingly empty of tourists.

 

However a few hours later, it was a different place. Seems, we have been found by those other cruise ships. 

Lines up were present at most of the bars and shops and an especially long one for the Palace of the Grand Master our last stop. Oddly, there were no line ups for the archaeological museum next door so we skipped the palace and hit the museum.

 

It was quiet and cool with little chunks and pieces of Greek history scattered about the place. Best of all it was empty. A planned 30 minute visit turned into 90 minutes.

 

We exited the museum to find the Old Town full up. On our walk back to the ship, we counted 5 cruise ships with one of them being the overtouristed Odyssey of the Seas

Back at the ship, I was disconcerted to find that I could not get a drink at the bar as I had not purchased the drink package. The bartender took pity on me and made me two, one for me and (wink, wink) one for Nonie but no more booze for me till we left port. 

Day 9 saw us waking to a view of  Santorini and the small town of Fira perched on its cliffs. It was the only stop where we were tendered to shore. There were two other ships in the process of mooring off shore so we quickly made our way down to the tender loading area.  

 

From the port you have three choices to reach Fira, a cable car, a donkey or a walk up 300 steps ascending up the steep cliff to the edge of town. Three hundred steps doesn't sound like much but the steps are more of a ramp than a step that makes it easier for the donkeys to climb and descend but no so much for humans. The donkey crap also requires you to take care and energy to navigate the stairs.

Once we arrived, we faced even more stairs as the town continues to terrace up and down the cliffs with stairs everywhere.

Bad planning saw the batteries on both my camera and phone die so not many photos to share. Fira is much like Chora only steeper and much smaller streets that quickly became congested from the four cruise ships now moored in the bay. 

There were so many tender boats flitting about moving passengers between the ships, I wasn’t able to count them as we rode in the cable car back down to the port to catch our tender. My intent was to brave the unheated pool for a few laps and try and cajole another Mai Tai out of a different bartender. 

Day 10 and we are back in Piraeus waiting to load a bus that will take us to the airport and our flights home.  We got up early to have a fancy restaurant breakfast, something we didn’t have time for on previous days. While we ate, another passenger sat at a table next to us. She perused the menu then ordered ever breakfast item on it. The waiter did not blink and eye and hurried off to put the order in as she made it very clear her time was limited as she was catching a bus for the airport. Sadly we also had to catch a bus and were not able to stay and see her tuck in. 

Our Great Big Fat Greek Holiday Episode 2

Our Thanksgiving Greek Cruise Came With a Turkey Leg

It was Monday, October 10^th, Canadian Thanksgiving and Day 5 of our Greek adventure. Appropriately we spent day in Turkey or the Republic of Turkiye (Turkeeyah) as it now prefers to be known, roaming the ancient ruins of Ephesus. 

Getting to Ephesus involved a 90 minute drive from the resort city of Kusadasi, Turkey where our ship was docked for the day. Ephesus has been around since the 11^th century BC. There are a number of legends as to who founded Ephesus. My vote goes to the Amazons, a tribe of female warriors who named the city after their queen, Ephesia. 

The ruins of Ephesus are now located 8 kilometres from the Aagean Sea, but in its heyday, it was a very important port city. A few thousand years of silt has left it severely landlocked as well as a little run down as the city was abandoned in the 15th century AD when the port could no longer function.  Two thousand years later the Aegean Sea is now 8 kilometres distant from Ephesus. 

This is a rendition of what the street may have looked like 2,000 years ago. It is by the artist Marina Amaral, a digital colourist who specializes in adding colour to black and white photographs and “breathing life into the past”. 

https://marinamaral.com/about

Ephesus is cuddled in a small valley between two well worn mountains in the Taurus Range. At one end of the valley is the land entrance to the city and the other end, the ancient and now non-existent sea entrance. The site was chosen for its ease of defense as only one wall was needed stretching between the mountains at lands end. Our tour started here as it was a downhill walk to the bus pickup so an easier stroll for those of us who over indulged a the breakfast buffet.  

Over its 2,000 year history, Ephesus has been invaded and ruled by many different civilizations with recorded histories available from the Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, Turk and Ottoman eras. But it was during the Roman rule that Ephesus reach it full glory. Those of us who hit the coffee bar a little hard at the buffet welcomed one of the ruins, 1,500 year old toilet. There was plenty of room for everybody with no issues about gender. On the other hand TP and hand sanitizer were non-existent. 

Due to its long existence Ephesus contains the ruins of temples, churches, synagogues and a few columns from the Ottoman area. The most iconic is the Library of Celsus. Mostly destroyed in 262 AD, the front façade survived into the 10^th or 11^th Century when it too was toppled by an earthquake. The facade was re-erected over 8 year period starting in 1970. There were no assembly instructions available for the work.

 

I was not surprised to discover that the Romans had invented condominiums over 2,000 years ago. They are called the Terrace Houses and were built around 200 BC. The site consists of residential houses terraced above each other. The units came with bedrooms, common areas, kitchens and private washrooms. 

The houses were heated and had hot and cold running water. Glass had not been invented so the rooms were lit  through openings in the halls. The inside rooms had frescoed walls and the floors adorned with refined mosaics.

I can only wonder what the strata fees were.  

Our last stop was to be the grand theatre, capable of hosting over 24,000 visitors. Sadly we were running late and the stop became a walk-by and like many of the ruins, it was under repair and access was prohibited. 

History is unclear but it is believed that construction started around 3rd Century BC and was renovated and enlarged several times over the next 900 years.

Photo: https://twitter.com/romanhistory1/status/1174052205315448837

Among the ruins near Ephesus are a several significant Christian sites. They include the Church of Mary, Basilica of St. John and the House of Mary. I have not fact checked but it is said that Ephesus is mentioned several times in the New Testament. It is believed by some that the Virgin Mary was taken to Ephesus by St. John the Apostle where she lived the remainder of her life. 

Again this is difficult to fact check as much of the proof was from the visions of a 19^th Century nun but it was known that John had been asked by Jesus to look after his mother and John did spend time in Ephesus.  In fact the Basilica of St John is believed by some to have been constructed over the burial site of John.  

The plan for Day 6 was a an exciting one for me. I woke up in Istanbul. It was 1963 and I was sitting alone in the theatre mesmerized as James Bond traveled to Istanbul to fight the evil SPECTRE organization with the beautiful Tatiana on his arm and a Walther PPK in his hand. It was here that Istanbul became indelibly burnt into my memory and on my bucket list.  Look out SPECTRE, here I come. 

Alas, SPECTRE had nothing to fear as we did not leave the ship. As we enjoyed breakfast, Nonie had a some difficulty holding down breakfast. With visions of COVID dancing in our minds we headed back to the room for a COVID test. Negative but upset tummy continues for the day. Around 4 o'clock it magically disappears. Another negative test and we started to relax. No problems packing away soup and crackers for dinner with another negative test before bed. Vacation saved. 

But SPECTRE should not get comfortable, because we are coming back. 

Our Great Big Fat Greek Holiday

 RUINed in Athens

Day One was a long day. Leaving Vancouver at 6:00 pm with a stop in Munich, arriving  about the same time we had left Vancouver but the next day. Our first challenge as we deplaned on Day Two was to find the COVID testing site located somewhere in the airport where we had reservations for tests. We needed a negative test result to board the Norwegian Jade. While I have mixed feeling about the internet, it is handy.  I had the office already marked on a map which we used to make our way quickly to where the office wasn’t. They had moved. We hung around and waited for our negative test before leaving the airport. We were promised that they would email our results within 4 hours but you know; that internet thing.  

We left the airport in total darkness. Found our hotel quickly thanks to Google maps. Check in was swift and efficient. The hotel has a rooftop restaurant/bar so throwing our luggage on the bed; we headed up for some dinner and a much needed drink. Walking out onto the terrace we were immediately slapped in the face with a postcard picture view of the ancient ruins of the Acropolis lit up by huge spotlights. Another box on our bucket list ticked.

 

It had to be an early Day 3 as we only had one and one half days to revel in the myriad of thousand year old ruins that litter Athens. Breakfast on the terrace with the rising sun and not spotlights lighting up the Acropolis. 

We had booked a 6 hour walking tour that would take us to many of the sites and  ruins on our list. Starting with the changing of the guard at the Greek parliament. More Rockettes than Buckingham Palace. 

Zeus’s Temple but sadly like many ruins it was covered in scaffolding. 

I guess if we were over 2,000 years old, we'd need a little scaffolding. 

Photo: Wikipedia 

And Hadrian’s Arch. But these were just appetizers for us.

Our main course was the Acropolis. 

The day was getting warm as we made our way up the steep climb to the entrance into the Acropolis. Despite being outside the usual tourist season we quickly realized how popular the site was as we made our way to the entrance.

The Acropolis is just not one ruin but a collection of ruins with most from the 4th and 5^th Century BC.    

 

Temple of Athena Nike was the first temple to be constructed on the site and dedicated to both goddesses. 

Theatre of Herodes Atticus. Still being used today for concerts.  

The Erechtheum, a temple dedicated to the Goddess Athena. She was the goddess of wisdom, warfare and handicrafts. A very eclectic mix one would say.  

The Porch of the Caryatids. Caryatids are sculpted and draped figures of women, quite often used as pillars. The six in the picture are replicas. 5 were relocated to the Athens museum as they were becoming too damaged by pollution and one was saved or stolen by Lord Elgin and now located in the British Museum. 

The most iconic and recognizable ruin is the Parthenon, the most photographed ruin in Athens and right up there with the Coliseum in Rome.  Another temple dedicated to the Goddess Athena. 

It was impossible to get a picture of just Nonie and me alone with the Parthenon in the back ground. I can only imagine what it would be like in the heat (no pun intended) of the tourist season.

 

Despite 6 ½ hours on our feet, we still had a little left in the tank, we decided to head over to the Panathenaic Stadium. A small side bar on my bucket list was to run a lap on the track. Built in 114 AD and reconstructed in 1869 and used for the first modern Olympics held in 1896. Sadly the extremely high entrance fee and the sweaty walk over from the Acropolis dulled any desire to run a lap so it was back to the hotel. 

We had a late check in booked onto the ship so had most of Day 4 to explore a few more ruins before heading to the port of Piraeus.  Leaving our luggage at the hotel we headed to Lybettas Hill, the highest point in central Athens. 

It provides a stunning of view of Athens.  It is best seen at sun rise of sun set but what attracted me, was the funicular (cable car for you uneducated) that would haul us up 200 metres to the top. There is a small church at the top. It was Sunday and as we descended we passed a lot of finely dressed members of the flock walking up for the morning service. Made us feel a little blasphemous and lazy all at once.  

It was a left turn at the bottom and we were off to wander through the old commercial district of Plaka. An area of old buildings restored to Disney like condition and populated by more souvenir shops than you can shake a tchotchke at.  We are not big souvenir shoppers but the Plaka just happened to be on the way to more Athens ruins. 

Hadrian's Library, built in 132 AD  was 10.000 square metres of readin and writin.  

The Ancient Agora of Athens. Agora, Greek for marketplace. Closed for renovations. 

Our day was fading fast so it was back to the hotel to grab our bags and head to Piraeus and board the Norwegian  Jade, our home for the next week.