a quick stop in Athens

between our drop off at Piraeus (the port) and Arachova - we headed up to the Acropolis.... and for the sake of brevity I will also include two photos from our last day (hours) in Athens before our brutal 3:30 AM wake up call for the airport transfer...

since we had spent a week in Athens one year over the Christmas holidays and just after they had gotten all shiny and spruced up for the Olympics- I had lots of Acropolis photos - some things were further along there in the reconstruction but nothing appreciable--- this is going to be the project of our lifetimes--- LOL- and it is still hard to capture photos without scaffolding....

a refurbished stadium not on the Acropolis but near our hotel:

delightful - almost deserted - delos

Delos- birthplace of Apollo - is an uninhabited island of ruins from antiquity.  there is a single tree (palm) and a lot of stones...  and one house which is home to the French archeology team that is responsible for the UNESCO World Heritage site (the whole island)

there is a lovely little museum of some of the wonderful artifacts - and a snack place that served beer and smoothies.... that was it.... so here it is in photos:

the island gets little rain so the "flora" is of the scrubby - succulent type:

undoubtedly the most photographed statue on the island:

the french team's house:

treasures from the museum:

our little ship in the distance:

a resident cat- at the snack bar-

next up- an afternoon on Mykonos....

the next day

was a travel day - as we left Istanbul to fly south to Izmir (Smyrna) the site of the Ephesus ruins and then the departure point for our small ship.

the crowning jewel of the Ephesus ruins is the Library. like the Treasury at Petra, it is a breathtaking sight but has less dramatic impact since it is approached from a long main street instead of hidden by the narrow twists of the Siq.

here are some photos of the day- which threatened rain but stayed dry and which included a stop along the way at (surprise!) a carpet factory (LOL)

we were not the only ones visiting this UNESCO World Heritage site- at the end of this road in the distance is the Library:

a first clear shot of the Library:

 

some photos from the ruins of the church of St. John in a town nearby-

the carpet factory demonstration area for dying of the materials used to make the rugs:

one of a number of storks we saw nesting in the area:

and with that we left Turkey and proceeded to the first of seven Greek Islands.  our small ship holds a total of 46 travelers split into two groups of 23.  we arrived first and got settled into our lovely cabins but the other group was only 20 minutes behind us and all were gathered rather quickly for dinner that evening as the ship sailed for Patmos.