Post by Owen on Sept 7, 2014 7:51:17 GMT
Marg and Peter's Aegean Odyssey October 2012
Aegean Odyssey October 2012
Arrival in Athens: After our very long flight from Sydney via Abu Dhabi we were met at the airport by Trafalgar representatives, Susanna and Anastasia, and taken by taxi to our hotel. What a pleasure it was to be met by such friendly and delightful locals. It made us think that our time in Greece and Turkey would indeed be very special and helped avoid having to find our own way when tired and anxious to be settled.
Our hotel, the Divani Acropolis, was within walking distance of everything we wanted to see including the new Acropolis Museum and the Plaka. It was a fantastic hotel and you can get a glimpse the Acropolis from some balconies.
Day 1: City Tour visiting the Temple of Zeus, the 1896 Olympic Stadium, city and the Acpropolis and more. Our local city guide (Yani) was excellent and incredibly knowledable about Athens and its history. The same could be said of all the local guides for Istanbul, Ephesus and the Greek Islands. Our afternoon was free time so we walked to the Acropolis Museum where we had a fantastic lunch and coffee (total cost 20 euros!) before checking out the museum. We would highly recommend that all visitors to Athens check out this museum. It is well and truly worth spending several hours there. We found the price of absolutely everything so cheap in Greece compared with Australia and, despite the political upheaval and riots occurring in the city centre, we never ever felt unsafe. In fact they had no impact on us at all.
Day 2: Departure on the Orient Queen, a ship that held 700 to 800 passengers. We were so pleased not to be travelling on one of the huge "cities on water" which accommodate thousands of passengers. On board for the whole cruise we found the food just delicious, staff amazingly friendly and professional. Our two cabin stewards, whom we nicknamed "Heckle and Jeckle", were two Egyptian guys whom we found found to be very helpful, courteous and welcoming. In fact they made our stay on board very pleasant in many ways.
Day 3: After sailing through the night we arrived at Istanbul. What a revelation this city was. A return visit is on the cards! We had a cruise along the Bosphorus to where it meets the Black Sea, enjoying the many sights on the way including numerous mosques of varying size. The cruise was followed by a visit to the Blue Mosque. In Istanbul we had never ever seen so many people out and about although it was a special holiday (EID).
Day 4: We visited other significant buildings such as the Hagia Sophia and Topkapi Palace followed by some time at the Spice Market. This too was incredibly crowded and we were disappointed not to be able to visit at our leisure and see and smell the spices and other produce. We still managed, though, to buy some spices and the best Turkish Delight we had ever tasted.
Day 5: Sailed to Izmir where we disembarked for an eagerly anticipated visit to Ephesus which certainly did not disappoint. After that we were taken to a leather factory near Izmir where we were entertained by a a rather classy parade of their products (amaxingly beautiful leather jackets for both women and men). After the parade? No prize for guessing that we were then guided into the showroom where numerous sales people tried to persuade us to buy and indeed we did.....a red jacket for madame and a caramel one for monsieur!
Day 6: The start of the cruise around the Greek Islands (Patmos, Rhodes, Crete, Mykonos and Santorini). They were all beautiful and interesting but somewhat different from what we expected. This was the last sailing for our boat and the end of the tourist season we were lucky to escape the crowds of summer and the weather was really pleasant and quite warm. The lack of crowds here was such a contrast to Istanbul. Unfortunately we did not have good weather for our visit to Santorini and did not see the sunset but were still able to marvel at the amazing blue and white buildings. Some highlights: St John's cave on Patmos, having a wine on the harbour front on Mykonos while watching the sun set over the water, the history of Knossos on Crete, the old city of Rhodes and its many shops plus the Palce of the Knights.
Final day: We disembarked and were transported back from Piraeus to our hotel.
In general: Optional tours were offered to every island and we would recommend that others take these tours as, otherwise, it is not really possible to see much of what is there in the time available. While these optional tours are fairly expensive they are worthwhile.
Our cabin and all cabins on this boat were rather small but adequate. Basically you spend most of your time on deck or in the lounge areas or visiting the islands. There was plenty of entertainment to fill in the hours while sailing between islands and from Istanbul.
The food was first rate with lots of choice. Dining room staff were mostly from Bali and the Phillipines and could not be faulted. Our tour director, Anne, was just great...very organised, professional and knowledgable. Being the end of the season we were only a smallish group and so were able to get to know her and other group members quite well and enjoy their company which is one of the positives about travelling on an escorted tour as opposed to travelling as a couple.
All in all ..... a great experience! We loved it. This was our first ever cruise and our initial plans had been for a river cruise, perhaps on the Danube, but we are really glad that we have had the truly wonderful and eye - opening experience of a cruise around the Greek Islands. Istanbul and Ephesus were bonuses!
This travel tale was written by Marg & Peter and relates to a Trafalgar Tour. It was originally posted on the Trafalgar forum.