Athens, Greece

Sitting in Athens Airport for several hours but at least they have good Wifi.  Was able to catch up on the Seahawks game from yesterday.  This being 10 hours off our time zone is weird.  The Greek pizza yesterday was like a Greek salad on a crust, OK, but not great.  Then I hit my last gelato stand for "dark black" a dark chocolate one.  Now it's time to eat healthy.  I did polish off the cheese pie from Patmos (a lovely cheesy bread baked in a crust)  which is their local specialty.
Last night had a great dinner with our new friends from Loveland Colorado and good byes to the "girls next door" to our stateroom from Napa California.
Overall, it was a great trip.  The itinerary was fantastic. Not sure I would recommend Oceania cruise lines. The clientele are really old and somewhat grumpy, although we did meet some really nice people one on one at dinner.  Most of the food was very good.  Their shore excursions were stupidly expensive, but with the  Internet, we were able to book our own without difficulty for 1/3 to 1/2 the price.  Many days, we would go into town, find a place with free WiFi and have some local snacks and beverages, then get our and explore the town.
I will work this weekend on transferring photos from my camera and cell phone into the blog.  Until then......

Mykonos, Greece

Patmos turned out to be a really great place.  The monastery had great frescos, mosaics and antique religious artifacts.  Didn't stop to look into John's cave.  Had a nice lunch of spicy feta dip and fried zucchini balls.  Last night in the Grand dining room on the boat was the Farewell dinner - beef Wellington, lobster,etc.
Today is our final day - on Mykonos.  It is the island Jackie Onassis made famous, so it's a bit high end.  Waiting for pizza.  We took a tour to Delos where there are an astounding number of Ancient Greek ruins.  If they haven't been hit with natural disasters (earthquakes, tidal waves) then they have been sacked by every possible kingdom, pirates, religious zealots, what have you,  Still in all, it is remarkable that anything survives.
Tomorrow we head for home.  This has been quite a trip.

 Mykonos

 The boat we took to Delos

 Marketplace in Delos

No, these are not toilets

 Can you find the penis in this picture?

 More ruins

 The four columns represent the atrium of the house

 Mosaic floor

 Detail of mosaic

 View of the ruins

It's all Greek to me!

 Columns

Famous stone lion

 more lions

 Guess what this is?

 And this

 Greek pizza

Sunset from the ship

Patmos, Greece

After an exquisite day on Santorini, how can one compare?  This is a nice little island where John supposedly wrote the Revelation.  We are going to try to take a city bus to the cave where he holed up later this morning.  Once again, weather warm and sunny.
Last night was a huge disappointment food wise.  We had dinner at Jacques, the French specialty restaurant on board inspired by Jacques Pepin.  I had bouillabaisse which had only one lousy shrimp, a few left over hunks of fish with small bones and some weird crunchy stuff in the sauce.  We were the last table served that night, so I guess they ran out of shellfish.  They brought out some "French pastries" (Madeleine's, rum cakes) with a flourish that I had seen at the espresso stand every day.  The other desserts were not inspiring.  Wasn't too hard to skip.  One the other hand, the scallop gnocchi with lobster appetizer was to die for,

The view from the Monastery of St John 

Typical Bells

More bells

Mosaic at the Monastery

This was some kind of citrus tree.  It smelled really good

Waiter boning a fish

Two interesting dudes

Poor cats!

View down a small street

Patmos from below

The playlist for the chamber orchestra

Best sunset

Santorini, Greece

Took the bus to Oia this morning and it was just like you see in all the postcards.  White buildings with blue roofs.  Had one of their special foods - fava.  It's yellow split peas with onion, capers and lemons served as a dip with bread.  Quite yummy.  Now in Fira having white wine and cheese served drizzled with honey and walnuts.  The weather is meltingly hot, but the scenery is stunningly beautiful.  At a friend's suggestion, I got up really early this morning to watch our entry into the caldera that forms this bit of islands.  The twinkling lights from the hillside towns was well worth it. The ship docked in the caldera and we took a tender to shore where we got on a cable car to get to the town.  There are donkeys that will take you up and down the hill as well, so there is donkey poop all over,  Better to take the cable car.  Another specialty here is peanuts coated in honey and rolled in sesame seeds, beats beer nuts all to hell!  Wish I could figure out how to transfer iPHone photos to this blog.  Guess I will have to wait until I get home.

Gythion, Greece

This is a very small working town.  Kind of like Port Angeles would be if we had higher unemployment.  Lots of men in their 50s (or so) sitting around the cafes drinking coffee.  We found the ancient theater that dates from BCE, but there's not much there.  They have fish everywhere and a fast WiFi.  Finally able to get iced cappuccino.

Yesterday, after posting in Corfu, I went inside the church of St. Spyridon, the patron of Corfu.  There were head scarves in a basket to borrow although thankfully, apparently not mandatory as it looked like a guaranteed case of head lice.  After viewing the Saint, many people walked out and kissed the icons which were just poorly done pictures (I have been spoiled by the mosaics of Ravenna).  Again, glad this wasn't mandatory.  Also saw "Fish Spas" where clients sit with their feet in a trough of water and have fish nibble away the dead skin, and only 5 Euros!  Again, I passed.  One thing I did not pass on was the ubiquitous kumquat liquor.  It is lovely with club soda as a spritzer.
Last night had dinner with 2 American women from Sonoma CA and a Brtish couple from Cornwall. He is a retired bookie.  I have personally never known anyone in that line of work, so it was interesting .

Early return to the ship today.

Corfu, Greece

Now in the Greek Islands.  This one is the closest to Italy, so it has been a crossroads of East and West for centuries.  It is an Ionian island and was thought to be where Ulysses ended up when he escaped on his way home.  It has been conquered and ruled by just about everyone except the Turks ( a source of great pride).  Naively I thought I would see Ancient Greek ruins, Byzantine ruins, Venetian ruins, French ruins, Englis ruins all separate.  Of course they built one on top of the other, so it is a hodgepodge of various styles of architechture.  It is lush and green with lots of different plants.  We saw huge yuccas on the Hop On Hop Off Bus tour,  Awaitng my first authentic Greek coffee.

WOW! It's strong!  I may run back to the Fortress and up and down the steps a few dozen times with this caffeine buzz!  I think this would take some getting used to.  One of the specialties here is kumquat liquor.  It's lovely.

We have found that the buffet dining is actually better than the sit down restaurant for dinner.  Go figure.  They have a "grill" where you can get steak, lamb chops, salmon, chicken and lobster tails.  They also have fresh sushi.  Supposedly Oceania is known for it's food, but the main dining room has been a disappointment.  There are 4 "specialty" restaurants which have been quite good so far.  You can eat one time at each one, but we are angling to go back to the Asian one again as it was wonderful.

 Approach into Corfu

Cheesy souvenirs 

Corfu

 On the way into the fort with large canon below

 View from above

 I think this is a theater

Old English barracks

Great lunch!

Yes, a Fish Spa

And here they are getting their feet worked on by tiny fish

Sponges

 Dean's worst nightmare

Devotions at the cathedral

Everything olive

Big canon at the Fort

And more

Bari, Italy

Our last stop in Italy before heading to Greece.  This is a rather large town with a small and not terribly charming old town.  The big deal is the Basilica of St. Nicolas.  Apparently the early Barians stole the relics of St. Nick (yes, that one) from Turkey.  The architecture rather plain but supposedly from many different eras. No cool mosaics like in Ravenna.  Still the cappuccino is good and the WiFi is free.  I love listening to Italians.  They always sound like they are arguing.
Last night we had the most amazing lightening storm. It was like constant strobe lights for HOURS.  Much more fun than watching a show in the lounge (a ventriloquist, really) was watching the storm from our balcony.  Had dinner last night with a couple we had met several nights ago.  They are from Colorado by way of Alabama.  He is a retired civil engineer and she a retired pharmacist.  Haven't seen Jeffery, the New Yorker who orders only hockey puck hamburgers.  Maybe they got pissed off and left for home?
After we recuperated from our long hike yesterday, we walked around and around Kotor.  They are famous for their cats which are everywhere .  Here in Bari, it's dogs, lots of golden retrievers and a yellow lab that looks a lot like Gus.

 Bari

old Church

 with statues

Inside

Nice bakery