Rhodes Greece

Athens to Rome  Cruise 2026

Rhodes Greece

January 31, 2026

As we set sail from Crete last night the profile of Zeus was clearly visible over looking the city of Heraklion.  It was a smooth crossing last night unlike the crossing to Crete the night before.

The island of Rhodes has a population of around 125,000 residents of which around 56,000 live in the city of Rhodes.  The island of Rhodes is at the center of the eastern Mediterranean with the Mediterranean sea on one side and the Adriatic sea on the other.  This made it a popular stop over point for pirates, Egyptians, Ottomans, Persians, Crusaders, Italians, Nazis, and the English.   The city it's self is a Medieval city which is surrounded by walls built by the Knights of St John who built the wall in 1250 AD.  They were kicked out by the Persians who were kicked out by the Ottomans.  The Italians took over in 1922 after WW1 and they did a lot of rebuilding.  The main citadel had been destroyed in an accidental explosion was rebuilt by the Italians.  The Nazis took over from the Italians and the English took over from them after WW2.  Finally in 1948 Rhodes was finally reunited with Greece.  All of this has made for a real mixed architecture.  

The ship is docked right downtown so we walked straight off the ship and through the town.  It is a very charming place.  There are a lot of stray cats which are every where. They are feed by the locals and the local SPCA tries to catch and spay them but it is a losing battle.  The climate never gets below 7 C( 45F)  so they have a pretty good life.  Our tour took us through the old town which is a huge collection of tiny tourist trap shops.  As the tourist season is April through November most of the shops were closed.  This little town with narrow streets sees 3.5 million tourists every year.  I can't imagine being here.  

I took this photo of our ship the Viking Star to high light that even though it is considered a small cruise ship with only 930 guests and at 47,000 tonnes it is still 745 feet long.  This compares to the Icon of the Seas which is currently the largest cruise ship at 7600 passengers, 248.663 tonnes and 1197 feet long.  

It was a very nice day for a very nice walk through a very charming place. 

Terry 

Heraklion Crete

Viking Athens to Rome Cruise

Athens to Heraklion Crete

January 30 2026,

Last night the ship set sail for the island of Crete.  Watching us leave the harbour from our balcony was really magical.  The city lights were reflecting in the water and there was a very nice warm breeze.  We have been on the tour for almost a week but leaving Athens made is seem even more real.  The forecast was for a stormy night and no sooner than we got out side of the Athens harbour than the rocking of the ship began.  It took all night to sail across to Crete and it wasn't until about 7:00 am before the ship finallly docked in Heraklion.  

Herkalion is the capital city of Crete.  It was the capital of the ancient Mycenaean civilisation.  This civilization was dominant about 1300 BC.  The Tour today was a bus tour of the city of Heraklion followed by a guided tour of  the Archaeological museum of Crete.  The bus tour was pretty short but the museum tour was really spectacular.  Although we were in the museum for almost 3 hours we covered less than half of the total museum. The tour covered the Mycenaean period before the Romans arrived around 200 BC.  There were thousands of items on display.  Incredibly detailed jewellery such as the bee broach.  Huge wine serving jugs with beautiful painted decorations.   There was also a wooden model of the Palace of Knossos which was at the center of the city   A short walk after the museum took us through the center of Heraklion past the Cathedral of Heraklion and down to the water front where the city fort, which was built by the Venusians is.  

Back on board in time for a late lunch.  It really does give meaning to the cruise ship saying; " On as a passenger and off the ship as cargo."

Sorry about the bad selfie.  I will have to try for a better one. 

What a great day in Heraklion. 

Terry   

 

Athens National Archaeological Museum

 Viking Athens to Rome Cruise

Athens Archaeological Museum

January 29, 2026

This mornings tour was a bus tour of Athens and a tour of the National Archaeological Museum.  The bus tour wound around quite a bit of Athens however it seemed like I was on the wrong side of the bus to see very much and it was so rainy and overcast there wasn't much to see anyways.  The local architecture is very different from the rest of Europe as it primarily consists of 4 to 5 story apartment buildings which all have balconies which stretch across the entire building.  

The highlight of the tour was the National Archaeological Museum.  It is a huge building which was constructed in the early 1960's.  The displays cover all eras of Greek history starting in about 1300 BC and continuing through to the end of the Roman era about 500 AD.  It also covers artifacts from across all of Greece and the islands.  The museum was quite busy with a lot of school tour groups.   I took 98 photos in the museum but have only shown a few. The bronze statute of Zeus which is much photographed. The bronze navigational dial which allegedly proves that there was alien intervention (Ya right).  A marble statue of Pan getting friendly with a beautiful young lady.  I have often wondered why so many of the statues are broken.  Today the tour guide had the answer, and that is that invading Prussian and Turkish armies smashed and buried the statues.  

Out front of the museum is a 500 year old olive tree, which is a direct descendant of the olive tree given to the citizens of Athens by Athena.  

Back on the bus and back to the bus for yet another huge buffet meal.  The chicken schnitzel was not nearly as good as mine. 

 Once again we dodged the rain as we were in the museum when the down pour occurred.  

A very fun and informative tour. 

Athens Acropolis Jan 8

Viking Athens - Rone Cruise 

Acropolis Tour - Athens

January 28, 2026

This morning was an early one as suitcases had to be out side for pick up by 6:00 am.  Then down for breakfast and on the bus.  While the hotel was only a 25 minute walk to Acropolis it was on heck of a climb up to the Acropolis, which is located on a huge mountain top.   

After a short drive we started up the last climb up to the Acropolis.  The Acropolis was a a temple to Athena.  The Acropolis is absolutely huge and totally dominates the sky line of Athens.  The entrance to the temple grounds is dominated by this huge gate.  From the gate the there is a panoramic view of Athens.  We are so glad to be here in January as there was hardly anyone at the site, The at gate there are 6 sets of turnstiles so they must get a lot of visitors.  The temple is absolutely huge.   To give you an idea of how large the pillars are Agnes is standing beside one of the column drums which are 5 feet in diameter.  The temple was constructed around 550 BC and was used until around 500 AD.  

After our visit to the Acropolis we walked down to the Acropolis museum.  It is a very new an beautiful building.  It has hundreds of pieces of pottery and hundreds of statues.  The inside is modelled to represent the Acropolis.  With the different pieces laid out as they would have been.  The ends of the museum have the different statues from the pediments.  Outside Athena's owl, which is the symbol of wisdom stands guard.

Back on the bus and off the the ship.   Glad to be here and settled in.  Stay tuned for ship pictures.  As we were leaving lunch we were asked if we would like an additional reservation at the specialty dining steak house (no charge).  Wow.

Today's temperature is 17 C.

What a great day.

Terr  

Day off in Athens

 Viking Greece Cruise Tour

Day off in Athens

January 27, 2026

Today was a day off so for once we didn't have to be up and out the door by 6:00 am.  It was nice to have an easy morning and a leisurely breakfast.  The hotel has a very nice breakfast buffet and in typical European fashion have the sautéed mushrooms, which I just love.  After numerous cups of coffee and platefuls of croissants Agnes and I were off on a walking tour.  

My charging cable for my Garmin watch is not connecting very well and I saw on Google a store which sells them only a few blocks away so we headed over there.  Well just like the 600 BC Oracle which gave out ambivalent answers, the 2026 Google answer wasn't quite right either as the store turned out to be a supplement store selling protein powers and the like.  

Turns out that there are lots of different ancient sites in downtown Athens and our short little walking tour passed several sights.  One was an ancient graveyard which was outside the city walls, one was of the city walls, one was a market area, and one was a gigantic area cover in several blocks.   Above it all was the Acropolis, which sits atop a huge cliff and dominates the sky line.  

We wandered through the flea market area where there are thousands of tourist trap stores.  Agnes was able to get some retail therapy in.  It was an absolutely beautiful day so we stopped and had a wonderful lunch of chicken gyros at an out door café.  No crowds  so January is really the time of the year to visit.

On the way back to the hotel we came to the  Athens Cathedral which is a Greek Orthodox Cathedral.  It wasn't as big as some of the large cathedrals but it was absolutely stunning in side.   A very different look from the regular Catholic Gothic Cathedrals.  A lot of silver murals and a dark painted ceiling set the stage.  

Back in the hotel we had to pack our suitcases as tomorrow we are off to the cruise ship. Suitcases in the hall before 6:00 am.

What a great day.

Terry 

 

Delphi Greece

Viking Greece - Rome 

Jan 26, 2026

Delphi Greece

Today's tour was out to see the ancient Greek ruins at Delphi.  Delphi was the site of the Temple of Apollo and the Oracle.  It was a 2.5 hour bus ride from our hotel in Athens. So we were on the bus good and early.  We had been told that there was major rain storms in the forecast so bring rain gear and be prepared for some cold blustery weather. On the way out the bus encountered a bunch of driving rain and horrific wind, so everyone on the bus was moaning about how nasty it was going to be.  

We we arrived at Delhi the rain paused and the clouds parted to give us a little sun. It was pretty nice.  The tour guide had been telling us on the way out all about how the Tembple of Apollo worked and how the schedule of the Oracle worked.  The Temple was open for business 365 but you had to bring offerings to get in to plead your case to Apollo.. The oracle was only open for 6 months a year so there was a line up to see the Oracle however by bringing better offerings you could jump the cue to get in.  You could ask the Oracle anything but the trick was how to phrase your question. The Oracle's advise was always elusive and difficult to determine what was actually meant.  Sort of sounds like asking AI today.   

Delphi is located on the side of some very steep mountians and has a spectacular view down the valley.  The overall site is quite large and has a thousand large uneven steps, which being wet from the rain were quite slippery.  Most of the site has been excavated but there is still large sections which are excavated and a couple of sites were being excavated.

Apollo's Temple has only six columns still standing and most of the base is still there.  It is a little hard to imagine what this looked like at the height of it's glory with all the white marble and brightly painted facades. However in farness this site was built around 550 BC. 

After we toured the site we went into the museum where the tour guide lead us through all of the exhibits.  There were a lot of really beautiful pieces of art which had been recovered from the site.  It was very beautiful.  

We were certainly glad to be here in January when there were very few people visiting the site. There must have been parking for a thousand buses.  

By the time we stopped for lunch and drove back it was close to 6:00 pm.  Agnes and I were just beat and went across the street and got a take out spinach and cheese pie for supper. 

Missed the rain and saw Delphi without the crowds,  Perfect!

Terry

Athens Tours January 25 2026

Athens to Rome January 2920 

Athens Tours  Day one

January 25, 2026

Todays tours started with a huge buffet breakfast in the hotel at 6:00 am and on the bus at 7:40.  It was to be a big day with a lot to see and alot of very long and complicated stories about Greek mythology.  A lot of the sites are pre written history or at the very earliest of written history so what is know fals into the mythology area.

The first stop was the Corinth Canal which was built in 1922. It is only a couple of miles long but cuts off 131 miles around some very dangerous coastline. It is a sea level canal and has no locks and only one ship can go through at a time.   This was right after WW1 and Greece was totally broke and in need of new infrastructure.  The Prime Minister pushed this project through against a lot of opposition but it was a huge success and is still in use to day.

The second stop was at the Epidauros theater.  This theater was built around 325 bc.  It can seat 0ver 13,000 people.  The acoustics are absolutely amazing a coin dropped in the center of the theater can be heard in the very top rows of the theatre.  The stone seating is absolutely amazing.  Each of the stone blocks are perfect cut and fitted together so that they all interlock and support each other.  I climbed up about half way and was totally amazed as you could heard the tiniest whisper spoke in the center of the theatre.    

The fourth stop was the Treasure of Atreus, or the tomb of Agamemnon.  It is huge stone structure built around 12500 BC,   This huge tomb is constructed of huge limestone blocks which form a conical beehive.  It was hit by grave robbers early on so not much is know about it.

The last stop was a huge Mycenae fort built in 1300 BC.  It is know as the Lion Gate for the large triangular stone carving of two lions over the gate.  It is a huge complex covering several acres.  It was excavated in the late 1890's so quite a bit is know about how the fort operated.  It was the headquarters of the Mycenae civilization in the 1300 BC time period.  The rocks are al dry laid and are perfectly fitted so the walls have not fallen down.  Even tough the path was extremely steep I climbed right to the top, where the view was outstanding.

We didn't get back to the hotel until almost 4:00.  It was a long, long day of tours, but very interesting.

Terry