Sanctuary of the Gods

In April 2006, we toured Athens, Greece and the surrounding countryside, before boarding the Oceania Regatta for a 10 day cruise to the Greek Isles, Croatia and Turkey. We ended the trip with several days in Istanbul, Turkey.

For the short version see the Best of Greece, Croatia and Turkey.

Athens

Our hotel, the Grand Bretagne, proved to be well located for touring the sights of Athens such as the Acropolis, the Plaka, and several great museums.

Delphi

Our pre-arranged taxi service picked us up in Athens for the two hour trip to Delphi. The site and its beautiful museum made the trip worthwhile, and a breakfast stop for fresh yogurt and honey turned us on to a new favorite for us.

Dubrovnik

Visiting the old walled city of Dubrovnik had to be one of the highlights of our entire trip.  We had a perfect day, and had arranged a private driver in advance. We visited Cavtat, viewed Dubrovnik from the cliffs above the city, and then spent the remainder of our time in the old city.  A walk around the city on the ramparts is a must.

Corfu

We visited Corfu on Easter Sunday for us - Palm Sunday for them.  We visited the Achillon, a palace built in the 1800s by Empress Elizabeth of Austria.

After touring this palace, we visited Corfu Town, where we were lucky to find that the Parade of Saint Spyridon, the patron saint of Corfu, was scheduled.

Santorini

From the harbor we took the cable car to the capital city of Fira. After touring there, including its excellent museum, we took a taxi to Oia, with its scenic, oft photographed blue domes

Delos

In legend the birthplace of Apollo, today Delos is an open air museum, and an active archeological site.  We really enjoyed wandering among the ruins of this small island.

Mykonos

Although easily the least favorite island of any that we visited on our cruise, Mykonos still proved to be an interesting destination, sharing the day with our Delos tour.

Rhodes

This island, and in particular its perfectly preserved medieval Rhodes Town, was one of my favorite destinations. The Knights of Rhodes commanded their empire from this island fortress for centuries, before being defeated and forced to flee to Malta.

Kusadasi is the port closest to the ancient city of Ephesus.  Standing in an amplitheatre where St. Paul once preached is a very special feeling, and seeing the Library of Celsus was high on my list of "must do" sights.

Istanbul

The layers of history, figuratively and literally, represented by Istanbul made this our favority stop of any on our cruise. The overlay of Byzantine, Ottoman and Islamic cultures make for a very rich environment. We were glad we'd planned to stay several extra days here at the end of our cruise.  We would go back in a second if we could.