Viking: Empires of the Mediterranean Cruise
(The Adriatic Sea), July 21-31, 2024

Early in our bus tour of Athens and it's suburbs, we passed The Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center, which includes new facilities for the National Library of Greece, the National Opera, as well as other facilities for arts, sports, and recreation.

A former brewery of the favorite local beer has been converted to a modern art museum. The red sign on the side of the building says, in English, "What if women ruled the world?" The second half of the sign is Greek to me.

Is this the Acropolis or the Parthenon? I finally got an answer! The Acropolis is the hill; the Parthenon is an ancient religious temple the Athenians built for the Greek goddess Athena.

This Panathenaic stadium was originally built in 330 BC as a racecourse, then rebuilt entirely of white marble as a stadium in 144 AD. After centuries of disuse it was restored for the Olympic games in 1896. Look closely and you will see the three tier platforms for Olympic winners, that visitors are playing on. Current capacity is 45,000 but it seated 80,000 for the 1896 games (if they used the same marble seats. maybe people were half as fat in 1896).

Across the city from the Acropolis atop Mount Lycabettus sits the small Chapel of St. George. At 300 meters, Mount Lycabettus is the highest peak in Athens.

At street level is this huge unique sculpture of a sprinter, made of countless layers of glass. Our guide admitted that it looked much more attractive after a rain shower cleaned off the dust and made it glisten in the light.

This Dipylon Amphora, over 5 feet tall, is from the 8th century BC. The decoration suggests it was a grave marker for a woman of high status.

Marble statue of Kouros from the 6th century BC. It functioned as a grave marker for a fallen young warrior. We know he was a warrior because his left foot is forward.

The Artemision Bronze is an ancient Greek sculpture that was recovered from the sea off Cape Artemision, in northern Euboea, Greece, in 1928. It is bronze from 450 BC, and represents Zeus, the thunder-god and king of gods. His right hand is believed holding a spear or lightning bolt.

Marble grave stele (marker) of Hegeso, about 410-400 BC. The seated person is the deceased, receiving funeral gifts from friends.

Bronze statue of a horse with young jockey, 150-140 BC. Noteworthy is the accuracy of the anatomic detail in both horse and jockey.

Solid gold cups from Vafio, 1500 to 1450 BC

Painted column from the 16th Century BC. Especially interesting is the painting of the fishermen reproduced flat...

A large storage jar from 1450 - 1400 BC donated to the museum in 1887.

Arch of Hadrian, from 131 AD. The inscription (in Greek) on the Northwest side: "This is Athens, the ancient city of Theseus." (Greek). On the Southeast side: "This is the city of Hadrian and not of Theseus" (Roman)

Five standing columns with one or more being restored inside the scaffolding. Unfortunately I forgot what god these columns were honoring. Since it was near Hadrian's gate they may be remnants of the temple of Zeus.

Santorini is an island South of Athens, largely formed of black volcanic rock. The capitol, Thira, perches on a cliff 1,300 feet above the sea, and boasts a 5,000 year history. This picture of the "old" harbor makes the switch back road to the top visible; just to the left of the road is a cable car.

Our ship was in the "new" harbor. If you look very carefully you may be able to see at least 8 tour busses (I had to search hard to see them) on the switch back highway to the top (fewer, longer legs than the old harbor).

Our ship was one of several in the new harbor. The locals required that we use their tender boats (rather than the ship's boats) to ferry us from the ship to the harbor. Nominally each ship was anchored, but for whatever reason, no anchors were used. Some poor seaman had to continually operate the ship's thrusters to hold the ship in position for the 10 hours we were in port.

As you walk the short distance from the bus to the city, one of the first landmark is The Greek Orthodox Church of Virgin Mary Platsani.

Web references to this church always seem to include the picture over the door, but more important is perhaps proof of life that I was there.

Santorini, and especially Thira, are extremely popular tourist destinations. So popular that I recently saw a news report that they are trying to figure out how to limit the tourist traffic. The 15,500 permanent residents feel overrun by the 3.4 million tourists from 800 cruise ships each year.

Believe it or not these are grape vines. Local wine is common, but the vines are close to the ground. There is little rain during the growing season, but the overnight dew is absorbed by the volcanic soil and waters the plants. Our guide explained that local people with a few vines making wine for their own use pick the grapes on their hands and knees. Those with larger vineyards bring in foreign labor for the back breaking seasonal job.

With the city on a cliff, many of the stores were built like this one... most of the store on stairs.

On Thursday we traveled to the port of Katakolon, a fishing village surrounded by olive groves, orchards, and vineyards, and a road that leads to the legendary city of Olympia, birthplace of the Olympic games. Some parts survived the earthquakes and test of time, but other parts have been moved to a museum for preservation.

This is the temple of Hera, queen of the Greek Gods. It is still the place where the olympic flame is lit for each olympic games (using mirrors from the sunlight) and transported throughout the world to the site of the games.

The monument of Ptolemy II consisted of two columns which were scattered around the ruins because of time and earthquakes. However, an 8 year effort went into restoring one of the columns to full height, completed in 2017. This also provided a setting for further proof of life.

Entrance to an original Olympic stadium. Athletes went down this corridor; on the walls of the corridor were pictures of previous athletes caught cheating - attempting to use performance enhancing materials. They were banned from future games for life.

Jenny in the hall of shame. She could not have been an athlete, since all the original Olympic athletes were male and competed in the nude. The queen was the only female in the audience.

After her long explanation of the Olympic dress code, I felt obligated to ask our guide if I could sneak in with my clothes on. I don't know why everyone in our group suddenly needed to inhale sharply.

The "new" Fortress in Corfu is massive from the base but unimpressive. It was built 1576 to 1645 (new?)

After the bus dropped us off at the top of the fortress, we had a great view of the harbor.

There is also an international airport right there. This is just an island, so I put the camera away, expecting to see small private planes. Suddenly a large commercial passenger jet plane landed "right there." Of course, my camera had been put away, so you have to imagine a B737 or larger.

This was an early Christian Basilica of Saint Kerkyra

The harbor caters to wealthy visitors. Next to the black ship are a couple others that would have been considered large in another context.

Across the harbor is the "Old" Fortress, well before the "New" fortress started in 1576.

Back at sea level we encountered this giant marble statue of Johann Matthias von der Schulenburg 1661-1747. He was in the army of the various countries in the area, but in one of the last battles as a General he "saved Corfu." (No other info except that brief comment on Google). He retired as an art collector, and had no heirs, so his collection was donated.

Greek Orthodox Church of Holy Mary Mandrakina. Originally built in the 18th century and damaged during WWII, the church is completely restored in the 1950's. Small and centrally located it is especially popular for weddings.

This Palace was built 1819-1824 for British Lord commissioner until Corfu became part of Greece in 1864. Occasionally used for Greek royalty until became the "Museum of Asian Art in Corfu" in 1927.

Another very elegant Orthodox church we visited.

Old town was vibrant with lots of shops and cafes.

Which was thoroughly tested.

The food on Viking ships is fantastic, with unique menus each day (in addition to a separate menu of ordinary things like steak always available). This was today's menu when we got back on board. The "Destination Menu" at the top is oriented to our specific location, so you can get a unique meal each day without thinking, or you can select from any of the items on the menu.