Four Islands in Three Days

After four days on a bus with a husband who is 6'3" we returned to Athens for one night to prepare for a cruise, stopping at a few of the Greek islands. We were only in Athens for the night so we spent it staring at the Acropolis. I really couldn't get enough of it.

We were on a Greek cruise line. It wasn't a luxury cruise. It was a way to see all the islands I wanted to see. Our first stop was Mykonos. We saw the windmills, the Little Venice area of the island and had a most incredible dinner. We sat next to the water, ate Caprese Salad and people watched. It was beautiful.

While we slept, the boat took us to Kusadasi, Turkey. Our excursion to Ancient Ephesus began at 7 a.m. Our guide, George, was a Turkish man who seemed more interested in making sure we spent money on Turkish carpets than that we get to see Ephesus. That being said, Ephesus was most impressive. Only 15% of it has been currently excavated and it is already huge. It has a library with a beautiful facade and a theatre that seats 44,000.

After rushing us through this ancient wonder, George walked us through a shopping area where people were trying to get us to buy "genuine fake watches" and pictures on a camel.

Then he hurried us off to the Turkish carpet co-op. After offering everyone alcohol the carpet salesman put on a display of his carpets that left Bryan and I giggling. The cheapest carpets started at around $1,000 and went up quickly to over $6,000. While some of our fellow excursionists were actually considering buying carpets, Bryan and I snuck out by way of the elevator only to learn that they also sold jewelry and we had walked right into the middle of that store. We settled for fresh Turkish delight and hurried back to the ship before anyone else tried to sell us something.

We ate lunch on the ship and prepared for our afternoon excursion to Patmos. It was here where John of Patmos received his vision that we know as the Book of Revelation. The cave where this supposedly happened is now a church. A steep staircase leads down to the cave. Hundreds of people were either on their way down or on their way back up again. We joined a long and slow procession for a very brief tour of the cave.

Next we made the intense trek up to the Monastery of St. John on the hill above Skala, Patmos. Inside the monastery is a small Greek Orthodox church and a museum that houses some amazing artifacts -- one being a copy of the Gospel of Mark from the 5th century A.D. In the library, which is housed below the museum, the books are kept in the dark.

Back to the ship for dinner and bed. We awoke in Crete and a 7 a.m. excursion to Knossos Palace. The palace was Minoan and built in 1700 B.C -- reconstructed from a palace built on the same site in 2000 B.C. It is estimated that there would have been 12,000 people living here with four times that many living around the palace. It is heralded as the birth place of European civilization.

Back to the ship to pack our bags because we were getting off on Santorini. This truly was a dream trip for us.