Three more Mediterranean cities, two of which we actually visited.
Kos is famous as the place where Hippocrates taught. A place claimed to be his teaching spot is marked by a statue and a plane tree that is said to have shaded him while teaching. Hippocrates, often called the "Father of Medicine," was a Greek physician who lived from roughly 460 to 375 BC. Since a plane tree can live for 200-300 years, this tree, even though obviously old and dying, has to be the great-great-great-great-great-grandchild, give or take a great or two.
The Gazi Hashan Pasha mosque is adjacent to this tree, and constructed somewhere around 1780, more or less. Restoration is necessary -- look at the severe narrowing at the base of the minaret. If it fell it could take out "Hippocrates Tree" and Hippocrates Statue, three attractions for the price of one.
The Agora
Agia Paraskeue
City gate from the walled city.
Fortress of Neratzia, guarding the harbor
Heraklion Crete is another old city. It was a longish walk from the cruise terminal to the city, but within our reach. We passed the Venetian Arsenals on the waterfront, dating back to its days as a Venetian city.
Koules Fortress, built by the Venetians in the early 16th century, guarding the harbor
St Peter Monastery
St Menus Cathedral
25th of August Street, a pedestrian shopping street
Santorini is a place we have visited many times before. We shared the caldera (Santorini is an extinct volcano) with 6 other cruise liners totaling about 8000 passengers.
There are three ways to get from the ship up to Fira above: 1) You can take an excursion. They will tender you to the ferry dock in the south where you board your bus; 2) you can take the cable car (see below); 3) you can walk up 600 steps, sharing the path with donkeys and donkey by-product. You can choose to ride the donkeys if you wish. The smell on a warm summer day is the same either way.
The building on the left is the cable car terminal. The mass of people across the picture (and this is only half of the line) are waiting to take that cable car to the top. Extensive analysis of the entire system shows that the cable car can move about 500-700 people per hour in each direction.
Everyone in Fira wanting to return to the ships has only two choices to get down, 2) and 3) above. The wait times for the cable car have exceeded two hours on crowded days. Put it all together, and we stayed aboard.
The wide view of Fira when the sun was high
The winding path up/down
Avalanche chute from Fira down to the sea. I understand why no one has built below this.
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