August 5 - 7 Kos Greece, Heraklion Crete, Santorini Greece

 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.

 

August 3 Alanya Turkey

 We've been here before, but don't remember it. We'll have to check the pictures from long ago to see what we did when we were here, probably 15 years ago.

Alanya is beautiful, and I don't understand why we don't remember it. We docked just below the fortified old town. Here's a panorama of the hillside above us. The description says there are 6.5km of wall surrounding the town.

Here's the detail of the eastern wall from the harbor to the Ehmedek Castle at the top of the hill.

We walked from the pier to the beach promenade through the flat part of Alanya. A statue of Attaturk in front of the Red Tower, built in 1226. Attaturk came much later.

Along the beach there were dozens of tour boats lined up, all offering boat tours of the harbor. Or at least that's what I thought. 

 Their decor was garish, with a Pirates of the Caribbean theme.

 

Even though kinder and gentler with teddy bears, they are all dressed as pirates.

Continuing into the town, looking back at the hilltop castle.

 Lots of cats roaming the village. Or they would be roaming if not sound asleep. This guy has found a sheltered spot.

Kuyularonu Cami

Although unsuitable for Superman to change from Clark Kent, here's a still functioning (I think) phone booth. Looks more like a helmet, or the Get Smart Cone of Silence.

Children's park. 

One of the lights defining the harbor entrance.

Alanya has two big beaches. This is the eastern one, Anjelic Beach.

A Disney-like waterfall along the promenade.

On the eastern mountains.

Another view of the lighthouse and beach.

I believe these caves were used by the Venetians for boat building.

 Either Nautica is under attack from pirate ships, or will be an innocent bystander in the conflict that's about to ensue. 

 No -- it turns out that these tour boats are actually swimming boats. You ride the boat into a protected part of the harbor and go swimming. That explains the big pile of life preservers on the back of the boats -- those who want to get wet but don't trust their swimming ability can float about. You can see a guy in blue trunks midway between the ladder and water. Lots of guys were jumping in from 10-20 feet above the water.

Kind of a reverse swimming pool

 

 

 

 

July 31 - August 2, Bodrum Turkey, Rhodes Greece, Antalya Turkey

 Another grouping of three seaside cities, except that Bodrum is the only new visit for us. We'd been to Antalya long ago, and Rhodes is one of our favorite Mediterranean stops.

Bodrum has a castle that dates back to 1402, built by the Knights of St John and called the Castle of St Peter.  

Since the port was some distance from the city, we were bussed into town and dropped off right next to the municipal building, The busts on display are famous Turks from the modern era.

Aya Nikola Kilisesi, an ancient church, just outside the bazaar

A restaurant door, with a view of Nautica far in the distance

The Bodrum Bazaar. Every Turkish town we have visited has one of these -- a warren of pedestrian streets, certainly not arranged in a grid pattern, filled with shops. And at every one, the owner stands outside and attempts to start a conversation and entice you into the shop.

Not everyone is trying hard to sell you something

On to Rhodes, Greece and its fortified harbor. This is where the Colossus of Rhodes, a wonder of the ancient world, stood.

Enter the walled city through the Virgin Mary Gate

Panagia tou Bourgou (also known as the Virgin Mary of the Burgh or Our Lady of Mercy) is one of the most distinctive landmarks in the medieval Town of Rhodes.

The walk through the city is full of interesting details

Hippokratous Square

Socrates Street is the shopping street, as yet uncrowded because we arrived very early to avoid the heat of the afternoon.

A local unconcerned about the heat of the day. All three cities in the post were full of well-fed cats.

Palace of the Grand Master of the Knights of Rhodes

Wall decorations along the street of the knights. I'm guessing that this was the identifier for the inhabitants of this building

The street of the knights

I think this is Arnaldo Gate

Palace of the Grand Master from our docked ship

We have visited Antalya before but we don't remember it at all. We had to bus nearly 8 miles from the industrial port to the city center. It's possible that there was no shuttle bus back in 2010 and we stayed with the ship.

This is the beginning of a shopping street leading to the Clock tower in the distance. The Old Bazaar is to the left front. 

The Clock Tower

Tekeli Mehmet Pasa Camii, the mosque behind the clock tower. Built in the 17th century, so it's young for this region of the world (and still years older than the USA).

Ruins of the city wall

Statue of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founding father of Turkey, located in Republic Square.

More Turkish shopping

A panorama (which is why it looks distorted) of Hadrian's Gate, which was built in the name of the Roman emperor Hadrian, who visited the city in 130 CE.