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Turkey and Greece 2009

a travel blog by DRKester


A cruise around the Greek islands with a visit to Istanbul and Ephesus Turkey.
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Istanbul

Istanbul, Turkey


First stop Istanbul and our hotel in Sultanahmet. The Kybele Hotel had over 4000 lamps in the ceilings of the lobby and rooms. This is our room and the stairs to get to our room.

And the lobby of the hotel

We were dealing with jet lag, and decided just to walk down to the square between the Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque and do some people watching.

We also went into the Four Seasons Hotel which was beautifully restored from a former prison.

We ate the first night at a sidewalk restaurant recommended by the hotel. The owner also had a rug shop next door. In fact I think everyone in Turkey had at least one rug shop, and they all wanted to be our new best friends.

It turns out that we arrived on the first day of Ramadan. So after our dinner we walked back down to the square, where there was a line for the traditional first meal.

We did most of our touring on our second day in town with a trip to the Suleymaniye Mosque

and the Grand Bazaar. Note the convoluted wiring on the outside of buildings.

After lunch, we went inside the Blue Mosque.

and went down to the Basicilica Cistern. Our hotel was built on top of the Cistern, so it had limited head room in the basement restaurant.

Our hotel was an easy walk to the square near the Blue Mosque, that turned out to be the hub of the celebration.


There was entertainment in the square with a juggler, magician and other acts. We snapped a picture of this cutie with his face painted for the occasion.

The third day we went to Topkapi Palace.

There are wild cats all around the city, but this mother and her kittens lived on the Palace grounds.

After checking into the ship, we took a boat ride up the Bosphorus.

On our last morning in Istanbul, we walked to the Galata Tower and rode to the top.

We also passed a restaurant with an apt name, so Rick posed for a photo.


permalink written by  DRKester on August 24, 2009 from Istanbul, Turkey
from the travel blog: Turkey and Greece 2009
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Ephesus

Kusadasi, Turkey


Our first stop on our cruise was Kusadasi Turkey. Oceania offered several organized tours to Ephesus, but we prefer independent touring. The ship provided a local representative each morning to answer questions about the city. We discovered that we could get a taxi to take us to the site, drop us at the top, and pick us back up at the bottom for no more than $100. We connected with another couple to share a cab, and the guys haggled the price down to $80 for the four of us.

Ephesus is amazing. We took tons of pictures, and here are just a few.



permalink written by  DRKester on August 25, 2009 from Kusadasi, Turkey
from the travel blog: Turkey and Greece 2009
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Delos and Mykonos

Mykonos, Greece


Our next port of call was Delos Greece.

We also were supposed to stop at Mykonos, but it was too windy to safely tender to shore. So the best we got was a shot from the ship.



permalink written by  DRKester on August 26, 2009 from Mykonos, Greece
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Rhodes Greece

Rodos, Greece


One of our favorite stops was Rhodes Greece. Well preserved old town with an interesting walk between the walls.


permalink written by  DRKester on August 27, 2009 from Rodos, Greece
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Santorini

Thira, Greece


Santorini was next. After tendering to shore, Rick decided to ride a donkey to the top. Ask Rick what it's like to ride the Alpha Donkey. I took the easier cable car.

Very picturesque place with a walk/climb along the edge of the hill.


We both took the cable car down. The donkeys are limited by gravity on the way up, but on the way down they run to get to food at the bottom. Possibly life threatening.


permalink written by  DRKester on August 28, 2009 from Thira, Greece
from the travel blog: Turkey and Greece 2009
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Old Olympia

Katakalion, Greece


We took the train to old Olympia.
We only had 2 hours to tour before catching the train back to port.
We ran out of time, but took a quick look at the museum.


permalink written by  DRKester on August 29, 2009 from Katakalion, Greece
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Corfu

Kerkyra, Greece


We took a bus to town, and then walked around a bit.


permalink written by  DRKester on August 30, 2009 from Kerkyra, Greece
from the travel blog: Turkey and Greece 2009
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Dubrovnik

Dubrovnik, Croatia


One of the more interesting stops was Dubrovnik Croatia. We took a local bus to the old town.



permalink written by  DRKester on August 31, 2009 from Dubrovnik, Croatia
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Crete

Aghios Nikolaos, Greece, Greece


We spent a day at sea and played some ship games. Rick won his Ping Pong game.
Then we went to Crete.

After a bit of walking around town, we walked towards a swimming beach. Rick went back later for a swim.



permalink written by  DRKester on September 2, 2009 from Aghios Nikolaos, Greece, Greece
from the travel blog: Turkey and Greece 2009
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Athens

Athens, Greece


The final stop on our trip was Athens. We'd been there before, but still had to see the sights. We went to the Parliament Gardens and old Olympic stadium. Then walked to Hadrian's Arch and the Temple of Zeus.

Near the Temple of Zeus was the remains of old houses.


Lastly we went to the New Acropolis Museum, which is across the street from the Acropolis

Lots of walking.

We finished our day with a great dinner on the ship.



permalink written by  DRKester on September 3, 2009 from Athens, Greece
from the travel blog: Turkey and Greece 2009
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