Glorious Greece!

Hello friends and family.  Sorry for the long delay in posting our adventures.  Unfortunately, our tablet decided to take a vacation of its own in the beautiful town of Olympia (Greece, not Washington), so we were unable to post anything.  It was an answer to prayer that the tour guide was able to locate it for us and return it to us as we prepared to leave our beautiful cruise ship. We are back home now, but I will post our adventures a few days at a time, so as not to overwhelm you.

We departed Spokane, and flew to Chicago, then Vienna, and then to Athens.  We were transferred to our ship at the port of Pireas.  We met up with our fellow travellers, Betsy Seidel and Bob Martin, Sandy and Jim Long, and Dick Martin.  We were definitely a band of Merry Wanderers.

We settled into our beautiful stateroom, checked out the view from our personal veranda as we left port, and the fun began.  We had 4 staterooms in a row, so were able to have conversations from the verandas morning and night.  We probably looked and sounded hysterical as we hung over the railings chattering away like a bunch of birds.

The ship, Oceania Cruise Line's "Riviera", was stunning.  It was completely remodeled in 2016, even though it was just built in 2012!  We had an amazing marble bathroom, a very plush mattress, sheets and comforter to die for (1,000 count linen sheets!), and every amenity you could think of.

The Riviera.  She is a "small" cruise ship - only 1200 passengers.  There was a ratio of 1 crew member for every 1.5 passengers, so the service was incredible.

Mike boarding the ship

Our marble bathroom.  I am already scheming on how to redo the master bath in our new house!

The ship travelled from port to port at night, so we woke up each morning to new scenery.  We then had all day for shore excursions or free time to explore.

Well, here we are in our first port, sunny and beautiful Gythios, Greece.  It is a balmy 72 degrees which is perfect shorts weather.

Gythios is a beautiful little town and is the ancient port for Sparta.  We were "tendered" off the ship to dockside to board our bus.  Our first tour was to the town of Sparta.  We drove through the beautiful country side, filled with olive groves, orange and lemon trees, flowers of every type and color and lots of agriculture.  There are many abandoned and/or unfinished buildings all over Greece as a result of their economic collapse in 2008, and the residents struggle financially.  Their largest income is from tourism.  They also export a LOT of olive oil - olive trees are everywhere.  The other interesting reason for unfinished bouses is the Greek tradition of starting a house for their daughters as their wedding gift soon after they are born.  Grrek tradition is to leave the parent's home and property/business to the sons.  The daughters get a house close to their parents.  Greek families are very close and spend a lot of time together, even as adults.  The house is worked on as the daughter grows, and the whole family gets together and finishes and completely furnishes it in the weeks before the wedding.

Many of our ports of call can't accommodate big ships, so we will be taken ashore in "tenders".

The tender from the ship

Once on shore we boarded our bus.

Greek streets were not designed for big tour busses!  The drivers were amazing in their ability to squeeze through little ancient villages.

Most taxis in Greece (and throughout Europe, in fact) are Mercedes.

Greek traffic is crazy!  If they can't find a parking place, they just double park.  They will run out and move for the busses and trucks when they honk their horns.

Statue to Leonidus, Spartan warrior and leader of "The 300", Spartan warriors famous for holding off an army of invaders.

The statue was amazing in its detail.

We visited a museum dedicated to the olive.  Didn't sound too exciting, but was actually very interesting.  They have documented evidence of olives being cultivated and used as far back as 3.000 BC. 

Ancient jars used to store olives

Beautiful ancient olive oil light

Amazing mosaic of an olive tree

Next stop on the tour was a family owned winery and vineyard, whch has been in the family for centuries.

The family home and winery.

The owner is very proud of his winery and was a gracious host.  We enjoyed a tour, followed by "mezes" (plates of bread, hummus, cheese,olives and other local delicacies) and very nice white wine,

Olives growing on a tree in their olive grove.  They also press their own olive oil.  These are not yet ripe - they turn ourple and then black as they ripen.  Olives are inedible until they have been processed, usually by brining.

Back on the bus for our return to Gythios.  We had free time to wander around.  Located a bank to exchange some dollars for Euros.  The first challenge was figuring out how to get into the bank.  Every sign is in Greek, and the doors are locked.  Fortunately someone coming out spoke English and explained.  You have to buzz for entrance, then enter a "lock port" one at a time, then be buzzed in.  Then you have to provide your passport, which they make a copy of (ID theft concerns, anyone?), then they make a copy of the bills you are exchanging, then you sign both copies, and finally they give you Euros.  Whew!  

We strolled around, gad a little traditional pastry that was like an unsweetened doughnut but quite good, and made our way back to the tender.

On the wharf.  Check out the octopus tentacles hanging on the rack.  Octopus is a Greek delicacy and the display is supposed to be enticing.  We passed!

Boats at anchor

The harbor

The tender back to the ship

Back on board, relaxing on our veranda

Time to meet up with the rest of the crew for dinner. We all have different shore excursions on many of our days, so decided to get together for dinner each night and share our adventures.  There are multiple places to eat on board, with 4 of the restaurants requiring reservations, which we made a long time ago.  There are also 2 other restaurants that don't require reservations and are more relaxed.  One is buffet style, with some items cooked to order, and the other a more formal "Grand Dining Room".  None require "dressing for dinner", which we all like, but "resort casual" is requested, which is fine.  The food in all places is beautiful and well prepared.  The wait staff is amazing.  Dick is already engaged in a running battle with them over serving himself beverages - a big "no no" in their eyes.  He tries and they catch him!   Tables are set with linen and cloth napkins, which the waiters place in your lap.  I could get used to this!

An after-dinner stroll around the decks to check out the amenities and then off to bed.  Found the bed all turned down, chocolate on our pillows, and even a cloth on the floor to step out of bed onto before putting on our "Oceania" slippers and totally amazing and thick terry cloth robe!  Good night, everyone.