Istanbul to Rome Cruise Review, Part 3

The last few sentences at the end of Part 2 of this review, were somehow recopied from the beginning of the review. One of these days I might learn how use this copy and paste thing. Sorry.

TUESDAY, SEPT. 4, 2007-ISTANBUL/SEA DREAM-80 DEGREES, SUNNY

After breakfast we checked out of the hotel and had to say goodbye to the wonderful beds. We went with Dogan and Ishmeal to the Chora Church (Church of St. Savior). Chora means country and when this church was built it was outside the walls of Istanbul. It was converted into a mosque and mosaics were painted over and then in the 1930’s it was restored. After St. Sophia, this Church was the most important Byzantine Church in Istanbul. It was built in the 11th century AD. The Chora Church was the highlight of our trip to Istanbul. I would highly recommend a visit. Our guide, Dogan, told us that if we hadn’t requested that this church be added to our itinerary, he would have taken us there anyway.

The Church had breathtaking 14th century mosaics. The mosaics told the story of Mary’s birth and life. They also showed the life of Jesus from his birth, miracles that he performed and his death. The largest mosaic was a depiction of the Last Judgment. I have been in many churches that had mosaics, but none like the Chora Church. The mosaics were so clear, and were one right after another in order of time, telling the stories in somewhat of a reel of movie film mode.

We then visited the Suleymaniye Mosque. Along with the Chora Church, this was another sight I added to Sea Song’s suggested itinerary. Built between 1500 and 1557, it is regarded as the most beautiful of all imperial mosques. It is a huge mosque. The mausoleum of Suleyman the Magnificent and his wife, Roxelana were built in the garden of this complex. The Suleymaniye is, in our opinion, more impressive than the Blue Mosque or Hagia Sopia.

After leaving the Mosque it was a short walk to the Spice (Egyptian) Bazaar. It was small, but there were little shops like the Grand Bazaar, but the items here were mostly spices. There were bins of spices in every color you can imagine. At one time, only spices were sold here, but now there are also souvenirs.

Our tour of Istanbul was now over. We were driven to the dock where we said goodbye and tipped Dogan ($100) and Ishmeal ($35). They were both truly very good as a guide and driver. We had many interesting conversation about both Istanbul and the US with Dogan during rest stops. He has never been to the US, but voiced his dream of visiting with his family some day. Dogan went into the port building with us and waited while we went through passport control and luggage screening. We then waved goodbye, with a lot of good memories of Istanbul. Istanbul is a clean city, with a skyline very different from what we are used to. It was almost mystical. We enjoyed our 4 days in this wonderful city.

A dock porter than took our luggage out of the building and there we had our first sight of Sea Dream II. We were ready to begin the dream part of our journey. The porter left our luggage next to the stairs up to the ship, but we couldn’t board yet. It was 1:10 and boarding wasn’t until 2p.m. Since the porter had left our luggage near the stairs and it was loaded onto the ship at the center, Joe had to take our luggage to the center of the ship. I was very surprised that someone from Sea Dream didn’t do this.

There was hand sanitizer, drinks and cold towels waiting when we came aboard. Every time we came onboard, the security officer was there with the hand sanitizer. We also told him our cabin number and he flipped the peg on a large board that showed that we were onboard. We were then shown to our cabin, 308. The cabin was small but with a lot of storage room, a well planned closet and plenty of drawers. After unpacking, our luggage fit into the wooden platform under the bed. I have already mentioned our displeasure of the beds, so I won’t repeat it again. We then went on a tour of the ship, and attended the Main Salon general information gathering. The crew was available for us to sign up for Spa appointments and shore excursions. At 5p.m. there was the mandatory life boat drill.

Soon it was time to dress for dinner. We went to the port talk in the Main Salon for information about Cannakale (our first port). When we arrived at the Dining Salon for the 8p.m. dinner, we were greeted by Sean Healy, the hotel manager. This was repeated each evening. We requested a table for two and he seated us at one by the windows. We met Betsy and Harris Hester from Conn. who sat at a table for two next to us. We had a pleasant conversation during a very good dinner of filet for Joe and linguini for me. We went to the pool area for a while after dinner and then to bed.

WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 5, 2007-DOCKED AT CANNAKALE-85 DEGREES-SUNNY

SHORE EXCURSIONS: “BATTLEFIELDS OF GALLIPOLI” AND “ANCIENT TROY”

We didn’t sign up for either of the excursions. After a very good breakfast we went to the spa for our appointments. The service was great. After the Spa, we walked around the town of Cannakale, which was very small, with not much to see or do.

After a great hamburger for lunch, we walked around the ship. We looked at an Atlas in the Library to get our sea bearings and found a map with the yacht’s position and route.

We spent the rest of the afternoon reading and napping on a Balinese Bed at the Top of the Yacht. These beds are great, very quiet and peaceful. If you have a desire to spend the night outside, the crew will set them up for you with pillows and duvets. Nearby the beds, were two high stools with binoculars for use by passengers. We wished there was a few more things to do onboard, like jigsaw puzzles or trivia games.

The Captain’s cocktail party was in the Main Salon at 7:15. The Captain introduced himself and some of his crew. Richard also gave us his talk on our next port, Kusadasi. Dinner was excellent, something we had already begun to expect.

THURSDAY, SEPT 6, 2007-DOCKED AT KUSADASI-80 DEGREES, SUNNY, BREEZY

SHORE EXCURSIONS: “EPHESUS AND THE HOUSE OF THE VIRGIN MARY” AND “EPHESUS AND THE TERRACE HOUSES” AND “PRIVATE EVENING CONCERT AT EPHESUS”

After breakfast we were off the yacht at 8:30a.m. for the shore excursion “Ephesus & The House of the Virgin Mary”. From the dock we took a ½ hour bus ride to the Virgin Mary’s House, where it is believed St. John brought Mary after the death of Jesus. It was found in 1891 as a result of a German nun’s dream. It is 1300 ft. above sea level. It is a very small house, no more than three tiny rooms. It now holds an altar and a statue of the Virgin. Outside along the walls there are three fountains to drink from. It is claimed if you drink from each of them, you will have health, wealth and love. There is also a wall, where visitors could leave written petitions to the Virgin.

A half hour later we were back on the bus to ride to Ephesus itself. The town was founded by Alexander the Great, 400 years before Christ. It was a very prosperous town and as big as it is, only 1/3 has been excavated. 250,000 people lived here at one time but floods, malaria, and earthquakes made it uninhabitable. The tour lasted two hours and started at the top of the town so that during the tour you walked downhill. When first approaching the town, it doesn’t look like much and you wonder “Is this it?”. No, not by a long shot. Shortly we arrived at the heart of the town, and it was astounding. You can see that it was at one time a very thriving community. The ruins of the temples, the Library and Theatre along with statues were remarkable and this is only 1/3 of what they expect to find. We toured the recently opened Terrace Houses where the “rich” lived. They are huge homes with 3 and 4 bedrooms. Archeologists are still working to open more of these houses. There are small pieces of marble that they are trying to put together, somewhat like a jigsaw puzzle but with no picture to use as a guide. Our guide was very, very good, one of the best we had, private or shore excursion. In Turkey, Sea Dream uses the services of Sea Song, and we already knew how good Dogan was in Istanbul.

After the tour of Ephesus, we were driven back to Kusadasi, which is a lot bigger than I had imagined. We went to a silk carpet making demonstration. I know, I know, stay away from these things, but this one was very good. There was absolutely no pressure to buy, and some of the carpets were beautiful. Joe and I then had pizza near the port and walked around town window shopping. Still no purchases.

The word “Kusadasi” means “bird island”. We also learned that St. Paul, Noah’s Ark, and Santa Claus all came from Turkey.

Back on the ship we napped for a short time. Dinner at 8p.m. was very good again. After dinner we borrowed a movie “Desperate Measures”. If my memory is correct, this was the night we received our Sea Dream pajamas. To bed around 11p.m.

FRIDAY, SEPT. 7, 2007-SANTORINI-SUNNY WITH A BEAUTIFUL SKY

SHORE EXCURSIONS: “CHEF’S PRIVATE LUNCHEON” AND “THE OTHER SIDE OF SANTORINI

Today was a stop at Santorini, the most southern of the Greek Islands. As we sailed toward the Caldera, we passed many small islands, some uninhabitable, all were beautiful. Finally, we arrived into the Caldera, what a beautiful sight. You are in this beautiful water with the towns of Santorini high above. We were able to see the cable car that takes you into the town of Fira and the alternate mode of transportation, the donkey trail. We were anchored in the Caldera by 10:45a.m.

At 1:45 our ship excursion “The Other Side of Santorini” left the yacht. There is always a cooler with iced bottles of water to take on the excursions. We took a motor launch that took as from the ship to the small port of Athinios. A bus was waiting for us for the ride up the side of the cliffs to top. As we drove, there were beautiful views of the caldera, including two volcanic islands, Nea Kameni and Pali Kameni. Our drive took us past the village of Pygos and up the highest point on Santorini. At the top was the Monastery of the Prophet Elijah. We found out after this hour bus ride, that the Monaster is only open one day a year, and this wasn’t that day. Very disappointing. After our “educational” part of the excursion, we went to the Antoniou Winery. We were supposed to see the original winery, that has been restored to show the way the wine was once produced. We never saw any of that, only a ½ hour talk by the present owner. We then proceeded out to the terrace to sample the wine. That is all they offered, wine and snacks. No water or any other drink was offered.

Next we were off to Oia. We were given no information about Oia, just a mention to be back at the bus in one hour. We stopped for a bathroom break and a cold drink and walked through town window shopping. It was then off to Fira. This was the end of the tour. I didn’t think the guide was good at all. All he did was talk about himself, where he lived, and how poor he was. He was an archaeologist who couldn’t find work. Little was said about what we were going to see on this tour. When we arrived at Fira, we were given tickets to take either the cable car or the donkeys down the mountain to the pier area to take a tender back to Sea Dream. We were exhausted, thirsty and hungry by this time. It was around 5p.m. The island was very windy, dusty and hot. It was quite a long way from where the bus dropped us off to the cable car. The donkeys were not an option for us, especially down the side of that cliff. We again window shopped, stopping in a few shops along the way.

When we got to the cable car, we learned it was shut down because of the wind. The ticket lady told us that it might be an hour before it was opened again. There were two other SD passengers waiting. The four of us agreed that we better start walking because it was getting dusk and it was a long way down. 700 hundred steps is longer that you think when you are trying to avoid donkey poo along the way. My calves started to scream at me before we were half-way down.

We finally reached the bottom were there was local tender to take us back to the yacht, where we took a quick shower. Derelin graciously offered to clean our shoes, which weren’t muddy, if you get what I mean. We then went to dinner. I think we were in bed by 9:45.

We were really disappointed in Santorini, which I believe was directly because of the tour. In hindsight, I should have listened to some CC messages that said to do Santorini on our own, rather than a shore excursion.

Loving all the details of your trip!