Greece and Turkey

Hello...

We are now back in France after a wonderful 10 days in Greece and Turkey. I know, lucky us. Elliott's parents flew in on April 24th and stayed in Biarritz for about 5 (unfortunately very rainy) days. It was so very fun to have guests. It was also sort of a reality check... I miss you all very much! The four of us then flew to Athens, where we stayed for 2 days before setting off on a 7 day cruise through Turkey and the Greek Islands. We then returned to Athens for 1 last day and flew back to France late Saturday night.

The first stop we made in Athens was at the beautiful Corinth Canal, which separates the Peloponnese and mainland Greece and connects the Gulf of Corinth with the Saronic Gulf in the Aegean Sea. We then drove to visit the 2300 year-old open air theater of Epidaurus. After Epidaurus, we stopped for lunch in the city of Nafplion, the former capital of Greece. We then drove to the ancient city of Mycenae, discovered by Heinrich Schliemann in 1870, before which it was though only to exist in ancient Greek legend and the poetry of Homer. Here we saw the Treasury of Atreus, the Beehive Tombs, the Lion's Gate, and the remains of Agamemnon's Royal Palace.

We sailed overnight to Istanbul, arriving with just enough time to visit the Grand Bazaar and Spice Bazaar, which were so amazing and full of energy. I spent my time bargaining for pashminas and sampling all of the wonderful Turkish candies and pistachios. I was so surprised by Istanbul. I'm not sure what I expected exactly, but the city was so much more green and stunning than I had anticipated. The whole city was full of blooming tulips in every color imaginable. It is definitely one of my favorite places I have ever been.

We spent our second day in Istanbul seeing all of the sites. We stopped at the Dolmabahce Palace before crossing the Bosphorus Bridge, which took us from the continent of Europe to the continent of Asia. The bridge itself looks a lot like the Golden Gate Bridge, except it isn't red. We then drove back to Europe and visited the site of the Byzantine Hippodrome, which was one of the largest chariot race arenas in the Byzantine Empire... very Ben-Hur (Dad). We also visited the beautiful Blue Mosque and Topkapi Palace, which was the official and primary residence of the Ottoman Sultans from 1465 to 1853. It is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site and has the treasures of the Sultans on display, including the famous 86 carat "Spoonmaker's Diamond". Lastly, we visited the Hagia Sophia, the Byzantine Church of Divine Wisdom, which was built between 532 and 537 A.D. In 1453, Constantinople was conquered by the Ottoman Turks and the Sultan ordered the church to be converted to a mosque. (thanks Mr. Leach)

Day 3 of the cruise brought us to Mykonos, which was one of the most beautiful, yet disappointing parts of our trip. The day we visited we were greeted with this crazy sideways rain/windstorm. The kind that you can't hold an umbrella up in. Rain in May is almost unheard of. We basically walked around just to see the town and returned soaking wet and miserable, and yet it still managed to be one of my favorite Islands. Oh well, it gives us a great excuse to go back one day.

The following day we stopped on the Island of Patmos in the morning and sailed to Kusadasi, Turkey around noon. Here we went on an excursion to the ancient city of Ephesus, home to the Temple of Artemis, one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world. This was by far the best historical site of the trip. The entire city is made of marble and nestled within two lush green mountains. So far, archeologists have only uncovered 10% of the original city and yet there is so much to see already. You can truly feel the presence of people living in this city and it is so easy to imagine the life of the ancient Romans. It is amazing how advanced the city was. By the 1st century A.D. they had both underground plumbing and knew the world was round.

The 6th day of the cruise brought us to the Island of Rhodes. The Old City of Rhodes is a veritable castle on the beach and it is so wonderful to walk though because it is simply part of the city. It hasn't been turned into a tourist site, it is just the town where the people of Rhodes work and live. There are little shops in town and parking lots within the castle's "moat". We drove about an hour to visit the ancient city of Lindos, which was constructed by the knights of St. John in the 13th century and climbed 400 feet above the sea to the top of the Acropolis, home to the Temple of Athena. On the way back to the Old City we stopped by an old ceramic factory and witnessed one of very few potters on the island throw a pot on the kick-wheel that belonged to his grandfather. This was very neat.

The last day of the cruise we made a brief stop to visit Agios Nikolaos on the island of Crete and then sailed to Santorini, where we walked through the Oia village on the caldera rim and had coffee while watching the sunset in the town of Thira before taking a cable car down to the base of the island. Santorini has to be one of the most unique places in the world, the pictures definitely don't do it justice. There are all of these dogs roaming around the island (roaming around all of Greece for that matter) mixing in with all of the people. Santorini was definitely my favorite place in Greece and I hope, hope, hope to make it back there one day. On our last day back in Athens we went to the Acropolis and saw the Parthenon and caryatids of the Porch of the Maidens. We had a great dinner at a cute little Greek restaurant called Daphne's.

Overall this is definitely one of the best trips I have ever been on and I feel very lucky to have had the opportunity to go. We all had such an amazing time, it will definitely be hard to top. Thanks again Chris and Sheila!

That's all I have for now, thanks for listening to me.... I hope everyone is doing well!

Miss you all!

Britta and Elliott