Where are the Jays: 7 Wonders of the Ancient World

Hatsheput as a Sphinx The woman who became a man to be Pharoh

Day two of our Egypt land trip started before dawn as in 4:30 wake up call and 5:15 on the bus. Our day would start in Luxor, then time in Cairo/Giza, fly to Hurgado and then a bus back to the ship around 8pm - a long day! The bus took us to the Luxor airport which was dead at that time of the morning where we went through security and then a bus to go out to our charter plane for Cairo. There are 40 of us doing this land tour - 2 groups of 40 so we got our own plane. The plane is from Petroleum Air Service and is a turbo prop. We get to Cairo airport and while we walked through a quiet area when you get out of that it is a busy airport to say the least. We hop on our buses, and we go to breakfast at the Cairo Ritz Carlton. The food was fine, but not nearly as nice as the one in Singapore. Now that we are fed it is time to walk to the Egyptian Museum (old one). The new larger museum has not yet opened.

Top right shows demarcation of Sahara and Cairo
Bottom Left is a large Church in Cairo
Bottom Right is the Egyptian Museum

Egyptian Museum

The museum is very pretty /colonial from the outside - oh it is large. We go in and Mustafa walks us around some describing key points telling us areas we should explore on our own and making sure we all go in the King Tut room. In the King Tut room, you see the gold hammered head covering and his 2 very ornate tombs think Russian dolls these tombs often had tombs within tombs.

We also saw a husband and wife that had been mumuified and were still in excellent shape. We saw more Ramses statutes (living King statute always had the left foot forward and something in their hands) and lots of sarcophagus. After an hour or so in the museum it was time to head to Giza and the pyramids.

Right Living King
Left Dead

Top right is a feather fan that has survived the centuries

Giza Pyramid Complex (Giza Necropolis) 7 Wonders of the Ancient World

The Giza Pyramid plateau is huge and borders the Safara desert. We quickly notice that the top of one of the pyramids looks different like it has a coating or something. Seems that originally the pyramids were built with huge stones and then covered in alabaster and the one still has some of that coating up at its top section. There are different sizes of pyramids, and we learn that kings/pharaohs had bigger pyramids than the queens. We discuss how they got built and Mustafa believes in the ramp and pulley theory. He also tells us that they have found burial grounds from the workers who built it - took over 100,000 to build these pyramids. They have also found proof that the workers were not slaves but well-paid Egyptians in that they know there were assurances like education for their kids and other benefits. The pyramids were meticulously built so that their tips all point to a specific spot and all of them are aligned with the North Star.

Then it was time for us to wonder around the outside of them. Unfortunately there were no tours inside, but we could go up to them on the outside and it was even okay to touch them! The bus took us to a couple different part of the Giza plateau so we could see different views and wander in areas. Some of our group took camel rides in one area, but Jeff and I declined. Oh I should point out that as I said this is called a plateau and yes there are hills here and then suddenly sand which we are told is the Sahara which isn't flat either.

Note the Alabaster at the top (King Khafre)

How did they cut and move these massive blocks

Last stop in Cairo is to see the Great Sphinx of Giza and it is big. And I do mean BIG. This one was partially buried for years by mud and sand, so the head is now a different color than the feet, but it is quite impressive. It is the key part of another temple which they did not realize exited until a donkey fell in a hole and digging to get him out they found columns for a building. Like the pyramids it is made out of stones that were tightly stacked together to give the shape. Oh sphinx have human heads and body of a lion.

The Great Sphinx appears to be guarding the Pyramids

Then off to the airport to start our trip back to the ship. Being a tourist in Egypt is a unique experience which someone on the ship had warned us about. All of our buses had the front seats reserved for a military/police person which was never used but we always had a police car with its lights flashing behind us. There are also people called "fixers' that were always with us. A fixer got us through security and in front of lines so at first, I thought they are just a tour guide person of some sort. Then on the second day I realized our "fixer" had a handgun on him, so I think he was there to get us quickly and safely through the sites. At Cairo airport in the afternoon, it was a mob scene in that there were tons of people with large suitcases everywhere since this is the only international airport in the country. Our fixer stopped the flow of people in one area to the airport terminal and we walked right in and through level one of security then we went to a terminal/gate area that opened just for us. The two airports in Egypt were the easiest airport experiences I have had in a long time. Fixers are nice. It was back on Petroleum Air Services and onto Hurgada. When we arrived in Hurgada which was a new spot for us, our bus from Luxor was there with the suitcases we had left behind and Mustafa told us a little about the city. Jeff and I had noticed while flying that there was some very pretty water below us and assumed it was the Red Sea - think pictures of pretty islands with light colored water. Well turns out that was Hurgada and it is well known for diving and snorkeling so there are several very nice resorts along the beach which brought back a vague memory of hearing of nice beach resorts on the Red Sea. The pictures of a couple of them in the airport did look quite nice. After our hour bus ride, we were back at our ship and going through Egyptian immigration for one last time.

Agios Nikolaos Crete

Population wise Crete is one of the larger of the Greek Islands. There are easily discernible towns and less of the cute, whitewashed buildings. That is not to say it isn't a nice place; it is just different. We chose to the tour of the town of Plaka and a boat ride to Spinalonga for our excursion for the day. A bus took us to the town of Plaka which is the jumping off spot for the extremely small and nearby island of Spinalonga.

Spinalonga started out life as a fort and still very much looks like one from the outside. The fort is pretty much the island. We did not visit the fort to learn about the battles that were fought there but rather to learn about its time period as a leper colony. Seems that in the early 1900s, Greece decided to gather all of their lepers and to send them to designated areas since at that time leprosy was considered to be an incurable disease and they thought the people were "dirty". This place remained a leper colony until the early 1950s. At that time, leprosy was curable and the few who had not yet been cured were sent to a hospital and the place was abandoned. Possibly many locals were afraid of the place too. It was not until late in the 20th century that they started to salvage the buildings and to turn it into a tourism destination. They are still working on many areas. The main gates are there, many buildings are still standing or have been reconstructed but more are to come. When you got sent there it was just you and not your family and it was a life sentence so to speak. Babies were born, but they were sent to an orphanage and kept separate in case they displayed the disease. So there was everything a small town would have plus some dormitories. Local women came and did the laundry including washing all the bandages from the sores so they had hot water before many other parts of Greece. There is a book written in the early 2000s called the The Island (later adapted to film) that is set in Spinalonga when it was a leper colony. The place began its tourism life while there were still people alive who had lived on Spinalonga which is unique for an historic site so there is good insight into the town life. It was quite an interesting excursion.

Spinalonga Fortress behind us as we travel to The Island

Older building

Example of shops run and used by the occupants of the leper colony

View of dormitories built for additional housing

After the boat trip to the island, we hung around the small town of Plaka. It is cute and Jeff got a great "boat" picture.

Greek fishing boat, now art

boats that ferried us to the island

Crete is becoming a luxury beach destination, so we did pass a couple of very nice resorts and I think a second home subdivision too. Later in the day, Jeff and I wandered around our port town of Agios Nikolaos.

Agios Nicholas

The Abduction of Europa sculpture

‘The legend suggests that Zeus, the father of all gods, fell in love with a beautiful princess named Europa. He took the form of a white bull and approached her while she was playing with her friends. All her friends were captivated by the beauty of the robust and friendly animal and began caressing it. Then Europa tried to ride on his back. Then the bull rushed into the sea and took her to Crete in spite of her weeps.’ click here for more

Rhodes

Okay, just going to start off with we both liked Rhodes a lot. It is in the Dodecanese Islands of Greece. We chose the Tsambika beach excursion for the day and had the surprise realization that we were going in the morning and were back to the ship for lunch. Jeff got to stand up paddleboard some - sore scrapped knee kept me off the board and we swam around in the calm water some. There were no waves at all and a nice sandy bottom. Unfortunately, not a white sand beach like ours at home so the sand was hot.

Since the ship did not leave till 9:30 at night, we hung around the ship in the heat of the day and then went into Rhodes to explore. From our spot at the pier we could see a walled city right there which is old town Rhodes. A very cool city! We got a map from the ship and off we went. Rhodes was home to some of the Christian Knights so we went to the Palace of the Grand Master of the Knights of Rhodes, and the Archeological Museum of Rhodes.

Ancient city of Rhodes

We wandered around town for a few minutes enjoying the squares where huge old trees gave a lot of shade; probably passed the tree that is a descendent of the Hippocratic tree but did not realize it - shipboard friend said it was nothing special and then went to the Palace of the Grand Master of the Knights of Saint John from the crusades. It was a neat place to see. There is a huge open courtyard when you first walk in. The bottom floor was more museum with displays and the upper floor had some furniture and paintings, but the real thing there was the beautiful mosaics that were on the floors everywhere. The building itself is simply a nice old castle, but a special one. The building is in very good shape for its age since the Italians ruled this island in part of the 20th century and Mussolini chose to live in it. Oh, I should add the palace is at the top of a long narrow road going uphill. Along the way we peeked in and saw some nice little courtyards and a French Consulate Office.

Now this is a Castle

After the palace, we wandered a different way and saw more nice old architecture and some nice-looking lodging - mostly hotels and more cute, shady squares. We stopped in one and each had a decent beer for 2 euros each so with the exchange rate we each had a nice size glass of a decent beer for $2. We decided we better get to the museum before it closed for the day so we studied the map and went to find the museum.

Suleimaniye Mosque 19th C
These Islands were part of the Ottoman Empire until the end of WWI

The museum is housed in the ancient hospital of the Knights and is from the 15th century. There is some artwork and relics in the museum, but my memory is more of the building itself and its courtyards. There was a big courtyard again when you walked in and then there was another garden/courtyard up above. There were exterior covered walkways on the second floor that then led to a courtyard/garden in the back of the building. There was a koi pond and some nice plants.

Koi pond in shadows

It was time to wander a little bit more before we returned to our ship.

Kos

Kos is a Greek Island that is extremely close to Turkey - like it fits into a curved part of Turkey and when the 2 countries are getting along people take high speed ferries to go to the Turkey side to shop or spend the day which is less than 4 miles away. It has been part of Greece since only 1948 before that the Italians and the Turks/Ottomans occupied the island. We chose to do an excursion called Kos 4wd Adventure and that it was strenuous. Um the only thing strenuous about it was that you had to be careful with all the bees/wasps in one area. Otherwise, we were driven around on bumpy roads in large 4 wheel drive SUVs with the air conditioning on. Jeff and I had expected open air jeeps and the couple we rode with had expected open all terrain vehicles so we were all a little disappointed in it. Having said that, the views were fantastic. This island goes long periods without water so we saw a pond/lake that is called Turtle Lake and we went up in the mountains some. Turtle Lake is so named because there are often turtles or tortoises around - you know the type you see at the zoo that live to a 100 or so. The lake is almost empty right now, but was full of small frogs jumping everywhere! It was amazing how many frogs were in that small area. The write up says the roads were unpaved which may have been true since in the winter this area is off limits to people and is used by the military for training. The guides were great about stopping and describing what we were seeing below like how the island fits within a curved area of Turkey and other sites.

Tortoise

We also stopped at a village abandoned in the 1950s when there was no longer demand for the crops they grew. Once the wood in the ceilings collapsed, so did the rest of the building.

Little left of the village, though some is now an Airbnb

Single room with oven in the background

We also visited a small mountain town for lunch. When we got out of our vehicles, a friend called me over and said that they had just watched them make mousaka there and then had it and it was fabulous. We ate at the restaurant across the street from theirs, but it was the best mousaka I have had. Have to add here that I have not become a fan of mousaka but this was much better than what I had our first night in Athens. After our food break, we had time to wander around the small town and to see the views looking down in the valley. There you could see the outline of a funny looking lake. It is a salt lake that slowly all but dries up in the summer. The lake is fed by a mixture of salt water from an inlet and rainwater. We ended our tour with a stop by it. Wish I had the photos from our tour guide to show you. She is a photographer and they were great. Pretty sunsets and from the winter she had pictures of a type of flamingo that visits the lake then (none in the summer).

Salt Lake along coast line

We explored the town after the tour and saw the most bizarre collection of tour boats. We also saw the largest Catamaran Sailboat we have ever scene. After that it was time to get ready for Azamara’s big dinner/dance party on deck, White Nights. (Everyone wearing all white)

Ephesus

Ok here is where I had my first of several "duh" moments of this trip. To me all Ephesus meant was another town of ancient Roman ruins that for some reason most people were excited to visit (not just people on the cruise). I thought well okay it is a big place and maybe it is in better shape than a lot of places, but this is a place where cruise companies brag/promote that we had it to ourselves after dark, etc. So why? Well it is BIG, it is well preserved and it is popular. But my first "duh" moment came when the tour guide went "When St Paul visited here.... and we know from his letters to the Ephesians..." Wait duh - Ephesus is a town from the Bible!! Boy did I feel a little dense. Our tour guide started us on the top of the hill and we walked down. Pass all the important sites down the road that had been the major thoroughfare of the city in its hey day. So pass homes, shops, the Celsus library, the water system, talking about life during the different time periods. How the men would tell their wives they were going to the library when in reality they were going to meet up with a prostitute through the connecting doors of the library. How rich people did crazy things like have their slave sit on the stone of the toilet to warm the seat up for them. How there was running water in the toilets. We walked into part of the theatre which is huge and still in use today - supposedly lots of big stars have performed there. Then we hit another road and she had us gather in a shady spot because they were about to do a re-enactment of the time Cleopatra and Marc Anthony visited Ephesus.

Road

Medusa

Library

Menorah edged into a step of the library

Earlier in the tour we had gone to The House of The Virgin Mary. Mary was brought to this area by John the Apostle and lived here till her assumption. A German nun had visions of the place and the old building is around 2000 years old. It was found in 1891. It is believed to be a very early chapel if not actually her home. We are in Turkey a Muslim country and here is a chapel that has been incredibly well preserved for the mother of Jesus. I found that interesting until I learned that there is a book in the Koran for Mary and that Muslims think of Jesus as a prophet just not the son of God like Christians.