July 17, 2015 Kas, Turkey the second port on the turquoise coast

Today we arrived at Kas, the second Turkish port on the Turquoise coast. Since the port is small our ship is tendering us into the city.

http://www.turkeytravelplanner.com/go/med/kas/

After a short ride on the tender we reached the port and was amazed how pretty Kas is.
There are trees lining the promenade providing much needed shade, few cars and motorcycles driving around making it easy to walk.

We were told to walk a few blocks away from the pier to reach the shops and restaurants.

After 10 mins. we found the business district which was not very big which was fine. The homes and stores were very picturesque and not too many people were out and about. We arrived at the end of Ramadan and it was a 4 day holiday for the Turkish people who went off to visit family or take a short vacation leaving the city somewhat empty.

Again the weather although sunny was very hot and humid- one reason we won't travel again in the summer.

We stopped for a nice lunch at a restaurant near the sea to take a break.

After lunch we walked towards the ship and stopped at a bench under the trees by the promenade to watch the people walk by and the ships sailing in the harbor.

We noticed push carts with white food and ice in them and asked a vendor what he was selling- fresh peeled almonds with ice. We bought some and the cold almonds made for a refreshing snack.

This afternoon  we have scheduled an excursion to Myra to visit the ancient amphitheater and the Lycian hillside tombs and then to the Church of St. Nicholas.
It was about a 30 min. bus ride from Kas to Myra to visit the amphitheater. Behind the the amphitheater in the side of the hills were ancient tombs of Lycians. It was very interesting.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myra

After taking photos and inspecting the ruins we boarded the bus to go to the Church of St. Nicholas.

The Church of St. Nicholas is very important to the Orthodox Russians and was mobbed by them when we arrived to visit it. The burial vault  of St. Nicholas is in one part of the church walled off with plexiglass. There was a huge line of Russians waiting to go in front and pray to the St.

There were many icons on the various walls of the church walls. Currently the Church is undergoing restoration funded by a Turkish company.

There are so many Russian visitors coming to the Church that all the shops with Icons and books are all in Russian and few with English.

I really enjoyed the visit here as well as the country side views when we drove back to Kas to board the ship.

July 16, 2015 Alanya, Turkey- a resort on the turquoise coast

Today is our first of three ports on the Turquoise Coast of Turkey.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alanya
Alanya is a beach resort city on the southern coast of Turkey. Our ship was able to dock in the center of the city and we were able to walk off and go to the seaside promenade.
The ship's information said that this is a easy city to walk and has many businesses and shops.
We hiked up a road to get to the central shopping area and found it to be like a giant Kusadasi- tents over the streets and lots of shops with different types of merchandise from clothing to touristic items.

After walking around for a while we found a Starbucks to stop and rest. The weather was sunny, hot and HUMID. We got a cold drink, logged into the wifi to check emails and posted some photos on Facebook and emailed home.
After our respite, we continued walking around we discovered a path to the promenade. On the way down to the promenade we stopped at a local Kebab restaurant and had Kabobs, fries and cokes for lunch.

After lunch we proceeded to go to the seaside to walk back to the pier and ship. We stopped along the way to take some photos and window shop.

Once back on ship we headed for the ice cream counter for some ice cream to cool us off.

July 13, 2015 Chania, Crete, Greece our first port

The ship docked at 7 am in Souda as the sea was predicted to be rough in the afternoon and it would be a smoother sail leaving the port of Souda compared to Chania.

Bus service was provided to shuttle to and from Chania every 30 mins or if the bus was full.
It left us off at a square by the covered market which was easy walking distance to shops and the promenade by the sea.

After a 10 min walk we arrived at the promenade and strolled along looking at the people walking and the restaurants and shops.  We stopped for a coffee  & photos  as the weather was getting warm.

We then proceeded to walk the whole promenade to the end across from the lighthouse.

In spite of the money controls there were lots of Greek and foreign tourists in the port on vacation.
When we stopped for lunch or to shop we were advised whether or not credit cards would be accepted.
Since we brought Euros along and normally pay cash for everything but hotels this was not an issue.

After an hour or so of strolling along we decided to have lunch at one of the seaside tavernas and selected Taverna Kavouras. The menu was varied so it was hard to make a selection. Our lunches were very tasty and reasonably priced. After lunch we were treated to dessert and a small bottle of the local liquor which was ice cold. 

We spotted a Starbucks and took a photo for  my photo collection. 

We did not stop and have coffee at all the Starbucks we saw in our travels- just a photo op or when we did go in it was to enjoy air conditioning from the heat and humidity, use the WC if necessary and the wifi to post photos to Facebook or email photos home.

At this Starbucks we just took a photo...

We still had time before we had to catch the bus back to the ship so we went along the main shopping street where we bought some items for our home. At the covered market we bought some souvenirs and snacks and then headed to the bus stop.

All the people we met in Chania were very friendly and made our visit even more enjoyable. It is a place to revisit for a few days.

July 12, 2015 Piraeus (Athens) start of our Mediterranean Cruise

We came to Greece because it  was the starting point of our extended Mediterranean cruise.
The advantage of this extended cruise is that it starts and ends in Piraeus and gives us a chance to stay over a few days in Greece after the cruise before we leave for home.

We boarded our ship mid day and settled into our cabin and walked around the ship to familiarize ourselves with it.

We had a lovely Greek themed buffet for dinner.

Tomorrow we land in our first port which is Chania.

Bank closures in Greece in July 2015

Some people we know before our trip and emailing us expressed concern about the money situation in Greece. We brought Euros along to pay for most of our expenses in case there was an issue.

Early July the local people were restricted to withdrawing 60 Euros/day. Later in July the banks opened once a week for people without atm cards so they could access some money and then the banks allowed a weekly withdrawal of 240 Euros.

There were some lines in front of the atm's but not long lines.

Restaurants and shops would tell us that they would not take credit cards or would take them so one can know how to pay.

When we left in early Aug. the situation settled down somewhat.

As far as we know the atms never ran out of money for Greeks and tourists.

Ryan air ran ads on tv for free trips to the places they flew in Greece in order to encourage visitors to go to Greece.

July 3, 2015 another day in Athens

Today we finally got adjusted to the local time shaking off the jet lag.
The plan was to go do some shopping for some souvenirs and some things to bring back home with us.
First stop was the Loumides coffee store in Omonia Square where we bought Greek coffee and some mini loukoumia. Then we headed towards Monastiraki for a walk and discovered since our visit in 2013 that two coffee shops that serve fresh loukamades had opened up.  Of course we stopped for coffee and a dish of loukamades and took a rest. It has been very hot in Athens and it is good to rest and drink a lot of water.

We did some more shopping and then headed to Monastiraki for lunch.

Since our hotel the Athens Gate, is so close to the Acropolis Museum and tourist area we usually go to the main street with the cafes and restaurants for refreshments and meals. In 2013 we discovered an authentic/traditional restaurant run by Greek Americans from Chicago and eat here at least every other day. Since we haven't had our meal here we had dinner at Arcadia. The staff remembers us and welcomed us back. We had a delicious and reasonable meal.
Tomorrow we fly to Cyprus to visit our family for 6 days.