23rd June - 25th June still in the Mediteanean

Sunday 23^rd June saw us crossing the Aegean Sea and approaching the Island of Lesvos which is one of the largest of the 1000 Greek Islands.  

This is a tender port which means that the ship anchors in the harbour and we use our tender boats to shuttle the passengers to and from the township of Mytiene. 

Aristotle, lived in Mylitene between 337 and 335 BC and according to Homer’s the Iliad, Achilles moored his ship here on the way to the Trojan War.  

The tour today consisted mainly of seeing the magnificent coastline as we travelled up and down the mountain range and we stopped off at the Limonos Monastery which was founded by St. Ignatius in the 16^th century.  

The monastery is one of the islands finest examples of Byzantine monastic architecture and is rich in history; the main chapel is still a ‘men only’ area which remains from the fact that it is a monastery.  We had to ensure that our dress was appropriate, we were well and truly used to that fact that we had to cover our shoulders and legs by now and of course our heads.

All the way around the monastery are a huge number of small chapels that are built by private families to hold the bodies of their family members.

The Castle of Methymna was built during the Byzantine period (1100 AD) at the summit of a hill to ensure control of the narrow passage to Asia Minor.  

The castle only held soldiers and there were over 1000 guns pointing out to the sea. This is a beautiful old castle with a heap of history and once again you could spend a lot of time wandering around the ruins. 



 

I put this picture in the ship’s photo competition in a section call ‘architecture’, no I didn’t win.

We walked down the top of the mountain and wandered down the lovely narrow lanes into the town for lunch.  The walk was just lovely with old shop fronts and of course heaps of souvenirs and olive oil for sale.

We were seated outside the restaurant and were served up a very tasty three course meal and of course many bottles of local red wine.  This lunch has become one of my highlights of the cruise as we danced with the locals for over 1 hour, doing everything from the Zorba dance to fast and furious dance which left us panting.  Magic time and convinced me that I could settle down here in Greece.

Magic time and convinced me that I could settle down here in Greece.

Sorry to leave this beautiful country.

Distance from Piraeus to Mytilene 194.5 Nautical Miles, average speed 15.56 knots.

Monday 24^th June Istanbul, Turkey.  Currency – Turkish Lira.  

We did not have far to travel overnight as Turkey was 1 hour by ferry from the island we were at yesterday, we entered the Bosporus Straight and moored by 0900 hrs.

Istanbul was previously known as Constantinople is just a landscape of domes, minarets and towers interspersed amongst houses.

Just a bit of trivia, the tulip is the national flower of Turkey and was introduced to the Netherlands by Turkey several hundred years ago.

The ship’s Captain had only confirmed that we were actually going to visit Istanbul as there had been a lot of political disturbance and they had to be sure that we would be safe.  

We were told to be careful of crowds and not to go into the square where the violence took place.

Today, I decided that I would travel with Ann and Beverley by the shuttle bus from the terminal and then catch the ‘hop on, hop off’ bus and travel the city and then find a local restaurant and try out the local cuisine as we only had 8 hours in this beautiful city and I had seen most of the major attractions last year.

As we were walking to the bus we stopped to look into the garden of a Mosque and found a very old cemetery with some of the graves from 1300’s.  The grounds were beautifully kept and there were a number of families buried there.

The bus trip took just under 2 hours and we passed by the sights I had seen last year plus we negotiated some narrow lanes and followed the ancient wall that surrounded the old city.  

We stopped off at the square that we were not supposed to visit and it was very quiet with only a few police on duty and no crowds, there were many police situated in the surrounding streets and I think there would be 100’s of well armed Police in the square in a few minutes.

Lunch was different, I had stuffed eggplant and a lovely salad and of course I had Baklava and Turkish delight for sweets.  

I also bought some to take back to eat on the ship, not that I needed to eat more food.

Distance from Mytilene to Istanbul 233.1 Nautical Miles, average speed 16.65 knots.

Tuesday 25^th June – ANZAC Cove.  

During the early hours we went through the Dardanelles Straight and anchored off Anzac Cove for a special ANZAC service.  

The ship’s Captain led the service and the ship’s passenger choir sang, it was a moving service and I must admit I cried. 

We were unable to lay a wreath as we had not received permission from the Turkish Government; the ship tossed the wreath overboard when we reached International waters.

Thousands of soldiers on both sides were lost in the struggle to take the Dardanelles Straight which lasted for eight months before the remaining troops were evacuated.  

The current is very strong in the area and the small boats that held the soldiers were in fact taken by the current nearly 2 kilometres from the designated landing site, that’s why they ended up in front of the cliffs.

We stayed anchored for a while so that we could take photos and I had my binoculars and managed to see the memorials on shore. 



We then took a south westerly course across the Acean Sea.

The weather is quite cool now and I went to watch the movies under the stars last night and I had to wear warm clothes and snuggled under a rug.
  

I am pleased to say that I have not put on any weight, in fact if anything I have lost a bit through all the walking.

Distance from Istanbul to ANZAC Cove 156.2 Nautical Miles, average speed 15.7 knots