Oh the Places I'll Go

Since my undergraduate days as a history major, I have been drawn to the history of the places I visit.  Thus, one of the most interesting aspects of Mediterranean travel for me is learning about the ancient civilizations of these lands.  It is a treasure trove of ruins, of artifacts, of history, and of peoples.  There were the Minoans, the Phoenicians, the Greeks, the Etruscans, the Romans, the Venetians, the Byzantines, and the Ottomans.  Each of these cultures has left traces of itself in various parts of the Mediterranean region, and sometimes the traces of one provided the foundations for another.   For example, the ancient amphitheater in Taormina, Sicily was first built in the third century BC as a Greek theatre.  Greek plays were presented on the stage.  While watching, audiences could enjoy the spectacular views of the ocean in the distance.  About six hundred years later, Roman conquerors converted the theater into an amphitheater wher...

We have now completed our cruise around the Aegean Sea on the Viking Venus, and I thought I would share some final bits and pieces about the trip. The first stop after leaving Athens was Volos, the sixth largest city in Greece with a population of about 150,000.   Here is a view of the town as we were arriving in port. One of the selling points for Viking cruises is “an included tour in every port.”   Our shore excursion for this day was a bus ride up the winding switchbacks of Mt. Pellos with stops at two of its twenty charming villages:   Portaria and Makrinitsa.    Our visits to these towns were marred only by the fact that Viking sent at least six busloads of passengers on that same included tour so the streets were teaming with tourists from our ship, all wearing Quiet Voxs around our necks with earpieces that allowed us to hear only our particular guide’s narration of the tour. Scott and I managed to find a quiet café where we enjoyed a STRONG Greek co...