Dogsblog: 2022 Catch Up, Part 2

To continue catching up on our blogging for 2022, our biggest trip of the year was in August, and was our second Keeping The Blues Alive Mediterranean cruise. Our first one of these was in 2019, and this one had been planned for 2020, but was postponed for two years because of COVID. So we had been looking forward to it since then. None of the itinerary were to places where either of us had ever been. It was a long flight, stopping in Frankfort but we finally got into Athens Greece at about midnight on Monday, August 22. We spent Our 18th Anniversary, which was on the 21st, in the air somewhere between Portland and Athens.

Our Hotel was called the Athens Gate, and was in a great location with a beautiful view of the Acropolis, and the Parthenon. We only had about a half of day before we had to board our ship to look around, but we had planned two more days in Athens at the end of the cruise. We would be back to the same hotel for those two days. The picture above was taken from our Hotel.

We spent the short time we had before the cruise began looking around close by to our hotel. Virtually across the street from our hotel was the ruins and archaeological site of the Temple of Zeus, and this structure called Hadrian's Gate

The day after arriving in Athens we boarded our ship for the start of the cruise.

Our first port call was the Greek Island of Mykonos . It was a very rainy and stormy day, and the excursion that we had paid for was cancelled because of the weather. However we got out our umbrellas and had a very enjoyable time wandering around the narrow alleys of the island.

We had our normal challenging attempt at taking a selfie, this time while holding two umbrellas , standing in front of the famous windmills of the island.

A better view of the windmills

Our next day was a sea day, which was filled with good blues rock music as is normal for a Joe Bonamassa cruise. On day 3 we had our second port call at Kusadasi Turkey.

The highlight of our visit to Kusadasi was our visit to the ancient city of Ephesus, about a half hour bus ride from the city of Kusadasi.

In ancient times Ephesus was the second largest trading center in the Mediterranean region, outside of Rome. The ruins are huge and spectacular. Archaeological restoration is constantly ongoing.

The Public male toilets in Ephesus

The Library

One of two coliseums. This one held over 15000 people

After visiting Ephesus, we had a little shopping excursion in the small Turkish village of Sirince.

After leaving Kusadasi we had another sea day and much more music on our way back to Athens. We got in to Athens on the next day early in the morning. We dumped our bags at the hotel first thing and then started the trek up the Acropolis to the Parthenon.

It was truly amazing to see these structures that you have seen all your life in school books and pictures. There are constant preservation efforts going on here, and some pieces have been removed from the Acropolis and placed in the new Acropolis museum.

These female columns on the Temple of Athena, are actually reproductions. The originals have been placed in the museum to protect them from further deterioration.

A more successful selfie attempt.

After climbing to the top of the Acropolis we spent several hours in the Acropolis Museum which is right below the Acropolis. This is an exceptional museum with much of the original art that had been in the Parthenon and the Temple of Athena including the Caryatid statues which are the female statues that acted as supporting columns holding up the Porch roof of the temple of Athena. The 6 that are currently holding up the roof are reproductions. The 5 original statues are in the Acropolis museum and one is in the British Museum in London. The most amazing thing about this museum is that it is built OVER a huge archaeological excavation that was discovered a few years before the museum was built. It is a large section of the ancient city. They took several years to complete the excavation and then decided that the best way to protect it was to cover it with this huge museum building. It was first opened to the public in 2019.

Archaeological dig under the Acropolis museum

We made the most of our last day in Athens . Our first stop was the Benaki museum which is the Greek cultural museum. From there we went to the National Archaeological museum which would compare in size to any of the Smithsonian museums in DC. Various items from these two fascinating museums are pictured above. We followed that up with a visit to a packed shopping district and one final ancient ruin, Hadrian's Library, pictured below.

Hadrian's Library

Our last dinner on the roof of our hotel overlooking the Acropolis

Our last view of Athens. A great cruise and an amazing visit to Athens. A long trip home but we made it safely along with souvenirs that we both brought back….COVID

A few weeks after returning from our Mediterranean cruise, Marlene and her sister Maxine took another journey by them selves. They traveled to their home town of Rockford Illinois to inter the remains of their parents and brother Jerry. Pictured above Marlene's cousin Tom Anderson, and her sister Maxine, cousin Dale Sr., Tom's wife Vicki, Marlene, and Dale Jr. Marlene's cousins Lou Sassali and his wife Deborah were also there and made it possible for them to be interred in the family plot.