Lava black + white paint = timeless chic. Cesar Manrique gave us a glimpse of volcanic high-bohemian lifestyle in his home design.
* Not sure why there is a watermark on every photo. The originals don’t have it. Probably the web hosting server added when I uploaded the photo. Sorry for the spoiled aesthetics.
The Tenerife Opera House and their Central Library were ideal for BW photos in that sunny afternoon. The clouds were cooperative too.
* Not sure why there is a watermark on every photo. The originals don’t have it. Probably the web hosting server added when I uploaded the photo. Sorry for the spoiled aesthetics.
Crete is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands. According to mythology, God Zeus was born in a cave in Crete
We decided to forgo the ship excursion today and try to explore on our own
Knossos Palace, Center of Bronze age Minoan civilization since 2700 BC is the must see here… In order to reach here we need to take the hop on and hop off bus from the Port. This almost 5 thousand year old palace ruin was kind of fixed up a little and doesn’t look too ruin like 😆
The Heraklion archeological museum is the crown jewel of the stop with amazing display of artifacts from the Minoan age (late bronze age) plus cretan art, sculptures, archeological finds
After the museum, we do lunch and then shopping
Well this is our 3rd stop of Greek city and also the last… So long…. Next time we are back, we need to brush up on our Greek mythology, this way we can tune in more to the culture…
Never thought we would come to Namibia, but we have now. The natural resources are rich. Flamingos are by the flocks. Sand dunes are never ending. We got a glimpse of African desert scene like in the movies…
Turkey is situated right between Europe and Asia… And Kusadasi is a resort town of Turkey along the Aegean coast.. Too bad that we cannot visit Istanbul as it is too far out of the way, some day we will…our guide told us Turkey is a very inclusive country with the believe that all men belongs to the same God, belongs to the same tribe, that is why they took in a total of 12 million refugees
This towns main attraction is Ephesus, an important city during classical Greece and Roman empire established around 2000 years ago, later got hit by a Richter scale earth quake of 9 around 1700 years ago that distroys most building
Library of Celsus, 3rd largest library in Greco roman world, situated right in the center of Ephesus… Kind of like the time square of Ephesus….
We also visited the place that they believed Virgin Mary spent her last remaining years and had became a shrine
Turks are nomadic tribes from mongolian, and Weaving is their cultural heritage, we were brought to see a silk carpet Weaving demo
ZA, South Africa, was a surprise route change of this trip, and a surprise mind change of our expectations. Cap Town is a vibrant, harmonious, and prosper city. It’s really, “if you don’t go, you don’t know.” It’s certainly true to us.
Athens was named after goddess Athena, Mykonos was named after the hero Mykonos, son of Anios, King of Delos, who was born to god Apollo and the nymph Reo. (Again, Greece is kind of romantic this way, steeped in mythology) It’s an island in the heart of cyclades group (total 200 island group in the Aegean sea that belongs to Greece)
A very special town with distinct idiosyncracies… White bordered cobbled paved floor against white walls with different color window trims (mainly blue) and winding roads…. They said the reason the town was built this way was to confuse invaders who can’t figure out which way to go when they were in one of those zig zagging winding roads….
After roaming the town aimlessly for hours, by 2 pm we thought we were ready to leave and actually got on a water shuttle when we changed our mind, jumped off the shuttle and then roamed for couple more hours…. Every where you turn you saw a new shape, a new color, a new silhouette, a new shop….. Our destination expert Jessica told us the best thing you can do in Mykonos is get lost!!…. We laughed about it at that time during her presentation, but now we understand…. Getting lost has never been so sweet before..
Finally we come to the land of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle…cradle of western civilization….and not to forget, ground zero for all those Greek mythologies with temples and monuments dedicated to Zeus, Athena, Apollo, Poseidon… Etc
Acropolis is the name of the hill where Parthenon sits… together with Erectheion, and the Temple of Athena Nike (before I kept referring to the Parthenon as Acropolis, not knowing that Parthenon is the building, and Acropolis is the Hill) .. These iconic buildings dominates the Athenian sky and you can see it from afar and in most places of the city….. It closely intertwined with modern Athens daily life, just like their mythology
Parthenon was a temple dedicated to the goddess Athena built during the fifth century BC
Temple of Athena Nike
Erectheion, the most ornamental of the 3 buildings
Athens is one of the cities that claims to be built on 7 hills (the others includes Rome, Jerusalem… Etc) , our guide told us that we are already speaking Greek or Greek origin words every day : politics, democracy, aristocracy, museum, theater, micro… Very interesting…
After descending from the Acropolis, we make a quick stop at the Olympics stadium made entirely of marbles
Next stop is their famous Plaka shopping district, beautiful relax place full of interesting shops and restaurants where you can roam for hours… But we only have two including lunch
Princess also invited locals to come onboard and do a Greek folkloric song and dance presentation which adds so much more texture to this trip
Athens Greece is full of characters, colors and flavors…. A phenomenal port stop!!
This lone sea day is precious as we get to rest and recenter a bit after 8 consecutive port days….. Zuma, painting, enrichment class, ukelele!!! Sea days are fun!! Will have 4 port days right after, stopping at ports in Greece and Turkey…. Never been to these two countries before, so we are excited…
Forgot to pose the pictures of us enjoying Cannoli in Naples, the birth place of it yesterday….
Tonight’s show is an encore of the production show called Encore… And this time a proper soprano joined the show and its even more amazing
Last night’s show was by an instrumentalist name Michael Bacala who plays classical, pop and even animal sounds with his violin… He was from Poland and he is really good!!
Woke up to the beautiful Sicilian coast line… Guess we were right between the boot and the ball… From one volcanic mountain to another… From Wiki “Mount Etna is the highest Mediterranean island mountain and the most active stratovolcano in the world.”…
The guide told us Mt Edna did not get any rain or snow this whole winter which is very rare… Maybe that’s why it’s fuming…
First town we stopped was the hilltop town of Castelmola.. Our big bus went through narrow zig zagging mountain winding roads to get there… And we understand why they went through the trouble… The view from up there is stunning
We stopped for a drink at a little restaurant with an incredible view
Lunch is in a restaurant at Castelmoro…. Forgot to took pics of food because we were with a group, but they really wined and dined us and it’s a restaurant with a fabulous view.. Again
The second and final stop is the scenic and famous Taormina ( we never heard of it before)…. The tour guide told us the second season of HBO’s White Lotus was shot here
Sicily is a Land of Greek mythical, lores of cyclops, Dionysius,.. Demeter and Persephone all took place in Sicily …Sicilians speaks 3 languages, in the following order of preference :body language, Sicilian and then Italian… Our guide jokes that the driver likes to talk with his hands, so he cannot talk while he is driving…. Lol..
