See Think Wonder

We arrived at the port of Kusadasi, Turkey and look what we saw...

Delphi and Meteora

So we were picked up from the port of Athens by our driver Vasilis and our guide Eleni. They are very nice Greeks!

We drove out of Athens to a little place called Delphi. It is the Switzerland of Greece.  Over the hill behind us is a ski resort, in front of us are heaps and heaps of olive trees and can you see the port way off in the distance?

So why do people want to come to Delphi? Because they want to visit the oracle of Delphi.

Delphi was an important ancient Greek religious sanctuary sacred to the god Apollo. He would give cryptic predictions and guidance. So if you had a question about something you would come here, make an offering and then ask the oracle your question and hopefully they would give you the answer.

The next morning we travelled two and a half hours to Kalambaka, the town that sits at the foot of Meteora. 

Check these rock formations out.

Vasilis held me up high so I could see over the trees. There are monasteries perched at the top.

This monastery is the Holy Trinity Monastery and is the hardest to get to. Can you spot the bridge to it on the left hand side?

A long time ago there were monks who came here to get away from things they weren’t happy with. They wanted to live in solitude so the first monk stayed in a cave.  Then monasteries were built in the 1400BC. It took about 70-100 years to build a monastery. Only monks live there except there is now one for the nuns. We climbed in to two of the monasteries.

Time for a sleep, I’m exhausted from all those steps, then we must have pizza for our last dinner in Greece. 

Our last day and Vasilis said we must go and watch a movie. The movie was about the Spartans and how they were brave. I have bought Te Whare Kiwi a special book about the battle. If you are brave and courageous you are like a Spartan.

Tomorrow we fly to Singapore and home on Saturday morning. I hope you all have a lovely Labour Weekend and I can't wait to hug you on Tuesday. 

Love Sammie G

Island hopping

So our first stop after Athens was Nafplion. Then we went to Mykonos. It was Ms McDougall’s birthday.

Mykonos has lots of white painted buildings and these famous windmills.

Some people now live in the windmills, or use them as their holiday home. Originally they were used to grind flour. They would have sails between each cross of wood.

Our next stop was Ephesus, Kusadasi in Turkey.

This is the House of the Virgin Mary. It was discovered 200 years ago but the base of it is nearly 2000 years old. This is the house that John, the disciple of Jesus in the Bible brought Mary, the mother of Jesus to after Jesus died.

There are three water taps below the house and people pray for good health, wealth and love when they drink the water from the taps.

Ephesus is an ancient city that was built in the 10th century BC. BC means 'before Christ'. These are some of the ruins that we explored and walked through. We are standing in what was called the Agora or market place. Through the archway on the left is the entrance to the Celsus Library. It was built in 114AD so that's 1904 years ago. It held 12,000 scrolls. It was the third largest library at that time but it was destroyed by either an earthquake or fire but they have managed to put together the facade at the front.

This is the Celsus Library and we were very spoilt to have a very special dinner. No other tourists are allowed to enter at night except for the people on the Windstar boat. These are just two of the dogs that live in amongst the ruins.

Here is our Windstar when we returned from Ephesus.

Our next stop was Santorini, another Greek Island with all the buildings painted white.

Here is our last Greek Island Monemvasia. I was lucky to go on to the bow of the ship with Ms McDougall. It was fun!

Edit

At the southern tip of the old town is a gate to the sea. This is a special gate that was built so the people could escape. But now their are refugees coming from a country called Syria, they come sometimes in little boats and try to climb up these rocks and then hide in Greece because they are not safe in Syria. We were sad to hear that people have to flee their country because they are not safe. We are so blessed to live in New Zealand.

The next morning we woke in Athens for another adventure to Delphi, Meteora and to see the Spartans.

I love the Windstar

Meet Captain Belinda Bennett, she comes from St Helena, can you find it on the map?

She had never had a giraffe on her ship before.

She said we are going this way...

Then we made an announcement to all the passengers and her second in command helped me steer the ship.

But of course we had to find the pool for Ms McDougall, gosh she loves swimming!

And my bed.

Meet Zainul, he made sure we had clean towels each day and he made a towel cake for Ms McDougall’s birthday.

And the crew sang her happy birthday and made her a real cake, yum!

Nafplion

Nafplion is in an island off Greece but you can drive there from Athens because there is a causeway. It is not a bridge but connects one island to another. But remember we got here in the Windstar boat.

This is the Epidaurus Theatre. It was built in two stages. The first part in the 4th Century BC and the you can see the top tier added on later.

It was dedicated to the Ancient Greek god of medicine. So people used to come to Epidaurus for healing. They would spend the day with the priest so he could see what was wrong with them. He may suggest they eat certain foods so then they would stay at the hotel. Or the priest might suggest certain exercises then they would work out at the stadium. This theatre was used for entertainment- there would be about three actors, men only, and they would perform drama to the audience. The audience would feel better because they would enjoy the dramas and laugh.You are not allowed to sing here without special permission. But when you talk in this spot you can be heard all the way at the top.

I climbed all the way to the top of this fort. You can see the Windstar at the right of the port. This fort was built by the Venetians. They also had a small fortification at the bottom right. There was no water in the fort so they had a special tunnel from the fortifications below up to the fort. Then the Turks invaded and they couldn’t get to the fort and the Ventians thought they were safe. But the Turks found the tunnel and cut off their water and the Venetians could not survive without water so the Turks overtook Nafplion.

Today is the day...

Robbie and Ms McDougall are still sleeping. I can’t because I’m excited about boarding the Windstar...

This is the photo from their website and these are the Greek Islands and Turkey that we will visit.

We dock each morning about 7-8am then go off exploring for about 4-5hrs.  Ms McDougall read to me last night about all the places we will see. Then we sail through the night to the next island. Apparently there is no wifi on the boat so I’ll talk to you in a week Te Whare Kiwi. Enjoy your second week of the holidays. I wonder what you are doing?

Farewell Trogir, Croatia and Hello Athens, Greece

Jay asked about the food, here are some photos of our breakfast selection while in Trogir...

Our last night in Trogir...

We flew from Split to Athens today, it took 1hr 45mins.

Ms McDougall is looking forward to a swim tomorrow...

After biking all around Athens for two hours we were hit and thirsty, don’t worry I drank from the water bottle.

Ms McDougall got some cute earrings from this lady, I wonder if you’ll notice them when she wears them to school?

Goodnight Te Whare Kiwi

Bridges in Croatia

Dubrovnik’s Bridge

Looking south at the vehicle bridge before Trogir.

Trogir’s bridge with our hotel in the distance, looking south.

Below standing on the Trogir’s bridge looking north.

The little bridge on the east entry to Trogir

And we found a third bridge between the island of Trogir and the mainland of Croatia.

Farewell Diamond

Wow, I must admit the idea if sailing with Ms McDougall was a little bit scary but I sooo wanted to go. Thank you Te Whare Kiwi for saying "Yes, we would rather Sammie G go on a great adventure than stay home (Tatuanui, Nee Zealand)". So let me introduce some of the fabulous crew and friends I have made.

Captain Mario showed me just how to dock the boat, he was pretty good at it. Actually don’t tell anyone but I think he is the best Captain in all of Croatia. He has Sailor Mario who is fast with the ropes.

This is Vedran, I called him "V" for short. He was our guide. I especially loved his "end of lunch chats" where it was like being back in Te Whare Kiwi learning new things about the places we would see. He is a teacher of tourists. But he lives New Zealanders especially one very famous one - Lucy Lawless, Xena, Warrior Princess. He even flew from Croatia to Canada to meet her. He showed me his photo with her.

Katarina (Kate) and Vicenco looked after us in the dining room. And I spotted Vicenco also helping out with the ropes too. And he also spotted Robbie and Ms McDougall going for a late night spa one night and he surprised them by lifting the cover and turning the lights on. Now he knows how to serve and be a gentleman.

Kate loves Mickey, apparently all of Split does too. I spotted some Mickey socks sneaking their way into Ms McDougall’s suitcase.

Meet Sandie and bob. They are brutish but live in Cartegena, Spain. Bob sails small boats.

This is Debbie from Melbourne, Australia, she loves sport, but I noticed she didn’t mention the All Blacks, I wonder why?

You may be able to spot Lynette and Barry from South Africa. They were very nice to Robbie.

Farewell Diamond, what an awesome time we had and I notice Ms McDougall has had lots of sleep, lots of swims, and yes she has bought lots of shoes. And she even snuck out for a couple of 6am walks with me.

We couldn’t recommend "Sail Croatia" enough!!!

Oh and the food was scrummy!