June 17th – Ephesus – Heat of Biblical Proportions

Unbelievably, it was 31 degrees when we left the ship at 7.15am for our tour of "Biblical Ephesus", and the day just got hotter and hotter. However, we were thankful for the early start, because at least we got to Ephesus before it got completely boiling; and, as the first people to pass through the gates, we were able to enjoy the site before it got overrun with tourists (we drove past the site later at 12ish, and not only was it 43 degrees by then, but there were loads of groups vying for the few bits of shade).

So, for the first time ever, we were able to take our photos of the magnificent Roman ruins with scarcely a tourist in sight to ruin the view. As you walk around the colonnaded streets, lined with marble, and see the grand temples,fountains and even public lavatories of what was the 4th largest city in the Roman Empire, it's amazing to think that only 30% of this extensive site has actually been uncovered by the archaeologists – there must be so many archaeological treasures underneath the fields that surround it.

But, what makes visiting Ephesus so interesting, isn't just the Roman side of things – this was also the site of many of the Acts of the Apostles. St Paul regularly preached in the huge theatre here (as well as writing his letters to the Ephesians), and St John and the Virgin Mary also spent the last years of their lives here.

Our tour took us to the House of the Virgin Mary – reputedly, the place where she lived and died – and we went to a Mass in the convent next door (the mass was said by one of the only two Catholic Turkish priests). Finally, we filled up our water bottles with holy water from the miraculous spring next to the house, hoping that some divine inspiration might turn me into an orator of St Paul's proportions.

By now it was getting truly roasting, so we were glad it was time for lunch, and we went up into the hills to a lovely remote restaurant, for what we billed as a "Biblical Lunch". Supposedly, the food was prepared using methods and ingredients employed during Christ's time, although we were just keen to know that we'd get more than five loaves and two fish, and if they'd turned the water into wine. Fortunately there was wine (and water), so we feasted on food that didn't seem too different from your standard Turkish fare, although I wasn't able to tell if there was enough to fill 12 baskets at the end of it all.

The food and the heat meant that we scarcely had the energy to see the ruins of St John's Basilica – once one of the largest churches in Christendom, before an earthquake struck. The church was built over the site of St John's grave, and was constructed out of stones taken from the ruins of the Temple of Artemis, one of the Seven Wonders of the World (this ancient wonder consists of one sad-looking column sitting forlornly in a field). At the end of being oven cooked in the Basilica, for once I didn't mind getting taken to one of the ubiquitous Turkish Carpet shops, because at least they had air conditioning.

June 16 - Bodrum

35 degrees centigrade today and pretty humid, so we didn't even venture out till 6pm (fortunately, the ship doesn't leave until 10pm), but even at that time, we were hit by a wall of heat once we'd stepped onto the gangplank.

We walked around the bay into town, passing by beaches of modestly dressed locals and scarcely covered holidaymakers – what the older generation of Turks must make of all this semi-nudity is anyone's guess. On reaching town, we had to run the gauntlet of cheeky restaurant, shop and stall owners, who all had their "amusing" greetings, trying to drag you into spending your lira with them.

The number of British-style pubs seems to have increased from last year (I didn't think it was possible), and the World Cup was blaring out across town in all sorts of languages. Finally, we found a bar that wasn't a cacophony of vuvazellas, so we had a nice drink overlooking the harbour and the castle.

As the sun set over town, the Foam Party bar was just beginning to rev up the bubble bath machine, and a couple of drunk and shell-shocked Swiss staggered around town trying to come to terms with the fact that they'd just beaten Spain. With all this jollity about to kick off, we decided that it was time to go back to the ship.

We have a 6.30am start tomorrow, so we need to get to bed early.

June 15th – Rhodes – Medieval Synagogues and Hospitals

Greece and Turkey have been gripped by a heatwave, which means that our stamina for sightseeing is struggling.

We walked from the ship into town, and first visited Rhodes' historic synagogue – one of the oldest in Europe. There's been a flourishing Jewish Community living here (under the Knights, the Ottomans, the Italians and the Greeks) since the 15th century, and this is one of the oldest surviving sephardic synagogues in Europe. We were met at the door by an 80 year-old local, who was one of the few Jews left in the city. When the Germans took over, almost all of the 1,600-strong community were rounded up and shipped off to the Death Camps, and he was one of the 150 who survived. It was chilling to see him roll up his sleeve and show us the number tattooed onto his arm by the Nazis. Nevertheless, he seemed to have a good sense of humour, and he gave us a charmingly unintelligible tour around the museum.

Next, we went to the Knights' Hospital – a wonderful piece of gothic architecture – which houses the island's archaeological museum. The building was probably more interesting than the exhibits, but it was interesting to see the main ward of the hospital, that would have catered for 100 patients in within one massive vaulted room. Seeing as Rhodes gets incredibly hot, and medieval hygiene was not that great, this must have been the smelliest room on the island when full.

Finally, defeated by the heat, we sweated our way back to the cool of the ship.

June 13 – Mykonos

Woke up this morning hoping that the England v USA match was a nightmare. I spent the whole match trying not to get too loud, seeing as I was watching it with a crowd of Americans - not an easy task when I saw the England goalkeeper ruin the match for us.

Today, I got out of Mykonos Town, and went on a tour that explored the interior of the island and some of its gorgeous coastline. Even by early June, the whole island has a parched look to it, and the beaches are beginning to fill up with hungover tourists, as they sleep off the excesses of the night before.

We visited the bay where some of Shirley Valentine was filmed (it used to be a secluded spot of just a few houses – now there's 2 five star hotels and lots of development), and then we visited the monastery at Ano Mera. Apparently, the youngest monk here is 70 years old, and there's no new monks coming through in the system, so this monastery might go through the same fate as one of the island's other 2 monasteries, which had to be shut down five years ago when the last of the old monks died.
To round things off, we went to a local taverna for mezedes and ouzo (at 11 in the morning!).

Actually, I resisted the temptation to down an ouzo, because I am having a week of temperance – seeing as this is our first time on the ship since they started serving complimentary wine, my timing for a booze-free week couldn't be any worse.

June 12th – Ancient Mycenae

After another very early start, we travelled from Nafplion to the site of Ancient Mycenae, home to the legendary King Agamemnon, the leader of the Greeks in the Trojan War. It's hard to believe it now, given its remote location and small size, but in the 13th century BC, this was one of the world's great superpowers.

Even at nine in the morning, it was well over 30 degrees centigrade, so we shuffled around the site, dodging from one bit of shade to the next. We passed by the so-called "Cyclopean Walls" – walls consisting of such huge stones, that the ancients thought that they could only have been shifted by the legendary Cyclops, then we entered the acropolis through the famous Lion Gate, reputedly Europe's oldest monumental sculpture. Inside the city, we passed the burial grounds where the great German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann had uncovered large amounts golden artefacts, and then we sweated our way up to the top of the Acropolis to the site of the Royal Palace, where perhaps Agamemnon and Claetamnestra got up to their legendary advert for marriage guidance counselling.

Our final stop was at the amazing "beehive" tomb, the so-called Treasury of Artreus, which was an amazing piece of Neolithic architecture – the stone over the doorway weighs over 120 tons, so how these bronze age construction workers put the whole thing together, is one of life's mysteries.

We got back to Nafplion just as the mercury was hitting 38 degrees, and we did a little exploring before our bodies could no longer take the heat, so we retreated to the onboard air-conditioning. Nafplion's a very pleasant little town – as Greece's first capital in 1828 (until Athens took over in 1834), it's got lots of impressive architecture and monuments from the time when the city had a pivotal role in Greece's independence from the Ottoman Turks.

June 11th – Corinth

Today we joined a tour to visit the Corinth Canal and Ancient Corinth. In the last few years I must have become a Canal Geek, because I was actually quite excited to add this canal to my list of major canals traversed, to join the Suez, Panama, and Kiel Canals. Whilst the Corinth Canal isn't on the same scale of engineering as any of those three, because it's only 6km long and not broad enough to take ships over 14 meters wide, it's definitely one of the most spectacular to look at, carving it's way through sheer cliffs either side, as it cuts through the narrow isthmus of land that joins the Pelopponese to mainland Greece.

In 1893 when it was built, to link the Aegean Sea to the Ionian Sea, they must have thought that the canal would have been big enough to cope with most ships, but the size of modern shipping has left the canal behind, so nowadays most of the traffic that passes through are just yachts and pleasure craft.

First we went to the bridge that crosses over the man-made gorge below, for some vertigo-inducing views over the canal, and then we got on a boat, to travel up and down the canal. On a beautiful sunny day, the contrast between the milky, turquoise waters of the canal, with the deep blue waters of the seas at either end, was really striking.

After our canal criss-crossing, we then went onto to visit the site of Ancient Corinth – one of St Paul's favourite addresses for correspondence. Back in Ancient Greek times, this was one of the most important city states, and then it became a major Roman city as well, when St Paul was a frequent visitor. Unfortunately, a series of earthquakes reduced much of the city to rubble and it was abandoned, and the archaeological digs are ongoing. Even if it's a bit difficult to picture how impressive this place would have looked back then, the size of the site and the few bits that have been pieced together all hint at a magnificent ancient city.

After three weeks of lazing around, it's good to get back into sightseeing mode again.

June 10th – Back To Athens

After a relaxing couple of weeks in Spetses, it was back to Piraeus on the ferry, to drag our luggage round the port, to pick up the Azamara Quest. We were back in the same room, and it was lovely to see so many familiar faces amongst the crew – it really felt like we had hardly been away.

So, now we have the next seven weeks cruising around the Eastern Med and the Black Sea – the weather in Greece has really heated up over the last few days, so it should be a hot few weeks.

The best bit of news is that the ship has got the rights to show every single World Cup match, so I can watch England's glorious march to victory in the final (I can dream, can't I?).