July 23rd & 24th – Late Nights and Early Mornings in Aghios Nikolaos

There’s always disappointment when you miss a port because of the weather (it was too windy for us to get into Amorgos), but when the compensation is an overnight stay in a beautiful place like Aghios Nikolaos in Crete, then the disappointment fades away a little.

Not only does “Aghios” offer great opportunities to visit the amazing ruins of Knossos, or trips to Spinalonga, or into the Cretan hill villages; but the fact that we’re docked right in the centre of town gives you a great chance to enjoy Crete’s most upmarket and one of its most genuine resorts. Within a couple of minutes’ walk from the ship, you are in amongst the wonderful array of waterfront bars and restaurants. And, the great thing about Aghios is that it boasts multiple waterfronts – just inside the harbour is the supremely picturesque Lake Voulismeni, which is bristling with yet more restaurants. While, a short walk along the coast, you have a couple of sheltered beaches, again lined with plenty of places to dine.

So, seeing as everything here is leading you to eat and drink, we were powerless to resist –overnight cruise stays in Aghios are a rare event, so we could forego the wonderful food onboard for one night. We had sundowners on the cliffs above the lake – the ship in the harbour in front of us was the tallest building in town - and then we had to find somewhere to eat. The choice was almost too great, but we decided to try somewhere that wouldn’t be relying just on its waterside location, and we headed to the backstreets.

We chanced upon a lovely taverna called “Viola” – it had only been open for a month (so it had no online reviews), but its all-female crew had created something special. It wasn’t a flash place – the menu was certainly not expansive (or expensive) – but, they did the simple things well. The super-friendly owner explained that they had had a whole year of lockdown to work on the quirky decorations and lighting that turned what could have been a rather drab roadside location into a really atmospheric find – the magical atmosphere was added to by the fact that the full moon was rising enigmatically at the end of the street.

On our walk back to the ship, it felt quite late to us, but on the waterfront the party was just starting. Hordes of (what looked like) teenagers were congregating outside a couple of bars pumping out deafening dance music, as the awkward mating rituals (especially post-Covid) of the youth of Aghios were about to commence. It made me glad to be way too old for that kind of thing.

Seeing as we had managed to resist the call of the nightclubs, we decided that we should get up early to go for a morning swim. Usually these virtuous ideas have disappeared by the time we should be getting up, but Aghios had inspired us. So, we rose at 7am and were on the beach at 7.30am – the virtually empty waters bathed in a soothing golden light. It was idyllic.

Aghios is a place made for relaxing – a place where choosing where you’re going to have a drink or go for dinner, is going to be your biggest problem. If we were going to be “forced” to have an overnight anywhere on this cruise, then this was a pretty good option.

July 22nd – Is Rhodes Bouncing Back?

Was it wrong to be revelling in the fact that we’ve enjoyed having so many of these Greek Islands to ourselves? It’s been a guilty pleasure to be walking around places that would/should be packed at this time of year, but have been refreshingly tranquil.

On a super-hot day, our visit to Lindos today was like the world had gone back to normal – not the “new normal” where sights were uncrowded, calm and socially-distanced, but the old normal where it often felt like you were cheek-to-jowl with perspiring holidaymakers from around the world. Admittedly, the queues to climb up to the Acropolis of Lindos weren’t quite back to old levels, but standing there with bare-shirted and bikini-clad tourists from Russia, Germany and France, was a reminder that mass tourism could be about to be unleashed once again. 

Our guide told us that this past week, they had received more tourists than the population of the entire island – over 120,000 people. Seeing as she had only had one guiding job in the past 12 months, then she was obviously happy to see the tourist influx resume.

Of course, the magnificence of Lindos’s Acropolis overshadowed our fellow culture vultures from around the world – its classical columns looking superb against the deep blue of the Aegean. In fact, the site was a perfect reflection of the passage of history on this island – Ancient Greek columns, restored by 20th century Italian occupiers, next to Byzantine churches, surrounded by medieval walls built by the Knights of St John.

Rhodes Town was a lot more calm, and a lot less crowded. So, we enjoyed a very leisurely lunch at the former home of the Knights of Auvergne, and then had a tour around the Palace of the Grand Masters. By now, the effects of the heat and a large lunch were sapping our ability to soak up too much culture; however, the Palace is still one of the more impressive relics you can find in the Greek Islands (even if it’s largely a 1920s confection created by Rhodes’s  imaginative Italian occupiers).

It was great to see Rhodes’s tourism industry beginning to bounce back after a disastrous previous year – get out here quickly before things return to the “old normal”.

July 20th – Ticking off UNESCO Sites in Cyprus

There are many sides to Cyprus – beaches, tick; ancient ruins, tick; modern resorts, tick. Well, today was the time to see something different – heading up into the mountains to see some relics of the Byzantine Empire, a group of historic churches and chapels that have been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. 

Our tour took us up over 800 metres above sea level into the Troodos Mountains, the scenery changing from parched yellow fields, to green pine forests. Fortunately, this section of the mountains was unaffected by the terrible forest fires that have ravaged the hills on the other side of Limassol, so its heritage of beautifully preserved medieval churches has survived.

These are only tiny little churches, but they display some remarkable frescoes from the time when the Byzantine Empire was culturally and artistically some distance ahead of western Europe. Unfortunately, photography is banned in these churches, so you’re going to have to take my word for it.

Our first church, Panagia Podithou was from the 15th century, a period when the rest of Europe had caught up – some frescoes from the period of Venetian occupation showing way more depth and emotion than the rather stiff Byzantine ones around it. But, the beautiful Aghios Nikolaos Tis Stegis church (named after its odd double-roofed structure), was a wonderful example of Byzantine artwork. Every wall was covered in frescoes which dated from the 11th century to the 17th centuries. They were so good that it was torture being unable to take a photo of them – although, maybe it made me concentrate more on them as I tried to commit them to memory.

We ended up in the hilltop village of Omodos for lunch – usually the narrow streets are heaving with coach parties, but today it felt like we had the town to ourselves. We stopped in at the Monastery of the Holy Cross, where a tiny off-cut of the True Cross was being proudly displayed on the iconostasis – apparently it was dropped off by St Helena in the 4th century on her Mediterranean cruise on the way back from Palestine. 

So, while the lack of visitors last week made Limassol a little depressing; it made exploring the rest of the island this week much more pleasurable. It’s not often that you have a UNESCO World Heritage Site to yourself – a wonderful experience. 

July 18th – The Artistic Side of Athens

One of the things that amazes me about Athens is that it may have been the centre of the civilised world 2,500 years ago, yet 200 years ago when the modern Greek state was founded, it was little more than a village of 5,000 people. This means that apart from its classical archaeological splendours, the modern city has surprisingly little architecture from much more than 150 years ago. 

When I come here, I often make a bee-line for the superb National Archaeological Museum (which in my opinion is one of the best museums in the world), but today I went to a welcome re-appearance of another of the city’s cultural highlights. 

Because, the Greek National Gallery has been closed for almost 10 years while it’s undergone a 59 million Euro refurb (with the usual budget over-runs you’d expect of this kind of project). However, the Gallery finally re-opened in March this year to much fanfare; so today’s mission was to find out if they had got value for money in these cash-strapped times.

Overall, I’d say yes. The gallery was well-presented, and even if I hadn’t encountered these Greek artists before, the art was of a very high quality. Of course, seeing as Greece had languished under the restrictive rule of the Ottoman Turks for 400 years – a period when Greek culture was suppressed - the only Greek artistic expression allowed was generally religious iconography.

So, the art on display was all post-1821 (Greek independence), and the thing that struck me was how little influence there appeared to be from those rigid Byzantine religious traditions. It was like the Greek artists were trying to reclaim their western heritage as quickly as possible, as the influence of western Europe (and Paris in particular) pervaded. There was some excellent stuff on display, and the only 19th or 20th century western genre that didn’t seem to have taken hold was Impressionism – the museum explained that the Greek light was simply too strong/harsh for the gentle illumination preferred by the Impressionists. 

Having thoroughly enjoyed this new addition to Athens’s cultural scene, we wandered back into town through the National Gardens (one of the few pieces of greenery in this claustrophobic city). We stopped off to admire the guards in their traditional costumes at Syntagma Square, where the soldiers who normally tell you off for getting too close to the guards were surprisingly friendly and chatty.

We then headed to Plaka where we had lunch in the shadow of the Acropolis – when you have a view of the Parthenon overlooking you, all food tastes good!

My other observation about Athens in general was that the city seems to have more homeless and struggling people on the streets since we were last here 4 years ago. Not surprising considering that the pandemic has hit hard a country that’s so reliant on tourism. Of course, this fuels another side of Athens’s artistic offering – the pervading graffiti that cloaks so many buildings and pretty much every square inch of the metro trains. 

Athens’ art is very much a reflection of its history – ancient wonders, 19th century artistic flourishings, and 21st century street art. The city isn’t always a thing of beauty, but if you know where to look, you’ll uncover some gems.

July 17th – A Sting in the Tail in Mykonos

If there’s one place we’ve been to on this cruise where it feels like the pandemic never happened, then it’s Mykonos. This has always been something of a no-holds-barred fantasy island – where no club is too hedonistic, where no price is too high, and where you can never wear too little clothes. But, today it felt like the fearful world of Covid had never happened.

Mykonos Town’s labyrinth of pretty little alleys seemed as busy with tourists as ever; the shops were totally focused on people who must have forgotten to pack any clothes or jewellery with them; while, there was more bare flesh on display in town than you’d expect to see on a busy beach. It made you wonder how the locals cope – bakeries here can only call themselves as “patisseries”, and every shop tends to class itself as “luxury” no matter what it was selling. In every other island we’ve visited, a typical Greek salad has cost 6 to 7 Euros, here we were seeing them for 16 Euros.

But, the name “Mykonos” has become synonymous with Greek island luxury at its best and that’s what people come here for. It has some of the best beaches in Greece, the restaurants and beach clubs are excellent (if ridiculously expensive), and if you want to consume conspicuously then this is the place to do it.

Every 15 minutes, another ferry would drop off hordes of scantily clad fun seekers, while flight after flight was touching down at the airport – as I said, the pandemic seems to be a distant memory (even if Greece seems to be tightening its controls as we speak).

We joined in the parade of beautiful people around town, wandered through the maze of picture-perfect streets, and had a waterfront drink in the only place that looked like it was more aimed at the locals rather than the Jet Set.

After lunch, we went for a swim at Aghios Stefanos Beach, about a 15-minute walk from the ship. We’d scarcely got on the road, when a driver started honking at us furiously. We thought we were being told off for walking on the road – instead she was offering us a lift! It was refreshing to see that the traditional Greek hospitality hadn’t been lost in Mykonos’s tourist boom.

The beach itself was lovely – soft white sands and unbelievably clear seas (which were maybe a little more refreshing than we’d expected, but great once you’d got in). However, just as we were thinking that life couldn’t get any better, I saw Tracy thrashing around like she was a bit part in Jaws just about to be eaten. It turned out she was being stung by a jellyfish. Being heartless, I chuckled to myself that she must be making it up, until I too got stung. We then joined the queue of people (children mainly) to get some bite cream from the long-suffering lifeguard who was doling it out like there was no tomorrow.

That jellyfish was like a metaphor for the last 16 months – just when you think life is getting back to normal, something comes along and bites you in the ….. arm (in this case). I hope that the fact that the pain stopped fairly quickly and was forgotten about in an hour or so is a good sign…..

July 16th – Heraklion - A Tale of Two Islands

What a difference a day makes! Heraklion (the capital of Crete) today was looking so much better than Limassol had.

There’s a lot of similarities between Crete and Cyprus – they’re both big islands of a similar size (the 5th and 3rd biggest Mediterranean islands respectively); they were both late to get their freedom from the Ottomans; they both have excellent ancient sites to visit; and they’re both incredibly popular with tourists.

However, the differences in the atmosphere of Heraklion and Limassol were marked. Heraklion was busy, it seemed prosperous and well cared for, and there seemed a good balance between the local market and the tourist market.

From the right angles, Heraklion can look very attractive – its elegant Venetian buildings and sturdy Venetian fortifications look pretty good; but it would be overstating it to say that the town is a thing of beauty. Away from the busy pedestrianised streets of the centre, most of the rest of town is a densely packed jumble of concrete buildings, but it still seemed a pleasant place to live, with plenty of neighbourhood tavernas and ouzeries – in fact, there seemed to be an unfeasibly large number of places to eat in the town as a whole.

We started our exploring with a walk along the waterfront (the sea breezes made a welcome break from the intense heat), and we called in at the National Historical Museum to get more background on Crete’s history, and particularly to see the only two El Greco’s to be housed on the island of the great artist’s birth. These were only minor examples of his work, but It was fascinating to see the contrast between his fluid and colourful works, and the rigid poses of the Cretan icons displayed all around – it was obvious that the influence of Venice went far beyond the fortifications and loggias of its architecture.

We then found an off-the-beaten-track taverna for lunch – great food and excellent service at incredibly reasonable prices. It’s obvious that this town hasn’t sold its soul to the tourist market.

Our final task was to get up onto the huge Venetian walls that surround the city. They were huge – strong enough to withstand what’s thought to be the second longest siege in history, 21 years, before falling to the Ottomans in 1669. From that height you’d have got great views over the city (if it weren’t almost entirely modern and characterless in profile), but the main impression was just what a huge engineering project it must have been – they were at least 15 metres wide all the way round, and in places they were wide enough to accommodate full-size football pitches.

But, our shadeless wall walk finally wore us out, and it was time to return to the air-conditioning of the ship. I haven’t been to Heraklion for a few years, but I was impressed by how it’s doing.

July 14th – A Quiet Day in Limassol

Cyprus has been through a hard time recently – forest fires have ravaged the hills north of our port of call, Limassol; for an island that’s extremely reliant on tourism, Covid has been particularly tough; plus, the island’s seen a significant spike in cases over the past week. To what extent each of these factors affected what we saw today is hard to say, but Limassol was as quiet as I’ve ever seen it.

At this time of year, you’d expect the Old Town to be busy with tourists thronging its bars and souvenir shops. Instead, many of the shops were shut – their dusty windows a sign that maybe they’ve not opened at all for some time; while most of the pavement cafes were deathly quiet. Limassol has always been a bit scruffy in places, but devoid of people, some parts of town looked a little depressing.

However, just when we were wondering where all the people had gone, we headed to the waterfront, which was much smarter and much livelier (although still quieter than normal). Actually, the focus of Limassol is really changing – the building sites of smart high rise blocks further out of town along the coast, show that there is investment going on here. While, the flashy new marina that has been built, like a mini-Dubai marina or Cypriot Puerto Banus, should be busy when the tourists return. The only problem is that the Old Town seems to have been left behind a little – I hope that Limassol’s development programme has a plan to revitalise that.

This is the first place on the cruise which has the feel of somewhere that’s really suffered during the pandemic – of course, everywhere has suffered, but a big place like this that relies so heavily on the mass market is maybe finding it a little slower to catch up.