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This blog is about several short, back-to-back places that we visited.  It starts with our cruise on the Crystal Symphony, Athens to Athens.  The cruise hit some new Greek isles and visited a few others that we had already visited.  But the Greek isles are always worth a visit.  The cruise also stopped in Istanbul and Ephesus.  We opted to skip Ephesus as we had visited that before and will be revisiting it soon with Liam.  

From our cruise we flew to Rome and then drove to Sorrento where we had lovely weather for a visit of the Amalfi Coast (both by sea and a driving trip) and a day in Capri.

Then it was on to London for a few days and then to Reading where we caught the Wessex Rose for a short but lovely cruise on the Thames River.

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    Crystal Cruise Greece

    Flowers

    Italy

    Wessex Rose Birds

    Wessex Rose Thames Cruise

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Apr 11/12 – Flight from Trivandrum India to Athens Greece

We fly today/tonight from Trivandrum to Athens for our next adventure.  Unfortunately, the flight leaves Trivandrum at 4:00 in the morning for Dubai so we are being picked up from the airport at 1:00am.  We got up at our usual hour of around 8:00am and didn’t bother going to bed because of our middle of the night flight.  We are going to be pretty tired. 

The airport was only a half hour or so away.  We got there with no problem and had no trouble getting checked in.  Surprise!!!  We got an upgrade to First Class on our Emirates flight to Dubai.  What a treat!  We have never flown Emirates First before, but we are sure the tickets are way out of our price range.  Nice to get the experience without the cost. 

And what an experience it was.  All the nicer touches…a spacious suite all to ourselves with seats that reclined fully to a wide bed (actually pretty comfortable), 

a retractable drinks bar,...

our own snack basket full of all kinds of goodies and a bouquet of orchids, 

doors that closed off our suite from the aisle, 

pajama's and really nice slippers, non-stop food, a box of cakes when we sat down and a box of chocolates when we left.  

First Course of a Two Course Breakfast

And incredible, friendly service.

And the cherry on the top…Twinkly “stars’ overhead to provide subtle lighting while you sleep.  Could get used to this. 

We had a layover in Dubai and then on to Athens (just business class on this leg).  Neither leg was long enough for either us to actually manage to get any sleep. 

We were met by a Crystal representative at the airport who loaded us up and took us to our hotel.  We arrived late afternoon.  We decided on a light dinner at the restaurant (split a pizza) and headed to bed. 

Counting the day we were up at the resort in India we have probably been up something like 36 hours straight.  We are pretty tired. 

Apr 13 – Boarding Crystal Symphony

We both slept well last night and got up late enough that we decided to skip breakfast.  We were down in the lobby around 10:30 (checkout was at 11:00) and waited there for our 12:00 bus.  The lobby was very crowded but it turned out that most of the people were waiting for a different tour (we assume a cruise). 

We arrived at the port in plenty of time but were held in the bus for 15 minutes or so until they told us we could get off.  There was a large line of people trying to get registered so they thought we would be more comfortable sitting on the bus than standing around the port termina. 

Once inside we had places to sit in a waiting area as there was still a line (but shorter) at the check in counters.  Once checked in it was we got on board and had to do another check in.  We were in the rooms about 1:30, met out housekeeping team, and headed up to the Trident Grill for a burger and milkshake lunch.  Yummy.

After lunch we met our butler, Hem, did some unpacking and then headed off to wander the ship.  We cruised on the Serenity last time we sailed with Crystal so we are unfamiliar with Symphony, our new home for the next couple of weeks.

At dinner we requested Gokan, our waiter from our Hong Kong to Singapore cruise.  He was still on board so it was nice to see him again.  He didn't have any open tables unfortunately, but we are ok with just ourselves as company. 

In the evening we saw the Crystal in Motion performance.  We figured we had already seen it but it turned out to be an entirely new show...just had the same title.  Very energetic and very good.  

The sunset as we set sail this evening.    

Entertainment tonight was “Crystal in Motion”, a big production with all the singers and dancers and the ship’s show band.  Very entertaining and energetic.  

Apr 14 – Patmos Photo Tour

What a glorious, sunny day.  A perfect day for a tour around a Greek island.  In this case, we are touring part of Patmos, a new island for us.  We tendered into the small port town of Skala where we were met by our tour guide and a driver.  

Photos from our drive around the island.

We are on a photography tour.  Our first stop was a small chapel (the majority of churches in Greece are Greek Orthodox).  It was quite small with an altar area separated with a curtain.  We were a group of 12 plus guide and were barely able to fit into the small space.

The chapel was right beside a small docking area that had a number of picturesque fishing boats and lots of flowers. 

From there we headed to the Petra of Kallikatsou (also known as the Rock of Petra).  It used to have a small chapel around the back side.  Now abandoned and a rather precarious walk to it so none of us ventured around that side of the rock.  Nice views of some of the surrounding islands.

The left side of the rock had a huge rock that had fallen off of the main rock.  More photos all around. 

There was a small “beach” and a wetland that attracts migratory birds.  There were some black winged stilts wading in the very shallow water.

One of the main sites on the island, the Monastery of Saint John the Theologian, high on a hill.

We visited the West Bay...

with a small, picturesque restaurant (not yet opened as the tourist season hasn’t started).

Nearby was another wetland with a white egret,

a purple heron,

and a grey heron.

Next stop was a Chora, a small village up in the hills and home of the monastery. The guide talked about the village and the island while he walked but also pointed out points where the best photos could be taken.  Everyone had cell phones except us with our heavy cameras.

There were three windmills that overlooked the island.  We have often seen windmills but rarely in this good a condition.  They have been recently restored.  One is used to mill flour and the other two will eventually be used to generate electricity. 

There were windy, narrow lanes and streets lined with white washed houses,

a little white church,

a picturesque archway,

views of the monastery (we didn’t go up to visit),

pretty doors…

and interesting door knockers,

and a small shop was open with lots of interesting souvenirs.  It was about the only thing open on this section of the island.  We didn’t buy anything. 

We stopped at a small café for a drink.  It had lovely views overlooking the island.

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More Walking Chora
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Next stop was the Church of the Apocalypse.  St John, the Apostle and Theologian, was exiled in Patmos, and while here he wrote the book of Revelations.  The tour didn’t include entrance to the church.  We saw both the old entrance...

and the new with the mosaic over it.  The mosaic St. John dictating the book of revelations to his scribe.

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More Patmos
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There were a few cats wandering around.  These are two different cats but they sure look similar to each other.  

Then it was back down to Skala.  We opted to not hit the souvenir shops and headed straight to the tender. 

View of the Crystal Symphony from our tender.  She’s a lovely ship.

A photo of the ship's pool area.

Entertainment tonight was a very major change of pace, a very good comedian, Mark Palmer, from the UK.