The End Is Near

It's Friday in Athens and we'll be flying home tomorrow.  It's time  to wrap this journey up.

Wednesday we were in Bodrum, Turkiye, another new port for us.  

We took the Oceania Bodrum Peninsula & Vineyards excursion.  Following a picturesque 45 minute ride up the peninsula, we arrived at the Mor Salkim Vineyards & Winery.  We were given a tour around the vineyard and winery!

The wines were good and the food was plentiful.

An interesting aspect of Bodrum is the number of relatively new hotels.  The area has become a tourism hot spot since the construction of the airport.  Oh, and the temperature was hot also.

Our day was topped off with a dinner with Samantha Brown and her husband, Kevin O'Leary (not that Kevin O'Leary!).  It was a very pleasant dinner and we were surprised when she said that she wanted to pick our brains about travel!

It was the second great dinner in a row for us as the previous evening we finally had dinner with Cruise Director Paul, Assistant Cruise Director Robbie and his wife Casey (the Social Hostess).

Thursday, we were in Patmos, Greece, another new port for us.  It was a nice tender ride into the port.

We took the Oceania St. John's Patmos excursion.  The excursion took us to St. John's Grotto and then to the Holy Monastery of Saint John the Theologian.  The grotto was smaller than I expected.  Don't tell God, but I took a photo inside when we weren't supposed to.

There were some good views from the site.

The monastery sits atop a hill in the town that is the capital of Patmos and walking up the reward for the walk up was really good views.

 

The monastery itself was interesting.

Don't tell God, but Linda also snuck in a photo there.

The excursion provided an insight to an important aspect of Patmos, but I have to say that the religious narrative that our guide provided was a bit much for us.

Being back in Greece gave me the opportunity to do my best Zorba the Greek dance.

And now we're up to Friday.  Disembarkation and transfer to the hotel went quite smoothly.  After we dropped our luggage at the hotel, we took an Uber to Placa, the neighborhood below the Acropolis.  We did a walk around the area, checking out old and new churches and, of course, ruins. Walking around Athens reminded Linda of Rome with less crowds and a lot cleaner! We do have to add that it is a holiday today.

And then it was time for a lunch of Greek salad and mezze.

Before heading back to the hotel, we walked past Hadrian's Arch (the guy got around) and the Temple of Olympian Zeus.

So this wraps up our 3 month journey around Europe (and a bit of Asia).  It's been a journey with so many highs (and just a couple of lows).  It has provided us with a good baseline for next year when we are doing a 4-month around the world cruise.

I know that some of my blog posts are far too long (like this one!).  But I try to tell the story of our journeys as best I can.  And there are probably so many more stories we could tell.  Which brings me to the quote from Tivoli Park in Ljubljana that I will end this journey on. 

"Listen, and you will realize that we are made not from cells or from atoms. We are made from stories."

Mia Couto

Till next time, peace, blessings and stories,

Linda and Larry