The Very Best of Greece 🇬🇷

June 12-22, 2025

For Christmas, this past year, Jeff gave me an eight day cruise to Greece with Travis and Shasta. We had so much fun! We flew into Athens and spent the night before boarding the ship the next day.  It was a very HOT trip and we were all sweating our butts off. There were cats everywhere, and I was blown away at how ancient some of the things were that we got to see. And not only see but touch and walk on. We here in the States consider things that are 50 years old to be antique.  But we were touching and walking all over things that were literally thousands of years old.

MYKONOS 

First up on our trip was the beautiful island of Mykonos!  This 33 mi.² Island is known as the island of wind.  Its white washed homes, sprinkled with colors of either blue, green or red were beautiful. If you painted your door and window coverings blue, that meant you worked on the sea. If you painted them green, it meant that you were a farmer. If you painted them red, that would mean you did any other trade.  I loved seeing the Bougainvillea growing everywhere. Their beautiful pink flowers were such a gorgeous contrast against the white buildings!

RHODES

Rhodes was the next stop on our trip. We first toured through an acropolis and stadium that dates back to 227 BC before heading to Lindo, a white washed hill town that was dominated by a dramatic acropolis, and ancient temple.  Then we trekked up the mountain side to go through another acropolis in Lindo.   

Something that we all thought was so interesting was the way they laid out white and gray rocks on the sidewalk, doorsteps and entryways of all the buildings. They did them in amazing patterns that looked like rugs.

We ended the night by having dinner at Mama Sophia's restaurant. Every city we went to had cats. Cats, cats and more cats! They were all tame, but still feral. There were random bowls of cat food and water set out randomly throughout the cities. They obviously use them to help control mice. This one particular cat at Mama Sophia's crept up behind a plant and peaked its head up over the table and meowed at Shasta, wanting a little meat.... it was too cute to not indulge!

EPHESUS, TURKEY

Once the capital of the Roman province of Asia Minor, this coastal town is now an archaeologist dream!  We started out by touring through the old city which dates backs to 7000 BC.  The excavations began 150 years ago, and only 20% has been uncovered.  This former Greek banking and trading center is rich with historic sites, including The Great Theater, the Temple of Hadrian, and the temple of Artemis. It's one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. 

We made our way to a Turkish rug factory where we first ate lunch and then watched how the ladies hand tie rugs. It was so interesting! They also showed us how they extract silk from silkworm pods.

Next, we went to The Baths. We had the most amazing experience! First of all, we sat in a dry sauna before moving to the wet sauna. We all got exfoliated on a massive, round, warm stone, which felt amazing, then they put these foaming bubbles all over us which tingled kind of like the way you see carbonation move up a glass. It felt so good! Then we each had an hour massage.  (The two pictures of the Turkish bathhouse that I shared are just Google images to give you an idea of what it looked like.)

Lastly, we went to the supposed final place of Mary, mother of Jesus.  Historians have traced John the Baptist back to this place and we know that he was in charge of Mary's care so it is believed that she spent her final days there.

SANTORINI

Awe - beautiful Santorini! We rode the cable car up into the iconic white mountainside. The homes / buildings are all white with blue roofs, doors and shutters.  It's said that's it's to match the Greek flag.  We had lunch at this stunning restaurant that overlooked the sea. Then had our driver take us clear down to the bottom of the mountain where we rented cabanas and swam and played on the black sand beaches of the Aegean Sea.  Then had dinner in another beautiful open air restaurant.  

I also had to share a bunch of pictures of all the incredible doors that everyone has everywhere in Greece. They are each unique and colorful and so fun to see. 

One thing that I will say about this place, and it seems to be a common thought from everyone who has ever visited Santorini, is that there really isn't much to do here. It's beautiful, you want to go and see it for sure. But after you've walked around for a few minutes and taken your pictures, that's about it. I'm glad our driver suggested that we go down to the beach on the opposite side. That was something fun to do that no one else has done.

HYDRA 

Such a Tuscan feel! Such a quaint island! No cars, motorcycles, or even bikes are allowed here. All travel is done by foot, horse or donkey!  We walked through this quaint village and did a little shopping, then ate lunch before heading back to the ship  

ATHENS

Sites visited: Hadrian Arch - National Botanical Gardens - Parliment and watched the guards guard the Tomb of The Unknown Soldier - Panathenaic Stadium which is the stadium of the first modern Olympic Games, with seating capacity of 60,000 - The Acropolis and Pantheon - Erechtheion Temple (6 statues of the ladies) which honors Poseidon and Athena. After we walked around everything, we stopped for lunch. Jeff, Travis and Shasta were all tired and wanted to go back to the hotel BEFORE seeing the Acropolis! We were literally within a 10-15 minute walk away from it - and they didn't want to go...?? So I told them all goodbye and sent them back to the hotel and walked up to the Acropolis myself. I had the best time!  Along the way, I met a 29-year-old girl from Canada, who was doing it solo as well.  So we walked up to it together and took pictures of each other.  She was so nice!  I took lots of pictures and was so glad I went to see it!  Then I took the bus back to our hotel a couple hours later. I met an incredible lady from Germany on the bus and had the most fascinating 45 minute conversation with her on my bus ride back.  When I got back to the hotel, I quickly freshened up and we all went out to dinner at this cool rooftop restaurant that overlooked the Acropolis.  We shared a delicious beet salad at this restaurant.  It was so good!  It had sliced pickled beets, goat cheese in the middle, sprinkled with pistachios and a light drizzle of olive oil.  I also loved eating Greek salads every day.  Those two salads are something that I have replicated multiple times since being home.

This was a fantastic trip with amazing memories made!