We woke up close to ten am, got dressed and went to breakfast. Just those couple extra hours of sleep made me feel so much better! We were sad that the pancakes were no longer being offered, so I guess there’s some perks to being up early.
We hung around in the shade of the pool deck. I worked on this blog, since I finally had good enough WiFi to upload some pictures. We didn’t have enough time to swim or anything, since our tour today would be more historical.
We got off the ship into the port of Thessaloniki, Greece. Our guide, Panos, pronounced it like “the” (not thee) “salon” “Nikki” and it took me a few times of hearing him say to realize he wasn’t saying “Salon Nikki” and that the “the” was connected. Panos took us from the port to the White Tower. It’s a huge white block tower that used to be the lookout for the harbor back in the day. Thessaloniki has only been a city since the early 1900s-it used to be occupied by Turkey. Panos calls the Turkish “the turkeys” which made me giggle because I pictured a gaggle of the birds every time he said something like, “and then the turkeys captured the city and…”
Anyway. It was beautiful to see. And then we walked along the promenade to see the monument to Alexander the Great on a horse, some 16ft spears and shields with “scary” things carved on them, like Medusa.. It was starting to get really hot, and it was at this point that I thought I wish we had done this tour this morning and I was parked in the pool right now, especially since we were walking beside the harbor, that water was so teasing! Even still, I sweated and walked along listening to Panos throw out fact after fact about his city. He was born and raised here and had so much information!
We got back to the bus and he took us up the brick like roads to the top of the mountainside to see views of the entire city. This area was the original inside of the city surrounded by the huge stone walls and sentry towers. We were able to take some great pictures of the city below all the way to the sea. We were also able to do a little souvenir shopping too.
We were then taken to a museum smack full with artifacts found in Thessaloniki.. everything from marble statues and monuments, to clay pots and bowls, to golden head wreaths and warrior helmets. This is where Panos shined. He showed us the tiniest of details of things I’d have never even noticed. He also told us a lot of Greek mythology.. like the story of Atlas holding the world on his shoulders and trying to make Hercules hold it for him for eternity-but he got tricked into taking it back.
Honestly, all of this history and ancient lands fascinates me. It makes me want to read all of these stories again and really get a better understanding of it all. Like how the Romans and Greeks have different names for the same ancient Gods, ie Athena and Minerva, and Aphrodite and Venus.. I don’t know why I want to know these details, but I do. Something to add to my never ending to do list 😉
From the museum, we were taken to a Greek Orthodox Church. It was absolutely beautiful, as all of these European churches of any kind tend to be. I took my time exploring and taking in the decorations. I wandered and snapped pictures. When I started to get hungry, I walked back to the bus and ate some snacks with Mom while we waited on the others to wander back, too. We definitely should have eaten something on the ship before leaving, but it felt like we had just eaten breakfast.. now, at 4pm.. we were hungry!
We got back to the ship around 5:15.. Mom and I, still not satisfied after our snacks, went to get burgers on the upper deck of the ship. After eating, we went to the theater to watch a lady perform. She sang beautifully, but it was a lot of show tunes and opera songs-so not Mom’s thing, and while I don’t mind sitting to appreciate her talent, it’s not really mine either. We lasted a good 30 minutes before mom whispered, “ok, enough of that.. let’s go..” and we ended up heading to the back of the ship to sit and watch the boat pull away from the port of Thessaloniki.
We stayed until sunset before going to change into our workout clothes. Mom actually came to the gym with me and got in a workout, too! I ran my 2 miles on the dreaded treadmill (it was too windy on the upper deck to run outside again, sad times). Maybe I will actually hit that 50 miles this month!
Once again, we showered and got ready for bed. I thought about going to the some of the entertainment stuff that the ship has for us.. but I’m seriously too tired to get dressed again and go mingle with folks I don’t know.. so, bed sounds like the best thing for me. Tomorrow is a boat cruise to some Mykonos beaches, and I cannot wait!