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Malta is compelling. From the start we were struck by its beauty. It is in great contrast to an island like Santorini, where the beauty was confined to a couple of towns. Every place has its down side, but we did not find that side of Malta. As you enter Valletta's grand harbor, you see medieval forts on either side. All of the medieval structures and the more modern buildings in the vicinity are built of the same color of tan stone. Others are painted that color. The uniformity of the color reminds us of Jerusalem, where everything, old or new, is built of the same stone. The shutters and doors of the buildings by the harbor are painted in blue, red, green and gold, which adds a bright note to the area.
We did a shore excursion, 'the Malta experience and panorama', which started with a 45-minute movie about the history of Malta. I must confess that I remember very little of the movie, because the dark theater made me want to sleep, and I did give in to that for part of the time. Malta is in a strategic location, which meant that it spent much of its history under occupation by various powers, and it withstood severe bombing by the Germans during World War II. The last power to claim Malta as their territory was Great Britain, which granted Malta its independence in 1964. In 1974 it officially became a republic.
After that a bus took us all over the island, through several towns and lots of countryside. On most of the island, every bit of land that was not occupied by a town was divided into fields by stacked stone walls. The Maltese people use prickly pear cactus for their wind breaks - the first time I've ever seen that. We passed several small town harbors and saw examples of their unique styles of fishing boats. On one part of the coast we saw a series of old stone lookout towers.
The climax of the trip was our stop at a castle, which was built by the Knights of the Order of St. John, and is now part of a hotel. We were served refreshments here, that introduced us to some of the local fare. That fare included bread, cheese turnovers, olives, cheese & crackers, and a locally brewed herb drink called Kinnie. We did not warm up to the Kinnie right away - it started out sweet, but ended with a slight bitterness - but we chose to try a second glass, and discovered that we really liked it. It is made at a local brewery, but is non-alcoholic.
Near the area of the castle we were able to see from a distance, the island where St. Paul was shipwrecked. That event is recounted in the Bible in Acts 27-28. It was exciting to see that, and to know that on this trip we walked where Paul walked in three different places. What a privilege to be able to do that!
Malta is famous for producing beautiful glass work, which is even more beautiful than Murano glass. I came back with two small pieces, but would have liked to be able to afford and transport back, one of the huge, deep pink vases.
We fell in love with Malta and would love to return some day.
Santorini is one of the places we had anticipated going to, as we had been told that it is a very beautiful and scenic island. We were somewhat disappointed in the majority of the island, because it is very dry and scrubby. We took a tour of the island that included the mountain of Elijah the Prophet with a church on top, a visit to a winery, and the villages of Fira and Oia (pronounced EE-A). We saw how the grapes are grown for the wine, which is different from what we are used to. There are no trellises; the vines are wound into a basket shape on the ground & the fruit is tucked inside the basket, to protect it from the strong winds. At the winery we got to taste three different varieties of local wine: a red, a white, and a heavy dessert wine.
Santorini is at this time what appears to be a collection of islands. The island frequented by tourists is Thira, which I believe is the largest of the islands. Santorini was originally a volcano, and is now a ring of islands surrounding a couple of lava islands, which are the original volcano. We had heard that there is a caldera - a lake in the volacano's crater - but it turns out that enough of the original island is underwater that where the cruise ship anchors is in the caldera. It is indistinguishable from the ocean around it. The caldera is also where the cruise ship sank last summer; there is a net in the area to contain the oil from the ship. We were surprised to see how close to the island it was. I still can't imagine taking a ship in that close unless it was planning to dock.
From a distance the villages look like a dusting of snow on top of the islands. The villages of Fira and Oia themselves did not disappoint for post-card quality scenery. They are beautiful. When returning to the tender, it is possible to walk down a flight of 600 stairs, ride a donkey down the same stairs (and yes, you will need to be careful where you step if you walk down). The third alternative, which is the most recommended one, is a cable car. Tina chose to walk down the stairs and paid with sore muscles for several days afterwards, even though we always take the stairs when we are on a ship.
Of interest to me were the half-cylinder roofs on most of the buildings. It turns out that they help make the buildings more earthquake proof: what it does is give the building elasticity so it can move with the earthquake. (An aside about the island of Rhodes - our tour guide there told us that their buildings are built to withstand Richter 12 earthquakes, the kind with vertical movement of plates, which are much more severe than ones where the movement is horizontal.)
I found the geology of the island to be the most interesting part of it. You can see all of the different kinds of rocks - lava (black), iron (red), limestone (white), and pumice (pale gray). The latter is no longer commercially mined, though it used to be a major export.
Our tour started out by going up a switchback road from the port to the top of the island. That is quite an experience in a tour bus, but not as scary as expected. The first stop was the church of Elijah the Prophet, where we saw beautiful little lavender autumn crocus growing. From there we went to the winery, and after that drove to the far end of the island, to Oia. We got off the bus there to explore and/or shop. We stopped in Fira only long enough to let the people off the bus who wanted to explore there and get back to the ship on their own. Our guide pointed out an isolated rock on top of the mountain where the Venetians stayed when they occupied the island. It is a place with only one narrow foot path giving access to it.
We were glad that we signed up for a shore excursion for Santorini. That seemed to us to be the only way to see much of the island. We are glad we got to see the island, but don't feel a need to return, although I believe we will be returning on the world cruise.
Our first sight in the port of Kusadasi, Turkey was Pigeon Island, a rookery for marine birds, which connected to the mainland by a walkway. Immediately upon getting off the ship, there is a shopping area, where the leather goods and rugs that the country is famous for, can be found. There is a very prominent statue on the hillside, which is probably Attaturk, the founder of Turkey (his image is the one frequently seen on Turkish flags).
Probably the main reason Tina & I chose to go on a Mediterranean cruise was because we wanted to see Ephesus. It is significant to us as a city where the apostle Paul spent time, and we believed it would be inspiring to walk where he walked, just as it was to walk where Jesus walked. We discovered that Ephesus is fully as exciting as we thought it would be. We saw Roman ruins in Israel, and I had seen Pompeii back in 1967 (when I was not fully able to appreciate what I was seeing). But nothing we had seen previously prepared us for Ephesus. The ruins cover such an extensive area that it was easy to see how the city could have had a population of 300,000. It seemed as if the city almost continued forever. We saw the Odeon (or parliament), the library, the public bath, the large theater, which seated 24,000 (allowing one seat per family of 6-10 people), some beautiful mosaic work, and a tomb, among other things. There is a row of preserved homes that are sheltered from the elements. We were not able to see those, but heard about them from a friend. We were told about the Christian symbol, which was carved in the marble in many places. It is a circle with four intersecting diameter lines. Our guide showed us how one could use those lines to trace the Greek word Icthus. Christians knew that whenever they saw that symbol, there were fellow believers nearby.
The men's toilet, which seated 40, was quite interesting. There is a trough in front of the "seating" area, which held clean water for washing. The longest streets are paved in marble, and are lined with columns, which is where the market place would have been. The modern exit from the ruins is off Harbor Street, the street which originally led to the harbor. Ephesus has not been a sea port for a very long time, and given the current distance to the ocean, it is difficult to imagine the city as a port.
Another aspect of the ruins, which we found amazing, was the amount of detailed carving that was everywhere. It ranged from extensive dentil molding to carved friezes. It is mind-boggling to consider how much time was spent carving marble for the city.
Excavation and restoration are far from complete. As we drove out of the parking lot, we saw the area of the gymnasium, beyond the theater, which as not been excavated yet. This is a place that is well worth a return visit, to learn more about life and history of this ancient city. We would recommend a tour of Ephesus to anyone.
exercise walk and see a little bit of the city. We saw 
churches everywhere, and the buildings were older and classically styled. There is a trolley or train that runs very close to the dock. We stayed close to the waterfront for our entire walk because we did not want to deal with hills. During our walk we encountered a statue of Neptune, and a waterfront park with a contemporary fountain sculpture, a war memorial, and a lot of ancient rubber trees. This was the first time either of us had seen rubber trees bearing fruit (probably not edible, although in the same family as figs). I was intrigued by the parking style I saw from the deck of the ship - the cars were all very close together, but seemed to be facing in random directions.
