Patmos

 

The Monastery at the high point of the island of Patmos.

Today, Tuesday July 15, we are visiting the island of Patmos. Our walk in the morning was through the whitewashed and very narrow streets that twist around the top of the highest hill on the island. At the very top is a monastery, but our tour didn’t visit it. (The other tour did visit it.) Patmos is famous for its role in early Christianity, and did not appear much in the history of ancient Greece.

We mainly looked around at the streets, the views out to sea — very picturesque — and a brief stop in an old mansion and a small church. The old mansion was like a hoarder house: crammed with miscellaneous collectibles from several different time periods. Our real interest is the ancient Greek ruins in these islands, and we hope the other days of the tour will provide more access to such ruins.

The National Geographic/Lindblad Orion, our ship.

Windmills.

The small Greek Orthodox church.

Blog post and photos © 2025 mae sander

Delos

 

This morning (July 14) we visited the island of Delos. The sun was bright, but not yet unbearably hot, and the sky was deep blue, contrasting with the stunning white marble that was used to create the very large city, with its marketplace, its public buildings, many private residences both luxurious and simple, and its theater. Several well-preserved mosaics were especially interesting. A small museum included many marble statues and a few items of pottery. I was thrilled to see still more Greek landscapes.

Fences prevente visitors from entering the buildings.
You must walk on the walkways.

A small iron statue from thousands of years ago in the museum.

A number of lion statues lined one of the avenues in the public area of the city.
The original statues are in the museum, with copies in their place outdoors.

Photos copyright Mae Sander  2025

From Athens to the Ship

This morning when I first woke up, I looked out the window of our cabin on the ship we boarded yesterday. On the horizon I saw Rosy-Fingered Dawn! The boat was rocking a lot as we scudded through the wine-dark sea. (If you have read the Odyssey you know why I’m talking funny.) 

Yesterday, Sunday July 13, we had a beautiful day beginning at our hotel in Athens, and traveling to the Lindblad ship which will take us on our continuing adventure in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Greek and Turkish islands. We visited the ancient Greek Temple of Posidon at Soumion, and then had lunch and a wine tasting at a winery near the port where we boarded the ship. Internet is a bit iffy on this ship, it seems,  but this post might work.

 

The Acropolis Up Close

Finally, this morning, we visited the Acropolis of Athens. For many years I have wished I could see this very famous place, including the most famous temple, the Parthenon, and the Erechtheion, which is the temple decorated with the breathtaking caryatids (female statues holding the structure on their heads). Our tour was planned for us to arrive early in the morning to avoid the heat and the crowds. Huge numbers of tourists were in fact there with us, but we understand that four cruise ships were about to send thousands more tourists later in the day. 

Walking up the rather steep stone path.

Beyond the trees we could look upwards towards the temples on the top.
The major structures were built during the Greek classic era, in the 5th century BCE.

A stadium is alongside the path: it was built much later by the Romans, who always used arches.
(Classic Greek architecture doesn’t use arches.)

Every column is amazing!

The Parthenon is the iconic Greek Temple. Its construction started in 447 BCE, and it was completed in 438,
with some of the decorations completed a few years later. An amazing speed for such a masterpiece.
There’s a lot of history here about wars, generals, politicians, and the great artist Phidias.

The Cariatids at the Acropolis are copies. We saw the originals yesterday at the museum.

Every view is breathtaking.

More photos of the Parthenon

The steps up to the building have an interesting feature: they bow upward in the middle,
which creates the characteristic look of the building from a distance.

The history and foundational nature of this place would make a profound discussion. Years ago, in college, I took an entire year course on Greek archaeology, with many classes on the Parthenon and its builders and its architectural features. As I walked around I could remember much more of this course than I thought I would. However, I won’t try to repeat all that here today.

It was a wonderful experience that I’ve always hoped for.

Leaving the Acropolis

As we walked down the slope to reboard the bus, we could see that the crowd was becoming ever more dense. Too dense, in fact, for more photos: people stopping to take selfies were holding up the people behind on the stairway. The sun was strong and the temperature was rising, as well. We were happy that our tour had been planned to take place first thing in the morning. 

As I say, I have always dreamed of visiting here.

No ancient Mediterranean archaeological site is complete without its resident cats.

Blog post and photos © 2025 mae sander

The Acropolis Museum

A wonderful museum full of treasures of the ancient Greek world.

Athens and the classics of ancient Greece have been a dream of mine since I was in high school. This morning (Friday, July 11) we landed at the Athens airport, and this afternoon we visited the Acropolis Museum. The museum opened in 2009, and it contains wonders! Its mission is to preserve some of the fragile masterpieces, as well as to display the riches of Athens. Here are a few of my photos (without much documentation!)

When the excavations for the modern building began, of course they found layer upon layer of earlier constructions. In front of the entrance, you look down into remains of a Roman city.

A modern model of the sculpture on the pediment of the Parthenon.

Archaic statues. (I will post more about them eventually.)

The porch of the Erechtheion temple on the Acropolis is supported by cariatids, that is

sculptures of women who support the structure on their heads. These statues were degrading badly

due to air pollution and acid rain, and special laser techniques were devised to clean them.

The Parthenon seen from the museum.

Huge windows on the top floor provide a magnificent view of the Acropolis.

Photos © 2025 mae sander