Dubai

We stopped in Dubai for two nights on the way home from Greece.  It was very hot as we expected - so hot that we wondered if we should walk the 400 metres to the cool of Dubai Mall or use a taxi.  In the end we decided we would be fine walking.  It was ok but you would not want to spend any longer than necessary out there!

Our hotel was in downtown Dubai, near the shopping centre and the huge Burj Khalifa tower.  The tower is enormous, at over 800 metres and 160 stories high.  The mall is also huge, and it was so hot outside we felt the only thing to do was spend our day in the mall.

The Burj Khalifa, 800 metres tall.

Arabic-themed Dubai Mall shop.

 We bought tickets and travelled to the 125th floor of the Burj Khalifa where there is a viewing floor and souvenir shop.  You can get to higher floors (on a more expensive ticket) but I think the view would be much the same, by which I mean rather limited!  The air is so hazy you cannot see further than a couple of kilometres.  The view down feels rather like the view from an aeroplane.

Sue on the 125th floor.

Looking down Burj Khalifa Lake and fountain.

The outdoor viewing platform on level 124.

Get photographed made up as a sheik!

The mall aquarium, visible below a gigantic screen.

The wall of water, complete with divers.

Banana ducks in the street.

The mall ice rink, with huge screens above.

The huge screen in this picture (advertising the REEL Cinemas) has a wide window in it into a restaurant.  The mall is huge, with about 1200 shops.  As well as dozens of restaurants there is a movie complex, the ice rink (above), and a large aquarium where you can also scuba dive.  Wikipedia says that in 2012 there wer 65 million visitors to this mall.

We soon realised that everything was rather expensive - up to twice what we might expect - so perhaps it's not such a great place to shop.

Around dusk a large crowd gathered around the lake to view the Dubai Fountain perform its nightly show.  This fountain also provides many superlatives - it cost about 200 million dollars to build, and performs choreographed displays to music, shooting water up to 150 metres into the air.  It was an entertaining display complete with funky arab music, and we were cooled down by the spray of mist drifting across us.

That night we watched the soccer world cup final in Moscow on big screens at the hotel, along with a noisy crowd of hundreds.  France beat Croatia 4 - 2.

Time to go home!

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Kythnos to Athens

Our cruise of the Greek islands ended with a day sailing from Kyros back to Athens.  Our route took us in quite close to the mainland at its southern tip, Cape Sounio, where the Temple of Poseidon stands on the tip of the headland.  It was a subdued day as we faced the end of our escape from normal life, and saying goodbye to all these people.

Sailing back up the coast toward Athens.

The Temple of Poseidon on Cape Sounio.

Sue, a cuppa, and the Temple of Poseidon.

Sails up!

The Galileo has sails, and many photos of her show her with sails up.  The reality is that they are just toy sails, which don't actually do anything useful, and in fact the crew are reluctant to unfurl them unless the wind is very light.  Today they announced they would get them out so we could take some photos!

Back at home base in Athens, in Marina Zeas.

The map in the salon, where Joseph marked our progress.

We slept on board in Athens that night, had breakfast, and then disembarked.  There was quite a change of atmosphere on board as the crew were obviously keen to get everyone on their way so they could start the big job of preparing the ship for the next lot, who will arrive a 2 pm this afternoon!

We taxied back into the city to the Amalia Hotel for our last night before boarding the plane for Dubai.  Athens is starting to seen quite familiar!

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Neo-classical Syros

We have berthed in the town of Ermoupolis, on the island of Syros.  Ermoupolis is the capital city of the south Agean islands, and has been a very important port over the centuries.  It's position on the major sea routes between east and west gave it wealth and power, and during the centuries of Ottoman (Turkish) rule it was allowed to continue its special status as a major commercial port.  Its name translates as "City of Hermes", and Hermes was the god of commerce.

In the 1800's Ermoupolis became the centre of development of the new "neo classical" architectural style, which is now familiar all over the world from landmarks such as Buckingham Palace, or the White House in Washington.  Many architects came to Syros during that time to learn and to contribute to the building of the neo classical buildings which today make Ermoupolis look much more modern than the other towns we have visited across the Cyclades.

Marble is everywhere here: in addition to the buildings, the streets are almost all paved with marble, the footpaths are marble, and even the breakwater in the harbour has big chunks of marble in it.  Joseph told us that asphalt only started being used here in the 1970's!

Neo-classical Ermoupolis, capital of the south Agean.

The town hall.

My happy lunch omelette.

The streets are paved with marble!

A view down to the harbour.

Some buildings look more in need of attention than others...

Some pretty shade.  It was very hot out in the sun (as usual).

Interesting mortar treatment.

Even this marble lion was finding it too hot!

Wall posters.

Even the harbour wall has great chunks of marble thrown in.

No beach here, but the water is nice and clear if you want a swim.

Syros had quite a different feel to the other islands, probably because of the number of fine buildings, and its past as a major port and commercial centre.  There is even a large ship-building facility on the other side of the harbour, which was once a major business but nowadays does not get much work.

On the way here we stopped for another swim off the boat, in a quiet bay called Kalona Beach, on the island of Kithnos.  There a narrow sand bar joins a small island to the main one, but is only exposed during unusually low tides.

Sue dries off up top after our swim at Kalona Beach.

Another of our company's cruise boats, the "Pan Orama II".

The Galileo is operated by a Greek company called Variety Cruises.  Early this morning we stopped after leaving Kyros, so I got out of bed and went up on deck to see what was going on.  Another of their boats (above) was nearby and some sort of equipment exchange was going on.  I think a broken tender was being swapped for a good one, so nothing serious apparently.  It did mean I got to watch the sunrise, a big red orb rising out of the sea.  It was no problem looking directly at it, which is not something I would attempt back home.

Today we were invited to a tour of the bridge of the Galileo.

(From left) our second officer, our captain, and Warren from Australia (one of us).

Our cabin, at a relatively tidy moment!

Sunrise, near Syros.

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Mikonos

Mikonos is famous as the "party island" of the Agean and is an essential stop for every cruise liner.  Our guide Joseph much prefers the smaller, quieter places the Galileo visits, but knows everyone cruising the Cyclades wants to tick off Mikonos on their list.  He is also disgusted that the Galileo is not allowed in the main port because it has masts, and the rich mega-launch owners don't like hearing the noise from the rigging!  So we berthed in the "cruise dock" marina and used the cheap "Sea Bus" to go to and from the town, about one kilometre away.

We woke up to see four cruise ships parked nearby.  Welcome to Mikonos!

The little Sea-Bus, passing a few cruise ships.

The streets of Mikonos are indeed crowded.

The streets of the town were quite busy, but no worse than the streets of any busy city really.

The iconic Paraportiani Church.

The weird lump of the Paraportiani Church is actually made up of five separate churches built beside and on top of each other!  It looks quite different depending on where you view it from.

Only vehicles like this will fit through the streets!

The beach looks pretty scrappy!  In the background is the "Little Venice" area on the edge of the sea.

The famous windmills of Mikonos.  Maintained purely for snapshot purposes.

They even have their own "Cyclades" Coca Cola.

The path through Little Venice goes right through these restaurants.

Another cruise ship, another mega-yacht.  Both a common sight here.

Our perfect weather continued today.  Joseph gave us a guided tour through the narrow winding paths of the old town and out the other side to near the windmills.  Although the main paths are crowded, at other times you can turn into a side street and find yourselves alone.  We did not find the crowding as bad as we had been led to believe it would be.

Mikonos is famous as a party island, and it is thronged with young people looking for that party.  It seems to be centred mainly on the beaches along the other coast, where there are beaches called "Paradise" and "Super Paradise" where (we are told) the dance music pumps out at high volume all night and into the dawn, and all sorts of immoral behaviour goes on!

Everyone was instructed to be on board no later than 6:00 am (tomorrow), ready to depart.  We had a quiet night on the Galileo (of course).

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Marble Paros

From Santorini we went on to Paros, the "marble island".  Paros has been known for centuries as a source of the finest marble, "Parian marble", which has been exported all over the world since about 600 BC.  It was prized by sculptors and was used in famous buildings across Europe, for example Napoleon's Tomb in Les Invalides in Paris.  Today that top quality stone has been exhausted but they still export the (less perfect) marble available.

In Paros we encountered the Agean islands ferries up close.  There are many of these, generally bigger and faster than our Cook Strait ferries, competing for the inter-island business.  Many tourists organising their own travel around the islands would use these ferries, and they are also the main commercial link between the islands and mainland Greece.

Loading freight onto Superferry II, while the Minoan ferry docks beyond.

These ferries work with minimal infrastructure - just a bare concrete wharf in this case, in complete contrast to the complicated wharves and ramps in Wellington and Picton for our ferries.  All people and goods come and go through the stern door.  They also dock, unload and load with their engines running to hold them in position, and then depart all in a very short time.  It all seems highly efficient.

The ferries are on their way again in no time, leaving behind these new cars for Paros.

The mountain village of Marpissa.

In Paros we bussed up to a little mountain village, all pristine white buildings and stone paved streets.  It is very quiet, an example of the many villages where the young people have left to go to Athens or beyond for work.  We visited a small "museum" which locals have set up in a traditional house, furnished in the traditional way to show how people lived here.

A thousand year old olive tree, on Paros (through the bus window, sorry).

The old port at Paros.

Octopus drying in the sun.

In the main town of Paros there is a very old church, the "church of 100 doors" - although it does not have 100 doors, just the usual number.  It dates from the year 300 AD, and is one of the oldest continuously-used churches in Greece.  There was a wedding starting today, so we had to hurry through.

In the church of 100 doors.

A tree outside the church serves as a natural bell tower!

Fish therapy - I think I got some of that in Crete!

Like the old town on Folegandros, Parakia also has a fort comprised of a block of houses.  Our guide showed us where some of the wall was constructed using huge stones "borrowed" from nearby ancient sites.

Recycling marble columns and lintels!

Our ship in Paros.

Santorini marked the most southern point of our cruise, and with Paros we are working our way north again, and eventually back toward Athens.  The motors started early in the morning again as we left Paros for Mikonos.

Our route from Athens to Mikonos.

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