Voyages to Antiquity – cruise to ancient civilisations

Travelling 1st class by rail to the Capital is always exciting, underground to Heathrow, Hoppa to the Holiday Inn Hotel, not a bad night’s sleep, back on the Hoppa to Terminal Five for BA flight to Athens, about an hour’s transfers to Pireaus, with views of the Parthenon, to join the ship, all very smooth. I was staying in a Premium Outside with Obstructed views on Bridge Deck.

MV Aegean Odyssey is a small ship, carrying 350 passengers, very relaxed and comfortable, with all the amenities you expect with added in depth lectures regarding the ports of call. 2 restaurants, both open sitting, both complimentary, during dinner we set sail to the island of Delos.

Following morning after breakfast outside we jumped into the tender boat off to visit the UNESCO World Heritage Site, which is the Island of Delos, nobody lives here, the island is small, very dry and rocky, but has the most important archeological site, supposedly birth place of Apollo.

Returning by tender to the ship for lunch, whilst cruising to Mykonos, where we found 2 ships docked and everyone trying to get on to the free transfer coaches with quite a wait, we thought it worth paying a couple of euros and crossing the bay by boat, it might have been a little choppy.

I loved Mykonos, with its white buildings and blue painted doors and windows, narrow streets and tiny shops, destination was, locating the windmills.

The next day was an very early start, we had arrive into the busy city port of Izmir and we heading to Ephesus, you have to arrive early to avoid most of the hordes of visitors and start at the top and walk down. From here we returned to the ship for a quick lunch and back on the coach to take us to the Archaeological Museum, situated in the middle of a park, it was very dated and badly lit. From here we travelled a short distance to Agora the open air museum. And to finish the day we were dropped off at the Clock Tower square to roam around the Souk/Market. Returning to the ship at sunset for a very large G&T.

Waking up the following morning with the approaching views of the island of Lemnos was delightful. Again another tender, into a typical Greek fishing port, a lovely walk through the town towards the local Museum of Archaeological finds, again it was very dated, so very quick visit, the draw of a lovely coffee shop on the hillside was too much. I will return to Lemnos.

My cruise finished with a drive through Istanbul towards the airport for a return flight home.

To fully enjoy this cruise you need to have an interest in ancient societies, be prepared for early starts and quite long days. There is a resident band that plays in the evening, and by 10pm everyone is asleep. But the benefit of this, are the opportunities of calling into small inlets and rivers, and getting to know everyone on board.