Culture Cruise
A Sailing Adventure Through The Aegean- and History
When we boarded the Windstar in Athens, Greece, we expected great adventure. We were not disappointed. Our itinerary called for a week’s sail through the Aegean Sea to a string of magical cities and islands, aboard a four-mast, 145-passenger ship that could dock in ports too small for giant cruise liners.
The feeling aboard the Windstar was Old World, with just two decks on top for the main and secondary restaurants, the bar, and the inside and outside lounges. Our cozy stateroom was in the deck below, with two portholes. No water slides, ice skating rinks, Broadway theaters, bowling alleys, or apartment-style balconies five stories up. Yes, there was a small pastry café, a boutique spa, and a few sets of bookcases with interesting reading. Outside of that, however, it was all about being aboard a sleek, beautiful vessel plying its way through deep blue waters – and deep history.
Our daily routine was simple. We sailed at night and docked at an island or coastal city harbor for the day. The first evening, we left Athens’ port of Piraeus at sunset, with heraldic music blaring as sails were hoisted aloft. The next morning, we awoke to the famous island of Mykonos, with its labyrinth of white-washed buildings. Today, this maze houses shops, homes, eateries, and legendary nightclubs. There were also windmills, and beaches where you could touch your toes in the Mediterranean.
Next stop: the coastal Turkish city of Kusadasi, home to rug merchants and the nearest port to the Roman city Ephesus. We took a tour of this World Heritage site, once the second-largest city in the Roman Empire. Famous for the restoration of its multi-story library building, our tour guide took pride in showing us the remains of public bathrooms with their running water – noting that barbarian Louis XIV had none at his Versailles palace.
Perched in hills nearby, we visited the final home of Jesus’ mother Mary, where she had been hidden from the Romans by St. John. He was later exiled to Patmos, an island we visited the next day. It was here that St. John wrote the Book of Revelations in the Cave of the Apocalypse. Today, there is a small chapel on the site; more impressive was a huge monastery built on the top of the island. We took a cab to both.
There is insufficient room here to detail every ancient enclave we visited. Each was unique. The blue-domed cities of Santorini, the most photographed places in Greece, were lovely but crowded thanks to visiting cruise ships. It was still worth the visit, especially to the ancient ruins of Akrotiri, a city (some say it was Atlantis) buried in a volcanic eruption in 1630 BC. Only our ship and two smaller French vessels could dock outside the walled Byzantine city Monemvasia, unchanged in a thousand years. We roamed its ancient narrow streets, where no cars were allowed (or could even fit) for hours, sipping lemonade at a small café overlooking the sea. We also visited Nafplion, the city where the Greek rebellion against Turkish occupation broke out in 1821.
A big part of the experience was just being onboard the Windstar. Our room, with its walls of veneered dark wood, felt like a ship cabin in a novel by Jules Verne – except for a TV screen fit snugly facing our two single beds. And nothing could match sitting on-deck at night, watching constellations above or lights from distant islands.
The food onboard was excellent. Daytime meals were served on the top deck Veranda restaurant, and dinner at the more elegant Amphora restaurant one deck below. The evening meals were showstoppers, each night with a new menu of soups, salads, and entrees, and nightly James Beard Foundation dishes, like grilled branzino, duck confit, or rack of lamb. There were also special meals – dinner at the ancient theater of Ephesus one night, and barbecue evening on the rear deck.
The onboard service was superlative. Crew members were affable, helpful, and always remembered your name. Each evening there was a 20-minute lecture about the next day’s destination, and passengers were permitted to visit the captain in the bridge. We talked with Captain David Adrian, a ruggedly handsome German who explained how the ship used its full sails whenever possible. The engine kicked in only when needed to reach the next port on time.
After each day’s adventure, we returned to rest in our cabin, gently rocked by the sea in a motion we came to love, like being rocked in a baby’s crib. Maybe it was that, or just being far from the modern world, but rarely had we slept so well.
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