World Cruise Day 90/152 - Nafplion, Greece - I wish spell check would stop correcting this port to "Napoleon" and...port change tomorrow!

Cruise day: 90/152

Ports days: 37
Sea days: 53
Countries: 15
Continents: 4
Ports: 27

We continue our rounds on Greece's Peloponnese Peninsula today with a stop in Nafplion, Greece's first capital.  As you can imagine, Nafplion is not popular among spellcheckers and mine has been constantly asking me to correct it to "Napoleon".  I've double-checked it - I'm spelling it correctly - shut up!  I finally added it to my personal dictionary and moved on.

 We woke up at anchor this morning.  Nafplion has a small port and the Viking Star, while small on the cruise ship scale, is still too large to dock.  Therefore, we will be taking the ship's lifeboats as tenders today.  Here is the view from our balcony this morning.

Does it look warm and sunny? No?  That's because it is not.  Today topped out in the low 50s with rain threatening (and occasionally falling) all day.  To add that extra zing, the winds were blustery in the mid-teens and gusting higher.  It was most certainly not a beach day.

Let's talk for a minute about where we are.  Nafplion on the east side of Greece's Peloponnese Penisula.  Katakolon, where we were yesterday is on the west side.  That means that last night, we sailed south and then back north, all the way around the southern tip of the peninsula.

We took the tender into port.

Arriving in port

An island in the bay that the Venetians fortified - Bourtzi Castle

Our ride from the ship with a fortress in the background

We boarded our bus and were off for the Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus.

Along the way, we enjoyed looking at the rugged Greek countryside.

Olive trees were everywhere - our guide said that there are more than 1.2 million olive trees in Greece - I wonder if these are the type that produces the olives with the pimento in the middle?

We arrived in Epidaurus at the site of the ancient theater.  We started by walking through the museum to view some of the items excavated at the neighboring archeological site.

Heads seemed to be missing or separated a lot

Then it was time to climb the stairs to the ancient theater.

The theater is massive and can seat more than 12,000 - it is open on the one side and the seating wraps around about 180-degrees - the seating is divided into a lower 2/3 with 65 steps and an upper 1/3 with another 35 steps - 100 in total to the top

The entrance

The stage - the marble circle in the center marks the middle and perfect acoustic position - how perfect? Read on...

Can you see Arlona?  She is at the top just to the left of the 100 stairs

There she is

Arlona's view from the top back down to the performance stage

Me, with our guide as she was about to demonstrate the acoustics

Arlona took a seat and listened as I spoke in a regular tone - she could hear me without any issue.  Amazing.  Even more so, our guide took out several small coins and dropped them on the center marble circle from just a few inches - Arlona could hear every coin.  The acoustics are amazing, especially when you consider that this theater was built by the ancient Greeks in the 4th century BC - 2,400 years ago.

Here is Arlona, down from the top, and enjoying one of the ground-level marble seats - this one with a back - the acoustics were perfect here as well

Outside the theater area, there are more excavations going on.  We didn't tour there but took a quick peek.

We took the bus back into Nafplion and headed up - up to the Fortress of Palamidi. Built by the Venetians in the late 1600s to early 1700s while they occupied Nafplion the second time around, this fortress is built into a hill that rises more than 600 feet above Nafplion.

The views, of course, were terrific

An entry into an upper area - the Venetian influence is evident from the winged lion over the arched doorway

The lower fortress that was visible over our tender in the earlier photo

A view of Bourtzi Castle from above

I still find it amazing that we're 600+ feet above the city and all of these stones were carried up here - 500+ years ago

After returning down into town, we took the opportunity to walk some of the streets and browse the shops.  When our kids were little, they liked spotting "face houses" - houses typically with two windows upstairs over a center door, making it look like a face.  We spotted these sculptures in a shop in town and they made us both smile.

Do they look scared to you?

We got back to port just in time to see the tender heading back to the ship - dang

In short order, another tender was on its way into port so we hopped on and headed back to the ship

Later that afternoon, we heard the dreaded bong-bong-bong meaning an announcement was coming.  Generally, announcements are made in the public areas and are informational, but this one was also coming into the staterooms - never a good sign.

Cruise Director, Damian let us know that with the increased winds today and more of the same expected tomorrow, Viking had to cancel our port of Heraklion on the Greek island of Crete.  Heraklion sits on the north shore of Crete and is fully exposed to the Sea of Crete.  

Winds for tomorrow morning are expected to exceed 20MPH in port and higher just north

They scrambled and quickly rebooked the Star to instead port in Chiana (Souda Bay), also on Crete, about 60 miles to the west and north of Heraklion. Souda Bay is a protected bay with an east-facing opening that offers protection from the wind and waves.

The red X is where we were going - the green ✔ is where we are going

Then, they went above and beyond, in my opinion.  For those that had the included excursion in Heraklion, they canceled it and automatically rebooked you for the new included excursion in Chiana.  They immediately presented a list of optional excursions and stood ready to help everyone rearrange tomorrow's activities.  Viking can't fix the weather, but they sure stepped up and adjusted on the fly.  Nicely done!

I needed a little help from the Explorers' Desk tonight and they were terrific helping me out with a project.  Viking is certainly accommodating whenever possible.  We will be in Saudi Arabia next Tuesday-Friday.  Saudi Arabia had a zillion rules, many of which make no sense to us westerners.  Viking is once again stepping up and helping everyone on the ship work through some of those rules and it is greatly appreciated.

With that, it is time to wrap up this blog.  Tomorrow, Heraklion Chiana (Souda Bay), Crete, Greece.