Cruise - Day 1 - Thessalonki, Greece

Today is our first excursion, Panoramic Thessaloniki. Mike, Diane, Janet and I boarded our bus and headed out. Our first stop was the Archeological Museum…..they had quite a few well preserved statues but the stars of the show ere all of the gold pieces in amazing condition that have been unearthed from the Byzantine era. Pictures do not do them justice as they were in dark showcases. They continue to unearth more as more sites are excavated. Next up was the white Tower on the waterfront. This is the city’s most famous site and part of the original fortification of the city. It was also used as a prison with beheadings conducted on the top of it. On the walk to the statue of Alexander the Great we went by a pirate ship. Here I discovered a Greek man for Jalyne (please see attached picture). He was so cute our little Asian helper from the ship almost ran me over looking at him as she walked by and I was stopped to take a photo! Also on the way were the electric scooters being fished from the sea…..apparently teenagers think it is funny to dump them over the wall. The sea is kind of stinky here and the guide said they don’t swim in the water at port because it is polluted; however, we saw someone fishing and wondered why they would want to eat the fish from there. The statue was very cool….Diane got a lovely picture of Mike who, unbeknownst to him, was standing under the lifted tail of the horse.

Next we drove up to the top of the city and visited the old city walls with incredible views of the city and Aegean Sea. We could see St. Paul Church and on the way down the guide pointed out a doorway through the fortification wall with at led to a Monastery that Monks built on the spot that Paul converted Jews to Christianity.

Our last stop was 5th Century St. Demetrius Church. It was a beautiful church and in the crypt below were remains of Roman baths and the site where Demetrius was jailed.

Back aboard, we had another awesome meal and then Mike, Diane and I went to the Blue Lounge and had a Mashita which is a digestive liquor that we were introduced to on our first night in Athens. Sure takes away that overly stuffed feeling! There was a 3 person group performing that were quite good. One female singer, a male singer who also played a mandolin and a male keyboard player. They were very good!

We decided to go check out Karaoke…..Mike was having none of it so went to bed! Chicken! Not a very good song selection if you like Country music and no one was singing. Diane and I sang two songs although I can’t remember what the first one was. The second was Everly Brothers Bye Bye Love. We were the only ones brave enough to sing first as it was dead when we arrived but afterward two ladies sang and completely butchered a song but sure had fun doing it.Read more