LIVE from Viking Sky - Greek Odyssey cruise - Nov 26-Dec 6

[Australia08]

I usually don’t do Live reports about a cruise, but decided to try one now that I have a keyboard for my iPhone since typing on my phone is too time consuming.  We are leaving on Saturday on the Viking Sky - Athens to Athens, billed as the Greek Odyssey cruise.  I booked the cruise back in April during a promotion that was just too good to pass up.  We flew Delta from JFK nonstop to Athens, arriving yesterday morning. Our original premium economy seats had been downgraded to Comfort+ when Delta changed equipment and the new plane had no premium economy.  After much discussion with Delta, I was able to get them changed to Delta One (helps that we are both Gold Medallion and my husband is a Delta Million-Miler).  Even with lie flat seats, flying 9 hours is no fun.  I will say that the Delta service is good, but in no way compares to the service we received in September from CDG to Boston in business class on Air France.  The food and wine on the Air France flight was so much better than what we received on Tuesday night’s flight in Delta One.  Even our premium economy internal flights within Europe on Air France were great - smoked salmon sandwiches on a 2 hr flight!  But as far as American carriers are concerned, I still prefer Delta over the other US alternative.  

 

Once we arrived in Athens, we had a pre-arranged ride to our hotel.  Obviously, arriving at 10:00 am, our room wasn’t ready yet, but the hotel stored our bags and we went out exploring.  This is our fourth time in Athens so we have a basic familiarity with the city.  It was nice to get some exercise and fresh air.  Although it had rained during the early morning hours and was presently cloudy, the temps were in the mid 60s so we couldn’t complain.  I had prearranged a late lunch reservation at a restaurant that is a Rick Steves favorite - Mani-Mani.  It was a lovely small place, the food was excellent and the service was super.  Our problem was that we were tired and not particularly hungry, even though we hadn’t eaten anything since the evening before.  Our flight into Athens was bumpy so we didn’t receive a breakfast service on the plane.  I felt guilty leaving food unfinished because it was all excellent.  Note to self: Don’t book a restaurant on arrival day.  

 

By the time we walked back to the hotel from the restaurant, our room was ready.  This hotel, the Elia Ermou hotel, is great.  If you decide to stay here, definitely book an Acropolis view room on the 6th floor.  We have a huge terrace with a retractable awning.  The room has two double sliding doors that open up onto the terrace.  The Acropolis, lit up at night or under the sunny blue sky in the morning, is quite the sight to behold.  Since it is off-season here, this room is only $125 a night. We’re spending a lazy morning in just to sit on the terrace and drink coffee (although their breakfast on the 7th floor with an even more spectacular view is good too). This afternoon, we plan to visit the Museum of Cycladic Art, then prepare for our dinner out, a reservation at Delta, a Michelin 2 star restaurant.  The Delta reservation is a gift from our son and his wife.  Needless to say, we are not eating anything more until dinner at 20:00 tonight!

[Australia08]

The view from our terrace at the Elia Ermou hotel.

[JM0115]

Well written.  Enjoy your trip and cruise!

[FetaCheese]

We took this same cruise in Dec 2021, as 1st V. A great itin., along with a very fine cruise experience in every way.

Will be following along, so as to relive some wonderful memories.

 

Enjoy!  Happy Thanksgiving!

 

 

Edited November 24, 2022 by FetaCheese

[SERT8]

What a wonderful view from your hotel room! It never fails to impress. Have a wonderful vacation.

[Sleep7]

👋Hello Australia08!

Love you review so far.. can't wait to sail along with you for the next week and a half.

Thanks so much for posting about your adventure.😊

[Australia08]

Sorry I haven’t posted since yesterday morning.  Our after noon at the Museum of Cycladic Art was great. We were there for three hours.  We followed the museum suggestion of starting on the top floor and working our way down.  The top floor held art reflecting scenes from everyday life in ancient Athens.  By examining the artifacts on this floor, one learned a lot about the everyday activities of men vs. women, religious practices and the Underworld and funeral customs.  The third floor focused on Cypriot Art and Culture.  The styles from Cyprus differed significantly from the art of Mainland Greece on the second floor and the Cycladic art on the first floor (what we actually came for).  We learned a lot on each floor, but the Cycladic art, particularly the Cycladic figurines were intriguing.  Right now there is another special display of “Cycladic treasures” on display in the adjoining Stathatos Mansion.  There are 15 of rare Cycladic figures from the collection of American collector Leonard Stern.  Based on an agreement ratified by the Greek Parliament recently, this collection in on display in Athens now, then will be returned to be exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art before being returned (along with over 150 other Cycladic art pieces) to Greece.  This sounded great to us until we talked with our tour guide today and found out this agreement is quite the controversy in Greece since the exhibit time at the Met (according to our guide) will be 50 years before their final return.  I haven’t checked on this fact yet, but I can understand how some Greeks might feel these items should be returned much sooner.  Controversy aside, the 15 figures were quite impressive.  I can really see how figures like these might have inspired the work of artists such as Modigliani, Brancusi, and Giacometti.  Two example photos to follow.

 

After our afternoon at the museum, it was time to return to our room to enjoy a coffee on the terrace and read.  By the time 7:00 pm rolled around, we were dressed for our dinner out at the Delta Restaurant.  We called an Uber - there within 3 minutes and headed to the restaurant.  It is a very lovely space, quite minimalist.  The view over the harbor was very nice.  Our 12 course tasting menu was delicious and unique.  We enjoyed the wine pairing - champagne for the first five courses, then a curated wine for each following course.  I won’t bother you with photos of all of the courses, but will include a few to give you a sense of the chef-inspired creations.

 

We didn’t get back to the hotel until a bit after midnight so it was a challenge to make our 8:00 am tour of Mycenae and Epidaurus.   I’ll write about that experience tomorrow morning 

 

 

 

[Australia08]

Two of the Cycladic figures from the Leonard Stern collection on loan to the Museum of Cycladic Art.

[Australia08]

Four of our twelve course tasting menu from Delta Restaurant in Athens:
 

The second course - Sea anemone served with soft lemon bread and creamy aged caviar.  Served surrounded by edible nasturtiums.

The sixth course - Grilled oyster scallop served with a lemon cream and salted capers  and wild garlic flowers.

The ninth course - Brined sole fish in mastica and mint sea water served with grilled served with Swiss chard poached in warm butter and served with grilled pickled cherries, fennel and Greek caviar with fizzy rhubarb sparkling wine sauce (appearance of a sunflower - the petals are actually dried fennel).

The twelfth course - Acidic poppy flower seasoned with sea buckthorn served with caramelizad butter mousse and a toffee of aged hazelnuts (in chocolate choux).

 

Edited November 25, 2022 by Australia08

[Australia08]

Off to the ship in a couple of hours, but thought I would add some info about our day in Greece yesterday.  I had prearranged a tour of the Peloponnese with a recommended tour guide from With Locals.  He promptly picked us up at 8:00 am and we were on our way to Mycenae, our first stop.  We told him we really didn’t need to stop at the Corinth Canal since we had booked Viking’s tour for Sunday morning.  I’m so glad that we didn’t stop since it gave us more time at the other sites.  

 

Nikos provided nonstop information on our drive.  He is a very personable young man who is completing a history degree.  He had books with diagrams in his car about the sites so that he could point out details that provided an extra depth of knowledge about the locations.  Being a former history teacher myself, I loved this!  We had been told that at the sites, Nikos would not be able to actually provided guide info - that we would have to hire a guide instead.  When we arrived, Nikos recognized that the only people there were from two Viking Neptune buses.  He said that he would be able to accompany us since there were no tour guides at the entrance.  I had brought along my Rick Steves tour book pages, but having Nikos give us detailed information as we walked through the site and museum was so much better.  Our senior tickets cost 6 euros each.  

 

Mycenae’s location is stunning, built atop an acropolis surrounded by mountains.  We also were visiting on a crisp, clear day which provided excellent views of the distant mountains.  At the entrance to the site is the famous Lion Gate.  Very close to that is the Grave Circle A where Heinrich Schliemann in 1876 found the most impressive artifacts- those gold swords, spears, cups, and most importantly, the golden mask which can be seen at the National Archaeological Museum in Athens  (we’ve viewed these items on a previous trip to Athens).  Although the mask is often referred to as the Mask of Agamemnon,, the artifacts themselves have been dated to a time period at least 300 years before the time of Agamemnon - although it makes a good story!  

 

Continuing our walk, we visited the remains of the Throne Room, with its surrounding great hall, courtyard, and walkways.  As you walk through the palace, you can’t help but notice the fortress walls but also the ravines which provided the best protection from attack.  Near the back of the ruins was a Cistern which stored water from nearby springs that could be accessed during a drought or siege.

 

As we walked through the museum, Nikos gave us a lot o information about the influence of the Minoan culture on this later Mycanaean culture.  There are many artifacts in the museum that came from the site, plus they had replicas of the great treasures that are now housed in Athens.  I especially loved the remnants of several frescos which made you realize that originally there was much color within this palace site, as opposed to the rocky remains that exist now.

 

After leaving Mycenae, it was on to Nafplio for lunch.  We ate outside on a street in the Old Town.  I had a stuffed pepper and tomato dish which was delicious. Mike had a dish called “drunken chicken.”  We also both enjoyed a glass of local wine.  After lunch, Nikos gave us a quick walking tour of Old Town Nafplio. We walked through the main church dedicated to St. George, the main square which exhibited the influences of Venetian control in its past. Obviously, we also had views of the three fortresses, Bourtizi, Palamidi and Akronafplia.  We plan to visit Palamidi in more depth when the ship stops in Nafplio on our final port day.

 

Our final stop of the day with Nikos was Epidavros.  We began at the iconic Theatre of Epidavros, with its amazing acoustics.  It was fun to walk to the top row of seats and have the commanding view of the stage area, but also the surrounding beautiful countryside.  The real value of having a guide like Nikos was having him expand our understanding of the religious sanctuary located here.  The Theatre, while marvelous, was a sideshow to the site’s religious significance.  Nikos was able to weave the entire story together as we walked by the remains of the hostel, the mineral baths, a stadium (used every four years for the Festival of Asklepios) and the temples, particularly the Temple of Asclepius.  Here the ancient visitors would stay all night in a great hall hoping to be visited in a dream by Asclepius who would give them secret cures for their ailments.  In the onsite museum, there are many steles, documenting the successful cures of “patients” who had visited here to be healed by Asklepios.  Many of the cures said that Asklepios had called for them to eat particular foods, walk more, etc.  A lot of the “medical” advice from Asklepios was what we’d term “holistic” medicine today.  Our final stop was at the end of the site, which was really the original entrance to the site.  Of course, it was in ruins, but Nikos had pointed out to us in the museum the reconstruction of parts of its walls with the few remaining pieces.  Standing there in the late afternoon light, one could imagine being able to enter the ancient wonders of this location.  We also may a quick stop at the ruins of the oldest church in Greece, the remains of a small basilica.  When Christianity was made the official religion of the Roman Empire after the time of Constantine, the rituals such as practiced at Epidavros were banned and the site was closed.  It was at that time that the small Christian basilica was built.  It seemed to be a fitting conclusion to our visit to Epidavros.  I know without Nikos’ expert guiding, we would have missed the true significance of this site!  

 

At that point, the sun was beginning to set and we headed back to Athens. We were changing hotels since we had a free night coming from Marriott.  We’ve stayed in this hotel before and it is definitely an adequate spot, but it totally lacks the charm and the VIEW we had at the Elia Ermou hotel.  Since  we were pretty exhausted from our previous late night and early morning, we were more than happy to have a drink at the rooftop bar and head to bed.  Now it is time to leave this keyboard and finish getting ready to head to the Viking Sky. 

[Australia08]

Photos Below:

 

The Lion Gate at Mycenae

 

Grave Circle A at Mycenae

 

The entrance to the Treasury of Atreus - the beehive underground tomb near Mycenae.  The lintel over the door weighs 120 tons!

[Australia08]

Theatre of Epidavros

[Australia08]

Original entrance into Epidavros

[Australia08]

The stadium at Epidavros

[Australia08]

On 11/25/2022 at 3:17 AM, Sleep7 said:

👋Hello Australia08!

Love you review so far.. can't wait to sail along with you for the next week and a half.

Thanks so much for posting about your adventure.😊

Hi, Sleep7. Hope to meet you on board. We just had lunch and are contemplating heading over to Explorers for a celebratory first day Viking Royal. 

[Sleep7]

1 hour ago, Australia08 said:

Hi, Sleep7. Hope to meet you on board. We just had lunch and are contemplating heading over to Explorers for a celebratory first day Viking Royal. 

Hello again!

Sorry.. I mean sailing along with you virtually.  How I wish I was in Athens boarding the Sky but I'm just sitting my computer in the USA reading your detailed and well written report.

Wishing you smooth seas and lots of smiles!🤗

[FetaCheese]

Thank you for your fine commentary of your travel.  Nikos sounds like he gave an excellent tour.  Never hired a private guide, but many say tours by locals is very good.  Will consider them going forward.

 

Your visit to Nafplion brought me back to our time there last year.  We also had a light lunch in old town.Looking forward to your most excellent travelogue.  Enjoy your cruise

[BaxCruiser]

Australia08, thanks very much for your live report. I’m reading with great interest as we are on this same itinerary in December. 

[tobique33040]

We are on this cruise in February so super excited that you are posting! Really wonderfully written and interesting. Sounds like a great trip so far and cannot  wait to hear more as the cruise goes on. Thanks so very much for doing this.

[Australia08]

Today was a fairly relaxing day for us.  After boarding, we made the rounds of desks to make sure that we had the times we wanted for our Chef’s Tables dinners and also signed up for the specialty events - in this case, the gin tasting and the bourbon tasting.  We had lunch on the aquavit terrace, then headed to Explorers’ Lounge for the Viking Royale.  We did a few quick turns around the promenade deck, played two games of backgammon on the electronic game table and headed to our room for a quick nap.  This evening we enjoyed a before dinner drink at the Living Room bar before heading to dinner at Manfredi’s.  I decided to try different items at Manfredi’s tonight. I started with a half order of mussels.  That was followed by an appetizer portion of the snail risotto.  Then I finished with the lamb chops.  I usually get the steak, which is great, but the lamb chops are my new favorite.  The portion is just right for me.  We also enjoyed getting to know Fatima who told us about her experiences on Viking Octantis, the next ship we will be on.  She was not only a wonderful server, but an excellent Viking host.  After dinner, we headed to Torshavn. To our great surprise, we were immediately greeted by Bharat.  He was our favorite Torshavn bartender on the Viking Orion last November.  He is from Nepal.  We absolutely loved his conversation and service on that cruise.  Ironically, at dinner tonight we were talking about him.  To walk into Torshavn and be warmly greeted by him was the best gift we could receive on this cruise!  We had a wonderful time catching up on what had happened to all of us since we last saw each other.  Isn’t it funny how one can seem so drawn to certain individuals?  It really seemed like meeting with close family again as we visited with Bharat tonight!  We had our after dinner drink and danced to a few wonderful songs by the Viking Band.  Now we should really think about heading to bed since we have a early morning tour to the Corinth Canal.  We had a peek at it yesterday on our tour with Nikos.  It will be nice to visit it in depth tomorrow.  

 

Before I close - one concern - the Viking Sky seems to have run out of Bourbon, or at least the variety of Bourbons they’ve had in the past.  They only have Jim Beam and Wild Turkey - are you kidding??  We are told they are switching over to other brands, but how can they supply only these two on a “premium” cruise???  Also, we always book a PV because we like the space.  Not that we really care about the liquor in the room refrigerator because we have SS but we looked in our refrigerator tonight and we only have one small bottle of Smirnoff Vodka and one small bottle of Gordon’s Gin.  That’s it!  Really???  We’ve always had more variety than this.  Again, we have SS - it really doesn’t matter, but what is happening to the Viking standard?

Edited November 26, 2022 by Australia08

[Australia08]

7 hours ago, FetaCheese said:

Thank you for your fine commentary of your travel.  Nikos sounds like he gave an excellent tour.  Never hired a private guide, but many say tours by locals is very good.  Will consider them going forward.

 

Your visit to Nafplion brought me back to our time there last year.  We also had a light lunch in old town.Looking forward to your most excellent travelogue.  Enjoy your cruise

 

This looks so similar to the spot where we dined.  Yes, it is so wonderful to relive past experiences! 

[JM0115]

1 hour ago, Australia08 said:

Today was a fairly relaxing day for us.  After boarding, we made the rounds of desks to make sure that we had the times we wanted for our Chef’s Tables dinners and also signed up for the specialty events - in this case, the gin tasting and the bourbon tasting.  We had lunch on the aquavit terrace, then headed to Explorers’ Lounge for the Viking Royale.  We did a few quick turns around the promenade deck, played two games of backgammon on the electronic game table and headed to our room for a quick nap.  This evening we enjoyed a before dinner drink at the Living Room bar before heading to dinner at Manfredi’s.  I decided to try different items at Manfredi’s tonight. I started with a half order of mussels.  That was followed by an appetizer portion of the snail risotto.  Then I finished with the lamb chops.  I usually get the steak, which is great, but the lamb chops are my new favorite.  The portion is just right for me.  We also enjoyed getting to know Fatima who told us about her experiences on Viking Octantis, the next ship we will be on.  She was not only a wonderful server, but an excellent Viking host.  After dinner, we headed to Torshavn. To our great surprise, we were immediately greeted by Bharat.  He was our favorite Torshavn bartender on the Viking Orion last November.  He is from Nepal.  We absolutely loved his conversation and service on that cruise.  Ironically, at dinner tonight we were talking about him.  To walk into Torshavn and be warmly greeted by him was the best gift we could receive on this cruise!  We had a wonderful time catching up on what had happened to all of us since we last saw each other.  Isn’t it funny how one can seem so drawn to certain individuals?  It really seemed like meeting with close family again as we visited with Bharat tonight!  We had our after dinner drink and danced to a few wonderful songs by the Viking Band.  Now we should really think about heading to bed since we have a early morning tour to the Corinth Canal.  We had a peek at it yesterday on our tour with Nikos.  It will be nice to visit it in depth tomorrow.  

 

Before I close - one concern - the Viking Sky seems to have run out of Bourbon, or at least the variety of Bourbons they’ve had in the past.  They only have Jim Beam and Wild Turkey - are you kidding??  We are told they are switching over to other brands, but how can they supply only these two on a “premium” cruise???  Also, we always book a PV because we like the space.  Not that we really care about the liquor in the room refrigerator because we have SS but we looked in our refrigerator tonight and we only have one small bottle of Smirnoff Vodka and one small bottle of Gordon’s Gin.  That’s it!  Really???  We’ve always had more variety than this.  Again, we have SS - it really doesn’t matter, but what is happening to the Viking standard?

No Woodford Reserve?

[FetaCheese]

15 hours ago, Australia08 said:

Theatre of Epidavros

We visited the Peloponnesian area many years ago.  Stopped at Corinth canal, Mycenae and Epidaurus.  Thanks for your photos.

[BaxCruiser]

Which desks need to be visited to sign up for specialty events? Is it just guest services? TIA

[millybess]

2 hours ago, Australia08 said:

then headed to Explorers’ Lounge for the Viking Royale

What is the Viking Royale?

 

Following your travels with great interest. Thanks much.