Ruminations on Cruising

While appalled by the capsizing of the Costa Concordia off the coast of the island of Giglio,

the reality of the magnitude of these behemoths was brought home by a couple of recent close encounters and these lead to some reflections and questions.

A disclaimer is probably in order. We have never gone on a modern cruise ship (and probably never will).   As an anarchist at heart, I hate large hotels on land and organized tours, so I am not the ideal target for cruise ship advertisments.

While in Venice earlier this year, strolling down the via Guiuseppe Garibaldi in the Castelo district, we looked up and were confronted by this amazing site at the end of the road.

It is no wonder that there is a major battle in Venice between the tourist industry which benefits from  the thousands of tourists from these ships and the residents who see these ships as destroying the environment; the wash from a huge cruise ship does a great deal more damage than that of a gondola
or even a vaporetto.

The pressure that these ships put on the seabed as they go in the shallow lagoon waters literally makes Venice shake.   These ships move down the Guidecca Canal, which, depending on tide and how recently dredging has occurred, may have parts that are only 11 metres deep.   The large cruise ships often have a draught in excess of 8 metres so they could easily hit the side of the dredged channel.

Immediately after the Costa Concordia accident, the Italian government put restrictions on the large cruise ships in coastal waters including in the Venetian Lagoon– but then lifted them after high pressure lobbying by the cruise lines.   There is an on-going effort to restrict access in Venice, but it will  probably  take more than UNESCO and millions of people to move the Italian government.

Ironically, the Costa Fascinosa and Costa Favoiosa,  sister ships of the same class as the Costa Concordia ,were built at the Marghera shipyard in Venice

and the new (and larger) flagship for the Costa Line is under construction there.  Since this yard provides direct employment for 3,000 workers  and is indirectly responsible for the employment of another 7,000, it is easy to see why Carnival Lines, the parent of Costa,  has significant clout.  And, guess what, the Marghera shipyard is part of Fincantieri – owned by the Italian government!

While we saw cruise ships at almost each island in Greece, they were most striking in Santorini, partly because of the contrast between their whiteness and the darkness of Santorini’s volcanic cliffs.

Seeing these ships in the caldera (collapsed volcanic cone) of Santorini causes reflections on other aspects of the cruising ships – at least they don’t have to worry about the water being too shallow – it is 300-600 metres deep!

What was most striking was the challenge of the logistics (people not supplies) for cruise ships in ports where they cannot  dock, such as Santorini. 

The  day we were leaving Santorini, there were two major cruise ships unloading their human cargo for day trips  - the Costa Fascinosa

  and the Seven Seas Mariner.

With capacities of  3,780   and 700 passengers, respectively, this was a lot of bodies to move from the moored ships to the utterly unromantic port of Athinios,

There were about 50 charter buses covering virtually every square centimeter of the harbor area.

Smaller boats from the cruise ships made round trips bringing the passengers to the quayside from whence they were herded into their respective buses (labeled by destination and language)….

….. and then taken up the rather narrow and dangerous road up the cliff to partake of whichever tour they has subscribed to.

The only bus that seemed almost empty was to one going to Akrotiri, the most interesting place on the island. (More imn a leter blog about this amazing site that, like Pompeii, was preserved by being buried under volcanic ash - and is 1500+ years older than Pompeii).

We had to admire the smoothness of the operation although it took over an hour to get all the passengers to shore.

Perhaps the only cruise ship on which I would be tempted to sail was the Wind Star,

which, with only 148 passengers, was able to disembark its passengers right under the main town of Fira, to which the valiant could walk up on foot, or the more normal could go by funicular!

And to return to Venice while staying in Santorini, those Venetians who say it can’t happen here, should think about the Sea Diamond that sank at Athinios after hitting  a rock despite being in some of the best charted waters in the world:

if it can happen, it will!!

[GREEK] FERRIES

Since my early childhood days, I have always enjoyed ferries, whether passenger or car ferries.  My first experience was with the Mersey Ferries, of which the Royal Iris was my favorite when we went out once or twice a year.

Royal Iris in its original colors

In its later colors in front of the Liver Building

Car ferries always had a fascination for me, especially this one in Southern Chile.........

But I digress from the subject of this blog - Greek Ferries.

By far the most famous of Greek ferries is the Styx ferry operated from time immemorial by Charon,

as he goes back and forth ferrying the dead to the underworld (if, and only if, they have the means to pay).


We found the somewhat more modern ferries were a great way to get around on our recent visit to Greece and in general they were both comfortable and reasonably priced.

We started out with a ferry from Piraeus, the busy port of Athens.

We were on a very large ferry with many trucks and cars for the overnight trip to Chania in Crete.  We have found that these overnight ferries are very convenient - they leave in the late evening and arrive in the early morning.  They have a good restaurant and we had a small but comfortable two-bedded cabin.

 On the top deck, about ten stories up, I found the following warning - obviously they had U.S. lawyers advising them.

When we went from Heraklion (Crete) to Santorini, we were on the Megajet.  It sounded like something from the video games that our grandsons play - and it certainly looked like it.

The interior was almost as dramatic.

It can carry 600 passengers and 125 cars.  It travels very comfortably at 55 kilometres per hour (35 miles per hour).

From Santorini to Paros, we decided to go on a slow boat and see more of the islands.  The disadvantage of the large high-speed catamarans is that one is not in the open-air and has a restricted view as one may be seated far from a window.  They are like very, very wide-bodied planes with larger windows (and much more leg room!!). -see picture towards the end of the interior of another boat.

So we went on the Artemis, which is large, carrying 1,250 passengers and 85 cars.  Fortunately, they were very few passengers and we were able to sit on seats outside (still a little windy as it goes at 20 mph (32 kph).

We cruised within the Santorini group of islands, passing lots of volcanic scenes....

Solidified Lava Flow

Layers from successive eruptions.

.... before arriving at the island of Therasia.

This seemed a rather strange port of call for a ferry that could carry five times the island's population, but there is probably a good (political?) reason.  One passenger did get on.

We then went on to Karavostasis, the port for the much larger island of Folegrandos with its three villages and a population of 667.

Next port of call was the island of Sikinos (population 238).

As was mentioned by Gallivanting Isadora we had seen this intriguing advertisement in a shop window in Athens...

... so we were on the lookout to see if we could find it.  We passed several potential candidates like this one....

 

.... but decided that the price seemed to be aimed at tourists, as everywhere on the island has a seaview and there seemed to be nothing resembling a garden!

Next stop on our ride was Ios, which is well known as a major party island during the summer.  there was clearly no major crowd waiting to board the ferry, although it does at least have some kind of gate to the dockside, unlike the last three islands.

Our penultimate stop for the day was Naxos.  According to Herodatus, this was the most prosperous of the Aegean islands.  Even today it looks prosperous and much more like a city than any of the other places we visited.

Finally, after nearly seven hours of travel we arrived the destination for the day - Paros - whose tourist office is in the windmill at the entrance to the port.  We had had a great day, with plenty of fresh air, magnificent views and a great appreciation for the similarity of the semi-arid islands.  One minor point that should be mentioned is that the food available on the ship was the Greek equivalent of fast-food - possibly marginally nutritious but definitely not tasty.

Paros Tourist Office

After spending the night in Paros, we set off the next afternoon for Mykonos on the FlyingCat 4 which travels at 68 kilometres per hour (48 mph)  with up to 438 passengers,  but no cars.
Again we had a very comfortable ride.

For the sake of completeness, I should add the ride we had from Mykonos to Delos on the Orca - this was a very conventional but adequate ferry that took us to Delos and back.  I will have much more to say about Delos in a later blog - it was truly a high point in our travels.

After that it was back to the mainland but to an alternative to Piraeus as a port for Athens.  Rafina is much smaller but is more convenient to the airport (after an interesting taxi ride with a driver that knew all the short cuts, whether paved or not!).  We travelled on the SeaJet 2 which can hold almost 400 passengers at about 70 kilometres per hour.  We stopped en route at Tinos, and for the first time in our travels the boat almost completely filled to capacity.

The interior of the SeaJet 2 - 14 or 16 seats across - wide and with plenty of leg room.

Our overall impression of the Greek Ferries on which we travelled was they were comfortable, and, based on our experience, reliable.  Timetables did change so we were very glad that we had booked through FerriesinGreece.com, who kept us informed and worked with us to make the necessary changes when timetables changed - this is probably more of a problem when we were travelling as it was late in the season and some boats were being reassigned.  I would certainly advise booking in advance during high season as the ferries obviously get full to capacity.   Just to reassure readers, we were NOT impacted by any strikes or labor problems in our travels over two weeks.

Leaving the subject of Ferries we need to end on a down note - the Royal Iris is now rotting on the side of the Thames at Woolwich - a real blow to my schoolboy memories.

PARTHENON (PROPAGANDA)

Revisiting the Parthenon after almost half a century was a bit of a disappointment.  There is a major multiyear reconstruction effort on-going, so that much of the site looks like as though a major industrial building effort is in process.  

While we were lucky to be there at the end of September, after the majority of the tourists for the summer had left, it was still quite crowded.  We could not help contrasting it with the peace and tranquility of the Greek remains in Sicily, at Agrigento and Selinunte (although they obviously lack the fine sculptures of the Parthenon).

Agrigento

Selinunte

Although the cranes and scaffolding detracted from the enjoyment, one has to appreciate the efforts of the Greeks to preserve this major monument of Western Civilization.  Much of the effort is aimed at correcting the well-meaning, but destructive, efforts of past restoration efforts where inappropriate materials were used (e.g. iron fixation elements – without the lead covering used by ancient Greeks to prevent the iron from corroding, expanding and splitting the marble).  They are also making it clear where non-original materials have been used with new material being white.

Over the ages, the Parthenon suffered from the usual vandalism by religious groups – Christians converted it into a basilica and a pilgrimage centre; the Muslims made it into a mosque.  But it was still largely intact with its roof in place until the devastation wrought by the Venetians (ironically now one of the greatest advocates of international preservation efforts - at least as far as Venice is concerned), nor the irreparable harm inflicted by Lord Elgin.

My disappointment with the Parthenon, was, however, more than offset by the magnificent new Acropolis Museum.  This must be one of the finest museums in the world.  It is also a masterpiece of propaganda – but more about that later.

The construction of the new museum was delayed and its design was changed because a significant ancient urban centre was discovered on the site.  Great efforts have gone into preserving these remains.  These can be seen under the approach to the entrance to the Museum and through glass sections of the ground floor.

The top of the Museum itself carefully mirrors the Acropolis and particularly the Parthenon itself. 

The Acropolis and the Acropolis Museum (top right)

The Parthenon is reflected in windows of the top floor of the Acropolis Museum

Sculptures from the way up to the Acropolis displayed on the ramp up to the main museum floors.  There is an immense amount of sculpture to see and it is presented thoughtfully. 

Currently there is an exhibition of the Archaic Colours – showing how the sculptures that we see as smooth white or beige marble were originally very colorful (maybe even a bit garish to our tastes).

Pride of place, of course, goes to the Parthenon itself and the Caryatids of the Erechtheion and here is where the understated but important propaganda begins. 

Five of the original Caryatids in the Acropolis Museum... with space left for....

...the one in the British Museum.

On the top floor in the part of the building that is exactly parallel to the Parthenon one finds the sculptures from the Parthenon Frieze and the Metopes as well as the East and West pediments.

As over half of the surviving sculptures are in the British Museum...

...and the Acropolis Museum has had to use casts of the stolen originals to put them in their far better setting....

...with the difference in color showing those that are original.

 The statues of part of the pediment in the British Museum....

...... and in the Acropolis Museum with a view of the Parthenon through the windows..

Without any single reference to the desire of the Greek people (and of most of the British people) to see the Elgin Marbles returned to take their place of honor in the Acropolis Museum, the point is very clearly made.