Category Archives: Uncategorized

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

Gijón is the largest city in the autonomous community of Asturias in Spain, located on the Bay of Biscay.

Cimavilla (in Spanish, Cimadevilla) is the oldest part of Gijón.

It includes ruins of the old Roman settlement as well as interesting residential and touristic areas including a small yacht club.

This is an ancient part of the world, with evidence dating back 250,000 years or so to the first humans including homo erectus and the Neanderthals.

Later the area came under the cultural influence of the Celts, and Celtic influence remains.

The Romans arrived about 29 BC under Augustus.

The major event in the first millennia was the Moorish invasion, beginning in the 8^th century.

The Moors swept through most of Spain and Portugal, but the defenses put in place by the Romans and the mountainous topography of Northern Spain proved to be difficult for the invaders.

This region became a refuge for Christian nobles, and the Reconquista, the Reconquest of Spain rose from here.

We spent the day about 15 miles inland at the regional capital of Oveido. And as luck would have it, we arrived on the day of the festival of Asturias, which involved a bit of partying–the local drink is fermented sidra or apple cider, and a parade through town by an Asturian bagpipe and drum band.

Here’s a bit of what we saw:

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7 September 2015
Bilbao, Spain: Basque Country

September 7, 2015 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

When we left Bordeaux, France we headed for Spain.

Spanish customs and immigration officials will officially admit our ship and guests and crew, and you’ll hear a lot of Spanish being spoken on the streets.

But to some—and please, I am not trying to get in the middle of a political dispute—we are actually entering a wholly different place: Basque Country.

The Guggenheim Bilbao Museum

Bilbao, located on the northern coast of the Iberian Peninsula about 19 kilometers or 12 miles from the Bay of Biscay, is also the largest municipality of the autonomous community of the Basque Country.

It is believed that the Basques are the distant descendants of some of the earliest inhabitants of Western Europe.

Genetic studies indicate Basque tribes predated the arrival of planned agriculture in the Iberian Peninsula, about 7,000 years ago.

The Basque Language, still in wide use in this region, is unrelated to Indo-European languages. At the time of the Romans, they spoke a variant of the Aquitanian Language.

Other Basque cities in Spain include Navarre and Pamplona.

In the autonomous region within Spain, the official languages are Basque and Spanish, although the Spanish constitution requires knowledge of Spanish.

By some estimates, about one-third of the residents of the autonomous region use Basque in everyday communication.

But the influence of the Basques spreads much further than that, with a diaspora that spreads around the world, especially in places where ex-pats could put to use their skills in sheepherding, ranching, and fishing.

According to some, the biggest influence of the Basques are the Jesuits, and the Republic of Chile.

Ignatius Loyola, born in Loyola in the Basque Country of Spain in 1491, is considered the founder of the Society of Jesus, the Jesuits.

And an estimated 45 percent of the immigrants to Chile in the 17^th and 18^th centuries were Basque; today about 2.5 million Basque descendants live there, more than the population of the Basque Country in Spain and nearby France.

Millions of others of Basque lineage live in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Latin America, South Africa, and Australia.

Today, Bilbao is most known for its museum centerpiece: the Guggenheim Bilbao.

Built alongside the Nervion River, which runs through the city of Bilbao, it is one of several museums belonging to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation.

It features permanent and visiting exhibits of modern art works by Spanish and international artists.

The Guggenheim Bilbao is considered by many to be one of the most important contemporary structures.

The museum came about because of an effort by the autonomous Basque government to have a rebirth of the city’s decrepit port area. In 1981, the government offered to fund a Guggenheim museum, covering the $100 million U.S. cost of construction, a $50 million acquisitions fund, and to subsidize the annual budget.

Not a bad deal if you’re a foundation looking to add a new museum to your collection.

The curves on the exterior of the building were intended to appear random and to catch the light. The museum is clad in glass, titanium, and limestone.

The interior is designed around a large, light-filled atrium with views of Bilbao’s estuary and the surrounding hills of the Basque country.

To some it looks like a ship. To others a fish.

To me it looks like an extraordinary place; I’m not a fan of Frank Gehry, but this structure gets past my strict bar.

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4-6 September 2015
Bordeaux and Sainte-Emilion, France: The Pearl of Aquitaine

September 4, 2015 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

Victor Hugo said this:

“Take Versailles, add Antwerp, and you have Bordeaux”.

That’s a pretty good lineage.

Add to it Bordeaux wine, Bordelaise sauce, and a handsome mix of architecture and culture.

The city is built on a bend of the river Garonne.

A growing sector of industry in the area is high-tech.

The French Ministry of Defence has invested something like 2 billion Euros in the Laser Mégajoule project in Bordeaux. The project is intended for basic research on laser and plasma technologies.

High-tech companies include Dassault, EADS Sogerma, Snecma, Thales, SNPE, and others.

Dassault Falcon private jets are built there, as well as military aircraft, the Airbus A380 cockpit, the boosters of the Ariane 5 rocket, and the M51 SLBM missile.

But many visitors have come to worship at the font of Bordeaux wine.

I will leave the fine points of oenology to the wine experts and our sommeliers aboard ship.

I’ll just say that this region produces what some say are the best cabernet sauvignon and merlot grapes and wine, as well as some other varieties.

Grapes were introduced to the region by the Romans, probably in the 1st century.

They liked what they got, and it has been a constant ever since.

Bordeaux now has about 116,160 hectares (287,000 acres) of vineyards.

There are about 10,000 wine-producing chateaux, and 13,000 grape growers and amongst them they produce about 960 million bottles per year.

This area has been occupied for tens of thousands of years, which pleases the tourist bureau greatly.

La Grotte de Pair-non-Pair, just north of Bordeaux above the Dordogne river before it joins the Gironde, was discovered in 1881 in a vineyard in the Côtes de Bourg.

The cave has some of the world’s oldest known cave drawings: horses, ibexes, deer, and mammoths.

Remains found in the cave may be Neanderthal—at least 30,000 years old and perhaps much older—and an 18,000-year-old Cro-Magnon.

The presence of remains across such a wide range of time?

I’m guessing the cave was actually a popular wine bar.

Here are some photos from our visit. The first image shows German U-boat pens which still stand very close to downtown Bordeaux: they were constructed so robustly that they have withstood plans and wishes to remove them for 75 years.

We went next into the heart of Chateau country in Bordeaux, visiting the town of Saint-Emilion and then the small family winemaker Chateau de Tailhas in Pomerol.

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3 September 2015
Belle-Île-en-Mer, France: La bien nommée

September 4, 2015 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

The name of this place should give it away, don’t you think?

Belle-Ile-en-Mer.

Beautiful Island in the Sea.

And that it is.

In fact the local nickname for the island extends to La Bien Nommée, the Well-Named.

Belle-Ile, Brittany’s largest island, lies about 9 miles or 15 kilometers off the coast of Morbihan.

It is a place of beautiful beaches—about 60 of them, spectacular craggy coastline, and lovely pastoral interior.

At the island’s main town of Le Palais, the first thing you’ll notice is the star-shaped Citadelle Vauban, which was built by the famous French military engineer in the 18th century.

It was called by some, “The Battleship of the Atlantic.”

The fort now houses a luxury hotel-restaurant and a museum about the island’s history.

Many of Belle-Île’s residents are descended from the 78 Acadian families who returned from French Canada as part of Le Grand Dérangement, the expulsion of the Acadians, in 1765.

The dramatic landscape of the island has long drawn artists.

The most famous work was that of Claude Monet in the 1880s who was drawn to the wild north coast. According to local history he had to have an assistant hold down his canvas he worked to keep the wind from flinging it into the sea.

It is said that within an hour after first setting foot on Belle-Ile-en-Mer in August 1894, the French actress Sarah Bernhardt purchased an abandoned fort on the cliff top at La Pointe des Poulins.

She would spend parts of her last thirty years there. Bernhardt ended up creating a compound for friends and family, which she called her “menagerie.”

Bernhardt is buried in Paris. And here on Belle-Ile there is no sign of her other coffin, the one she often used as a place to sleep. She claimed it helped her understand her many tragic roles.

Here are some photos I took on our visit to the beautiful island in the sea, also including a peek at the museum chez Bernhardt.

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2 September 2015
Saint Malo, France: Location, Location, Location

September 2, 2015 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

This little piece of Brittany has a story of its own as well as a firm hold on pieces of European, North American, and South American history.

It’s all about location: offshore islands at the mouth of an important river.

Before the arrival of the Romans, a promontory fort had been erected at Aleth, south of the Saint-Servan district, commanding the approaches to the Rance River.

A monastic settlement founded by Saint Aaron and Saint Brendan in the early sixth century included a follower of Brendan, Saint Malo or Maclou.

The settlement has a long history of setting itself apart.

Walking through the cobblestone streets of Saint-Malo feels like time travel, little changed from the 1500s, when the explorer Jacques Cartier set out from here for the New World.

But, in full disclosure, almost everything you see has been rebuilt from the rubble of World War II.

This beautiful little place, a fortified town on what was once an island, was a German holdout after the Normandy landings to the north. Allied forces wanted to open up additional ports to bring ashore men and supplies, and Saint-Malo was one of the places chosen.

In late August and early September 1944, the historic walled city of Saint-Malo was almost totally destroyed by American shelling and bombing as well as British naval gunfire.

On this visit, I went with guests about an hour inland in Brittany to the beautiful, mostly untouched Medieval town of Dinan on the Rance River.

We inspected the half-timbered shops and the simply elegant Saint-Saveur church. I also made a visit to the Chateau of Dunan.

A DINAN ALBUM

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1 September 2015
Honfleur and the Beaches of Normandy, France:

September 1, 2015 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

Honfleur is a medieval gem, hidden in plain sight, between the major French port of Le Havre across the Seine to the east, and the D-Day beaches of Normandy to the west.

It’s a lovely place, with a certain je ne sais quoi, not at all like much of the rest of coastal France.

And so it seems no surprise that this was one of the sources of impressionism in art and a musical genius of evocative impressions.

Honfleur was the birthplace of the artist Eugène Boudin and the composer and artist Erik Satie.

And it was a favored place to visit for French painters Claude Monet and Gustave Courbet, English landscape artist William Turner, and writer and critic Charles Baudelaire.

While much of Normandy, about 50 miles or 32 kilometers way, was pounded by the Allies in the D-Day landing or by the Germans in defending it, Honfleur survived the war relatively untouched.

During German occupation, authorities in Honfleur allowed the River Seine to silt up the harbor, making it of little military value.

What remains is of great cultural value to us now.

A RETURN TO NORMANDY

We sailed out of Southampton, England on Monday evening in a brisk breeze and under sullen, threatening skies. We arrived this morning in Honfleur in an almost wintry first day of September

Seventy-one years ago, Southampton was one of the ports of embarkation for the invasion forces of D-Day, along with Portsmouth and other places

Among the men and boys who landed at Normandy was my father, and I have always taken advantage of every opportunity to visit there. And so I returned today with guests.

A Normandy Album

We began at Omaha Beach, one of the two principal American landing sites, then went up on the bluff to the vast cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer, the final resting place of about 13,000 Americans, two thirds of them given benefit of a gravestone with their name, the remainder–as the notation reads–known only to God.

We later visited Arromanches, where the British constructed a massive artificial harbor that allows the full push to Germany to begin.

No one with a soul can visit these places and come away unmoved, and I know I will return again some day.

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31 August 2015
Southampton, England: Down to the Sea Again

August 31, 2015 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

Welcome aboard Silversea Silver Cloud.

We’re heading out tonight from the great port of Southampton to cross La Manche, the English Channel.

Ahead of us lies the beautiful town of Honfleur, mostly untouched by the winds of war. And beyond a great tour of treasures like Saint-Malo, Bordeaux, and into north Spain to Bilbao, Gijon, La Coruna, and down to Porto and Lisbon.

I hope you’ll join me here for photos and updates on our voyage.

Here’s our plan:

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2-3 July 2015
Venice, Italy: Another Sigh

July 2, 2015 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

We have returned to the serene city of Venice, arriving in high style aboard the lovely Silver Spirit, passing in front of St. Mark’s Square in the early morning light.

The most famous transport in Venice, of course, is the Gondola, although they’re almost exclusively used for short rides for tourists.

They’ve been around for about a thousand years, although the design as we see them now dates only to about 1825. There once were perhaps 10,000 in use; today only about 500 are in service.

If you’re in the market for one of your own, a basic hand-crafted model sells for at least 20,000 Euros. That’s before you add floormats.

On the Piazetta, just outside the main Piazza, is the pink-and-white Palazzo Ducale, the Doge’s Palace.

This was a residence as well as the seat of government. It was also used as a torture chamber and prison and Senate—which in today’s world may seem to be the same thing.

Crossing a small canal—the Rio di Palazzo—into the Doge’s Palace is the Ponte dei Sospiri, the Bridge of Sighs. It was built in 1602.

The view from the bridge was the last view of Venice seen by convicts before they entered the prison.

It received its evocative nickname in the 19^th century by Lord Byron who suggested that prisoners would sigh at the final view before being shuttered away.

Well, Byron was a poet and is entitled to an imagination; the fact is that by the 19^th century the cells in the palace were used only for petty criminals on short sentences, and in any case it is difficult to see anything at all while crossing the bridge because stone grills cover the windows.

Today, it is mostly sighs of a different type. There is a belief that those who kiss beneath the bridge will enjoy a love that lasts forever.

It’s worked for us.

We are headed home for a vacation; we’ll be back at the end of August on Silversea Silver Cloud from Southampton to Lisbon with stops in Bordeaux, Bilbao, and Porto.

And then we’ll hop over to Rome to join Silversea Silver Wind in the Mediterranean in September. I hope to see you here (or there).

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1 July 2015
Hvar, Croatia: Lavender for the Soul

July 1, 2015 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

We have returned to Hvar, Croatia in summer. I know, life is tough.

Hvar has a bit of history, dating all the way back to the Greeks. Today, it is awakening from a long slumber as a handsome modem seaside resort in an ancient setting.

For more about this colorful place, see my blog entry from June 7.

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30 June 2015
Dubrovnik, Croatia: A History of Danger

June 30, 2015 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

George Bernard Shaw visited Dubrovnik in 1929 and said: “If you want to see heaven on earth, come to Dubrovnik.”

As I noted in my blog entry when we visited earlier this month, on June 6, this has not always been a heavenly place. It has been a place of war and unrest for most of its existence, its most recent time of battle in 1991.

The Walls of Dubrovnik run almost 2 kilometers or 1.5 miles around the city.

The stone walls have been in place since the city’s founding prior to the 7th century as a Byzantine castrum.

There was near-continuous expansions and improvements through the Middle Ages and as late as the 17^th century, and they were never breached by an army throughout that period.

DUBROVNIK 30 JUNE 2015

The Cathedral of Dubrovnik and its treasury.

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29 June 2015
Kotor, Montenegro: The City in the Hill

June 30, 2015 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

Kotor, Montenegro is not a place many people visit very often.

I do.

This is our third visit to the spectacular city in the hill this summer. For more details and photos, see my blog entries for June 13 and June 5.

A KOTOR ALBUM

I have sailed many times past the little island that holds Our Lady of the Rocks, on an island built by residents of Perast in 1452.

Perast, under the Venetians, was home to several thousand, with a fleet of 100 boats. Today, only about 300 people remain, amidst 16 grand palaces

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28 June 2015
Corfu, Greece: In the Middle

June 28, 2015 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

Corfu, an enticing mix of Venetian, Italian, Greek, and Albanian culture, with a soupçon of the British Empire mixed in, is a most pleasant place to spend a summer Sunday.

For more details and photos, see my blog entries for June 4 and June 14.

AROUND CORFU

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27 June 2015
Katakolon (Olympia), Greece: The Naked Truth

June 28, 2015 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

Katakolon, which we visited earlier this summer on June 15 (see that blog entry for more details) is the gateway to the ancient birthplace of the Olympic games.

During the celebration of the games, an Olympic Truce was enacted so that athletes could travel from their countries to the games in safety.

During the truce, wars were suspended, armies were prohibited from entering the region of southern Greece on the Peloponnesos peninsula.

And legal disputes and the carrying out of death penalties were forbidden.

If only the Olympics could have been made permanent.

On this visit, I went with guests to the ancient site of Olympia and the impressive archeological museum. I’ve been there before, but always enjoy the sense of walking in the Nikes of Olympian past.

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26 June 2015
Piraeus/Athens, Greece: Ancient Gods, Modern Celebrity

June 26, 2015 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

Even our wondrous small ship cannot sail into Syntagma Square in Athens.

We instead we dock at the port of Piraeus, about 10 traffic-clogged miles from Athens.

Safe travels to guests leaving us here. And welcome aboard to those joining us here for the next leg, from Athens to Venice.

Here’s our plan:

Athens is one of the great cities of the world, and holds a collection of spectacular ancient sites and museums.

The Acropolis, the Acropolis Museum, the National Archeological Museum, the National Historical Museum, the Byzantine Museum, and so much more.

If you’ve never been to Athens before, there’s really not much question about what to put at the top of your list: the Acropolis is fully deserving of a spot on anyone’s bucket list.

AN ATHENS ALBUM

The Acropolis was the fortified citadel and the state sanctuary of the ancient city of Athens.

It is perched on a flat-topped rock that rises above what is now the heart of the city of Athens.

And when I say ancient, I’m talking about peoples and civilizations that go back thousands of years before what we consider Classical Greece.

By the middle of the 8th century B.C., at least part of the Acropolis had been redeveloped into the sanctuary of the goddess Athena, the patroness of the city. Athena, as in Athens.

In the 6th century B.C., the first monumental stone, Doric temple of Athena is built on the Acropolis.

Even if you’ve been to Athens before, the Greeks—never mind all of their financial foibles—have done an extraordinary job with the design and construction of the New Acropolis Museum, which opened in June of 2009.

More than four thousand items are on display, including a portion of the frieze of the Parthenon—the part that is not in the British Museum, they will remind you.

In fact, some observers say one of the reasons the museum was created was to put pressure on the British Museum to return the Elgin Marbles to Greece where they could be displayed in their proper setting.

Good luck with that.

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25 June 2015
Mykonos, Greece: Ancient Gods, Modern Celebrity

June 25, 2015 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

Mykonos is an island of beauty and a bit of history, but for many people it is best known as a party island: an Aegean version of Ibiza in the Mediterranean or Monte Carlo or St-Tropez.

I find it hard to imagine what the ancient Greeks would think of it all, especially when you consider that at one time Mykonos had as its principal role raising food and delivering supplies to the nearby tiny sacred island of Delos.

Delos was the religious, economic, and political hub of the Aegean.

The sacred island of Delos in the background, a sampling of mega yachts in the foreground. Photos by Corey Sandler

The Little Venice district along the water was once home to many of the old ship’s captains. Today it is home to fancy clubs where the captains most likely would not get past the bouncer at the door.

Delos, more or less in the center of the ring of islands in the Cyclades, is one of the most important mythological, historical and archaeological sites in Greece. That’s saying quite a lot, in a country that includes the Acropolis of Athens, Delphi, and so much more.

Delos had already been considered a holy sanctuary for a thousand years before the Olympian Greeks declared it to be the birthplace of the twin gods Apollo and Artemis.

Today, it is uninhabited except for thousands of tourists who make the visit by ferry from Mykonos to its ancient structures and ruins.

A MYKONOS ALBUM

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If you would like to purchase an autographed copy, please see the tab on this page, “HOW TO ORDER A PHOTO OR AUTOGRAPHED BOOK”

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24 June 2015
Patmos, Greece: Apocalypse Now

June 24, 2015 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

When most of us think of the Apocalypse, we think in dire and dramatic biblical terms.

Or perhaps in explosive, cataclysmic end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it Hollywood blockbusters.

Which brings us to Patmos, a lovely, peaceful small island in the Aegean Sea, one of the northernmost of the Dodecanese islands of Greece. It lies just off the coast of Turkey and the continent of Asia, west of the ancient Greek and Christian site of Ephesus.

So why is this the island of Apocalypse? Because it is believed that it was here that the final book of the New Testament was written.

And that book, written in Koine Greek, received its title from its first word: apokalypsis. It does not mean “The end of time” or “the destruction of life as we know it.

Literally translated, apokalypsis means “un-covering.”

The book’s introduction states that its author, John, was on Patmos when he was received a vision from Jesus and wrote it down.

A PATMOS ALBUM

Many Christians come to Patmos on pilgrimage.

Others come to uncover yet another lovely Greek island with peaceful and beautiful revelations at every turn, including some handsome little beaches and pretty towns.

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23 June 2015
Santorini, Greece: Fire and Ice, Part 2

June 23, 2015 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

We’re back for another visit to Santorini.

I’ve been here more times than I can remember. But its beauty still stuns.

For more details and pictures, see my blog entry for June 16.

A SANTORINI ALBUM, PART 2

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22 June 2015
Rhodes: The Far East of Greece

June 22, 2015 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

Through its location and its history, Rhodes has faced in many directions.

Rhodes has looked east and north to Turkey in the eastern Aegean Sea 11 miles away, looked north toward Asia Minor, south toward Egypt, southeast to Jerusalem, and west toward Europe and the mainland of Greece.

But for many, Rhodes’ moment in time came when people came to look up at the great statue in its harbor.

The Colossus of Rhodes, one of the Seven Wonders of the World.

The Colossus of Rhodes was a statue of the Greek god Helios, erected in Rhodes by Chares of Lindos between 292 and 280 BC.

When it was completed, it stood about 107 feet high, making it one of the tallest statues of the ancient world.

The defenders of Rhodes had successfully defended their island against an assault by 40,000 men under command of Demetrius in 305 BC.

The land campaign failed because of the walls of the city, and then he tried to use massive siege towers mounted on ships to breach the walls.

But the defenders of Rhodes flooded the land in front of the walls so that the rolling tower could not move.

Demetrius’s army abandoned the siege, leaving most of their siege equipment.

The Rhodians sold the equipment left behind for a great deal of money, by some estimates the equivalent of hundreds of millions of dollars today.

The money was used to build a colossal statue of their patron god, Helios.

Today, the Colossus can be seen: on refrigerator magnets, rugs, etchings, and in the mind’s eye of tourists.

A RHODES ALBUM

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21 June 2015
Kusadasi, Turkey: Ephesus in Encore

June 21, 2015 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

As we return from Istanbul on our way to Athens and beyond, we are back in Kusadasi, gateway to the global treasure of Ephesus.

Silver Spirit at the dock in Kusadasi today

You can read more details in my blog entry for June 17.

Here are some new photos from ancient Kusadasi, including a statue from the renovated archeological museum in nearby Selcuk.

In the Classical Greek era, Ephesus was one of the twelve cities of the Ionian League. And then under the Romans, Ephesus was a major city.

In the year 100, it may have been home to as many as 500,000 people. That made it one of the largest cities in the Mediterranean.

An earthquake partially destroyed the town in 614.

The city’s importance as a commercial center declined as the harbor was slowly silted up by the Cayster River.

Nevertheless, today Ephesus contains the largest collection of Roman ruins in the eastern Mediterranean. Perhaps only 15 percent has been excavated.

The Temple of Artemis was completed around 550 BC. The Temple of Artemis was said to be the largest building of the ancient world, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

All that remains today is one imperfectly reconstituted column.

The Greek goddess Artemis was one of the most widely venerated of the Ancient Greek deities. Her Roman equivalent is Diana.

Together with the great Anatolian goddess Cybele, they were together identified as Artemis of Ephesus.

The Library of Celsus was originally built about AD 125 AD in memory of Tiberius Julius Celsus Polemaeanus, the Greek governor of Roman Asia in the Roman Empire.

Before he died, Celsus paid for its construction from his considerable personal wealth, and he is buried in a sarcophagus beneath it.

From AD 52–54, Paul lived in Ephesus, working with the local Christians and—according to some—organizing missionary activity in the far reaches.

Also in the area was the apostle John. The Gospel of John may have been written in Ephesus, about A.D. 90–100.

AROUND KUSADASI

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20 June 2015
Dikili, Turkey: On the Road to Pergamon

June 21, 2015 Corey Sandler

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

Dikili is a lesser-visited port of the great nation of Turkey. But it allows entry to a remarkable place of history: Pergamon.

Pergamon is cited in the Book of Revelation as one of the seven churches of Asia. (Another was at Ephesus.)

Pergamon’s library on the Acropolis (the ancient Library of Pergamum) was the second best in the ancient Greek civilization, behind only the Great Library of Alexandria.

The library at Pergamon was believed to contain 200,000 volumes, which Mark Antony later gave to Cleopatra as a wedding present.

Pergamon was also a flourishing center for the production of parchment, which had been used in Asia minor long before the rise of the city.

The site is today easily accessible by the Bergama Acropolis Gondola from the base station in northeastern Bergama.

A PERGAMON ALBUM

All photos by Corey Sandler

The Asclepion, named after the god of health, is reached via a sacred road lined with monuments and architectural fragments.

The Asclepion was a center of learning and science, along with a rehabilitation center and a sacred spring: a little bit of everything.

There are some major ruins still in place, and descriptions of the city but the most significant piece of architecture lies about two thousand miles or three thousand kilometers away, in Berlin, Germany.

A major museum in the heart of the city completed in 1930, the museum holds the reconstructed Great Altar of Pergamon and the Market Gate of Miletus, both transported from Turkey.

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF ONE OF MY BOOKS, PLEASE CONTACT ME.

SEE THE “How to Order a Photo or Autographed Book” TAB ON THIS PAGE FOR INSTRUCTIONS

————-

If you would like to purchase an autographed copy, please see the tab on this page, “HOW TO ORDER A PHOTO OR AUTOGRAPHED BOOK”

Here’s where to order an electronic copy for immediate delivery:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IA9QTBM

Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession: The Tragic Legacy of the New World’s Least Understood Explorer (Kindle Edition)

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF ONE OF MY BOOKS, PLEASE CONTACT ME.

SEE THE “How to Order a Photo or Autographed Book” TAB ON THIS PAGE FOR INSTRUCTIONS

Around the World with Corey Sandler

Category Archives: Uncategorized

8 September 2015
Gijón and Ovieda, Spain: The Waves of History

7 September 2015
Bilbao, Spain: Basque Country

4-6 September 2015
Bordeaux and Sainte-Emilion, France: The Pearl of Aquitaine

3 September 2015
Belle-Île-en-Mer, France: La bien nommée

2 September 2015
Saint Malo, France: Location, Location, Location

1 September 2015
Honfleur and the Beaches of Normandy, France:

31 August 2015
Southampton, England: Down to the Sea Again

2-3 July 2015
Venice, Italy: Another Sigh

1 July 2015
Hvar, Croatia: Lavender for the Soul

30 June 2015
Dubrovnik, Croatia: A History of Danger

29 June 2015
Kotor, Montenegro: The City in the Hill

28 June 2015
Corfu, Greece: In the Middle

27 June 2015
Katakolon (Olympia), Greece: The Naked Truth

26 June 2015
Piraeus/Athens, Greece: Ancient Gods, Modern Celebrity

25 June 2015
Mykonos, Greece: Ancient Gods, Modern Celebrity

24 June 2015
Patmos, Greece: Apocalypse Now

23 June 2015
Santorini, Greece: Fire and Ice, Part 2

22 June 2015
Rhodes: The Far East of Greece

21 June 2015
Kusadasi, Turkey: Ephesus in Encore

20 June 2015
Dikili, Turkey: On the Road to Pergamon

Cruise Photos and Stories by Corey Sandler