Found this on the Azamara site, for those of you who are staying extra days in Athens........... 

 

On Monday, Wednesday, Saturday afternoons, and Sundays, most shops are closed in Athens. However, most touristic and

souvenir shops will be open.

 

We were on vacation in Rhodes last summer, and we fell in love with Lindos. We plan to rent a car and spend our time on the island in Lindos. We've done all the famous sites in Rhodes including the donkeyride up to the Acropolis of Lindos, so we can't wait to spend a relaxing day at the lovely beach just below Lindos. We're happy to share the car if someone wants to join us.

Btw, the sea temperature in Lindos bay is a few degrees warmer than the rest of Rhodes, so I am sure it will be a nice temperature even though October is in the end of the season.

Aina

 

 

Food:The local wine and sparkling wine worth a try. The Greeks call the latter champagne, but it is much cheaper than the real thing.. There is also a local drink called Soima made of grapes, as well as a special kind of honey. There are taverns all over the island. The real traditional Greek taverns are in the smaller villages, and in Rhodes town and Lindos there is a wide range of international as well as Greek restaurants.

Shopping in Rhodes :You can get all kinds of things here. There are ordinary shops where you can buy clothes, shoes, books, things for the beach, glasses and so on. Then, there are the souvenir shops where everything Greek can be bought: leather belts, gloves, bags, icons, embroideries, copies of ancient art etc.

What to See in Rhodes:The capital, Rodos, is in itself very beautiful. Just walk around in the Old Town and see where the streets take you. Mandraki is a nice area, and from the hill of Monte Smith you get a wonderful panorama view. It is in the harbour of Mandraki the two famous bronze deer stand where the colossus of Rhodes once was. The old part of the town is from the Middle Ages and you can visit the castle of the Grand Master as well as walk on the road of the Knights and visit the Castle of the Knights.

The white town Lindos is well worth visiting. The acropolis here was only surpassed by the acropolis of Athens, and you can still see its ruins.

The healing baths of Kallithea are on the Eastern side of the island.

On the West side of the island there are several picturesque villages. If you like ancient history the "Pompey of Greece", Kamiros, is definitely a place to go. The monastery of Filerimos is also a place worth a visit.

Sianna is often considered the most picturesque village.

The Valley of Butterflies (Petaludes) is full of butterflies and is very pretty.

julie,

first of all:  HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!  42 years....wow...that is phenomenal!!  congratulations!!!

and, thanks for all the interesting facts about where we are going.  there is so much to see and do!  i am so interested in the history and archeology of the area.  when i was younger, that is what i wanted to be when i "grew up", an archeologist.  i am always so fascinated by these things.

how can you go wrong with sun, brilliantly blue water, delicious food, shopping, fabulous women of Olivia and archeological ruins! oh, and all the wonderful people of Turkey and Greece we'll meet along the way.  i can't wait!

jeri

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Some interesting info on Mykonos:

 

http://www.in2greece.com/english/places/summer/islands/mykonos.htm

Sightseeing: An important archaeological site is considered one of the main attraction of Santorini: is Ancient Thira. Also the volcano, hot springs, Oia and other traditional villages, Byzantine churches, remnants of castles and museums are major points of interest, There is more to Santorini of course then the bars, restaurants, views of Thira, the quietness of Oia or the beaches and nightlife of the outer coast. There are the ruins of Akrotiri which some claim is evidence that the people that once populated the island may or may not have been the civilization of Atlantis.
Slumping: in Fira and Oia there are many jewellery shops, handcraft and embroidery shops. Visitors can purchase excellent souvenirs and any kind of gifts

Oh oh, volcano alert!!! Maybe not so romantic!!!

 

It is a unique place due to its volcano and its magnificent landscape.

This island is unique in it's history & architecture. There is no other such island which has been burried in the groundand born again more than once.

Oh oh! We, that celebrated our 42 nd anniversary last week, might want to stay here!!

 

Santorini Island is the most spectacular and romantic island of Cyclades.

Interesting fact for anyone who has been fortunate enough to experience the wonderful city of Venice:

Four bronze horses which are decorating today San Marco Cathedral in Venice, were taken from Istanbul (Constantinople back than) by the Crusaders in the 13th century.

Oh, thankd goodness...we "OWLS" need to know this for sure! I just hope they are still there!

During the Middle Ages in the Ottoman Empire, Istanbul had over 1.400 public toilets in the city meanwhile there weren't any even at the palaces in France and other European cities.

Agatha Christie wrote her famous novel "Murder on the Orient Express" at Pera Palas Hotel in Istanbul.

Istanbul is one of the biggest cities in the world, with over 13 million population.

I'm a bit of a socio-political junkie and like to know where LBGT folks stand in the countries I visit.  Here's an exerpt from an article I found on the web. 

Another interesting bit: Turkey has had something like 17 annual Pride parades in Instabul - last one was end of June in '09. 

Click here for the full article:

 http://merip.org/mero/interventions/oktem_interv.html

There is wide consensus that Turkey is a “hinge state,” a hybrid of the political and also sexual regimes and ideologies of Europe and the Middle East.[1] Turkey’s neighbors to the east have considered homosexuality a punishable offense for the better part of a century, due to British or French mandate-era civil codes or conservative interpretations of Islamic law; its neighbors to the west have followed restrictive Communist legislation or conservative Orthodox Christian legal mores to the same conclusion. But homosexuality has not been an issue of criminal justice in Turkey since the modern nation-state emerged in the 1920s. The only territory under Turkish control where homosexuality is banned is northern Cyprus, where British anti-sodomy laws were incorporated into the Cypriot and, later, the Turkish Republic of Cyprus penal code.

Yet as liberal and cosmopolitan as Istanbul and other cities in western Turkey look in comparison to cities in nearby countries, Turkey remains a deeply conservative -- if highly heterogeneous and regionally differentiated -- society gripped by a patriarchal and militarist state ideology rooted in the foundational myths of Kemalism. If many gays and lesbians prosper as professionals or within the arts and media sectors, and some gay rights activists carve out spaces of interaction protected to a degree from state intrusion, transgender people are exposed by both the visible manifestations of their sexual orientation and their engagement in sex work. As Elif Shafak argues, the Kemalist modernization project “required the mapping of gender roles and public-private zones, as well as the redrawing of the boundaries in between.”[2] Kemalist and Islamist responses to transgender individuals are equally negative, but the former is probably more hateful: The transsexual condition is particularly threatening to the ideological constructs of modern Turkey’s very essence, the clearly, albeit differently, circumscribed roles for men and women in the public sphere. But the loud and public advocacy of all gender non-conforming people, gays and lesbians included, for equal rights throws into question key tenets of the republic: militarism, male hegemony and de-feminized femininity, a concept exemplified by the female doctors, nurses and teachers, who were expected to subordinate their sexuality to the ideal of selfless service of the nation.