From Istanbul to Vienna on the Aegean Odyssey
story & photos by
Tony Leighton
My love of travel is heightened when unlikely places reveal extraordinary things, which, of
course, they do all the time.
This past summer, my wife Leslie and I discovered that you can was of modest size (350 passengers), which we liked because we didn’t have to travel with 2,000 other cruise
passengers, and for a reasonable fee we would cruise the Aegean and Mediterranean for 16 summer days on a completely restored vessel, all inclusive, mostly in Greece.
Sweet.
The Byzantine part seemed reach those heights every day on quaintly interesting if we chose to an historical cruise. We spent 16 pay attention. Little did we know.
days on the Aegean Odyssey, a It quickly became the main event.
newly refitted, small-scale luxury cruise ship that carried us from Istanbul to Venice
through a string of unlikely places, all them containing exquisite and unexpected gifts.
The history angle also fit with a revelation that has come upon me fairly late in life, but I now believe fervently: that unguided travel with nothing but the Why unlikely? Because the trip Lonely Planet is like trying to have a conversation without was organized around Byzantine knowing the language, and that history, art, and culture. Ancient good guides are worth more than Byzantine capitals like Ravenna, Italy and Thessalonica, Greece are not exactly magnets for most tourists today. Yet for Byzantophiles, they are home to must-see art and artifacts. To us, they meant nothing. Until we got there.
you pay them. They bring it all to life. On this trip, the guides were said to be very good and
their services were part of the package.
Full Article : allthingscruise.com/wp-content/uploads/AllThingsCruise-Aegean-Odyssey-Tony-Leighton.pdf
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