Fwd: May 19th cruise
marilyn ronen
Tel Aviv University Dept. of Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Cultures
Int'l Woman's Club May 19th 2019 Cruise to the Aegean Islands
Accompanied by Tel Aviv U. Alumnus Archaeologist Yossi Stepansky
Second announcement and planned itinerary (April. 2019)
Hi to all and welcome aboard!
I'm Yossi Stepansky, the archaeologist who will be accompanying you on the cruise. I hope to meet you all – especially those I don't know yet personally – at Tel Aviv U. on April 30 two and a half weeks before the cruise. I am not a Mano company representative, so please direct questions referring to the cruise conditions to them either thru their website or by calling them to *8288. I'm I'm also in constant contact with Marilyn, who's doing a great job – as usual – coordinating things between us all.
This is a second announcement (the first was an introductory one, in January) with some reminders and new details about our planned six-day / 5 night Sunday-Friday excursion on a newly-purchased Mano 5 star cruiser departing from Haifa at 12:00 Sunday May 19.
Please make sure you come on time to Haifa port, no later than 09:00 (3 hours before departure, like at the airport), don't forget your passports. For those not coming by bus from Tel Aviv, please take into account traffic. Please go into the Mano website and see "useful information", which includes the following: "All sailings depart of Gate 5 at Haifa Port. Passengers arriving by car: go to the port: 65 Ha’atzmaut Street, Haifa."
Although each participant is on his own as far as signing up for the cruise, choosing a suitable cabin, etc. we plan to have the following group activities:
Lectures (hopefully more than one) in English on the Archaeology and History of the Aegean Islands and their pertinence to sites in Israel, new insights pertaining to long-debated issues – e.g. the date of the great volcanic eruption of Santorini-Thera, a review of the history of the Jewish Communities in the region, etc. There may also be a lecture or two given in Hebrew to our (few) only-Hebrew-speaking participants and possibly to other cruise vacationers and staff members.
Land excursions will take place at the islands of Rhodes and Santorini:
Rhodes: We will be at Rhodes Mon. evening and all of Tues. Please look into the website (they have it in English also) and press on the arrows to the left and right and you'll see a list of 9 tours to choose from. However, as of now, I saw that only in the Hebrew version are included details of the tours, in the English version only the general information of the tour (name of the tour and duration) is given. In Rhodes everyone is free to choose what tour they want to do during the evening and the next full day - or walk around and tour by yourselves at your own pace. Many of us have been here before and are familiar with this beautiful ancient walled town, the best preserved medieval walled city in all of Europe (!). As of now I plan on going on the evening walking tour (duration 2.5 hours, cost – 14 euros) accompanying members of our group who'd like to come along (although the official guide will be from Mano; if in Hebrew, I can translate). Please note, that Mano also offers a night-club 'Taverna' tour that evening. On Tues. morning after breakfast I am planning to join the excursion to Lindos – one of the famous Greek Hellenistic cities with a well-known Acropolis; duration 5.5 hours, cost – 55 euros. It's a beautiful village on the southern shore of the island too – a picture of it is displayed on the website. However – going up to the Acropolis is not an easy walk up (certainly not for everyone on our group) and there is an option of going up the winding path by mule, which some of us may prefer (I will probably walk up)… but some may come even just for walking around the narrow quaint streets of the village and also enjoying its famous beach – look at the photograph and you can understand the whole 'picture' just from that. So you can choose – either sign up for Lindos, or choose one of the other options Mano provides (some of them we've done last time, theyr'e all fine and we all enjoyed them). In any case, my plan is to offer another walking tour of Rhodes in the afternoon (after I return from Lindos, even skipping lunch on the boat if necessary) – a private 2-4 hour one, for walkers – maybe including a peek into the famous Palace of the grand-Masters and archaeological museum, and maybe including the synagogue etc. (I can't promise this, it depends how much time we have before departure which will be at 18:30, last time we succeeded in doing it with a small contingent from our group). Thus, in Rhodes – members of our group will decide for themselves what tours they would like to participate, which have to be paid for separately. If you pay thru the internet – it's usually cheaper and you don't waste time at the desk on the cruise. If your'e on your own don't forget to return on time for departure…
At Santorini (after landing on the island weds. morning), the highlight of our tour: the plan is to have a full-day bus tour for our group only to the spectacular archaeological site of Akrotiri (today covered over by a roof which enables a tour of the site in all weather). We will embark the cruise-ship into smaller boats that will take us to shore to our bus and from there to Akrotiri, today there is a walking-trail thru the site, easy walking – although there are steps on the trail. But even for those who have a hard time walking – all can enter the site and overview it from the entrance, and understand the uniqueness of the site from the platform that overlooks the site. Then travel with our bus to the main town of Fira – visiting the Prehistoric-archaeological museum that displays the artifacts of Akrotiri. From there we walk (or partly ride by taxi for those who have trouble walking) thru the alleyways of beautiful Fira on the rim of the great Island-Volcano to the cable car that takes us down the cliff to the boat that brings us back to our cruising ship. For this outing a per-person fee is asked by all participants of our group, since the group charge for this unique excursion is a total of 1,750 euros - the minimum amount needed to ensure the tour.
Needless to say – all our needs will be 'on board', no hustling with luggage from hotel to hotel, kosher food – and well known 'Mano-Cruise' hospitality. I assume that we all signed up for eating on the first shift. If you don't know what shift you are – please call Mano and ask, and if not on the first one – please ask to be after explaining that we're a group eating together. We will probably make announcements when we'll be together, and maybe some of our group activities will be pretty soon after the first shift. If for some reason you're registered for a second shift and they don't agree to changing the shift for you even after 'nudging' them, don't worry, contact me and we'll see what to do.
Hope to see you! Hag Sameach!
Yossi Stepansky Step...@bezeqint.net 052-4589009
Just a further announcement that there will be a lecture at 12 immediately after our normal lecture on 30/4 dealing with Santorini and Rhodes, Everyone is invited to come but those not going on the cruise will have to pay NIS 20.