1971

Greetings!

At least I have something really newsworthy to report for the year. I FINALLY got back to Europe in the spring for another Hellenic Cruise, with a little time in London before and after. It was great to be back in London where I had spent so many interesting years, but frustrating not to have time to see everyone. And of course it was wonderful to be sailing the beautiful Mediterranean again.

The cruise visited several places we’d been on the 2 previous cruises I’d taken when I lived in London - such as Athens, Mykonos, Delos, Istanbul, Ephesus and Heraklion; plus some sites that were completely new to me Amphiareion, the Meteora, Thesos, Mt. Athos, Petmos, Megalopolis and Bassee in Greece; Ascos in Turkey; and Syracuse and Agrigento in Sicilyl plus Carthage and Tunis in Tunisia!

It was distressing to see how commercialized Greece had become in the intervening years, but I suppose it was inevitable; and it was even more of a shock to find the same thing creeping up on Turkey, which before had seemed so remote and untouched. Tourist shops and moneychangers all over the harbor village of Kusadasi, ticky-tacky cheap vacation resort springing up along the coast, and festival banners and litter in the theatre at Ephesus where centuries ago the silversmiths had stirred up the riot against St. Paul. But on the positive side it was interesting to see how much more of Ephesus had been dug up by archaeologists since we were there last; among ruined cities it’s one of my favorites.

It was somehow sad to find that our creaking old Turkish ship the “Ankers” now had the conventional array of tiny individual plastic-encased English jellies messed on the breakfast tables instead of the big jars of gooey Turkish honey-based jams. And disciplined, organized service with even a slight grasp of the English language on the part of the stewards had no dulled all the fun of genuine and uncomprehending chaos that added so much amusement and adventure in the past when we met an endless barrage of “om-LET” every morning, regardless of what we had tried to order in the “good old days.”

The Temple of Apollo way, way up the mountains at Bassae was handsome and spectacular as to scenic beauty of the location, remoteness and difficulty of access-involving a scary cliffhanging ride on unfurnished mountain roads which reduced one Greek guide literally to tears. Patmos was a charming and peaceful island where we had a very wobbly donkey ride up rocky paths to visit a monastery and the cave (now a chapel) where St. John wrote “Revelation.”

Sicily was quite a surprise to me; I’d known of course that the Greeks had been there, but I hadn’t expected so MANY temples and of such vast size. It seems that when they beat the Carthaginians in the Battle of Himera 480 B.C. they got so many slaves per capita and so much wealth that they went mad with ostentatious building projects.

Tunis and Carthage were exciting - some Punic remains (mostly graves of infants expended for human sacrifices); fantastic Roman baths (world’s largest); the wonderful Berdo Museum full of magnificent Roman mosaics, plus some interesting Greek finds dredged up from an ancient shipwreck; and of course the colorful souks(bazaar) one expects in the Arab countries.

The cruise finished in Palme, Mellorce; having been there before I concentrated on shopping and enjoying a wonderful Spanish luncheon. And thence the flight back to London.. All in all the trip was a great morale builder, though strenuous, and I can’t wait to get back to that part of the world!

All this is a far cry from the steady parade of heart patients where I’m still working in Cardiology at Stanford Medical Center. Coronary artery disease and impending myocardial infarctions (heart attacks) and the new approaches to some are the big thing now; and our heart transplant program continues with success. We had some top Russian health officials visiting this year; it seems Russia also has an extensive coronary artery disease problem so they came to see what we are doing about it.