Kory and I woke up bright and early as our ship pulled into the harbor of Lesvos Island. After a very pleasant breakfast on the ship, we were the first people in line for the ship’s mountain bikes (we later learned that most people don’t want to take them so we don’t really need to queue up for them). After Kory gave me a few biking instructions, we set off for Mytilene Castle. We made a few picturesque stops along the way including at Mytilene’s Statute of Liberty. We finally got to the top of the hill where the castle was perched only to realize that we didn’t have any Euros to pay the small entrance fee. Amateurs! We only had Turkish Lira and U.S. dollars. After riding down to the little town of Mytilene and finding an ATM, we headed back up to the castle with Euros in our pockets. The Castle was awesome! Much to our surprise, we hardly saw another person there and had the massive Castle to ourselves most of the day. The Castle was originally built around the 6th century, but was heavily repaired and restored in 1372. There were a couple of ancient canons in the Castle that made me think of my dad. He would have liked those. The cisterns and various structures of the Castle were also very interesting. By far the most spectacular part of the Castle, however, where it’s bird’s eye view of the town of Mytilene and the ocean below. It was breathtaking! After we’d had our fill of the Castle, we had lunch
in town then rode to the ocean where Kory took a little dip. Back on board, we went to the gym, enjoyed the sunset and had a delicious dinner as our ship sailed to our next destination — Kusadasi, Turkey.