Europe and Beyond

We arrived in Athens around 5:00pm and found the hotel with no problem.  After checking in we decided to go for a walk towards the restaurant/tourist area, getting directions from the hotel staff.  Well we missed a turn again and after walking for about 30 minutes through some dodgy areas we did a U turn and, using the GPS app and a paper map, eventually found what we were looking for. We had a nice meat platter and a couple of wines for dinner then returned to the hotel. We walked many many kilometres over the next two days exploring historical sites and museums.  We went to the Acropolis, the Parthenon and other temples built on the Acropolis, the Theatre of Dionysus, Hadrian's Arch, the Temple of Zeus, the Ancient Agora and Roman Agora, the Ancient Olympic stadium,  Acropolis Museum, Parliament House, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and plenty more.  The Parthenon is of course iconic and is quite amazing, in both height and design.  It is in the ...

Meteora has a really amazing landscape with huge stones jutting out of the ground.  On top of several of these are monasteries and nunneries.  The buildings were built around the 14th century AD and are still in use today.  We visited 4 of the remaining 6 today, the last two are closed on Friday's. One of the monasteries was reached via about 50 steps and then a short bridge but the rest by hundreds of steps down to the bottom followed by hundreds more up again.  They all had either a gondola system, lifts and/or a hook to lift heavy objects or people who couldn't do the walk.  Many of the rooms were covered in paintings on every surface - but unfortunately photos were not allowed in those rooms. The next day we visited one of the two monasteries that were closed.  It was worth seeing, though similar to the others.  We then set off for the 5 hour drive to Olympia - or at least we thought we did.  We have two GPS Apps on our phones, one...

We had just the one night in Delphi, with plans to visit the historical sites before heading off.  The view from our room was pretty good, though not quite Santorini esq. Delphi is in Southern Greece and the Archeological site dates back to the 7th Century BC.  It's where the Oracle provided prophecies, The museum held an incredible amount of artefacts, with pieces from the buildings, statues, previous offerings  etc.  We spent around 1 1/2 hours there before going to the Archeological site itself where some buildings remain, including a theatre and a stadium, where they held running races and other events. You may notice me in one of the photos. This was a little 'naughty' as the museum had a rule that you could not pose next to statues. We don't know if this was a safety thing so they didn't get knocked over or it was to stop copies being made and using a person's height as a reference.  In any case there were occasions when I just happene...

For our last day in Santorini we decided to hire a car and see a bit more of the island.  We got a Fiat 500 convertible, cute little car but quite gutless, not great on a hilly island.  We drove to a couple of beaches, a village or two and up to the highest  point on the island.  The views from the top were expansive, but close in there wasn't much to see.  Sunset was more successful tonight as we went to a lighthouse a couple of kilometres past our accommodation and had a pretty good view with far less crowds. Still not as spectacular as we were hoping for though 1st of June and we were up early again for a ferry from Santorini to Rafina (Athens), due to leave at 9:00am.  Whilst it left on time, we arrived in Rafina 7 hours later -  over an hour late.  Not sure why as there were no obvious hold ups.  We managed to glimpse 5 islands along the way - and watch three Mad Men TV episodes on my tablet. We picked up another car, Citroen C4,...

We had a lazy morning eating breakfast on the balcony and enjoying the view before catching the 10:20 bus into the main city on Santorini, Fira.  We wandered the shops and took in the views - of both the 'Caldera' and the numerous white buildings and blue topped churches.  We then took off on the 9km, 3 hour walk from Fira to Oia.  The first half hour or so was reasonably easy along a concrete pathway through Fira and a nearby village, Imerovigli. The final 6kms were along a mixture of gravel and dirt paths over hills and down dale's.  We finally made Oia after about 2 1/2 hours of 34 degrees.  We were fairly stuffed and needed a beer and the toilet, but first we had a quick look around to scout viewing sites for sunset.  We would be back tomorrow as part of a tour and sunset is meant to be amazing.  The bus back to our accommodation was far easier than walking. Fira Fira Oia Oia Oia The next day we were picked up at 9:40 ...