To Greece. Athens and Santorini. March 2015

Welcome. Here we go again!

On the 27th March, at the ungodly hour of 3:30am, we will be heading for Greece, for a short stay in Athens, then a few days on Santorini, before flying to Israel.

We have a whole group which will comprise 12 people by the time we reach Tel Aviv. Our dear friend Sylvia Haber has, I’m sure, much to her regret already, taken it upon herself to keep us all under control, and also be our tour guide.I am personally relying on her to keep Elly operating within the boundaries of human endurance, unlike on our many previous adventures. I look forward to having you journey with us, and share our disasters and triumphs.

Since we were all departing on different days and some to different places before meeting up in Israel, we decided to get together for a group hug at Bella’s house, and took a photo to show how neat and tidy we all were before the trip. Note, our T – shirts have all our photos on the front, designed by John, and created by Elly.

We will have another look after we return.

Athens 27 March 2015

I know having fun isn’t supposed to be easy, but we got away with it fairly well.Our flight left at 0330, so we had already been up for 20 hours before we started. We actually left for the airport at 2345 ( that’s pilot talk), because the car and driver which we had elected to use instead of a taxi became more expensive after midnight. Not only that, we could hang around in the Emirates lounge while we waited, due to the fact that we decided to run our frequent flier points tank down to nearly empty by flying business class.We arrived in the lounge to find all the comfortable seats taken, with some people using two, one to put their feet up on. These people looked as though they had been there for days! What were they doing there? Who transits in Melbourne at 1 or 2 am? We are the end point, not a hub, the end of the world, so to speak.I could hear a strange noise, which I thought, due to the hour, may be sparrows farting, however, it turned out to be a large Swiss ( I found out later, and is also irrelevant ) gentleman, snoring loudly enough to be a conversation killer anywhere in the lounge. Nobody accidentally kicked him in the shins as they walked past, and he was allowed to snore on. We found some OK chairs and began the 24 hour process of consuming free champagne and eating all food which came our way.The Swiss gentleman eventually stopped snoring, and we eventually boarded. Elly had prepared some sleeping tablets along with some prescription melatonin, so we popped a couple of those. This was the last time we saw those tablets, as they have completely disappeared, much to Elly’s distress.We managed a few hours sleep, flying Emirates to KL, then to Doha and Athens on Qatar. All very good.We stayed at a beautiful little hotel in Plaka, which is the old part of Athens, within walking distance of the Acropolis and all the must see ruins. From our balcony, looking to the right, we could see the Acropolis, and to the left, Hadrian’s Arch and the Temple of Zeus; what a great position.

Looking along our street from Hadrian’s Arch to the Acropolis.

We arrived at about 6 pm and my main concern was to have a quick meal and then get some sleep. Elly was, of course wanting to divert either side of our path to the restaurant, to investigate and take photos, but I managed to keep her on track, and we fell into our chairs at God’s Restaurant – true! The food wasn’t heavenly, but OK and too much.Back to the hotel to find no sleeping tablets. Bummer!

Athens 28th March

Our schedule was to negotiate torrential rain, to find our way to the Acropolis Museum, hoping that the rain would stop by the time we headed for the actual Acropolis. It was only about a 10 min walk from the hotel, so our discomfort was minimal. We had a good look around the museum, which gave us a good oversight of what we would see.We then proceeded to climb the hill and inspect the Parthenon and the other smaller edifices in various states of renovation. The Parthenon itself is amazing, marred slightly by the scaffolding and cranes involved with its restoration. It is mind boggling to think of the design and building skills existing in the 5th century BC.

,

It is also mind boggling to look at the jigsaw puzzle they have to confront, when you see the hundreds and hundreds of pieces of marble that are lying around in various stages of sorting, all having to be placed in the correct position to complete the restoration.

In the afternoon, we set off to walk to the Olympic Stadium, passing Hadrian’s Arch at the end of our street, and the remains of the Temple of Zeus. As we were looking at the Temple of Zeus, a local taxi driver appeared from nowhere, and gave us a long speil about where he could take us with a personal tour. I was inwardly groaning as we listened, with Elly appearing to be interested, but when we asked the price it was actually OK, and we would see more than we had planned, so we said OK.Our first stop was the Olympic Stadium, which held the first modern Olympic Games in, I think, 1896 or thereabouts, and consists of tiers of marble seats on either side of an elongated playing area. This is the site of the finish of the original Marathon run as written in the history books, although that was a long time before this stadium was built.

From there we stopped at the President’s palace to watch the guards do their thing, including changing of the guard. This must be where John Cleese formed the idea of the Ministry of Silly Walks. These guys are dressed in strange outfits ( historically correct I’m sure) with weird shoes with big bulbous toes. They stretch each leg forward in turn just like John Cleese, and it is very difficult not to curl up in hysterics watching them. I know I am ridiculing a serious tradition, but it is so Monty Python!

Ministry of Silly Walks

Next we visited a monastery right at the top of the highest hill around Athens, actually the monastery was just a small nondescript building, but the view was magnificent, looking over the city, which is enormous, a bit like Melbourne, but white. From there you get a beautiful view across to the Acropolis and the Parthenon, the Temple of Zeus, and right across to the sea.

Our taxi driver started trying to talk us into another trip the next day, and Elly seemed to like that idea, and started bargaining with him to bring the price down, because she knew I would freak out at the amount of money we were spending on extras from only day 1 and 2. In fact the Greek economy has shown a definite uptick since our arrival. The street anti austerity marches have all stopped now that they know we are here.We allowed Angelo, our driver, to talk us in to a trip out to the west, the next morning, to be back at the hotel in time to meet Bella, Sylvia, and Limor, arriving to meet up with us for our few days in Santorini.Complementary champagne on our balcony watching the activity on our cute street was a good prelude to dinner.

Athens 29 March 2015

Angelo collected us from the hotel in yet another morning of pouring rain, and we drove west to check out a canal which was constructed in the 1800s to connect the Corinthian Sea with the Agean Sea. Looking down over the edge of the bridge, it is a fairly spectacular 80 metre drop to the canal water below. Angelo told us that they bungee jump from there – that would be scary.

The rain eased a bit, but the cloud stayed low as we arrived in Corinth, which used to be a major power with Athens. It was destroyed by the Romans, and later, re established by Julius Caesar in 44 BC. There are some ruins there, notably the Temple of Apollo.

We climbed higher, and visible through the mist was a massive castle/ fortress at the top of the mountain. Apparently the locals used to farm the lowlands below the mountains, but pirates would regularly invade and attack the farmers, so the castle was commenced around the 4th Century BC. It was added to over the centuries, and became an enormous structure, with 3 levels of security in the form of gateways in solid brick walls, and covering the whole mountain top. How they transported all the stone and materials up there beggars belief.

We were both reminded of what you might expect in Scotland, with sections of the castle occasionally looming above us out of the mist, then disappearing again.

As usual, we had pushed our time to the limit, and headed back towards Athens, utilising the 130kph speed limit, to try to arrive before the others, but as we walked in to the foyer, they were waiting for us with knowing smirks, because we had told them we would be there to meet them, but, of course, as they knew, we wouldn’t be!They had been flying for a squillion hours and were struggling. Apparently Bella had taken a sleeping pill on the flight, and had managed to get lost on the aircraft! She had gone to the toilet and couldn’t find her seat to go back to. She circumnavigated the aircraft about 6 times before someone worked out what was happening, and waved her into her seat as she passed.

We dragged our exhausted joinees to a local restaurant for a beer and a bit of food to keep them going, and then packed them off to the Acropolis, while Elly and I went for a long walk which circumnavigated the Acropolis. We wound our way past the Sunday markets, and along gorgeous narrow streets, which were packed with hundreds of restaurants, tables and chairs on the street, all making the best of the sun, which had appeared at last. All the restaurants were full of both tourists and locals; it didn’t look like a country in economic crisis.

Back at the hotel, we met for happy hour before heading out to dinner, which turned into happy hour before ordering room service cheese platter, then bed.

Santorini 30 March – 4 April

Bella, Sylvia, and Limor were to fly to Santorini, but Elly and I decided to catch the Blue Star ferry, which departed at 0730, so we had to get up and go by 0630, with our trusty Angelo to transport us to the harbour.We both like travelling on the water, so we had booked a comfortable business class ticket, (still half the price of an air ticket), and had a lovely 7 hour cruise via Paros and Naxos to Santorini, with me catching up on the Blog, and Elly sorting out her photos.

Port of call Naxos en route to Santorini

Arriving at Santorini

On our arrival at the port of Santorini, we were met by Bella, Sylvia and Limor, in a van driven by Niko, the manager of our villa, the Villa Aphrodite. When we arrived at the villa, it was just the classic picture of exquisite, white painted villas built into the cliff tops overlooking the harbour and the volcano cone, which is now an island. Santorini was the site of a massive volcanic eruption in 1600 BC which left the outer land mass encircling the central volcanic islands. The view was magnificent.

Views from our villa

What wasn’t magnificent was the wind, which must have been around 50 km/hr or more. The villa had a beautiful outside area, with open air seating and our own private swimming pool, which we simply couldn’t use without being blown away. Sylvia was making noises about her intention to swim in the pool, which was almost freezing, but, by the end of the day, that hadn’t happened!

Niko was incredible, driving us to the shops, and recommending, then driving us to his favourite restaurants.He provided us with a list of all the things to do on Santorini, and after a group conference, we decided to hire a car for our stay, otherwise we would have to rely on Niko to take us everywhere. So a car was hired, a little Nissan Micra which managed to absorb all of us, with Limor being our designated driver coping with driving on the wrong side of the road, and the rest of us arguing about navigation.We had a good day, managing to find the first few items on the list, the lighthouse, and some different beaches, one with red sand, another with black sand, where we had some lunch while watching the workers assembling some thatched roof shelters for the coming tourist season. The weather was beautiful, with the wind having died down and the sun making its present felt.

Sunset from our villa

Back to the villa in the afternoon, admiring the magnificent view, having lots of laughs and a couple of wines, we managed to FaceTime John and Bronia and Linda and Mark who were already in Israel waiting for us to join them.

Off to one of Niko’s recommended restaurants, dining outside under heaters, was great, although the restaurant cat was stalking Sylvia, who treated it with a mixture of disdain, tolerance, affection, and finally abuse as it jumped onto her seat.

Local wine – not good

Next morning we hit the trail to the village of Oia, which is on the northern tip of Santorini, with our fearless driver, Limor, once again, doing all the work. Oia is a wonderful, character filled little place of winding, narrow streets, with the classic, Satorini, white painted everything, broken by the bright blue domes of the churches. Everywhere the shop owners and restaurateurs where out painting their properties white; apparently there is a law requiring them to do that. With the exposure to the weather and the salty air, things would deteriorate very quickly without maintenance, but it is all kept beautifully. We wandered around for a few hours, with Elly again trying to find the perfect vista. She insisted that there was a position, somewhere, where you could take a photo which would include 3 church domes. We were about to leave without finding it, but she found someone who gave her directions to the magic spot, and after another 30 mins of wandering, she found it, so we all had a gelati and headed home, where the wind awaited us once more.

We had decided to visit the local winery, before meeting with Niko, who was going to guide us to his next restaurant recommendation. The wines, 18 of them all came on a tray, and we were to share the tasting glasses. We asked the waiter guy how we would know which wines were which, as there was no labelling.

This seemed to be something he had never thought about, so he mumbled something about the white ones being white, and the red ones being red. We said we knew that!Eventually another waiter came over and explained the system. 17 of the wines were horrible, and 1 was OK. So much for that.Next, Niko was to lead us on his motor scooter to our restaurant for the evening, the Music Box. He explained to Limor that the streets were very narrow, but not to worry. The streets were narrow to the point where we thought we might have to fold the side mirrors in to give us room, but we squeezed through, and found our restaurant. Another good night and some more laughs, and our sober DD Limor, drove us home.

The next day Niko had arranged for us to hire a 44ft catamaran, as you do, for a 5 hour cruise finishing just after sunset. We had a fabulous day with Vlad, our captain, and his 2 female crew, who pandered to our every need with beer, wine, and, eventually, in a sheltered spot, dinner. Limor had her iPad music selection which Vlad put through the ship’s audio system, so we had music ( some of doubtful taste) playing all afternoon.

The Santorini wind was around us, but most of the trip was well sheltered, and we managed to party on all afternoon with lots of laughs and fun and photos. The view of the villages of Santorini, perched on the top of the cliffs was fabulous, and we managed to find where our villa was situated.

Elly convinced Captain Vlad, with lots of arm waving, to get a nearby catamaran to slow down so we could put it between us and the sunset, so Elly could get some artistic photos for one of her innumerable sunset shots. Only Elly could manage to pull off a stunt like that!

We had a great day, spent in wonder at where we were and what we were lucky enough to be doing.Back home for a game of 500 and blogging for me. You have heard of Eddy Everywhere, well we have Niko Everywhere. When we are going out, he magically appears to see if we need anything. When we come home he is there again out of nowhere, to check if we are OK, or need anything. He waits on tables for breakfast and will arrange whatever we need for the meal.

Firo to Oia

Today we decided we would hike from Firo, which is the main town, to Oia, at the northern tip of the island, a distance of around 10km. Niko had seen us off from breakfast, and we drove in to Firo to park the car and start our hike. As we were walking up to the start of the path, Niko drove past, hanging out the window waving to us! Niko Everywhere!The hike was advertised to take 3 hours, it took us 4. It wound around all the white buildings as we traversed Fira, then became a track running along the cliff tops. The weather was magnificent, sunny, but with a cool breeze. The track didn’t take the easy route, but climbed over several peaks along the way, giving us fabulous views, but making it fairly solid going.

We arrived hot and sore at Oia, which was familiar to us from our first visit. We knew where to find a beer and ice cream, so we had both.

Arriving back at Villa Afrodite, the girls organised a Passover dinner, having asked Niko to get all the things they needed, hard boiled eggs, two separate greens, and even a candle, and sure enough when we arrived back from our hike, all the items were there waiting. We had a laugh at breakfast when Elly was asking him if he could come up with those few things, he said “Do you want some kosher wine, I might have some?”. Sure enough, he scurried away and came back with a bottle. We couldn’t believe it – Niko Everywhere had done it again.

We had to wait for the sun to set before we could eat, and then Sylvia ran a good humoured, fun Seder .This was the last night on Santorini, as we will return to Athens for a day, then head for Israel.