Our 30th (yes 30th) anniversary tour to italy and greece. Something we planned before children and can now get around to doing.... We started this blog when we returned, to record our progress - we had bought a netbook to help us while we were travelling but it didn't work, so we decided this would be our record......
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Day 53 Thursday 27 May - Dubai to Sydney - Home!
Fly home - arrived 6am Friday - thank goodness! Girls picked us up and we went home to SLEEP - not very busy on board but still hard to sleep…. Finally got home about 7.45am
Day 52 Wednesday 26 May - Dubai
Dubai - desert excursion - cancelled this as too hot and too tired - went shopping at the Mall of the Emirates instead……
Days 49 - 51 Sunday 23 May - Tuesday 25 May - Athens
Morning in Santorini and then a transfer to the harbour for the fast ferry back to Athens at 5pm.
Arrived Athens 10.00 - tiring but good trip, almost on time… Had dinner at the noodle bar up the road because the hotel ‘doesn’t have a restaurant…’ what the??????
Spent our last day in Athens. Strolled around the Plaka for last minute souvenirs - had a quick lunch and met some Aussies who came from South Australia - own a John Deere dealership - house in Robe and one in Adelaide as well as the house they live in!!!
Afternoon flight to Dubai - arrived about 10pm
Arrived Athens 10.00 - tiring but good trip, almost on time… Had dinner at the noodle bar up the road because the hotel ‘doesn’t have a restaurant…’ what the??????
Spent our last day in Athens. Strolled around the Plaka for last minute souvenirs - had a quick lunch and met some Aussies who came from South Australia - own a John Deere dealership - house in Robe and one in Adelaide as well as the house they live in!!!
Afternoon flight to Dubai - arrived about 10pm
Days 45 - 48 Wednesday 19 May - Saturday 22 May - Santorini
Arriving at the ferry port was like arriving in some barren wilderness - all volcanic rock - sheer to the sky. The buses all congregate at the harbour and everyone finds a bus to the top and clears the harbour very quickly. Yet another winding road to the top of the hill - took us a while to find our apartment - dropped off in the square by the church and told to ‘walk down there about 25 metres…’ so hot and then had to lug the bags down all the stairs - reminded us of the Amalfi coast!!!
So - Santorini harbour - like nowhere else....
just some cafes on one side and hundreds of buses waiting to take everyone up to the top of that hill......
The view over the caldera from our room (once we found it)
Another view from our room
The volcano used to connect right around - the middle blew out and that's what destroyed Knossos in Crete
The footpath winds its way through apartments - some of the pools and balconies are right up against the path that everyone uses to walk from Fira to Oia…. Fira is 25 minutes in one direction, while Oia is 2 hours in the other….
The church around the corner from 'Sunny Villas
Fira sits on the top of the volcano's side - this gives asense of where we came into dock - the small boats in the water on the right are actually ocean liners....
A closer view of Fira and the volcanic rock it sits on
The church from the top photo is the one towards the left of this photo
Taken at sunset from the restaurant around the pathway from our villa - about a 15 minute walk away
I realised that I wouldn't find anywhere free of paint smell in all of Santorini - they whitewash it every year for the tourist season........
Our room was the one with the bouganvillea - the bathroom was so far into the mountain that the path to Oia went over it....
Spent few hours wandering around Fira on the first day - walked there - did some window shopping, argued about whether we would have donkey ride (vertigo won - and later I read that the animal rights activists ask you not to go on the donkey ride to the harbour, as it’s a form of cruelty to the donkeys). Went back to our room for the afternoon and then walked back to Fira for dinner - wandered down to a club that had said it was playing live music - jazz and listened to a set before heading for a taxi rather than walking back in the dark after more than a few drinks.
Next day was freezing cold and raining, with a thunder storm coming over in the middle of the day, so we stayed inside and read until about 5pm - then we headed out to the Irish pub in town and downed a few Mojitos before walking almost home and having dinner in Imeroglivi - a good decision as we could then just stagger home.
After a late breakfast we started the walk to Oia about 12.45pm. A beautiful walk along the cliff path, but there were occasions when we wondered if we had made a mistake, especially as we were slipping on the rocks on the thin path next to a 50-100metre drop!!! Arrived safely after 2 ½ hours and found a nice café for late lunch. Headed back home on the 5.30 bus - shades of Positano-Praiano with the bus driving! Lazed around and managed to get some photos of the sunset - a storm that had threatened all afternoon seemed to go around us and dump on the islands to the south.
Before we knew it, it was 10pm and we hadn’t had any dinner!!
A lot of the buildings were built directly down the volcano wall -ours included!
The donkeys wait all day to just go up and down this hill to the old port. There are some signs from the equivalent of the RSPCA asking tourists not to ride on the donkeys....
Not all the churches were blue and white - this one was quite lovely - in Fira town
Don't know what the employees at the bus depot were there for - we asked for a timetable and they pointed to this wall -we took a photo so we had the timetable.
This gives an idea of the shape of the island - imagine it connecting all the way around - that was the original island before the volcano exploded.
This is Oia - our destination walk - 2 hours (pronounced EE-a)
we had to go over the rim of the volcano to get there
on the other side of the rim, the island rolls out to flat farmland - Santorini is famous for wine in Greece
another beautiful blue and white church - on the way to Oia
Oia - our destination in sight!!
He seemed to be having fun.......
Oia was the town featured in the movie 'The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants'
A bit of different architecture - a church just to be different!
a mix of colours though
The council building in Oia
our balcony from the kitchen window
that's our pool right down there - it was too cold to swim - the people are on the walkway to Oia
This is what they come to Oia for - but we took the sunset in from our balcony each night
A little battered, but still recognisable...
The walkwa under the church was very narrow
the steps up to our villa from the walkway below
on the last day, we went for a walk across to the outcrop - it was a castle once
the view of Fira from the outcrop
Beautiful setting - view straight out onto the caldera - basically the top of the volcano - the traditional cave rooms are charming - but I found out during the night that they had obviously been painted recently - thought I’d have an asthma attack due to the smell! Had dinner at a restaurant just along the way - decided it was too far to Fira for the first time - managed to find our way home without any trouble.
The footpath winds its way through apartments - some of the pools and balconies are right up against the path that everyone uses to walk from Fira to Oia…. Fira is 25 minutes in one direction, while Oia is 2 hours in the other….
The church that has a viewing platform toward Oia - and also directly into our villas, we found out... everyone who walked here from Fira could see us reading/sunbaking on our deck....
Spent few hours wandering around Fira on the first day - walked there - did some window shopping, argued about whether we would have donkey ride (vertigo won - and later I read that the animal rights activists ask you not to go on the donkey ride to the harbour, as it’s a form of cruelty to the donkeys). Went back to our room for the afternoon and then walked back to Fira for dinner - wandered down to a club that had said it was playing live music - jazz and listened to a set before heading for a taxi rather than walking back in the dark after more than a few drinks.
Next day was freezing cold and raining, with a thunder storm coming over in the middle of the day, so we stayed inside and read until about 5pm - then we headed out to the Irish pub in town and downed a few Mojitos before walking almost home and having dinner in Imeroglivi - a good decision as we could then just stagger home.
After a late breakfast we started the walk to Oia about 12.45pm. A beautiful walk along the cliff path, but there were occasions when we wondered if we had made a mistake, especially as we were slipping on the rocks on the thin path next to a 50-100metre drop!!! Arrived safely after 2 ½ hours and found a nice café for late lunch. Headed back home on the 5.30 bus - shades of Positano-Praiano with the bus driving! Lazed around and managed to get some photos of the sunset - a storm that had threatened all afternoon seemed to go around us and dump on the islands to the south.
Before we knew it, it was 10pm and we hadn’t had any dinner!!
Our villa was over at the 'knob' on the right hand side of the photo
About halfway - we still had those hills to go over - thisis where we needed the donkey!
This resort was built directly over what seems to be a landslide - it was a big hole anyway!
Oia - our destination in sight!!
These are the quintessential pictures of Santorini..
as we left Santorini for our ferry trip back to Athens
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Days 42 - 44 Sunday 16 May - Tuesday 18 May - Naxos
The ferry to Naxos meant we had to get a fast one to Paros first and then change at Paros for the slow one to Naxos - a very different island - a lovely harbour front and the temple to Apollo visible from the harbour. The resort was a bit disappointing - our room overlooked the pool but was a bit small and the view to the side is basically of a dump - a not very well maintained empty block and then the beach.
The weather was windy each day in Naxos, so didn’t do a lot of sitting around the pool and it wasn’t good beach weather. Walked around town - up to the temple and through the old town on the first day - discovered a lovely little patisserie which also handmade gelato - yum! The wind was so cold we headed back to the hotel - tried to find a piece of sunshine near the pool to warm up and met a lovely aussie couple - Roy and Gloria from Ulladulla.
We had lunch and dinner at Scirrocco near the square on the first day and then went back there again for dinner on the night before we left. Again, one of those places where the food was good but also the place was entertaining…
Hired a car on the second day - a little four wheel drive - ‘Jimmy’ - who took us reliably up hills and down dales - we discovered an ancient aqueduct, a statue from 570BC lying in a glade, a mountain of marble that is still quarried today and supplied the marble for many of the ancient statues in Greece, and a lovely beach where we had a picnic lunch watching the kite surfing….. A little bit of everything on this island! The mountains were high and the little towns in them had very narrow streets - there were also many walking tracks - a great island for walking if you were so inclined…. Perhaps a tourist venture to start up like the agritourism in Italy - there could be a fortune made.
This island’s liqueur is Citron, pronounced Kitron - it also is very nice - need to find them when we get home……
Cut short Naxos because of the general strike - otherwise we would have had to cut short Santorini or change the fast ferry as well as the slow ferry - we decided to leave early and Mike arranged it without any hassle - the benefit of a Greek travel agent! A couple we met on the transfer to the harbour said they also were going to Santorini early, but they had to spend one night in a different hotel because theirs was booked out - the advantages of having a greek travel agent helped with our booking……highly recommend fantasy travel.
Getting ready to leave the ferry - everyone gets their gear and waits for the ramp to go down ... the turnaround at each port is about 10 minutes.
Had to take this for our friend Susan!
This really was a lovely little church - couldn't resist the photo
The main square near our hotel
This restaurant, Sirocco was lovely - we ate there three times I think!
Naxos main town was quite spread out
This isthmus led to the temple of Apollo - a much lauded vantage point was to be up here when the sun was setting through the arch
We hired a four wheel drive 'Jimmy' to get around - so glad we did - we got to places we would never have thought of in another car
Like this 3000 year lod aqueduct - it was up a rough dirt track - worth it though - gorgeous
This is a marble mountain - we wondered what it was from this distance and then got up close - it is the site for all of the marble used in statues in Greece.
The island is the largest in the Cylclades - from lovely flat seaside towns to very mountainous country similar to that on Mainland Greece.
This beach is famous for the wind kites - no wonder - the whole island was very windy
This was taken from a lookout built to defend the island - we drove right into someone's backyard and had anon-conversation with a very old Greek lady
some sense of the difference in the geography
A closer view of the marble quarry - on the right hand side in the middle is a huge grader - you can hardly see it because it is dwarfed by the mountain!
A closer view still - you can see the grader a little more clearly in the middle of the photo
An ancient marble seat
Yes - very interesting information.....
the marble statue broke its leg on the way down the mountain - more than 2500 years old!
It would have been so easy to miss her - just lying there in the glade
OK - so we had to take one photo of a mule - saw a couple of working mules in Greece, but not as many as we expected.
The weather was windy each day in Naxos, so didn’t do a lot of sitting around the pool and it wasn’t good beach weather. Walked around town - up to the temple and through the old town on the first day - discovered a lovely little patisserie which also handmade gelato - yum! The wind was so cold we headed back to the hotel - tried to find a piece of sunshine near the pool to warm up and met a lovely aussie couple - Roy and Gloria from Ulladulla.
We had lunch and dinner at Scirrocco near the square on the first day and then went back there again for dinner on the night before we left. Again, one of those places where the food was good but also the place was entertaining…
Hired a car on the second day - a little four wheel drive - ‘Jimmy’ - who took us reliably up hills and down dales - we discovered an ancient aqueduct, a statue from 570BC lying in a glade, a mountain of marble that is still quarried today and supplied the marble for many of the ancient statues in Greece, and a lovely beach where we had a picnic lunch watching the kite surfing….. A little bit of everything on this island! The mountains were high and the little towns in them had very narrow streets - there were also many walking tracks - a great island for walking if you were so inclined…. Perhaps a tourist venture to start up like the agritourism in Italy - there could be a fortune made.
This island’s liqueur is Citron, pronounced Kitron - it also is very nice - need to find them when we get home……
Cut short Naxos because of the general strike - otherwise we would have had to cut short Santorini or change the fast ferry as well as the slow ferry - we decided to leave early and Mike arranged it without any hassle - the benefit of a Greek travel agent! A couple we met on the transfer to the harbour said they also were going to Santorini early, but they had to spend one night in a different hotel because theirs was booked out - the advantages of having a greek travel agent helped with our booking……highly recommend fantasy travel.
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