Our 2017 Trip to Greece and Crete
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Trip Blog
The start of our trip to Greece and Crete did not start at the
start of this day, but rather at the end. We spent to morning
doing our usual Tuesday gym session, and then had lunch at
Karisma before walking home. The afternoon was spent packing,
although must of the hard work of sorting out clothes had been
done yesterday.
We got David to run us over to the Morgans' just after 1930,
since we had arranged to share a maxi taxi to the airport. It
was probably just as well, as we discovered when walking to
the gym that the Glen Waverley trains were not running this
evening, and it would have been a lot more cumbersome
travelling by bus. But even so, we (John) goofed a little, as
while we were sitting waiting for the taxi at Morgans, John
realized that his pills had not been packed. So a quick phone
call to (son) David and he kindly fetched then over to
us. Phew!
The taxi arrived at 2010, 10 minutes late, but we had spare
time up our sleeve, so no drama. An uneventful run out to the
airport, where we jointly checked in, threaded our way through
security and immigration (with the shortest queues ever!), and
then parted ways. John and Barb to the Emirates Lounge with
their business class tickets, David and Sue to the ordinary
lounge with their economy tickets. David has a theory that
his great-grandfather sailed out from Britain taking 3 months,
so sitting in cattle-class for 15 hours was nothing in
comparison to that! My great grandfather was born in
Australia, so I'm happy to take the extra luxury of business
class.
We boarded an A380 (upper deck) at 2215 on time, and enjoyed
the warm-up business hospitality while waiting for a push
back, pretty much on time at 2315. Barb conked out almost
immediately, but John ploughed on until the end of a very late
dinner (around 0115 Melbourne time!)
(As I write this, we have just flown over Crete on our way
into Athens.)
We both got some sleep thanks to the business class lie-down
seats, although we later learnt from S&D that economy
class was sparsely populated, and they had a whole row of
seats each to themsleves. We woke up aound 0900 MEL time, but
it was still dark, and there was another 7 hours of flying,
which we absorbed by both watching Wonder Woman. (I would say,
don't bother, but your mileage may vary.)
We landed in Abu Dhabi at 0545 local time, with just a hint of
daybreak. Again, Hursts and Morgans went separate ways to
respective lounges, where we both struggled with a somewhat
erratic wifi system (but free). The layover time passed
quickly enough, and we were soon boarding an Airbus A321,
somewhat smaller, but still comfortable enough. Although
boarding time was 0915 local time, we were served lunch only
one hour out from Abu Dhabi, so it was rather an early lunch.
We both had the Arabic Mezze again, since we liked it so much
on the first leg, and then John had lamb backstrap (jammed in
the teeth!) while Barb had a fish dish.
John watched a movie after that - "My Big Fat Greek Wedding",
which seemed appropriate enough on going into Greece. It was
an interesting insight into the much stronger role of family
in Greek culture, although, when it comes to Hursts, we must
have a bit of Greek in us, as I recognized a few complementary
themes in our own family culture!
We landed in Athens on time, and we soon through customs and
immigration. The airport was fairly quiet, and the biggest
delay was waiting for the Morgans' bags to appear on the
carrousel - the Hursts' bag was about second off the plane,
although John missed it as the distinctive "Aranui" label was
hidden behind the routing labels. Sue spotted it quickly
enough. When it did come to the Morgans' bags appearing,
David was similarly myopic, and Sue and Barb spotted the bags
before he did. There is a message in that!
Fully bagged up, we headed for the train, only to find that we
had just missed one. No matter, the ticket queue seemed to
work on Hellenic time, and it took a while to get the
necessary tickets out of the ticket office. Since the next
train was not until a half hour later at 1430, all was pretty
relaxed.
The train trip was rather longer than expected, made extra
long by the fact that it soon became quite crowded. John
stood next to the bags to make sure that they were not
tampered with, and that meant he had to stand all the way!
Transferring trains in the middle of Athens at the Syndagma
station was an extra challenge, particularly as we all had
heavy or multiple bags to tow. People pushing in front of us
on the platform while waiting for the next train further
challenged our patience a little, but we made it, and two
stops later on the transferred train, we alighted at Omonoia
and search for the right exit from the station - no signs
indicating which exit went to which street making it a bit of
a guess! But we found the right exit rather by chance, and
trundled our way down to the Hotel Chic.
We checked in quickly enough, but then discovered that the
anticipated cup of tea all round was not possible, as neither
of our rooms had the usual Australian tea mak fac ("tea making
facilities"). But enterprising Sue went to the reception desk
and asked for tea, and they gave her a thermos of hot water,
and 4 cups and tea bags! So we had our much-anticipated cup
of tea after all.
It was still light at this stage, so we decided to go for a
short walk of 10-15 minutes duration down to Monasteraki,
where there were many restaurants, flea markets, and night
life. We found an interesting restaurant - perhas it would be
more accurate to say that an interesting restaurant found us,
as the spruiker out the front not only glad-handed us, but
offered us free beers as well! Called the Euparis (which
means "happy times" or some such), it offered lots of Greek
alternatives. David and Sue shared a ?, while Barb and John
shared some picked octopus and Greek salad. A baklava and
Greek Coffee (John only!) rounded off an excellent meal!
Needless to say, we were all pretty tired, so we retired to
bed somewhat early, in anticipated on an exciting morrow.
We woke around 0600 and used the wifi to do our usual thing of
reading the paper before breakfast. Not usual was the lack of
a cup of tea, but this was addressed once 0730 rolled around
and we went down to breakfast. No Morgans present, and we
managed 2 and a half cups of tea before they arrived, just
before 0800. Breakfast itself was appropriately Greek, with
things like feta cheese, spanokopita slices, cheese slices,
hard boiled eggs, Greek yoghurt (of course!) A slow start to
the day, in keeping with catching up our body clocks.
We got away from the hotel a little after 0900, and walked in
the direction of Monasteraki. David did not join us, as his
leg was still giving him trouble, besides which he had seen
the Acropolis before. We took our time, exploring things like
the meat and fish markets, which were fascinating due to the
different ways of operating and the different items on
display. Rabbits, for example, were on display in the meat
market, neatly skinned, but with their tails and hind legs
still furry! Lambs were displayed intact, but for being
neatly sawn in two, literally from head to toe! And the
variety of fish on display in the fish market was amazing. A
very definite reminder that the Mediterranean is a cornucopia
of food!
At Monasteraki we went into Hadrian's Library, where we bought
a combination ticket for a variety of iniquities - oops, I
mean antiquities! The combined price was $E30, which was good
value as we knew that the Acropolis, leter on our agenda was
itself $E20. However, we did not qualify for a Senior's
discount, as that only applied to EU citizens! The cheek of
them. Australia does not indulge in such discrimination, but
perhaps it should?
We spent some time in the library, checking out the
iniquities. Then on and up to the Acropolis. The contrast in
terms of the number of people could not be more stark. In the
Library, there was the occasional other person looking at the
iniquities. The higher up the Acropolis we went, the more
people there were per square metre. When we got to the
Aeropagus Hill there was jostling for position for the best
photo, and queues to go up and down the stairs. For those
that don't know, Aeropagus Hill was the ancient Speakers'
Corner, and was the spot where St Paul delivered his famous
"Unknown God" speech.
But it got worse than that. Slightly further up the hill, the
queue to get tickets started, and the entrance was nowhere in
sight! Here our decision to get a combined iniquities ticket
proved well worthwhile, as it meant that we could go straight
to the queue to the entrance itself! It was a bit like
checking in at an airport - one queue after another, check in,
customs, security, boarding, and so on. But we were soon in,
and headed up the acropolis hill to the Propylon, or
ceremonial gate. This itself was complicated, as although
there were signs indicating the up path was separate from the
down path, many people demonstrated that they were too stupid
to read, and insisted on descending the ascending path.
Once we fought our way through the propylon (ceremonial
gateway), the crowds had more space to spread out, and we were
able to move around a little more freely. We headed for the
south side of the Pantheon, which was the sunny side, and had
less crowding, and were able to start reading the info boards
all around, which were quite interesting, and partly made up
for not having a guide book.
Although the place was crowded, the Acropolis is a big place,
and people were thinned out enough that we could see what we
wanted to see without too much difficulty. I have to say that
it was slightly surreal, wandering around something that is in
parts up to 5 thousand years old. To think that ancient
(proto)Greeks were wandering around that long ago gives a
certain sense of humility to one's own existence, and was
quite sobering.
We completed our circuit of the Acropolis by 1330, although by no
means had we completed a full perusal of all the exhibits. We
wandered along the south slopes of the Acropolis, thinking to
circumnavigate the citadel itself. We saw the two
amplitheatres, the smaller one restored, the larger one not,
past the Choregic Monument of Thrasyllos (don't you just love
those archaelogical names?), but then discovered a locked
gate. A woman with some official standing explained to us
that the way out was the way back that we had come, but while
we were standing there, a bloke with similar official status
(he was carrying a sack of something) came along, and she
unlocked the gate for him to go out. So we said "why can we
not go out now?" and she relented and let us through, thus
saving us a long walk.
Just outside the gate there was a restaurant that looked
inviting, so we repaired there and ordered lunch. We had a
plate ("mezze") of antipasto for 2, shared 3 ways, and the
waiter seemed to think we were a little cheapskaty, but we
persisted, and made it last. 3 beers helped in that.
Then on to the Acropolis Museum, a most impressive modern
structure, built over an archaelogical dig that extended
pretty well all over the museum footprint. The architects had
got round this by making the ground floor of the museum
transparent, so everywhere you went, you could see through to
the diggings. This idea was extended to the upper floors,
which made for some scary views!
The Museum is very impressive, and the exhibit that took my
imagination was a life-size reconstruction of the frieze around the
Parthenon, complete with sketches of the missing bits, so that
one could easily imagine the whole thing, and the sheer scale
of the effort and craftmanship that went into the building of
the Parthenon. Such a pity that it was not better looked
after by the subsequent conquerors of Athens!
We finished with a study of the caryatids, of which we were
allowed to take photos. Then we started on the weary trip
back to the hotel. Sue texted David to come and meet us at
Monasteraki, and we found him easily enough once we got there
(it was a long way back!) We found a restaurant (or rather,
again the restaurant found us) and trooped inside for a
delightful (with the emphasis on that last syllable!) meal -
Barb had sardines, John had pork
brochures. Then back to the Chic Hotel by 2000, whence
we retired for the night.
The Morgans beat us to breakfast this morning, but not by
much, so we were able to eat and chat in synchronism. We
focussed a little more upon the Greek pastries today, but John
missed out on the cheese "pies". He made up quite happily
with the spanokopitas instead.
Leaving our luggage at The Chic, we set off a bit before 9, walking
along the Piraeus Road towards the Ancient Agora and its old
cemetery. We came across an imposing church, so we decided to
have a look inside. Wow!
Talk about ornate. Wonderful murals and friezes everywhere, and
a good smattering of gold leaf, and some pretty imposing
chandeliers, too. The chandeliers were obviously chewing
through the light globes, because while we were there, three
blokes wheeled out an extending step ladder, and proceeded to
change a few light globes that were not working. Health and
Safety did not get much of a look-in, Warren Greenwood.
Then on towards the Ancient Ruins. We had to go a long way
round, as the entrance, would you believe, was on the opposite
side from the main road. Still, it was a nice day for a
walk. We paid our entrance fee, and wandered around the
museum next to the entrance. The experience the previous day,
and this day, made me realize that each archaeological site is
organized the same way - plenty of ruins, but the really nice
stuff worth preserving is moved into a museum that is attached
to the site. Yesterday's Acropolis and Museum proved to be a
little of an exception in that they site and museum charged
separate entry fees, but that wasn't an issue yesterday as we
had bought a combined ticket. Here the museum was part of the
site and entrance included (as turned out to be the case for
many of the other sites that we visited).
After the museum, we wandered around the site, and came across
some archaeologists working on sifting through a digging, with
much excitement each time they found something. A bit like
Time Team, only without Tony Robinson. Took lots of photos.
We even saw a live
tortoise in the grounds while wandering around!
By then it was getting close to noon, so we first stopped at a
cafe for late elevenses. The waitress was very helpful, and
tried to explain how to get bus tickets from the nearby
railway station. But all the machines were out of order! So
the waitress sent a messenger boy off to the next station to
get some tickets, which he did, but not entirely with good
grace. Time was pressing, so the men set off back to The Chic
to collect the bags, while the women waited for the messenger
boy. They were most relieved (and grateful) when he came
back, and then proceeded to rejoin the men at The Chic.
The plan was to catch a 49 bus, which left from the bus stop
not far outside the hotel. A bit of a nervous wait, as '47'
did not appear on the next arrivals board for a while, and
when it did, it was already pretty full. A couple of us found
seats, but more challenging was what we did with the luggage,
as they was nowhere to put it (unlike the train from the
airport). Indeed, as the journey went on, very few people got
off, and those that did were soon replaced by additional
arrivals. It was only as we approached Piraeus that we all
found seats, and even then we got abused by a greek man who
suggested that we should have caught a taxi!
We did not know exactly where to get off the bus, so when it
was obvious that we were in Piraeus, we alighted, and walked
down to the waterfront. A nice big marina, but where was our
ship? It was past hungry time, so we stopped at a souvlaki
place, ordered a beer and souvlaki each, and took stock of the
situation. We eventually deciphered that we were only at the
inner harbour, and that to get to the outer harbour we had a
bit more of a hike. Appropriately refreshed, we walked right
around the inner marina, and eventually found our ship tucked
away down an unprepossessing laneway. We were the last (or
close to the last) to arrive, as a bloke came running up the
laneway to meet us, and take us aboard.
We were met on board by Joseph, our cruise director for the
week, and an entertaining character he turned out to be!
After sorting out some paperwork, we were further welcomed
with a cold cocktail (Cosmopolitan, says Barb) which was most
welcome. We are in cabin 6 on the starboard side, up one deck
from the dining room and boarding deck, while the Morgans are
down below, in cabin 11. The usual lifejacket and lifeboat
drill at 1730, closely followed by a briefing from Joseph
about plans for the morrow, and then dinner, which was an
excellent Greek repast with lots of tomatoes, feta, cheese
pies, olives, figs, etc., etc. I think I am going to like
this cruise!
We were quite tired by all the day's excitement, and retired
to bed before 9pm.
We docked a little after midnight at Nafplio, so the second
half of the night was quieter, as the motors were switched
off. On looking out our window at first light (about 0700),
we could see a small train with what looked like a steam
locomotive at the front. Unfortunately, it was the other side
of a fence, with no obvious way through, so further
investigation had to wait.
We joined Sue and David on the aft deck a little before
breakfast time at 0730, and had a cup of tea before going in
to breakfast, which was the usual Greek fare. John explored
the cold selections of prunes, dried apricots, walnuts,
proscuitto and cheese, which was very nice, and required a bit
of chewing, so it was not bolted down. Then some hot food -
mushrooms, bacon, scrambled egg, sausage, etc., and that
sufficed us. We had time after brakfast and before the bus
left to enjoy a leisurely cup of (brewed) coffee. Missing the
coffee machine already!
The bus picked us up at 0900 and we set off for Mycenae. We
travelled through many fields of orange trees, all with their
automatic air movers for frosty nights. Apparently, even
being close to the sea does not stop these areas getting
severe frosts and even snow in winter! So much for the
Mediterranean climate.
Our first stop was at The Treasure of Atreus, a Mycenean king,
buried in a huge dome shaped vault, built from blocks equal in
size to anything Egyptian or Aztecian. The lintel stone above the
door weighed 180 tonnes! Unfortunately, as the tomb was
always open to sight, it had been pillaged of the treasures
that were known to be buried with the king. But an impressive
sight nevertheless.
Then on a few hundred metres to the actual Mycenean city, a
huge ancient ruin of a walled city built possibly as early as
1800BC. It was most impressive, and we spent over an hour and
a half walking around the ruins, taking lots of photos. Each
part of the site was documented with information boards (in
both Greek and English), so they were photographed as well to
make sure we had adequate records of everything.
One feature that John wanted to see was the underground
cistern, a tunnel that the Mycenaens dug to ensure that they
had a supply of water in the event of a siege. It went down
and down through a series of steps, with right angle turns
every so often, so one quickly lost natural light while
descending. Fortunately we had our phones with us, so we
turned on the torch app, but even that was not a match for the
uneven steps and stygian gloom. Barb gave up on the challenge
and retraced her steps upwards, but John kept going for a bit.
At the last turn, John stopped and waited while some more
enterprising souls overtook him and kept descending, and when
it was clear that they had reached the bottom and that there
was not much to see, John retraced his steps upwards as well.
All quite fascinating, at least in terms of the admiration for
the engineering skills of the ancient Myceneans!
Then back to the bus via a quick visit to the Museum, itself
worthy of a much longer visit, but as Barb said, we were a
little "antiquitied out"! The bus had us back to Nafplio in
time for a short walk around the old town with guide Jenny and
director Joseph, pointing out the features to check out
later. Then lunch back on board, a buffet of salads and fish,
and very delectable.
After lunch, Sue, Barb and John set off to explore the town,
while David rested his leg. We headed first for the steps
up to the Ottoman fortification on top of the nearby
mountain. Joseph had told us that there were 867 steps to the
top, but a good view of the town may be had by ascending the
first 50 steps. As it turned out, we felt that a good view
was not obtained until step 125, but no matter. We took our
photos, and then used the pretext that we had to meet David at
the Gelateria by 1530 to keep faith with him.
Meet him we did, and on time. We went into the old Greek
Orthodox Church recommended by Joseph as one of the two
"religious experiences" in Nafplio. It was very ornate, full
of gold and silver, and tons of icons. One thing that
impressed (if that is the right word?) us all was the
observation that all the Greek visitors would go up to the
central icon (of Jesus Christ), and bend over and kiss it.
Not sure I wanted to do that myself, and the others reflected
that comment later.
Then to the Gelateria, the other "religious experience"
recommended by Joseph, where Barb had a dark chocolate and a
coffe gelato, while John had a creme caramel one. We munched
through them sitting outside the church, and then John went
off to buy himself a nice T-shirt that had been spotted by
Sue, with "It's All Greek To Me" across the top, and then a
handly list of Greek words and their English equivalents on
the front. All agreed that it had, in Sue's words, "John
written all over it". I think she meant metaphorically, as it
actually had a few Greek words as I said, and none of them
said "John".
I took the opportunity to buy a little milk jug with a
reproduction of an ancient greek tiger/leopard around it, a
gift which proved popular in more ways than one later on.
It had started raining by this time, so we headed back towards
the boat. Not raining heavily enough that we had to dash, but
we sauntered along boatwards nevertheless. As the rain got
heavier, we quickened our pace, until we were back at the boat
around 1630. We had a talk by guide Jenny at 1830 on the
Classical Greek period, and then kicked on to dinner at 1930.
After dinner, back into town to see the night life and night
lights (it was still raining, although not heavily). We
wandered around a few of the back streets, and a few of the
front streets as well, before returning to the ship around
2200, whereupon we retired to bed.
29 Oct 2017,
Sunday (Day 5),
MY Galileo; Epidauros and the Temple of Asclepius
An extra hour of sleep this morning, as it was the ending of
daylight saving in Europe. But we did get confused as all our
clock devices (watch, computer, smartphone) all resynchronized
unexpectedly without manual intervention. So what we thought
was 0600 was in fact 0700 and time to leap out of bed and get
ready for breakfast!
David and Sue had beaten us to breakky again, but with just a
few minutes to grab a cup of tea, breakfast was ready and in
we went. John had the nice cold fruit and meat selection
again, while Barb went straight for the fresh fruit. I have
to say that there is no shortage of nice things to eat on this
cruise, even given the relatively limited choices (compared to
Holland America).
A little time to check email, and write to the building
surveyors about their delay in sending us last year's invoice
for the building certificate!! Apparently this was holding
things up, but no one bothered to tell us! Funny way to run a
business, I thought. Then to the bus.
The bus took us on a short run of 30 minutes or so to the site
of the Healing Centre of Asclepius, Greek God of Healing. The
first site we went to was The Theatre, with a most remarkable
acoustic. Jenny, our guide, demonstrated the acoustic by
clapping in the middle of the "orchestra" (the sweet spot of
the acoustic) and slowly moving out of the orchestra. The
loudness of the clapping only slowly diminished as she moved
to the boundary, but once near the boundary, it dropped away
most markedly. She then invited anyone to come and orate or
sing from the orchestra, and no one stirred. John, ever one
to set the pace, walked out and launched into St Nicholas's
aria from the eponymous oratorio by Benjamin Britten. Once
that had happened, everyone (well, nearly everyone) also
rushed out and did their little party piece! I have to say
that the acoustics were phenomenal - it was like being miked
up, the sound that came back to you had a huge presence.
Then we moved on to the Temple of Asclepius, now largely
ruins, but parts of it are being restored so that the true
beauty of the place can be better appreciated. It was a huge
organization, and in its heyday attracted many many customers.
Then back to the bus and reversed our trip back to the ship,
arriving just after noon and in time for a 1230 lunch and sail
away. Lunch was buffet, lots of Greek food and salads. A
highlight was Imambyaldi, which Barb makes at home. It was
almost as good as Barb's!
I write this now on the stern of the ship, cruising down the
Agean Sea, and watching Nafplio receding slowly in the
distance, bathed in bright sunshine. The weather is cool,
bordering on balmy, and I am sitting quite happily in a
T-shirt, only feeling a little cool when the breezes blow. In
the sun and out of the wind it is most pleasant.
We had a briefing about our stop tonight, and tomorrow's
activities, then straight into 1830 dinner, before arriving in
Monemvasia (literally "one way in") just after 1930. There
are two parts to Monemvasia, the old town and the new town,
connected by a causeway. The old part is nestled into a huge
monolithic rock, protected on three sides by the rock, and the
fourth by the sea, with a narrow road around the edge of the
rock joining to the causeway. The harbour was right next to
the causeway, and so it was a short bus ride up to the old
town, where we had a short talk from Joseph about what to see.
The old town was a little bit touristy, with lots of souvenir
shops, but with very few tourists (save us!). We stopped at a
wine tasting and has some very nice Malsalvas (name?), a
rather port/muscat flavour, and we thought we might buy a
bottle. But rather than lug the bottle around the rest of the
walk with us, we thought we'd buy it on the way back.
So we walked on through the town, taking lots of photos, in
spite of the darkness, and ended up finding our way to the
wall at the other end of town. It was in an area that was not
developed, with very little lighting (basically walls only,
nothing anywhere else) and very rough paths, so it was a
little challenging. But we found our way back into the town
proper, and back along the main street to the bar where we had
the wine tasting - to find it closed!
So back on the bus and returned to the ship, where we had a
nocturnal cup of tea and then bed.
We left Monemvasio at 0500 and over breakfast motored on to
Gytheio. I say "motored" because the sails were put up, but
we were not sure how much additional effort they were
supplying to our passage, and indeed whether that effort was
positive or negative! David was not well, possibly from the
effects of the winds and waves that we were experiencing once
we had rounded the south eastern tip of the Peloponnesian
peninsula. It had been a little rough, as Joseph had warned
us the night before.
Gytheio, which we reached about 11, is a delightful town in
the Laconian Gulf. It was the main seaport of Sparta, but
lost that distinction in the 4th C when it was destroyed in an
earthquake. Today it relies much more heavily upon the
tourist traffic, and they have recently expanded its harbour
so that it can take cruise ships. Joseph was worried that
this might mean the end of its idyllic existence, so we
counted ourselves lucky to be able to see it in relative
calmness.
We did a short walk along the esplanade to visit Cranae
Island, connected to the mainland by a short causeway. It had
a delightful little Greek church by the bay, making for some
very picturesque photos. We walked out to the lighthouse,
made of marble, but it was not open to the public. Then
walked back along a slightly higher road than the esplanade,
with more views of the town and its environs.
Lunch was on board, and then in the afternoon we set off by
bus to see the Mani peninsula. The highlight of this tour was
a visit to the Caves of Divos, which are quite extensive, and
mostly flooded. The caves are quite level, which means that
over two thirds of the caves can be explored in a shallow
draft boat. We lined up for these boats, and Joseph had
warned us the the people of Laconia are quite laconic (whence
the word!). Our boatman was no exception, and his
instructions to us were almost invariably monoverbal, if not
monosyllabic! "Mind head" was as extensive an instruction
that we got, and if he needed to repeat that instruction, he
simply added "moment"! But he knew his stuff, and punted us
through the channels, often with only centimetres each side,
and never once scraped the side of the boat against any of the
formations, zigging and zagging as the cave tunnels demanded.
Oh, and the cave formations were quite impressive too. I took
a few photos in the boat, but that was challenging. The last
third of the caves was by walking, and that gave more
opportunity to take photos. We eventually emerged onto the
coastline, and walked back to the entrance point along a
pathway in the side of the rock.
We had to wait for the rest of the party to filter through,
and had an opportunity to relax with a soft drink and take in
the view of the clear azure sea and brilliant blue sky! Then
back up the hill to the waiting bus.
31 Oct 2017,
Tuesday (Day 7),
MY Galileo; Palace of Nestor; Methoni Castle; Pilos
A really bumpy night as we crossed the Bay of ??, getting up
at 0700, but forgoing a shower as it was too rough to hang on
in the shower. There were very few at breakfast (!), and
David and Sue did not turn up until after 0800 - although
David did look a better colour than yesterday.
We docked close on 0900 at Pilos, and the bus was waiting for
us. Once aboard, we set off at 0932 heading for the Palace of
Nestor. (John managed to get his iPhone tracking working for
the first time on this trip, and so there is a track for
today.)
Although breakfast was at the same time this morning, we had
an earlier start for the bus, so that we would have more
daylight when transiting the Corinth Canal. So at 0830 we
boarded a bus to take us up to Delphi. The route there was
through miles and miles of olive tree groves, apparently containing
something like 1 million olive trees! As we climbed up the
mountain towards Delphi, we had a broadening panorama back
down the valley towards Itea.
We passed through the tiny township of Delphi itself to the
archaelogical site of Delphi, we were disembarked the bus, and
began a long climb up the hillside (100m according to my
iPhone tracker). We saw lots of iniquities, some still in
ruins, some reconstructed, and the piece de resistance, the
Temple of Apollo. Alongside it was the Temple of Hera from
whence the priestesses dispensed their oracular testimonies.
The Oracle of Delphi was a little bit of a con, a bit like
modern astrologers. What they said was always a little bit
ambiguous, so that with hindsight one could not actually say
their proceies were wrong.
Jenny told us one story to demonstate this, a story which I
think is a good example of how hindsight can twist the
interpretation. A king went to see the Oracle, and asked her
"which of my two sons will inherit my throne?" The Oracle
replied "the one that kisses his mother first". The two sons
raced back to their mother and son A was first to kiss her,
because in his haste, son B tripped and fell. However, the
people rejected son A, and preferred son B so that he
inherited the throne. Annoyed, son A returned to the Oracle
to berate the incorrect prediction. "Ah, but you see," said
the Oracle "your brother kissed his mother first - the Mother
Earth"!
We climbed all the way to the top, to see the stadium hewn
into the mountainside. We wondered whether the athletes' test
was in first climbing the mountain, since they would have been
a little breathless just getting to the stadium! But we all
agreed that it was worth the climb. Barbara was taken with
the fact that their were croqusses all along the upper reaches
of the path.
We belted back down the hill to reach our rendevous at the
entrance at the appointed time of 1045, but we were 2 minutes
late, and most of the party had walked on to the museum. So
we followed them. But as we were not the last, we had to wait
at the museum entrance for the stragglers, so we had a quick
cup of coffee from the cafe in the meantime.
The museum was impressive, and we learnt a lot more than we
needed about ancient Greek civilaztion, and the mythical and
not-so-mythical kings and queens of the past. By 1200 we were
museumed out, and happily return to the bus and a 30 minute
ride back to port and the MY Galileo - which had moved from
our original mooring this morning, to be replaced by a (small)
cruise ship, the MS Silver Moon (? check). Once back on
board, the crew lost no time in getting us away, but before we
had had a chance to start on lunch, we did a U-turn and sent
the zodiac back to port - two crew members had been left
behind!!
Another yummy lunch (we must stop (m)eeting like this!), and
then a lazy afternoon sitting out on deck, some of us on the
top deck watching the sails, some of us on lower decks
catching up on blogs (like this one).
We arrived at Corinth just after 1700, as Joseph had
predicted, and gradually assembled on the top deck to watch
the passing of the ship through the Corinth Canal. But just
as we were getting all excited, the captain cut the engines
and we just drifted slowly towards the canal, all the more
tantalisingly as the sun was going down rapidly, and we were
just starting to make out the outline of the canal entrance.
Apparently we had to wait for clearance.
The clearance came sooned than it seemed, and at 1712 we
entered the canal, just as the sun slipped behind a cloud.
But the light was still enough to photograph most of our
passage through, and Barb and I both took movies of various
stages. The first several hundred metres were clearly of
different construction to the rest, and Joseph pointed out
that this was the section dug by the Emperor Nero, who carked
it before very much of the canal was dug. But he had the
right idea.
In parts of the canal there were strong smells of sulphur, and
the water had a milky appearance near the walls, indicating
that there was some form of hot spring coming to the surface
nearby. The whole transit of the canal took a fraction less
than 30 minutes, and we emerged at the Athens end just after
1740, as dusk was falling. All very fascinating.
The rest of the day was an anticlimax. We had a briefing from
Joseph about what was to happen on disembarking, then dinner,
then off to finish off our packing. We had most of it
organized before retiring, but some things like battery
charging cables had to wait until the morning.
03 Nov 2017,
Friday (Day 10),
disembarking MY Galileo; X96 bus; Athens Airport; Heraklion
We had the alarm set for 0600, but we were awake well before
that. The ship had arrived in Athens close on 2200 last
night, as we were drifting off to sleep, so we did have a
quiet and still night. The remaining electricals were soon
packed away, and we went down for breakfast some 15 minutes
early, in time for a cup of tea. We were consequently the
first to breakfast, and soon joined by other early risers. By
0800 most passengers had appeared, and we were ready to
depart. We said goodbye to Jenny and Joseph, and such other
crew members who were around, and walked the gangplank at
0815.
Then started the mystery of finding the X96 bus stop. Joseph
had had some difficulty the previous night trying to confirm
where it stopped, and told us at breakfast that it did indeed
stop at the square on the inner harbour. We trundled our
suitcases around the esplanade, stopping to enjoy the sun a
couple of times, and catch our breath. We were not in a
hurry. The plane did not leave until 1610, and the bus was
supposed to take only 2 hours, so we did have several hours
spare up our sleeves. On our last stop along the esplanade,
Barb went off to do some advance scouting, and came back to
say that there was no indication that the bus did stop
at the square, but that the stop beyond did claim to have the
X96 stop at it. Just then an X96 went past, pretty well on
the dot of 0900 (according to the clock in the square). So we
trundled up the street to find the next stop, which on its
destination sign indicated that the next X96 bus was in 14
minutes. So much for the one every half-hour theory!. Back
to a cafe, called Gazi College, where we elected to have a
coffee to while away some time.
At 0942 we zoomed back to the stop, where the sign indicated
that the next bus was in 5 minutes. Another hit on the 30
minute frequency plan! Ah well, wait we did.
And the bus did turn up. And it was not too full, although
that did change as we went along. As an articulated bus, it
was never full, but occasionally some people did gather near
the door making it seem fuller than it really was. It was a
fast trip, taking only just a shade over an hour to do the
trip (we had been told it was a 2 hour trip, but that was
probably being cautionary about getting stuck in traffic and
making the airport connexion).
There was some confusion over checking in, as the check-in
machine issued a boarding pass only for Barbara, not John. So
we had to queue for the manual check in counter, at which
things went smoothly enough. But the woman did make a cryptic
remark, which later revealed some consternation and angst.
She offered to check in our carry-on luggage "for free", to
which Barb said, "yes, but our computers are in them, so we
will hang on to them, thanks all the same".
The rest of the time we spent alternatively checking out new
areas and sitting down for some time and using the free wifi -
which only lasted for 45 minutes at a time, focing us to pack
up and move on, and start a new 45 minute session. We found a
cafe (MacDonalds, as it turned out) which had cheap (and good)
coffee. Then after that, a cafe out the front of the airport
which had delicious Greek pastries (spanokopitas, ham and
cheese, custard slice Epirus style). Then to the boarding
lounge, which was not yet announced, but Sue said she had an
email telling her that it was gate B29, so that's where we
went. It was deserted when we arrived, but filled and emptied
with two previous flights, one to Istanbul, the other to
Ephesus.
Our boarding time finally arrived, but as we were filing out
to board a bus, we were told we could not take our carry on
luggage into the cabin - "the plane is full", they said. We
had to leave than at the foot of the stairs onto the plane,
which was when I smelt a rat. No other carry ons were being
left there, and indeed, people were taking on cabin bags much
larger than ours! Once on board I challenged this procedure,
but all we got was a "plane is full" message again. While the
plane was full, there was still space in the overhead lockers
that we could have used. Talk about paranoia! I felt like
the classic human sacrifice led like a sheep that is dumb
before its high priest, told nothing and fearing the worst.
Of course, it was a panic over nothing - our bags did come out
on the carousel first, but I still felt very shabbily treated
by Aegean Airways. Avoid them if you can, dear reader, and I
will feel a little bit of vicarious revenge.
Jim was on hand to meet us, and Donna in the car (parked
Greek-style) outside, so travelling tribulations were so
forgotten as we drove out to our apartment on the far side of
Heraklion. We walked up to the local supermarket to get a few
beers, and beer, cheese and crackers whiled away further time
until our stomachs reminded us all that we had not had
dinner. So we drove/walked up to the Petousis restaurant,
recommended by our landlord. It was very nice, John had the
"special gyros" and Barb had "grilled vegetables", washed down
with a 0.5 l carafe of rose. All very pleasant, if a trifle
over indulgent! The tail end of the meal was disrupted a
little by three blokes at the very next table all lighting up
some very offensive strong cigarettes, causing a somewhat
forced exit to get away from them.
The waiter did give us some small dessert items as
compensation, and we returned home to eat them, have a cup of
tea, and then retire to bed. In spite of all the sitting
around at the airport, it did seem like a heavy day!
A slow start to the day by mutual consent, but even so, we
were able to get away just after 0900. That included a trip
to the bakery to get some interesting Greek slices for
breakfast. A short drive into Herklion proper, and Donna
dropped the Morgans and Hursts off, while the Robinsons went
on to find a car park (not an easy task in Greece!)
The Archaelogical Museum of Heraklion is very impressive. It
has the largest display of Minoan artefacts in the world, and
they are all arranged chronologically, spanning through a
dozen rooms or so in the museum. We took several hours just
getting to 1300BC, which was the peak of the Minoan
civilization, and our feet and legs started complaining.
Unfortunately, the museum cafe had shut for the winter, but we
were allowed to exit and re-enter the museum on our tickets,
so at 1145 we all trouped out (the Robinsons had joined us by
this stage), and walked across the road to a little cafe,
which had no one sitting in it - a bad sign! The cafe up the
road was more popular, but they were all smoking, so we
settled for the deserted one.
But it did not stay deserted for long. By the time we had
ordered coffee and food, it had started filling. It seems our
presence was enough to make others think it was a popular
place! Ordering was an entertainment in itself. We each were
given a huge heavy menu, with over 700 items (they were all
numbered!) most of which were pancakes or waffles with
various kinds of filling/topping. John had 420 (smoked pork,
cheese, mushrooms crepe), Barb had 120 (rocket salad) and
David had 476 (baked pancake). I forget what numbers the
others had, but Sue had a waffle, while the Robinsons shared a
pancake and salad, as we did.
While enjoying this food, we were assailed by various
itinerants. First there came two young boys with (small)
piano accordions, who serenaded us (without prompting) with a
Greek version of Never On a Sunday - passable, but not what we
wanted to hear, and it drowned ut our conversation
immediately. Donna gave them a couple of euros, and they
ceased immediately and moved off. Then came a bloke touting
for the Communist Party of Greece. He got short shrift, for,
as David said, "we don't want to get involved in Greek
politics". Then two women tried out the roses scam on us, but
we were having none of that. "Ochi" we said, and they took
the hint too.
We struggled to eat it all, and David took a doggie box home,
but all agreed that the pancakes were pretty good. Then back
to the Museum to finish it off. The second half did not take
quite so long, as there were far less small items, and lots
more big ones, like sarcophagi (called "larnax") and friezes.
We finished the museum about 1340, and the Robinsons went back
to the car while the rest of us walked down to the harbour
passing through several flea markets, stopping for a Ben and
Jerry ice cream, and stopping to visit the large Greek
Orthodox Church of St Minas.
Then back to Ammos Beach Apartment, where we had a beer, read
emails, updated blogs, and dined on leftovers and a few
pastries we had bought on the way home. Then a game of Hearts
(which I won!) and to bed.
A slightly more organized start to the day, but still quite
relaxed, leaving Ammos Apartments at 0915, and headed towards
Knossos, the location of the largest Mycenean palace on
Crete. We were most pleasantly surprised when we parked just
outside the palace grounds and found that today was free
entry! Apparently every first sunday in the month is free
entry for everyone. We congratulated ourselves on picking
today to visit, not only for the free entry, but also for the
fact that we did not buy a combined Museum/Palace ticket
yesterday, since that would have been full price! As it was
we got half price for the Museum (being seniors) and free
entry for the Palace (being first sunday). So per person it
was $E5 versus $E16.
The Palace at Knossos is huge, and lasted in one form or
another for close on six hundred years. Built around 1900BC,
there was some significant construction on the site until at
least 1375BC, going through several phases of construction and
destruction (by earthquakes and/or fire). What remains shows
the extent of the work, covering 20,000 sq metres, and partly
restored by a British archaeologist, Sir Arthur Evans. Evans'
restoration is somewhat contentious amongst archaeologists, as
he used reinforced concrete to make the restorations,
replacing many timbered and stone constructions with textured
concrete. The effect does give the imagination something to
hang on, but it is thought that it owes a little too much to
Evans' imagination, and not so much to scholarship.
Be that as it may, it was all very impressive, particularly
when you realize that it represents some of the earliest
Western civilization's achievements. We spent several hours
wandering the site, retiring at 1115 for a well earned cup of
coffee.
We then headed off on a tour of the hinterland, hoping to find
a) a winery, and b) a restaurant, although not necessarily in
that order or seriatum. Not too long a time or distance had
passed when we found ourselves carefully weaving our way
through a delightful little village called Archanes - and I
say carefully, because the streets were very narrow and
very steep. A couple of times we encountered cars
coming the other way, but as we were going downhill, we had
right of way (besides which, we were bigger!) and the other
character had to back up (or rather, down).
As it was lunch time - in Australian terms, since the Greeks
seem to have very late lunches - we sussed out a few
restaurants, and settled on a cute one called Ampelos. The
proprietor was very friendly, and suggested we order 5
starters from his extensive menu. We went for a few well
known dishes: fried eggplant, fried mushrooms; and a few
lesser known ones: Ntakos wood oven; pastry greens; and tomato
balls. All were absolutely brilliant, and were accompanied by
some fresh bread with olive oil and balsamic (itself almost
eclipsing the other delicacies). Washed down with some
bottles of Mystos beer, it was a gourmet treat! I did
compliment the proprietor on the olive oil, and he said that
he made it himself! Wow! Maybe I should retire here and grow
olive trees? Hmmm, perhaps not. I doubt that I could match
the years of experience that went into these delectables.
The proprietor brought out some Greek honey/wheat slices for
dessert, along with some complimentary Raki, a clear strong
spirit reminiscent of ouzo, but without the liquorice taste.
The men liked it, but the women were not so keen!
Then Morgans and Hursts walked down the street to the main
square, while the Robinsons brought the car around. John
bought some olive oil (two little bottles) and a small bottle
of Raki to relive the tastes later. Then back to the car to
find the primary goal, but we were not so lucky with this.
Travelling down a long bumpy and hilly side road through many
olive groves, we saw lots of vineyards, but no wineries! As
Barb said, maybe we just did not recognize the greek for
"winery" on the roadside signs?
At the point of returning to the freeway, we recognized that
goal a) was just not achievable, and set sail for home,
arriving back at a bit after 1700. Two hours of catching up
on email, computer games, blogs and reading saw us ready to
leave for dinner at 1845.
We had dinner at a restaurant in the town centre, called
Peskesi, but it was nothing to do with fish - rather, it was
more of a shepherd theme, with lots of lamb dishes. John had
an entree of sausage and dried tomato, thinking it would be a
nice entree, followed by lamb meatballs, done in "the style of
the old days". However, when it turned up, it was not dried
tomato but dried capsicum, and not one sausage, but three! So
John had a bit of an eating challenge (Trent, don't read
this!) Barb had stuffed zuchini flowers, followed by
vegetable stew, called "sympatherio". The lamb meatballs were
very nice, but Sue, who also had them, said they were "too
chewy". I don't think she has a very discerning palate, somehow.
We did have a little trouble exiting from our parking spot, as
we had parked in a dead-end street. However, Donna was unable
to back out, since a garbage collection truck came in to
collect the rubbish, and then he was block in by a woman who
parked in front of him, and then walked off! So we all had to
hang around until she returned! Whoever says that Greek drivers
are courteous is one of Peter Dutton's mob. That is, a liar.
Back to Atmmos Apartments, and we started packing before
retiring. Off to new pastures tomorrow.
A very lazy start to the day, and nothing much happened until
after 0800. A leisurely breakfast of muesli, and John revved
up the coffee machine to provide a proper cup of coffee. The
plan was to have lunch at a restaurant recommended by Nikos,
and John needed to get his marking done. So Barb and the
Morgans set off to explore the village, while Donna did her
blog, Jim studied the maps, and John did some marking.
At 1215, the explorers returned, and we piled into the car to
find the "Ancient Lappa" restaurant - which we did, after a
few false turns. But it was shut. So on to the next village,
Aryioupoli, where we did some walking around the village to
find the "old roman archway" (actually a 15th C gateway with a
Latin inscription above it: "Omnia Mundi Fumus et Umbra"
(everything in the world is smoke and shadows). There is a
story behind the inscription, see
Omnia Mundi.
We wandered our separate ways for a while, and John found the
Roman mosaic, which was quite extensive. Then John wandered
back to the small cafe we had seen, where he ordered a Greek
coffee while others continued their explorations. The coffee
came with a small gratis glass of a honey liqueur, very nice,
which he had just started drinking when the others reappeared
and said "come on, let's get going!" Glug, glug.
Back to the "Ancient Lappa", but it was still shut, and looked
like remaining so. So we really had no alternative but to go
back to Aryioupoli, where we found another cafe with a small
garden area, and order lunch. With a little difficulty, I
might add, since it was off-season, and many of the menu items
were off the menu. The woman proprietor had about as much
English as we had Greek, but we somehow managed to order some
pork souvlakis and pork chops (pork was about all that was
left on the menu!) It was a relaxed, casual lunch, and we
chatted on over lunch for over an hour.
Then we went looking for the Church of the Holy 5 Virgins
nearby. We found it, and we amused by the direction sign
which said "Church of Holly 5 Virgins". A short walk down a
rocky track brought us to a) lots of tombs carved out of the
rock on the hillside, b) a tiny church, which looked well
maintained, and was open, and c) and a very old giant flame tree,
which had been cut vertically down the middle to make way for
an old road - perhaps Roman, it was not clear.
Then back to Athina House about 1630, where John resumed his
marking, and most of the others retired to the spa. Marking
all done by 1730, it was time for a cup of tea, then beer and
pre-dinner nibbles, then dinner itself, which Barb cooked up
from a few Greek vegetables: eggplant, mushrooms,
tomato/cucumber/feta salad, goats' cheese, bread, and of
course, olive oil. Yum, yum. After dinner, we finished off
the game of Jo that was started last night, with David the
eventual winner. We finished off the evening with lots of
computing (see table of nerds)
We (John and Barb) decided to make use of the house gym this
morning, and got up a bit earlier to spend a half-hour or so
pumping iron and generally puffing ourselves out a little,
before settling in to a more-deserved-than-usual cup of tea,
followed somewhat later when others were up by breakfast.
We set just after 9:15 and headed towards Episkopi, to follow
all the signs we had seen to the Epicurean Centre. Our
previous attempts to get there had been frustrated in one way
or another, but armed with the knowledge that it was open on
Wednesdays, we thought we were in with a chance. No way! It
had clearly been shut for the winter season, and no more
epicurean adventures were happening there until next April.
Ah well!
The plan for the rest of the day was to head south, to the
southern shores of the island. Sue's book told us of an
"adventurous" road, which sounded rather interesting.
Certainly, for most of the way, the scenery was pretty
fantastic, and the road did get quite impressive with bare
rocks on either side, showing that the road had quite
literally been cut along the face of a cliff. But none of us
were unduly worried - the road was wide enough for two lanes
(most of the time!), and there was the usual Armaclad railing
along the down side.
About 1115 the terrain levelled out, and we encountered many
goats wandering along the road. In quite a few places, we
noticed little pens fenced in with sheets of rebar, and in one
spot actually came across a farmer tending to a flock of goats
(what is the collective noun for goats? I think it might be a
"herd", rather than a "flock"?) At 1130 we stopped at a tiny
village, which we later discovered was called Kallikratis,
where there was a single Taberna, with a bunch of people all
standing around outside in animated conversation. We stopped
and asked if we could get a cup of coffee, to which the
response was affirmative.
I say "affirmative" because it turned out that none of the
locals spoke much english. The crowd that was there were all
family and friends of the owner, planning their Michelmas
celebration (feast days are observed fairly regularly in
Greece), and they absconded not long after we arrived.
Fortunately, one of the stayed on, who was a cousin (?) of the
owner, and who did speak a reasonable amount of english. So
she was able to relay our orders to the real owner, and all
was well. John and Barb had "diplos ellenikos" (double Greek
coffee), John's "scito" (no sugar), Barb's "media" (medium
sugar), and we both enjoyed same. John was a little
hypoglaecymic, and order a "sfakia", or local cheese pie,
whereupon the others all thought that a good idea and ordered
a couple more to share. It was not really a pie, but better
described as a layer of feta cheese sandwiched between two
light pancakes. One can have them natural (John), or drizzled
with honey (the others). They were yummy, and solved the
hunger problem, anyway.
We pressed on. Out of the small valley in which Kallikratis
sat, and upon to a saddle, where suddenly we could see the sea
- largely because the mountainous territory all around
suddenly disappeared! In front of us was nothing but a large
river plain, and then the sea. We could not see the road in
front of us!
This was because the edge of the mountain range was quite
precipitous, and the road to the coast just went downwards.
Of course, it did not go straight down, but it just about felt
like it. It was a series of hairpin bends, 33 in total,
zig-zagging down the mountain face. No Armaclad this time!
There wasn't round for one! At each hairpin, you could look
out the window straight down to the next one, some 30metres
below. I must say, it was an impressive bit of engineering,
but most of the other occupants of the car (well, at least the
women) were not admiring the engineering at all. Donna, who
was driving, nearly freaked out a couple of times. Offers to take
over the driving from her were flatly rejected. I have some
sympathy with that. When the road is a freaky as it was, it
always feels like you are more in control of your own destiny
when in the driver's seat!
We passed a woman stopped by the side of the road - with her
bicycle! What kind of loony would cycle up a road like that?
She did not appear to be distressed or puffed out, and
politely said she was quite OK when we stopped to check.
Further on there were some para-sailors, about to jump off the
cliff. They were also well in control of their mental state
when we stopped to check. (Well, we sort-of had to stop - the
road was not wide enough to zip past them at anything about
walking pace!) We saw them later from lower down as they
sailed above our heads.
At the bottom of the hill (phew, we made it!) there was a
Taberna, so we stopped for lunch. We were the only visitors,
and a young schoolboy (child of the owner) was loitering about
- having apparently been "too crook" to go to school! But he
revelled in the opportunity to practise his english upon
us, no doubt using that as a defence against any parental
discipline later on.
Lunch was conducted in less than salubrious circumstances.
The waitress set up a table in the sun, but as soon as I sat
down, I realized I had not got my hat, and was very much in
danger of getting heat-stressed. But when I suggested moving
into the shade, I got poo-poohed, which I thought was not very
inclusive by the others. Fortunately, Barbara agreed with me,
and we retired to a table in the shade. But it did mean that
all the food had to be divvied up unnecessarily. I wondered
if it had been someone else objecting to the sun whether the
outcome would have been the same. I think not.
The beer and the view were somewhat ameliorative, and before
long we were back on the road again, this time a much
straighter course. We were soon at the coast, where we had a
brief stop at the Castle Franko (not open), but could find
no way down to the sea, so we had to head quite a ways to the
east to the next town, Plakias. This was evidently a big
tourist destination in the summer, but as we were "off
shoulder', the place was next to deserted. We took in the
view, and an ice-cream, before heading back north, via a
different route!
The road home was easier, but still tiring after a long and
eventful day. We made one unscheduled stop, at a little
chapel dedicated to St Nicholas ("I - I - I Nicholas!"). It
was clearly quite recently built, with new stone and fresh
mortar, and was nestled into the side of a cliff - the back
wall of the church was the cliff! It was so secluded that one
of our party - I won't say who - gave the bell rope a tug and
rang the bell - just once - which made our touring party jump.
Back home, dinner was a home-made affair, with Greek salad
(what else?), some beans, and then the baklava we had bought
yesterday for dessert. Zonk.
Very slow start to the day, in spite of the fact that Barb and
I were up at 0630 to do some gym. A relaxed mug of tea to
follow, as we were joined first by Sue and David, then Donna
and Jim. Another mug of tea followed, then some breakfast,
and the occasional cup of coffee. The music of a passing
sales truck prompted us out to find a fish truck, with a
salesman who spoke English! So we bought 6 little red snapper
to cook up for dinner, and the salesman threw one in for free.
So dinner organized, and by 1030 we were ready to go!
We set off for Rethymno, and found a park - the last one - in
a free parking spot near the castle. Morgans and Hursts went
castle exploring, while Robinsons went town exploring. The
castle cost $E3 each, and we had a pleasant 2 hours exploring
it before wandering back through the town via the Ottoman
mosque and St Barbara's church. Unfortunately, the latter was
closed, so Barb was a little disappointed. We found the
Robinsons where we had left them in the car park, and we were
relaxed to find that they had sussed out the restaurant which
Nikos had recommended to us, and not only that, had made a
booking for 1300. So a short drive and we we seated at a
table with an excellent view across the bay to the fort.
What can I say about the food? It was just excellent. Barb
had a carpaccio of sea bass, the best carpiccio I have ever
tasted, while John had a cerviche, in memory of our time on
Tahiti together. But that was where the similarity ended, as
the Rethymno cerviche was subtle against the Tahiti cerviche
of just basic (brutal would be too strong a word, although it
did come to mind).
Then the main course: Barb and John had both ordered grilled
octopus, called "Octopus Antikristo", served with a light
mustard sauce and "mountain greens". That was just nirvana
itself, and we savoured every single piece of octopus. The
waiter then offered us dessert, but we all elected to go with
coffee, John practising in his best Greek "diplos ellenikos"
(double Greek coffee) with no sugar ("skatos"?). When the
coffees all came out, we had a complimentary scoop of ice
cream each, and a small carafe of Raki. Barb and John did a
swap, Barb getting two ice cream scoops, John getting two
serves of Raki (or maybe a little bit more?) Anyway, John was
quite happy when we left the restaurant.
The back to Archontiki, as it was looking like raining, and we
had washing on the line. That rescued, the blokes all drove
down to the supermarket to get some essential supplies for
dinner. Once home, we all piled into the spa for 45 minutes
or so, then started cooking dinner, which was the six little
red snapper we bought this morning, very fresh. Jim and David
gutted them, and Barb cooked them. They were very sweet and
delicious! Then a few hands of Jo, at which I had no luck
whatsoever. Towards 2300, we packed it in, and went to bed.
10 Nov 2017,
Friday (Day 17),
Archontiki: walk to Episkopi; drive to Kourno Lake
Later start to the day: arose at 0702 to do gym, then cup of
tea and breakfast on the balcony. It was a nice sunny day,
after the early clouds rolled away, and the spa had heated up
to 33 degrees, so a few of us (John, Jim, Barb, David) decided
to have a splash. We rolled the roof back, opened all the
bifold doors, slid the windows back, and just enjoyed the view
and the bubbles. For probably too long. Then out to dry in
the sun - John showed everyone how to get into a hammock, and
dried off while relaxing in that hammock.
We slowly got moving, and at 1045, the Morgans and Hurst set
off walking to Episkopi along what we thought was a more or
less direct track. But we had trouble finding it, and the one
we thought should have been it was fenced off. So we ended up
going a very round-about route, and Barb had to phone Jim to
say that we were semi-lost. We did get some sort-of
directions from a couple we bumped into, and then they were
joined by a bloke who said he was Nikos' father. This chap
plied us with Raki from a two-litre water bottle - it was very
nice, but we were not sure of its origins, coming from a
2-litre bottle being carried by a bloke emerging from the
scrub!
Anyway, the track we were following did eventually come to a
main (= sealed) road, which followed, and that brought us up
to a junction with the Episkopi road, coming at the town from
the other direction to Archontiki! We had done a round-about
route. A bit more walking, and we found the Kactus Cafe, and
the Robinsons, so we went in for coffee. Unfortunately, the
woman apologised, and said that she did not have any cappucino
coffee (or maybe machine?), but that she did have the makings
for greek coffee ("diplos ellenikos"). So a few of us changed
our orders, and we added a couple of cheese pies to the order
as well - one just for John as he was feeling a little
hypoglycaemic after the walk. It took a while, as the woman
had a screaming baby to contend with, and was trying to cook
meat on a BBQ as well, so she was trying to juggle several
balls in the air at once. But we were in no hurry.
Then back into the car, and we drove around the many little
villages nearby, checking them out. As we drove through the
somewhat larger village of Kournas, we saw a cafe ("tabepna"
in greek) called "Kalli Kardia" mentioned in Sue's guide book
with positive reviews, so we decided to stop there for lunch.
It was a most impressive feed - not as upmarket as yesterday,
but what it lacked in quality, it made up for in quantity! We
ordered a "mixed meat" grill for 4 to share among us 6, and it
was more meat than we could barely manage. Add to that some
stuffed vine leaves, oven baked feta, and a big plate of
chips, and we were all pretty well stuffed like the vine
leaves! The waiter, a very friendly and chatty young man, who
spoke enough English that we could express all our orders
quite adequately, threw in a slice of lemon honey tart and two
small carafes of Raki for dessert, but only the men went near
the Raki, and even then, were under rationing orders.
Then we drove on to Kouro Lake, the largest fresh water lake
in Crete (it was not very big!), getting there just before 6
tour busses full of German tourists arrived! There was not
that much to see except for lots of souvenir shops and cafes,
several of which had already shut for the winter. Jim bought
a few things for rellies at home, and then we set sail for
home, getting back just before dark.
Beer and chips (crisps) for pre-dinner, and then a general
eat-up left-overs for dinner itself.
No lazing around this morning, as we had to be out of the
place by 1000. Barb and I did your gym bit at 0630, then a
cup of tea at 0700 followed quickly by breakfast, working on
cleaning up any leftovers. Once the Robinsons were up, we
swung into full clean-up mode, and managed to be out of the
house and into the car before 1000.
Our route to Chania was not via the main road, but rather off
the beaten track. So much so that several times we got lost
and/or stuck on narrow back streets in small villages. On one
occasion, Donna spat the dummy and said "I'm not going round
that corner", referring to the steepness, sharpness and
narrowness of said corner. After a bit of argy-bargy, John
got out, walked up to the corner, sized it up, and thought
that even Donna could handle it. So signalling her on, he
then proceed to walk in front of the car, old railway guard
style (but missing the red flag), waving her on at each
squeeze point in the road - of which there were several more-
before reaching a more substantial road.
Even then we were not out of the woods, as the village had
several dead ends - fortunately sign posted, so we did not try
them. But they were the only signs. Direction signs to the
next town were conspicuously absent! So we travelled on thus,
relying upon Jim's iPhone GPS and map, and a harmonious
relationship in the front seat continuing.
At a little village called Kefalas, we stopped at what
appeared to be the only taberna in town (or at least, the only
open one), and had coffee. I think we might have been the
only customers for the morning, save for a moustacioed
gentleman sitting in a corner, who corrected by Greek
pronunciated, and when I replied "Efkharisto, I am still
learning", he replied "So am I, and I've been here for 6
years" in a refined english accent. Maybe the proprietor
living out a sea change?
Then on with our small village explorations, finally ending up
on the main road into Chania, and into which Jim managed to
navigate us right down to the harbour's edge, where we parked
the car (free parking, as the parking machine was broken!),
and set out to find lunch.
We did not get far. On the waterfront there were continuous
restaurants/cafes all the way around the harbour. The first
one we came to not only had a persausive spruiker out the
front, but several women needed the 'facilities' so we sat
down at a table that the spruiker quickly organized. The
women went off to do their secret women's business, then we
decided to each order a single starter, and share them among
us. We had cheese pie (Jim), vine leaves (Donna), cuttlefish
(Barb), greek sausages (John), mushrooms (David), ntakos
(Sue), and all were pretty good. The one bad spot was that
the bread we were served was stale, and certainly not worth
the $E1.50 a slice were were charged. The place looked
increasingly dodgy when we (Barb) tried to pay with plastic,
and first her travel card, then my travel card, then Barb's
Bank Australia card all did not work. Mr Spuiker blamed the
Australian connection, but I think he just wanted to be paid
cash - which we did not have. David stepped up and paid the
bill with cash ($E69)
After lunch, we went our separate ways, Morgans and Hursts to
explore the town, Robinsons to relax by the waterfront. We
saw some very nice silk pieces for sale in an old mosque, but
they did not take plastic, so we could not buy anything.
Wandered around looking at quite a few archaeological
diggings, some Minoan, some Greek, some Roman. We also found
an ATM, which did the right thing and disgorged money, proving
the point that the spruiker's plastic card machine was
malfunctioning, accidentally or otherwise.
At about 1530 we headed back to the harbour to meet up with
the Robinsons, whom we found at another cafe about to order
coffee. Barb was telling them about the silk items we saw,
and how we couldn't buy anything because they did not have a
card machine. Then the thought seized me - that we now had
money, and I could zoom back and buy the scarf that Barb
wanted. Which I did, but it was a little further than I
recalled, and it took me some 10 minutes to get there, 5
minutes to buy the thing, and then another 10 minutes to walk
back! By which stage my coffee had cooled somewhat!
Then back to the car for one last time, and we set off for the
airport. I think we were all a little glad to say goodbye to
the car - it was not well designed, there was only one way out
of the back 5 seats, and the rearmost two had to wait for the
middle three to exit first before the seat could be folded
down. Add to that the fact that the door would often stick,
the windows did not open, and the general ventilation in the
car was lousy, and you have the Morgans and Hursts in strong
agreement that the car was not that comfortable.
We had plenty of time at the airport to sit and chat, and
consume the remaining 6 beers that we had. Even so we ended
up donating 2 of them to the table of men playing cards behind
us. We could not take them on the plane! Boarding was on
time, and we then had a long bus ride to actually get to the
aircraft! It was a relatively short flight (about 40 minutes)
to Athens, where we said our final goodbyes to the Robinsons,
and then the Morgans and Hursts made their way to the metro
train into Athens. Same route as before, and the Morgans
alighted at Omonia (they could not get into the Chic either,
but were staying at another hotel nearby), while the Hursts
went on to Larissa (next to the main railway station) and then
walked 750m or so to the Novotel. Once checked in, we bought
a beer and a gin and tonic, and took them up to the pool roof,
not to swim, but to admire the Acropolis all lit up at night.
Grog consumed, we returned to our room and retired for the
night.
Had the alarm set for 0600, so that we could get things done
before an 0820 train start to the day. At 0700 we went upp to
the roof to see sunrise over the Acropolis, but it was a bit
cloudy, and not much to see. Some nice colours over the
adjacent mountain though (whose name I don't know). Then down
to breakfast.
Breakfast was not as good as the Chic, I have to say, even
though there were plenty of cooked items. I say "cooked",
because most of it was not "hot". We had things like
scrambled eggs (bit cold), mushrooms (too salty), cheese pie
(too much pie, not enough cheese), pork sausages (not hot),
hash browns (not cooked enough), etc, all washed down with
some wishy-washy coffee (even two shots did not lift that out
of the doldrums). The orange juice was nice and fresh,
though.
Then back to our room, collect our things, pay the bill, and
off to the station. It was a bit of a drag, quite literally,
as I had to lug our big suitcase up and down stairs, over kerb
crossings with no ramps, and ove Greek footpaths. Probably the
less said about them the better. They are not clean, even,
swept or otherwise maintained.
The Athens station seems to be in two halves, one half modern
and reasonably up-to-date, the other half dismantled,
trackless, and looking quite forgotten. You have to walk
through the latter to get to the former, so it is not a good
advertisement or encouragement for travelling by Greek
trains. Our train pulled in at 0810, and we found our car,
number 1, at the head of the train, seats 24 and 25. As it
turned out, we had the compartment to ourselves, so it was a
relaxed trip.
In a half-hour or so we were out of Athenian suburbia, and
into the Greek countryside. Very few olive trees, some vines,
but lots more vegetable growing. Around 1030 we started
climbing into mountains. The climb up was impressive enough,
but as we can over the crest, the view that opened up on the
other side was just breaktaking, as the train line does its
equivalent of a Kallikratis pass down into the valley.
Along this stretch there was ample evidence of a new line
being built that would obviously replace the line we were on.
While the engineering on this new line was also very
impressive, it will likely as not not eclipse the scenery from
the old line. So we felt quite privileged to have done it
when we did. (A bit like climbing Uluru, I suppose, but
without the intercultural angst!)
We had a glimpse of the wonders in front of us this afternoon
as we approached the terminus at Kalampaka. Some amazing rock
formations rising out of the plain, some 300m above the
surrounding countryside. As we got closer, we could see the
odd monastery perched on the very tip of these obelisks, and
the sheer spectacle of it all just blew your breath away!
So we arrived at Kalampala, at the foot of the Meteora
formation, so named because in the morning mists, the
mountains seem to float above the clouds (from the greek word
"meteor" meaning "floating" (or "flowing"), hence the english
words "meteorite", "meteorological"). We were met at the
station by Jim, our guide, who escorted us to a comfortable
modern bus, loaded our luggage, and took us to a gyros cafe to
buy a quick lunch (and for some to have a quick pee). The
gyros were wonderful, and we ate them with slight haste as the
bus then took us up the first hill for a spectacular view over
the town of Kalampala.
But it got better as we went higher. Next a stop that took in
the two towns of Kalampala and Kratikritos ("small crater", so
named because the town is protect by a small crater-like
formation on the rock, having moved here in the 16th C to
escape maurading turks). The a stop where we could see some
old ruins of the hermit existence in the caves that abound the
sides of the various rock formations. Apparently the wood on
this constructions has been preserved by the dry winds that
blow in, and the south-east aspect of them, meaning that they
are protected from the storms and snow that come during
winter.
Then higher still to see some deserted monasteries (look up
names?), and then on to the inhabited ones. There are some 27
monasteries in these parts, some completely disintegrated,
some in ruinous state, some in reasonable condition but
deserted, some reconstructed (20th C), and finally some
inhabited ones (only 7 of those). Even the inhabited ones
have very few monks - the 5 containing monks (males) have only
a total of 13 monks between them, and some of these only 1
monk! There are 2 nunneries (monasteries taken over by women
in the 1930s), and these are slightly more popular, containing a
total of 14 and 23 respectively (check numbers).
The reason the monasteries are so deserted and the nunneries
popular is interesting. In the 1980s, road access to the area
was significantly improved, and the monks realized that the
resultant influx of tourists was a money spinner, and started
charging admission. This was a two edged sword, as many monks
did not like the idea, and started returning to the monastery
in Antiphas (name?). The nuns did not have this option, as
there are no nunneries in Antiphas, and hence the (now)
shortage of monks but adequacy of nuns in Meteora. However,
both monasteries and nunneries now do charge admission, and
this has meant their survival - 2 million visitors per year,
each charged $E3 admission!
We went to numerous sites around Meteora, and saw each of the
7 inhabited monasteries, including the inside of St Stephan's,
the more inhabited nunnery. This was $E3 each admission, and
since they had a strict dress code inside - including no women
in trousers - Barb had to don a tie-around skirt to make
herself 'decent' according to monastic standards. The insides
were interesting, but the most interesting part, the church,
had a "No Photos" policy, which we respected, but which
diminished the impressions we could take away and share.
Then to an interesting formation, called Sunset Rock, whence
we watched the homoponymous event. Yes, I know,
"homoponymous" is a mixture of Latin and Greek, but I saw it
on a greek brochure, so if the Greeks can do it, so can I.
But you would think that they would use the more correct
"eponymous" (equal names) or even "isonymous" (same names),
wouldn't you?
Once the sun had set, we all returned on the bus to Kalampala,
to be dropped off at our respective hotels and railway station
(some people were only doing a single day trip - it would have
been long!). At the Hotel Divani by 1730, we repaired to the
bar, and ordered a beer, and gin and tonic (same as last
night). We spun that out, since the dining room was not open
until 1930, but when the barmaid realized we were eating in,
she went and opened the dining room for us, and took our
orders. So we ate at 1900, with entrees of ? (John) and ?
(Barb), mains of veal steak (John) and grilled chicken (Barb).
Washed down with a half-bottle of local Macedonikas wine
(merlot), and followed by a complimentary dessert of two shot
glasses each of chocolate and berry tiramisu-style mixtures.
Only 2030, but we were quite worn out by the fullness of the
day, and retired early to bed.
An attempt to follow our train progress
diverged from main line at ?
through the village of Bralos
Karva
Angiers (?)
Domokos
Paleofarsalos
Karaitsis (?)
Karditsa
Phanari
Maroula (100-6048, 13:10:39)
Trikala
Our alarm went off as scheduled at 0630, but what was not
scheduled was a call on my phone at 0052 from Simply Energy in
Melbourne, presumably as a follow-up to my complaint about the
gas overcharging. But we didn't get to hear any more details,
as Barbara gave them short shrift in terms of the timing of
the call. Not their fault, admittedly, but it was not a
welcome follow up. I'm guessing that they won't bother
following up next week as Barbara invited them to.
We breakfasted in the dining room that we ate in last night,
and there were a few more people for breakfast. But as per
the Novotel, things just were not hot, so John confined
himself to dried fruit and nuts, followed by a (cold) spinach
pie, a (cold) hard-boiled egg, and 4 (cold) very small pork
sausages. Barb had yoghurt and honey, a spinach pie, and a
couple of sweet pastries, so she did not care much about the
hotness. But I have to say that the coffee was not that hot
either.
With our bags all packed and lodged with the hotel, the bus
came for us at the appointed hour of 0830, and after
collecting all our hardy hikers (we were clearly the oldest!),
we set off up the road, stopping just the other side of
Kalikratis where we alighted. Our guide, Balgelens (sp?), or
Evans for short, introduced himself, and asked us to each
introduce ourselves. The was a youngish (30s?) couple for
California, a family of 4 from India (parent 40s, two boys ~17
and ~10), a young girl Tamara from Sydney, and ourselves.
Our route took us around the southernmost (?) monolith in the
Meteora formation, and we passed two destroyed monasteries,
one in ruins, and one restored but unoccupied, several oak
forests, to reach a comemmorative statue to one Vladavas
(sp?), a greek rebel in the Ottoman Wars of 1809-21. (Need to
check him out on Wikipedia) Here we had a break from the
climbing, and Evans handed out an energy bar to each of us,
and we all relaxed with some photo taking, sitting and taking
in the view, or just sitting.
Then onwards an upwards, with the occasional photo stop, or an
info stop, where Evans would explain something of the local
surrounds. At one stop in the oak forest, we saw a
salamander, a black lizard-like creature with yellow spots.
Evans explained that the yellow spots were a signal to
potential predators that it was poisonous, which probably
deterred several of the party from handling it. But Barb and
I both had a hold - a very cold-blooded creature, slightly
damp to hold, but not slimy nor slippery.
Plenty of photos all the way up to the highest point, where we
crossed the saddle, and immediately got a great view of the
Vlamos (not right?) Monastery. We contoured along the side of
the hill overlooking the monastery until we got to the Great
Meteora, or Metamorphosis Monastery, where we sidled down the
hill, and had to jump/slide down the last 80cm into the car
park. It was 1115.
At this point Evans explained that we had until 1230 to go and
visit the monastery, or otherwise just amuse ourselves. Barb
and I elected to visit the monastery, which involved
descending about 100 steps, then ascending another 200 to the
monastery gate. We paid our $E3 each (Barb had to wear a
skirt as yesterday), and made a beeline for the loos, which
were squat-type - urgh. Needs must.
Again the church was "no photos", and most of the iconography
was of matyrs getting beheaded or skinned alive or
disembowelled, all rather graphic, so we did not linger long.g
There were some great (=scary) views out over the parapets of
the rock formations and surrounding monasteries. We also
checked out the cellar, rather more to our tastes, and then it
was time to head back to meet the others, and start our
descent.
Which we did at 1220, 10m early as we had all reassembled
(monasteried out?) The path down was all cobbled with rounded
stones from the river, which was to reduce the wear of the
donkey traffic in old days, but it did make it a little harder
to walk down. Barb and I tended to be a lot slower than the
younger members, and we only caught up with them when Evans
had one of his info stops. Slowly and steadily, we reached
the bottom (after crossing a cute troll bridge) just after
1300, boarded the bus, and were dropped off in town at 1310.
Our first stop was at the Cafe Ithomi, where we both had
"diplos ellenikos", one "medio", the other "skito". They came
in cute little turkish?/greek? coffee pots, which we could
pour into conventional cups. We sat and enjoyed them
immensely, while savouring the feeling of not walking. My
tracker said that we had travelled 7kms, but I dudn't turn it
on at the start, so it must have been more than that.
Then a short walk across the street to another restaurant, the
"Panellion", which advertised eggplant on its sandwich board
outside, so in we went. Ah but I forgot, the even shorter
walk across the next street to a patisserie (their word) to
buy a couple of chocolate thingies for tonight's train trip!
We ordered fried eggplant, fried zucchini, abd grilled
octopus, along with two beers (one "Beer Mythos", one "Beer
Fix"). All were, in Donna's words, "absolutely delicious".
But the service was slow. I had to signal one waiter to get
the table cleared, and then go and fetch a menu myself to see
what there was for dessert. Eventually a most yummy yoghurt
and honey arrived for Barb, and a humungous baklava, just
dripping with honey and walnuts, for John. I write this late
on the train trip toight, and touch wood, have still not
fallen into a diabetic coma.
Talk about slow service! No one wanted to know us when it
came time to pay the bill and leave. We had to walk over the
the main restaurant building to find a waiter, and to wait for
him to finsh talking to some other table. All this time we
stood opposite a sign saying "the customer does not have to
pay if an invoice for service has not been given"!! Talk about
doing a "runner"! We were both tempted to just walk out, or
even crawl on all fours - no one would have noticed!
But honesty prevailed, we paid the bill, we walked out, and
then walked back to the hotel, with some 40 minutes to kill
until our pickup for the station arrived. It was at this
point that Barbara discovered that she had mislaid our ticket
for the train. We searched through handbags, carry-ons,
pockets, camera bags, whatever, but could not find it. Plan B
to the rescue! Barb found the ticket on her computer, emailed
it to the hotel, and got them to print a new copy! Phew!
The bus arrived, we got to the railway station, we boarded the
train, and found our compartment - the same one we had on the
down journey, with an extra twist - a couple from Los Angeles
sharing the compartment. We had quite a chat as we left the
station, for a half hour or so, then we settled down to
reading/writing/sleeping as the mood took us. Incidentally,
the same conductor from yesterday came along to check our
tickets, took one look at us, recognized us from yesterday,
and paid but the merest glance at the brand new ticket. I
reckon we might have got away with just spinning him the story
of the lost ticket!
As I write this now, we are into the last hour of the trip,
and feeling quite weary. I might pause here to resume on the
morrow.
We did have some trouble getting out of the station and onto
the Metro, partly because various lifts and escalators were
not working, and rather than carry suitcases up stairs, we
went looking for working facilities, which took some time. I
suspect we were the last passengers on the train to leave the
station.
And then, when we arrived at Omonoia, we had a great deal of
difficulty finding the street that we wanted. I have to say,
the Greeks are not good at signage. The only signs we saw
were the names of the streets once you got to the exit, and
even then, not all were so equipped. So to find anything, you
had to walk around, and we kept getting lost, so we went up an
arbitrary exit to better get our bearings, but that was little
better. Eventually John had to walk the entire circumference
of Omonia Square to find Agia ?? (check map!). Once found, a
short walk to the Chic, and we were checked in by midnight.
Attempt to follow progress again
17:33 Kalampala
18:09 Karditsa
18:20 Sothades
18:30 Paleofaraselou (junction)
18:45 Domokos
19:10 Angiers (?)
20:00 Adion (?)
20:40 Bralos
20:49 Lililaea
20:54 Amphiklia
21:07 Pourea
21:20 Favlia
21:32 Aliartos
21:44 Siva
21:59 Annoi/Insi/Lagnoi
22:16 Sfendali
22:56 Athina
An extremely lazy start to the day, as we did not have to be
anywhere at any particular time. Add to that the fact that
Barb was not feeling 100%, and we deliberated hastened
slowly. So a leisurely start on our walk at 1025, and we
headed off in the direction of parliament.
We got to parliament about 1055, and walked around the corner
to the presidential guard barracks. We were just in time,
because as we were admiring the soldier (with dress and
pompoms!) on duty, there was a
sudden kerfuffle inside the barracks, and a new guard of 6
soldiers marched out. The back one peeled off, while the
other 5 went off up around the corner, presumably to do some
parliamentary thing. But we were having too much fun videoing
the changing of the guard at the sentry box to care about
that. The two soldiers did an elaborate ritual of turning and
facing each other, then did this high-stepping march towards
each other, turning and stepping in unison back to the sentry
box, whereupon the previous soldier relaxed his guard, and
simply march (ordinary march style) back into the barracks,
while the new soldier did another little high-stepping ritual
before settling into his guard position. But that was not
all! A regular soldier in khakis came out, and proceeded to
adjust the sentry's tassle, and then his garters, taking a
fair bit of time to do so. Then he just marched off back into
the barracks.
I managed to get all this on video, so I was pretty chuffed
that our trip had been so timely and worthwhile. Since the
National Gardens were adjacent to the barracks, we then
decided to walk through them, getting excited because the map
showed a cafe nearby, then getting all despondent, because it
was closed!
A pleasant half-hour or so was spent wandering the gardens,
but they were not quite what we expected, because they were
not botantical gardens, rather flower gardens with lots of
trees, and all the flower beds had been dug over for winter.
Leaving the gardens, we walked along the road until we found
an extensive cafe with a spruiker outside. We needed little
encouragement to go in and order a couple of coffees: diplos
ellenikos, and a large cappucino. We took our time savour
them, and enjoying the atmosphere. Then on to the Zarrelion,
a magnificent building built with huge Ionian columns, but not
much to see inside, as it was a conference centre, and all
very modern (no iniquities!) inside.
So we walked on to the Stadium, first used in the modern
Olympics era starting in 1896, and full of museums of related
artefacts, such as every Olympic torch used since then. But
this did not attract us much, so we did not pay to go in, but
rather just looked at it from outside.
Next stop was the Arch of Hadrian, and interesting joint
Roman/Greek erection, and still largely intact. It was next
door to the Temple of Zeus, but again, one had to pay to go
into that, and we were a little iniquitied out. So again we
contented ourselves with a photo from the outside, and mooched
off.
By now it was lunch time, and our next item on the itinerary
was a walk along the pedestrian path around the south and west
sides of the Acropolis. And the first part was a whole heap
of restaurants! We picked a likely one, and went in and had a
greek salad, fried eggplant, and moussaka (together with
beers, of course). The eggplant was brilliant, but the
service not so, and I could see the waiter's eyes narrow as
Barb scooped up all the coins!
Off around the Acropolis. The weather had been sunny, but
gradually closed in as we wandered up the Pynx Hill, site of
the first Greek parliaments, and the birthplace of democracy.
While we were admiring the magnificent stone work that had
gone into building the bema (podium) wall, the heavens opened
and we had to see crude shelter onder a tree. But this was
not enough, so we made a dash for some rude shelter, namely
the adjacent toilets. They were shut, but had enough of an
eaves overhang that we waited out the rain in relative
dryness.
Once the rain had passed, we continued our stroll of Pynx
Hill, and then returned to the pedestrian way. Now I say
"pedestrian", but that does not mean that vehicles are
excluded. Exactly what the rules are is hard to say, but as a
general principle, if a motorbike can go there, it will. Even
cars did not seem to feel any guilt about traversing the
pedestrian way, although the fact that some did so with their
hazard lights flashing indicated that some motorists were at
least aware that it was not a regular roadway!
We arrived back at Thissio at the cafe that was so helpful 3
weeks ago. So we stopped there again and had another cup of
coffee each. Then we wound our way back via Monasteraki to
our hotel. Rather than go out for tea - neither of us was
hungry - we spent the time until 2100 catching up on emails
and things, and starting to pack. At 2100 we turned in for the
night.
