Home to Germany

The alarm went off at 4:45 Greece time and that would be 3:45 Germany time. We dressed and finished the last minute packing we needed to do. Then I carried the luggage up 42 steps to the top of the caldera and then we walked to the parking lot to meet the taxi and he was already waiting. He took the luggage and started loading the taxi and it turns out we were sharing the taxi again. I had thought that at 5:30 in the morning we would not be sharing a taxi on the way to the airport. The couple was from Winnipeg and were headed to Rome for a couple of days, before headed back home.

The airport was crowded as there were two planes going to Athens. We were able to check our luggage through to Frankfurt (YAY!) as both our flights were being operated by Aegean Airlines even though the flight to FRA was a Lufthansa flight. Thankfully, the flights were completely unremarkable and we were at home in Heidelberg by 3pm. At 3:05 I started the laundry process so that we could start to pack for our flight to Philly.

Santorini - Sept 26

Our plan today was for a boat ride around the Santorini. We got up pretty early and then headed down to the bus station where we were met by the tour company van. The van took us to port in Amoudi at the end of the island. The boat docked at the port just after we arrived and then a second van arrived and a couple that is staying at the Alte Marre which is next to Armeni Village, showed up. We had seen them having breakfast on the terrace before we left. It turns out he is from Madrid and she is going to school there and is from Lausanne, France.

The boat headed to the Old port of Oia which is just below our hotel (we could have easily walked down on the switchback walkway there) to pick up more passengers. We sailed for the larger and newer of the volcanic islands in the center. Staying with our group from the boat, we walked up the island to the very top. There are 6 different volcanic craters on the island and two of them have active vents spewing steam and noxious gases. The geology is amazing but entirely different than the volcanoes of Hawaii or Oregon. Much more rocky and with no lava flows.

We walked back down to the boat (we actually switched boats) and then headed to the second volcanic island. The attraction here are vents that heat the water in a little bay. We dropped anchor about 150 meters off shore and then those who wanted swam into the bay. I enjoyed the swim in, but the warm water was a little bit over blown. It was not so warm, it was warmer….but.

After that we headed to the island of Thirisia which is the other 2nd largest island there to be inhabited, about 300 residents. At the port there were about 8 restaurants and you could walk up the caldera there to the town. Pam and I decided to stay in the port and have lunch (gyros). The only reason any of the restaurants exist is to service the people on the boat.

We headed back to the boat and back to the port where we started. We decided to walk up to town instead of taking the shuttle. After the walk up we headed to our hotel where we showered and hung out at the hotel a little and then went to our last dinner in Greece. I had also called the taxi drive that we had taken from the port to meet us the next morning.

When we returned to the hotel, it turns out that the power in our room was out. It took about an hour to get the power fixed. The light fixture in the bathroom was shorting out the electrical system, so while we had power elsewhere, we did not have light in the bathroom. We were about done with this hotel, I would never recommend this hotel.

Santorini - Sept 25

Our plan for today was to take the bus down to the ancient ruins and then to head back into town and to go to the old port below Fira. After breakfast we made our way to the bus station and took the bus to the bus station in Fira where we changed to the bus for Akrotiri, location of the Minoan period ruins. Apparently, the Minoans had enough time to evacuate the town before the volcano erupted in 1640 BC. When we arrived in Akrotiri we asked the bus driver where to find the ruins and he told us that the ruins were closed for the season. This was disappointing and we stayed on the bus to head back to Fira.

After returning to Fira, we walked to the edge of the caldera and then started the walk down to the port. There are three ways to reach the port; 1) walk down the switchbacked walkway, 2) ride a donkey down the same walkway or 3) take the tram down. At the top of the walkway, the donkeys where wait for trips down and the walkway was littered with their waste. It was a little dangerous as groups of people were being assembled and started heading down, while at the same time the walkway was congested with waiting donkeys. Once we got past the top, it became easier as there was less congestion. At the bottom, we encountered similar congestion as at the top.

The old port was very active with Tavernas as well as people coming and going from the many cruise ships docked just off-shore.

We decided that we would walk back up also. It was pretty warm out and it is a pretty long walk (582 steps) and we were both pretty sweaty when we go to the top and we each got a Gyro and walked to the bus station and took the bus back to Oia (ee-ah) where our hotel was.

That evening the sunset was not that nice as it was pretty cloudy and we went to a restaurant where the food was not so good, probably the worst we had during our stay in Greece.

Santorini - Sept 24

Today was to be a beach day. We dressed in our bathing suits and went outside where Deny, the house boy here at Armeni Village, brought our breakfast to the deck. After breakfast we climbed back to the top of the caldera and to the bus station. We took the bus into Fira (Thira) where we switched buses and headed to the beach at Perivolos.

The bus ride was interesting as we saw a lot of the Island. The beach at Perivolos is a volcanic black sand beach. The black sand beach is interesting. The water is very clear, but the dark sand makes it look dark also. It was pretty windy, so getting in the water was not a problem, but getting out was a bit brisk!

At around 4:30 we packed up and headed to the bus stop. There was another couple there who had been near us on the beach (there were not many people on the beach). We waiting about 45 minutes for the bus to come and we learned that this couple is from Philly and live in Northern Liberties.

The bus quickly filled up to the point where it seemed as if they were going to use a ram to get the people in. The roads in Santorini are crowded and narrow. I was glad that we were not renting a car here as it would have been a frustrating place to drive.

That evening we chose a restaurant with a roof top restaurant and watched the sunset.

The Last day on Ios and the Ferry to Santorini

Tuesday morning dawned bright and clear and then I put my contacts in and saw how truly beautiful it was. We enjoyed a light breakfast at the port (Norwegian Sailors were there, but not drunk) and then got the bus to Mylopotas Beach. The ride took us up and through the village and then down the other side. This is a long sandy beach framed by the mountains on three sides. The weather was perfect and we had a wonderful beach day.

We got back to the hotel to change and finish packing and then were driven back to the port for our ferry to Santorini. This ferry was the smallest and fastest ferry we were going to take (Flying Cat 4). Santorini is off the south end of Ios and it was about a 30 minute trip to Santorini.

Santorini used to be a fairly large island until about 1640 BC when the volcano exploded and the center got spread over Mediterranean leaving only a scattered out ring. The outer ring is broken up into one large island, one smaller island and a few other islets. In the center are two basalt islands formed by lava flows since the main eruption in 1640 BC. The caldera rim is lined with hotels and homes all the way around and is an impressive sight. On the backside of the main island (opposite of the caldera) you would hardly know there was a volcano, except for the thick layers of ash. In fact, along the caldera rim, you can see the level of ash, 10 or 20 meters thick with basalt rocks mixed in. You can see successive layers of eruptions on the layers exposed by the volcano, some are ash and some are basalt.
The port is near the center of the island and our hotel is at the north end. Again, we shared the taxi, this time with a Mother and Daughter from NYC. The road up from the port to the top of the caldera has many switch backs, once at the top, the view is impressive, both into the caldera on one side and the planes down below on the other.

We were dropped off first and our hotel is in the caldera rim. The taxi driver had contacted our hotel so that someone would be there to help us with our luggage. We had to walk from a parking lot up to the top of the rim, over to the hotel and then down the steps to our room. The woman who runs the desk of Armeni Village is a small, darkly tanned, older woman who speaks very little English. She took great pride in showing us our room, which is a nice suite with a real shower, not just a small square with a curtain around it. I think the shower here is about the size of the bathroom at the hotel in Ios.

The whole thing is just amazing and we are looking forward to exploring the island.

Last Day on Ios annd the Ferry to Santorini

Tuesday morning dawned bright and clear and then I put my contacts in and saw how truly beautiful it was. We enjoyed a light breakfast at the port (Norwegian Sailors were there, but not drunk) and then got the bus to Mylopotas Beach. The ride took us up and through the village and then down the other side. This is a long sandy beach framed by the mountains on three sides. The weather was perfect and we had a wonderful beach day.

We got back to the hotel to change and finish packing and then were driven back to the port for our ferry to Santorini. This ferry was the smallest and fastest ferry we were going to take (Flying Cat 4). Santorini is off the south end of Ios and it was about a 30 minute trip to Santorini.

Santorini used to be a fairly large island until about 640 BC when the volcano exploded and the center got spread over Mediterranean leaving only a scattered out ring. The outer ring is broken up into one large island, one smaller island and a few other islets. In the center are two basalt islands formed by lava flows since the main eruption in 640 BC. The caldera rim is lined with hotels and homes all the way around and is an impressive sight. On the backside of the main island (opposite of the caldera) you would hardly know there was a volcano, except for the thick layers of ash. In fact, along the caldera rim, you can see the level of ash, 10 or 20 meters thick with basalt rocks mixed in. You can see successive layers of eruptions on the layers exposed by the volcano, some are ash and some are basalt.

The port is near the center of the island and our hotel is at the north end. Again, we shared the taxi, this time with a Mother and Daughter from NYC. The road up from the port to the top of the caldera has many switch backs, once at the top, the view is impressive, both into the caldera on one side and the planes down below on the other.

We were dropped off first and our hotel is in the caldera rim. The taxi driver had contacted our hotel so that someone would be there to help us with our luggage. We had to walk from a parking lot up to the top of the rim, over to the hotel and then down the steps to our room. The woman who runs the desk of Armeni Village is a small, darkly tanned, older woman who speaks very little English. She took great pride in showing us our room, which is a nice suite with a real shower, not just a small square with a curtain around it. I think the shower here is about the size of the bathroom at the hotel in Ios.

Santorini amazing and we are looking forward to exploring the island.

Ios - 9/22

Monday morning started overcast and nasty and turned rainy and cold. Another beach day shot to hell. So we got a late start and then headed to the port area for a light breakfast and coffee. There was a sailing team from Norway in port and they were also not going out because of the weather. They were behaving like drunken stupid people. We sat there for a while had some coffee/tea and then we left, we could hear them all the way back to the hotel, which is probably a mile away.

In the afternoon Pam had a nail appointment (which she was very happy about). The woman who did her nails is from Australia and came to Ios about 10 years ago on vacation, met a Greek guy and never went home. They now have several kids and love their life on Ios.

The rest of the day remained kind of rainy and cold. We kicked around town and relaxed, but Ios is pretty small with not a lot to offer.

Going to Ios

Today said good-bye to Naxos and took the ferry to Ios. We both really like Naxos. It is a beautiful island and we stayed in a really nice part of the island.

We started the day going to the coffee shop on the beach and getting breakfast. We really liked this place. The family who runs it is nice and it was a great location.
After breakfast we checked out and got a taxi to the port. While waiting for the ferry to show up, two couples behind us started chatting with each other and it turned out they were both from Boston and lived in Brookline just a few blocks apart.

The ferry to Ios is about 35 minutes (high speed ferry). Ios has a completely different feel than Naxos. The port area is very small and is built on a sheltered bay. The main town is up above the port in the hills.

A drive from our hotel, Homers Inn, met us in the port. We checked into our hotel, which is very nice, and then changed and walked back down to the port for lunch and the beach (on the bay). The beach was very nice and the water was a little bit warmer than in Naxos.

After the beach we changed and walked up the hill to Chora, the main town on Ios. The town is built on the hills. If has the quaint little streets (no cars, just feet) and there are lots of shops. We found a nice restaurant at the top of one of the hills, called the Mills. It is called that because there are 4 windmills. We asked about the mills and learned that they used them until the late 80’s.

The food was excellent. Pam ordered an Aubergine appetizer that was amazing. We got pita and an olive tapenade that was really good. The service was good and the food was good….we were very happy with our selection!

Naxos Sept 20 - It is raining

It never rains in Naxos in August or September. Today it has rained off and on since early this morning. This put a severe crimp in our plans to spend the day at the beach. Essentially, we spent the day relaxing. We walked around Naxos Town a little, we sat and had a drink and played many games of Backgammon, we enjoyed coffee and read our books, but nothing tremendously special.

Since today was nothing special, let me tell you a little bit about smoking in Greece. In Philadelphia, there is no smoking in public buildings, including restaurants (I know this has recently changed to a state law, but I am not sure what the impact is statewide). In Germany there is no Smoking in public places country wide. In Greece there is smoking everywhere. 20 years ago, I was fairly tolerant of smoking. I went out to bars and restaurants, people lit up, so what, I was out and that was that. Today, I am indignant to have to walk behind someone who is smoking because they have chosen to leak their noxious fumes and I have no right to choose not to breathe them and being asthmatic, this can be a problem.

In Greece many people smoke and they smoke everywhere, in stores, in restaurants, on streets, just about anywhere (but not on public transit). You will walk into a store and the proprietor is smoking. You sit in a restaurant and the owner is seating people and has a cigarette lit at the table where they are sitting. I woke up this morning and the cleaning person was outside smoking and her smoke came in the open window to our room.

One of the interesting things is the number of Greek people who roll their own cigarettes. When sitting at a café or restaurant you will notice someone place a little white thing between their lips, take out their paper, pour their tobacco, place the little white thing at the end of the paper (the filter), roll their cigarette and then light up.

I have to say, being suddenly thrust back into 1990’s era type smoking laws and I have come to appreciate smoke free air.

Naxos Sept 19

Friday morning we rented a car to drive around the island of Naxos. Naxos is one of the largest of the Greek islands. The island is well known for its high quality marble and in fact the whole island is marble. It even looks like they use marble dust and stones to make cement here.

For 25 euro we rented a little Fiat (far preferable to the small crappy chevy we had on Paros). We headed out and up into the mountains. The roads are small but mostly two lanes and wide enough for two cars to pass by easily, but they are mountain roads with lots of turns and hills. Compared to Germany, there are not a lot of towns and the towns are small.

We stopped at a place where an ancient civilization (400BC) quarried marble and carved statues. There is one unfinished statue that is left there (it cracked while being carved) as well as a sanctuary near the quarry. It was pretty interesting and you could still see where they carved the stones out of the hill.

Driving around this part of the island it is hard to miss the huge modern marble quarries that are carved out of the tops of the hills. The walls are sheared flat and waste marble has been dropped down the sides of the mountain like pebbles. As you drive by you understand that some of those ‘pebbles’ are the size of small houses.

Eventually we stopped in a small town for lunch. There are two restaurants there, one was closed. The other was empty except for the older woman who was running it. She spoke very little English, maybe two or three words. We pointed at the menu so she would understand what we wanted. It is not the middle of high season so not everything was available. She took me into the kitchen, opened the oven where a tray of stuff tomatoes and aubergine were cooking. I said, ‘Yes.’ We told her some other things we wanted and we just said yes and she started bring food. This included a
Greek Salad, two stuffed tomatoes, a stuff aubergine and fries. Everything was excellent! I would tell you to go there….but I would not be able to give you directions. On our way out I wished her, ‘kalispera’ or good afternoon. She replied with a large smile and said, ‘bye.’

The drive around Naxos was amazing. You can only take so many pictures of mountains and rocks and such before they all start to look alike. If you make it to the Greek Islands, a stop on Naxos is a must.

From Paros to Naxos

Thursday morning Pam and I drove from Drios into Paroika. We had about an hour to wait until our ferry arrived and we could board. We sat across the street and had a cup of coffee and a little breakfast while waiting for the ferry. The ferry to Paros was a traditional ferry, one hull with cars and trucks loaded on the bottom and people upstairs. The ferry from Paros to Naxos is a high speed ferry and is a split hull design, like a catamaran. As it came into port you could see the ballast tanks being filled in the rear so that it was level with the dock. The huge rear door opened and people and cars could disembark and then we could board.

The trip to Naxos was about 30 minutes and completely uneventful. We got a cab at the port and shared it with two women who we going the same direction, just not as far as us. We are staying in Agia Prokopios which is about 6 kilometers south of Naxos Town. We arrived at the hotel, Hotel Dimtra, which is a block from the water. The owner, Dimitri, went into detail about the three blocks surrounding the hotel and what restaraunts to go to and then where to go if we rented a car.

After getting to our room we immediately changed to our bathing suits. Then we walked down to the beach, we got lunch at Nikos, which was yummy. The aubergine salad is the best we have had in Greece. We finished lunch and hit the beach. We were able to rent chairs for the day, which is nice, as our beach chairs are in Ardmore and bringing them on a plane would have been a pain anyway. The beach here is lovely long sand beach and the water is clear and blue.

In Europe it is not uncommon for women to take their tops off on the beach. In Greece it is not as common as it was in Barcelona or Mallorca. As we were walking down the beach though, I noticed a woman not only topless but bottomless, this section of beach is nude. This is not necessarily a good thing. All in all the entire walk along the beach was about a mile or so.

That evening we took the bus to town and walked along the water front. We stopped at an outdoor café’ to watch the sunset and played backgammon.

Afterwards we walked around town and found a little plaza where we found a nice restaurant, Sciorocco and had a very nice dinner. It is family owned, the sons and daughter were taking orders while Mom and Dad supervised. After dinner, I was waiting for Pam on the plaza, sitting on the low wall there next to the Dad. He speaks very little English, but we tried very hard to communicate and succeeded, he taught me ‘Good night,’ Kalinischte’ and I taught him good morning.

Tomorrow we have plans to rent a car and tour some of the island.

Paros - Sept 17

We spent Wednesday morning just hanging out; I went for a run, we had breakfast, chatting with some of the other guests. We did not move from the hotel until close to noon. At 3pm we were supposed to be having a cooking course with Eddy along the south side of the island in Alyki.

We got in our cheap little rental car and headed south just to see what we could see. Alyki is a small town on a little bay. The water is clear and blue and there are many boats in the harbor, mainly fishing boats. There are restaurants and stores along the bay. We decided to have a light bite to eat before the cooking lesson. We chose a restaurant with seating right on the water. As Pam pointed out, in the US you would have needed a railing, but instead the table was directly on the water’s edge and we sat inches from the edge where falling off and into the water would not have been difficult. Looking into the water we could see Sea Urchins and another couple threw some hunks of bread into the water which got the fish (good sized fish) all churning, it was a little like looking into an aquarium. There was also someone snorkeling who it turns out was spear fishing he actually got a nice sized octopus.

At around 2:30 I called Eddy to tell him where we were and that we were not going to be where he expected us. He had mentioned that he was in Alyki, so I thought it would be easier from him to meet us there. He drove down and met us and we followed him to a place where we parked our car and then he drove us to his house. His house is near the top of the mountain behind Alyki. The road there is narrow and dirt and at points drops precipitously. Eddy and Louise (Louisa), are from Amsterdam. They live about half the year on Paros and half in Amsterdam. Eddy used to be a developer but his company downsized and from what I can gather he took early retirement. Not that Eddy appears that old. I would be surprised if he was 60. They rent the house from a Greek family that actually lives on an island further north and east of Paros. They pay a little rent and take care of the property and make some improvements.

Eddy enjoys the creative process of cooking and has learned most of what he knows by doing. I will not go into the details of everything that we cooked, but there are definitely things that we made that Pam and I will cook with later. There was one meat dish and one dish that had a little bacon and there was a lot of potatoes (3 dishes of potatoes) and an extraordinary amount of garlic and olive oil. We very much enjoyed the cooking part of the evening and you can see that Eddy loves cooking for people also. Many times Eddy will have groups of up to 17 people for dinner (he prepares the food for large groups) or will have a group of people for the cooking class, but on this evening it was Pam and I. For dinner though, their friends Bruce and Brian joined us. Bruce and Brian are Brits and have lived in Paros for 4 years. They never intended on living here full time, but they wound up renting their place in Devon to a couple and then selling it when the market was good and the only place they had to live was the house they had purchased on Paros.

We wound up staying there until about 11:30 (we think….can’t be sure) chatting and eating. We had a really nice time and are glad that we had the experience. There is also the chanc,e that come this winter we will spend a weekend in Amsterdam and visit with Eddy and Louisa.

Paros - Tuesday Sept. 16

How many ways can you define water that is so clear that when the waves break you can hardly see it until it foams? I can stand in water up to my neck and see my feet and the only reason I have difficulty is because of the diffraction of light caused by the moving water. You can see the sand puff up as you move around. The Med is saltier than the Atlantic Ocean. We I swim underwater, my natural buoyancy bounces me up to the surface.

We hung out on the beach for about 5 hours yesterday. It was warm and breezy and nice. I expected the water to be warm, kind of like the end of summer at the Jersey shore bath water warm. This is not the case. The water is comfortable and you do not feel the need to get out of the water, but you do not just plunge head long into the water also.

We ate lunch at a tavern that is right along the beach. The food was excellent and the setting spectacular! Generally, Pam and I are finding the food here on Paros better than in Athens.

For dinner we headed out to Paroikia which is the main town for Paros and where the Ferries come in. All along the waterfront are restaurants and shops. Paroikia is nice, but we both thought that Naoussa is a prettier town. We had a very nice dinner in town. I had a dish of Meatballs seasoned with Cumin and Garlic (Yummy) and a tomato sauce and rice. I love white rice, I know I should eat brown rice, it is higher in fiber and has fewer simple carbs, but I love white rice!

So this morning, I went for a run (which I have to do beacause I eat white rice), the first run since just before we left. I followed the main road to a smaller road with less traffic. This wound through small farms and such and ended at a small Greek Orthodox Church. The church stood in a rock that lead out to the bay where you could climb out onto the rocks. It was a gorgeous view from out there. After running back to the hotel, I took off my sneakers and shirt and rinsed off in the outdoor shower and jumped into the pool to cool off. This is my new favorite thing. I really like this!

A word on Greek Churches. There are small Greek Orthodox churches everywhere. When I say small, I mean tiny. They are usually one room and can hold 10 or fifteen people comfortably. Even in Athens there were a lot of tiny churches. You do see larger churches also, but these small chapels are very interesting.

Greece Day 3

Monday started early. We were out of the hotel and in a taxi by 7:15. The ride down to the port was quick until we got to the port and then there was plenty of traffic. Our drive dropped us off right near the ferry. The Ferry is huge which surprised Pam as she was expecting a small ferry, think the ferry we took in Vermont. This is far larger. We boarded from the back of the ship (next to the vehicle loading ramp). We dropped our luggage off alongside the vehicle area and then took two escalators up and headed to the aft of the ship. We finally wound up on the top aft deck of the ship. As the sky got lighter, you could see many ferries of all sizes docked in the port and further along was the industrial port.

As we headed out in to the Med you could see the sun rising over the mountain behind Athens, at first just a small sliver. It was going to be an overcast day. The ferry ride was uneventful. The tables next to the one Pam and I sat were loaded with an extended family of Aussies. 2 brothers and 2 sisters, and one of the sister’s Brother’s family. They were all taking holiday and made arrangements to meet on the ferry on the way to Paros. Some were staying for a longer period of time and others were headed home in a couple days.

We disembarked and shared a taxi to Drios which is on the other side of the island. The woman in the taxi with us is staying at a town just to the north of us.
We are staying at the Sea View. By name it should be on the Jersey Shore, but that is where the similarities end. It is run/owned(?) by a husband and wife. The wife, Pat, moved from Greece to NYC when she was 8 and moved back to Greece 15 years ago. The rooms are not large, but are nice and have a porch (where I am typing now), there is a lovely pool and it is all very lovely.

We were hungry, so we walked the 30 yards into town and ate at the local restaurant. The food was excellent and she was very proud of what she served, which was nice.
After lunch we went to the local beach. The beach is a stone beach and not so nice on the feet. On the other hand, the water is a clear crystalline blue!

A word about climate and landscape. Greece does not get a lot of rain. The islands are virtually deserts. Unlike the Sahara, the islands are humid. The dry hot air originates over the Sahara and as is moves across the Mediterranean, it picks up a lot of moisture. From what I can gather, most of the moisture gets caught in the mountains on each island and as dew in the mornings. The landscape here is very dramatic!

Greece Day 2

It is hot in Athens. The temperature is in the high 80’s low 90’s. For Pam and I that is hot. In Heidelberg it has been in the mid 70’s, maybe 80 for the past couple weeks and we have enjoyed that. We expected Athens to be hot and we expect that it will be warmer here than on the islands.

We had no plan today. We slept in and headed out later than yesterday. We walked around the old town, perusing the shops. The shopping area here is large and very tourist oriented, much more so than any other city I have been too. Lots of jewelry stores and junk stores (I mean attic type junk) as well as bad souvenir stores. If the Greeks made it, the souvenir stores sell bad imitations. The shopping area is a cross between the souks of Jerusalem and the shopping area we found in Hanoi.

We stopped for lunch at a place that had a nice looking combination fish tray…it was a lot of food and we did not even try to finish it. The Calamari was excellent and the Octopus was also excellent, the shrimp was ok and the fried anchovy was good (not something that Pam would ever eat, but I had a bunch of them).

While sitting at lunch we saw this guy going back and forth...it was the most god-awful noise!

We headed back to the hotel around 3ish and took a short nap during the heat of the day (I love that part, siestas are GOOD). Then at around 5 we headed out exploring in parts of the city we had not been before. We wound up walking around a very residential area and eventually the cars changed from old VWs to new BMWs. We found a nice place along the street and sat and had a nice drink and people watched. This seemed more of a local area than a tourist area, but it was probably a mix. It turns out we were about a 15 minute walk from the main tourist area. For dinner, we found a nice little restaurant, I had a Kepab and Pam had a Souvlaki which we both enjoyed.

Tomorrow is an early day, the Ferry leave at 7:25 and we need to be out of the hotel and in the taxi at 6:45. We need to be packed and ready to go.

Athens is a very nice city. Two days is good for a tourist visit, the third day and you are wondering what to do. Although, I could imagine living here, it seems like a very livable city (except for the heat in summer). The people are nice and the food is good and not so expensive.

I am looking forward to the ferry trip tomorrow and finding myself on the Island of Paros tomorrow afternoon. I am imagining a quieter place with a view of the Mediterranean.

Greece Day 1

Our flight into Athens was completely uneventful. We have three bags and one of our bags was directly in front of a sign saying that this is the end of baggage. after collecting our bags,we went to the taxi stand which had a ludicrously long line, worse than Penn Station in NYC, but the line moved quickly and we were in the taxi into Athens pertty quickly.

Our hotel was supposed to be very close to the Acropolis, but the driver does not know the hotel. The phone number that is on the email I printed out is incorrect (missing a digit). We are pulled over along the side of the highway while he fiddles around and eventually he pulls out his GPS (why he did not start there, I wish I knew). The ride is much longer than the tour book led us to believe. The book said it should be about 11euro, turned out to be 45euro. On the way in, we pass the old Airport...is this the mythical start of the 11 euro cab ride?

We settled into our room and then we headed out for dinner. The front desk suggested a place not far called Vitro. This is a tourist trap and must have some deal with the hotel. We are sitting outside and there are signs taped to the windows. The signs are made by customers who enjoyed their meal there. I read one that says, "In Athens 2 Days, Ate at Vitro 3 times, Loved the food, loved the music. Jill and Don, Go Eagles! (In Green)." How sad is that. They are from Philly and went to Athens for two days and hardly ventured out. The food was good but not great. So many great little restaurants….got to try them all.

Walking back from dinner we look up and there it is, The Acropolis. It is all lit up and glowing. The hotel is about two blocks away.

Saturday morning we wake up and get to breakfast just after 9am. Breakfast in Euro hotels is usually included. The breakfast is ok, not great. Then we head out. We go to The Acropolis and pay 12euro and start walking. The walk up is not nearly as strenuous as we expect (not as hard as the Schloss in Heidelberg). There is a lot of work being done on The Acropolis, which is good. It is pretty amazing. We spend the rest of the morning exploring Athens and see lots of columns, some of them with Pediments on top and some free standing. There are subtle difference in periods, some are fluted, some are smooth, some have fancy tops (don’t know the name of that part) some are simple. There are two Agoras (forum ), one ancient Agora and one Roman. Many of the ruins have ruins of other things over top of them. Then again, some of the ancient ruins are built over top of still even more ancient ruins.

We then had Lunch, which for Pam was a Greek Salad (which she enjoyed) and for me was Chicken Souvlaki, which was also very nice. Following lunch, we walked around a market area and looked at a lot of shiny sparkly stuff and textiles.

So, the Greeks have their own Alphabet. I expected Greece to be more like Vietnam where you cannot read anything. I expected to recognize three words, Police, Taxi and Coffee. Strangely, here in Athens, and I expect in the islands we are to visit next, English is a second language. Speaking with the taxi driver, American movies are shown in English with subtitles and most people have ok English or better. So while coming from the USA, we only speak English and that is a bad thing, it is a good thing to come from the USA and be able to speak English, because much of the world uses English.

The Bayers

The Bayers
Our Landlords are our neighbors. When we were looking for a place to live in Germany, this was the only place we looked were the landlord also lived in the building. We gave some thought to having our landlords be our neighbors and there were some good points and some bad points.
Fortunately, the positives are far greater than the negatives. If you lock yourself out, you can ring their doorbell and they can let you in. Yo9u do not have to drive yourself to an office in another town to pick up the spare key and then have to return the key later. It is like leaving a spare key with the neighbors. If you have a maintenance issue they are right there to take a look and make arrangements to fix it.
The Bayers are exceptional neighbors. Yes, there are rules but for the most part they are relaxed and Pam and I try to be good neighbors and they respect their rules. Yes, they have let me into the house twice when I locked myself out. Then again, Frau Bayer buzzed our door bell so I could let her into the building (she keeps the key in the door to their apartment during the day) when the door was closed behind her. Also, when we had a maintenance issue, it was fixed in hours. I told Frau Bayer, Frau Bayer called the repair guy, the repair guy came, looked, left for a part and returned and two hours later…..everything was fixed.
Then there was the time that Pam left the house for work and it was supposed to rain later that day. Frau Bayer called Jutta (our Relocation person in Germany) who had my cell number and called me to ask if it was alright if Frau Bayer could enter our apartment and close the windows, of course it was ok, but it is nice to be asked. Of course, it was 9am in Germany and 3am in Philadelphia where I was asleep at Mom’s having come home for Ryan’s graduation.
The Bayers though are genuinely kind people and there are far more benefits we gain with them as neighbors, like produce! It started in spring with strawberries (erbereen), mirabellen (not something found in the states), apples, squash and zucchini.