Day 12+ - The state of travel and impressions of Greece

On Monday we had a long travel day back to the USA. We had a flight out of Athens at 12:25, landing in Newark 10.5 hours later, then a 6 hour layover. We eventually landed in BTV at 23:55.   Going home is one of those parts of a trip such a long distance away that everyone dreads. It is like having to pay the bill for all that fun.  

We had a nice breakfast and took in the sunrise from the roof top restaurant one last time. The smoke in the picture got worse and blacker. I asked a waiter what the black smoke was, he replied "that is my career". Everyone is a comedian. Someone said it was an old building burning in the Plaka. 

We gathered in the lobby and were in the cab on our way to the airport by 08:45. We have no idea what the bell hop told our taxi driver but you would have thought someone was dying and we were headed for the hospital. At times on the highway in a 60 k/h zone he was doing 140 kph, passing everything, it was not unsafe but had us wondering what the rush was. 

When we checked in, the attendant said she had good news, our flight time was only going to be 10 hours...ugh. We flew United, check in was going smoothly until Jean got to the gate.  She was singled out due to something they did not like about her tablet. They gave her everything but a cavity search and eventually let her go without explanation of what they were looking for. The United experience was better than we had with Brussels Airways on the way out. The plane had more room, the food was better and we did land around our scheduled time. We have no real complaints about the flight. I was not able to sleep but watched three movies, OTTO - a tear jerker but still good, RUSH - I loved it and will probably watch it again, and DEVOTION- it was a good story but not a great movie. June and Jean watched Ticket to Paradise with Julia Roberts and George Clooney, not my cup of tea. 

The whole Newark experience was pretty awful. It took almost 3 hours to get through to our gate to BTV.  When arriving in Newark internationally, you first have to pass through US Customs. We arrived from Athens on a Boeing 787-10 which holds over 300 passengers, and we got in line with other arriving passengers. Our US Customs had only 4 lines (of many) open, it took a while. In Newark, after customs you then collect your checked baggage and take it to a Connection Baggage point and personally hand it to a baggage person.  This is another wait in line, although it was fairly quick, it is also confusing.  After that fun we had to transfer from terminal B to C via the Airtrain. The train dumps people out on a platform that is already mobbed, it is like a fight since the train doesn't hold everyone. We managed to get on the second train but we were like sardines in a can and people were not nice.  Next you have to go through TSA security again, yes again and yes another cattle line. Most of the US TSA people are nice, but the pure volume of humans passing through must just wear them down, because they are there to yell at you, not explain the process.  We got through it but it was not pretty. We had a 6 hour layover and we used almost 3 of it getting 'processed'. Don't fly from a foreign country into Newark for a connecting flight without at least a 3 hour layover and be prepared for an unpleasant process.  It is sad, but compared to other major airports and countries, it is just a mess. 

We were all hungry and since we still had 3 more hours we decided to get a good ole burger and beer for dinner. In EWR 4 burgers and 4 beers it is over $160. We have been eating in Greece this week for around $55 - $65 for a similar meal (Gyro instead of a burger). It is just sad, but it was a good burger and better beer (in my opinion). 

Of course, between when we left Athens and finally boarded, our gate changed twice, but that is no big deal, you just need to make sure you are checking for it. 

We were all very tired and passing time in an airport is always unpleasant. They intentionally make the seating so that you could not possibly get comfortable to sleep, but if you are the size of the twins, you can make it work. 

We arrived in BTV on schedule, about midnight, and our car was waiting at the airport where Steve D. dropped it (it is great having friends). We were home by 01:00 on Tuesday, Jean and Ed still had another 20 mins to get to Moriah. Actual travel time was roughly 23 hours, we were ready for bed.

Impressions of Greece, this is Fred's opinion, others may see it differently. 

- To read about ancient Greek history is one thing, to walk the grounds and see what they built 1000s of years ago gives an entirely different perspective. I will not even try to explain it, if you have not been, put it on your bucket list, you will not be disappointed. 

- The country is more beautiful than I expected. Outside of Athens the landscape we covered was always picturesque. The country has huge mountains that are solid rock.  The highways are in great shape, probably due to the 2004 Olympics and no harsh winter temps. 

- The Greek people were all very nice. One might say they have to be because tourism is their primary industry but I felt that nearly everyone we interacted with was proud of their country and genuinely tried to help us appreciate it. 

- The cost of living in Greece is less than the USA, food and goods even with the conversion to Euros are less expensive. As a place to go vacation, I think it was on the less expensive side. The hotels in Athens are very expensive, but now that we know a bit more about Athens, I am sure we could do better. They did include a full and varied breakfast.

- In Athens, Scooters rule and there are many of them. We got a kick out of watching the scooters race from light to light in Athens. They are a tool in Athens, not for show. We started looking at how many kilometers were registered on some of the oldest looking scooters, our record was over 96,000 (60K miles) on an old Honda. It was not unusual to see over 50,000 kilometers (31K miles) on a scooter, impressive. 

- We saw Greece via a guided tour group. I do not regret this, the tour got us entrance in to places and have experiences we would not have been able to manage on our own. That being said, I think adding a few days on our own time after the tour made the trip more memorable. The tour can be hectic and it gave us some time at a slower pace. We got to know Athens a bit and just going for a walk without the anxiety of trying to find your way made it more pleasant.

- I am not sure we will get back to Greece anytime soon but we left plenty unexplored and I would go again in a heartbeat. 

It was a great trip. 

Day 11 - Walking About

 Sunday was our last day in Greece. We debated doing another tour but elected to just walk around the city of Athens.

This is what google recorded; it is not entirely accurate since we don't walk in straight lines but it does give an idea of the areas we covered. It was close to 10 miles per Ed's watch. 

In the morning we found ourselves in the Agora which was the central gathering place in Ancient Greece (13th–4th centuries BC).

There are archeological sites everywhere you turn. 

The ancient structures are interspersed with the modern day city. 

Of course the views of the Acropolis are always present. From this view you can see the rock on the right that we climbed on Friday. We have since learned that the name of the rock is Mars Hill or Areopagus. There is a story about the hill in Greek mythology, it was used as a place for a famous trial...look it up. 

Ed refers to it as Bruno Mars Hill. 

The Agora is a very busy place, it has all the shops and restaurants that the Plaka does but feels a bit less touristy. 

We continued to walk and started back in the direction of the Plaka, on our way we found Alice in Wonderland. We had passed this with our tour group a few nights ago but it was closed at that time.  It would be a great place to bring your kids or grand kids. 

We stopped for lunch, more Gyros...yum. 

We came to a large square, the Athens Flea Market. The place was hopping, it was very busy. It looked like everyone was having a great time on such a nice Sunday. 

It seemed everywhere we went there were more digs underway. Athens will be digging for centuries and will probably never uncover all the ancient cities. Everything it seems is always in the shadow of the Sacred Rock. 

The girls love sitting on the ancient rocks. 

We came by The Church of Ayois Demetrios Loubardiairs. I had to snap a picture and send it to my Greek friend Demetrios who has for years encouraged me to visit Greece. He was right, we should have done it sooner. 

This little church is also a popular venue for local weddings. Apparently this was one of those days; as we walked by a second time, the bride arrived. Cool. 

We continued our walkabout to the Hill of Pnyx, of course it was another spectacular view of the Acropolis. 

We meandered our way back to the Plaka where Ed purchased a dapper hat, he is ready for Saratoga.

 

We had our last drinks on the Plaka and of course the café had a nice view of the Acropolis. 

On our last evening in Athens we wanted to have dinner at the fancy roof top restaurant at our hotel, The Royal Olympic Hotel. To be honest it was a bit of a disappointment. It is a beautiful setting but the menu was just a bit weird. None the less we had a nice dinner and moved to the bar for a night cap.  I had a really good martini, the girls had a Mastika Lemon Drop and Ed a Jim Beam Black on ice. I think Ed is now a whiskey drinker, hanging with me has been a bad influence. 

Our visit to Athens was over, we have a 12:25 flight to Newark and then on to Burlington on Monday...we will get home on Tuesday morning. 

Day 10 - A Three Island Tour

 On Saturday we booked a day cruise out of Athens to Hydra, Poros and Aegina. The cruise included bus transportation to and from our hotel. The bus pickup was at 7:25 so we really did not have time for breakfast, but I planned to at least get coffee. That did not work out, the hotel did not open the breakfast on time, and the breakfast elevator kept going up/down by itself. I gave up on the hotel and even walked from the hotel up the street. I could not find a coffee shop. Em would say 'first world problem' but for me, life starts after coffee each day!

Our planned route was Hydra, Poros then Aegina. 

We were picked up around 7:30 and were boarding the boat by 08:30. When we first saw the ship we thought it was jammed with people. But in reality, even though there were a lot of people, it was a big boat and not that crowded. 

The weather was sunny but a bit cool in the morning.

The first leg of the cruise was the longest, about 3 hours, but they had coffee on board and it was a pleasant cruise. Things were looking up!

We arrived in Hydra about 11AM. Hydra has no autos (except for trash collection), no scooters or bicycles. It is purely a pedestrian island. If you don't want to walk, you can ride a horse or donkey. 

The water is crystal clear, the harbor is busy with boats coming and going. 

The island is beautifully picturesque.

We declined the tours offered on the boat and strolled the town.  It had warmed up and it was a pleasant walk. We purchased a banana and a water bottle at a local market for 1 Euro, very inexpensive. We later stopped for pastries and ice cream at one of the local shops. 

 Hydra got notoriety in 1957  when Sophia Loren's film 'Boy On A Dolphin' included scenes from Hydra. The windmill featured in the film is now called Sophia's Windmill.  

I find it interesting that they don't use dock fingers, maybe it is always calm or they move the boats during rough weather?

There were many great spots for photos. 

We walked to the other side of the harbor and climbed up on the fort that gave some really nice views. 

Our stay on the island was only 1.5 hours but it was enough to know it would be a great place to come back and spend a day or more. 

From Hydra we set off for Poros. When we boarded, the crew had lunch ready for us. We loaded our plates and took a table outside on the rail in the sun. It was just warm enough to sit outside. 

Poros is also very pretty, it is much larger than Hydra and vehicles are allowed. 

Once again the boats were docked without fingers, this time in stern first. 

It was a quick stop of 45 mins but long enough for us to take another nice walk about. From Poros we set off for the last Island of Aegina, once again we had a great table in the sun on the back deck. 

 It was a nice cruise but eventually it did get cooler out on the deck and we retreated to seating in the heated cabin. Ed is such a baby. 

On the island of Aegina we had almost 2 hours to explore the place and we planned to get a warm drink and dessert. We strolled along the water front and eventually stopped at a place that appeared to specialize in desserts and coffee, we were not disappointed. Everyone but Fred had Baklava, Fred had the biggest Crepe with ice cream we have ever seen. 

On the boat ride back to Athens we sat inside the cabins since it was a bit cool.

We did not realize that the cabin we were in was the entertainment cabin. They had a live DJ (he was a hoot), live Greek Dancers and a Magician. 

We also struck up a conversation with an 18 year old kid from Canada who was on a 17 day trip of Italy and Greece with his school travel club. There were about 90 students and 9 advisors....god bless those advisors. Overall the cruise was definitely worth it for us, we would never had been able to see those beautiful islands otherwise and the boat ride was enjoyable on such a beautiful day. 

Sunday we plan to do some more touring of Athens and spend the rest of our Euros before going back to the USA.

Day 9 - Hanging in Athens

 Friday we slept in and had a leisurely breakfast. We also had to move to another hotel, so we goofed off until around 11AM and then made the short walk with our bags to the Royal Olympic Hotel. Check in was not until 3PM so we left our bags and set out to explore a bit of Athens. 

The hotel is within sight of the Arch of Hadrian, so it makes a great navigational crutch. Also called Hadrian's Gate, it spanned an ancient road from the center of Athens, Greece to the complex of structures on the eastern side of the city that included the Temple of Olympian Zeus. The area on one side of the gate has many ruins that can be toured, it seems this city has ruins at every turn. 

Athens is actually pretty easy to navigate on foot since you can almost always see the Acropolis from wherever you are in the city. 

We walked around the Plaka neighborhood and the labyrinth of streets.  We were fascinated by the ruins under the Acropolis Museum so we eventually made our way back there and viewed what we could without purchasing another museum ticket. It is quite amazing. 

It was time for lunch so we found a nice place, Tabepna Ta, to get a good Gyro. I asked the waiter to take our picture, he said "that is my second job". The people are all very friendly. We had a great meal. 

After lunch we walked some more and watched a street vendor bend silver wire into June and Jean's name in Greek to make a necklace. He was fun and it was cool to watch. 

We worked our way back to the hotel to check into our rooms and took a short nap.  As we left the hotel for another stroll we checked out their rooftop bar, what a view.

In the afternoon we walked Athens, there really is much to see. We worked our way around the base of the Acropolis, stopping and sitting on ancient stones from time to time. 

We saw people on a large rock so we climbed it too.  It offers another view of the Acropolis and the city, simply beautiful.

We walked our way around the sacred stone clockwise, we really did not know if we could make it around but we kept following the narrow streets and making right turns. On one vary narrow, steep street a couple of tow truck drivers were looking at an overturned Sprinter Van and pondering what to do. Oops. 

We did make it back around and into the Plaka. Purely by luck we came down the stairs into the same restaurant that we had dinner  the night before, it was just pure coincidence. 

It is a great place to eat with seating on the stairs with small tables and table seating on the sides.  

After our long stroll we did some light shopping and returned to the hotel. It was after 8PM and with an early start in the morning, we decided to stop at a close by pizza place for dinner. It was OK pizza and we have left overs for snacks tomorrow on our three island boat tour. 

It was a very nice day with good weather, lots of walking but relaxing. 

Day 8 - Mycenae and Corinth...Farewell in Athens

 Thursday morning we left Nafplion and picked up our Local Specialist for the day, Christina. 

Christina took us to our first stop, the Greek city of Epidaurus; here we found the Sanctuary of Asclepius which included an ancient hospital and The Ancient Theatre of Epidaurusin. This Theatre is dedicated to the ancient Greek God of medicine, Asclepius. We toured the museum which included many artifacts from the hospital including medical instruments that looked very similar to what is used today 2500 years later. 

The hospital pillars were constructed with translucent marble that was transported to this sacred place. Sunlight striking the pillar would shine through and make it look lit up. 

Asclepius, originally a mortal, later became the god of medicine and healing. The rod wrapped in a snake is recognized as the symbol of physicians today. 

The Theatre has acoustics that are unmatched even today. We had a great time demonstrating how the sound travels equally within the theatre regardless where you sit as long as the performer is within a triangle on the stage. 

The theater seated 14,000. It is huge. 

We made the trek to the top, 114 steps, it was a good workout. 

Even from the top row you could hear the students on the stage reading....it was not in English so we have no idea what they were reading. 

Our next stop was the castle in Mycenae which has an entrance called 'Lion Gate' that is one of the few ancient sites that was not completely buried over time. It is more like a fort on top of a mountain. 

It was a larger fort that overlooked and controlled the port as well as the surrounding area. Excavations in modern times found many artifacts and 40 pounds of gold that was buried in several graves inside the walls. 

It was another good hike and the views from the top are amazing.

A very short distance from the Lion Gate is a Mycenaean chamber tomb. The Treasury of Atreus or Tomb of Agamemnon is a large tholos or beehive tomb constructed between 1400 and 1200 BC, that is really old. 

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The inside is roughly 45ft in diameter and 40ft tall, although it looks much taller from inside. Bodies were left to decompose in the center of the tomb and then their bones were moved to a smaller chamber off to the side....yuk. 

On our way to Corinth we made a quick stop at a pottery shop. It was interesting to see how pottery is made. 

Looking at the pottery replicas it became obvious that Hitler liked Greek art also. 

We stopped for a nice lunch and then continued onto the Ancient Corinth Archeological Site and Museum. Corinth was a huge city in ancient times since it separated the Agean Sea with the Ionian Sea by only 6 kilometers. When the Romans came it was the first city they took and as was the rule back then they razed it to set an example for all other cities that would resist the Roman Empire. 

The Romans did rebuild much of it and the ruins clearly show a vibrant city between the seas.  

The main temple was for Apollo and was huge.

One of the coolest things about Corinth is that The Apostle Paul spent time here and wrote of this place in his letters to the Corinthians documented in the bible. I told Donna that 1000s of years from now people will say I am walking where Donna did because they will have read it in a Blog.  The bible is after all a very old Blog. 

On our way to Athens we stopped at the Corinth Canal that connects the Gulf of Corinth in the Ionian Sea with the Saronic Gulf in the Aegean Sea. It is a bit over 6 kilometers long but is not wide enough (85ft) for the big ships of today. It is still used by smaller vessels and Bungy Jumping since it is 200ft to the water surface. 

While at the Canal, I spotted a Ben and Jerry's cooler in a small store, too funny. 

As we entered Athens it became clear the citizens have returned from holiday and the streets were jammed. We planned to go to the hotel and then dinner, but due to traffic we unloaded near the Plaka and went on foot to our restaurant for our Farwell Dinner. 

We had a very nice dinner in a small restaurant in the Plaka. 

We even had live music. 

We left full and made our way through the lively streets to our waiting coach. 

Our last night in the Divani Palace  Acropolis hotel we had an even better view of the Parthenon. 

This was the end of our Trafalgar Tour. We have contact information for most of those on our tour and will stay in touch with some. Everyone got along swimmingly. 

I think we saw much more on the tour than we would have seen on our own and certainly came away with a better understanding of what we saw with the help of Nadine and the Local Specialists.  We saw and did a lot, although at times some had a bit of difficulty keeping up with the pace. 

Our Tour Director, Nadine, did a great job of 'herding cats' and always got us to where we needed to be on time. 

Our Driver, Cristos, was a master at the wheel and the Coach was like riding on a magic carpet most of the time. 

 

We will be staying another 3 nights to see a bit of Athens on our own and will be taking a one day cruise on Saturday to see some of the islands.