http://www.photoshop.com/users/richardjlee/albums/4af2366bcf8e401fa2e3dd82c99940e5?wf=slideshow
Note: click on the small *SOLID* triangle to get the slideshow to work
... τρέχει ΜƐΛƖΝΔΑ!
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Thursday, November 11, 2010
The end of the road - Part 3 (The Peloponnese)
We picked up our Fiat Panda at the port in Piraeus (Athens' port) from Budget, chosen mainly due to its very conveninet location close to the cruiseship terminal.
The agent explained that a service to drive you out or in of Athens/Pireaeus was available at 15 euros per direction. Having taken a cab to the port originally through Piraeus' warren of one-way unlabelled streets, I understood why this service was offered, or could be useful. We did have a GPS but couldn’t get it work for us. It seemed to fail to recognize any destination outside of the Athens prefecture.
'STOP' signs re larger than they are here but don't mean what we North Americans think. I found that out very soon after picking up the car and coming to a complete stop at the first sign, only have several cars start honking at me. Apparently 'stop' here only means yield.
Penalties for traffic violations are stiff - I was told 1500 euros for running a red light. Driving through Kalamata I noticed that many overhead traffic signals at minor intersections were not operating that morning. A while later, I noticed that while some overhead traffic lights weren't working, other lights barely 6 feet off the ground and way over to the right next to the sidewalk were working ... ! I don't think I ran through any red lights - I may find out if I get a summons in the mail.
Drivers in Greece do not turn on their headlights during the day. For our own safety, I chose to turn ours on especially as we drove thru some small settlements where the space between 2 buildings (on the main road) allowed for only one car to pass through at a time
Speed limit signs are posted regularly throughout the eastern and central Peloponnese. However I discovered that there were very few 'resume speed' signs; not being keen on paying fines, this meant I went much slower than necessary much of the time. Apparently it's ok to resume speed as soon as you are past a settlement - just hope you don't make that judgement at the wrong place. I encountered very little police presence on the roads. In the Mani, I saw virtually no speed signs whatsoever - perhaps due to the recognized fiercely independent nature of Maniots.
In spite of beautiful scenery enountered all over the Pelopennese, there are very few places where you can stop and take a quality picture. Many of mine are simply shot while moving, with loss of quality
Beautiful flowering shrubs and bushes everywhere. Offset occasionally by a garbage dump alongside the main road
There are virtually no public WCs outside of Athens. This made the day-long drives uncomfortable at times
There are many small (size of a rural mail box) roadside chapels throughout. The ones in the south were beautifully made and kept; those near Mycenae were rusted and smashed.
There was a wide variety of plant life, even in the same location - confers mixed with deciduous, olive groves, a tall cypress, palms, bougainvillias
'STOP' signs re larger than they are here but don't mean what we North Americans think. I found that out very soon after picking up the car and coming to a complete stop at the first sign, only have several cars start honking at me. Apparently 'stop' here only means yield.
Penalties for traffic violations are stiff - I was told 1500 euros for running a red light. Driving through Kalamata I noticed that many overhead traffic signals at minor intersections were not operating that morning. A while later, I noticed that while some overhead traffic lights weren't working, other lights barely 6 feet off the ground and way over to the right next to the sidewalk were working ... ! I don't think I ran through any red lights - I may find out if I get a summons in the mail.
Drivers in Greece do not turn on their headlights during the day. For our own safety, I chose to turn ours on especially as we drove thru some small settlements where the space between 2 buildings (on the main road) allowed for only one car to pass through at a time
Speed limit signs are posted regularly throughout the eastern and central Peloponnese. However I discovered that there were very few 'resume speed' signs; not being keen on paying fines, this meant I went much slower than necessary much of the time. Apparently it's ok to resume speed as soon as you are past a settlement - just hope you don't make that judgement at the wrong place. I encountered very little police presence on the roads. In the Mani, I saw virtually no speed signs whatsoever - perhaps due to the recognized fiercely independent nature of Maniots.
In spite of beautiful scenery enountered all over the Pelopennese, there are very few places where you can stop and take a quality picture. Many of mine are simply shot while moving, with loss of quality
Beautiful flowering shrubs and bushes everywhere. Offset occasionally by a garbage dump alongside the main road
There are virtually no public WCs outside of Athens. This made the day-long drives uncomfortable at times
There are many small (size of a rural mail box) roadside chapels throughout. The ones in the south were beautifully made and kept; those near Mycenae were rusted and smashed.
There was a wide variety of plant life, even in the same location - confers mixed with deciduous, olive groves, a tall cypress, palms, bougainvillias
Outside of Athens, you are requested not to put anything in the toilets, including any paper products. I found bathroom tissue everywhere we traveled in Greece to be of good quality; none of that waxy stuff we sometimes get in public places here in N.A.
Children: Syntagma Square in Nafplio is ringed with restaurants, much like Piazza Navona in Rome only smaller. While we had supper, a dozens of kids were playing soccer, riding scooters, playing games etc. – many of their parents were having supper along with us. It was a heart-warming family scene.
Oh the times when I wished my camera had been ready while driving the Mani.
- a ‘rickshaw’ contraption containing an older couple being pulled by what looked like a self-propelled lawn mower
- a John Deere tractor driven by a middle-aged man pulling a wagon with wooden slats on which his elderly folks were sitting on dining room chairs
- a Holstein cow emerging from a sidestreet in a village seemingly looking at the road behind us to see if it was safe to cross
- a tourist from the land of indifferent/rude waiters descending a tour bus at Mycenae and looking at our car (unaware of being observed) and saying “Hunh, Fiat … and then hunh, Bood-jet” – the irony of him being on public transportation not being obvious to him in his snobby attitude
- my face as all of a sudden I found myself slaloming our car thru café tables on the main street in Aeropoli.
The Greek alphabet. The time I spent studying it before going to Greece (in spite of bringing back painful memories of trigonometry) was worth the effort. One can get away with English only even in the Mani but English signs are sometimes few and far between, and often much later than the Greek ones. Knowing sooner rather than later was quite comforting and helped to minimize stress while driving.
Seeing the graves of Castor and Pollux near Kardamyli. Who knew you could actually see the graves of the stars of a major constellation?
Thank you, Greece!
Thn end of the road - Part 2 (Cruise)
I had never heard of Louis Cruise Lines before this trip. Not expecting the standard of our last two cruises on Celebrity, we were satisfied with the ship, the very attentive crew and the food - we considered it unspectacular but good value.
The evening shows were fairly short (vs major cruise lines) but entertaining - the Greek folk dancing show was excellent.
The only negative was the request not to dispose of *ANYTHING* in the toilets - gift wrapping bathroom tissue for the wastebasket became an acquired skill.
An attempt at booking the cruise directly with Louis Cruise Lines originally went unanswered so we found an Athens-based agency that could book us. The agency, Atlantis Travel got us an even better deal as we got a free upgrade as well as one night in a four-star hotel at no charge.
There was a real mixture of nationalities on the cruise - all public announcements were made in four languages: English, Spanish, German and of course Greek. There was also some 80+ marathoners aboard.
Our most memorable crew member was Darick the waiter on the 5th deck aft. Learning that he was from Goa, India and noticing that was obviously a devout Roman Catholic, I recalled that St. Francis Xavier was closely associated with Goa and pointed out my X-ring, as well as Melinda and Glen's. As it turned out, he knew even more about the life and death of St. Francis Xavier than I did!
The Cristal's itinerary was very charged; with the exception of Rhodes, time in port was very limited. For the ports we had not visited previously (i.e. Patmos and Crete), I was very tempted to take the cruise line's overpriced tours to avoid the risk of missing the ship but decided to strike out on my own instead. I was fortunate to find two like-minded cruisers, Rafael and Antigone from Chile, with whom to share taxis in both ports and save considerable time and cash.
---
We had barely gotten underway when we hit our first port-of-call, Mykonos. As we had been there previously, the fact that we were off-season and night was just around the corner, we passed on the opportunity to go into town.
The good ship 'Cristal', docked in Mykonos.
---
The next morning had us in Kušadasi (Turkey) where they really like to deal. After negotiating an acceptable price for a genuine fake Rolex, the merchant then pressed me to visit his leather-dealing cousin across the alley, which I did. I was soon surrounded by friendly staff and served tea (standard business practise in Turkey) and soon looking debonair and slimmer in a nice cream-coloured jacket whose 'leather' felt like 'buttah' - 700 euros said he. When I feigned choking, the price dropped to 250. Washable leather I was told ... "so real you can take a flame to it, watch this lighter on the sleeve". Impressed and still looking very fine I told him I unfortunately didn't really need another leather jacket. 'But life is not just for the things you need, you have to treat yourself' he says. I responded that 'I would not be here today traveling in retirement if I had spent my life buying everything I wanted instead of what I really needed'. The price dropped to 125 - nope. He asked me to name a price. Still feeling svelte and dashing (but still wondering about this interesting 'washable leather'), I suggested I might be tempted at 50 euros. Alas, no deal was reached.
---
Little Patmos was quite charming in itself but also intruiguing due to its association with the apostle St. John the Divine who settled here after leaving the Virgin Mary near Ephesus.
Entrance to the Cave of the Apocalypse where it is said that God dictated the Book of Revelations to him.
View of the town from the monastery.
Back in town, I found a newspaper with the complete results of the marathon. The fourth column, about 1/4 of the way down tells the tale.
---
In Rhodes I discovered the real cost of 'free' wi-fi, with at least some restaurants. In my case the small gyro plate was 10 euros with 20% of the meat being pure fat; 3 euros for a dash of tzatziki sauce, and a fountain Coke at 5 euros. Some fellow cruisers discovered that their large glasses of beers cost 18 euros apiece!
Rhodes was also the site of a self-induced panic for us. I went to an ATM to get some cash using P's ATM card, which she never uses. It seemed to accept the PIN ok when I started the transaction but as I came to withdraw the cash, it asked for the PIN again. I got a error message about the PIN. Thinking I had entered it in error, I carefully entered it again - again the error message. Finally, the machine kept the card "for my own security" and so we began to stress about the possibility of not being able to obtain cash if my card also had PIN problems. What was the real scoop? - P had given me her old ATM card which required the PIN that we had long forgotten. Whew, no problem!
---
It was our first time on the island of Crete and took advantage of our docking in Heraklion to visit the ruins of Knossos, the palace of the early Minoan civilization.
My favourite sight in Heraklion was the cathedral
the ceiling being especially beautiful.
Cretans are fond of their fine-feathered friends. We were told that the square holes in a viaduct had been made so that birds could nest there. :-)
Heraklion's Venetian fortress
---
Santorini was its usual spectacular self.
After some nibblies and wine
we had to return to the ship leaving this scene for Melinda and Glen's last days in Greece while we returned to Athens.
The evening shows were fairly short (vs major cruise lines) but entertaining - the Greek folk dancing show was excellent.
The only negative was the request not to dispose of *ANYTHING* in the toilets - gift wrapping bathroom tissue for the wastebasket became an acquired skill.
An attempt at booking the cruise directly with Louis Cruise Lines originally went unanswered so we found an Athens-based agency that could book us. The agency, Atlantis Travel got us an even better deal as we got a free upgrade as well as one night in a four-star hotel at no charge.
There was a real mixture of nationalities on the cruise - all public announcements were made in four languages: English, Spanish, German and of course Greek. There was also some 80+ marathoners aboard.
Our most memorable crew member was Darick the waiter on the 5th deck aft. Learning that he was from Goa, India and noticing that was obviously a devout Roman Catholic, I recalled that St. Francis Xavier was closely associated with Goa and pointed out my X-ring, as well as Melinda and Glen's. As it turned out, he knew even more about the life and death of St. Francis Xavier than I did!
The Cristal's itinerary was very charged; with the exception of Rhodes, time in port was very limited. For the ports we had not visited previously (i.e. Patmos and Crete), I was very tempted to take the cruise line's overpriced tours to avoid the risk of missing the ship but decided to strike out on my own instead. I was fortunate to find two like-minded cruisers, Rafael and Antigone from Chile, with whom to share taxis in both ports and save considerable time and cash.
---
We had barely gotten underway when we hit our first port-of-call, Mykonos. As we had been there previously, the fact that we were off-season and night was just around the corner, we passed on the opportunity to go into town.
---
The next morning had us in Kušadasi (Turkey) where they really like to deal. After negotiating an acceptable price for a genuine fake Rolex, the merchant then pressed me to visit his leather-dealing cousin across the alley, which I did. I was soon surrounded by friendly staff and served tea (standard business practise in Turkey) and soon looking debonair and slimmer in a nice cream-coloured jacket whose 'leather' felt like 'buttah' - 700 euros said he. When I feigned choking, the price dropped to 250. Washable leather I was told ... "so real you can take a flame to it, watch this lighter on the sleeve". Impressed and still looking very fine I told him I unfortunately didn't really need another leather jacket. 'But life is not just for the things you need, you have to treat yourself' he says. I responded that 'I would not be here today traveling in retirement if I had spent my life buying everything I wanted instead of what I really needed'. The price dropped to 125 - nope. He asked me to name a price. Still feeling svelte and dashing (but still wondering about this interesting 'washable leather'), I suggested I might be tempted at 50 euros. Alas, no deal was reached.
---
Little Patmos was quite charming in itself but also intruiguing due to its association with the apostle St. John the Divine who settled here after leaving the Virgin Mary near Ephesus.
Entrance to the Cave of the Apocalypse where it is said that God dictated the Book of Revelations to him.
r
Back in town, I found a newspaper with the complete results of the marathon. The fourth column, about 1/4 of the way down tells the tale.
---
In Rhodes I discovered the real cost of 'free' wi-fi, with at least some restaurants. In my case the small gyro plate was 10 euros with 20% of the meat being pure fat; 3 euros for a dash of tzatziki sauce, and a fountain Coke at 5 euros. Some fellow cruisers discovered that their large glasses of beers cost 18 euros apiece!
Rhodes was also the site of a self-induced panic for us. I went to an ATM to get some cash using P's ATM card, which she never uses. It seemed to accept the PIN ok when I started the transaction but as I came to withdraw the cash, it asked for the PIN again. I got a error message about the PIN. Thinking I had entered it in error, I carefully entered it again - again the error message. Finally, the machine kept the card "for my own security" and so we began to stress about the possibility of not being able to obtain cash if my card also had PIN problems. What was the real scoop? - P had given me her old ATM card which required the PIN that we had long forgotten. Whew, no problem!
---
It was our first time on the island of Crete and took advantage of our docking in Heraklion to visit the ruins of Knossos, the palace of the early Minoan civilization.
My favourite sight in Heraklion was the cathedral
the ceiling being especially beautiful.
Cretans are fond of their fine-feathered friends. We were told that the square holes in a viaduct had been made so that birds could nest there. :-)
Heraklion's Venetian fortress
---
Santorini was its usual spectacular self.
After some nibblies and wine
we had to return to the ship leaving this scene for Melinda and Glen's last days in Greece while we returned to Athens.
The end of the road - Part 1 (Athens)
The hi-lite of the entire trip was of course Melinda and Glen achieving their objectives for their races. For us it was a special thrill to be able to get out at various spots along the course to greet her waving the flag and encouraging her (and several other Canadians) on. In spite of her injured foot, we knew that Glen's joining her at Km 34 meant that there was no way that she would be denied.
And here she was crossing the finishing line ...
... and then doing her best Rafael Nadal impersonation.
The following is some random memories and thoughts of our 2 weeks in Greece.
- I was upset when I picked up my checked bag only to find that in order to cut off my lock, someone cut thru the zipper's loops meaning I'll never be able to lock it again. Pauline's lock was cut off as well. Air France's website states that it's ok to lock your bag. My complaint to AF has fallen on deaf ears - security can do what they want if your bag is suspicious to them.
- we found Greeks to be very friendly. Not necessarily in terms of initiating contact themselves but in being very receptive and patient when asked for help, even when English was not easy for them.
- we appreciated restaurant touts inviting us to look at their menus and then not badgering us afterwards. Similarly in stores, no pressure to buy and while ready to help, no hovering suspecting that you were going to steal something. As a general rule there seemed to be no tendency for shopowners to bargain
- prior to the race, we must have entered several dozen stores looking for a Grecian urn with runners as the prime motif which I thought would make the perfect memento for our runners. I was just about to give up and settle for warriors, gods or something similar when one merchant advised me not to give up ... he assured me I'd find one somewhere in Athens. He was right.
- we never tired of the popular gyros in Athens as well as the souvlaki and delicious moussaka. One particularly memorable new culinary dish was 'bekri meze' (pork in a spicy tomato-ey saucy). The only disappointment regarding food (very common throughout Europe in our experience) was the serving of French fries as an accompaniment to most dishes.
- we are so lucky that so much of Europe understands English, Greece included. The Greek language is not easy.
- free public wi-fi in Athens' Syntagma Square is a wonderful initiative
- while being shortchanged and overcharged was a common occurance and a constant concern in another Mediterranean major tourist destination, it never happened to us here
And here she was crossing the finishing line ...
... and then doing her best Rafael Nadal impersonation.
The following is some random memories and thoughts of our 2 weeks in Greece.
- I was upset when I picked up my checked bag only to find that in order to cut off my lock, someone cut thru the zipper's loops meaning I'll never be able to lock it again. Pauline's lock was cut off as well. Air France's website states that it's ok to lock your bag. My complaint to AF has fallen on deaf ears - security can do what they want if your bag is suspicious to them.
- we found Greeks to be very friendly. Not necessarily in terms of initiating contact themselves but in being very receptive and patient when asked for help, even when English was not easy for them.
- we appreciated restaurant touts inviting us to look at their menus and then not badgering us afterwards. Similarly in stores, no pressure to buy and while ready to help, no hovering suspecting that you were going to steal something. As a general rule there seemed to be no tendency for shopowners to bargain
- prior to the race, we must have entered several dozen stores looking for a Grecian urn with runners as the prime motif which I thought would make the perfect memento for our runners. I was just about to give up and settle for warriors, gods or something similar when one merchant advised me not to give up ... he assured me I'd find one somewhere in Athens. He was right.
- we never tired of the popular gyros in Athens as well as the souvlaki and delicious moussaka. One particularly memorable new culinary dish was 'bekri meze' (pork in a spicy tomato-ey saucy). The only disappointment regarding food (very common throughout Europe in our experience) was the serving of French fries as an accompaniment to most dishes.
- we are so lucky that so much of Europe understands English, Greece included. The Greek language is not easy.
- free public wi-fi in Athens' Syntagma Square is a wonderful initiative
- while being shortchanged and overcharged was a common occurance and a constant concern in another Mediterranean major tourist destination, it never happened to us here
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Nov 8 - vanished
My entry for Nov 8 seems to have disappeared in the ether. It was quite lengthy in terms of text describing the day we spent interacting with the residents of two Greek villages in the Mani.
Will try to recapture some of it in my concluding summary.
Will try to recapture some of it in my concluding summary.
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Nov 9 - it ends at the beginning
We left Kardamyli for our drive across the Pelopennese and back to Athens to fly home.
But first our final stop - a visit at Mycenae, the capital of the first civilization that would become what we know as the Greeks, over a thousand years before the glory days of the Athenian city-state of Plato and Socrates.
The Lion's Gate entrance
The Tomb of Agamemnon.
The lintel above the doorway weighs 120 tons - the biggest stones of the Egyptian pyramids weighed 30 tons.
The tomb's domed ceiling - over 1000 years before Rome's Pantheon.
Final evening view of the Acropolis, from our hotel.
-- Post From My iPhone
Sunday, November 7, 2010
Last night in Greece
Our last day was spent traveling from Santorini to Athens then shopping and just walking around the hood.
Stopped for another kebab at the same place on "souvlaki row". Awesome once again - especially since I could have a Mythos with it this time! The square was packed and crazy as usual.
Bought a bottle of homemade wine from a little shop close to the hotel to have a few drinks before supper - awesome store, I wanted to buy so much but... no room! Here is the guy pouring it from the taps in the wall
After getting everything squished into the backpacks, we went back to the Plaka for supper to one of Rick Steves' recommended places that makes ouzo and serves mezes. Wicked app night - choose 5 of 18 mezes for €28 including also water, bread, half a liter of wine, and dessert!
We couldn't eat all the cheese pies so I had the los for breakfast!
Up at 5am this morning and on the metro by 6 to be at the airport in plenty of time for our flight. Dreading the long day of travel but will be glad to get in my own bed tonight and pick up my girl tomorrow!!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Stopped for another kebab at the same place on "souvlaki row". Awesome once again - especially since I could have a Mythos with it this time! The square was packed and crazy as usual.
Bought a bottle of homemade wine from a little shop close to the hotel to have a few drinks before supper - awesome store, I wanted to buy so much but... no room! Here is the guy pouring it from the taps in the wall
After getting everything squished into the backpacks, we went back to the Plaka for supper to one of Rick Steves' recommended places that makes ouzo and serves mezes. Wicked app night - choose 5 of 18 mezes for €28 including also water, bread, half a liter of wine, and dessert!
We couldn't eat all the cheese pies so I had the los for breakfast!
Up at 5am this morning and on the metro by 6 to be at the airport in plenty of time for our flight. Dreading the long day of travel but will be glad to get in my own bed tonight and pick up my girl tomorrow!!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Location:Προς Αφίξεις,Spata,Greece
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)