Greece - Athens and Santorini

After returning from our coach tour around the Greek mainland, David and I spent just half a day in Athens before heading out to the Cyclades to RELAX!

Our Athens half-day tour started out at the Olympic Stadium where the first modern Olympics in 1896 were held. The entire stadium is made out of marble, so all I could really think about was how uncomfortable those seats must get after sitting for hours watching competitions.

Down the street from the stadium, we viewed Hadrian’s Arch, built in 131 AD, and the Temple of Olympian Zeus nearby. This temple was even larger than the Parthenon when it was dedicated by Roman Emperor Hadrian in 132 AD. But only 15 of the original 104 Corinthian columns remain today, so it’s not nearly as famous as the Parthenon. Actually, I didn’t even know the temple existed until we drove past it. We were not able to tour the complex because most attractions close by 3:00 and we spent the majority of the day at the Acropolis. But here’s one of my suggestions to Greece that just might help boost the economy – extend normal working hours to at least 5:00 and don’t let your employees take siestas in the middle of the day. Yes, that is not just a Spanish custom. Some Greeks actually commute twice a day when they return to their jobs following their afternoon naps. Really? In today’s competitive, dog-eat-dog world, who can afford a nap in the middle of a working day?

 

Luckily we were up bright and early and ready to tour the New Acropolis Museum and surrounding areas before those attractions closed. The New Acropolis Museum is really cool. It was built to replace the outdated museum that was small and rundown. The new museum is all-glass and built over excavations. Because the floors are glass, you can see the ruins you’re walking over while you’re also walking through the museum. It’s like an excavation, ruin-overload.

After touring the museum, we walked up the Acropolis to the temple complex. I didn’t realize that there are more temples on the Acropolis than just the Parthenon. For example, there’s the Propylaia, which was built almost 2,500 years ago as a grand entrance to the Acropolis. The Temple of Nike (goddess of Victory) was constructed a few years after that. And around the same time, the Erechtheion was erected to mark the spot where Poseidon struck the earth with his trident and Athena’s olive tree sprouted. The citizens rejected Poseidon’s gift of water and chose the olive tree – hence the city’s name Athens… but again, not a true story. This building was used for a lot of different purposes, including the harem for the wives of the Turkish commander in the 15th century.

Before we made up to the Parthenon, we also stopped to admire the Theatre of Herodes Atticus, which is still in use today.

Finally, the grand finale – the Parthenon. This was the home of the enormous statue of Athena. No one really knows what happened to the statue, but it no longer exists. Throughout its history, the Parthenon was used as a church by the Christians (who were responsible for destroying many of the friezes), a mosque, and finally an arsenal for the Turks. During one of the battles against the Ottoman Empire, the Venetians stupidly fired cannon after cannon at the Parthenon. Since it was being used as an arsenal at the time, the building exploded. The roof collapsed, along with 14 outer columns. The Parthenon is currently being worked on, so there are a lot of cranes and construction equipment on-site.

After snapping some photos, we walked back down the Acropolis and stopped at Areopagos Hill, where Paul gave his sermon to the Athenians in 51 AD.

Then we continued downhill to the Ancient Agora. This was the marketplace, or the heart of ancient Athens, in 600 BC. It was the center of democracy, meetings, and courts. Socrates was charged and executed here in 399 BC.

We had lunch at a little café near the younger Roman Agora and then started walking back to our hotel after we found the Temple of Zeus closed. On the walk back, we discovered there were Roman baths in Athens just like the ones in Bath.

We also walked past the Vouli building, home to Parliament. The National Guard, or evzones, patrol the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier there. I thought their pom pom clogs were so strange, but I also noticed these were part of the costumes the townspeople wore during the traditional Eastern dances in Delphi. They are sold as fur-lined slippers all over the country and they were so comfy, that I had to get a pair of my own!

Our hotel was near the Monastiraki, home to the bazaar and flea market. So we made a full circle around this part of the city back to the hotel to pick up our bags. We were good and avoided buying anything! Plus we were in a hurry to catch our flight to Santorini!

Santorini was just as we had imagined – a beautiful island of clean white buildings clinging to cliff edges surrounded by the pristine, blue Aegean Sea.

We didn’t have any plans on Wednesday or Thursday, so David and I wandered around Fira early Wednesday afternoon. Fira is the capital of Santorini and home to the old port, where modern cruise ships dock. There were three cruise ships in port on Wednesday, so the town was full of visitors. Fira is also the largest town on Santorini, but that doesn’t say much because the entire island is less than 50 miles long. So the cobblestone alleys were quite crowded, but we managed to escape the throngs of people to get David his gyro (finally!) and tour some of the blue-domed churches.

Traditional Greek fast food, the Gyro -

Lamb meat carved off the spit with lettuce, tzatziki and French fries all wrapped up in a pita.

Later that afternoon, we took the bus to Oia. The buses on Santorini are great! They are not normal city buses, but more like coaches. The timetables are great when there are a lot of tourists around. They run constantly between all of the cities on the island and each ride is only a Euro. Plus you can ask the bus driver to stop at a certain place (like we did with our hotel, halfway between Fira and Oia) and they will! However, we tried using the buses again later in the week when there were no cruise ships and very little tourists and then the timetables were normal – only one bus an hour.

The ride to Oia was terrifying though! The road winds its way around the island, making the curves and turns very steep. Plus the bus was huge and the road is so narrow. But the drive was worth it! Oia is the most traditional town in Santorini. It was carefully reconstructed after a major earthquake in the 50s. There is also an old Venetian castle and from what we heard, over 70 chapels in the tiny town. The rumor was that if you constructed a chapel first, your home would be tax-free. So on every street, there are numerous private chapels. The town is also supposedly haunted by vampires, which explains the need for so many chapels. We also noticed the ancient cave houses would be perfect homes for the vampers.

After finding the cutest bookstore I’ve ever seen in my life and the most delicious-looking patisserie, David and I caught the bus to our hotel in Imerovigli. Imerovigli is one of the highest points of the island, from which you can see the lighthouse at Faros and the pastel-colored homes of Oia. It’s also the perfect place for a sunset dinner!

It was a little too early for dinner just yet, so David and I spent the rest of the evening swimming in the heated pool and lounging on the sundeck of our hotel. We felt like we were on our second honeymoon at our hotel, the Santorini Princess. It was an absolutely gorgeous hotel and the staff took such good care of us! They took us on a tour of the facilities when we showed up and introduced us to the small staff. They also brought us champagne when we arrived and gave us a bottle of wine when we left. And they would not let us do anything for ourselves, whether it was pouring some water at dinner or laying our towels out on the pool chaises. We loved it there!

On Thursday the hotel arranged for us to rent an ATV to get around to the lesser-known parts of the island. Our first stop was Senor Zorbas, a Mexican restaurant near Fira. Our friends told us about this place when they visited on their honeymoon. It was closed for them, but open for us. So we had to try it. And actually, it was pretty good. I loved the Machos Nachos! Probably not the best meal before laying out in a bikini, but I didn’t care.

We drove a bit further around the island to Akrotiri and then hiked to the Red Beach. This beach gets its name from the red lava cliffs curving around the sea. It’s a beautiful beach and it wasn’t too crowded when we were there. The only way to reach the beach is by boat or hiking around the cliff. We just sunbathed, but there were some crazies swimming in the cold water. We figured they were from Scotland or something and considered the Aegean warm compared to the North Sea.

Then we headed to Faros to see the lighthouse and hike around that end of the island.

We discovered a small black beach near there, but we wanted to see the real thing so we drove to Kamari, a quaint beach town near ancient Thira. Ancient Thira, unfortunately, had closed at 2:30 that day. I was not surprised, but still disappointed. But we had fun walking along the 5-mile stretch of black beach and then back down the boardwalk, lined with swimwear shops, restaurants, and hotels.

It was starting to get a bit colder by then so David and I drove the ATV back to Imerovigli. We walked through the small town and grabbed a small dinner at the local bakery. On the way to the bakery, we saw the cutest stray puppies hanging out in the yards of an abandoned church. Their mama was not happy that I was talking to them and taking pictures because she barked the whole time. So at the bakery, we decided to buy some food for them but they were gone when we got back. I guess the mama sensed a storm was a-brewing and sought shelter for her and her pups. And it did rain all night, which was fine by us, as long as it stopped by the morning. Which it did – whew!

Because the next day we had booked a boat cruise around the island. We started off at the old port in Fira, where we walked down over 500 steps to get from the top of the cliff to the sea. For travellers heading back up, they can either use the traditional donkey to carry them or the modern cable car.

Our first stop on the cruise was the volcano, which is still active. When the volcano exploded in 1450 BC a massive tsunami traveled as far as Crete and wiped out the entire island. Santorini was also flooded and more recent volcanic activity has made the island what it is today. Because most of the original island was buried undersea, Santorini is considered the perfect candidate for the lost civilization of Atlantis.

Our boat docked in the green waters around the volcano. The water is green due to the sulphur. The hike up and back down the volcano takes about an hour. During very hot days, the entire path smokes, but because the temperature was only in the 70s on Thursday, there was very little steam. There are some holes in the ground where you can feel the heat from the pockets of steam. The rocks inside the holes are so hot they’ll burn your skin off, but we were able to hold our hands over the holes and feel the heat – like an oven.

After our hike we sailed around the volcano to the chapel of St. Nikolaos and the natural hot springs. The hot springs are behind the chapel in brown, sulphur-stinking waters.

The tour guide warned us that the hot springs aren't actually hot in the Spring, just warm. And the brown water will stain any light-colored swimsuits. To make matters worse, the ship’s captain announced the water was too shallow to anchor near the springs, so he’d stop out in the Aegean and we would have to swim to the springs. So David and I said no thanks, and decided to stay on the boat…

That lasted all of 3 minutes before we came to our senses and realized, when are we going to be in Greece again with the chance to swim through the Aegean to volcanic hot springs? Maybe never, so we sucked it up and jumped overboard.

THE WATER WAS FREEZING! When I was younger, I fell through the ice in Minnesota during a hike around our family’s hunting cabin. Even then, I only fell in up to my waist, but that was the coldest water I have ever been in. The Aegean comes in second. But as we started swimming towards the chapel, the water got warmer and warmer. That was incentive to swim as fast as we could to the brown, muddy waters. David and I found a couple of holes in the ground where the hot bubbles came up and sat right down on top of them. These were definitely the warmest spots around. But the whole time we were sitting there all we could think about was the terrible swim BACK through the Aegean to the boat. Needless to say, we did not want to leave.

On warmer days, there is a bar/restaurant on the rocks and people can swim up and order their food and drinks and relax in the springs all day if they want. But this was not one of those days. Plus we needed to finish our tour. So we braved the water and got back on the boat and headed to Thirassia for lunch. Thirassia is a tiny island in the caldera of Santorini. There are only about 300 inhabitants. We had lunch there and then lied on some hot rocks on the beach and enjoyed the sun for about an hour before leaving.

We were dropped off at Oia and told we could walk up the 300 steps to get to the village. I didn’t think 300 steps would be that bad, since we had just completed 500 on the way down to Fira’s port. But going up is soooo much worse. It was horrible. Every few minutes I had to stop and pretend like I was taking pictures to catch my breath. When we got to the top, I needed some chocolate so we stopped at the patisserie I had noticed a couple of days before and split a milkshake and cake.

For our last day in the Cyclades, we had booked a very popular wine tour. There were three other couples in our tour group. One of the couples was from Washington state, another from Australia, and the others from England. The couple from London actually lives in the same borough as us – small world! And we already knew the Australians from our half-day Athens tour. They were also on the same flights to/from Santorini with us. On the flight out of Santorini Sunday, we also happened to be on the same flight as a couple from Boston who were on our 3-day coach tour. Even though Greece is full of millions of people, we kept running into the same people over and over again!

The wine tour was a lot of fun and took us to three different vineyards around the island. The vines are grown very close to the ground in Santorini, unlike in Napa and Sonoma, which we toured a few years ago. This is to protect the grapes from the wrath of the sun. My favorite wine was the Vinsanto, a sweet dessert wine produced only in Santorini. But Santorini is also famous for its white wins, so I enjoyed most of them. And even though David is more a fan of the reds, he really liked them too.

And that was it! David and I had gyros again for lunch, walked around Fira one last time, and then relaxed back at the hotel before catching a 6AM flight (gross!) back to London on Sunday.

Overall it was an amazing vacation. We saw a lot of historical places, had a lot of fun, and got a chance to relax as well. To view all of the pictures from our trip, click here.