When your 25th Anniversary and your wife’s milestone birthday (we won’t say which one so as to keep the peace in the household) fall within a week of each other you better make sure to celebrate it in a big way. So we are off on a Greek Odyssey to celebrate these momentous occasions and at the same time trying to extend our summer for as long as possible.
Apparently we skipped town at the right time as we read and watched the news about the insane weather that hit the Oregon coast and the Pacific Northwest. An actual damage-inflicting tornado touched down in the coastal town of Manzanita which is located very close to our favorite beach town of Cannon Beach. Let’s just say that is not the norm in Oregon which rarely sees extreme weather of that sort.
Athens
After an easy direct flight from Portland to Amsterdam we hopped an Aegean Airlines flight to Athens and the let the Greek Odyssey begin.
Athens is a sprawling city of 3.5 million that certainly appears densely packed as seen in the picture above taken from part way up the Acropolis. We didn’t venture too far out of the central part of the city as there were plenty of attractions and entertainment venues available for our short 3 night stay.
The Acropolis at sunset with the near full moon rising.
And due to Athens’ long history it has a central city like no other in the world in that it is dominated by the Acropolis and it’s ancient buildings which have been around for thousands of years. Construction on the Parthenon started in 447 BC – it boggles the mind. The buildings are under constant renovation but are still stunning. Just knowing that the likes of Plato and Aristotle inhabited this area and literally walked the same paths that you are walking gives you a spiritual link to the past.
Temple of Athena Nike at sunrise.
The Parthenon – the restoration efforts we saw on our visit in 1999 are still ongoing.
The Temple of Hephaestus
The Erechtheion is an ancient Greek temple on the north side of the Acropolis of Athens which was dedicated to both Athena and Poseidon. This picture captures the Caryatid Porch at sunrise.
We beat the tour buses up the hill and were able to get a picture without the masses intruding. By 9:30 AM the place was packed.
You can’t go up the onto the Acropolis at night but they light the buildings of the Acropolis at night and you can take pictures from various spots in the city.
The Greek version of changing of the guards -pompoms on the shoes and all. The ceremony reminds one a bit of the Monty Python skit about the Ministry of Silly Walks. – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=122jTAEsEOk
The Panathenaic Stadium with the statue of the discus thrower in the foreground. This stadium opened in 566 BC and was renovated in 1896 and used as the site of the first modern Olympic games. The stadium holds 60,000 people and is made entirely of marble.
The Pelion Region of Greece
When I started researching where to go in Greece the Pelion region kept popping up on people’s lists of places to go. And it seemed like it offered some features that we love to explore in our travels. Uncrowded in the shoulder seasons, good hiking, hill towns and beach towns, no mega resorts, not too touristy, outstanding food, and friendly people. It did not disappoint.
We rented a car at the airport and off we went. The roads getting to the region were relatively new and in good shape. Plenty of rest stops and places to get gas and food. Lots of tunnels, lots of toll booths, and the mountainous scenery combined with fingers of the Aegean Sea jutting into view here and there made for a lovely drive.
At one point we passed Thermopylae and we checked our history book and saw this was the spot where the battle took place that inspired the movie 300. King Leonidas of Sparta fought Xerxes I, King of the Persian Empire over the course of three days and held out against overwhelming odds before finally succumbing to the superior numbers of the Persians.
Our host did not know the English name for these octopus like creatures that they caught in the bay near our hotel. I later saw a similar picture in Lonely Planet and it said they were calamari but I am not sure that is correct,
This cafe was in a little town called Chorto that we visited while touring the area.
We found grapes. And where there are grapes there is wine. And where there is wine you can find the Vagabond Winos. We saw some local restaurateurs hand pressing grapes they picked from the arbor above their patio. Very cool.
Fishing boats – Milina, Greece
The money shot as they say – this was the view from Stefano’s Taverna the evening we arrived in Lefokastro and is my favorite shot of the area.