Last day in Greece

We flew from Crete to Athens on Saturday afternoon, spending the night at a hotel near the airport in order to catch our flight home early Sunday. Saturday morning before our flight we drove back into Heraklion, originally planning to do some shopping, but instead we spent the morning exploring the Venetian port in Heraklion. We also drove on the old National road along the coast rather than the new road, which is more of a freeway. Much slower, but a very nice drive with beautiful views. We arrived back at the airport well in time for our Aegean airlines flight to Athens. Great service on Aegean Air, although they do charge for checked bags, 30 Euros each. Upon arrival, we walked out the airport and walked right across the street to the Sofitel. lovely hotel, very nice room and incredibly convenient.

Since we got into Athens in mid afternoon and the Acropolis Museum is open until 8, we decided to head in for a visit. We took the train from the airport into Athens. I would recommend the train to any visitors. From the airport, the first few stops are considered to be "suburban rail", and once it gets closer into the city, it's considered light rail. So it takes a little while, the first stops being relatively far apart.  But it's inexpensive - 14 Euros round trip - and it's clean and easy. It does get crowded, even on a Saturday night.  

We got into the museum and spent a couple of hours looking at antiquities mostly coming from the Acropolis. It's a very nice space, the building itself is airy and light and with good views of the Acropolis itself. The rooms are large, which is important as the house lots of very large marble statues. You sort of feel like you're walking through a garden of these huge statues. My favorites were the Caryatid, very large statues of women that were taken from an entryway where they were holding up the roof. There were originally six of them, the Acropolis museum has 5, including one that has been damaged by a Turkish cannon ball.  Here's a couple of photos of them. 

After our time in the museum, we headed up to Syntagma Square in central Athens and the Plaka.  These are the lively areas in Athens, lots of activity, restaurants, street artists etc. also very easy to get to on the light rail. We ate dinner at a nice traditional place right off the Plaka, sitting outside enjoying watching people go by. The food was good, we somehow miscommunicated with our waiter and both ended up with the same lamb dish, but it was excellent. Gordon thinks the communication went wrong because the waiter was drunk. He could be right.  We then took the train back to our hotel, had a nightcap in the very nice lobby bar and headed up for a couple of hours sleep before our 4 a.m. wake up call.  

Our flight from Athens to Rome left at six a.m. And we had a three hour layover in Rome before the 13-hour long flight back to LA.  Alitalia's service was much better on the way back!  The flights left on time, and the experience at Rome was so much better. I think that's because all non- EU flights come in to one very busy terminal. Because we flew from Athens we came into a much quieter terminal, had an easy time at passport control and then got on the bus to the larger international terminal, where we just had to wait for our flight.  We had a nice breakfast and then flew back to the U.S.  It was a long tiring day.  

We had a great time in both Athens and Crete, and would recommend it to anyone. A couple of pieces of advice: driving is crazy, just try to pay attention.  Credit cards are not accepted in some places you would expect, so do have cash.  Athens is better for credit cards than Crete. Be prepared to walk on hilly and uneven surfaces. Take time for the museums and historical sites. Enjoy the food!  And take your time at meals. Island hopping is expensive, but so worth it.  Wine tasting on Crete and Santorini is unexpectedly good. 

Greece Day 6

On our last full day in Crete, we decided to head into the city of Heraklion to visit the museum and do other touristy things.  So we headed out early in the morning. This is the day that Gordon really learned to drive Crete-style. We headed in on the national road, but then we got into Heraklion, where we had to negotiate city driving and parking. I was not a good navigator finding it very hard to match up the street signs with the streets on the map!  But eventually we got parked and walked toward the museum, finding it with some help from very friendly local people.

The Heraklion Archaelogical Museum (http://www.heraklion.gr/en/ourplace/archeological-museum/archeological-museum.html) has a fabulous collection of Minoan antiquities, particularly from Knossos and other Minoan palaces on the island. The collection also includes pieces that represent Crete's Greek and even Venetian influence. My favorite, however, are the frescoes from the palace at Knossos including the famous Dolphins.

It is really a spectacular collection. The museum itself is not huge. We spent a couple of hours in there, although I am sure we could have spent more time. It's just a lot to take in all at once!

We headed out of the museum into the walking area in Heraklion, which is full of shopping and restaurants. There are also a couple of examples of the Venetian influence on Crete here. However, the signs of the crisis, graffiti in particular, are all over. Here's a picture of the Venetian Loggia in the center of town.  It is beautiful, but not in great shape and with much graffiti. We walked the town, did some touristy shopping and then also took time to have the fish pedicure. You put your feet in a tank of little fishes that eat the dead skin, leaving behind nice soft skin. Very weird. Very ticklish.  But my feet did feel softer!

We headed back to the Villa and the Gordon and I headed to the beach to swim and snorkel. The water felt great, although it was actually one of the cooler days. Gordon snorkeled, but unfortunately the Mediterranean and Aegean are pretty devoid of marine life, having been pretty much fished out. It is not like being in the Caribbean or even Hawaii. But the water is spectacularly clear and blue.  We finished the day with a meal cooked on the grill, using nice local ingredients picked up at the local market and butcher. Just a great spot here!  

Greece Day 5

The thing I had been most looking forward to was going to Santorini. So even though it would make for a fairly long day, we decided to do a day trip. It was great, but one piece of advice up front, try to set aside two or three days if you plan to go. We would have really loved more time!  We got up early and headed to the port where the high speed boat was due to leave at 9:30. We got there an hour in advance and the ticket guy said that the boat was sold out!  Oh no!  But he advised us to hang out until just before departure to see if there were cancellations. About a dozen people did so and it was no problem for all of us to get on the boat. From what I can tell, they make reservations with tour companies and estimate the number of seats needed based on the number of buses coming, and it's always somewhat less than that. The board from Heraklion to Santorini is not cheap, about 120 euros round trip. It's just good to know that island hopping in Greece is going to cost you.

The boat takes about two hours to get there. It's a pretty smooth ride.  It docks in a port called Athinios. There is not much in Athinios other than services for tourists, although the views of the Aegean and the three or four smaller islands off Santorini are spectacular. But you want to get out of the port and into the other towns to experience Santorini. It is possible to take a bus or taxi from Athinios, however, we chose to rent a car so we could have more flexibility. This is definitely more expensive than Crete. We paid 35 euros for the day, which is really only five hours. We would have liked to have rented a scooter, but the road out of the port is not considered safe for scooters, so you have to get up to Phira to do so.  So we settled on the car, another tiny car, and went up the very windy road toward Phira. 

The car rental guy had suggested to us that we park in a lot right outside of Phira and then walk in as it is very challenging to drive in Phira and not really possible to park.  This was absolutely the right call. So we parked and headed into the town. It was spectacular. Just beautiful - the white buildings built into the cliffs, the spectacular views.  It was simply amazing and indescribably beautiful.  We had lunch at a nice restaurant with a great view. The food was great, including a wonderful fava bean soup, but it was the setting that was so special. After lunch we walked around Phira a little more before heading out to Oia.

So one word of advice for future visitors.  The drive from Phira to Oia is short, it's only about 5K, but very windy so it is actually a fairly long drive, and beautiful, but there are no gas stations on the way.  Fill your car up in Phira!  We drove this magnificent and slightly scary route and then we got to the outskirts of Oia to notice our gas light come on.  Not a place to run out of gas!  But we stopped at a rental car company and the guy there got on his scooter, drove to a gas station and brought us back four liters of gas. Did I mention how nice the Greeks are? It was wonderful. 

We drove up to Oia, parked, and went into the village. It may be the most beautiful place in the world.  Simply stunning. Beautiful vistas, beautiful buildings. All we did was walk around and be simply awestruck. I've added some photos and you can find much better photos than these on Pinterest and other places, but trust me, none of them do it justice.  Amazing. 

A word to the wise about Phira and Oia. There are lots of steps. Lots of walking in narrow streets and I am sure in high season, it is crowded. So be prepared for exercise!  Unfortunately, it is not possible to navigate these towns with a wheelchair or stroller. It would just be too hard. 

We left Oia and headed back to Athinios, but we had some time so spare so we stopped to taste wine in a winery called Santos near the port. Another big hit. Great wines, great views. If we had had more time we would have gone to the beach with black sand or the ruins at Akrotiri, but overall it was a great day and we will go back!

The trip back was actually better than the trip over.  For some reason, it was a larger boat and way more comfortable, so we slept the whole way.  Here are just a couple of pictures of Santorini.  

Greece Day 4

In Tzermiado

We got up pretty early our second day in Crete and headed down to the beach for an early morning walk by the Aegean. It's a nice short walk from the Villa, through some lanes and past some homes. One thing that's obvious in both Athens and in Crete is that the country still has some signs of the recession, or as the Greeks call it, the great crisis. In particular, there is lots of graffitit, pretty much everywhere, lots of unfinished buildings and additional security to mitigate against crime. Saw plenty of the latter on the way to the beach. Virtually every house had a guard dog.  Frightened me with barking as we walked by!  But we got to the beach, a very rocky beach but beautiful clear blue water.

We didn't stay at the beach long, as we wanted to catch a ride with Carol and Jo, who were heading to Chania, on the other side of the island, for a couple of days. They dropped us off at the airport in Heraklion on their way so that we could rent a car.  I have to say, the whole car rental business was very laid back. Negotiated with three different car rental companies, settled on 25 euros a day, for a tiny little Nissan Micra, supposedly including insurance, filled out a form and headed off. She told us there was about a half gallon of gas in there and to bring it back with the same amount. Also, she said, if nobody's here when we return the car, we should drop the key in a little slot. Very easy.  We headed back toward the villa with Gordon getting used to the Cretan style of driving. Don't stop at a sign. Pull toward the shoulder when somebody passes you.  He caught on pretty quick!

We decided to head up to the plateau of Lessithi for the day. That's more inland on the island and up in the mountains.  So it was a fairly long and very interesting drive. We were on the national road until we got to a village called Neapolito, then we got onto these extremely windy mountain roads, taking us through very beautiful scenery, going through a couple of tiny little villages on the way. James had suggested this route as there are very few tour busses. In fact, I don't believe a bus could make it across these roads, and there was just very little traffic at all. So it felt very remote, very slow going and gorgeous scenery. We stopped outside one of the villages to buy a local liquor called reki, pronounced rocky, from an old lady running a roadside stand. You can't go to Crete without buying some roadside rocky!  

We finally made it to a town called Tzermiado, where James had suggested we have lunch at a place called Kronio. Kronio did not disappoint, either the food or the experience. Tzermiado has a lot of the signs of the crisis, lots of empty building and graffiti, as well as lots of little shops catering to tourists, so not particularly picturesque.  There are a couple of other restaurants, all pretty quiet, but Kronio is bustling. Family run, very busy.  The teenage son served us and asked for our order by saying "Tell me what you want before my father kills me". When Gordon ordered the lamb chops he was repeatedly told us that this would mean we would have to wait, it's not fast.(in fact, the lamb chops came before my moussaka). The restaurant was so busy that they had tables on the sidewalk and had even set up some on the sidewalk across the street, so the son was running back and forth across the street serving customers. The food was great and it was friendly, I would highly recommend it. 

Diktaion Andro Cave

Tzermiado is right on the plateau. In essence, the plateau is a highly elevated green valley, beautiful, fertile, remote. Because of the elevation it was actually a little chilly up there. We heard from Tzermiado to the cave of Diktaion Andro, one of several,places that claim to be the birthplace of Zeus. We parked there, and several locals tried to rent us a donkey to carry us to the cave.  We declined, opting for the walk after being in the car for so long. And it was quite a steep climb up to the mouth of the cave, followed by a descent into the cave. But it was totally worth it, lots of stalagmites and stalactites and just generally cool.

We took a different route back, another windy road and more fabulous views. We came back through the tourist resort of Malia, hoping to visit the palace ruins, but we were too late. We drove through Malia, definitely very touristy, not really our type of place at all.  Since we are slightly off season, it was not too crowded but I understand that during the high season it's a madhouse, packed beaches and lots of partying. We arrived home around seven.  We ended the day by taking Joyce, James and Billy to dinner at a restaurant called Medusa, where we tried some local dishes, including Dakos, a sort of bruschetta thing on a barley rusk, and tignarito, a wonderfully meat dish with a nice sauce.  All in all a great day.

Greece Day 3

After a good night's sleep, thinking we might be done with jet lag, we planned our first full day in Crete with our friends Carol and Jo. We planned a trip to Crete wine country followed by a visit to the ruins of the Minoan palace at Knossos, Crete's best know and most visited historic site.

 We started by driving out to wine country, a little more inland in Crete due south of Heraklion. Crete has great wine weather, but the wine business has reall y gotten underway in the last decade our so.  The main crop in Crete, of course, is the olive.  Lots of figs too.  So we drove down into the tiny town of Peza, a little off the beaten bath and not particularly touristy. We ate at a teeny restaurant in Peza, very local. The proprietor, whose English was almost as limited as our Greek, asked us if we wanted omelettes or salad.  Apparently the only choices.  We selected omelettes, not really sure what would be in the omelettes. But they were good, with some feta cheese and some meat, and for some reason, each omelette had two French fries sitting on top. But it was good to get some food in our stomachs before tasting wine all afternoon. 

There was a wine tasting room right in downtown Peza, so we stopped in there for some tasting. Wine was perfectly okay, but nothing too exciting. However, the nice German lady behind the counter gave us a map of wine country to help,us find our way around. Unfortunately, the map only seemed to serve to help us get lost, and we then took a very pleasant, if not productive, 90 minute drive through Crete's lovely wine country. And while it was beautiful and enjoyable, we really wanted to get to some actual wine tasting.  So we backtracked, and finally got to our second winery, a co-op of wine and olive oil growers. Again, fairly underwhelming experience, not helped by the poorly flushing toilet. The less said about that the better. But again, the lady serving us was most helpful, and we did buy olive oil, so with her help we headed on to another winery. Driving through the next little town, we did witness a fight between locals sort of in the middle of the road, actually sort of needed to drive around them. But ultimately, we made it to Lyrarakis, an absolutely lovely winery. Would fit right into Napa or Sonoma. Tasted wine made from traditional Crete grapes, and some from better know grapes, like Syrah. Also tasted something called verjuice.  (http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verjuice). Bought several bottles of that for chef friends at home plus several bottles of wine to drink here in Crete.

After we were done wine tasting we headed to Knossos. I'm won't say too much about it, you can look it up.  However, it is amazing to see something so ancient and so large. It's in a fabulous setting and I can only imagine how spectacular it must have been in its day. There's lots of controversy about an early 20th century renovation by an Englishman named Arthur Evans, and I can understand the issues with that. Sometimes it's hard to know what would have been Minoan versus what was Evans' take on it. But amazing nonetheless. 

At the end of the day, we drove to a bar on the beach near our villa before heading back for the evening. Friendly place in a lovely location.  Nice way to end a good day!

Greece Day 2

After a decent nights sleep, Gordon and I enjoyed breakfast at the Mare Nostrum, we decided to try out Greek public transit and head to the Acropolis in downtown Athens. We caught the bus right outside the hotel. The directions said to take the bus to a light rail station. The directions said this could take 40 minutes. So we get on the bus. It drove a meandering route, giving us a good view of all kinds of neighborhoods around Athens!  An hour and ten minutes later, the bus finally pulls into the light rail station. Quite a public transportation experience!  The light rail was fabulous, new, clean, efficient and took us directly to the Acropolis. It was great to see the Acropolis. Quite a hike especially on a hot day, and very crowded. But just an amazing site full of history and I am glad to have visited.

After we left the Acropolis we decided on a taxi back to the hotel, given the adventure with public transportation.  Evidently driving in Athens is challenging for everyone - our taxi driver stopped three times to ask for directions. He also was concerned about the A/C in the car. If it didn't feel cold enough, he restarted it by shutting the engine off and on again, even when on the highway driving 100 kilometers and hour. But we got to Athens airport safely and caught our very short flight from Athens to Heraklion. Piece of advice for future travelers. Aegean charges 30 euros for a checked bag. But other than that, great flight. Carol and James picked us up at the airport and while driving on Crete is not totally insane, it does appear that stop signs are simply a suggestion.  A red light, however, seems to mean stop. But we drove out to the villa, absolutely lovely, and very close to the beach. A good night's sleep and looking forward to tomorrow. 

Villa Athena

Trip to Greece - day 1, departure

View from our hotel room in Atehns

Last year, our friend James Wheeler retired. James and his wife Joyce scheduled a big trip to Crete, renting a villa for several months. We got ourselves invited to the villa for a week, and scheduled a trip to Crete in May.  Our plan was to be there at the same time as our mutual friend, Carol.  After all our planning the big day finally arrived and we headed off to Crete. 

We had scheduled a shuttle to take us from our home in Orange County to LAX. From LAX, we would fly to Athens on Saturday, going through Rome and arriving on Sunday, then spend the night in Athens and fly to Crete the next day.  Our shuttle arrived at about 11:30 to get us to LAX for our 4:15 flight. But that's how these shuttles are.  They pick  lots of people along the way and so it does add to the length of the trip. And of course, in LA, you can never count on traffic. It could be 45 minutes to LAX or it could be 3 hours. Anyhow, after he picked us up, he only had one more stop. We drove to Anaheim and picked up a family of three, a young couple and their baby. That family had so much luggage - three or four suitcases, boxes, lots of baby paraphernalia. We assumed they were taking a long trip overseas, but when we asked them where they were headed, they told us they were heading to Oakland, going to UC Berkeley for the woman's brothers graduation. Okay, so riddle me this - why so much luggage?  And why fly out of LAX, when you're going to Oakland??  Wouldn't it be easier to fly out of Orange County? The drive to the airport was fairly uneventful, but not because the driver was trying to keep it that way. Quite the opposite. It was a heart stopping ride on the LA freeways and especially around LAX with the shuttle driver. Talk about your LA driver!  Weaving in and out of traffic. Not afraid to cut off a city bus.  I seriously needed a drink when we got to the airport. And partly because of the aggressive driving, we had plenty of time for drinks at LAX. In fact we had time for a rather lovely lunch. Flying out of the Tom Bradley International Terminal, that's the way travel should be. Once you get through the long security lines, that is. The terminal itself is pretty spectacular. Very LA. Fancy restaurants, beautiful people, fabulous digital billboards that you can literally watch all day, and the shopping!  Between your Apple stores and your duty free, it has it all, at least for the 1%. I literally saw a bottle of whiskey that cost $46,000 in duty free in LAX.  

The only problem with our flight out of LAX is that it was delayed by an hour. Given that we had a pretty tight connection in Rome to get to Athens, this was a little worrisome. But we settled in for the 12 hours and just didn't think about it. As it happens, there was a young American woman sitting next to us named Chrissy catching the same flight.  So the three of us figured we'd hoof it to the gate together and it'd work. 

Finally, we landed, my first time in the Rome airport. So the plane landed on the runway, not next to gate, and we realized we had the dreaded bus ride to the arrival terminal from the runway. We've done this in London before, and it has cost us a connection, leading us to spend the night In Heathrow, so I wasn't thrilled when I saw this was how it was starting out.  Then Alitalia did not exactly blow us away with their efficiency and planning. The plane was a large Airbus. I think they know how many passengers it holds. So why was there only one bus waiting for us?  So we hung out on the runway for 10 or 15 minutes and finally a bus arrives.  Thankfully, it was a short ride to the arrivals gate, where we were directed to the place nobody wants to go  - passport control.

I am not sure if I can adequately describe the bedlam that is passport control in Rome. However, I'll start by noting that there are two very different experiences - passport control with an EU passport, and everyone else. The EU passport experience is so far superior - they actually have the appropriate number of immigration officers and they even have automated terminals where you can scan your passport. You literally sail right through. The non-EU experience is vastly different.  It appears there are about four officials for a queue of thousands.  No, not queue, a crush of thousands.  Going into that crush resembled going into a crazy mob during the French Revolution. Now most people know I actually carry an EU passport, so the easy experience awaited me. However, Gordon does not. But I thought, let me ask if I can bring my spouse through with me. The less than helpful Alitalia staff member asked if we had proof that we are married. Given that we have different last names and that I don't carry our marriage certificate with us, I sadly could not prove our spousal relationship beyond a reasonable doubt.  My options, Alitalia tells me, are to go with him or wait on the other side for him.  So off to the great unwashed non-EU masses for us.  The really frustrating thing is that I will probably become a US citizen next month, so this was my last chance to take advantage of the EU fast pass, a time when it would have made a huge difference and I couldn't do it!!

The experience in the immigration line lasted over an hour. An agonizing hour of pushing, shoving, people being angry. Oh, and did I mention that the air conditioning was not working, due to a recent fire?  We finally got up to the front, and after all that, the immigration officer did not even look at our passports!!!  By now, it was 10 minutes past the time our flight to Athens was due to leave. However, I figured with Alitalia's demonstrated lack of efficiency, we had a 50-50 chance to make it.  We had become separated from Chrissy, so Gordon and I continued on, found ourselves in baggage claim, which we thankfully didn't need to deal with, and  headed from terminal 3 where we came in, to terminal 1 where our flight was scheduled to leave from gate B04.  This involved going through security again.  And did I mention that we bought something in duty free?  Not the aforementioned $46,000 bottle of whiskey, but a nice sipping brandy for our hosts. We got into terminal 3, noticed on the board that our flight said still boarding, although moved to gate B28, and headed for security. Let me just say that security in European airports is different to American airports. It's not exactly pre-9/11, but it's a whole lot easier. No shoe removal, for example. And the duty free, well once the security guy determined that it was in a sealed bag with a receipt, we were golden. So we got through security and sprinted to our gate, now all the way at the other end of a very crowded terminal. I ran like Frank Gore splitting the backfield of the Oakland Raiders, cutting left and right to avoid my fellow travelers. And finally, we saw it - gate B28. With the dreaded bus to the plane!   But Alitalia finally came through and let us on the bus!  And Chrisssy was there!  yay!  We all made our flight, which was remarkably comfortable. We got to Athens airport, which is way more relaxed than Rome.  And our luggage was even there.  So a little late, but we made it.

We left the airport and caught a taxi to our hotel. The taxi driver was very friendly, but kept saying. Why are you staying there.  It's not near Athens. It's not near the airport.  It's nice, but remote.  We looked at the booking form - we had just picked something from hotels.com- and we picked it because it said 5km from the airport. Well, the taxi driver said, yes, as the crow flies, so to speak, it's 5Km, but with the windy roads it's a 30 minute drive.  Which it definitely was. So we were regretting choosing it until we actually arrived. Yes, it's remote, but the location is spectacular, and the hotel itself is a lovely resort. Not over the top opulent, but very nice. We walked into the lobby and heard a lively band singing abba songs in the bar to a large raucous crowd. What could be better - an Abba cover band in Greece. We got settled into our room, small but lovely and with a balcony with a glorious view.  Then we headed down to the restaurant where they serve a buffet - all you can eat and drink for 20 euros. A barrel of wine we could pour carafes from. And magnificent food. Heavy on the meat. Even salads were described as lamb salad, pork salad.  A half a pig on the carving table. Not a place for vegetarians. Or for diets.  We had a magnificent meal and lots of wine.  It may be a little off the beaten path, but the Mare Nostrum Hotel Thalasso is awesome.  The picture above is the view from our balcony.