More than 3 years ago, Tobia and I decided that we wanted to go on an international trip every year. It was time to see the world, we thought, and there was no sense in putting it off any longer.

After reading around and trying to determine where to go and how to do it, Tobia suggested we do the Rick Steves tour, and that we should go to Greece (14 days) followed immediately by Turkey (13 days).

We flew out of SFO on Saturday, 5/08/2008, and after a long day, full of flight delays, we landed in Athens after midnight in what was actually Monday already. I remember checking into the Acropolis Select Hotel just after 2:30am.

Having asked for directions to any open restaurants at the front desk, we found a 24-hour diner not too far from our place. We ate a number of different, delicious greek dishes.

Some time later we went back to our room and slept for a little while, our sense of day and night completely warped.

Monday morning proper, we had a continental breakfast at our hotel. We had to wait for the hall to open because we were up too early.

Hadrian’s Gate

Temple of Olympian Zeus. Above and behind, the Acropolis

Museum of Cycladic Art- fertile female figurine

Olympic Stadium

Parliament building

After breakfast, we walked to the Temple of Olympian Zeus nearby. From there we continued on to the Museum of Cycladic Art. The only thing I remember from the museum were the female figurines with their arms crossed just below their chest, signifying fertility.

En route, we passed the Presidential Palace, and near that, an Olympic stadium. From there, it was off to Benaki Museum where we saw Greek art from different time periods.

Ermou Street – main shopping center

We ended up in Syntagma Square, which was quite alive and buzzing; we had an excellent outdoor lunch there. I noticed so many motorcyclists with their helmets on their elbows instead of their heads. I forget the exact reason, but something in the specification of the law, it simply said riders had to have helmets, not that they had to be on their heads. This was their way of sticking it to the law-makers, or so I came to understand.

Starting to get pretty tired, and knowing we would meet our group at 6pm that evening, we decided to turn in and take an afternoon nap. Following the nap, we went to the hotel conference room and met up with our guide, Colleen, and the rest of our tour members. As there had been a labor strike at the time, some folks were late due to an inability to get taxi rides over to the hotel.

First group dinner at the Roof Garden

We walked to the Plaka nearby, where we had a sunset dinner at the Roof Garden with views of the Acropolis. The thing I will forever remember about that excellent dinner was our wonderful conversation with Dexter and Barbara. Later on in the trip, Dexter let me borrow his book “Omnivore’s Dilemma” which would go on to change my diet, health and lifestyle. This conversation, in part, was the beginning of that transformation for me.

Following dinner, we all walked slowly back to our hotel rooms.

Again, we had breakfast at our hotel in the morning. Then our group took the Metro to the National Archaeological Museum. We had a guide walk us through and explain the significance of the Ancient Greek treasures in there.

National Archaeological Museum

Poseidon

Zeus

Mask of Agamemnon

From there, we headed to the Ancient Agora with our guide.

Likely an old Temple

Ancient Agora ruins

View of the Acropolis from the Ancient Agora

Library of Hadrian

Afterwards we had lunch and ended up returning to our room to sleep for the rest of the day.

Spanakopita

We headed to Delphi in the morning, driving up Mount Parnassus. There were hundreds of thousands of olive trees along the way, and the countryside was beautiful. Along the way, we stopped at Olympus Plaza for some lunch.

Our tour guide led us through the ruins at Delphi, and we also explored the Temple of Apollo and the stadium up the hill. This place was really important back in the day, as it is the birth place of modern western individualist thinking. In Delphi, the philosophical change from fate to self-determined destiny took place.

Valley below Delphi	Ruins at Delphi	Ruins at Delphi	Stadium at Delphi	Delphi from above
Ruins at Delphi	Replica of Delphi from the past	The Winged Sphinx	Nice view from Delphi	Temple of Athena
Temple of Athena

In the evening, we had a nice group dinner at Taverna Vakhos. We sat with Chris and Mary during dinner, then walked through the main street with them before turning in for the night.

We left Delphi, driving down into the valley, passing alongside the Peloponnese Peninsula. We crossed the Rio-Antirio Bridge and took some pictures of the nice architecture.

Gulf of Corinth

Zacharoplasteio- Greek pastry shop

Tobia in front of Rio-Antirio Bridge

Lighthouse at Gulf of Corinth

Holy Cathedral of the Assumption of Virgin Mary in Kalavryta

Memorial in Kalavryta

Driving up the mountain range in the peninsula we stopped in Kalavryta. There was a big massacre there in December of 1943 where the nazis rounded up the local males and gunned down almost all of them. There is a church clock in the town which stopped at 2:34pm to mark when the massacre began.

Lunch at Trout Farm

Tobia laughing during our trout farm lunch as I unnecessarily over-handle the bread

We continued through the mountains, eventually stopping in the small village of Planitero for a group lunch consisting of trout fish.

Lady on donkey en route to Dimitsana

En route to our destination for the day- Dimitsana- we missed a turn toward Tripoli and ended up in a tiny town in the hills with extremely tight and narrow streets. Amazingly, our bus driver pulled off a U-turn (I don’t know how the bus didn’t fall off the cliff) and we corrected our path. But not before we saw an old woman in all black clothing leading a donkey with some hay on its back down the street.

Reaching Dimitsana later in the afternoon, we had a chance to see the Open Air Water Power Museum just before it closed. Dimitsana was beautiful with dramatic mountain and valley views. We walked into town to get some food, then hung out with a large part of the group in the hotel lobby until turning in for the night.

Small village on hills en route to Dimitsana

Open Air Water Power Museum

Dimitsana

Dimitsana

Some folks in the group hanging out in the hotel in Dimitsana

We drove to Olympia to see the museum and ruins. I had a chance to run the length of the original stadium there. Apparently, the Olympics only became bloody after the Romans took over.

Sculptures in the Olympia Archaeological Museum	Helmets in the Olympia Archaeological Museum	Hey there little fella	Model of Ancient Olympia	Hera’s Altar
Entrance to Olympic Stadium	Olympic Stadium	Preparing to race along the same track Olympians used to run	Olympic Stadium	Temple of Zeus
Olympians used to train here

After a group lunch at Taverna Bacchus in Olympia, we hit the road to Kardamyli. We stopped at a zacharoplastio, a greek pastry shop along the way. I had an amazing slice of cake with lots of caramel on top.

Just before Kardamyli, we passed by Kalamata, known for, among other things, their olives.

In Kardamyli our group split into two hotels. We fortunately ended up in the nicer one- the Vardir Hotel- on top of the hill. It had amazing views of the water. We strolled down the hill to the main streeet and had dinner at a tiny cafe.

Kardamyli in the distance	Kardamyli	View of Old Kardamyli	Quaint pathways in Kardamyli
Tobia sitting along the stairs in Old Kardamyli	Kardamyli coastline	Kardamyli view from above

We got to celebrate our wedding anniversary with a really nice breakfast on the front terrace of our hotel. We walked down the hill to Old Kardamyli to see the Tower of Mourtzinos and the Church of Agios Spyridon.

Following that, we walked all the way along the water to the edge of a pebbly beach. Lunch was at Lela’s Taverna with great views of the water. Then we hiked all the way up the hill and appreciated the panoramic view of everything from above.

Church of Agios Spyridon in Old Kardamyli

Kardamyli from above

Kardamyli coastline

Nice view from our restaurant at lunch

Kardamyli

We had a group dinner at an outdoor restaurant, and just enjoyed the food and everyone’s conversation. I had a great time getting suggestions of places to visit in CA as well as the rest of the country from Chuck, who was really easy going and well traveled. Following dinner, we wrapped it up for the night.

Group olive/oil tasting

Following breakfast on the terrace again, we headed to ‘Morea’ at Mani, Messinia for olive oil tasting. From there, we drove south along the coast to Areopoli.

Along the way, we saw the statue of Petrobey Mavromichalis, who was the leader of the Maniots early in the 19th century, revolting against the Ottoman Empire. Then we saw the Church of Taxiarches (Archangels). In addition, we got to see the white stone on the building that marked the spot where the War of Independence began. Finally we saw a small church with frescoes and the Mani Museum with marble ruins.

Petrobey Mavromichalis

Spot where march of independence started

Church of Taxiarhes

Frescoes inside a church

We then drove to Gerolimenas for lunch by the water, looking onto Gerolimenas Bay. Following lunch we had a stop in Gythio, which reminded me of Sausalito.

Gerolimenas Bay

Gerolimenas Bay

Lunch with Bob and Beverly at Gerolimenas Bay

Skipping stones along the Gerolimenas Bay waters

Gythio, which reminded me of Sausalito

From there, it was off to Monemvasia, which reminded me of Morro Rock. We got to walk around town, and had some wonderful spanakopita for dinner before ending the evening with a nice stroll.

Monemvasia Rock	Monemvasia Rock	Monemvasia
Monemvasia	Past the gate along the way to Monemvasia Rock	Moon above the water, Monemvasia

Our hotel for the night in Monemvasia left a fair bit to be desired.

We climbed, the Rock of Monemvasia as a group in the morning. We stopped at the lower and middle levels of the city, then hiked up to the top of the citadel. The view from above was amazing. Some folks said it reminded them of the Rock of Gibraltar.

View near the top of Monemvasia Rock	Byzantine Church of Hagia Sophia on Monemvasia Rock	Beautiful views from above
The wide open water from above	More views from up top	Citadel

Lunch with Dexter, Chris and Mary. There were really nice views from up here

On the way back down, we stopped at a restaurant and ran into Dexter, and later Chris and Mary, and all had a nice lunch together.

Our driver, Anesti and I

The rest of the day was spent leisurely walking around the keeping cool. In the evening, we had a nice group dinner by the water. Our driver, Anesti, sat with us, as well as our guide Colleen and Chuck and Marie. We had a good time.

I started on Dexter’s copy of “Omnivore’s Dilemma” and was instantly hooked.

We left Monemvasia, driving north to Byzantine ruins at Mystras.

The palace at the very top there was not open to the public because it is unstable. So instead, we walked from the upper to the lower citadel and saw the main church with frescoes. We also walked through the monastery.

Mystras	Agia Sophia	Agia Sophia	Ruins at Mystras
Nice view from Mystras	Monastery of Pantanassa	Nice view looking uphill

A short distance away, we had lunch at Sparta.

Rock bed (for dohl-deh-gah-lees)

From there, it was off to Nafplio. We checked into our hotel, where our room looked like a really cool cave. Even the bed was made of rock.

Palamidi Castle

After sneaking in some reading time, I got ready for the group short stroll through town, and we also had some excellent gelato. Afterwards, we had group wine and ouzo tasting.

A bit tired of Greek food, Tobia and I ventured our to get some pizza for dinner. Afterwards we sat down and chatted with Chuck and Marie for a while.

Area above hotel in Nafplio

After breakfast, we took the bus to Ancient Mycenae- it is believed to be a thousand years older than Athens’ Acropolis.

First we went to see the Tomb of Agamemnon. Afterwards we went up the hill to the museum to see artifacts found on site. From there it was on to the Acropolis where we entered through the “Lion Gate”. We walked all around the area, eventually going 60 feet underground to see the cistern.

Tomb of Agamemnon	Ancient writing	Mycenae	Lion Gate Mycenae	Mycenae, walking trail
Nice views from Mycenae	External cistern	Nice views from Mycenae	Mycenae

Views from Palamidi Castle

Palamidi Castle

Later in the day, we returned to Nafplio, and Tobia and I (as well as several other group members) got dropped off at the top of the hill of Palamidi Castle. Roughly 1000 stairs later, we were back at the bottom. We had a nice, simple outdoor lunch, and then returned to our room, where I read like a possessed man.

We had a group dinner in what seemed the middle of the street, almost like in an alley. There were two large tables, lots of music, dancing, good food and fun entertainment.

We left Nafplio and headed for Epidavros. It housed the most intact ancient theater found in Greece. Bob sang a couple of songs to us from the center of the theater. The accoustics were really great. After some food, we drove to the Port at Ermion, where we caught a hydrofoil boat to the Island of Hydra. We had a chance to say goodbye to our driver, Anesti at the dock.

Sneaking some reading time after breakfast	Stadium at Epidavros	Group picture at Epidavros	Center of theater where acoustics are great	Old dentist tools
Museum at Epidavros	Ruins at Epidavros	Stadium at Epidavros	Tomb of Tholos Polykleitos	Theater at Epidavros
My excellent acoustics	Sneaking some reading time after lunch

There were no cars in Hydra, but lots of donkeys. It was buzzing with lots of tourists, but was very nice. After checking into our hotel room, which was beautiful, Tobia and I sought out an internet cafe to relax. I needed to catch up on the UEFA Champions League Final between Manchester United and Chelsea.

Hydrofoil to Hydra	Nice passage-way in Hydra	Transport donkeys	Hydra	One of the paths along the coast
Nice views	Nice views	Tobia and I, Hydra	Casual dinner	Hydra sunset
Hydra

Later we took a group tour of town, and a large group of us had dinner outdoors together. We watched the sunset and then headed to get some ice cream. I spent very many short breaks obsessively reading my book, knowing I would have to give it back to Dexter in a couple of days.

We woke up late on our free day and had a late breakfast. We then took a 2.5 hour hike, up the hill, to the other side of the island. We came across a waste disposal area.

Hydra

Hydra along our walk on the other side

Hydra along our walk on the other side

Hydra

Really liked the water colors

On the way back we had some amazing smoothies at a nice restaurant, and had wonderful views of the island and water from above.

Hotel courtyard

Reliving some amusing earlier trip memories with the group

Dinner in Hydra

In the evening, we had group happy hour at the hotel. We chatted and hung out with our tour group mates. Later on we stepped out for dinner and turned in for the night.

Ready to leave Hydra

Poor donkeys

Group picture prior to leaving Hydra. I had either just finished my book here, or was about to finish it

We had breakfast and strolled the waterfront afterwards. Delivery boats were pulling in with various containers, and donkeys were loaded to carry them all around. The poor animals seemed so miserable.

Leaving the island on hydrofoil again, we boated for almost 2 hours. We ended up at Port of Piraeus. From there, it was back to Athens to see the Acropolis. We saw the rock of Saint Paul, where he preached about Jesus, overlooking the Ancient Agora.

Theater of Herodes Atticus	Propylaea, the building at the entrace to the Acropolis	Parthenon	Erechteion	Parthenon
Parthenon	Parthenon	Parthenon	View from the top of the Acropolis	Areopagus Hill. This is where St. Paul preached about Jesus
View of the Ancient Agora	Acropolis

We had a final group dinner in the Plaka, outdoors. We took lots of pictures and said out farewells to everyone.

Our tour officially over in Greece, we took the Metro to the airport. For some reason, we ended up with business class tickets and we flew out to Istanbul from Athens. Our Turkey trip was to start the next day.