Movies on the flights

And I watched three movies. If you haven't seen them, here is what I think.

Philomena: I loved it. Surprising twists. Interesting story. The lesson on forgiveness is so powerful.

Saving Mr. Banks: Almost as good as Philomena. Great human story.

Wolf of Wall Street: Like watching a car accident. I couldn't look away because I knew it was true.

In Amsterdam

Got up early, took the train to Centeal Station in the old city. Found our red city- sightseeing bus. Were in line for the Anne  Frank Haus by 9:30. The line was already 2 hours long. Did take a picture from the outside.

So got back on red bus and went to Van Gogh Museum. That was great. Although Sunflowers is in London. Exhibit was organized to show how his painting developed. It included his last painting. No pictures of course. Then we rode the rest of the route. Old city is only 600 years old. Here is an interesting picture showing canal and typical building. 

Train ride back to Schiphol. Lunch. And we are at the gate. 3€ left. And 400 pictures you haven't see. Paul/Dad, get out the sheet for a screen!

Travel day

Slept in. Repacked. Are in Omonia Square one more time. Headed to Athens airport and flew to Amsterdam. We are in an Americanized Novotel for the night. We have a plan for tomorrow to get up early. Take the shuttle back to the airport. Put bags in a locker. Take the train into Amsterdam. See at least the Anne Frank House. Get back to the airport to fly home. We realized we could not plan this part of the trip because we did not know what shape we'd be in. But we are still standing. 

End of Athens

After we got off the ship and checked in and took a nap, we were back on the red sightseeing bus. We stopped at Hadrian's Gate from Roman times around 100AD. The cool thing about this picture is that you can see the Acropolis through the arch in the top left.

We also saw the temple to Zeus with 12 of the over 100 columns still standing. You can also see the one that was toppled in the 1700's by a big storm. The one fourth of Athens around these columns was all built up until the 1960's when the land was acquired for archeological digging. 

Finally we saw the 1896 Olympic stadium. It looks positively modern. 

This post should be before Best laid plans 2

Best laid plans 2

Got off the ship and found Greek hotel. No heat but all else we need. Not sure about Internet. Wanted to see Athens at night so set off on tour bus. BTW we haven't seen any news so knew nothing about yesterday's car bomb. All of a sudden streets are blocked and the tour went to end and pushed us off. By then subway closed. Bus driver got us close and pointed us how to walk. Here's what made him give up.

 Those are police buses blocking the street. 

German Prime Minister Merkel is in town and no protesting allowed. Eating dinner and then in for the night. Will post today when we are in airport tomorrow. 

Santorini

A interesting island. Until the 1700's it was a large volcanic island. The volcano erupted and sank into the sea leaving 5 much smaller islands. We were ashore for 4 hours. There is only one spot where the cove is shallow enough to drop anchor. We got there first and claimed it. Tender to shore with 3 choices to get up to the town - cable car, donkey, and foot. The foot route is a bit of a problem as it is the same path as the donkey path. We rode the cable car up. You can see all the different layers in the rock that form and then exposed with the eruption. It is amazing to be up here:

To get down Erica had to ride a donkey. We were sure it would be fine because we had seen this sign. 

We have left Santorini and gotten our passports back. Just have to pack and plan leaving the ship early tomorrow back in Athens. 

The Greek isles are incredibly beautiful. Traveling in April is great. The weather is cool and everything is not so crowded as it must be when there are 5 cruise ships in port instead of 1. One last picture.

Crete

Instead of a tour we went with Christos in his taxi. He owns the taxi and 78 olive trees. Up until a few years ago he supported his family well. Now it is hard. He has a wife, 15 year old son and 21 year old daughter. He was great and showed us lots of his island. Look at the hillside covered with olive trees. 

He took us to the ancient city of Knossos. It was first excavated in 1878. We are learning about how the early archeologists basically messed up what they found. This city existed 4000BC. Are you kidding me?

Then he gave us a tour of the port of Herkalon with its wall built by the venetians, churches, and showed us how they harvest olives. 

Trying one more picture. 

Lindos and Rhodes

Today was spent on the island of Rhodes. 

First the acropolis of Lindos. The acropolis was started around in the 10th century BC and in final form by the 3rd century BC. It is 300 steps up. By the time I reached the lowest level, Erica was on the way back down. So mostly I saw the view. What Erica finds most interesting is that Lindos was first dedicated to Athena, then to the Virgin Mary. Whoever conquered just changed the statues. When the Turks held it, they allowed the Danish to take away the Greek statues.

A view from the acropolis at Lindos down to the village. You see the tower of the church in the middle. All of the houses are white to keep them cool. And people live in houses that are hundreds of years old.

The city of Skala - the major port on Rhodes. This was so interesting because the Medieval fortress  was started around 1100AD and has been continuously inhabited. So you see the outside of really old buildings but the insides are still in use. Now 80% of the industry is tourism. So on the square all of the bottom floors are restaurants or stores; nothing to be toured. This is a picture up the street of the Knights. Knights from each country owned their houses. All have become Greek except the French house which is their consulate today. They are trying to preserve the history. If you own any land and want to build, the archeologists have to check the site first. Our tour guide now has three ancient graves in his yard. If too much good stuff is found then you are stuck until the government can get together the money to buy your land.

Tomorrow no tours. We are on our own. Uh-oh. 

Ephesus

This morning we toured Ephesus, in Turkey, which was a Greco-Roman city from 1500BC to 700AD.  It was the largest city of its time with about 250,000 people.  It was built in a valley on the coast.  There was a river running through the city which allowed the sewage to drain.  In time the river left enough silt in the way that the sewage was no longer able to drain.  People started getting sick and those who survived picked up all the marble that they could carry and left.  Can you imagine what it would be like for that many people to just up and move?

This is one of the pieces that is most intact of what they have excavated.  Ephesus was built on a fault line, so every 100 years or so there is a huge earthquake.  These earthquakes damaged the buildings greatly.

The thing that most interested mom was that there is a statue.  Included in the statue is a round globe. They knew long before Galileo that the earth was round and yet some how it was forgotten and lost in time.

In Patmos

We stopped in Patmos this afternoon.  We had not scheduled a tour so Linda and Bob from Australia shared a taxi with us. We went to the grotto where John received Revelations from God. To stand in the same place was incredible. I lit a candle for Mother. 

We left there and traveled further up to the Monastery of St. John the Theologian. It was started in the 1100's. And still houses about 15 monks. The below is a picture of the harbor from the monastery.

We had juice in a cafe down by the harbor where they had better Internet than we have had until now. That is why this post is before Ephesus,

Mykonos

So the wifi not really free on the ship. So we bought some but it really does not work well enough to upload pictures. And the weather isn't helping and IT isn't answering the phone. I got 2 pictures from my phone to the iPad. Let's see what I can do.

Up early, ate bread and jam, subway to Pireaus, and taxi to the ship. Set sail at 11 and arrived in Mykonos at 5. It is unbelievably beautiful.  

This is a small church right on the sea wall. We saw several churches but only this one was open.

This is a picture of the sunset. 

Among the ruins

We got on the sightseeing bus after lunch and rode to the old agora. We stopped in the new agora to buy souvenirs for little girls. Then walked through the ruins to this temple. 

We tramped across other ruins and went into the church in the middle of this picture. Not so old - built around 1000 AD. But our real goal was the Parthenon at the top.

We took the sightseeing bus around to the other side and got out. It is still a climb. Here is Erica on the steps of the Acropolis entrance.  You can't stand on the Parthenon steps.  It's too dangerous and precious. 

There are several temples on the Acropolis. The Parthenon is the largest. But this one is cool too. The scaffolding is on the Parthenon.

We have another guidebook with great pictures. That is all for today.  You know what, Janet? Now the stuff we saw in Germany doesn't seem so old.

Best laid plans

We thought we would hitch a ride on the sight seer bus. But the streets were blocked off for a bike race until noon. 

So we went to the National Archaelogical Museum. We bought a guidebook instead of taking pictures inside. My favorite thing was the beaten gold items from grave 3. At one point we were in a room with an exhibit on one side of artifacts from 5000 BC and on the other artifacts from 2500 BC. You know what. Men didn't make much progress in those 2000 years. Nothing like in the last 2000 years!

Because we were walking along the street, we got a tree picture for Dad.

Apartment

Here is a picture of our apartment building. Starting in the 1920's there was an influx of people moving to Athens. These apartment buildings are everywhere. We have not seen a sky scraper.

In fact we are on the top floor. The sixth. We do have an elevator. Three people max. 

Everywhere we go signs are in two languages. Even in the itty bitty elevator.

Food!!

Last night we had gyros at a corner cafe. He put the French Fries in them. We'd have told him that was wrong but we can't speak Greek.

Tonight I ordered a Greek salad. Take a look: nothing but tomatoes, onions, feta, and olives. We might have Greek food all wrong. 

Travel, travel, travel

We flew from Atlanta to Paris overnight. Air France does not have comfortable seats! Then we had 2 hours in the Paris airport. And then a flight to Athens. We were laughing. We got to the Atlanta airport at 6pm and got to the Athens airport at 6pm the next day. Seems like 24 hours traveling, right? But we lost 7 hours so really only 17 hours of traveling. However, since we have not been in a bed since Thursday night, it seems like we traveled for days.  

Then a subway ride with one train change from the airport to Omonia Square and we met Iglika. We are staying in an apartment 10 minutes from the Acropolis for 39 euros a night. Seeing how the Greeks live. Had dinner in a corner cafe - real Greek gyros!! Now to sleep if we haven't forgotten how.

Quick overview

Alright it is Friday afternoon and we are heading to the airport.  I figured I'd give you all a brief overview of our trip.

• Atlanta -> Paris (2 hour layover)
• Paris -> Athens - arriving about 5:45 pm on Saturday
• Saturday night and Sunday in Athens
• Monday morning- take a cruise out of Athens and go to Mykonos for a few hours
• Tuesday morning in Kusadasi, Turkey and afternoon in Patmos
• Wednesday all day in Rhodes
• Thursday morning in Crete and the afternoon in Santorini
• Friday arrive back in Athens for Friday and Saturday morning and early afternoon
• Saturday evening fly to Amsterdam (21 hour layover)
• Sunday fly home and arrive around 8 pm
• Monday back to work

Let the adventures begin!!

Pictures?

Can I add a picture from my phone? Leaving my new kitchen behind.

Getting ready to go

What is wrong with this picture? The young Mistretta (Erica) is washing clothes and the old Mistretta (Susan) is setting up the blog. We are only taking our phones for sure so we won't be able to do much. But we will try to keep you in the loop.