In May I had the opportunity to do some work for Infostat in Greece
- a week of consulting with Ocean Rig in Athens. It gave me the opportunity to
pay a visit back home to Derbyshire before flying to Greece and, afterwards, a
holiday in Greece with Nancy. The workweek in Athens was pretty straightforward. I stayed in Kifissia, an affluent suburb in
the north of Athens full of nice shops and restaurants. and I was well looked
after by Ocean Rig. I did venture into Athens a couple of nights
(Kifissia is on one end of the metro line that runs through the center of the
city and out the other side to the port of Piraeus) but for whatever reason I
didn’t find the city of Athens too inspiring.
An evening trip up to the Acropolis and a walk around the Plaka and I
was pretty much done.
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| Acropolis, Athens |
One thing that was quit noticeable in Athens was the abundance of graffiti. Everywhere buildings, signs, phone booths, everything was disfigured by graffiti. Quite a shame.
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| Graffiti in the streets of Athens |
Nancy flew to Crete at the end of my workweek and I flew down to
Heraklion on the Saturday morning to meet her. Heraklion, or Iraklio depending
on your preference, is the largest town in Crete but, like Athens, I wasn’t
inspired so we made plans to leave the next morning. I passed on the nearby Minoan settlement of
Knossos (a must see according to the guide books).
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| Heraklion |
We rented a car and headed out of town the next morning (Sunday). There
are abundant car rental places in Crete (and on the other Greek Isles) and it
is all done in a simple non-bureaucratic and trusting way – a simple single
page contract, give them a call if you need more days, bring it back with the
same amount of gas, don’t worry about the minor damage no one seems to check.
We drove west along the north coast and stopped for lunch in Rethymno
the next major town after Iraklio.
Again Rethymno didn’t seem too remarkable so after lunch we pushed on
and found a nice beach at Almyros Bay where we took a swim. Further to
the west is the town of Chania or Hania (another example of the changes in
spelling which get a bit confusing at times particularly when you throw in the
Greek alphabet versions). We stumbled across the old part of the town almost by
accident and found it delightful – well worth a stop for the night. We found a
nice hotel (the Delfino Suites Hotel) in the old part of town. The old town and
harbor are quite beautiful and so, of course, the tourists are everywhere.
Despite the crowds we had a nice time walking around and trying to find a
decent restaurant – Nancy was convinced that any restaurant with pictures of
the food could not be good so the quest took a while. In the end it was just ok food but there were
no pictures in the menu.
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| Chania Harbor |
Next morning we explored the harbor with its old mosque and sea wall
and lighthouse. We then drove further west and found a beach where we
relaxed, swam and lunched (our first Gyro). We enjoyed Chania so much that we
returned for another night - this time in the Lonely Planet recommendation of
the Casa Leone - the room had a balcony overlooking the harbor - very nice.
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| Samarian Gorge |
We wanted to visit the Samarian Gorge and since we couldn't walk
from top to bottom (logistics wouldn’t work with a car) we decided to just
visit the more interesting bit at the bottom of the canyon. We drove over
the hills to the south coast town of Hora Sfaklion. We parked the car there and caught the ferry to Agia
Romelli, the town at the bottom of the gorge. The Gorge is a National
Park and it is one of the must see things in Crete. We walked up about 3 km up
to the narrowest part of the Gorge. It is a nice trail with lots of rickety
ladders criss-crossing the streambed. The narrowest part of the gorge is fairly
spectacular but maybe nothing to compare with the slot canyons of Utah. It is a popular trail and there are some 3000
per day on the trail during the peak season – that’s a lot of people.
We caught the last ferry back from Agio Romelli to Hora Sfaklion
and picked up our car. It was quite amazing to see the ferry disgorge
several hundred people into the quite small village of Sfaklion and then within
15 minutes they were all whisked away on buses and cars leaving Sfaklion quite
quiet. We drove on to Plakias where we found a cheap resort hotel full of German
tourists - our least favorite hotel of the trip, but it came along at the right
time.
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| The ferry landing in Hora Sfaklion |
Next morning we drove to Moni Prevelli, a monastery and allegedly
another must see site on Crete. It was certainly not that impressive and
certainly not worth the admission price. More interesting was the WW II
Memorial just outside town with the gun-toting priest alongside the gun-toting
soldier. Those Greek Orthodox folk do not
appear to be pacifists.
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| WWII Memorial, Moni Prevelli |
We then moved on to explore the northeastern part of the island so
we headed back to Iraklio and drove east on the main road to Agios Nikolaos.
We somehow found ourselves in the little village of Mohlos. A little off the beaten track but it had
hotels and restaurants. We had a superb
meal - the best squid of the trip – and the location by the water couldn’t have
been better.
Next morning we swam out to the island across from the village of
Mohlos and explored the Minoan ruins and church on the now uninhabited island.
Churches are everywhere in Greece - tops of hills, remote valleys, uninhabited
islands, people's back yards.... everywhere.
Another great lunch in Mohlos and then we left for Iraklio for our
last night in Crete. We stayed at the same hotel as before (the Megaron) and
ate at the same restaurant (not so good this second time).
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| Catamaran to Santorini |
Next morning we caught the very impressive High Speed 5 catamaran to
Santorini. It is quite a vessel, large, modern, comfortable and made in, of all
places, Australia. Quicker but not as nice a journey as the old ferries –
you can’t go out on deck and it is a little bumpy if the sea is rough.
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| Oia, Santorini |
The main port on Santorini is Athinios. Again the ferry
spilled out hundreds of people and in 10 minutes they were all on buses to the
main town of Fira. Fira did not look too inviting - very busy, crowded with
tourists, and the sort of place you want to escape from. The big thing there is
the so-called caldera view. Santorini
and the adjacent islands are the rim of a giant caldera and the bay below Fira
is the crater left when the hopefully now extinct volcano collapsed. A cruise ship was docked below ferrying large
numbers of tourists into town to add to the congestion. There was a cable car to transport people
from the port below up to the center of Fira on top of the cliff.
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| Oia, Santorini |
We rented a car and made our escape.
It is not a very large island so you can easily get from one end to the
other in less than an hour. We headed
north for the town of Oia, which is a stunningly beautiful town, nestled on the
rim of the caldera and spreading down the cliffs to the sea. Because it is so beautiful it is mobbed by
tourists, but despite the crowds you can’t help but be moved by the glistening
white houses clinging to the cliff with the blue domed churches scattered among
them. On the farthest western edge of
town there are a few windmills, or what is left of them, which further adds to
the cuteness of the place. We wondered
around, took way too many photos of blue domed churches and decided we should
stay for the night. We found a very nice
place half way down the cliff – pure white in the tradition of the local
buildings, but with a some modern conveniences like air conditioning and a
swimming pool.
That evening we joined the seemingly thousands of other people
watching the sunset over the ocean. It
wasn’t that spectacular, but watching the sunset is what you do, at least on
your first night in the place.
Next morning it was time to get out of the cuteness of Oia and head
south. We visited Akrotiri and then took
in some beach time at Kamari – I was getting to like the beach time. Kamari was not really the kind of place we
would have wanted to stay – a long beach, lots of sunbeds and umbrellas,
restaurant after restaurant all serving the same Greek fare, and a multitude of
hotels. However, we searched all over the south end of the island for
somewhere nicer to stay and couldn’t find any place so we returned to Kamari
and got what was an ok room for the night.
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| The beach at Kamari |
On our final day on Santorini, we explored the southern end of the
island some more – the town of Akrotiri, the light house at Cape Akrotiri, the
Red Beach (which was red but not really something worth making the trip to
see). Finally we made a quick dash
around the Minoan ruins of Thira (also not very impressive) before returning to
Fila to return our car. We wandered
around Fila (crowded with tourists from the visiting cruise ship) and then
caught the bus to the ferry port of Athinios and our ferry to Milos.
The run to Milos was a couple of hours and we arrived early evening
in the port of Adamantas. Nancy found a
great little hotel (Hotel Notis) a short walk from the port that was everything
we needed.
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| Kayaking, Milos |
We wanted to go kayaking so the next morning (Monday) we arranged a
trip with an Australian guy (Rod) who runs a kayak business on the island. We were
recommended him by my friends Gabrielle and John who had previously taken a weeklong
kayaking holiday with him on Milos. We
put in the water at the little village of Firopotamus and paddled along the
coast for a while before striking out for a couple of islands off the north end
of the island. Both were uninhabited;
Arkadi, the larger one had no buildings and according to Rod was the largest
Greek Isle without a building; the
smaller island, Akrathi, had a church and a lighthouse. We stopped on Akathi for lunch in a little
cove where we did some snorkeling and then made a trip up the hill to the
church and lighthouse. A thoroughly
enjoyable trip.
The following day, Tuesday, we rented a car (a beat up and well worn
car) and drove over to the town of Plaka for lunch. The weather turned cool and the wind got up
and things looked ominous – certainly no kayaking today or tomorrow. We moved on to the town of Pollonia at the
north end of the island where we found a hotel for the night with a nice view
over the
bay. We had some very good sea
food that night in Pollonia.
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| Rough Seas in Pollonia |
On Wednesday, we moved hotels and upgraded to a really, really nice
place – almost luxurious (Hotel Melian).
It was still a little windy and the seas were rough so we explored more
of the island by car – Paliochori, Kiriaki – two nice beaches on the south
coast. We drove a lot of dirt roads
looking for sulphur mines and a shortcut back to Pollonia, but found
neither. We had more excellent seafood that
night in Pollonia.
Thursday was a first for me – a massage at the hotel. All very pleasant - nice ambient music – pleasant aromas –
nothing too painful - something I could get used to - maybe. We swam and generally hung out around
Pollonia.
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| Strange Rock Formations at Sarakiniko |
On Friday we had to move out of our luxury quarters so we went down
the road a 100 yards to something a couple of notches down on the luxury scale
but still very nice - Hotel En Milos. We
made another trip to Plaka and hiked up to the church on the top of the
hill. Then we headed of to Sarakiniko, a
beautiful beach area with some amazing rock formations. We swam, clambered over the rocks and
investigated a shipwreck just off the coast.
On Saturday morning we had one last swim and bid farewell to
Pollonia and headed over to Adamantas to catch the ferry to the mainland. It was a 4 hour trip on the Aegean Speed
Lines Catamaran to Piraeus. As we
arrived in Piraeus it started to rain.
We caught the bus out to Athens airport where we had arranged to pick up
a car (and conveniently drop it off on our departure in a couple of days). While a couple of weeks ago I wouldn’t have
entertained driving in Athens, my experience in the islands was enough to make
it not so intimidating. That being said
I didn’t like the way single lane traffic is converted into two lanes by
everyone driving with one wheel on the shoulder thereby allowing another car to
squeeze by on your left.
We drove through Athens and headed north towards our ultimate destination
of Meteora. For the most part the road
was a toll road and a relatively expensive toll at that. Tolls are certainly a cost that has to be
factored in when traveling in Greece. We
stopped for the night in Chalkida a town some 75km north of Athens. It is known for its so-called “Crazy Waters”
– there is a very narrow channel (40ft) that divides the large island of Euboea
from the mainland and the water flows through this channel are quite dramatic –
very fast and very strong and they change direction about 4 times a day. It is interesting to watch the boats
struggling against the flow in one direction and then flying through in the
other direction.
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| Chalkida |
That night we stayed at the Hotel Lucy on the waterfront and we
enjoyed walking along the promenade, which on a Saturday night was thronged
with people.
On the Sunday morning we didn’t find much to keep us in Chalkida
(the fort didn’t seem to be that impressive) so we continued along up the coast
towards Lamia. It was a nice drive on
smaller roads for a change. We
stopped in Domokos, a nice small town and had lunch in the square. It was interesting how this was indeed a
small town and somewhat off the beaten path, but it still had some very smart
and very well appointed bars and cafés.
In fact all over Greece we found quite a lot of stylish modern bars and
restaurants and a surfeit of fancy interior design stores. Since when did Greece get to be such a stylish nation.
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| Meteora |
We drove on in the afternoon through Karditsa, Trikala to our
destination in Kalambaka the nearest town to the Meteora Monasteries. We found a small guest house for the night
and then took an evening drive around the monastery area. It is a weird and wonderful landscape with
impressive rock walls and towers of rock dominating the skyline.
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| Holy Trinity Monastery, Meteora |
The Holy Trinity Monastery had signs of activity so we climbed up
the path to the monastery. Normally the
monastery would be closed at this time but that night there was a service going
on and we got to go inside and observe the ceremony. The Greek Orthodox services are long
(multiple hours), the congregation remains standing, and just getting to the
monastery itself is a piece of work so I had to have a bit of respect for all
the old folk, of which there were many, that had made trek up there. Each monastery has some cable car lift
arrangement – very crude but enough to carry one or two people. I think I would rather walk up that trust
these aerial ropeways. I learned later
that this monastery featured in the James Bond film “For Your Eyes Only”.
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| Lift up to the monastery |
On Monday morning we set off to further explore the
Monasteries. First stop was the Rousanou Nunnery. There were some nice interior wall paintings
displaying all sorts of weird and wonderful punishments inflicted on various
martyrs - really awful stuff. The nuns here were quite diligent in checking the
clothing of visitors (skirts and appropriate female attire required). Then it was off to the largest monastery, the
Great Meteora Monastery and the Varlaam Monastery. All very nice and the rock towers certainly
make for an impressive landscape but the monasteries themselves were a little
too clean and tidy. Though they have
been around since the 13th and 14th centuries, they are
perfectly manicured and in immaculate condition. I was expecting something more authentically
old and perhaps a little more dilapidated.
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| Rousanou Nunnery |
We left town early afternoon and drove south towards Delphi. We
drove through Kalambaka, Trikala, Karditsa, Lamia and then over the mountains
to Amfissa. We passed a small BritishWar Cemetery at Bralo. The majority of
the graves here post-dated the end of the war in 1918 and I discovered later
that there was a hospital in the town and many of the occupants of the
graveyard were casualties from the hospital and most of them victims of the flu
epidemic that followed World War 1.
In Delphi we found a town that was full of restaurants and hotels,
but very few people. It was strange to
walk the streets of the town and see one empty restaurant after another. Unfortunately we picked a bad one to eat at.
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| Ruins at Delphi |
The next morning we explored the site of Delphi (another supposed
must-see for Greece). Yes the ruins were
impressive, but I think we quickly had had our fill. A quick walk through the adjacent museum,
which was indeed very good, and then we were off back to Athens.
We lunched in a small town on the side of Mt Parnassos called
Arachova. In the winter it is a ski
town, but at this time of year it was nice and cool and not at all crowded.
In Athens that evening we found ourselves in Kifissia, the area I
had stayed in whilst working, and we stayed at a very nice hotel (the Y Hotel). In the evening we took the metro into Athens
and wandered around the Plaka and nearby areas.
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| Schineas National Park |
Wednesday was our last full day in Greece. It was a lazy day, at least for me - Nancy
went shopping. In the afternoon I drove
out to the coast east of Athens to the port of Rafina and then up the coast to
the Schinias National Park where I had my last swim in the Aegean on a
beautiful and deserted beach. On the
way back through Marathon I didn’t manage to find the Marathon Run Museum, but
I did manage to follow the Ancient Marathon Course back into Athens.
Next morning it was an early start and an early flight back to
London.
