Greece Untour, Spring of 2006
by Roberth & Patricia Ove, Rio Rancho, NM
Here is our trip report for Greece. It may not be too lucid in spots as we’re still suffering jet lag, but if we wait too long, we might forget important details.After an exhausting flight to Athens (no flights are refreshing!) we were met by our Untours representative who drove us to Nafplio first capital of modern Greece) and got us settled in our apartment. Carolyn took one room with two single beds and Pat and I took the other room with a double bed. The location couldn’t have been better. Our balcony looked out on a quaint square with a church on one side. I should mention that with the church being very close, their Saturday evening and Sunday morning church bells rang so loud we jumped out of our skins! No one misses church because they slept in! Sometimes our sleep was disturbed by the ubiquitous cats that clean up any fallen goodies and romance the evening away with loud cries of passion.
We enjoyed our quaint old neighborhood first by taking a relaxing cruise to a couple of nearby islands as a way of easing into a routine and overcoming our jet lag (9 hours difference!).
The next day we picked up our rental car, which was included in the deal. The Avis rental dealer bent over backwards to be accommodating, but we still had to walk a few blocks to pick up our car everyday since you could only park on the street near your house if you “knew someone”. I might add that traffic laws were only suggestions in Greece. The only ones expected to obey them are us tourists. It was a mark of courtesy to drive with half the car in the bicycle lane so that cars could pass you illegally in the no passing zones. One of our main problems was figuring out where we were. Even though Bob could read the Greek street signs, it still meant little as the name on the map was often different and there were few street signs. We spent many happy hours touring unmarked areas. Even some of the locals weren’t sure where we were.
We usually ate one meal out at one of the quaint sidewalk restaurants enjoying the delicious Greek food. The salads were a favorite and were loaded with their wonderful feta cheese. We tried for a different one almost every day, though some were so good we repeated. One near us that we liked had a hazard. Autos came whizzing up the narrow streets (more like alleys!) and nearly knocked us off our seats. Most of the streets were extremely narrow and you had to hug a wall to let cars pass. Motorcycles whizzed down the middle and the devil took the hindmost. There was a time of respite after 2 PM when most of the town took its siesta until about 5 PM. considering that most ate supper at 9 PM and didn’t think of bed until after a riotous evening ending about midnight or so, they needed the nap.
We ‘eased’? into our trip by going to the top of Palamidi, a mountain-top ruin which we could see from almost everywhere in Nafplio (there is precious little flat land in all of Greece). I drove up and down after seeing the fantastic view, but Pat and Carolyn walked down the 999 steps to the village and continued home on foot.
Our next days were a whirlwind of ruins. Mycenae was a highlight with great ruins. Epidaurus was guided by our hosts, one of whom, Nick, was a transplanted American who was an archeologist when he wasn’t guiding Untours. Our other host, Christos, was all Greek but spoke very good English.
Our trip to Corinth was a little disappointing except for a view of the Corinth canal (the result of centuries of work and planning), but the long (6-hour) drive to Delphi was very rewarding. We went up the coast past Corinth to Patras where we passed over a beautiful modern suspension bridge and then back east on the other coast to Delphi. We found a great hotel there, the Apollo, with a balcony in our room, which overlooked the whole spectacular valley. We went to the museum that afternoon and got tickets that covered the ruins next day. It was a real highlight. It felt like St. Paul had been there just ahead of us. We got up at dawn to make the 7:30 AM opening and avoided all the tourist rush. OTHER tourists are late sleepers! On the way home, we took a ferry across the gulf, which saved us several miles. While we waited the three hours for the ferry, we ate in a restaurant where Pat and Carolyn picked out their fish, which had only recently passed away, and had it served with head and tail still attached. They enjoyed it despite the fish starting accusingly at them.
After a morning of sightseeing one day, Carolyn and Pat and a swim near a sandy beach. Bob doesn’t swim so he sat home and read in the cool of our apartment.
We also went to Sparta, an isolated community over the mountains. The trip over and back outshined the destination. Carolyn drove over and I drove back while Pat navigated which is no mean trick, but many prayers were said both ways. Buses and taxis were blowing their horns at us slow pokes who wanted to live a bit longer (Greece has a high traffic mortality rate. All along the roads there are little model churches on posts that resembled mailboxes. We found out that they were memorials for the more impatient locals who tried to pass on curves).
We tried out a couple of locations closer to Nafplio, but so isolated that we almost lost the car. One was a ‘monastery’ over rough roads some distance from town that turned out to be a small one room affair about half the size of our apartment. Another ‘tomb’ had at least one point of interest in it though the car got a bit scratched trying to back out. We did have fun walking the ancient ruins of Tiryns. Almost everyday we could find signs of antiquity in every direction from our cozy apartment.
As our days were drawing to a close in Nafplio, we walked around the colorful Saturday market nearby where slimy squid and octopus lay non tables next to bright red tomatoes and other colorful and enticing veggies. There were also clothing and crafts. Merchants were hawking their wares and raking in the Euros, which are a benefit of being in the common market.
We also took a leisurely walk around the mountain near our home with Carolyn far in advance. Dogs almost as plentiful as cats were lying sensibly in the shade. An old retiree was feeding the eager cats that rushed to him expectantly.
Carolyn left a couple days early to explore Athens and got there the day the taxis were on strike. Her adventure getting to her hotel could fill another letter.
We had a couple more relaxing days, which we spent locally. I should mention that the Queen of Denmark parked her royal yacht right next to our parking area and we had to move to the street until she was gone. I tried to see her, but they were afraid I might be a terrorist so I was denied an audience.
We had another item of local color. The man next door died one night and we saw his casket come down the stairs with the lid open. We could see by his pallor that he was very dead. Before they loaded him into the waiting hearse, they nailed on the lid and the whole procession followed the hearse on foot to the church.
One last thing worth mentioning is our experience at the post office to pick up a few stamps for our postcards. What a shock to realize that we had to take a number and wait to be called. We were about 100 away from being served and had to spend almost an hour part of which was spent looking to grab a vacant seat when someone’s number was called and they rose to go forward. I guess we should stop complaining about our local post office.
At the end of our two weeks we flew to Crete where again we had a great room with the huge balcony bigger than our room where we could sit and look down the street to the ancient harbor built by the Venetians in the 1400s. We walked along the jetty and got a great view of the city. There was a student riot there one evening and they used tear gas, but it dissipated before it reached up to our room. We got to see a great museum while there and the spectacular Minoan ruins of Knossos. It was the most ancient site in all of Greece. This time unfortunately there were hundreds of people waiting for the 8am opening. One advantage we found was that we could ‘join’ (really eavesdrop on) a guided tour in English and felt part of the tour group. I suppose they were looking for us when they went on their bus.
After three worthwhile days in Crete, we went on to the most spectacular conclusion of our journey, Santorini. It was preceded by a disastrous 2-hour trip on a triple hulled vessel where barf bags were passed out to everyone and put to good use. The rest of our stay made up for it though there were some prayers said as ‘Mario Andretti’ our taxi driver raced us up the switchback trail carved into the thousand-foot cliffs that led to the villages which were perched on the edge of the precipice. Our accommodations were even more awe-inspiring than those we had prior to landing there. We had a terrace overlooking the giant caldera. All that remained of the island after the colossal eruption, probably the biggest in recorded history in about 1650 BC, was the precipitous rim of ash and lava. It probably destroyed the whole Minoan civilization. We were a few feet from the cliff and could look out and see two islands that rose in the middle of the caldera after the eruption. We saw ships coming and going and a fantastic sunset over the water. One relief was that a breeze blew all the time we were there in contrast to the airless humid heat of the mainland. We strolled along the razor edge of the vertical town and enjoyed the quaint shops. One was run by a former America and another by a Canadian.
Going through customs when we left was much more casual than anywhere else on our trip, though as always my steel hip gave them a moment of suspicion when it set off the alarm.
We had one overnight in Athens and again our room had a view of the Acropolis that we could see all lit up at night. We took a train to that hotel and as we looked around frustrated trying to figure out where we were, we met a couple of women who just happened to be staying at the same hotel and led us there. We ate our last Greek meal in a sidewalk café with English spoken at almost every table. We settled for a taxi to take us to the airport.
A positive result f our trip was that Bob’s hip got stronger and stronger everyday as we struggled through ruins and museums and down the quaint alleys.
If there were a negative side to our trip, I would have to say it was the bathrooms. You couldn’t through your used toilet paper in the toilet to flush down. You had to stick it in a little can with a lid next to the toilet and empty it everyday. Exhausting as the homebound trip was, we rejoiced to be able to dispose of our paper in the toilet!
There was still much of Greece to see and it would be worth another trip though we felt that Santorini should be included in any return. With Pat as our travel agent, we never miss having a great time AND stay within our budget.