Outtakes

Every trip has crazy things that happen along the way that make you laugh, stress you out, and/or otherwise just make you shake your head.  I don't want to forget some of these things so I'm just going to list them here so it'll jog my memory when things start to fade....

1.  Overnight flight to Paris and the young French girl behind Ted asked the stewardess to tell him not to recline his seat.  When that didn't happen she proceeded to consistently kick/push on it for the two hours when everyone was trying to sleep.

2.  Uber no-show - our first morning in Paris and we had tickets to the top of the Eiffel tower and our Uber guy didn't show up.  Taxis weren't easy to come by either.

3.  The hop on, hop off Seine River boat that we hopped off of, but then later realized it wasn't coming back our direction as it had stopped for the night.  We ended up finding a taxi to take us home at an agreed price, but once he got us to our street he proceeded to complain that it wasn't nearly enough payment!  

4. Lake Como ferry ticket office - when we wanted to purchase tickets to ride the ferry around to all the stops the guy didn't like it, told us we didn't have time to do that and it was only 2pm.  He eventually slammed the ticket window down on us!

5.  Venice vaparetto - extremely crowded waiting area, when it was time to board and everybody rushed onto the boat Ted was the last one to attempt to get on and the guy said 'No, you wait for the next boat!'.   Shirley, Ken and I got off the boat then and waited for the next one with him, although there was clearly enough room on the boat for about ten more.

6.  GPS on iPhones - does not work well in narrow streets with tall stone buildings.

7.  Roundabouts on Tuscan roads are very numerous and the voice on the GPS giving directions became very annoying as it was non-stop - 'At the next exit take the third right turn', and on and on and on.  Pretty funny when a wild boar dashed out onto the road though!

8.  Coke for 8 Euros in Florence became the 'too much' benchmark for judging prices on restaurant menus, thankfully most were considerably less than that.

9.  Ted's bartender friend Atla kept him well stocked in food and drink watching US Open tennis late at night in the lounge.

10.  The car rental return in La Spezia that was closed and had no parking spots for returns and was in a sketchy area, then we had to catch a bus from there to the train station to Cinque Terre.

10.  Monterosso al Mare - Checking out ahead of time a place to enjoy a sea-view dinner on our last night there we encountered some of the most rude restaurant staff, but it turned out for the best as we ended up at a great little family place belonging to a winery we'd been at.

11.  Seeing about fifteen people seated on pillows on a tall stairwell who were staring down into a restaurant full of people watching everyone eat.  We then realized that they were people waiting a turn to eat at the restaurant, it was very weird and I wish I would've gotten a picture of that sight.  They looked like vultures!

That's about all that comes to mind but there's probably more!

Athens - Our Final Day

Our final day in Athens began with us packing up and storing our luggage, and then we went for our last walkabout.  The wide walkway is beautiful and it leads around the base of the Acropolis to the Ancient Agora - the central area where people originally settled.  
It was a commercial, political, religious, and cultural hub where the greatest Greeks such as Plato, Socrates, Demosthenes, theorized, spoke out and debated. 

Acropolis above the Agora

The Stoa of Attalos

This is a replica of the main commerce area called the Stoa of Attalos which was built around 140 BC;  the Agora Museum is now housed inside along the back area of it.

Early barbecues!

This was used to time people making speeches; water was poured into the top bowl and there's a small hole in the bottom of it at the front.  When it all drains into the bottom bowl your time's up!

Church of the Holy Apostles

Original artwork on the ceiling is beautiful

This church was my favourite thing in the Agora area, it was tucked away in a far corner.  

Once we finished our last walk through we went for lunch, picked up our luggage and then met our driver who took us to the airport.  Then it was on to London to overnight, then back home the following morning - we've seen so many things and have had a great time, the trip of a lifetime!

Christian Museum; National Garden; Panathenaic Stadium (Olympic)

Our first stop today was at the Christian Museum where we saw a number of byzantine icons - artifacts which are centuries old drawings on wood. From there we walked to the nearby National Garden which is quite large and had a few small animals on display, but it's no longer kept up.  In better economic times it was probably well looked after and a popular place to spend lazy afternoons.

One of the many colourful icons, some of which were carried during processional walks.

National Park

Now that's a bale of turtles

Next we walked over to the Panathenaic Stadium which is entirely made out of marble, we can only imagine how it must have looked when it was in it's glory.  In 2004 Olympics the Archery was held here, as well as the finish for the Marathon race.  Now it's only used for select events and occasional concerts, and of course it's one of the main tourist highlights here in Athens.

It's inspiring imagining how it must have felt being a competitor, and a spectator.

Olympic Rings 

Nobody can resist the temptation to stand on the First Place podium at an Olympic Stadium!

Athens - Day 2

The Hop On, Hop Off bus was the order of our day so we figured out where we wanted to get off first and headed out.  It was Saturday Market day so it was a bustling square with all kinds of items and food for sale, including a flea market alley and a street side lined with junk sellers.  Last night we went to the Museum of the Acropolis - today it was visit to the Museum of Illusions.   Interesting enough for a short visit but then back on the bus for several more stops.

Random deserted archeological ruin amidst a busy street

It was unreal what some people were trying to sell piled atop their vehicles.

Ted in a kalaidascope 

Hanging around...

Honorary guard outside the Presidential Residence.

Next stop was to walk up the 200  steps to take the funicular to the top of Athens highest hill called  Lycabettus Hill.  We stayed for dinner at a restaurant on top so we could enjoy the incredible view and sunset.

City of Athens 

Beautiful sight - Acropolis and Pantheon at night. 

Athens, Greece

It was a short flight over from Santorini Island, then our driver picked us up at the airport and brought us to our apartment - a good decision as Athens is huge!  We're staying in the Plaka neighborhood which is in the center of all the ancient sites so they're very walkable from here.  It's a very cute area with lots of outdoor restaurants, after we dropped our bags off and had lunch we walked up to the Acropolis.

                                                             View from our terrace

We passed by this beautiful amphitheater on our hike up to the Acropolis, there was a band there doing sound checks for their evening performance and the acoustics were unreal.

Almost there...

Spectacular views from the top

Parthenon

Our destination for tomorrow 

Ted on top of Mars hill where the apostle Paul spoke from.

Dune Buggies

For our last day together of our our European vacation the four of us decided to explore other parts of Santorini Island so we rented a couple of dune buggies.  They were good in that we didn't take a lot of room on the narrow roads when big tour buses passed by, but man are they noisy!

We drove to the highest point on the island on a very narrow road with a terrifying cliff off to the right side of us, there was a very old monastery up there.  After that we came down and drove over to  the lighthouse on the very tip of the island, then it was straight to the beach for lunch and relaxation!

Lighthouse

 The views from the top were incredible, but a crazy drive getting up there to see it!

Relaxing in the Aegean Sea

Volcano Island and Donkeys

We’ve traveled by trains, planes, automobiles, boats and now Ted can even add donkey to the list.  We began the day with a three hour boat tour which took us over to the volcano island in the middle of the caldera, and also a stop at the 'warm springs' where Ted jumped off the boat and went for a swim along with others.  I stayed topside to record it all on video and photos.

After we got back to the pier Ted took a donkey ride back up instead of the gondola,  he said it was quite the ride.