Greece - The Bourne Identity, Meteora, Apollo & the Parthenon

View of Athens from the
Parthenon

Parthenon summit

          Part of our honeymoon (Italy) had ended as our Greece part of the honeymoon was just beginning.  I had assumed I would prefer Italy to Greece but even now I still struggle as to which one I liked visiting more.  I would prefer to retire in Italy over Greece for the food and the wine but the scenery and feeling of contentment I had from places like Meteora and Mykonos Island were enough to make me want to come back.  Our flight from Rome brought us into the capital city of Athens.  From the airport we immediately planned to visit the Parthenon (not to be confused with the Pantheon in Rome).  Along with the Colosseum, the Parthenon was something I had longed to look upon.  The Parthenon sits on top of Athens like a giant light house overlooking the city.  We made our way through the subway and started our upward walk to the gates of the Parthenon.  The view from the plateau the Parthenon sits on is amazing, you have a clear three hundred sixty degree view of the city.  As an semi-retired archaeologist, crossing things like this off my list brings me joy I cannot describe.

The Parthenon

The Partheonon

          After the Parthenon we planned to make our way over to Piraeus which is a major port city in Greece.  We had to spend the night in Piraeus before heading out to sea on our five hour ferry ride.  Piraeus is a gateway to the Aegean Sea and how  our next destination: Mykonos Island.  Piraeus leaves a bit more to be desired, its definitely a port city.  We had the misfortune of being talked into staying at a sub par hotel by the person we bought our ferry tickets from.  He also tried to scare us out of our traveling methods by saying everything would be booked on the island.  We almost bought into it and I decided to avoid confrontation and let him book us something on Mykonos (even though I didn't want to).  I decided the next day that when we arrived on the island we could decide whether or not to stay at the place this pushy guy booked for us.

Little Venice, Mykonos

Mykonos windmills (Bourne Identity
movie site on the bottom right)

          The ferry ride was a normal type ferry if you have ever been on one.  If you do not book the nice seats you have to shuffle to find couch spaces or somewhere in cafe, otherwise you have to sit on metal chairs and tables near the back of the ship.  I do have to say that five hours is a long ride and makes you contemplate the expensive plane ticket direct to the island from Athens.  When we arrived in Mykonos we decided to duck the pickup van that the Piraeus guy booked us (somewhat out of spite because he was kind of a money hoarding jerk) and take the public bus to the main city area.  We took out our lonely planet guide and found a place that was highly rated called the Carbonaki Hotel.  It is family run by this really nice older couple, that helped me find my Bourne Identity film spot.  They were not aware of the filming so I had to show them a picture of the scene and they recognized it.  This family was incredibly kind and accommodating to us during our stay.  To offer up my first movie reference about Mykonos:

I had found out about this little island after watching the first Bourne Identity movie (movie scene to the right).  If you remember at the end, Jason Bourne gives all his money to this girl he meets after his amnesia and tells her to go make a life for herself.  So following all the sweet action and crazy fight scenes, the movie retires to a remote Mediterranean location (Mykonos Island) where his girlfriend is running a moped shop and of course the clever assassin Jason Bourne tracks her down and surprises her.  Well of course immediately after the movie I had to scan the internet to find out where they filmed this.  I was particularly attracted to all of the white buildings when I saw the scene in the movie.  

So after we settled in our lovely villa (one of the benefits of coming towards the beginning of the off season) we set out to find the famous (in my mind) moped shop from the movie.  After about a half hour of walking

Sunset View from our Hotel

Little Venice

we found it, the shop was re-purposed as a moped shop for the movie, but was really a cafe / fish market.  This beautiful location stood in the shadow of five beautiful windmills.  Just down the step from the windmills is an area of the island called "Little Venice" (because the water is very close to the docks and tables of the restaurants) which has many of the nice restaurants and clubs on the island.  We spent a lot of time hanging out in Little Venice as is was a short walk from our villa.  Life is very simple and slow moving on the island, the walkways though the endless corridors of white buildings is quite enjoyable to walk through.  It is very easy to slip into the calm, laid back vibe that all the locals of the island give off.

          On our second day we decided to take a short ferry ride over to the island of Delos which is an uninhabited island that contains the remnants of an affluent ancient Greek city.  The island had an ancient history as being the birthplace of Apollo and for that reason was a holy site of pilgrimage for the ancient Greeks.  The trip to Delos was definitely worth it, from touring the well preserved houses and temples on the lower plane of the island, to  making the trek up to the temple on the peak of the island (which gives a great view of Delos and Mykonos).  Just as we finished the tour a storm was rolling in and we made it on the ferry just in time (one of the risks of vacationing during the off season).
          Our third day on Mykonos was also somewhat stormy so we made the executive decision to return to the mainland as the islands are rather boring during bad weather.  We had to change our ferry ticket (because we violated our travel rules of planning too far ahead yet again) one day back because we booked

Delos Island ruins

Delos

in advance for three days.  When we were on the ferry to the island I had noticed an interesting picture of these huge rock formations on the cover of our Lonely Planet book which did not seem like the Greek I pictured at all.  It was an area called Meteora which was five hours north of Athens via train ride.  When we plotted it out on Mykonos we guessed it would take eleven hours (we do not mess around with time, we sleep anywhere we can if its important to make a site) to get there.  We reached Athens in the late evening to catch our train to Meteora which put us there around four or five a.m.  When we arrived in Meteora it was cold, dark and windy, we were lucky to catch the one taxi at the train station.  I threw a mental dart at our Lonely Planet Meteroa hotel list and told the taxi driver to take us to a place called Alsos House.  The entire city was on this very sharp angle which winds up the steep hill, but even at night you can see these megalithic structures looming over you in the darkness.  When we

Delos Temple

Delos Temple Summit

arrived at Alsos House it was completely dark, the taxi driver rung the bell and a light turned on in the far corner of the hotel.  The innkeeper came to the door and asked us what we wanted, of course we needed a place to sleep for a few hours.  Sadly he told us he was booked solid (the first negative of our "do not plan too far ahead approach"...Or was it?), but we begged him saying we had been traveling for almost twelve hours and just needed a place to rest.  He looked around outside at the weather and back in at his lobby thinking for a second and he smiled and said "ok come in".  He led us into his lobby to the couches, brought us some sheets, pillows and said "you can sleep here".  I have to say we have plenty of funny, strange and surreal travel stories, but this is one of my favorites.  We were so down on our energy, in

Meteora Below

Town of Meteora

a strange place and this gentleman let us in and took care of us despite the fact that there was "no room in the Inn".  I say this with utmost sincerity when I express that these are the moments when I think the world has hope, when I think the world is a beautiful place and there are people out there who really are working to make it that way.  Hats off to this guy and the hope of many others like him in the world.  In the morning he served us breakfast and called in a favor to get us on a tour of the region.
          The allure of Meteroa is the fact the entire city is surrounded by these massive natural sandstone rock

Monastery Pillars

pillars on top of which monks have built a series of monasteries on top.  To me it is one of those places I never imagined existed in the world.  Our tour bus took us to the six monasteries still in operation and still occupied by monks and nuns in two of them.  We crossed bridges to access the monasteries but in the times the monks still occupied them, they were built to seek refuge from the violence of war in the surrounding areas.  For this reason they used to hoist the monks up in rope nets to the top.  When the monks were asked when they decided to replace the ropes their reply was "when the Lord lets it break".  The pictures really do not give credit to the amazing sight these rock formations and monasteries are to see.  We also took a tour of a cave (A part of a series of caves called the Theopetra caves) that had been occupied and utilized continuously by ancient settlers for more than one hundred and thirty thousand years.  After our tour we did some souvenir shopping and ate at a lovely restaurant called Restaurant Meteora which had some very tasty Greek dishes.  After our meal we headed over to the train station to catch our flight out of Athens back home.

          I think the pure diversity of the trip in Greece made me fall in love with the country right away.  It is another place in the world with rich ancient history which I love and yet I enjoyed relaxing on Mykonos just as much.  Seeing a place like Meteora makes me realize how much I still have to learn about the world and its geography.  The language barrier is a challenge but the rewards of getting through this challenge is worth it.  Greece is a place I would love to revisit again as many other regions are waiting to be explored.      

  

Italy - Super Tuscan Vino, The Italian Job & Tom Hanks

Florence (with hiking back packs)

View of Florence before
entering the Tuscany region

          Italy was part one of our two week honeymoon tour back in October of 2013.  As you may have noticed we have a theme of traveling in October.  Let's face it, October is the best month out of the year, its the month of my birthday (October 25), has my favorite holiday (Halloween), the leaves change in my home state of Michigan which peppers the forests with beautiful colors the entire month and for the most part, you can enjoy good weather all over the world.   I would also like to add that this was the first two week vacation I had taken EVER.  And just for reference we are about to take another two week trip to Scotland at the end of July 2014 (stay tuned).  I want to say how incredibly fortunate Sarah and I feel to be able to explore the world in this capacity and also have the time to do so, it is truly a gift we do not intend on wasting.

Vineyard during Vespa tour

Well deserved beer in Florence
 after the Vespa tour

          Another theme you may notice in my entries is that they orbit around movies.  The cinema is a particular hobby of mine and I spend more time than I would like to admit capturing every minute detail of my favorite movies.  When it comes to travel nothing pleases me more than to visit the film sites of my favorite movies, it becomes even more exciting if there is no mention of the site and I have to seek it out by other means (usually by seeking the help of locals).  A good example is (in my Greece entry) the scene at the end of the first Jason Bourne movie where Matt Damon's character finds the woman he had been traveling with on an island running a moped  / cafe shop.  The location was Mykonos, Island off the coast of Greece in the Aegean Sea.  The film site was in a place called the Sea Satin Restaurant right in front of the famous windmills, one of my favorite movie film sites (more details in my Greece post).

Piazza San Marco

Venice at night

          Our first leg of the trip landed us in Florence, which is a vibrant city full of many options depending on your cup of tea. Carrying our trusty lonely planet guide we started scoping out the quality B&B's in the area.  We made our way into the heart of the city towards our B&B of choice (The Hotel Accademia).  The sun had already gone down and we had our first experience of the emerging Italian night life.  As we started to learn, in Italy people stay up very late and dinner time starts around seven, eight and even night o'clock.  Our B&B was down this series of cozy narrow cobblestone streets, warmly lit by the emerging pubs and cafes.   For us Florence was really just a base to get to the surrounding country side, specifically the Tuscany region.  Sarah had a particular interest in renting a Vespa in Florence to go cruising out through the Tuscan valleys from winery to winery.  So I had the pleasure of giving it the good old college try by test driving it in the Florence traffic.  Now I will be the first to say that driving is not the best in Abu Dhabi, but driving in Italy was not much better by comparison.  After I navigated us out of the city, it was smooth sailing along the country roads with nothing but greenery and vineyards to look at.  We did make a quick stop at a scenic look out of

Smaller Venice Canal at night

Grand Canal

Florence (which was beautiful) before we made it to our first winery.  Riding out to the Tuscany region is a wonderful experience that I would highly recommend.  We stopped by three or four wineries throughout our Vespa ride and made many pit stops to just sit and look at the beautiful views.  While in Tuscany I also found my favorite wine to date, I describe it as "life changing" in the world of wine tasting for me.  We found this wine at one of our stops at a winery called Terreno, it was classified as a Super Tuscan and the name was Momento Massimo.  If you are ever in this region and love red wine, you must go here and try this wine, you will not be disappointed.  I bought a bottle for the road and enjoyed it frequently throughout the day (a small glass at 9 a.m. on a train, a splash for lunch and finished it off at dinner in Piza) as I kept it corked and stuffed in the side pouch of my hiking pack (using hiking packs was the second stage of our evolution to become the most efficient travelers, it was better than hauling a role away, but was still not the most ideal way to pack).

Venice

Pisa

          Following Florence we decided to make our next stop in Venice.  For my first movie reference of the post, this is where they filmed part of the movie The Italian Job.  It was absolutely beautiful to visit, seeing Piazza San Marco (which is this huge square with a giant clock tower) by itself makes the trip to Venice worth it.  I would also recommended arriving to Venice in the evening, we just happened to take a late train from Florence and had the pleasure of seeing a calmed down, less touristy version of Venice as we rounded the city to our port in a water taxi.  In the evening San Marco square has a series of  outdoor restaurants that welcome you from your water taxi drop off point with the beautiful sound of live piano and violin classical pieces being played throughout the warmly lit square.  It was very romantic and lucky for us the late Italian night life kept us from missing our dinner in front of restaurants with these great performers.  Following dinner we made our way over the small passage ways and crossed our series of bridges to get to our Venice B&B (The Bel Sito Hotel).  We only spent one day in Venice, touring some shops and having lunch in a waterside restaurant overlooking the Grand Canal.  We were happy to arrive in the evening as Venice is very touristy during the day, mainly because that is when the cattle gates to the massive cruise ships open to unload thousands of Hawaiian print shirts and fanny packs with their all you can eat buffet colored wristbands attached (It is not surprising if you do not hear an Italian accent all day, did you notice I do not like cruisers and cruise ships?).  This is yet another reason why Sarah and I prefer to escape large cities as soon as possible for more culturally authentic samples of countries, because if there is a port, there might be a cruise ship and that could ruin your day.  Sarah and I both agreed that we would have a different overall opinion of Venice had we arrived in the middle of the day versus our romantic arrival in the evening.

Sarah & the best vino
ever (La Mescita, Pisa)

Chinque Terre

          We had a recommendation from some fellow travelers back home to visit the region of Chinque Terre, which is this geographically rugged portion of the coast on the Italian Riviera.  We were fortunate enough to make a pit stop in Piza since it was on the way to visit the famous leaning tower of Piza.  The town of Piza itself is quite clean with the standard well kept historic European look to it.  The tower which is part of a large cathedral (The Piza Cathedral) it towards the back of the city.  A fact to which I was unaware at the time is that you can actually buy tickets to climb to the top of the leaning tower.  The climb is interesting and at times it is hard to keep your balance as you are walking at an angle most of the time, but the view and experience in general is worth it if you are in the area.  After the climb we had a bite at a local restaurant called La Mescita which was delightful, the manager of the shop even let me finish the last of my Momento Massimo with my meal and gave us complimentary Limoncello (an Italian lemon liqueur) shots for dessert.  We spent a night at the Royal Victoria Hotel in Piza and in the morning started off to Chinque Terre.

First look at the Colosseum

          When we got off the train in Chinque Terre we had a short walk through a tunnel and up some stairs before we were able to view the classic picture you always see of the rocky coastline peppered with terraces colored with an array of bright pinks, oranges, reds and many other contrasting varieties.  Trains are the only way to get to the "five lands" of the region as you pass through tunnels carved into the rocks.  We decided to only spend a day here as there way not much else to explore after viewing the scenery, also it seemed to be the "Florida" of Italy and by that I mean there were lots of people in the age range of fifty to seventy years old.  Not that it was a bad thing, but its popularity with the senior population speaks to the limited activities of the area.  If you enjoy the relaxing beach type vacation for a long period of time, Chenque Terre would be a good option.

Saint Peter's Basilica

Inside the Colosseum

          Following Chinque Terre we bought our train tickets to make the long night journey down to Rome.  I had been longing to see this amazing ancient city for many years.  I have had dreams of the day I would look upon the Colosseum.  When we arrived we took a subway tunnel to the exit labeled in Italian "Colosseo" (guess what that means!).  We got off the train and walked up the stairs to street and I became speechless.  The Colosseum slowly reveals itself as you climb the stairs from the subway, hundreds of lights shining on every detail.  I knew it was big, but as I am sure everyone knows, pictures typically never do anything true justice.  I must have stood frozen, staring at the Colosseum for thirty minutes (maybe not, but it was one of those frozen in time moments) until Sarah led me forward to find our hotel at a very late hour.  We came to our hotel to find that they only had one room available (we stayed at the Hotel Smeraldo) and it was a single bed about the size of a standard military issue cot.  We were confused as to why it was so busy in Rome, but we were about to find out the next day.

The Pantheon

Pope Francis walking out
of the Basilica

           After a semi-sleepless night of synchronized turning on our single bed (we had to coordinate our roll overs to avoid "nerd" tossing the other person onto the floor) we woke up to plan our exploration of Rome.  We only had one day before beginning our second part of the trip in Greece, so we decided to cover the mostly the Vatican.  I was pleased to see many of the Tom Hanks Angels & Demons movie film sites as we walked though the city.  Rome is incredibly rich in ancient history and the unique part about it is that many times you see ancient ruins integrated with the modern parts of the city.  There are cleared areas all over the city where established ruins from the Roman era are located and also many new sites being excavated (these sites are often discovered by construction workers during renovations).  When we arrived at Saint Peter's Square in Vatican we wanted to do two things: go through Saint Peter's Basilica and the Sistine Chapel (the Pope's official residence in Vatican City).  Sadly we found out the day of that the Basilica was closed off so we were only able to see the Sistine Chapel.  The Chapel was amazingly beautiful with only natural light to illuminate the paintings the encircle the room, no cameras are allowed in this place.  The only setback is there is a bottle neck through the fenced off area and it was extremely crowded (we found out why later).          

Castle Sant'Angelo

          Following our tour of the Chapel we made our way back to Saint Peters Square where an even larger crowd was gathering.  At this point you could not even get in to the main part of the square without going through a metal detector.  After seeing this I was curious if we could penetrate the layer of security to get in to the square, so we tried our luck and sure enough we passed through.  We slowly began to realize why the Basilica was closed as we learned there was a ceremony about to take place.  My theory was that we were about to see the Pope and to our surprise towards the middle of the program Pope Francis walked through.  So we were unable to see the Basilica, however we traded it in to see the Pope so I thought that worked out nicely.  After the ceremony we walked down to Castle Sant'Angelo (also a featured scene in Angels & Demons) and over to the Pantheon (built in 126 AD) which comes from a Greek word meaning "common to all gods".

Sarah prepping for our flight
to Athens, Greece

Post Rome Tour

          Italy and specifically Florence and Rome were amazing for us.  Our short week left much more to be discovered in a return visit (I could have spent months in Rome).  Italy is rich in culture, heritage, and ancient history.  The local Italians are extremely friendly and very fun to get to know.  It is likely we will be making a return trip to Italy in the not so distant future to cover  yet another unexplored portion of the country.              
       
             
             
             
       

       
               

England - Stone Henge, Gandalf & The Prime Meridian

Inside Eagle and Child

          With Ireland behind us (again writing this July of 2014 from our vacation in October 2012) we now had five days to explore the U.K.  When we arrived in London we took the underground to the heart of the city and then through on to Oxford.  We had a particular reason for visiting this area as I was interested in going to a bar by the name of the Eagle and Child.  The two very brilliant authors of the Chronicles of Narnia and the Lord of the Rings:  J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis used to be part of a writers group called the inklings and their primary meeting place was the Eagle and Child Bar.  To be there and sit in the same place as these literary geniuses where they likely discussed parts of their books (like Frodo and Gandalf) while in the making was an excellent experience.  The bar itself with an obvious

Salisbury Cathedral

collegiate like atmosphere had excellent food as well.  I must say I was happy to cross that little visit to the birth place of the Shire and Narnia off my list (although the movie Shire is in New Zealand, stay tuned).

          After a day in Oxford we made our way to the town of Salisbury which is the gateway town that offers tours of Stone Henge.  Stone Henge was a great site of the world to check off the list, the landscape around it was very nice apart from the large road system around it.  Sadly you cannot walk through the ruins due to foolish tourists wishing to chip pieces off for themselves, taking the magic away from everyone else.  So from the ropes we took our photos and traveled back to Salisbury.  We only dropped by this area to see the main attraction of course, but to our surprise the town itself was remarkably rich in history.  It was a beautiful town and also had the fourth largest cathedral in Europe.  After we toured the beautiful cathedral we walked around the town for a bite to eat.  We found this great pub / restaurant called The Bishops Mill where you had to cross a turbulent river over a bridge to get to.  We had great food and great service, I also enjoyed my favorite beer (Leffe) there in a proper glass as well.  

Front Lawn Bishops Mill
Salisbury

Stone Henge

          We only spent the day in Salisbury so after lunch we caught a train back to London to spend the remainder of our days. The first day in London we covered some of the basics but no doubt left room for a return.  We walked along many of the bridges over the river Thames.  We went up on the London eye to get a better view of the city and caught a great picture in the glass bubble as it was descending down in front of the parliament building.  We also went shopping for clothes and take away's for those awaiting our return.  We used the Big Bus tour system to get to various sites in London which also included ferry tickets up and down the Thames.  I also wanted to pay a visit to the British museum as it contained an artifact I have wanted to see for a long time: the Rosetta Stone.  This stone with various languages (Greek being one of them) on it all with the same text, provided the key to the modern understanding of Egyptian hieroglyphs.  An absolutely amazing and crucial piece of preserved history.     

London Eye

Parliament Building

          On our second day in the London we used our ferry tickets to travel up the Thames to Greenwich.  We found a nice B&B called The Mitre where we put in for one night.  One reason to visit Greenwich is the London observatory, the Prime Meridian runs right through it so you can do the classic two places at once picture on the Meridian itself.  I really enjoyed Greenwich, it almost reminded me of a smaller version of Salisbury also containing some nice pubs and restaurants with a very classic sophisticated with age feeling.                 After our night in Greenwich we went back down the Thames to spend one more night in a place I booked in advance (another violation of our rule) in an area called Harrow on the Hill.  I booked this area because it was closer to the airport which we had to get to in the morning.  I knew

British Museum
Rosetta Stone

Tower of London

I had made a mistake when we arrived when no one had a British accent.  Our accommodations were not much better, we were led of the stairs of a B&B that had clearly been converted from a series of flats.  As you walked down the hall way motion lights turned on.  This proved to be our bane in the evening as they continues to turn on throughout the entire night.  Which led us to believe that someone was walking up the stairway to our room or the light was broken.  We chose to believe the first theory which resulted in maybe one hour of sleep and a speedy exit at dawn.  We probably made it ninety percent worse than it was, but it was creepy none the less.  

Prime Meridian

Royal Observatory

          We get on our train to the the airport to find our line was under repairs.  We ended up missing our flight and were forced to book a flight the next day.  Luckily I had a diamond status with Hilton so we booked a room in the executive level while enjoying ourselves to free dinner and drinks in the executive lounge.  I was actually happy to end our trip with this scenario versus the sleepless scary night we had before.

          

Tower Bridge

           The U.K. left me wanting more.  This large country has much to be explored in many regions we simply did not have time to visit.  I (Sarah not as much) really enjoyed London and would love to go back again.  The weather, the scenery and pleasant manners of the local Brits is enough to make anyone feel at home.