We have finally left the car behind. With the final days being spent in Athens the car would be more of a pain to try and park so we ditched it at the end of the day. That being said, we still had a full day of driving today. We started off with a drive…

“Imagine, if you will…” This has been a constant refrain during the entire trip. Many of the sights we have been to are little more that worked stones scattered along the ground. Today was no different as we headed to Ancient Mycenae. This ancient city might be more familiar to you if you know of…

It was all up hill today. We visited the abandoned medieval town of Mystras. It was nice not to do an Ancient Greek site for a change but much of the old town was still in ruins. Only the churches from the monasteries and the old palace have been restored. We ended up at great…

Today was the unluckiest day yet. We didn’t have a massive amount on the agenda for today, just visit the site of the original Olympic Games. This seemed easy enough at the start, until we tried to find the parking. Normally, most major sites have very obvious parking areas with signs guiding you in. We…

Today was a bucket list item for me, we got to visit the Temple at Delphi. According to Greek mythology, Delphi is the center of the world. They even had a rock that they were sure Zeus threw there once he determined the center of the world. We managed to get to the site right…

This morning started off with a drive straight up the winding road leading to the monasteries of Meteora. At their peak, there were 24 monasteries. Today, there are only 6 remaining. Most of them require a hike up 142 to over 300 stairs to reach the monastery. We chose one that was open and only…

A very short post today as we spent almost all day traveling from Rethymno, Crete to Kalabaka on mainland Greece. The morning started with a great deal of haze that never went away. Sand and hot wind from the Sahara have blown north, as far as Switzerland. This has caused a yellow/orange haze to hang…

Day 4 was a day in the countryside. We started off at the Arkadi Monastery. This Monastery was a key point in the uprising against the Turks in the 1800’s. Today it is mostly rebuilt and a very easy place to visit. Next we headed to the Melidoni Cave, site of a massacre during the…

A couple of things I missed from yesterday. Crete has 50 olive trees for every person living here. Each person uses 25-30 liters of olive oil per year. Most families own and harvest their own olive trees to provide them with olive oil for the whole year. Today, we started off the day with a…

As the first day was mostly traveling to our first lodging in Greece, I am combining the first two days of the trip together. The first day was mostly traveling. We flew from JFK to Athens then Athens to Crete. I did catch my first glimpse of Greece as we were descending towards Athens. Once…