Day 11 (September 19, 2015): Athens

The Quick Facts

* Stayed in an apartment that Carrie found fairly close to the Acropolis…a bargain considering Athens hotels can be pricey!

* Had one full day to see the city, so we made the most of it!

The Good

* The Acropolis…first thing in the morning before it is overrun with tourists

* The Acropolis Museum – definitely worth a trip if you are in the area

* The city – we had a fun time walking around and seeing the sites

The Bad

* Nothing to note, although we think about a day is all you need to spend in Athens

After island hopping for the better part of two weeks, we finally arrived in Athens for one day before having to fly back home.  Which means we needed to see a lot in a short amount of time.  We started off at the Acropolis after receiving a tip to get there first thing – right as it opens – as that is the only time you can see this magnificent structure without the company of thousands of fellow tourists.  It paid off.  Here are some of the pictorial highlights:

And here is what we fought trying to get out of the acropolis less than hour after getting in…

Next we checked out the Theater of Dionysus, once the best place to see plays by the likes of Sophocles and Euripides.

We then went to the Acropolis Museum, which is a wonderful museum dedicated to housing the artifacts and story of the Acropolis.  It is definitely worth visiting if you are in Athens and have a couple hours.  No pictures allowed unfortunately.

After the acropolis museum, we went on a walking tour of the city to see as much as we could.  Here is what we captured on film:

Temple of Olympian Zeus:

Quick lunch at Aegli Zappiou before walking through the Zappeion Gardens...

Presidential Palace (actually very hard to get a picture of it, but it does come complete with guard and photo op!).

Parliament and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier:

A quick visit to one of the oldest and most famous hotels in Athens (you can take the real estate nerd out of the US...): The Grande Britagne

The Ancient Agora, once the commercial hub of Athens and where the likes of Plato and Socrates waxed poetic about the meaning of life and what happened the previous night on Game of Thrones (or something like that)...

Whew!  I’m exhausted.  We finished the day, and our honeymoon, with a lovely dinner with incredible views of the Acropolis, which is spectacularly lit up at nighttime.

That's a wrap. Thanks for following along, as always.  Until next time, it's a big world out there so go see some of it!

Days 4 – 7 (September 12-15, 2015): Santorini

The Quick Facts

* Stayed at Kirini Suites and Spa in the northern (and less hectic/touristy) town of Oia

* Ate at some wonderful restaurants

* Took a sunset cruise around the island

* RELAXED!

The Good

* Stunning views

* Sunsets

* Time to relax!

* Our hotel, Kirini Suites, which did a wonderful job ruining all other hotels for us for the rest of our life

The Bad

* Certain places, at certain times, can be overrun with tourist traffic from visiting cruise ships

Meryl Streep. Sir Richard Branson. Rafael (the soccer player, not the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle).  Donaldson.  Such is the long list of illustrious guests at the hotel we selected for our stay in Santorini.  And that should tell you all you need to know about the hotel experience we had during our stay.

A quick two hour ferry ride from Crete and we arrived at Santorini.  Santorini and its adjoining smaller islands are what remain from a larger landmass/volcano that exploded in 1600BC; the volcano essentially “blew its top off” allowing the sea to rush in and create the crescent-shaped island we have today.  The explosion was so big, in fact, that it is theorized that the resulting ash traveled to Crete and contributed to the demise of the Minoan civilization.  Santorini is also rumored to be the mythical island of Atlantis.

After a quick orientation to the hotel, we settled into our room which had the following view:

The priority for our stay in Santorini was doing nothing.  Except eat.  Over the course of our four days in Santorini, we ate at some wonderful restaurants, including:

* Sunset Taverna – a fish house set on the water on the Ammoudi Beach

* Ambrosia -- Mediterranean food with outstanding views

* Metaxy Mas – a village tavern in the town of Pyrgos that turns out exceptional food

One of the best features of our hotel was the breakfast, served poolside, which seamlessly merged into relaxing mornings spent at the pool while enjoying the stunning views of the caldera and Cliffside that are the hallmarks of Santorini.

We did manage to do things.  One afternoon we set out for an afternoon sail that took us to the neighboring volcanic island, and provided for some wonderful views of Santorini as well as those classic Santorini sunsets.

We also spent a day touring the island, visiting the ancient city of Akrotiri, which is the “Pompeii of Greece” and succumbed to the great volcanic explosion that created the modern-day island, the black beaches at the south of the island, and one of the many wineries on the island.

While Oia can be quite crowded during the day and certainly at sunset, we got up early one morning to take a walk through the time to try to experience the village as it once was, before the tourism.  What we found were villagers trying to live life like they’ve always had: going to church, kids going to school, taking care of their houses.  It was a peaceful way to experience an old Greek fishing village.

No people!  A rareity for Oia streets...

I got a frappe, which in Greece is an iced coffee.  Delicious!

Finally, one of the highlights of our stay in Santorini was one of the wait staff at the hotel, Arturo.  Arturo worked the pool, starting by serving breakfast and then responsible for taking care of you during the day: towels, food, drink, etc.  Except Arturo does none of that.  Instead, he is photographer to the stars (and by stars I mean hotel guests like us).  Popping from guest to guest with a “I take picture”, complete with direction and tips on when and how to capture the best light.  Here is some of his best work.  We have a video where he directed Carrie to look glamorous while flipping her hair, unfortunately my non-tech saavy self can't figure out how to get it working on this blog.  Too bad, because his distinctive “yeeeessss” can be heard at the end of the video.