Arrived in Athens, Greece after a one hour flight from Izmir, Turkey. In the interests of our budget, we opted for public transit to our hotel. It took an hour on the metro to get to our neighborhood in Athens and saved us about $50.
After our long morning of travel, we checked into our hotel and headed to the Acropolis for the afternoon. The subway is really easy to use and the Acropolis was only 4 stops from our hotel. We hiked the steep hill up to the top, with threatening rain clouds hovering over us. The Parthenon is the obvious highlight here and amazing to finally see in person. It’s under construction but you can see which parts are original because the new marble is stark white against the off white of the oldest sections.
We explored nearly all of the Acropolis on our first afternoon, managing to avoid rain. Afterwards, we enjoyed a delicious Greek dinner just outside of the Acropolis on a narrow little café lined street.
Because we only had five full days in Greece we had to make some tough decisions on how to make the most of our time. Unfortunately, that meant we had no time for any Greek Islands on this trip… definitely next time! Instead, we found a 3-day tour that included several antiquities outside of Athens, so we could capture the highlights and keep with the theme of our trip.
Our tour group was 18 people (instead of 40) with a nice big half empty bus. It was nice to be able to spread out and have our own large windows to take in all of the gorgeous mountain and sea landscapes. Our tour guide was very knowledgeable, having done his job for 31 years! But we really had to listen closely due to his thick accent.
The other tourists were pretty much split down the middle - Americans and Australians. We’re not generally tour group folks but the nice thing about traveling this way is the opportunity to hear about everyone’s adventures, and not having to worry about driving. It was great to just sit back and be carted around (especially for Jason after just having driven for a week in Turkey) and have an expert inform you about the region.
One woman told us about her harrowing experience crossing the Kazakhstan border from Uzbekistan. We’ve found that many people don’t find it very intimidating to travel to places that Jason and I are somewhat skeptical about. According to several travelers we’ve talked to, some of the most beautiful places and people are there, and it’s felt that the safety issues are exaggerated.
Our first stop on day 1 of our tour was passing through the Corinth Canal. It connects the Gulf of Corinth with the Saronic Gulf in the Aegean Sea, and separates the Peloponnese peninsula from the Greek mainland. Built in the more recent past (1881), it has sheer cliffs that plunge into the deep blue waters. Apparently, it’s not really in use anymore since it’s very narrow.
Next, we stopped in Epidavros. It’s known for being the most important healing sanctuary in the ancient world, dating all the way back to the pre-historic period. The highlight here was a beautifully preserved ancient theater.
On our way to Mycenae, we briefly stopped in a lovely little seaside city called Nafplio. A huge fortress sits atop a mountain high above the town, and there is a castle on an island just off the coast.
Surrounded by orchards of orange, olive and apricot trees, Mycenae was one of the oldest places we’ve seen on this trip, dating back to 16th century B.C. Perseus was the founding father. We have been revisiting a lot of fascinating Greek mythology and biblical history all along the way.
After touring all day, we arrived at our Hotel Amalia in Olympia. It is set in a quiet little town very close to the antiquities, with nothing around except orange orchards. They served us a wonderful Greek dinner buffet and the next morning we explored ancient Olympia.
Olympia is home of the original Olympic games, initially held in 776 B.C. The athletes (all of which were men) competed naked and only other men could attend the events. Spectators would come from all around, traveling for months to compete and watch the events. There was only first place (no silver or bronze) for each event.
The most famous sight in Olympia is the Temple of Zeus. It’s one of the original seven ancient wonders of the world. The invaluable statues are kept inside the onsite museum, which we were able to view. Our favorite part was seeing the vast stadium where all of the events took place. It could hold over 45,000 men. We watched tons of school kids, here on field trips, racing each other down the long track.
We visited the Olympia museum, containing many of the priceless statues from the site, after seeing the archeological area. One lady in our group got lost. Everyone was scrambling around trying to retrace her steps and then she wandered up from down in the ruins… such is tour group life. There are definitely some characters on this trip.
Next we drove up to Delphi, about four hours from Olympia, after a late lunch. This drive was incredible, taking us from sea level (Ionian Sea) up many switchbacks through the mountains until we reached the modern city of Delphi, some 3300 feet in elevation. The view from our hotel Amalia was breathtaking with the surrounding mountains and sea down below.
Spent the morning touring the antiquities of Delphi and its fantastic museum. It rained on and off throughout the tour. Super hot when the sun was out and freezing cold when it was cloudy. Luckily Jason and I still have our two dollar umbrellas from Istanbul.
We returned to Athens with another tour group since most of our original group was continuing on for one more day. Stayed at a great hotel with really sweet and helpful staff. Our computer crashed and they were really nice to call Apple for us.
Our last full day in Athens was spent checking out the Olympic stadium from the first modern day Olympics, Temple of Zeus, and wandering through little neighborhoods. We went out in old Athens (Plaka) for dinner, drinks and soaking up final bits of Greek culture.