Shermtastic

About 60km outside Barcelona is Tarragona, home to a number of ruins from the Roman empire. In the middle of the town, we visited an ancient amphitheater, which hosted gladiator battles. Next we found the Circ Roma, the site of the Roman circus, which also included a number of underground hallways, which were used for both the circus and later as a prison during the Spanish Civil War in the mid-1900s. Touring through the city, we walked through the ritualistic Sunday sell your junk sale, which included many rusted items and ripped books. The market was right outside a beautiful church, which was unfortunately closed. Finding our way to the bus stop a mile from the old district, we took a bus to the roman aqueduct outside the city. After a brief hike through the national ... read more

We left Mykonos at 7:30am and arrived at our hotel in Athens at around 3pm.  The subways exit for our hotel was Syntagma Square, across from parliament and the site of all the rioting.  Fortunately, all was quiet as the bill passed early that same morning.  Somehow leaving Mykonos, we managed to find the only boat that would be allowed to arrive in Athens, since the port employees were all striking (for the 3rd day the ferries weren't running).  We dropped off our bags and headed out to the Acropolis, where we saw the Parthenon and the temple where Poseidon struck Athens with his trident.  The views from the Acropolis and the neighboring rock of hills had amazing views of the entire city.  Venturing down the hillside we stumbled on the Ancient Agora of the Athenians, ... read more

Delos, one of the most important archeological sites in Greece is visited by daily ferries from Mykonos.  This site, first established by the Athenians in the 8 century BC, is currently and permanently uninhabited to protect the ruins and relics of ancient Greece.  The island of Delos covers about 5 square kilometers.  Thousands of ruins spread across the island, make the site extremely impressive.  Ruins include temples of Greek deities like Zeus, Dionysus, Apollo and Artemis.  The importance of the island was first established long ago, when the ancient Greeks believed that Delos was the birthplace of the god Apollo and Artemis.  As the island changed over the years and different civilizations took control of the island: Romans, Ottomans...etc, new buildings were erected.  Sarah and I visited almost every building on the island, before climbing up ... read more

We spent the day reading by the pool, looking out over the Agean Sea and venturing into the town.  The town is right on the water and consists of many neighborhoods, like little Venice.  In town, throughout the small and narrow streets are a bunch of fun landmarks, like the classic Greek churches, windmills and a couple piers. ... read more

On our second day on the beautiful Island of Santorini, we took a boat tour to the hot springs and the volcano.  The water for the hot springs enters the sea at about 40 degrees celcius (104 deg F), mixes with the much cooler sea water and ends up about 75 deg F.  Its not a particularly warm hot springs and the swim to the spring is in cold water, but it was enjoyable none the less.  Due to the high iron content (and large amounts of mud) the water was a nice shade of brown.  Our boat then headed to the volcano, an island in the middle of the other islands in Santorini.  We hiked for about a half hour, stopping along the way to see the different craters from the volcanic eruptions.  The most ... read more

At 4am, we headed to the main ferry port in Crete.  We decided to take the early morning slow ferry (it was much cheaper) to Thira, the port in Santorini.  Santorini, considered the most beautiful of all greek islands, was created by the largest volcanic eruption in history, it is said to have been the cause of the Minoan cultures downfall (King Mino of Crete's people).  After our hotel graciously let us check in nice and early, we took in gorgeous view from our balcony of the caldera (cliffs caused by volcanic eruption) and of the volcano and surrounding islands in the Aegean Sea.  We spent most the day wondering around Fira, the main town and eating the fantastic food.... read more

Knossos, the reconstructed ruins of King Minos' palace in Crete stands about 5km away from the main city of Iraklion (pronounced Iraq-leon).  Midway through the day, we took the local bus and visited the famous ruins.  The ruins are impressive in size and the restoration of the original palace was done very well.  Pillars and a random assortment of rooms were found throughout the entire gigantic property.  Heading back towards the main town, we visited the museum, which housed all the artifacts from the archeological site.  Among the famous pieces is a circular disk, which has ancient Greek writing, however all translations have failed.  Leaving the museum, we walked around the main square, where Sarah shopped for shoes..... read more

After two flights and eight hours of travel, we arrived in Crete around 9pm.  We checked into the hotel and headed out into the city for a late dinner.  However, we discovered that in Greece 9 or 10pm is standard dinner time as the restaurants were extremely crowded.  At these water front restaurants in particular, they are also not keen on letting you leave without being completely hammered first.  After finishing our dinner and carafe of local wine they brought out a small bottle of vodka along with fruit and dessert, apparently included with all meals.  By the time we left (a little tipsy) we wondered through the waterfront to the venetian fort, which guards the harbor.  Despite it being after midnight, there were still a hundred or more people walking on the pier.  Crete doesn't ... read more