Blogs from Ionian Islands, Greece, Europe - page 5

It was an early start as the alarm went off at 0500hrs. We got ready in an hour's time and left the beautiful house of Ada as the dawn broke over the eastern skies. We had a 3 hour's drive from Githio to Athens airport. It was more or less the same route we took while coming to Githio. After a brief halt just before the airport to fuel up the car and the passengers, we were off to the most visited island in the world - Santorini. Santorini is a crescent shaped island, reformed after a 3000 year old volcano eruption giving it it's distinctive features namely the steep Cliff side called caldera, multicolored soils and rocks, different colored beaches, islands and it's rugged exterior. Also against popular belief back home, Santorini is a big ... read more

The ship has overnighted in Corfu. It's a bit tough getting up, as we have an early tour and we have lost one hour in a time change overnight. The weather continues to be perfect. Our tour guide is a delightful, bubbly personality named Alexandria, who almost instantly becomes our best friend. Our bus heads out of the city of Corfu, headed for the more rugged northern part of the island. It takes about 45 minutes to reach Paleokastrista, an area known for its natural beauty. We have been steadily climbing and the roads are becoming more or more narrow. Our driver is a wizard who somehow is able to negotiate hairpin turns and various obstacles in our large touring coach. Our first stop is the Monastery of the Virgin Mary, founded in 1226. It is ... read more

After everyone had such lovely experiences with the drag-on, drag-off tours yesterday, Mark and I decided to skip Corfu Panorama and just do our own thing. To be fair, the Watkins did the Corfu Panorama tour and said it was quite lovely. But we still did our own thing. With Mom. Which meant we shopped Corfu! This also means my husband is a saint. Mom had called before we even went to get breakfast and asked what we were doing. We told her we were striking out on our own and she asked if she could join us. Of course! Mark was getting a little work done (the Wi-Fi was actually semi-cooperative which is about the best that can be expected) and we didn’t leave the cabin for breakfast until a little after 10. Guess what? ... read more

Vrijdag 10/06/2016 – Sarandë Naar het Grieks eiland Corfu met de boot, een aftandse Hydrofoil, maar varen deed ie nog. Een toerbus met lokale Griekse gids wachtte ons op bij aankomst. Eerst douanecontrole voor EU-citizens. Moest wel even mijn zonnebril afzetten. Die Grieken doen hun werk. Dan bracht de bus ons naar Achillion Palace. Ooit seizoensverblijf van Sissi. Onze gids was er helemaal weg van. Keizer Wilhelm II had er ook zijn bed staan. Die mannen zaten dus overal. Koekendozenromantiek is niet zo mijn dada. Toch blijkbaar dé verplichte stop op Corfu, gezien de drukte van aangevoerde Cruise passagiers, te herkennen aan de invasie van Japanezen. We werden dan nog verder rondgereden voor de noodzakelijke fotostops, en dan rondgeleid in het oude stadscentrum, waar men ons losliet in de toeristische straatjes vol met allerlei winkeltjes, prularia, ... read more

It has been quite a while since I have written a blog for us, we have spent the last couple of years in Greece, and learnt to love this very varied country. We have been lucky enough to have some good friends here, and have enjoyed some very relaxing times. All of our trips have been interesting and mostly really fun, but last september we had a very bad trip to Crete. The weather was very hot, 42 Deg but the winds were very favourable when we set off from Preveza, we headed to Zante first, I had not been there before, and we anchored int he middle of the big harbour. It was so very hot, we took the dog ashore and had an ice-cream. We had spent the previous evening in Kastos, one of ... read more