This entry will be condensed because we have to get on our mopeds for dinner. Today we toured famous monestaries in the mountains. What else would a nice Jewish family do on a Bat Mitzvah trip. Enjoy. [View Full Entry]

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We took the overnight ferry from Hania to Piraeus to start our transit to Sparta. We started out badly with a lot of confusion over who was rooming with whom but eventually got it sorted out and were escorted to our 'staterooms' by one of the ferry staff. The rooms had four bunkbeds, two on each side, a wardrobe, a nighttable and a bathroom with a shower, very compact, very functional. The whole boat was a maze of corridors and stairs that didn't seem to have a lot of rhyme or reason to them. There was a pool but it was [View Full Entry]

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As my guidebook indicated, Sparta is not exactly overrun with great archaeological finds. We started the day at the Sanctuary of Amyklaios where ther used to be a monument to Amyklaios whom Apollo slew with a misplaced discus blown into him by the North wind. This site was somewhat uique in having a pie-shaped portico labelled the 'throne of Apollo' of which nothing is still visible. The site is still being excavated and it was entertaining to view the beer and pop cans showing where the stakes are for the excavation of this 2500 year old site. The retaining wall around [View Full Entry]

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The site was inviting from the moment we drove into the prk with all the oleanders and other plants and trees. We went to the museum first and it was interesting to see the many statues which were probably votives to thank Asclepius for healing them or their family. There was a plaster cast of a pair of ears attributed to Cutius, a Frankish king from 918 AD who was thanking Asclepius for healing his deafness. We then continued on to the archaeological site which was easier to visualize after having seen the site plan in the museum. The hotel was [View Full Entry]

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This is my favourite spot on the itinerary. It has great historical sites in the vicinity, good shopping, lots of great restaurants, awesome gelaterias and an inviting atmosphere without the plastic you get with a North American tourist trap. It also has good swimming and an ok beach. I understand there is a better beach around the corner, as well. We started our sightseeing by taking a taxi to Palamidi castle. It was well worth the 5 euro not to have to climb the 999 stone steps leading up there in 25-30 degree heat. The view was amazing and the castle [View Full Entry]

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Tiryns was very impressive. The thought of the ancients wrestling those ancient stones into place, wow! The stones must weigh tonnes and the walls were 7-11 m thick and many meters tall. It was an amazing complex with casements and rooms and tunnels to underground cisterns. It was the sort of place that you wouldn't be surprised to find a strong guy like Hercules showing up at with his latest prize while King Eurystheus peered fearfully over the massive gates. After Tiryns we went to the Argive Heraion and it was interesting to see the various levels of temples deposited down [View Full Entry]

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Yesterday we left Delphi, heading north. The mountain roads were pretty spectacular before we dropped down to the Agean coast. We stopped north of Larissa, a small seaside place called Platamonas, It is overlooked by Mount Olympos, seems to cater to Greek tourists and day trippers from Larissa and Thessalonika. Finding a hotel was no problem. The trip itself was good, if hot. Jackets and helmets were not an attractive proposition. The first part, the pass, was spectacular though Ashley had to concentrate on the hairpin bends and other drivers. It was ten good roads (including some stretches of two lane [View Full Entry]

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Dad and Caitie left me on Naxos Island three days ago to make their journey back to Montreal. As the Naxians sympathetically noted, "the holiday, it is over, ne." Sadly for them, it is, though I'm sure they had many happy reunions once back on Canadian soil. For my part, I took my last two solo days to do things Caitie didn't like - hiking Mt. Zeus, the highest peak in the Cyclades (at 1001m this is only impressive if you leave out the height) and vainly trying to rid myself of tan lines on a nude beach. And of course [View Full Entry]

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Hey everyone. It seems like a long time since we have last written, but its only been a coupe days. We have access finally, so we thought that we would fill you in on the past couple of days. But first - thanks for all the comments guys, they have been great. Also, a Happy Father's Day to our Dads. OK, so.... we last left off on our saga when we were spending our last night in athens. The next day we headed out to catch our bus to corfu. So the website said that there was a 10am bus that [View Full Entry]

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Well, we had a slight change of plans after leaving Egypt. It turns out that it would have cost a fortune to fly in and out of Jordan and it was too late to organise visas to get through Syria to Jordan, so we decided to skip it. We were only really going there to see Petra anyway and we couldn't justify spending that amount of money. So, we jumped on the internet and googled flights anywhere out of Cairo and picked the cheapest. So the next morning (at 4am!) we flew to Athens. We arrived at 6.30am jumped on the [View Full Entry]

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