D and Js Travel Adventures

We are happy to report that after two days we can now sit and stand without pain. We are in beautiful Santorini now. It is an amazing island with so many wonderful views. The trip here was not so wonderful however. The travel agent booked us on a high speed ferry from Crete to Santorini which took 2 hours instead of the normal 4. She did not mention that it would feel like being on an amusement park ride. The ferry took off from the port and the ride was smooth till they picked up speed. The water started coming over the windows of the boat and we started slamming into the waves. People in the boat started gasping as we went up and down over the waves. We were not expecting this from the ferry ... read more

Today we rented a car because Crete is kind of hard to navigate by bus. We drove about 45 minutes to Agios Nikolas, a harbour city. The highways are quite nice here with plenty of signs. We found out the lines on the roads are just a suggestion. People pass you at any time no matter who is coming in the other lane. The drivers expect you to merge over to the shoulder so they can pass. At Agios we took a boat trip to the island of Spinalonga. This was a leprocy colony during the 1900's. The last person left in 1958. Before that it was a venitian fortress. Then the turkish people took over. The island itself is very small. It took only 20 minutes to walk around the whole island. At one time ... read more

Rhodes was definately a little different than I expected. In Athens we were two tourists surrounded by Athenians, in Rhodes we were two Canadian tourists surrounded by tons of German and British tourists. I was expecting this island to be less touristy than Athens but it is actually more so. We have been busy since we last wrote. On Friday we explored the Old Town of Rhodes. The town is surrounded by medieval fortress walls that are still pretty intact. The center of town contains the Palace of the Grand Masters, the clock tower, bridges, many gates (entrances to the town), and many narrow cobblestone alleyways. It was fun to walk around the old town and picture what it was like to live there all those years ago. The most interesting part is that people still ... read more

We started the day out by having a roaming breakfast. We went to the Coffee Right to get a cup of coffee, kind of like Tim Horton's. The cheapest place to get coffee. Filtered coffee is1.60E for a small cup. We then went to this great bakery around our hotel and had a muffin (I don't know what kind). We also stopped at the grocery store and got 2 bananas. There are so many bakeries here it is amazing. One or two on every street. The National Historical Museum was next on the list. It was interesting but there are only so many statues, clay potts, and busts you can see. Jessica saw a few items she had studied in one of her classes. We then had the bright idea to go down the coast to ... read more

First full day in Greece and it was busy. We went to the Monastiraki Market where you can get anything from furniture to fruit. Too bad we couldn't bring back a couple of antique tables! We did find a 'few' things to buy. We went to the poet sandal maker. He is famous for his greek sandals and had a story written about him in the Calgary Herald which he has posted in his window. The store is about 30 sq feet with sandals hanging all over the place. You decide which ones you want and then they size the sandal for your foot. E23.00! Pasmini scarfs are also everywhere and very cheap. We are getting around on the Metro train. A high speed, improved version of the C-Train. The train stations are underground with ... read more