Blogs from Greece, Europe - page 11

After our enjoyable stay in Agios Nikolaos we needed to start moving again. The first day was a short hop as we definitely wanted to go to Elounda Bay to visit Spinolonga. If any of you recognize that name, it may be because you read the book, “The Island” by Victoria Hislop about the time when the island was used as a leper colony. I had read the book years ago (and definitely now want to read it again), but knowing that Spinolonga was so close we decided to visit for ourselves. We had a pleasant sail enjoying the rugged coastline of Sicily which took us less than 2 ½ hours – our shortest move yet. Fortunately, Paul and Carole provided us with suggestions about anchoring in the bay as well as visiting Spinolonga. We decided ... read more

We set sail on May 27thfrom Fry at 6:06AM to head to Sitia on the island of Crete. In looking at the weather it looked like it should be an easy transit but would take about 8 ½ hours. The winds were much stronger than forecast and not in the right direction. Guess we shouldn’t be surprised. The waves kept building but Tsamaya can handle them. We had 2 sails up most of the time and were able to keep it between 30-60 degrees for part of the trip so made it in 8 hours. At times we saw 7 knots of speed which is definitely rare with us. We were a little overpowered at times when winds kept building so took in some sail. It was actually nice to feel like we were sailing as ... read more

The history of Crete goes back to the 7th millennium BC, preceding the ancient Minoan civilization by more than four thousand years. The palace-based Minoan civilization was the first civilization in Europe. After the Minoan civilization was devastated by the Thera (Santorini) eruption, Crete developed an Ancient Greece-influenced organization of city-states, then successively became part of the Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire, the Venetian Republic, the Ottoman Empire, an autonomous state, and the modern state of Greece. Excavations in South Crete in 2008–2009 revealed stone tools at least 130,000 years old. This was a sensational discovery, as the previously accepted earliest sea crossing in the Mediterranean was thought to occur around 12,000 BC. This suggests that the island may have been visited by archaic humans many thousands of years ago. Stone tools indicate that the is ... read more

It's the last day of our holiday, so the last chance for Baklava for breakfast, the last chance to chill by the pool and the last chance to see any remaining sights in Santorini. My wife and daughter opted for the middle of those three options. I opted for the other two. The last item on my checklist from earlier in the week (see ) was the walk up the trail to the ruins of Ancient Thera, which could be reached by foot from Perissa, although it is a particularly arduous walk. I set off as soon as we had had breakfast, so as to be back before it got too hot, and I headed up the steep, rocky path. It took about half any hour to get up to the entrance to the ruins and ... read more

I had booked the Archaeological Bus Tour for today, so after a Baklava breakfast (and today there was also tiramisu that was also bizarrely added to my breakfast selection) I left my wife and daughter for the day. They had already planned their day without me on the beach, by the pool and getting a massage each. It turned out that even the tour buses leave early yet, so luckily I've learned now and always get to bus stops at least 15 minutes before I need to. It was a small shuttle type bus to take us (there were three of us) to the main meeting point. We were dropped in the middle of nowhere with just an instruction to wait for Bus 19. After three quarters of an hour and lots of other busses coming ... read more