I was in Greece May 3 to May 12. Had a wonderful time. The last 4 days
were at a meeting at a hotel in Marathon so doing the tourist thing was
just an all too short 5 days.

Here's a short version of the tourist part of the trip:

The flight from Montreal was smooth and we landed right on time. I had paid
an extra 20 dollars each way to select seat 5F... close to the front and
easy to get out quickly on landing. One thing I hate is waiting for
what always seems ages to deplane upon arrival. I was the 4th person out
the door and thus the 4th at the passport window. There was only one open
so the line must have built up but I was through and gone!

Following signs for "Trains" in the terminal led me outside, down an elevator
then along a moving sidewalk to the metro station. Once you buy your ticket
be sure you stamp it in one of the yellow machines... you can be hit with
a fine of 30 times the ticket price if you are caught with it unstamped!

The train got me to Syntagma Square in about 45 minutes. Too bad all airports
aren't this easy and cheap to access! Too bad the line will be closed for 6 months
starting in June!

A friend met me as I came into the square... he had arrived the night before
and stayed in a hotel he described as a dump... he couldn't wait to check
out in the morning to meet me. We had a couple of coffees at a cafe on the
square then walked down Mitropoleos Street to the Amazon Hotel and checked
into the room I'd reserved there. It had been unavailble to my friend the previous
night. The room was spartan but clean with 2 of the narrowest single beds I've
ever seen. The helpful Anastasia at the desk said she'd move us to one of their
2 Acropolis view rooms the next day for the rest of our stay. It was a much nicer
and larger room and the view of the Acropolis was stunning day and night.

The hotel is pleasant and well situated... steps from Syntagma and a block from
the Plaka. I'd stay again gladly. A double was 116 E a night, another friend
who arrived a couple of days later paid 80 for a single. Wired internet access
was 12 E a day but I found multiple open wireless networks that worked fine.

The rest of day 1 was spent wandering around in the Plaka and a couple of hours
going through the Ancient Agora. We had supper at the restaurant right across
the street from the hotel, the not very Greek named "In Town Cafe". We had a
Greek platter for 2 with cheese pies, meatballs, moussaka and several other
Greek specialities. It was very good, the outside table and chairs comfortable
and the waiter Thanassos was always ready with another cold beer. I couldn't
ask for more! We walked up to Syntagma just before dusk and saw the Evzones
doing what can only be described as their 'silly walk'. I'm sorry but I just
find their uniforms and bizarre strutting laughable. Maybe if you make your
enemies roll on the ground with laughter they are easy prey for the bayonet!

We went to the rooftop bar at the Grande Bretagne for a nightime view and photos
of the Acropolis. It was well worth the 10 Euro Mythos beer!

The next day was Sunday so we grabbed a cab at Syntagma and taxied up to the
Acropolis. The fare was 3 euros. My friend was so surprised he asked the
driver "Each?". No, just 3. Oddly, when another friend took the same ride
2 days later he paid 6! LOL It was a free entry day so we took up a lady's
offer of a guided tour for 25 Euros each. I had been to the Acropolis before
but figured I'd learn more and it would save me having to explain things to
my friend. There was an American couple to make up our little group and I think
it was money well spent. Maria was a charming and knowledgable guide. As we
stood at a wall high above the Odeum of Herod Atticus at the end of the tour
she told me she thought I was lucky as I looked Greek. I told her there was only
Scots, Irish and English blood in me as far as I knew. The American chap said
he thought I looked like Kevin Spacey. But his wife said, no, you look like
Daniel Craig's FATHER! I wasn't impressed... I'd have settled for older
brother!

My friend and I then wandered back down through the Agora once again (it's
free with an Acropolis ticket) and had lunch. he stopped in at the hotel
to do some emails and I walked over to the Temple of Olympian Zeus and
Hadrian's Arch. It turned out the Avis office was right across the street
and I'd reserved a car from them through Economy Car Rentals. We had another
nice meal across from the hotel and turned in early with the Acroplis glowing
in our window.

We picked up the car the next morning. We were out of the office and on the
road before 9. Don't let anyone scare you from driving in Athens. If you've
ever driven in a big city you can drive in Athens too. It was an easy straight
shot down the street to Piraeus then follow signs on the motorway first
for Lamia and then for Corinth. Once out of Athens the traffic really thinned
out and though I was doing 130-140 kph on the 120 limit road most traffic was really
flying past! We crossed the Corinth Canal then went left on the road to Mycenae.
We stopped at the last restaurant in the village of Mikines, just before the ancient
site. We had coffee, bread and honey for breakfast with a beautiful valley view
before us on the shady patio. A little sparrow kept landing on the table and
made short work of the crumbs and bits of crust right before our eyes.

A few minutes drive brought us to Mycenae where Agamenon, leader of the Greeks
in the Trojan war was once king. I had wanted to come here since the age of 6 or 7
but had not been able to make it on my previous trip 36 years ago. What a sight!
It was awe inspring to walk through the Lion Gate. And the stones! The size of
them. Cyclopean indeed! The place was busy but far from crowded as early May
is ahead of the tourist hordes. Yellow flowers and red poppies bloomed throughout
the site. We spent a wonderful couple of hours on the hilltop and the views out
over the surrounding countryside are wonderful as well. If you go... take a flashlight!
You can descend the steps down into the 18 meter deep spring but it is unlit so be
forewarned!

Just down the road is the Treasury of Atreus... a beehive tomb. I had seen pictures
for years but was unprepared for the height of it. Amazing.

A short drive toward Nafplion took us to "mighty walled Tiryns" and we had the place
all to ourselves for an hour. Aside from the cats. All Greek archaelogical sites
seem to have their individual tribes of cats! Athens has it's stray dogs but the cats
seem to own all the ruins.

We lunched on the waterfront at Nafplion with a wonderful view. Then we hit the road...
my friend didn't know what was to be found at Epidaurus and I didn't tell him. Imagine
his surprise when we mounted the final steps and there was a HUGE theatre of stone,
perfectly preserved right in front of him!

Part 2

He was amazed. The whole theater of Epidaurus was spread out before us!
I told him about the acoustics and quicker than you'd think a big man could move he was up at the top row of seats with his video camera
and I stepped onto the center stone and started to speak. Of course my mind went blank and I couldn't think of much to say. It remains to be seen if the video camera picked it up or not. Along came a couple and as my friend was still at the top with his camera I told them he'd shoot a video if they wanted to try talking... wouldn't you know I had just bumped into an Australian
Shakespeare lover and he declaimed for several minutes in a deep stentorian voice! Bet it comes out great! We got his email so we can put the clip on Youtube for him! LOL

We left Epidaurus and headed for Corinth up the coast road. I love driving on the smaller roads of Greece. Greeks drive with gusto and even if you get held up by some slower local traffic they will obligingly pull as far to the
right as they can, even right over onto a paved shoulder so you can get by.

Great fun if you love to drive. But you must be careful when you get back home... you'll get yourself killed if you try the same things or at least a trunkful of tickets!

We stopped by the old road bridge over the Corinth Canal and walked out to snap some pics of the deep cleft. Then I took a small road south to something I heard about on George Barrett's website... a small bridge at the south end of the canal at Isthmia that submerges to let boats pass! And right on cue, as my
friend stood in the middle a whistle blew and he had to move smartly before the bridge began its disappearing act as a canal cruise boat approached. Down it went
with a swirl of water, the boat passed by and in 5 minutes the dripping wet bridge reappeared and locked back into position! Pretty cool. So we drove across and
headed back into Athens.

We took the ring road E94 and exited at Kifisias Avenue right into bumper to bumper traffic. There's no problem driving in Athens as I said earlier... especially when you get to go 10 KPH in fits and starts. But the problem I had was my left knee... not having driven a stick shift for nearly 20 years my knee was giving me major pain!

But we spotted the sign for Syntagma and slipped down Mitropoleos Street to hunt for a parking space. This is where having a car in Athens is no fun at all... parking spaces are hard to find. But lo and behold, just off Apollonos Street no more than a block behind the hotel we found a parking lot! The chap had limited English but coupled with our nearly non existent Greek we ended up with the car stashed underground till next morning for 15 E! Seemed a fine deal to me... last time
I parked overnight off Yonge Street in Toronto it cost me over 50 dollars!

It had been a brillaint day... sunny and in the low 70's and I really enjoyed the driving, aside from the traffic back in Athens. And it was a life long dream to finally visit Mycenae.

Thanks for the enjoyable trip report, ParisAmsterdam.

I've done the same itinerary including Tiryns, one of my favourite places. I bet Mycenae with the blanket of spring flowers around it was spectacular.

Regards,

Bill

I really enjoyed this report. Reminded me of Athens and Mycenae, two places I loved. I recently read "The Tomb of Agamemnon" by Cathy Gere, which gives a fascinating account of the site and the many historical theories and archaeological methods that have been used to understand it over the centuries.

Thank you for the great report. I love Athens and Greece. I am especially fond of the Peloponnese and love to read about anyone's travels there.

Yipper

I'm glad you're enjoying it... here's
another day:


Thanassos was waiting with refreshing cold Mythos at the In Town Cafe.

We had done over 400 kilometers on the day and the Opel Astra had been
fast enough and comfortable to drive. Another friend arrived about
10:30 that night and we had a late supper at the restaurant.

Next morning one friend had to head to the meeting so our recently arrived friend and I got the car from the garage and headed for Delphi. I was relieved the car was there... my friends were ribbing me that the chap I'd entrusted it
to the night before had likely just been lounging about the lot waiting for a dumb tourist to hand over his keys!

We took the same route down Sygrou Avenue toward Piraeus then followed the signs for first Lamia then Korinthos. We turned off on highway 3 and took the road through
Eleftherai and Thebes. It is a road not for the faint hearted as it twists up and down through the hills. But if you enjoy a challenging road it is a lot of fun.
We were soon brought to a crawl as we came up behind a 2 room house on the back of a semi trailer! It took a couple of miles to get by but after that the road was clear.

Flying along I pointed out a small roadside shrine to my friend
and explained it was there for someone who'd been killed at that point. "Bloody hell!", he said, "there's one every mile!". Not quite, but there are a lot of them.

We stopped before Thebes at a roadside cafe for coffee and pastries to keep us going.
West of Thebes the road was wider but traffic light so we made good time and were soon below the looming bulk of Mount Parnassus. We could see snow still on the upper slopes. It's hard to believe you can ski this close to Athens. I'd been to
Delphi 36 years ago but the site is so low key we overshot it and ended up driving through and then back through the narrow streets of the town.

Once back and parked and the site we bought our tickets and were told the site was to close at 2:45. It was almost 2 already! I don't know if they were still on winter hours but in the beautiful warmth of the day this seemed awfully early.

We hiked up the hill and made it up to the stadium at the top in time for a guard to start shooing people back down the hill. It is truly a magical spot and even though
our time there was short I'm glad we made the trip.

We decided to take the main roads back to Athens. We took one minor wrong turn before getting to the E75 motorway but I have to give credit to both my friends for their
fine navigating. We used a large 1:700,000 Michelin map of Greece which in retrospect was a bit lacking in detail. For Athens itself we used a map the Amazon Hotel hands out. GPS might have been useful but with only 1 short detour we survived fine... I did
have my laptop in the trunk with Autoroute 2007 if we'd gone seriously astray.

As we belted down the E75 we realized a couple of things... we really hadn't eaten and we would once again hit Athens in time for rush hour. So we stopped at a large
spaceship-like service center on the highway. Big mistake... food is nasty at this type of place wherever you go! At least we could brave the Athens traffic on full if somewhat queasy stomachs!

The traffic thickened up but soon we were turning down Mitropoleos Street off Syntagma. Up a tiny alley with "No Parking 24 Hours" signs and a solid line of parked cars (!)
and we were back at parking garage. 20 euros this time but who's going to argue? Not me. It had been another tiring but fun day behind the wheel in Greece.

This morning was the last day before our meetings started so it was our
final day of touring.

We settled our bills at the Amazon and walked over to the parking lot
to pick up the car. Wending our way through the narrow back streets we soon found Sygrou Street and headed down toward Piraeus. Taking the left fork for Glyfada we headed south toward Cape Sounion and the Temple of Poseidon.

Traffic was light as we drove south with the Saronic Gulf to our right.
The day was cool and breezy. We stopped for lunch inside a seaside cafe and were the only customers there. I had a Greek Salad with the largest block of feta I've ever seen perched atop. My friend ordered hamburger... it turned out to be 2 largish meatballs he described as excellent along with french fries. I finished off my lunch with the only "Greek coffee" of the trip.
I should have had more but it was usually double espressos or frappes.

We continued south and somehow I missed the beach where I had camped for several days back in 1972. Maybe it is now built up so I didn't recognize it. Before long we spied the Temple of Poseidon and pulled into the small parking lot. We bought our tickets and ascended to the temple. A group of 4 people were coming down the path... when we got to the top we found we were the only people there. So once again we had a site to ourselves and explored
and snapped pictures with the wind howling all the while. You can no longer actually walk in the temple itself as I did 36 years ago.

We stopped in the cafe out of the wind for a warm up coffee... the waiters were all huddled around a laptop on a table and were surprised to find us there as customers.

We later discovered there was a truck and bus driver strike on. That explained the lack of traffic and dearth of visitors. More strikes were to come.

We headed north for Marathon and stopped to visit the Tumulus of the Athenians. The 192 dead from Athens are buried there where the fighting against the Persians had been the hottest. Our ticket allowed us entry to the museum as well which
was 5 kilometers or so closer to the town of Marathon. Predictably, we arrived 15 minutes before the 2:45 PM closing! The people who work at these places sure have a short workday! One thing that was a surprise were the Egyptian sculptures.

Herod Atticus, he of the Odeum of Herod Atticus below the Acropolis in Athens had built an Egyptian Sanctuary on the coast nearby in the 1st century CE. We visited it later in the week but the gates were locked and the site seemed
undeveloped. Still, an interesting surprise.

We arrived at our hotel in Marathon and were busy with meetings for the next 4 days.

During that time the strike spread first to gas stations and then to taxi drivers. It wasn't clear to us if the drivers were on strike or just immobilized due to a lack of fuel.

On Monday morning we crammed 5 people into the Opel Astra for the run to the airport. 3 large suitcases plus my carry on bag fit tightly into the trunk. One friend had to hold his carry on bag on his lap and 3 laptop bags were on the knees of the other 3 passengers. The gas guage was well below 1/4 full! This could be close! One of our Greek colleagues had told me there
was a gas station at the airport and it was sure to be open.

Off we went and passed many gas stations that had barriers up and several which seemed to be open but had lines of 30 or 40 cars. They all seemed to be on the other side of the road though and in any event, we wouldn't have had time to wait.

Part way to the airport our Greek friend, who was already at the airport ferrying people there, called my cell phone to say not to waste time looking for the airport gas station as it too was closed. My CallinEurope phone worked exactly as promised on the trip and was well worthwhile.

We pulled into the rental car lot with the guage on "E". A couple of chaps checked the car for dings and dents (there were many but not any during my tenure of the car!), signed a paper and told me to stop at the Avis desk inside the terminal.

A short walk with all of us pulling our roller luggage (surely the greatest boon to travellers ever invented!) and we were at the Avis desk. The deal I had been presented in downtown Athens when picking up the car was this:

- bring it back full and no extra charge

- pay 60 euros upfront and bring the car back with any amount in the tank

- bring it back with anything but a full tank and be charged 100 E

I had figured to bring it back full but with the strike it hadn't been possible. Luckily the lady at the desk appreciated the situation and I was only charged the lower 60 Euro fee.

So our group of 5 split up, each to our respective airline's check in counters and boarded our planes home.

It had been a most enjoyable and exciting trip. I only hope it is not going to be another 36 years before my next trip to Greece!

Rob

Billbar:

Yes the red poppies and yellow flowers
were abloom ... you can see my poor
attempt at capturing them here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/9833386@N06/page4/

Nikki:

Thanks for the book title... sounds
most interesting. I'll dig it up on
Amazon!

Rob

I very much enjoyed your trip report, Rob. Great pictures too.

As a matter of interest, what make/model of camera did you use? Was it digital? I need to buy a new one but have only ever used a SLR. I find that complicated enough sometimes!!!

Bill

The camera I used was my younger daughter's Kodak 763. 7.1 megapixels
and 3x optical zoom.

I have a much larger Kodak Z612 which is 6.1 mp but has a 12x optical zoom... I decided to take my daughter's at the last minute because it will fit a shirt pocket and I was traveling light.

One reason I like them both is they
have a battery pack. I find they last a lot longer than AA or AAA batteries.

Glad you liked the pics!

Rob