Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - Trip Report Greece visit in September 2019, with overlays at Munich and Vienna

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Greece visit in September 2019, with overlays at Munich and Vienna

This was the most luxurious trip out of all the trips that we had taken. It was a lot more relax and at a slower pace compared to other trips that we had taken for oversea trips in a two week period.

We used points to fly in to Munich airport, arriving in the morning, and then took the train S1 to the city HBF. We stored our luggage for a day in the locker at the train station, then hopped on the direct train to Fussen for the Neuschwanstein Castle.

We had booked Schlossrestaurant Neuschwanstein hotel for the night and our entry to the castle was 5:50pm, so we had plenty of leeway to arrive on time for the visit. It also had less visitors as it was towards the end of the day tour. We also had dinner at our hotel restaurant. The visit of the two castles were never rush, and we had plenty of time walking around the area. Everything worked out fine for the first day of the visit and we had a good night sleep in this hill town to recover our jet lag.

We woke up early next day, and the hotel had packed our breakfast, and we walked our way down to the village to catch the earlier bus to Fussen for the train back to Munich. We did not realize that the buses actually did not operate on Sundays until we asked people in the village. Luckily we saw a taxi came by and took the short ride back to Fussen just in time to catch the morning train back to Munich. We planned to see Munich for half a day before catching the late night flight to Thessalonik.

We had bought the Bayern tickets which included all the buses and trains within the airport, Fussen, and the city for the day. We enjoyed our short visit, and covered all the following areas and never felt rush:

1. Marienplatz: New Town Hall (Neues Rathaus) and Old Town Hall (Altes Rathaus)

2. Frauenkirche (Cathedral of Our Dear Lady)

3. ASAMKIRCHE: A BAROQUE MASTERPIECE; ST. PETER’S CHAPEL (PETERSKIRCHE)

4. Vikualienmarkt-Munich’s most classic foods, leberkäse;

5. Hofbräuhaus-outdoor Wirtsgarten;

6. Munich Residenz on Max-Joseph-Platz

7. Englischer Garten-beer garden Augustiner Keller_Chinese Tower

Continuing of the report......Our flight to Thessalonik was delayed an hour, and we arrived midnight at the airport. We took a taxi from the airport to the Tourist Hotel (right at the city center), which turned out to be convenient and efficient for our two night stay. The locals are friendly and welcoming. We bought our sim cards there, and the service was friendly and helpful. We joined a local guided tour to the upper old town, the guide told a long detail history of the city. We also took the city bus tour to see most of the main sights in the city. We left the city next day at noon for the flight to Kalamata. The only thing that I regretted was I did not have time to visit the Meteora.

The Olympic flight was on time to Kalamata. We rented a car from the local owned rental car company named Servin BMW car rental which had absolutely fantastic service. We were a bit apprehensive at first, but after a few communication with the person in charge of the rental, I had to say the service was absolutely hands down. They were friendly and courteous, most importantly very honest about their services. We would use them again if we are around the area again. They waited for us at the terminal, help us with the direction, gave us very clear written contract with insurance all included. We were done with the paper work in less than 15 minutes, and off we drove to our next seven days accommodation -The Westin resort Costa Navarino. I managed to book the 7 night accommodation using my DH hard earned Marriott reward points for the stay. It was absolutely worth every points that we used for this hotel. It took less than an hour to reach our hotel, and this was our first Europe experience with a rental car. We arrived the hotel with a beautiful sunset on the horizon, and for the next 6 days, we actually had beautiful sunset every evenings.

During those 6 days, we had covered a lot of day trips:

1. Castle of Pylos and Methoni castle

2. Old Navarino Castle- Paliokastro, Voidokilia Beach, and Grotte de Nestor

3. Kalamata to Sparti and Mystras on the mountain road, then to Gylos , and back up to Kardamyli

4. Ancient Olympia and Proti island

5. Watching the hatching of the turtle on the beach, wandering down the promenade at Gialova Village

6. Hiking to the Polilimnio Waterfalls in Polilimnio Gorge

We enjoyed our stay at the Westin Costa Navarino, very beautiful settings, and the breakfast provided was excellent. We had an up grated suite facing the sea on the upper floor, and the view from the balcony was absolutely beautiful. We had a wonderful time visiting the surrounding area.

We left early morning on the seventh day, and the hotel packed us two good breakfast to go as we had to catch the 8am bus to Athen. We had an agreement with the car rental to return our rental car at the bus station, and sure enough the agent was there on time to pick up our rental car. She even gave us two small bottles of locally made olive oil for souvenir. The whole process was just so smooth and flawless, and we were absolute grateful for all the convenience that they had provided us. We never met such wonderful car rental service until then.
I will try to post my photos, it is just too many of them, and I have to sort them through. I will continue the parts to Athen and Santorini later.....

Here are the links for photos for Thessaloniki and Peloponnese:Thessaloniki

https://photos.app.goo.gl/kNetdCrCpM4oHskK7

Peloponnese_Pilos

https://photos.app.goo.gl/p6YvE8Gp5qdoHswd8

Peloponnese_Sparti_Mytras_Gytheio_Kardamyli

https://photos.app.goo.gl/SyTWQSA1hYu2eyw16

Peloponnese_Old Navarino Castle/Grotte de Nestor/Voidokilia Beach_Methoni Castle

https://photos.app.goo.gl/KMhWM3gxgLxzfDVo9

Peloponnese_Polilimnio Waterfalls in Polilimnio Gorge_Hatching of the turtles “Caretta Caretta”

https://photos.app.goo.gl/MMMP85QjsJgUqhwi8

Peloponnese_Ancient Olympia and Proti island

https://photos.app.goo.gl/EsCztA5tTZGs8GFWA

Continuing.........
The bus ride from Kalamata was on time, and it took about 3 and a half hours. We took a taxi to the city center, and found the luggage storage place that we found online-Athens Locker left luggage. We had only half a day to see Athens, staying overnight at Holiday Inn by the airport, and had an early flight to Santorini at 8am the next day. We were only targeting to visit the Acropolis in the evening, but we actually saw a lot on foot on the way to the Acropolis. We walked in the following orders to reach Acropolis for our ticketed tour.

1. The Changing of the Guards in Athens Greece

2. Zappeio Hall

3. Temple of Olympian Zeus

4. The Panathenaic Stadium

5. Hadrian's Arch

6. Acropolis Museum

7. Acropolis of Athens

8. Roman Forum

9. Tower of winds

10. Ancient Agora of Athens

It was a short visit of Athens, but we were glad that we visited the Acropolis and the Ancient Agora.

Here is the link for the photos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/rHTuZtH8xDyQJuPy6

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cherthor (Post 17136356)

We took the Olympic flight to Santorini, and the flight was on time. We had booked an airport transfer by Hoppa.com to our Mystique, a Luxury Collection Hotel in Oia. We had saved enough Marriott rewards points for the stay. It was well used of the points for the expensive stay. My Greek neighbor had once told me that Oia is magical, and I totally agreed with her. Santorini is indeed a very beautiful and unique Greek island. We also took an evening catamaran cruise, and it was absolutely beautiful and enjoyable. We spent two and a half day in Santorini, most of the time spent in Oia. We also went to Thira for a few hours sightseeing, but like Oia more, especially during the early morning and evening hours when the cruise ships had left the port. Oia has gained my love! I have too many pictures of Oia, and hope that you will enjoy the viewing as much as I do.

Here is the link: https://photos.app.goo.gl/TYMmU35vh3KHk8iD7
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...94f3374fdd.jpg
Oia iconic blue domes
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...300fffa47d.jpg
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...6fe9bb0222.jpg
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...c82bfec595.jpg
The windmills
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...6da800d99c.jpg
Sunset at sea-Santorini
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...432398e92b.jpg
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...762189bf22.jpg
Moon rise on the other side

How many nights did you spend in each place in Greece?
Thanks!

Quote:

Originally Posted by KarenWoo (Post 17160776)

How many nights did you spend in each place in Greece?
Thanks!

We had 2 nights at Thessaloniki, 7 nights at Peloponnese peninsula, one night at Athens, and two nights Santorini.