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Thanks Karen, I bought it just before the trip. Perfect color for Greece and really comfortable- plus it’s already wrinkled😁
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Uppsala, happy to hear that you like the Blue Dolphins. Travelerjan recommended it to me. I never know if someone will like the places we like. It’s an awesome value for the money. Are you having their breakfast on your balcony? We did that for 2 mornings. We really like their breakfast, delicious, and very filling.
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YES, delighted to see photos of your view. I"m SUCH a fan of Firostephani.. what I call the "goldilocks" location -- away from the hubbub, but SO Convenient for what you want to do/see. My 2 local recommends for meals -- my darling Taverna AKtaion, just a few minutes from your hotel... oldest taverna on entire island, great traditional food, tables right by the rimside wall! https://www.aktaionsantorini.com/ Great for lunch or cocktails or simple easy dinner. reserve ahead and you can sit with your elbows on the wall at sunset - ask Karen Woo, she sent me a photo of her happy group. For more of a dinner. also a few steps away, REMVI CAfe -- fab views https://santorinidave.com/santorini-restaurant-remvi -- of course you CAN dine in Oia and pay hundreds and battle crowds, many people prefer to. I do hope that you are clever and plan to enjoy OIA without the mob scene, by getting there by 8:30 oro 9 am latest -- the cruise crowds roar in about 10 am ... and with your balcony, you can avoid OIa's Dread Sunset Stampede - https://tinyurl.com/4js8e8t8 Enjjoy your stay!
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Last Days in Santorini
Thanks to TravelerJan we had dinner at Remvi on our last night in Santorini. Wow the food was amazing. My husband had the sea bass/ sea bream fricassee- he declared it the best seabass he had ever had. We hired a car and drove over to Oia. We didn’t get there before the cruise ship crowds which was a big mistake. It was so crowded. I think I have a touch of claustrophobia, I could not enjoy the views at all, I just wanted to get out of there. Afterward we drove over to the ancient ruins of Akrotiri and stopped in Pyrgos. All in all I loved the views in Santorini, but I hated the crowds. And we are traveling in basically the beginning of the season. I can’t imagine how crowded it must be in the summer. One day - Wednesday’’s- there are 5 Cruise ships in port. Yikes
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...b2dc99f01.jpeg Seabass dinner at Remvi https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...2daa0a4bb.jpeg In Oia https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...ca1eec7f9.jpeg Oia https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...14ceb03f4.jpeg Akrotiri ruins https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...8c3a79f31.jpeg Stopped at this great Winery and this is the only photo we took https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...a702ccd22.jpeg More Akrotiri |
Milos
Yesterday we took the ferry from Santorini to Milos, only a two hour trip. We are staying in Santa Maria Village, only a 10 minute walk from Adamas harbor. We had a great first meal at Mikros Apopolny. The fish was fabulous, I finally got a great fillet of sea bream and my husband had Seafood linguine.
Today we drove our little Jeep around the island a bit. Went to the famous Sarakiniko beach. We stayed quite awhile, it has finally warmed up enough to go swimming. Except the water was pretty cold. We then Drove to Pollonia and had another good seafood lunch. I am finally finding food that I like here. Enjoyed a lazy afternoon by the pool. Just a note, none of the pools in Greece seem to be heated, when I asked at the front desk he replied that the pool was “naturally heated”. Umm what that means is the pool is also cold. I only saw two people go in all afternoon. https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...9f0a67539.jpeg Our room at Santa Maria Village https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...7cee70244.jpeg More Santa Maria Village https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...fc20bbe6c.jpeg The bathroom, I forgot to stand to the side when taking this photo https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...990e5d3cc.jpeg Ou patio, with a jacuzzi? I’m not keen on getting into this small jacuzzi😲 https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...7d1f53bbe.jpeg Shower https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...6f47b848b.jpeg Room fridge https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...a4693ca05.jpeg View of Adamas harbor |
Glad you liked my FIrostephani dinner recommend -- and you can't say I didnt warn you (WITH pix!) about the OIA Mobs ... unfortunately, there's been SO Much ballyhoo about an "ideal sunset" there that the crowds are like mindless lemmings ... Anyway, happy you got to AKrotiri as well. ANd your Milos hotel choice looks good -- the Milos dilemma is that the port town has the most amenities, dining etc, but its beach is well, meh. Hope u can do a day-sail around part of the island rim... only way to see the suprising ancient-volcano results. Also, do NOT Miss the superb little "mining Museum" in Adamas... not so much for the rocks as for a stunning 30-minute video... a glimpse of the people who did the mining.. their community, their shared work & love. i still remember it, years later.
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Uppsala30, we had a delicious dinner at Remvi as well, and it was our last evening on Santorini, too. We actually ended up there by accident. We made reservations at Amoudi Fish Tavern on Amoudi Bay, and we drove our rental car there. BUT it was mobbed and IMPOSSIBLE to find parking. The traffic was insane! We drove down to the end of the road and when we realized there wasn't any parking available, we had to back up the very narrow road lined with cars on either side. It was very tricky and a nice man helped direct my husband out of there. So we drove back to Firostefani, returned the rental car, and decided to eat at Remvi's. We had a delicious meal on their deck overlooking the caldera and enjoyed a lovely sunset.
I am interested in your photos and report about Milos. I don't know anything about it. So cool that you chose a less-crowded and less-touristed island. |
Milos is a nice change from Santorini! No crowds! And Sarakiniko looks wonderful! I love the white rocks and coves! You were brave to go into the cold water!
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Beautiful photos. I feel like I've traveled the places too. :)
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Back to Athens
On Friday we took the ferry back to,Athens. The boat was enormous- Champion Jet 2 from the Seajet fleet. It was really nice inside and after a quick 3.5 hour journey we were in Piraeus. Taxi drivers wanted €35 to take us back to Kolonaki. Yikes, the subway ride was only €2.5 - perfect. We arrived back at our cute apartment to meet up with my daughter and her husband and baby Leo. Yeah. We will spend the next few days with them and have our own personal tour guide.
Saturday we met up and visited the Benaki museum- I kept missing it on my last visit, it seemed like it was always closed. I highly recommend a visit. It is a private museum from the Benaki family collection. The Benaki museum houses Greek works of art from pre- historic to modern times with. Focus on Greek Culture. The Benaki family were wealthy Greeks were were originally from Alexandria Egypt and collected Islamic and Byzantine objects. https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...b83bc8961.jpeg https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...874c92626.jpeg https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...679ca160c.jpeg https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...755e4b81d.jpeg https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...2f13935f6.jpeg https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...cf81c1f18.jpeg https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...494c2b9ba.jpeg https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...4595367b9.jpeg https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...1a9ff3028.jpeg https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...27a2577f7.jpeg My lovely daughter ❤️ https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...08b8bc7b7.jpeg |
After dinner
As we were walking home from dinner we came across these sights. I had a video of the Presidential Guard outside the President’s home, but it won’t upload
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...8f2c79095.jpeg Harry Truman square https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...9dab619bf.jpeg Who knew that he was a pan-American https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...b52c8e5b8.jpeg One more photo of my daughter- in action as our personal tour guide |
What a beautiful photo of you and your daughter! She looks a lot like you! And how nice to have a personal tour guide.
What was your overall impression of Milos? It looks very different from the two Greek islands I have visited: Santorini and Naxos. How many nights did you spend on Milos? |
Karen, yes the traffic was horrendous on Santorini. I had rented a stick shift car for the day and my poor husband had to deal w one way roads, double parking, huge tour buses and crazy motorcycles all day. We got stuck in a bad traffic jam on an incline going through Fira, with a driver right on our tail the whole way. It took all of my husbands ninja driving skills to come out unscathed.
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We spent 4 nights on Milos- loved it! The boat trip around to Kleftiko was a highlight of Milos for us. I would definitely say the beaches are gorgeous and the island wasn’t super crowded, but our boat captain said that would change in a couple weeks. Their company - just one of many boat charters available- was sending down three more sailboats from Athens for the high season. We enjoyed staying in Adamas - well our hotel was a 10 min. walk uphill from the port, because it was nice to be able to walk to multiple great restaurants. Pollonia is a very small harbor area with maybe 3 or 4 restaurants. I’m now interested in going to Paris and Anti-Paros.
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Whoops - autocorrect- Paros, not Paris. But I do love Paris.
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The Truman statue probably was a tribute to Truman Adminstration outpouring of huge economic, humanitarian and Military aid to Greece during the Greek Civil War that erupted after WW II. Motivation was to resist the Soviet take-over of so many countries of Europe. The Greek government survived, but many ups and downs followed, with very mixed feelings among citizens for years, although US-Greece relations have been friendly for many decades.
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National Historical Museum
Today was free admission
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...72cb123e8.jpeg Original Greek Parliament chamber https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...02f7e2380.jpeg https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...3a496efa6.jpeg Greek independence flag https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...a4327de42.jpeg Lord Bryon artifacts https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...2883d5c06.jpeg Boat with Phoenix as a figurehead https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...e8853a792.jpeg Olympic stadium https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...051141fa8.jpeg Presidential Guard https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...2609fabf8.jpeg More Stadium shots https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...ead942f65.jpeg Parliament chamber day at the National Historical Museum. What an interesting museum. Really good displays about Greek history and their fight for independence. Nice display of historical clothing. Afterward we had lunch here in Kolonaki and then we went into grandparent mode and took our little grandson on a walk through the National Garden and then to the Panatheenaic Stadium- used in the 1896 Olympics and also as the finish line for the 2004 Marathon race. |
Onward to Portugal
On Monday we enjoyed a last breakfast with our Daughter, Son In-Law, and adorable grandson. The parents have requested that I don’t post any photos of him online - sorry. Then we did some last minute shopping. I picked up a lot of product from Korres, some gifts and a new shirt for myself. After 4 weeks of traveling I am really tired of my clothes. Then we spent the afternoon doing laundry. Our apartment hostess was kind enough to let have a late checkout at 6 pm. Onward to ATH and Portugal. There was literally 1 direct flight from Athens to Lisbon last Monday. Departure was 9:15 pm and we got into Lisbon at 11:45 their time ( 2 hr time change). I had arranged with our hotel,for a driver to pick us up, and thank goodness because it was really late by the time we collected our luggage. Literally no border or passport check. Probably because we were flying Schengen to Schengen country.
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...15ecc215d.jpeg Off to Lisbon https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...8b84f53ec.jpeg |
What a wonderful time you had in Greece, with both your daughter & her family and (at last minute reprieve) your husband... I somehow think you'll be back someday; as many of us have learned, Greece can be addictive! Thanks for all the lovely photos as you went along.
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