Sat 27 Jun 2009
The food was great, the weather brilliant, the Greek island tours an inspiration and the scenery awesome
Posted by Greece Travel Blog under Athens, Santorini | | Send a comment
My wife and I are having drinks in a patio bar perched on a ledge of a still-active volcano on the Greek island of Santorini. It’s a spectacular 300-metre drop to the royal blue lagoon below us. Hard to imagine that buried beneath that same lagoon lurks the still-throbbing heart of a killer volcano, one which 3,600 years ago destroyed Minoan settlements from here to Crete, and legend has it, pulverized the now lost city of Atlantis.
The food was great, the weather brilliant, the Greek island tours an inspiration and the scenery awesome. Even the porpoises, bobbing in our ship’s wake as we cruised the Aegean Sea, clearly enjoyed the sail. Of course, if your idea of the perfect cruise includes hot chicks in bikinis and belly-flops in the pool, better stick to the Caribbean.
The islands Mykonos, Santorini and Rhodes were our favourites, and Crete — though more weather-beaten — had soul. Patmos was quaint and picturesque. And then there was Athens, where our journey into history began:
Our Olympic Airlines flight touched down in the Greek capital at mid-morning and an hour later we had checked into the downtown Amalia Hotel, located across from parliament and National Gardens.
Ultra-modern tram and subway lines are a block a way. Better yet, the Plaka is just a five-minute hike. Plaka climbs its way to the foot of the famous Acropolis, Temple of Athena and its historic amphitheatre, where 3,000 years later, acts like Diana Ross, David Foster and Elton John still perform.
In fact, most of Athens’ historic ruins — the wall of Hadrian, the Agora, the white-marbled Olympic Stadium — are within a few kilometres of each other. Easy pickins for a time tourist.
We visited them all during a stimulating, four-hour guided tour, before heading up, way up — via cable car — to Orizontes, where an excellent dinner was no match for the 360-degree views of Athens by night. Even the elegantly lit Acropolis is viewed downhill from Lycabettus Hill.
From the Daily Herald Tribune; excerpts, edited by Greece Travel Blog
Tags: acropolis * acropolis temple * aegean sea * Agora * Amalia * amphitheatre * Athens * athens by night * Atlantis * Caribbean * Hadrian * Lycabettus Hill * Minoan * Olympic Stadium * Orizontes * plaka * royal blue lagoon * Santorini * scenery * Temple * temple of athena * volcano
Related posts (automatic selection)
« Meadowdale students in search of an amazing look into the ancient wonders of Greece | Searching for solitude in Santorini – Finding in Naxos the friendliest people ever »
