Photographs from Greece

As of this writing I am still working on going through my photographs from Greece. I've got most of them done. I'm going to include a link here to those pics. It is amazing to look at the pics and see things you missed when you were standing right there. I believe that is because there is SO much to take in, that you can't possibly grasp it all while you are there. That's one of the great things about photographs. Hope you enjoy them. (click the pic)

Day 8: Athens & Sounion, Greece

So our last full day in Greece began with a few of us getting up and going on a tour of the meat and seafood markets. (The rest slept in this morning). We go to see some crazy stuff while in these markets. We also went through the fruit and vegetable market area...and I bought a kilo of golden raisins, a kilo of pistachios, and a 1/4 kilo of cranberries...all were DELICIOUS! I took them home with me.

We then went to the flea market area again for a little while. After that we met up with the rest of our group and hopped a bus to Sounion, Greece (about an hour outside of Athens on the coast). It was beautiful! Everyone loved the drive there and back because it was such a great view of the coastline.

We went to Sounion to visit the Temple of Poseidon, which literally hung over the Aegean Sea on a cliff. It was an amazing view. It was the last chance for some good photo opts.

We headed back to Athens, freshened up for a couple of hours and then headed out to our last meal in Greece. The food was good, but we felt we didn't get enough to eat (EF set this meal up.)
But the entertainment was lots of fun. It was traditional Greek dancing from the different parts of Greece. It included audience participation, and the kids loved it and had a great time. (Most of the adults, including yours truly made it to the stage as well to break a few plates and make a few kicks...I was lucky I didn't pull anything!)

The next morning began our journey home, with a good flight out of Athens to New York. Then we had a delay in New York due to crazy weather in Atlanta. Many in our group were sure we wouldn't make our connection from Atlanta to Nashville (the last flight out of Atlanta that night), but my charmed life came through again and after a "Home Alone" run through the Atlanta airport...we made our flight and arrived home in Nashville just a handful of minutes later than planned.

The group was fantastic on this trip, and all of them are welcome to travel with me in the future!

Day Seven: Delphi & Athens at night

So we finished our cruise, and returned to Athens. We jumped on a bus and headed toward Delphi. This was about a 3.5 hour drive. It is the home of the Temple of Apollo, and where the Oracle of Delphi made her predictions. (Btw, the Greeks pronounce this "Del-FEE.")

Delphi is way up in the top of the mountains. It was strange going up into an alpine area after being on the islands for the past few days. The temple was originally looking out over the Aegean Sea, but over the past 3,000 years it has filled in with silt, dirt...etc. You can catch a slight glimpse of the sea through a couple of the mountains. It was very far from where we were.

It was amazing once we got there. The temple and the grounds surrounding it are pretty extensive, and they are only 15% of the total place back when it was in it's heyday. It was a good hike, up to the amphitheater and then up to the race track, but well worth it. The views were outstanding.

On the way back to Athens we stopped in this small little ski resort town, and got out of the bus for a few minutes, because the one road through the town was blocked by a cement truck. So we jumped off and walked through the town. On the other side of the town we met up with the bus and drove out of town just a little bit, and stopped again to take a group photo in the mountains.
We then drove a few more miles and had lunch at yet another fantastic place. The food there was outstanding, and of course was more than we could eat. The guys running this place were really delightful and everyone enjoyed it.

We headed back to Athens, almost everyone was asleep on the drive. It has been a long trip.
We return, check in to our new hotel, and rest up for a couple of hours. We then meet Shemy our tour director and she takes us on an evening walk through Athens to see the Acropolis lit up at night...etc. We also ended up walking right in front of the Parliament building and right through the middle of the protests that have been going on there. It was very crowded, but everything was very peaceful. When we returned to the hotel, a handful of us went to the roof of the hotel and took in the view of the Acropolis from there. It was outstanding.