Greece Recap

Hi. So, as most of you know, Nathan and I recently got home from a fabulous 25th anniversary celebration trip to Greece. I've shared photos on Facebook as they happened and will do some more sharing here. While I'm trying to organize those thoughts, though, here is a quick day-by-day for the sake of having it recorded somewhere and so you can get an overview of what we did.

Friday, Feb 18: Travel day! Headed to the airport after noon and caught our long flight from Denver to Frankfurt.

Saturday, Feb 19: Started the day somewhere over the Atlantic...landed in Frankfurt and had a layover before catching our flight to Athens. Landed safely, took the metro into the center of town, and walked the few blocks to our AirBNB. We got settled then walked back out to find some food before crashing for the night.

Sunday, Feb 20: Headed out into Athens for the day! Watched the changing of the guard at Parliament...walked through the National Gardens to the Temple of Olympian Zeus...after walking through there, walked to the Pananthenaic Stadium (climbed the stairs, saw all the past Olympic torches and walked on the track)...walked to the Arch of Hadrian then visited the Acropolis Museum and archaeological site...found a late lunch nearby then visited the Acropolis...walked to Mars Hill and through a market area...visited the Ancient Agora site...dinner and gelato nearby before finally walking back to our AirBNB. Whew. 

Monday, Feb 21: Found a great coffee/pastry shop to grab breakfast then walked to Syntagma Square to sit and people watch...wandered and eventually climbed Filopappos Hill...late lunch and ice cream donuts...shopping and wandering Central Market...back to the AirBNB for a rest before dinner and dessert and more wandering...just enjoying the city.

Tuesday, Feb 22: Took the metro back to the airport and caught our flight to Santorini...spent extra time at the airport there since they lost one of our bags...eventually left, got our rental car and got checked in to our AirBNB...given the forecast (knowing this was likely our only good weather day on the island), we headed right back out. We'd been hoping to do the Fira to Oia hike but didn't have enough daylight left so did the Skaros Rock portion instead. Found ourselves in the rain in Fira and found a wonderful dinner before getting ourselves back to our AirBNB for the night. 

Wednesday, Feb 23: Much chillier so drove to the Akrotiri Archaeological Site and walked through that...found the Akrotiri lighthouse and enjoyed scrambling out to the tip in the rain...lunch at a seaside taverna and the airline finally delivered our lost bag to our AirBNB host...wine tasting at Estate Argyros...got dessert and beachcombed at Kamari Beach...back to our AirBNB...downpour...found an open restaurant for dinner...

Thursday, Feb 24: Very windy day! Walked down to Ammoudi Bay and around the tip of the island...hiked back up as the sun came out for me to take some pictures of Oia...drove to Fira for lunch and gelato...visited a very cool cave wine museum and did another wine tasting there...coffee and desserts and driving around the island...exploring the village of Emporio on foot...dinner in Fira again before back to our AirBNB.

Friday, Feb 25: Another very windy day! Lazy morning then off to Earth and Water Pottery (friend of our AirBNB host--bought some beautiful pieces)...drove to the highest point and walked around the monastery there then drove to the maybe second highest point and visited the Ancient Thira archaeological site...drove back to Fira for lunch and gelato and some shopping...back to Oia for some more shopping and enjoying the beautiful sunset (first one while on the island) at the Oia castle...dinner at a Cretian restaurant...back to pack.

Saturday, Feb 26: Another travel day...enjoyed our last sunrise in Oia then flew back to Athens, rented a car and drove (about 4 hours) to Kalampaka...checked into our AirBNB then took advantage of the remaining light to drive the loop of Meteora monasteries...terrific dinner then back to our place for the night.

Sunday, Feb 27: Had planned to do a scramble tour this morning (with some roped rock climbing/scrambling) but the weather had other ideas (cold, rainy and windy) so decided to have a quiet day instead...did some laundry and reading...drove the loop again in the misty conditions (and found snow on the other side of the mountain)...did some eating and shopping in town...found some short hikes to hidden monasteries and ruins...dinner and back to our place.

Monday, Feb 28: The scramble tour was still a no-go so we switched to a hiking tour and had a fabulous morning with our guide, Kostas...visited one of the monasteries during that...back to our place for a bit then out for lunch and dessert and visiting the mushroom museum...dinner and back to our place.

Tuesday, Mar 1: Up and checked out and drove about 3.5 hours to Delphi...visited the Delphi Archaeological Museum then the archaeological site...then walked to the Temple of Athena and back...into town for a bit before getting back on the road...arrived at our last AirBNB just after dark and got settled...walked to dinner then back for the night.

Wednesday, Mar 2: Headed out in the gusty wind to get our covid tests for our flight home (thankful for the lab our host recommended) then stop at a couple of bakeries and head for the airport to park (and go inside momentarily to get some paperwork for our flight) and catch the metro back into Athens...shopping in the flea market area that we'd become familiar with when we were initially in Athens...lunch and gelato then back to the metro and airport and AirBNB...chilled for a bit before getting gas and dinner and figuring out how to pack everything.

Thursday, Mar 3: Up VERY early to get to the airport for our early flight from Athens to Munich...four hour layover before catching our long flight from there to Denver...through customs and took the shuttle to our off site parking, to discover that our van was COVERED in bird poop, lol. Drove back to Fort Collins, washed the car, and finally home. Whew.

And that's what we did. Back later with more details and stories and photos. :)