Athens & Santorini
Well!
It's been a hell of a couple of days. Got up later than we wanted on Tuesday and after sending Max off for the day we took ourselves into Athens to gawk like the tourists we are at the Parthenon. Some points:
1) Don't go into Athens in August and forget to take your sunscreen and your sunglasses. Walking around the Parthenon in 110 degree heat for 90 minutes is pretty tiring on the system.
2) The thing I had no idea about; when they said they were restoring the site, I sort of thought they meant they were cleaning it, putting up new plaques, etc. Nope. They're pulling the damn thing down and completely reassembling it from scratch, cutting new marble as needed and replacing the iron supports with all new titanium ones. We got to see them cut the marble to match a plaster cast they had made on a giant drill that resembled nothing so much as an 8 ton key cutter.
3) Another day, another insane meal. Taverna Psaka, with a view that overlooked a trellis of flowers and then the streets of the city. Fresh baked rolls piping hot, with a goat cheese and herb spread. Eggplant keftedes with bacon. Greek salad with a piece of feta the size of a slice of toast. Grilled calamari that filled the plate. Free watermelon and honeydew for dessert. Fucking brilliant.
4) Athens itself, once you are just downtown and out of the Parthenon area, is really nothing special. It's just another city. The big open squares, Syntagma and The Plaka, are plain compared to Barcelona and Rome. Had I only come here and nowhere else, I might have been much more impressed.
This was the only day I got truly sunburned and my foot blistered, but I was still a happy but exhausted camper by the end.
Today was our most expensive day, we booked an exclusive tour of Santorini, going by coach to 2 small villages, plus a winery tour and tasting, and a boat tour around the volcano. It finished up with the most elaborate greek meal of them all. The best food I've had anywhere has been in Greece, and that's saying something. Today was:
Ouzo
crackers spread with fava bean mash, hummos, tsatziki and olive tapenade
Greek Salad
Caesar Salad
Fresh Bread
Wine
Charcoal grilled santorini white eggplant and portobello mushroom caps
Grilled king prawns in butter sauce
Grilled salmon in dill sauce, served with rice and steamed vegetables
pistachio baklava and cappucinos
All while perched under a canopy, overlooking the caldera of the volcano as we were buffeted by gentle breezes.
The villages are a photo op at every turn, and we both picked up some small jewelry before taking the cable car ride back down the cliff to the port. I'm about to go enjoy my dinner, and then tomorrow I'll be at sea for the day, trying to read all of the His Dark Materials series in one day.
Then it's on to Naples. I'll check in again after climbing to the top of Vesuvius, wandering through Pompeii, and hopefully getting into Naples to check out the birthplace of the Pizza.
It's been a hell of a couple of days. Got up later than we wanted on Tuesday and after sending Max off for the day we took ourselves into Athens to gawk like the tourists we are at the Parthenon. Some points:
1) Don't go into Athens in August and forget to take your sunscreen and your sunglasses. Walking around the Parthenon in 110 degree heat for 90 minutes is pretty tiring on the system.
2) The thing I had no idea about; when they said they were restoring the site, I sort of thought they meant they were cleaning it, putting up new plaques, etc. Nope. They're pulling the damn thing down and completely reassembling it from scratch, cutting new marble as needed and replacing the iron supports with all new titanium ones. We got to see them cut the marble to match a plaster cast they had made on a giant drill that resembled nothing so much as an 8 ton key cutter.
3) Another day, another insane meal. Taverna Psaka, with a view that overlooked a trellis of flowers and then the streets of the city. Fresh baked rolls piping hot, with a goat cheese and herb spread. Eggplant keftedes with bacon. Greek salad with a piece of feta the size of a slice of toast. Grilled calamari that filled the plate. Free watermelon and honeydew for dessert. Fucking brilliant.
4) Athens itself, once you are just downtown and out of the Parthenon area, is really nothing special. It's just another city. The big open squares, Syntagma and The Plaka, are plain compared to Barcelona and Rome. Had I only come here and nowhere else, I might have been much more impressed.
This was the only day I got truly sunburned and my foot blistered, but I was still a happy but exhausted camper by the end.
Today was our most expensive day, we booked an exclusive tour of Santorini, going by coach to 2 small villages, plus a winery tour and tasting, and a boat tour around the volcano. It finished up with the most elaborate greek meal of them all. The best food I've had anywhere has been in Greece, and that's saying something. Today was:
Ouzo
crackers spread with fava bean mash, hummos, tsatziki and olive tapenade
Greek Salad
Caesar Salad
Fresh Bread
Wine
Charcoal grilled santorini white eggplant and portobello mushroom caps
Grilled king prawns in butter sauce
Grilled salmon in dill sauce, served with rice and steamed vegetables
pistachio baklava and cappucinos
All while perched under a canopy, overlooking the caldera of the volcano as we were buffeted by gentle breezes.
The villages are a photo op at every turn, and we both picked up some small jewelry before taking the cable car ride back down the cliff to the port. I'm about to go enjoy my dinner, and then tomorrow I'll be at sea for the day, trying to read all of the His Dark Materials series in one day.
Then it's on to Naples. I'll check in again after climbing to the top of Vesuvius, wandering through Pompeii, and hopefully getting into Naples to check out the birthplace of the Pizza.
posted by Mattvideo at 11:10 AM
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