Island hopping - 19 March 2008

At 06:05 our taxi had not appeared so when another cruising taxi enquired if we wanted a ride we accepted. The traffic was light and we were at the ferry far too early but that was far better than missing the boat. After 4 hour's cruising we arrived at Paros and after a short stop we were off again bound for Naxos then Ios before finally arriving at Santorini at 4pm.

Those passengers not being met by drivers from their hotels crammed aboard a bus that could not possibly cope with the summer crowds and were taken up the switchback road from the port to Fira, the main town on the island.

After locating our accommodation we wandered to the top of Fira, past the terminal for the recently built cable car and then found a restaurant for dinner.



Many more photos here

Corinth - 18 March 2008

"Paul left Athens and went to Corinth" (Acts 18:1) and, since the next most popular day trip from Athens is to Corinth, we decided to follow Paul's example. The buses to Corinth leave from Terminal A and the local bus to Terminal A went right past our Hotel. All in all it seemed a promising start. We left the Hotel and walked to the corner where the bus stop was, stopping at the street kiosk to buy a bus ticket. "Sorry, no ticket." A quick jog back to the Hotel to check where we could purchase a bus ticket, only to be pointed back to the kiosk I had just left. No matter, there were plenty more kiosks in the locality. Sorry-no-ticket-kiosk four suggested I try the Metro station but the door to the Metro was closed. Optimistically, I crossed the road to the other Metro entrance, also barred: this was getting serious. Finally I managed to encourage a lady in a mini-market to leave her conversation and return to her counter and sell me the needed bus tickets.

Arriving at Terminal A we located the counter which sold tickets to Corinth (they seem to have one ticket selling counter and agent per destination) and noted that the next bus was scheduled to leave in 10 minutes. No particular problem there except that the agent was on the phone to his broker/wife/mistress/bookie/whatever and was not going to interrupt his important call for a couple of tourists. As the time ticked past 4 minutes to go I began tapping on my watch meaningfully, but the phone call continued. This was particularly worrying, as yesterday's bus to Delphi had left 3 minutes before the scheduled time. Finally, right on the departure time the agent finished his call; put in a quick call to the controller on the platform; sold us the tickets; and told us we needed to hurry: something we had been trying to tell him for the past 10 minutes!

We collapsed into our seats for the journey to modern Corinth, crossing the Corinth Canal, cut over 90m into solid rock. First suggested in 6BC it was begun by Nero in 67AD and finished by French engineers 1826 years later.

Instead of taking us to the bus depot we were deposited in the centre of modern Corinth and directed to the place where the local bus to Ancient Corinth would depart. We spent a couple of unhurried hours browsing the ruins and museum and seeing the Bema, the place where Paul was brought by the Jewish elders who had their case dismissed by Galliio, the proconsul. (Acts 18:12-17)

The local bus dropped us back in the centre of modern Corinth but it appeared that the bus back to Athens did not collect from there and we had to walk back to the bus station. Fortunately we had time before the next scheduled departure, but it did seem a very strange arrangement. As we approached Athens we were caught in a traffic jam and crawled along for some time, broken only by a slanging match between the passengers and driver. They were all quite voluble with their various opinions and it was a pity that it was all Greek to us: we did pick out the word 'Metro' a few times.

Finally, the passengers in the know started to assemble their coats and bags so we assumed we were nearly back to Terminal A, however the bus just pulled to the side of the road and the passengers started to disembark. Looking out the window I realised I was looking down the street to our Hotel so we quickly joined the exodus.

It transpired that the Metro was on strike and had been all day, hence the shut doors this morning and the chaos on the roads. But worse was to come.

As we had an early start scheduled for our ferry to Santorini the next morning we thought we should check out the travel options and when we did we found that Wednesday was to be a general strike: so, no buses, no Metro, no archaeological sites, no tourist information office - nothing. Returning to the Hotel we attempted to organise a taxi for the morning, only to be told that it was not the way things were done - simply ring in the morning and hope!

That, however, is not our way, so we wandered out to the main street nearby and arranged with a friendly taxi driver to collect us at 6 a.m. in the morning. We shall discover if he is as good as his word.

Later that evening the general strike struck again. The electricity was turned off for 90 minutes, just as we were beginning to pack our bags for our early morning start. Fortunately the laptop had a full charge and there was enough illumination from the screen to see what we were doing, although we did abandon packing and used the light to get ourselves to bed, instead.

Because of our early start the next morning we had returned to the hotel reasonably early. We had taken the guidebook advice and dined in view of the floodlit Acropolis so it was fortunate that we had made it back to the hotel before the lights went out as finding our way back in a darkened and unfamiliar city may have been a challenge, especially given the piles of fetid garbage spilling out all over the streets because of non-collection due to the strike.

Many more photos here

Dephi - 17 March 2008

We had been advised that if you only make one trip out of Athens, it should be to Deplhi, ancient home of the Delphic Oracle. Taking a guide tour there will cost €93 pp. However, having found a hint on the web on how to find Bus Terminal B where the Delphi bus left Athens we decided to do it on the cheap by taking the intercity bus. Total cost: €32 pp for return fare and entry (the official tour did include lunch).

Unfortunately the hint on the web was a little short on detail once we had arrived at the Kato Patisia Metro station and finding Terminal B was a little more difficult than we expected. Click here for a map of the route we took. Clearly there are shorter ways to walk.

The bus trip is three hours through mainly flat agricultural land until you get to Levadia where the road climbs up over a mountain pass and through a very picturesque (and very touristy) town of Arachova near the ski resort on the slopes of Mt Parnassus before descending to Delphi.

Unlike the other Greek ruins we have visited, this site is on the slopes of a mountain so a fair bit of climbing is involved to get to the top where one finds one of the best-preserved stadia in the country. Below that is a large theatre and over the road a gymnasium and some more temples including a circular tholos of unknown use.



The return bus trip was a bit of a trial as the Athenian traffic meant that we spent an extra hour crawling into the city. Since the walk back to the metro station was about 20 minutes and all uphill we decided we would take a bus from outside the Terminal. We did not have long to wait before a bus with the correct route number came along so we hopped aboard. After a little while the smarter, female, member of the party asked a valid question, "Are we going in the correct direction?" We finally established in broken English that we had, in our haste, unfortunately chosen a bus going out of the city instead of towards the centre. Time to alight and try the other side of the road!

The bus route took us close enough to our hotel and the short walk back took us past the Alexandra the Great restaurant where we rounded off a wonderful day with an excellent meal.

Many more photos here

Athens - 16 March 2008

The guidebooks all said that an early start was essential to beat the crowds of tourists at the Acropolis. The opening time was 8:30 so we had our breakfast at the earliest possible sitting, 8:00, and set off. After an easy 20-minute walk we arrived at the southern gates only to find that all archaeological sites were closed as the staff were on strike until noon. So much for our early tourist beating plans; although the notice did say, generously, that they apologised for any inconvenience. Imagine the inconvenience that you would feel if you were on a package tour and you only had that morning to see the Acropolis - I don't think an 'apology' would suffice.

Clearly there was no point heading off to any other site so we climbed Filopapou Hill, opposite, and enjoyed fantastic panoramic views back across the Acropolis and out towards the coast. We descended past Pnika and the Observatory and back to the pedestrianised area to the north of the Acropolis site. This area had been deserted when we went through on our early morning dash to the Acropolis but was now buzzing with tourists and the tourist-tat and fake handbag vendors that are endemic at any tourist destination.

Partway along the street is the entrance to Ancient Agora and although it was only 11:30, the gates were open and the staff were not on strike. No only that, but we discovered that, being Sunday, all archaeological sites were free of charge: much better than an apology for the inconvenience!

From Ancient Agora we visited Hadrian's library, Roman Agora, The Temple of the Four Winds and then wound our way through the streets of Plaka to a northern entrance to the Acropolis complex. It was about 1 pm at this stage and in the hour that the place had been open the tourists had arrived in their hordes. One wonders what it must be like in the high-season. Evidence of the numbers is shown in the marble of the paths and rocks that has been polished smooth to the point being treacherous. Unfortunately the restoration work being undertaken at present means that much of the structures are covered in scaffolding or obscured by cranes.

Extricating ourselves from the snaking lines of tourists, we headed for the wide open spaces of the Temple of the Olympian Zeus. It is unfortunate that so little remains of these once magnificent structures and we were grateful of having had the opportunity of seeing the much more complete Grecian temples at Paestum in Italy.

Wending our way back through the pedestrianised and labyrinthine streets of Plaka we headed for the ancient cemetery at Keramikos only to find that they had closed 30 minutes earlier. This was the closing time posted on the web but the staff at Ancient Agora told us that closing time today was 5:30. This time there were no signs apologising for the inconvenience.

So it was back again through Plaka again for a late lunch/early dinner at a roof-top restaurant overlooking Athens and with views up to the Acropolis, a fabulous spot to sit and review the sites we had wandered through during the day.

Many more photos here

Hidden Treasures - 9 March 2008

There is only one way for the public to enter the perimeter of St James’s Palace, just off the Mall, and that is to go to a Sunday service in the Chapel Royal. To make it just that little bit more difficult, services are only held there between October and Easter. So with only a couple of Sundays still available, we set off for Piccadilly.

As is our way, a walk needs to be incorporated into the day so we selected another walk around the area that we have visited twice in recent months and found new things that we had not seen before.

Naturally, we detoured to Green Park to see the daffodils and crossed the Mall to check out the spring flowers in St James’s Park. While there we came across a pelican perched, in what seemed a most uncomfortable position for a web-footed bird, on the fence around the lake. It seemed quite happy to pose there for the many pictures that were being taken.


However, it was time for the service and it was just as well we were early as the small chapel was almost at capacity by the time the service started. The Chapel Royal choir has a long heritage and the 10 choirboys looked splendid in their red and gold livery.

Just around the corner is Spencer House, also only open on Sundays when you are able to take a guided tour around the recently restored principal rooms. Nothing much is original as it was all stripped before the war, so the fitting and furniture you see are mainly modern copies; there is acres of gold leaf and the effect is absolutely stunning.

Stepping even further into history we visited the British Museum to see the current exhibition, The First Emperor, a look at the life and times of the Emperor of Qin who had created for his after-life the terracotta army. Among the displays was a warrior re-created in the colours that the entire army were originally painted. It looked fantastic: what a sight the original army must have looked 2000 years ago when they shut the doors on the vast underground horde.

Pretty in pink - 8 March 2008

It is daffodil time again and we were told that Trent Park had good daffodil displays so we went to check it out. While we were too early for some beds, others were in full bloom and there were many roadside displays on the way there and back to brighten the drive through suburbia.

We also visited Forty Hall, home of the Parker Bowles until 1951. On display there is a photo of a cupboard door that has the heights of children recorded on it dating back to the 17th C. There are over 600 names, dates and heights recorded on this one door.

We walked to the Hall from the parking area at the Whitewebb golf course which is near the South Lodge; from the days when this area was all part of the Whitewebb Estate. This is the first Grade II listed building we have seen that is pink to the top of its chimney pots.

Arriving at the hall we chanced across a lady who had a totally new approach to taking her dog for a walk.

Capital Ring - 2 March 2008

Having had a city based, pavement walk on Saturday we like to alternate with a “country” walk where the ground is softer underfoot. One of the beauties of London is that you do not actually have to leave the city to have such a walk; there are so many interconnected green spaces that are readily available. One way to enjoy them is using the Capital Ring series of walks. There are two walking tracks that circumnavigate London: the inner Capital Ring and the outer London Loop. Each is broken into manageable chunks, usually based on rail links.

By judiciously parking our car near one station we were able to take a £1 Tube journey, walk the 5.5 miles of section 8 of the Capital Ring about a mile of section 9 then carry on another mile or so along the canal back to where we had left the car.

The walk began on the Grand Union Canal where it uses the Brent River; and near the start of the walk was a mile post giving the distance to Braunston, a wonderful reminder of our own canal trip when Braunston was the place we turned and retraced our journey. Not long after that, the river and canal divided and we followed the non-navigable Brent River back towards Greenford before joining the Paddington branch of the Grand Union Canal.