Nautical notables - 5 April 2008

Many projects in the UK seem to run over time and over budget and the one we visited today was no exception. The Spinnaker Tower in Portsmouth ran 5 years over time and cost 4 times it's original budget of £9 million but, nevertheless, we enjoyed our visit to this, the tallest accessible structure in the UK outside of London.

Visibility was excellent, and it is in a beautiful spot with a harbour; inlets; and ferries going across the river mouth, to the Isle of Wight and further afield to Europe: so plenty to see and changing all the time.

Portsmouth also has an excellent visitor attraction in its Historic Dockyards. We had purchased a special combination ticket, and we only just managed to see everything in the one day. A more leisurely visit could be spread over a weekend. We choose to take our included harbour tour after the Tower. This was a lovely sea-level look around the area we had seen from above, with a commentary.

We found all of the attractions in the Dockside area very interesting, but probably enjoyed the restored Victory best of all. Nelson's flagship was rebuilt in 1922, and it is an amazing look at warships of the 1800s.

Older still is the recovered wreck of Henry 8th’s warship, the Mary Rose. This is still in a sealed building, being sprayed with a mixture of wax and water. The museum of artefacts found on and around the ship is incredible. The fact that so many objects survived 500 years under water is amazing. There are also many bronze cannon, looking like new. One amazing fact is that it took 36 acres of oak forest to build a relatively small ship like the Mary Rose: one wonders how many acres for something the size of the Victory.

The most 'modern' ship is HMS Warrior. Launched in 1860, she combined sail and steam engines, and is a fascinating look at life at sea 150 years ago.

There is a Navy Museum, with a room devoted to Admiral Nelson. It's interesting to realise he was a celebrity figure in his day, in a similar way to popular footballers today in the UK. Adjoining this museum, is a room housing the original sail from his ship The Victory, complete with all the cannon holes and major vertical rip. It had been put aside to mend, mislaid, and then rediscovered. It is thus the only surviving sail from that period and the largest conserved fabric artefact in the world.

The whole area has been redeveloped, with a harbour-side walk, a large Outlet Shopping Centre beside the Spinnaker Tower. All in all a very full day out, and one which we would recommend.

Rambling in Rotherhithe - 30 March 2008

We had not been to the O2 Dome (ex Millennium Dome) in all the time we have been in London so when the Tuthankamun exhibition was staged there we thought it would be an excellent way to round off our Egyptian odyssey and see the Dome in one visit.

The Tutakhamun exhibition, while well done was a little short on the “good stuff” that one associates with the name and thus was over priced for what little there was on display. Fortunately we had seen the real treasures in the Cairo Museum in December 2003.

A couple of tube stops away, after crossing under the Thames twice but remaining on the south bank, is Canada Water and the area called Rotherhithe. Like most of the old dock areas, the warehouses have been turned into apartments; the locks and quays tidied up; and the area regenerated.

The Pilgrim Fathers seem to have sailed to the New World from Boston, from Plymouth, from Southampton and also from a pub called the Mayflower that we walked past today on the Thames. The truth is out there somewhere.

Grecian getaway - 16 - 23 March 2008

Athens
Delphi
Corinth
Santorini

Click a link or read the full details in the posts below.

Athens again - 23 March 2008

An early morning start was needed to catch the 7 a.m. ferry to Athens. The wind on the island was quite fierce and the weather during the trip was very indifferent: there was no incentive whatsoever to venture out on deck.

Arriving in Athens the sky did not look much better but by the time we had caught the Metro to our hotel, checked in and used the rest of our 90-minute ticket to get to the Acropolis station, the sun was shining quite brightly.

Being Sunday the Acropolis was, again, free to enter so we took the opportunity to, once again, wander through this imposing site, so steeped in history. Leaving the Acopolis we climbed Areopogos Hill where Paul reasoned with the locals (Acts 17:22) and converted Dionysios, (v34) who later became the patron saint of Athens, to the Christian religion.

After that it was time to meander through the pedestrianised streets in Plaka, the tourist-trap part of the city, then head back to our hotel for another of their wonderful Greek Salads. At least one of us had a Greek Salad every night during our stay in Greece and the best by far were those served at the Hotel Rio.

An interesting feature of travelling on the Metro in Athens is the amount of marble in the stations: whether this is a result of the 2004 Olympics or not, I do not know. There are also a number of stations where ruins were found while excavating for the stations. A very interesting one is Monastiraki station where the remains of an old river containment scheme were discovered.

Many more photos here

Fira to Oia walk - 21 March 2008

Today was a clear blue-sky day when we surfaced, the first such morning on the island. Since we had extended our car hire for another morning we set off for the archaeological site at Akrotiri, which is supposed to be one of the finest Minoan sites in the area; however, it was closed for "technical reasons".

After returning the hire car we set off from Fira on the walkway to Oia. We had attempted this walk on our first morning but had lost the trail in Imerovigli. We had decided on this walk having read in a section on Oia that "a marble-paved walkway skirts the edge of the caldera to Fira" (Eyewitness Travel Guide: 'The Greek Islands', 2003): the author of the guide had obviously never walked this marble-paved path. A couple of hundred metres leading out of Oia is indeed a fabulous marble-paved walkway but the rest, between Oia and Imerovigli is neither marble nor paved in places.

However, it is a great walk and well worth the 3 hours, if you have the time. Arriving at Oia we could not believe how dead the place looked. Shops that had been open on our two previous visits were now all closed and the streets were practically deserted. The difference: no cruise liners moored near Fira. So we enjoyed Oia in the sunshine with the views, streets and photographic vantage points pretty much to ourselves and the hard-working load bearing donkeys. There are advantages and disadvantages of visiting Santorini in the off-season, not too hot, not crowded but many businesses are closed.

There are a number of substantial dwellings along the ridge that once belonged to sea captains. They are quite imposing and clearly much larger than the surrounding houses and of quite a different and distinct architectural style. With a spare €400 - €500,000 you can buy a derelict one - not on the caldera side with the great views - and providing you have another €150 - €200,000 to spend on renovating it, you can have yourself a lovely home on a Greek Island. Oia is, apparently, the most expensive real estate in Greece. There is one ruin there currently that is on the market for a mere €750,000: we were not tempted.

The local bus returned us to Fira where, in the absence of yesterday's sea-fog, we thought we may get one of the fabled Santorini sunset shots, but although the sky was clear the bank of cloud on the horizon prevented any colour at all as the sun set.

Many more photos here

Oia - 21 March 2008

The weather is very changeable, the morning was totally gloomy and overcast after a very windy night but then the sun broke through so we decided to extend the hire on the car and set off once again for Oia. By the time we arrived the sun was shining brightly on the houses making the village sparkle in the sunlight. We had an enjoyable time exploring much more of the village than we did yesterday, as well as exploring the two harbours at the foot of the cliffs.

Returning to Fira, Christine descended the 580 steps to the fishing village below and we both rode the cable car back up to the top. The cable car was a gift to the island community from a wealthy Greek shipping magnate.

A significant proportion of the morning was taken up with the hunt for a photo location. Many of the books about Santorini, and in fact, many of the books about the Greek Islands in general, feature two particular churches. We had located one in Oia but the other had eluded us. The books were not helpful in that they did not identify the location of their cover shot, however we came across a postcard that included not only the elusive church but the three islands in the caldera. Using our map and the relative positions of the islands in the postcard we were able to work out the position of the church fairly accurately: it was in Firostefani. It transpired we had walked along the cliff path beneath it on our first day but had not realised that it was just above us at the time.

As the sky had steadily got clearer through the day, we had high hopes of magnificent sunset shots from Oia so, late in the afternoon, we set off to the northern end of the island once again. As we drove along we could see what looked like a roll of cotton wool out to sea and this rolling sea fog rapidly engulfed us, and the island ahead. So much for sunsets, there was no point in proceeding and by the time we had returned to Fira it, too, was shrouded in the sea fog.

Many more photos here

Santorini Tour - 20 March 2008

After an early morning stroll through Fira to the northern end of the suburb that adjoins it we returned to our Hotel and rented a car from a nearby car rental firm. Car and motorbike/quad-bike rental firms are everywhere on the island, although like many other businesses in this off-season period, most are closed. Car rental seems very good value, presumably because there is no way that you can drive hundreds of kilometres before you return is as the island is not very big.

Leaving Fira we went east, past the airport to one of the sandy beaches on the east coast, Monolithos. We then drove down the coast to Kamari, another beach resort and then on to Ancient Thira. First settled in 9 BC this ruined city is on commanding hilltop site 370m above the sea. A series of 24 switchback turns takes the braver driver to within a few metres of the top, leaving only a short climb to the extensive ruins.

We retraced our route down the 24 switchbacks then headed across to the western side of the island and visited Pyrgos, which, according to the guidebooks is one of the more attractive villages on Santorini. Frankly, we were not convinced. Through Megalochiori and towards Akrotiri we passed through the grape growing area of Santorini where the vines are intriguingly trained into coils on the ground as protection against the wind.

Heading north we took the costal road to Oia where there are supposedly the best sunsets in the world/ the Mediteranean/Greece/Santorini (depending on which book you read). Unfortunately the clouds have to conspire to assist in these solar displays and tonight they conspicuously failed to do so - we will have to buy the postcard!

The trouble with relying on the guide books is that you can be seriously let-down as we were tonight over dinner. All the books we had read recommended 'Nikolas' a restaurant in Fira not far from our Hotel. Last night it was full so tonight we considered ourselves fortunate to secure a table. There is no English menu, the fare is explained in English but, of course, the prices on the board are against Greek text so you have no idea until your bill comes what the cost of your chosen dish will be. The ambience is OK, the bonhomie from the host is great, the prices are medium to high, the portions are not huge and all in all we left feeling that we had fared much better at other establishments that were not mentioned in the guidebooks.

Many more photos here