Car Stats - Athens

Upon returning the car at the airport in Athens, we had driven 1,708 km or 1061 miles over nearly 10 days.  This is about the same distance driving from Boston to Madison, WI (one way).  We used 124.25 L or 32.8 gallons of petrol, pending 232€ ($249).  We also spent 28.60€ ($30.70), and were comped 7.80 euros ($8.40), in tolls.  

We principally explored the regions of Attica and Evia, with an unexpected trip to Delphi, before heading to the Peleponnese to revisit areas in the Korinthos, Argolis and Messini regions.  

Although we spent half of our time on the mainland at sites that we had seen on our previous trips, this was where we were led.  Next trip may have more structure--maybe not.

Best and Worst

After 19 days in Greece this trip, we have seen a lot of stuff.  Some new, some old.  All worthwhile in one way or another, even as a cautionary tale.

Here is our best and worst list:

Best Site:

    L. Three way tie. Zakros because it was extensive, Eritrea for Houses II and IV, and the newly updated Palace of Nestor in Pylos.

    R.  Zakros. The one Minoan palace that was unspoiled.

Worst Site:

   We both agree was Poylrinnia. While I do enjoy scavenger hunts, there has to be a payoff, and this wasn't worth it.  

Best Museum:

    We had originally considered not choosing because we didn't remember that we had visited many museums, which may say something already about the quality of the museums, but having actually visited 5, I am more sanguine about picking winners.

    We both agree that Heraklion was our standout for this trip.  We spent 5 hours there over two visits to make sure we saw each and every exhibit, and it was worthwhile, if a little repetitive at times because of where the artifacts were discovered and how the displays had been designed.  Still, we would go back.

Worst Museum:

    Through no fault of its own, Aptera had to take this honor.  It's small archaeological site had been looted by Heraklion, and so had nothing left to offer.  Still it maintained a job for an older gentleman, and it did have an aerial photograph which showed the back alley to the site.  

Weirdest thing we saw

    R.  Ancient Greek alarm clock at the Kotsanas Museum

    L   A goat on the A7, the equivalent of Mass Pike. 

Best restaurant

    It would be hard for a local restaurant to compete with a 1-star Michelin restaurant, so just take as a given that Sense was a culinary experience in a class by itself.  

  Best souvlaki. Olivia’s Taverna atop Polyrhinnia

  Best ffsh.    Tsefaki in Chalkida

Thing we brought that we didn’t need

    R.  Physical book to read.  As we made this list, he threatened to read it just so it wasn't a wasted object, but that never happened.  

    L. Sneakers. This was on my list from the first trip, and I learned for the second, and then I forgot.  Maybe I will learn again?

Thing we should have brought.  

    Both of us:  A hat.  Totally forgot this trip to represent. Go Sox!

Best cat.  The little black one at the version of Perachora who only wanted love and practically crawled into my lap. 

Most annoying luxury

   BMW i118 5-door sedan. Changed the gear shift interface, and the odometer wasn’t from the onboard computer but from the indicator control. Completely counterintuitive. 

Best staff. 

    L:  A tie.  At Tylissos, the ticket attendant was obligated to ask me about something I picked up and embarrassed to learn that it was just a snail shell. We talked about the site and she gave me the guide book. 

              At Aigosthenes, the attendant and I discussed the reconstruction of the tower and I learned that the 9m center beams (3x) were chestnut (kastano) trees, and then discussed how we each prepare and enjoy chestnuts.

Worst Staff. 

    We both agree, Malia. They didn’t want to work and closed early so they could leave before the site officially closed, although Randall adds that the truly worst staff are the ones who aren’t there when the site has posted hours (online, on-site). 

Worst road. Eleftherna. The road which was paved suddenly became unpaved and took at 30° drop.  We became concerned that we would be able to get beck up because our vehicle lacked all wheel drive.   

Best road. A8 from Athens to the Peleponnese,a second time winner even with tolls!

Best policy recall. Acropolis museum now allows photography—as did every other museum we visited anywhere else in Greece. Finally. 

Least likely excuse—"Destroyed by fire" was the universal and vague explanation for why the Greek Dark Ages began. It was a fire of unknown origin and seemed to encompass all of Greece for many years....

Most improved site. Nestor’s palace.  Can't beat the elevated walkways for understanding the site.

Worst maintained site.  Heraion of Argos. Too many tall weeds.

Most misleading description of a site before we got there. 220 steps into and out of Dikteon Andron. As if that were the relevant criteria of getting to the bottom of the cave!

Best ferry. Tie. Inbound and outbound between Piraeus and Heraklion. We had a VIP cabin for only an extra $50 round trip, and that made all the difference. 

Most annoying distraction at an archaeological site.  Drones.  At some sites they were specifically prohibited (Zakros), but a Delphi and Mykines, they were present, noisy and irritating.  

Photos of the Perplexing

Every trip, I take a few thousand photographs. I say to myself, "bits are cheap", an update from "film is cheap", relative to the cost of returning to a place to recapture a moment which can never be regained. Which isn't to say I am only taking pictures. There are so many photos I wanted to take, mostly every time there was a break in the verge growing beside the highway--the mountains and the water in a constant state of visual transformation--but time, location and safety would not always allow those photos.

That said, I did get a lot of pictures of things that left Randall and me wondering, "Why would someone do this?"

In Athens. Everything on this sign is in English, so.... And we were never able to get a photo of the combination of stores of "Ritual Tattoo" next to the bridal store, and wondered if this was a one-stop-shop.


This was a two 'fer on our way to Dikteon Andron of bizarre museums--Homo Sapiens Museum (left0 and Greek Mythology Thematic Park (right). I just couldn't bring myself to go.


These are just some unusual parking jobs. Left: sidewalk in Athens; Right: intersection in Heraklion. We also saw, but were unable to photograph significant parking in rotaries, especially in Nafplio, where there was plenty of free parking at the port just another 100m away!

Do we follow the stop sign or the stop light???



Fences were often the bane of my existence in trying to access a site, but here are some examples of stupid fences. Left: fencing OVER the ruins. especially where there is a perfectly good space about 12" away. Right: DOUBLE FENCING, especially where the interior (white) fence tracks the line of the excavated wall.


  This one is a little sad, and we have seen this repeatedly, especially since our last visit, but people will leave unwanted pets, particularly large dogs (or perhaps that is what survives) at temples and highway road stops.  I've seen bags of food left at these sites as well, and the animals that we have seen on this trip appear to be in good health, but they have also become a bit of a nuisance.  They lay in the road, unperturbed by traffic.  This dog plopped down on the warm pavement in mid afternoon on the main road into Delphi, about 300m from the entrance.  By this hour, most of the tour buses had left, but still there was a fair amount of traffic which simply drove around the dog.

  Ah, yes.  It seems each of our trips to Greece has accompanied some interesting event.  This was the election.  Here, we see a bunch of talking heads, however, two are notable.  Woman in green, who is so obviously reading something on her iPhone and otherwise completely disinterested in the discussion.  But you may miss this detail of the guy in the lower left whose background is of the TV showing the broadcast of him...showing the broadcast of him, and so on.  And there is the added detail of the "Exit Poll" notation as if this needed to be translated for a Greek election!?!  And the website "kalimera@gkal.gr" giving further evidence for Randall's comment about how the internet has affected non-Roman alphabet-based languages.  

The roads and how Waze/Google maps work will be a separate post.  

Ode to the Theragun

A few years ago, a very dear friend loaned me her Theragun because I was having some muscle pain.  It changed my life.  Now, whenever I travel and I know I am going to be doing a lot of walking/standing (Walt Disney World, Las Vegas, and now Greece), I pack it.

At the beginning of this trip, I posted about the obvious errors with the data produced by my Apple Watch.  Notwithstanding what I know are grossly underestimated values for number of flights of stairs and missing data during the times when my watch died because I forgot to charge it (26 hours of darkness), I walked over 80 miles, 4+ miles each day, stood more than sat every day, including days when we were driving for 7 or more hours, and seemed to still log around 20 flights of stairs daily.  The Apple Watch suggested that I climbed over 50 flights of stairs on 3 separate occasions, exercised 90 min daily, and had a personal best of 3 hours (174 min).  

To say that the Theragun was my friend each and every night would have been an understatement.  It was what allowed me to get up the next day and do it all over again.   

Hiking the Stairs

After some scrambling on our first night in Nafplio, we found a quaint Airbnb which better suited our needs, but we were now confronted with a new challenge. Stairs, and not just any old ancient staircase, but a true 18th c. two-story walkup.

Any day that we didn't feel like we had enough hiking, we knew we still had this to look forward to at the end of the evening.

I wish had I taken more pictures, but by the time I got home, it was always dark, and all I wanted to do was force march myself to the apartment.  I will note that the first flight, not even seen in this picture of 20 steps, were about 2.5' wide, and then got narrower as they began to circle the shaft, a point made more difficult by the downstairs neighbor who was also running a salon, and decorated the entryway with potted plants in the corner stairs, thus taking away from the tread depth.  Additionally, the "landing" outside our apartment was itself only just one stair, so I am half in the apartment as I am taking this picture.  And there were more stairs to the roof deck, which we never used.  That vertical ascent was worse, as if one were climbing a ladder.  Our host kindly said, "you will take your morning coffee up there".  I kind of nodded dismissively thinking there is no way we will have enough time to practice those maneuvers.  

Hauling the luggage and all that wine and honey into the room was a chore.  Taking it back down on the day of our departure was scary--kept feeling like the luggage was taking me down the stairs, not the other way around.

Movie night in Nafplio

 We've gone to the movies every time we've visited Greece, mostly seeing US movies since the Greeks like them in the original language with subtitles.  This trip we discovered that the Open Air movie theatre was operating - we've tried to go in earlier trips but it's always been too early in the season. 

The open-air theater - screen is good sized, not gigantic.  Sound was Dolby but at a reasonable level, we guessed to keep the neighbors happen

For whatever reason, they were running this time and we caught the (single) showing of "Fast X" at 9:15pm.  The movie was, well, car chases intermixed with alleged plot (though Jason Momoa was clearly having a blast with his role as the villain and more or less stole every scene he was in).  

The great part was that tickets were just €7 each, for comfortable seats and really cheap food & drink.  All this was just €10!

Plus, we got to see some posters for upcoming shows - such as the Disney live-action Little Mermaid.  But how is that translated into Greek?

Indeed...it's Disney's 'microGorgon'

Unexpected sight while touring wineries

The last post we did about something we unexpectedly found while touring a winery was in 2012, and it was for finding a temple to Herakles. I suppose in retrospect that should have been so surprise since all of Greece is simply one archaeological site waiting to be unearthed, and plowing fields for a vineyard was bound to lead to the discovery of something.

On the first miss for Aivalis Winery, we had to drive a ways before we could turn around.  This wasn't so hard to find amidst the vineyards.

  Wait, are those satellite dishes and "golf ball" satellite antennae?  And grape vines everywhere else?  Why yes!  

  A Satellite Communications Center in Nemea.  Just what I'd thought.  I will note that this is a private satellite communication facility--OTE Group is a Norwegian firm--so that still doesn't explain the English on the sign.