Something to Declare

Upcoming Travels with Stan & Stef

Ancient Greece, May 12-25, 2024

A lot of Greek tourism involves cruise ships. It took a bit of doing to find a Greece itinerary that didn’t involve spending most of the time on the water. Stef is not, shall we say, the most enthusiastic sailor. And we didn’t want to have to contend with a whole lot of mal de mer.

Fortunately, we came across a company called Odysseys Unlimited, which runs a Greek trip that’s mostly on land.

It includes Athens, the Peloponnese (including Delphi, Corinth and Mycenae), and Crete. Only two short jaunts on the water, by ferries, one to the island of Hydra, and the other from Crete to the island of Thera (otherwise known as Santorini). Everything else is by motor coach or air.

I’d been to Greece before, in the mid-1990s, the first European vacation with my late wife, Susan.

Was I ever that young? We stayed at a hotel called The Acropolis View.

“Acropolis View?” Yeah…sure…right. If you went to one of the windows in the hotel room and leaned out all the way (with someone holding your legs to make sure you didn’t fall out), you were able to catch the teeniest glimpse of the Acropolis. This next photo was taken on an actual walk around the Acropolis, not from the hotel.

Some other memories remain vivid. These include the color of the Aegean Sea. We’re so used to seeing the greenish Atlantic and the greenish-brownish Hudson River: You really can’t believe that there is water so blue. Homer referred to it in the Iliad as “the wine-dark sea.” (Since wine isn’t blue, I’ve never understood that reference.)

There was also a stay on the Island of Kos, which had been the birthplace of Hippocrates, the Father of Medicine. We got to see the Aesklepion, the world’s first medical center.

As you can see, it’s in ruins. Maybe something to do with Managed Care? On the Island of Rhodes, figs could be picked and eaten off the trees (Yum!). And also olives. (Blecchh!!!).

Yeah, “Blecchh!”

Who knew? Just because the olive is black, it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s edible? Apparently olives need to be cured in brine for a few months before you can eat them. Lesson learned.

There was also the island of Nisiros, where I visited my first live volcano (mud and sulfur steam, not lava).

(There’s that wine-dark sea again.). We swam at a beach with black volcanic sand, where rocks were floating in the water (volcanic pumice is full of air holes, so the rocks float). Cool.

(Truth in Advertising: The above photo is not mine.)

As most of you know, Stef and I have done several trips with Road Scholar. This is our first one with Odysseys Unlimited. We’ve read good things about them online, so fingers are crossed. With the exception of Athens and Crete, all of this is going to be new stuff for me, too. Expect the first blogpost around May 13-14.

As they say in Greece, “καλή μέρα!” (“Kali Mera!,” or “Good Day!”).  And as Frankie Valli sings, “[Greece] is the word……its got groove, it’s got meaning….it’s the time, it’s the place, it’s the motion….”