Category: Uncategorized
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Greece is the Word
May 20, 2024: Heraklion (Playing Hooky, Part 2) For today, Odysseys scheduled a visit to the Minoan ruins at Knossos. But we decided to indulge in Hooky Day #2. So we scoped out stuff online for Heraklion and found some other interesting things, like the Venetian Walls and the Rocca a Mare Fortress, and the…
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Greece is the Word
May 19, 2024: Arrival in Heraklion, Crete We flew to Crete yesterday. Settled in to the upscale Aquila Atlantis Hotel and took a guided city walking tour, where we saw the old Venetian Walls. Below are the Morasini Fountain, the Venetian Loggia and the Church of St. Titus: The omnipresence of references to Venice dates…
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Greece is the Word
May 17-18, 2024: Mycenae, Epidaurus, Hydra. Yesterday, we visited Mycenae, the seat of the kingdom of King Agamemnon. It’s a hilltop UNESCO site that represents the pinnacle of Greek civilization, from the 15th through the 12th Centuries BCE. This is the civilization that’s linked to epics of Homer, the Iliad and the Odyssey. These tell…
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Greece is the Word
May 16, 2024: From Athens to the Peloponnese First stop (Thursday) was the National Archaeological Museum, considered to be one of the greatest museums in the world. Exhibits go from the Cycladic Period (Bronze Age, 3100 to 1700 BCE), through the Mycenaean period (Late Bronze Age, 1700 to 1100 BCE), the Homeric Age (1100 to…
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Greece is the Word
May 15, 2024: Playing Hooky Today, the Odysseys tour went to Delphi, to see the site of the famous oracle. The oracle had been the one to predict, to the satisfaction of Freudians everywhere, that Oedipus would kill his father and marry his mother, yadda yadda. But Stef and I decided to skip the official…
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Greece is the Word
May 14, 2024: The Parthenon, the Parliament, (my) People. (Okay, okay, trying to sum up today alliteratively doesn’t always work, but I’m trying.) Our first destination today was the Acropolis. Our guide, Nancy, explained the importance of getting there early, to avoid the crowds. When we got there, we wondered, “Avoid the crowds? Really?” Later…
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Greece is the Word
May 13, 2024: Arrival in Athens Stef’s friend, Anneliese, wished us a “boring flight.” So “boring” is good, right? Well, thanks, Anneliese, it was wholly uninteresting. Easy-peasy to the airport, through security, boarding, and a non-stop flight to Athens. On our way out of the Athens airport, it was Interesting to see evidence that the…
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Greece is the Word
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…
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Abroad at Home, Part 2
“John Singer Sargent’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” (continued) December 23, 2023 The Boston Fine Arts Museum was only a 10-minute walk from The Verb. We had quite some time before our “window” to enter the John Singer Sargent exhibit. So we went in search of the museum’s collection of Impressionists. On our way, we found loads of…
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Abroad at Home, Part 2
“John Singer Sargent’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” December 22, 2023 When we last left Stef and Stan, they were doing a sort of Stay-Cation, playing tourist in New York City. A lot of that involved the Gilded Mansions tour run by Untapped New York. Lots of references to “The Gilded Age: ”Astors vs. Vanderbilts, Old Money vs. New…
Something to Declare 