We hired our driver that picked us up from the airport to take us our first full day to the Corinth Canal, Mycean ruins, and a town that is supposedly known as the ancient capital of Greece before Athens. Can’t remember or spell the name. All I know is it was beautiful. We had a great late lunch at one of the harbor cafes. We wanted fish, so they bring you inside and start opening drawers of different fresh fish so you can make your selection.
The Greek salads are amazing as are the Greek wines. Go figure. I don’t think we ordered a meal, except maybe breakfast, that didn’t include the famous Greek salad and yes, wine. Well, you have to set your limits somewhere. The next day was our visit to the Acropolis/Parthenon. Absolutely thought I was going to die on the walk up. Only stopped to rest one time though and once there, the view was incredible. You could see all of Athens, the mountains and the beautiful Aegean Sea, just like on the postcards. We decided to forego the Acropolis Museum. After spending the previous day looking at lots of ruins and statues with no heads, seeing it all again kinda lost its “wow” factor.
Alas, I think my favorite part of Athens was the quaint and winding streets (called the Plaka area) filled with sidewalk cafes and lots of shopping. We spent one entire day just shopping, stopping at a café for tapas and wine, trying as many Greek foods and wines as we could and so on. There’s even an area much like a flea market that’s just open on Sundays where you can buy just about anything. We found a really cool antique looking, brass nautical compass that had Capt. Craig’s and first mate Jan’s name on it.
We made sure to get a picture of him acting like he knew how to use it.In celebration of our anniversary I wanted to get a waffle at one of the cafes we had seen the previous day. We walked around looking for the perfect souvenir and anniversary present that spoke Greece to me. After much looking, I settled on a beautiful Greek Key ring (the Greek Key means long life) that my dear sweet husband bought for me. He’s the best.
Monday morning and time to go meet Jan and Craig. We boarded a high speed ferry that took us to Naxos. Let me say that I have quite a tendency to motion sickness, so Jan had encouraged me to be sure to put on one of those patches that you wear behind your ear that keep you from getting sick. Well, for me anyway, the motion sickness would have been better than the side effects it gave me. It made my throat so dry I couldn’t find enough water to drink, which still didn’t help and it made me dizzy (no comment, those of you who know me well) and somewhat nauseated. So, they told me to take it off and in a couple of hours I was all better. No more patches for me. As we made our way off the ferry, we saw two very familiar smiling faces there to welcome us to the Greek Isles and the island of Naxos, known for their potatoes.
Our hosts’ couldn’t have made us feel more welcome and what can I say about “Lone Star”, in a word, gorgeous.
Now that’s what I call a toy boat. The rest of the island experience is pretty well documented in Jan and Craig’s blog of our visit. I think the highlight was being given the opportunity to take the wheel for quite a while on our sail from Naxos to Paros. Craig and Jan are great teachers and although I was a little tentative initially, I really began to get the hang of it and felt quite comfortable. All in all, we loved the Greek wine, delighted in many tastes of the delicious food and saw sights that will never be forgotten.
We leave behind two very special friends, but take with us precious memories not possible except for them and their gracious hospitality. Thank you dear friends.Fair winds y’all; we’ll see ya in the fall.
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