Destinations – Page 19 – RV Travels in Europe and North America

May 5, 2023 Sofia BU

I had low expectations for Sofia. I think my views of the former Soviet Bloc countries are sometimes skewed by my experience serving in the US military during the cold war. I expected a cold, ugly downtown, and Sofia was not that. Ton on the other hand had done research on Sofia and she expected a pretty city center with lots of gardens and flowers. Her expectation was correct and mine was wrong.

An example of why Tons vision of Sofia was correct, lots of flowers and interesting buildings.

Last night was the chilliest night of the trip, so neither one of us was in a big hurry to get out from under the covers in the morning. Eventually we got moving and after some coffee we headed downtown. We took the subway from near our campground and the fare was the equivalent of 80 US cents each.

The street scene where we popped out of the metro station. Hip street art on the side of a McDonalds and a Mosque dating back to the Ottoman Empire on the other side of the street.

As the capitol Sofia has its fair share of monumental buildings, and we spent time trying to figure out what they were. We identified the building that the parliament meets in, and the Ministry of Defense. But there were several other important looking buildings that we could not figure out, including the one the two soldiers in the cool uniforms with big feathers were guarding.

This is the building the Bulgarian National Assembly meets in. The building on the left is the building the Prime Minister and his cabinet occupy.

After we got all of the big buildings out of the way we headed to the main Cathedral. Along the way we passed thru a series of nice parks that were full of Tulips in full bloom. Ton really enjoyed the gardens and I kept losing her as she would see something and stop for a photo. I finally had to walk behind her so I could keep her in sight.

The tulips were in full bloom in the parks.

Tomorrow is St. Georges day which is a national holiday. As we were walking there was suddenly a low pass by about a dozen different aircraft from the Bulgarian Air Force who must have been rehearsing for tomorrows parade. Later in the day they repeated the low pass and flew over us in the campground at about 500 feet.

This is a statue of St Sofia who the city is named after. In 2004 it replaced a statue of Lenin that used to occupy the column.

Alexander Nevsky Cathedral occupied the center of a large square. It is one of the largest Orthodox Cathedrals we have seen. The interior is interesting because a lot of the pictures of the saints are rendered in a more modern, less rigid form than most Orthodox art.

The exterior of Alexander Nevsky Cathedral.

We have noticed that most Orthodox Churches have chandeliers in them, but I have been unable to find out if they have any particular religious meaning, or is it just how they lit them before electricity.

After the Cathedral we headed to the main shopping street with the intent to people watch and find some food. Ton had a traditional tavern in mind she had found on line last night. After walking down the long pedestrian street with the normal mix of high end stores and coffee shops we found our restaurant.

Our meal for two hanging from hooks above the table. In this photo I am trying to figure out how to eat it without making a mess. It made for a cool photo, but once the photo was done the waiter came back and recommended we put it on the table to actually eat it much to my relief!

We ordered a meal for two which consisted of a large skewer of kebab, some pork cutlets, chicken and sausage plus coleslaw, potatoes, and to Tons delight grilled peppers. Ton pronounced the meal the best she has had on this trip, as the coleslaw and chicken reminded her of Thai dishes, and the peppers were very tasty, but a little mild.

The Hall of Culture and fountains leading to it. This building was probably built by the communist government, it has that Soviet Monumental feeling to it.

We enjoyed Sofia it had a nice mix of impressive buildings, nice parks, and a vibrant street scene. After Greece it felt cleaner and there is certainly less graffiti. For Ton it was exactly what she expected, and for me it was not at all what I expected.

There is a square where water from hot springs naturally flows into a series of fountains that people from the city come and fill water containers. We tried the water and it is warm and has a distinct taste of minerals.

May 4, 2023 Sofia BU

Once again we woke up and realized we were nearly halfway thru our trip and had not reached the country we had picked as the country we were going to visit on this trip. We have gotten very comfortable with Greece, and Nikos had recommended several other places we should visit, but we decided we needed to get to Bulgaria as that was the country we had intended to visit and time was running out.

So we woke up a little early, checked out of the hotel and headed out to the motorhome dealer we had left François at. There was a little drama when we learned from the dealer last night that the warranty against leaks we thought lasted 10 years had expired and they could not do the test. After a quick email with a representative from Knaus we learned that the 10 year warranty started in 2017 and François is a 2016 with a 5 year warranty that had expired last year.

We headed out towards the Bulgarian border for a very quick and relaxing drive on the Greek toll ways. The border was uneventful, except while I was dealing with the Greek passport control guy, there was a knock on Tons door. The guy was not in uniform but announced he was Police and we needed to open the door and let him inspect the interior. I looked at the passport guy and asked him police? When he looked up quizzically the guy not in uniform had been replaced with a guy in uniform so he said yes let them inspect, but I could tell by his face this was unusual.

After I let them in the policeman in uniform told me to open all of the doors and cupboards, but the guy not in uniform said something to him in Greek and asked me to show him the bathroom. While he was looking in the bathroom he asked me where we bought it. He then asked where the kitchen was so I pointed at the stove top and refrigerator. He then asked me how much we paid for it and did we like it. I told him how much and yes we loved it. He then asked if we had enjoyed Greece and I told him Greece was awesome and we would be back soon. He said great and thanked us.

I think the guy might be in the market for a camper van and saw us in line and decided to get a tour of the inside of ours. This explains the confused look from the passport guy, and the other policeman being confused that he did not want to see all of the nooks and crannies of François. The good news was while I was dealing with our “police inspection” the Greek passport guy had handed our passports to the Bulgarian passport guy who he shared an office with and we were welcome to enter Bulgaria.

Our home for the next couple of nights in Sophia.

After weeks of beach front living we are parked in an Aire next to the second busiest road in Sofia and across from a very busy self serve car wash, by the way self serve car washes do not exist in Greece for some reason, so we will be giving François a good bath in the next couple of days. The owner of the Aire lived in Massachusetts for 6 years and said we were his first American customers. He gave us some recommendations for places to visit in Bulgaria and Sofia and we talked about life in the US and Bulgaria for a while.

I liked this muffler shop in a small concrete building.

We started out on a short walk, but it was cold and Ton decided I could finish the walk without her. I went down the road to find a grocery and take the bad pictures for todays blog. Tomorrow we are heading downtown to check out Sofia.

May 3, 2023 Thessaloniki GR

A couple of days ago I wrote about the great weather we have been having and ended it by hoping I didn’t jinx us. When we got to the lobby of the hotel we were both startled when we saw it was raining outside. We had planned a day of exploring the sites of Thessaloniki so rain was not something we wanted to see. I made a quick check of the weather and it showed showers most of the day, so we borrowed an umbrella from the hotel and headed out.

Our first stop of the day was Vlatadon Monastery in the Anopoli district.

The old town district called Anopoli was our first stop of the day. It was a fortified district and a large section of the walls are still intact, the area around the walls is an UNESCO world heritage site. Our second surprise of the day was that it was quite a climb to Anopoli. Just as we arrived in the district Ton spotted a monastery so we went in.

The Vlatadon Monastery was founded around 1300 ad. These frescoes were painted around then, but had been covered. After the monastery was damaged in an earthquake in 1978, they were uncovered.

Thessaloniki was founded around 350 BC and was named after the sister of Alexander the Great who was the wife of the founder. Like much of Greece the region has been under multiple rulers in its history. The history during the 20th century was especially turbulent. In 1900 the city was a multi-cultural city and was known as the only city in Europe where Jews made up the highest percentage of the population. The city was 39% Jewish, 29% Turkish, 25% Greek, and 7% was made up of Bulgars, Roma, and other nationalities.

The walls were mostly built by the Byzantines, but this particular tower was built by the Ottomans.

During the period just before WWI the Ottomans and the Greeks fought a series of wars primarily over control of the region centered on Thessaloniki. Eventually the Greeks won control of the region, unfortunately one of the first ethnic purges of modern times took place after the wars. Even though the Turkish population outnumbered the Greeks in the city they were forced to leave and relocate to Turkey. The Turks also forced out the Greek minority that was located within their borders. These purges still effect the relations between the two countries.

The walk down was easier than the walk up.

An interesting note is that there is a museum dedicated to Kamal Ataturk who is considered to be the founding father of modern Turkey who was born here. But it is not open to the general public, but requires an appointment be made thru the Turkish consulate.

Looking down on the port and the city from the Anopoli.

Unfortunately the history of the Jewish residents of the city is even sadder. After the takeover by the Greeks restrictions were put on the Jewish residents that started a period of high Emigration to other countries. During WWII Greece was occupied by the Germans and the Jewish population was swallowed up by the concentration camps. As a percentage the Jewish population of Greece suffered the highest casualty rate of any country in the holocaust. Today there are only about 2000 Jews left in Thessaloniki.

The Rotunda of Galerius built by the Byzantines as a monument and subsequently used as church and a mosque..

Our next stop was the Rotunda of Galerius built around 306 AD by the Tetrach of Thessaloniki Galerius. He intended it to be his mausoleum and it was adjacent to his palace. However, on his death he was buried elsewhere and it became a church. After the Ottoman Empire took over the church was turned into a mosque and the minaret was added. Then in 1912 after the Greeks conquered the city it was again turned into a church. It is now a museum.

Not far from the rotunda is a large Byzantine Arch of Triumph also dedicated to Galerius. Galerius led a Byzantine army that defeated the Persians in a war and he had this arch built to commemorate the victory. The relief showing scenes from the war is quite interesting. It originally had one large arch and 4 smaller arches.

Part of the Arch of Galerius depicting scenes from the war with Persia.

Our last stop on our tour of historic sites in Thessaloniki was the White Tower. The White Tower is an Ottoman fort that was built to guard the waterfront of Thessaloniki. Today it is a museum.

After our long walk we headed down the waterfront to do our favorite thing in Greece, eat. We enjoyed our meal and then headed back to the hotel for a well deserved rest.

Another 14th century fresco from Vlatadon Monastery.

Despite the cold and wet weather we really enjoyed our day in Thessaloniki. We found the history fascinating and enjoyed the vibrancy of the people. The second city of Greece is certainly a fascinating place to visit and deserves to be better known outside of Greece.

The monastery had an extensive aviary for some reason. Is there such a thing as a White Peacock, or is this another bird?

May 2, 2023 Thessaloniki GR

Today we moved to the second biggest city in Greece. Thessaloniki has a population of about 2 million people and is located in North East Greece. We need to get an annual warranty inspection and the only Knaus dealer is located here so our plan is to drop François at the dealer to get the inspections and get a hotel in town.

The waterfront in Thessaloniki with a party boat in the center.

The drive over was uneventful and less expensive as we changed toll companies and suddenly François was a car again. Greek toll ways are interesting. We dropped François at the dealer and were in the hotel by 1pm. About a week ago I lost a filling and the tooth was bothering me a bit, so when we checked in I asked if they had a dentist they could recommend. They booked me into a dentist at 2 pm who was literally across the street. By 2:45 I was back in the room with a new filling for the whopping cost of€50.

Our new friend Nikos is from Thessaloniki and he gave us a list of places to visit in the city. The first was the central market, which is a can’t miss with Ton. The market was originally built in 1925, but has recently been modernized and is now very chic. We walked around the market and did get some of our favorite cheese from Crete.

These are 14kg cans of Feta, the Greeks do love their Feta. We bought quite a lot less.

By now we were hungry so Ton decided we needed to find a place that was a little less chic. About a block from the modernized market was the old market and Ton was in heaven. Even though it was wrapping up there were still plenty of fish stalls and meat stalls open to inspect.

After the market we had a very late lunch/early dinner and then walked down to the waterfront. After a quick look we decided we would save the waterfront for tomorrow and headed back to the hotel.

The modern waterfront with an Ottoman fort in the background.

April 30, 2023 Ioannina GR

After 6 days of enjoying the beach at Drepano we needed to get going towards Thessaloniki. On Wednesday François needs his annual warranty inspection and the only place in Greece that can do is is about 400 miles from Drepano. After trying to find the best route and a place to stay about half way we landed on Ioannina. When I told my new Greek friend Nikos we were going to Ioanina he became very excited and over the next half hour I got 3 texts from him with places he recommended to see while we are here.

Our toll to cross the bridge from the Peloponnesus to the mainland of Greece. The bridge saved us at least an hour for a ferry crossing at the same place, and cost €10 more.

We made the decision to use the toll ways today. There is a parallel free route, but it would have taken more than twice as long, and involved a lot of mountain switchbacks, and small city driving. While it was expensive, we arrived in a little over 5 hours vs 12 hours and I had a nice stress free drive. But man was it expensive, in every other country François is classified as a car, in Greece we are classified as a delivery van and the tolls are twice as much as they would be for a car.

We’ve switched our beach for a big alpine lake with snow capped mountains in the background.

Ioannina is a mountain town so we have gone from sea level to about 1600 feet. The town and the campground are located on a very picturesque alpine lake. It is a very pretty setting. After we got checked in and settled we headed into town to do a bit of reconnaissance for tomorrows exploration of Niko’s must do list in Ioannina.

The remains of the Ottoman library that is currently being rehabilitated.

Ioannina is also a university town, and this is a long weekend in Greece, so when we got to the lake front in town it was swarming with college students and Greek families. All of the restaurants were full and there was a very vibrant vibe to the promenade along the lake. Also, in the entire hour we walked thru town the only language we heard was Greek, except of course when we spoke to each other.

The ferry to the island in the middle of the lake that is on Niko’s must see list. It costs a whopping €2. A real bargain compared to the roads.

After getting a feel for things we were a little hungry, but did not feel up to spending any more money. Instead we headed back to François where Ton whipped up a Thai/Italian fusion dish she called Larb spaghetti, it was delicious.

April 29,2023 Drepano GR

As we get older we are finding it easier to relax in one place for a few days in a row. Our plan last night was to pack up and move down the road a couple of hours to another campground which is a little closer to our destination on Monday. But when we woke up we decided we liked it here, the campground is clean, the internet is strong, and the neighbors are nice so we decided to stay one more day.

Another shot of the beach that we have adopted the last few days as our own.

The rest of the day was spent drinking coffee, talking to our neighbors and having a couple of nice meals. We took a couple of short walks up and down the beach in between. Maybe we will be able to master slow travel in another couple of years.

This is the last day we can take it easy here. Tomorrow we will be moving down the road a couple of hours to another campground on the beach.

April 28, 2023 Drepano GR

We had no plans for today. Frankly we are kind of marking time until we move towards Thessaloniki in northern Greece. The problem is the camping situation in Thessaloniki is kind of limited or we would probably already be going that way. Because of the limited camping options we have booked a hotel in the city center for two nights. But that is the future. What we thought was going to be a boring day hanging around, turned into a great time thanks to our neighbors Niko and Chrisi.

To attract bees to the orange orchards they put jasmine plants around the edge of the orchard, and in some cases the jasmine grows into the trees. The smell as you are walking down the road is amazing.

Without any plans for the day I was taking care of some chores around François as I was coming and going I said Kalemara to our new neighbors who are the only Greek campers in the campground. He responded Good Morning and then apologized for his English. We began a typical conversation about the weather, and eventually his girl friend and Ton joined in and before we new it we were all sitting around sharing coffee and chatting.

Niko and Chrisi our neighbors who we ended up sharing a delicious meal and a wonderful afternoon with.

Niko is a Greek Coastguardsman from Thessaloniki who is currently stationed in Piraeus. He and his girlfriend Chrisi are avid campers and this place is one of their favorites. We began chatting about camping and I asked for some good places to go in Thessaloniki. Eventually, they said that we must join them for lunch as they were going to prepare fish and eggplant, we offered to bring wine. Their food was delicious especially Nikos special bread and we really enjoyed their company. Before we new it we realized it was 7pm, the day had blown buy. We truly enjoyed their company and what we thought was going to be a boring day turned into a wonderful one.

Nikos secret bread. The recipe was developed over two years. It contains over 36 ingredients and is delicious.

April 27, 2023 Drepano GR

Today was a maintenance day. We are starting to think about leaving Greece. Though we have one more major stop we have to/want to make, our thoughts are turning to Bulgaria, so some of the morning was spent making plans for Bulgaria.

We have enjoyed Greek food so this menu from one of the water front cafes is our homage to Greek food.

About mid-morning we decided to head out and take care of some errands. A trip to Lidl to stock up on Greek foods we want to take with us to Bulgaria was number one on the agenda. After that we stopped at a gas station where we filled François up with both diesel and LP gas. Hopefully, it will be enough LP to last the rest of the trip.

After dinner we took a short walk, but the wind was blowing and the temperature had fallen a bit so it was a quick one. While I haven’t mentioned it, the weather has been really good on this trip. Most days are sunny and in the 70’s. Hopefully, it will continue and I haven’t jinxed it!

April 26, 2023 Nafplio GR

Today we visited the town of Nafplio which is located a short bus ride from the campsite we are staying at. Nafplio like so many towns in this region has had many rulers during its history. Starting with the ancient Greeks it has subsequently been in the hands of the Romans, Byzantines, Franks (French), Venetians, Ottomans, Venetians (again), Ottomans (again), and was finally captured by the modern Greeks in 1822 and served as the capital of Greece until 1834 when the government was moved to Athens.

A fort in the harbor built by the Venetians.

Despite its impressive history, the town did not make a great first impression on us. After we got off the bus we walked into the old town and wandered around for about an hour and while the streets were nicely paved with marble, on the whole it seemed just another nice port town with nothing striking.

The town is dominated by this fort on a high hill right behind the town. We discussed climbing the 999 steps to see the view, then looked at each other and said never mind.

As we rode in on the bus we saw the market was going on, so we set off to find it. The street markets are always a fun way for us to spend time, Ton is always up for an extended stroll thru the market.

Flowers and fresh vegetables galore at the market.

The market in Nafplio was a good one so we ended up buying some olives, apples, and cucumbers. We would have bought more, but that was all we felt we could carry around for the rest of the day.

A variety of fresh fish on display in the market.

While Ton was shopping I did some more research on the town. I saw a waterfront promenade that was supposed to give good views of the harbor, the fort and the old town and after we finished shopping I proposed we check it out. But, as we were heading there it started to rain so we dove into a coffee shop to wait out the shower.

When it rains here the marble paving reflects like a mirror.

We were on the verge of giving up and heading back to François for the day, when Ton said there was supposed to be a nice restaurant nearby. So we decided to delay our departure and have lunch instead.

A nice street scene on the way to the restaurant.

As we were heading to the restaurant we came upon a road that really charmed us and ended up changing our impression of Nafplio from ho hum to really cool. The street was higher up on the hill and was a little narrower, but was full of interesting buildings that were well maintained and appealing.

This spot is famous as the place where the first president of the Greek government was assassinated in 1832.

As we were walking down this street we noticed a couple of large groups of high school students lingering at a spot in front of us. It turns out the spot is an important place in modern Greek history, where the first president of Greece was assassinated as he left church in 1832.

The back of the church that the president was attending. He was killed about where I am standing in the shadow.

We enjoyed our lunch immensely and tried out a new drink. As we were walking thru the market we kept seeing a drink called Tsipouro on sale. In the market it was being sold in plastic bottles and was very inexpensive. At the restaurant we asked the waiter about it and he gave us the run down. It is an unaged, uncolored brandy. We asked if it was served before the meal or after, and he laughed and said it was for the entire meal. We tried a glass and debated its merits vs the Raki we were always given after our meals on Crete. I landed on Raki, and Ton leaned towards Tsipouro.

Another view of the fort from the promenade near the harbor.

We ended the day by finally doing the waterfront walk that had been interrupted by the rain. In the end we were both grateful for the rain as it made us reconsider Nafplio and turned a not bad day into a very interesting and fun day.

This inscription in Arabic reflects the two periods that Nafplio was ruled by the Ottomans.

April 25, 2023 Drepano GR

Today was a beach bum day. After a relaxing morning we walked to the next town called Tolon which was supposed to have a beautiful beach.

These small shrines are all over the roads in Greece. They are similar to the crosses you see along the roads in the US, used to mark deaths, but in the case of the Greeks they can also be placed because someone survived a bad crash. This one has a great view.

The walk was a little further than we thought it would be but it was a pretty walk thru orange orchards. In this area they plant jasmine in the orchards to attract bees so the smells were wonderful as we walked.

The sunken fishing boat added some intrigue to this beach. Ton really loved the sky today. She told me she liked the white clouds against the blue skies.

We finally reached the town and while the beach was beautiful, and we think in the past it was probably magnificent, the design of the city really detracted from the beach front. They allowed buildings to be built right down to the edge of the beach, so frequently there was no where to walk on the beach because the buildings were in the way. One guide book said they ruined a good beach by taking a block from the center of Athens and plopping it down on the beach. A pretty good description.

On top of the poor design of the waterfront, the main road thru town had been taken down to the road bed, so your choice was a beach with no place to walk, or a construction zone.

Despite that we did find a nice tavern to take a break at and have a beer after our long walk. There was an island off shore that Ton claimed as hers, though it looks like it has a church and a giant Greek flag on it so we may find someone who may dispute her claim.

This is one of my favorite pictures of Tons, it really captures our feelings for Greece. The island in the background is Tons Island we are going to stake claim soon.

We spent about 45 minutes people watching and sipping our beers while enjoying the sun and the water. While the town wasn’t ideal, we made the best of it and 10 feet from the waters edge with an ice cold beer is never going to be a bad place to be.

“Why Not?” Ton provided the caption for one of her favorite pictures on this trip.

After our beer we headed back to the campground for a quiet afternoon and another great meal prepared by Ton. Though we did not accomplish much today, just a day as beach bums we did put in about 8.5 miles in walking so we are enjoying a lazy evening relaxing by the beach.

April 24, 2023 Drepano GR

We shifted down the coast about 90 km’s to an area with nice beaches and a couple of interesting towns. When we arrived at the campground they had a nice washing machine and the weather was good for drying clothes. Ton declared that today was laundry day and we spent the rest of the day washing clothes.

The beach in front of our campground. This is the first beach in Greece that has stones instead of sand.

After dinner we went for a short walk along the beach and then spent a while talking to our neighbors who seem very interesting. In todays campground we are the only non-German speakers in the place. We notice that certain countries tend to dominate the camping culture in different places, in Greece it is the Germans.

April 23, 2023 Corinth GR

Today was a day for tourism. We visited an engineering marvel, another ancient Greek site, and participated in one of our favorite activities in Europe-wine tasting.

The Corinth Canal that arguably makes the Peloponnesus an island instead of a peninsula.

The first stop of the day was the Corinth Canal. It is a project that has been envisioned by rulers of Greece back to the 7th century BC. The canal would save a 400 mile sea journey around the Peloponnesus peninsula. The canal is only 4 miles long. It was started several times in antiquity but always abandoned as too costly. It was finally completed in 1893, but at 80 feet wide it is too narrow for modern ships. It was built at sea level and has no locks unlike other modern canals. It is currently closed due to a land slide in 2020 and is not expected to be reopened until later in the summer. As you are driving you have to watch for it as the bridge across it is very short and if you are not paying attention you are across before you realize it. It does make for a cool picture though.

The Temple of Zeus at Nemea, part of an ancient tourist attraction. I commented that this Temple was noticeably taller than the one we visited in Corinth yesterday, and Ton replied of course Zeus is much more important than Apollo.

Our next stop was ancient Nemea. Nemea was a town that was on what was considered neutral ground between all of the city states of ancient Greece. Because of this it was the site of a stadium that pre-dates the site at Olympus as a place to hold the games that turned into the Olympics. The site we visited today was a spa that serviced the athletes of the games and the other visitors, it also had a hotel for attendees of the games. It was in effect a resort town for the ancient Greeks. It doesn’t hurt that the area around Nemea is also one of the finest wine producing areas in Greece which always attracts tourists even in ancient times!

The entrance to the tunnel to the stadium.

Our last stop for the day was an excellent winery. There are many wineries in the area, but it is Sunday so the vast majority were closed. Ton was on line during our drive to Nemea and came up with a couple that looked like they were open on Sunday. The first one we went to which was quite large was closed. It is probably open on Sundays during peak season, but not now. Fortunately the second one on our list was open and we enjoyed a nice tasting. Our guide for the tasting was quirky as she spent a lot of time telling us about and highly recommending wine from other wineries in Greece. When she got around to serving us the wines from the winery she worked at they were excellent and we ended up with a couple of bottles.

A clay amphorae for making wine. This method of wine making which dates back to the ancient Greeks is now making a comeback in Europe.

We ended up having a fun and relaxing day of just being tourists.

April 22, 2023 Corinth GR

Our overnight ferry ride was uneventful, except our room was really cold. About 1:30 I woke up and closed the AC vent in the room, and it slowly began to warm up. Ton was sleeping in her coat when I saw her in the morning. (Our room had bunk beds.) We escaped from Athens easily and arrived in our destination for the day in less than 2 hours.

The remnants of a Roman road in Corinth. There is a big fort on the mountain in the background.

Crete was a good deal of fun. We enjoyed visiting the island, and liked the food and the people there. The port cities are picturesque, and the mountains are rugged and beautiful. The people in the mountains are rough looking but very welcoming. We recommend Crete to anyone. We spent way above our budget per day, because shipping François there was expensive, and unlike most places we visit we ate out almost every day on Crete. But the food was wonderful.

Ton called the woman in this sculpture the “Pot Head”. The face was part of the artwork on a fountain. I imagine the water from the fountain ran into the pot on her head.

Our destination for today was Corinth, which was an ancient Greek city, that was razed by the Romans. About 100 years later the Romans decided it was a good location for a city and rebuilt the town to their standards. So the ruins of Corinth you see today is primarily Roman not Greek.

The Temple of Apollo, one of the few Greek ruins at the site of Corinth.

After Ton and I settled in to the campsite, and ate breakfast we headed over to the Corinth site to take a look. After my attempt at amateur archeology yesterday, we went to a real archeological site today.

The Temple of Apollo on the left and a stone structure that was described as a store.

It is early in the tourist season in Greece, so the site was pretty quiet. There were three groups here when we arrived, two from the US and one from Chile. It turns out Corinth is a popular site with Christian groups as the Apostle Paul stayed here for about 2 years converting the Romans to Christianity. He wrote a lot of letters to the people of Corinth that are quoted in the New Testament. At one point one of the tour groups from the US broke into a religious song.

A letter from Paul about love from Corinthians 13 in the New Testament.

The ancient site is pretty extensive, and we found it more interesting than the site at Knossos we visited a few days ago. There was no attempt to reconstruct anything. It was just presented as found, we enjoyed that.

A line of stores along the edge of the city.

The ruins had an excellent museum attached to it. The site was originally excavated by the American Archeological Society of Greece and many of the statues and mosaics they discovered are on display in the museum.

Ton liked this face on a mosaic on display in the museum. This is a bit of an inside joke: While we were walking today Ton told me, when you are tired or lazy you often just caption a picture, “Ton liked this picture.”

The museum has been in existence since the 1930’s and was designed by an American architect from Chicago. It is famous for being the scene of a famous crime. In 1990 a gang of thieves broke in, bound the one security guard and stole over 230 pieces of ancient art as well as 1,000,000 drachmas of cash (sounds like a lot, but I don’t know what the exchange rate for the Greek Drachma was in 1990). The antiquities that were stolen were shipped to the US with the intention of selling them to private art collectors. The Greek police and the FBI worked together to identify the thieves and recovered all of the stolen goods which were returned to the museum in 2001.

A statue of the son of the Emperor Augustus from the museum, I am not sure if this is one of the pieces that was stolen.

One of the Greek workers in the museum took a liking to us, and went out of his way to show us a couple of his favorite pieces. His English wasn’t great, but the pride he had in the museum was obvious.

Ton called this the monkey head column, I think it might be a monkey but it is hard to tell.

After a nice afternoon in the museum we headed back to the campground just ahead of a rainstorm. While we were walking back Ton saw a very nice lemon tree full of lemons. She stopped to take a picture of it when the owner saw her, she laughed, walked over to the tree and took four or five lemons off the tree and handed them to us with a smile. Ton made a nice dinner that I enjoyed with fresh squeezed lemon, and we spent the evening listening to Kris Kristofferson and having a nice chat.

Not the lemon lady, but we saw this lady out picking wild flowers by the road. We are not sure if they are for color or for eating. We frequently see older Greeks out in the fields harvesting wild herbs and plants that they use for food. One of the Greeks we talked to said their Grandparents know the good plants, but she didn’t because she shops at Lidl.

April 21, 2023 Heraklion GR

Today is our last day on Crete, but the ferry is not scheduled to leave until 9pm, so we had time on our hands. Ton tripped yesterday and turned her ankle a bit so she is on light duty today, so I am going to have to entertain myself by playing archaeologist at the old Airforce base near the campground.

The old family housing next to the campground, still in use by the Greek Army as family housing.

Our campground is adjacent to what was Herlakion Airforce Base. The base was built in the early 60’s as a communication and monitoring base and was operated by the US Airforce until 1996. A portion of it was taken over by the Greek Army and Airforce, and a large part of it is abandoned but accessible by road.

I believe this is an old enlisted barracks.

I decided to take a walk thru the complex and see if I could identify what the purpose of the abandoned buildings were based on my experience in the military. My time in the military overlapped the existence of this base so the basic design of the buildings had a familiar feel as we were driving thru earlier.

This building may have been used for the telephone office. Before the internet you were allowed to make periodic phone calls home using a combination of radio and telephone. The tower makes me think this may have been that building. It may also of just been some kind of communications building. The other possibility based on the vent on the side is that it was some kind of recreation building with a snack bar, but the lack of windows makes me shy away from that.

Walking thru the ghost town of Heraklion Airforce Base was interesting and brought back memories for me of my military service in the 80’s and 90’s. A lot of the buildings looked identical to ones I used when I was stationed in Okinawa from 1979-81.

I identified this building as the Visitors Quarters. Every base has a place that is run as a hotel for short term stays. This one had the remnants of a neon sign over its door which is why I identified it as the Visitors Quarters instead of what was called in that era the Bachelors Officers Quarters. Today the Army has outsourced the Visitors Quarters operations to Holiday Inn.

The buildings were still pretty sound on the outside though the bushes and trees were overgrown, and most had been thoroughly covered with graffiti.

I believe this building was the main mess hall based on the kitchen exhaust stacks and the low long design which was pretty standard for “chow halls”. I probably could have confirmed my theory if I had worked thru the brush to get down to the building.

It was a fun diversion for me, after looking at ancient sites, I made my own discovery of a modern site.

This was the old headquarters building, that looks like it was built after the other buildings. It is not completely abandoned as some of the windows had flower boxes, and there were cars in the back.

We headed down to the ferry dock about 6pm and arrived around 6:30. When we arrived things looked much calmer than before. All of the cars that arrived were being sent right on to the boat, so Ton and I were optimistic. There were three slightly over sized vans sitting to the side, and when we pulled up we were told to join them “for a few minutes.” We ended up sitting there for two and a half hours as everyone but us was sent aboard. Towards the end it got a little chaotic as the trucks really started to role in just before the scheduled departure time. We had resigned ourselves to being the last one on again, when out of the blue someone came up and hurried us on board to be placed between two refrigerator trucks. Our optimism was unwarranted as again we boarded after the scheduled departure time.

April 20, 2023 Agios Nikolas GR

Today was another sea to mountains day. We gave our little Hyundai a good workout, even though we drove less than 100 miles altogether.

We began the day at the port of Agios Nikolaos which is another beautiful port town of which Crete has far more than its share. The most interesting thing about the harbor is Lake Voulismini which is an extension of the harbor connected to the ocean by a very narrow opening only about 15 feet wide.

This is a statue of Europa who is the founding mother of the Minoan civilization according to legend.

The promenade besides being beautiful and full of restaurants had two very nice pieces of art connected to the history of Crete that Ton really liked, one is dedicated to the founding mother of the Minoan civilization Europa, and the other is Almatheas Horn, which comes from a story in Greek mythology with connections to Crete, that gave us the concept of the cornucopia, or horn of plenty.

We spent about an hour walking the waterfront and enjoying the views. Ton always provides me a list of points of interest for us to check out in towns that we visit. After visiting the two statues and the lake she said there was a square in town we should go see. When we got to the square it was very non-descript, but it was next to where we had parked the car, so we decided to head to the mountains.

The church in Kritsa that we never quite got to.

Our first stop in the mountains was a pretty short drive to the mountains right above Agios Nikolaos to a town called Kristos. The tourist literature said it was a mountain town with many craft shops. When we arrived there was a parking lot at the bottom of town for visitors which was full of farm equipment being stored or abandoned, and there were no spaces available. After a few minutes of puzzling out what to do we decided to double park one of the pieces of farm equipment that looked like it hadn’t moved in months and head into town. Ton saw a church in the distance she wanted to check out, but truthfully I was not too motivated as it was going to be a good climb to get there so I did not bother looking at my map to find a route there, and took the attitude if we got there we got there. The town was ok, but it didn’t impress us, and we never got to the church.

Some artwork from a small chapel in Kritsa that Ton explored while I was puzzling out the parking arrangements in the visitors lot.

The owner of the campground we are staying at really recommended the Lassithi Plateau as a place to visit, so we headed there next. We returned to the national highway and after following the coast for about 30 minutes we turned up into the mountains to Lassithi. The plateau is at an average elevation of 2470 feet and since we were at sea level when we began, we were going to give our little Hyundai a workout.

Near the entrance to the plateau looking back to the sea you get a sense of the climb. The road on the left is not the one we used, but ours was nearly as crooked.

The rock that forms the floor of the plateau is impermeable, so the water table is extremely high and the valley floor tends to flood very easily. To manage the water in the past the people of the plateau used sail powered water pumps to move the water thru a canal system. At its peak there were over 10,000 of these pumps in use.

An example of the wind powered water pump that were common on the Plateau. This one still moved. The majority have been abandoned in favor of modern water pumps, but hundreds can still be seen on the Plateau.

Right as we entered the plateau we saw a tavern and we stopped for lunch. It turns out today was the first day open since they closed for the winter. We were the only customers at the time, and the food was great.

A display of vases from our lunch stop for the day.

It was a traditional tavern built of stone with wood stoves for heating. While we were waiting for our food, Ton had a great time exploring the nooks and crannies of the place looking at old pictures, and random stuff on display. She really enjoyed herself.

These sheep were grazing across from the tavern.

We drove around the plateau for a while after lunch enjoying the views and admiring the farms. The plateau was absolutely the high light of the day for us and was worth the winding drive up and down to get to it.

April 19, 2023 Rethymno GR

Today we visited two cities that are a study in contrasts. Rethymno is a hip coastal city full of restaurants, cute streets, and tourist shops and of course tourists. It is another beautiful coastal city with a Phoenician fishing port and a stunning waterfront. Anogeia is a rugged mountain town perched on the side of the highest mountain on Crete. It has a couple of shops and restaurants that could be best described as rustic, and very few tourists. It has a tragic history having been destroyed three times in the last 200 years, twice by the Ottomans, and once by the Germans. We thoroughly enjoyed both of them.

The fishing harbor and waterfront of Rethymno.

We had tried to stay at a campground in Rethymno after we left Chania a few days ago but we couldn’t get in so we had bypassed it. Last night we decided we would take our rental car back down the coast and give the center of town a look. The harbor looks like a smaller version of Chania and is pretty.

One of the many cute streets behind the port. The building at the head of the street is a mosque from the Ottoman Empire, converted from an Orthodox Church. Today it is used as a event center.

Rethymno shines in its old town right behind the port. It is a beautiful maze of small streets full of restaurants, shops and boutique hotels. It is a fun town to just wander around to see what is around the next bend in the street.

Ton wearing her new hat and enjoying the local wine.

Rethymno for some reason was full of French tourists, it was by far the most common non-Greek language being spoken. In fact the town reminded me of some of the French ports we visited in Brittany and in the South of France.

We have been eating out much more on this trip than on any trip we have taken. Partly because we have really enjoyed the food on Crete, (except yesterday), and partly because the meals are relatively inexpensive. After our bad experience yesterday the restaurant in Rethymno more than made up with it with both interesting and excellent food. We really enjoyed our food today.

A beautiful mountain church on the way to Anogeia.

While we were eating Ton proposed a trip to a mountain village she had read about last night. Anogeia is famous in Crete for being a center of resistance to both the Ottomans when they occupied Crete, and the Germans who occupied it in WWII. It is located in the mountains and hard to approach, so they would give safe haven to fighters. It was such a center of resistance that the Turks, destroyed it twice and the Germans ordered the massacre of all of the men in the town, and the destruction of the town itself in 1944.

The monument commemorating the three times Anogeia has been destroyed for resisting foreign invaders.

We visited the monument to the destruction of the town. The most chilling thing about it was a verbatim translation of the announcement by the Germans, matter of factly stating that they were going to destroy the town and execute all males found within 1km of the center of town, due to the town harboring guerillas and providing intelligence to the British.

This staircase is from Anogeia and showcases the differences in the two towns we visited today, this one is not as colorful, but practical, and much steeper.

As we were walking thru town Ton spotted a small shop making wool placemats and other wool items. She was peaking in the door, when a tiny Greek lady came into the store from the back and waived her in. At that point I knew we were buying something.

The owner of the shop demonstrating her loom to us.

The lady was well under 5 ft, and told us she was 85 years old. She took Ton around the shop showing her different things for sale, and demonstrated how she produced the pieces on her loom. She insisted on negotiating and overcame the language barrier by writing her opening price on a piece of paper and then crossing it out, and handing it to me. I made a counter offer that she laughed heartily at and then made me a counteroffer which I accepted. It was fun and she was a character who we thoroughly enjoyed.

The source of the wool for our new wall hangings.

By now it was getting late and we had 30 km’s or so of narrow mountain roads to navigate back to François so we returned to Heraklion. While we were gone the wind had come up and the sea was getting rough. It is a big change from the calm conditions we have had since we got here.

April 18, 2023 Heraklion GR

Our Easter break ended today as we headed into the city to check out the city center in Heraklion and to visit the site of an ancient Minoan civilization palace called Knossos. We are about 20 km’s from the center of town and we plan on doing some more exploring of the surrounding area tomorrow and Thursday so we decided to rent a car. We are feeling a little disloyal to François, but Crete has already been a budget buster so we decided to treat ourselves to a car for the next three days as we need to cover a lot of distance.

We parked near the port in Heraklion as we wanted to make a test run for the ferry port later in the week.

Our first stop for the day was the port area as a lot of parking was available there. The port is more modern looking than Chania even though it also has a Venetian era fort and has been in use since around 1800 BC. The owner of the campground warned us that Heraklion is not charming like Chania, it is a working city, not a tourist city. He said it with pride.

The main shopping street in Heraklion. Less tourist shops and more name brand shops.

After walking down the main pedestrian street in Heraklion, Ton saw an interesting ally with local products, so we turned down it. After walking the ally for about 20 minutes, she asked me to find the central market. I googled it and it said it was only a couple of hundred meters away. I assumed it was in front of us, as we had not passed a market yet so I led Ton further down the ally until we emerged in town, but no market, so I double checked and the confusion was that what we thought was an ally with local goods, was the market.

The meeting place for all of the tours is this fountain with 4 lions.

There was one more place we wanted to visit in town and that was the Heraklion Archaeological Museum. The museum was highly recommended for its extensive collection of Minoan civilization artifacts.

Minoan civilization goddesses from around 1000bc.

The museum was really excellent as most Greek museums have been. It has an extensive collection of Minoan artifacts dating from 1800 bc to 900 bc. It also has a small area dedicated to Greek and Roman artifacts. The museum consists of two floors and its collection is varied and well presented.

These small containers were used to hold spices and salt. The variation in shape and function is interesting.

The other good thing about the museum besides its high quality was that today for some reason it was free of charge. In some countries in Europe one day a month is free for most museums, we are guessing that this was the reason, but we were happy to take advantage of it.

This bull sculpture is one of the most famous artifacts in the museum, though partly restored it was found very much intact.

As the Minoan civilization declined the people on Crete took to burying and hiding artifacts in caves. As a result a lot of very intact and well preserved art, tools, and pottery have been discovered in the last 100 years and been moved to the museum for display.

They are not sure whether this sculpture of a man with three bulls is religious, or just art, but it is over 3000 years old.

The primary capitol of the Minoan era was close to Heraklion in a town called Knossos. Around 1880 the foundations of the palace of Knossos was found and excavated by a team led by an Englishman from Oxford. A whole wing of the museum was devoted to artifacts from Knossos.

This fresco depicting the sport of bull jumping is from the palace of Knossos.

Having thoroughly enjoyed ourselves in the museum we decided to head over to the site at Knossos for the rest of the day. We were a bit hungry but decided on a restaurant next to the palace.

Most of the things that are painted and standing are “reconstructions” of the palace by the original archeologist based on his belief ot the use of the building.

We have not had a bad meal in Greece until today. We went with two simple dishes, one we had heard of, and the other was advertised as Cretan. The Cretan dish was vegetarian and was kind of bland, but it was also lukewarm which neither of us believed was how it was supposed to be served. The souvlaki was also uninspiring.

A cellar under the palace. The red columns are reconstructions.

Once again we were pleasantly surprised to have the entrance fee waived. So two excellent museums for free today. The Knossos palace is mostly foundations and while there is a lot of speculation about the purposes of various rooms, it is still mostly speculation. The Minoans had a written language for most of their civilization but no one has been able to decipher it so there are large gaps in the knowledge of how things were organized in the palace.

The Crown Room, the stone chair is original as are some of the benches. The art is a reproduction based on fragments that were found during the excavations.

The site is impressive and extensive, the palace was in existence from about 1300 BC to around 1100 BC when the Minoan civilization began to decline. The reconstructions are somewhat controversial, because they are based purely on speculation. Some argue that they should not have been attempted while others say that they helped bring funding to preserve the site and to continue to explore it.

Another reconstruction, I think they are harmless and help to power the imagination of the visitors.

After that we headed back to our campground and parked our little Hyundai next to François for the night.

April 17, 2023 Heraklion GR

Today will be a short one as we more or less just hung around the campground because it was a holiday in Greece. We spent the morning with some of our neighbors drinking coffee and exchanging yarns about traveling. The Dutch couple near us asked about our experience with the ferry coming over and when I replied chaos, he laughed and said exactly. Ton and I were wondering if our experience the other day was a one off, but according to the Dutch they experienced the exact same thing on a different ferry going to a different port so maybe it is just how the Greeks load ferries.

Some more of the crystal clear water that is everywhere in Greece.

I went on a couple of walks just to stretch my legs, next to the campground is an old abandoned American Air Force Base that was in existence from the early 60’s to the late 90’s. The Greek military is using the housing complex as family housing, and the headquarters building is visible but not in use. American military architecture is easy to recognize and as soon as we drove by the housing I told Ton this was built by the US. The only other building I could make out was the pool which was quite immense, but is now abandoned. Apparently the land was recently purchased with plans to put in a 5 star hotel and casino complex sometime in the future. Later on Ton and I went on a walk along the beach.

Tomorrow we are renting a car and planning to head into Heraklion proper to check out the sites, so stay tuned for more action.

April 16, 2023 Heraklion GR

Today is Easter in Greece. It turns out it is possibly the most important holiday in Greece and is kind of a combination of 4th of July and Thanksgiving. Families get together for a large meal and to celebrate being a family.

The gentleman on the right is a high school physics teacher and was very happy to explain all of the intricacies of Greek barbecue to us.

We woke up to the smell of multiple barbecues going throughout the campground. We walked around for a while and there were no less than 6 whole sheep on spits, plus various other barbecue meats going at different grills.

These rolls of meat consist of sheep hearts, livers, and stomach all bound by the small intestine. We didn’t get to try it, but it was very interesting.

We had been invited by the campground owners Dmitri and Christina to join them for their dinner. We sat down with a diverse group of campers from Ireland, Scotland, England, France, the Netherlands, Greece and of course the US and Thailand. We were served an incredible meal that lasted over 4 hours and included multiple courses of food and three different barbecued meats. The wine and beer flowed freely and everyone had a wonderful time.

The remnants of our multi course family style meal.

The Greek Easter eggs are red, and the tradition is that in a large group a red stone is snuck in to the group as it will crack all of the other eggs without breaking. I’m not sure what the person with the red stone gets, but the youngest person at the table got the stone and was very pleased to have been the winner.

April 15, 2023 Heraklion GR

Our plan for today was to move about 70 km’s down the coast to a town called Rethymno. It is another port town with a heavy Venetian influence. We need some where to settle in for the next couple of days as both Sunday and Monday are holidays in Greece and very little is open. The campground in Rethymno had good reviews so we thought it would be a good place to chill for a couple of days.

Everything was going to plan, we got off the highway and Greta told us to turn down a single track dirt road, which I had looked at in Google maps the night before so I was not worried. The problem began when we got to the end of the dirt road it was gated and locked. We backed down the dirt road back to the highway, made a tight 5 point turn and then tried to find another way in. Greta was unable to find another way in and kept insisting that we go back to the dirt road. In Gretas defense the sign for the campground was at the head of the dirt road, so it may actually have been the only way in.

We have become flexible travelers in our time here, and it helps that we have our hotel room attached to our transportation. So we decided to skip Rethymno and head to our next planned stop of Heraklion. It was another 90 km’s down the road but we arrived before 1pm.

The campground is run by a family and when we checked in we were promptly invited to join them for an Easter meal tomorrow. We were a little hesitant, but later we ran into an Irish couple who come here every Easter and they said we would be fools to miss it, so our Easter Sunday plans are made.

The Easter Bunny making an unscheduled appearance in Greece.

In the afternoon the Easter Bunny made an appearance much to the delight of all of the kids staying here. The Greek kids were really excited with the bunny and the egg hunt as it is not normally part of the Easter tradition here in Greece so they got to experience an Easter egg hunt for the first time.

So it looks like we were lucky that the road to the campground in Reythymno was blocked after all.