2018 Greece 01

We’re on our way to Greece for a three part vacation:

• Part one is based in Athens and includes a walking tour of the city center including the Temple of Zeus and Acropolis then excursions to Delphi, Meteroa Monasteries, Epidavros and Mycenae.
• Then on to the island of Crete for a 10-day bike tour sponsored by our club, Bicycle Adventure Club (see bicycleadventureclub.org).  We’ll stay at the Nautilus Bay Hotel ( See https://www.nautilusbay.gr/) on the Sea of Crete Or is it The Mediterranean Sea? I get conflicting information. (Neither, it’s the Aegean Sea.) The hotel is in the northwestern end of the island.
• Part 3 consists of three 2-day tours of islands Santorini, Mykonos and Hydra.

All in all it’s 25 days and we have high hopes for a great time.  Every one we’ve talked to raves about Greece, it’s people, it’s food and it’s wine.   Planning parts one and three were difficult until we discovered Paris Dimidis and his tour company  Dimidis Tours. Two brothers run this 12-person agency started by their father 45 years ago.  I highly recommend them.

Greece set much of the standards of today’s world - 450 years before Christ.  Greeks in Athens developed art, democracy, literature, mathematics, mythology,  philosophy, science and theatre all during a 50 year “golden age”.

But it started even earlier with the pre-Greek Minoan culture on the Island of Crete.  Civilization flourished here from 2000 to 1400 BC. Hopefully I’ll write more on this when we travel to Crete.

The trip to Athens went well but when we got here it took almost 2 hours to get to the  hotel; part of the downtown was shut down due to protests of the bombing of Syria.  We’re within walking distance of the Acropolis.