Our plan was to meet at the airport in Atlanta and fly to Athens. Brian, Sharon, Martin, and Rebecca flew from Indianapolis to Atlanta, and everything went smoothly. Amanda and Payson flew from San Fransico to Atlanta, and were delayed by weather, and missed the flight to Athens. The people at Delta were not very helpful. Their suggestion was to wait in the airport for almost 24 hours and take the same flight the next day. Amand and Payson had other ideas. They wound up flying to Paris, and then to Athens, where they arrived in the very early morning. Gate 1 was there at the airport when they arrived, and took them to a hotel for a nap and a shower, then took them back to the Athens aiport for the short flight to Santorini. They were 12 hours late, and tired, but they were there.
Here we are on the beach in Kamari, and the southern end of Santorini. The call it a black sand beach, but it looks more light gray to me. Amanda and Payson look pretty good for people who have just finished a 36 hour trip!
Behind the beach, you can see a windy road going up to the pass. On the hill to the left are the ruins of the ancient city of Thira. Brian and Payson and Martin hiked up the road, and then up the path to the ruins.
This is the view from the top, looking back down at the beach we were on.
Martin sitting in the ruins.
More ruins.
Martin came prepared with binoculars, flashlight, and even his graphing calculator from school. This is a ledge overlooking the other side of the mountain.
The next day, we took a bus to the main town, Fira, at the other end of the island. The town is built at the top of the cliffs overlooking the caldera. The island is the site of a gigantic volcanic explosion a couple of thousand years ago, and the middle of the island is now a bay, surrounded by a crescent shape island.
Payson and Amanda, it a little cafe overlooking the caldera
Here we are, walkin along. We walked to the top of the hill you can see in the distance.
The houses are all white, and almost all have blue trim, with random pots and knickknacks lying around. Sharon took some cool photos of them.
You can see how the town is up on top, and is oozing almost over the edge of the cliff.
This is the door of somebody's house. There's a stairway on the other side, leading down to the actual door of the house.
The next stop was the island of Mykonos. This is the view of Ornos Beach from our hotel.
This boat is a shuttle that comes to the beach to take you to other, less accessible beaches.
Swimming at Ornos Beach.
Here we are waiting for the bus into the town of Mykonos, on the other side of the island.
This part of town is called "Little Venice". It's a twisty maze of little passages, all different.
The harbor in Mykonos. This is where we arrived on the island on a large hydrofoil ferry.
This boat was across the sidewalk from a restaurant that was serving dried octopus for lunch. We didn't eat there.
Mykonos is famous for its windmills. They weren't running this day. When they do, there are cloth sails attached to the spokes.
After Santorini, we flew to Athens. It was hot the day we arrived. In fact, it was hot every day. This is Rebecca cooling off after walking from our hotel to the Kerameikos museum, which is on the site where they made ceramics in ancient Athens, right by the gate into the city.
We used the subway a lot. Most of the city was grimy and dirty, but the subway was nice. It was recently upgrade for the 2004 Olympics.
By this point in the trip we were getting pretty good at sounding out words written in the Greek alphabet. The Greek work for "exit" is "exodos".
One evening we went to the top of Lykovetos Hill. The brochure said that there was a funicular going to the top. What it didn't say was that it didn't start at the bottom! We walked half way up the hill, up to the point where the funicular started, and then rode up.
This is an akanthus plant. The leaves of this plant provide the form for the carved capitals on Corinthian columns.
The temple of Zeus, which has Corinthian columns.
Amanda and Payson in front of the Parthenon.
Martin and Brian went to the ancient agora (marketplace) early one morning to beat the crowds. On that morning, there were a bunch of archaeologists digging things up.
A little church, just north of the agora.
Sharon liked this marble mosaic inside the church.
The temple of Hephestos, the god of fire and metalurgy. While we were there, we ran into one of Martin's classmates: Lucy Bellwood!
This is outside the war museum. It's a horse-drawn tank from the 1890s. The gunner is pretty well protected, but not the horse.
One day, we took a bus ride down to the southern end of Cape Sounio, to see the temple of Poseidon.
