Grecian Dreams April 22nd to May 3rd 2008

Day one. We had arrived in Athens the day before and wanted to leave straight away. It was hot, pollution was the worst we had seen and there was a dust storm from Africa. We spent a large part of the afternoon in our hotel. That night a wind blew the dust and pollution away and the temperature dropped. Athens became quite bearable. We checked out of our hotel in Plaka and caught a taxi to the tour hotel Metropolitan. We arranged the fare before we got in as the Athens taxi drivers will rip you off. He charged us 15 euros which was still more than we should have paid as we found out later. Two older ladies on our tour got charged 80 euros for a five km trip and some others got charged 35 euros for a two km trip. To avoid this get them to drop you at the hotel so the doorman can witness their crime and/or take details with a pen. What they do is illegal and there are heavy penalties. That was the only time we felt bad about Greece by the way. We found the people warm and friendly and only too willing to help. Saying good morning, please and thank you in Greek goes a long way and many Greeks have a good knowledge of English.
We got straight into our room at the Metropolitan which had great views and was around four star standard. We found a neighborhood restaurant where we ate traditional Greek food till we were stuffed. With beer the bill came to 28 euros, so much cheaper than Rome. We got some cold beers from a kiosk around the corner for 1 euro a bottle (6 euros in the mini bar!) and went back to the room where we rested up. At 7.30 we went for drinks and to meet the tour group. The drinks were a bit light on compared to our Italian tour.

Day two. We spent the morning touring Athens. We started at the 1896 Olympic Stadium then went to the Acropolis. We spent a couple of hours there climbing up to the Parthenon. Our guide was a bit long winded so some of us did our own thing and saw a lot more than those who stayed with her. Sadly this was to be a regular occurrence. We got some magnificent photos of the buildings on the Acropolis and the Theatre of Dionysus. We then spent a couple of hours in Plaka. We had lunch in a restaurant in Plaka which was suggested to us by the guide. (We stayed on in Plaka for two days after the tour and found better and cheaper restaurants than the one suggested by the guide. Use your own judgement on this issue). We walked to Hadrian’s Library ruins and had a look around. We caught the free 2.30 shuttle back to the hotel to prepare for our optional trip to Cape Sounion. We drove out of Athens for about an hour and got to the Temple of Posiedon. We found the pillar where Lord Byron carved his name (the first British graffiti vandal!) We were the last to leave and two fat partridges came and sat on the temple steps. It was a magic moment. We drove down to a fish tavern for a great traditional Greek meal. This was a good value optional in our opinion. We got back to the hotel about 9p.m and packed for the long drive the next day.

Day three. It was a beautiful, sunny day. We left at 8.30 after a good buffet breakfast and drove to Korinthos for morning tea. We walked across the canal connecting the Ionian and Agean Seas. Then came one of the highlights of the tour. We drove to Mycenae, the site of the oldest civilization in Europe and the home of King Agememnon (Trojan War leader). We had done no research on this site and it was awesome. Our guide kept talking and told us not to bother going up to the top. Fortunately a number of us didn’t listen and we saw the whole site quite easily. The views over the plain were amazing and you could easily see why the city was built where it was for strategic reasons. Lots of treasure was found here and is now in Athens. More on that later. We visited the small on-site museum and found it very interesting. We visited a Mycean tomb which was really interesting as well. We had a nice lunch at a café the tour guide took us to. We then drove to a pottery works which was purely a tourist trap. Nobody bought the 20,000 euro statues! I really wish Insight would give these places a miss. We then drove to a seaport and saw some old Crusader forts and another Mycean ruin. We spent the afternoon driving through the Peloponese hills. It was so different and quite beautiful. We arrived in Olympia at 7.00 and had dinner at 7.30. After dinner a few of us walked into Olympia. It was quite beautiful and clean. It was Greek Easter so we stuck our heads into the church which was being decorated for the festivities the next day. It was quite exquisite. We walked back via the town ceremony which was lit with candles on many of the graves and was a truly memorable experience. We purchased some souvenirs for people at home at the shops and got to bed around 11. We could sleep in the next day as it was Easter Sunday.

Day four. Our guide said nothing would be open but a few of us walked into town anyway. Some of the shops were open so we did some more souvenir hunting. We left the hotel at 10.30 and were taken to another tourist trap. At least this one had some local produce to sample ( wines, liqueurs, olives, sesame sweets, tapenade and honey) but the souvenirs were dearer than what we had seen in town. We then drove to the Olympic Museum which was fabulous. We spent about an hour there after leaving our guide (those who stayed with her missed about half of the Museum) and then walked to the Olympic site. It was amazing. We did the tourist thing and had our photo taken at the starting line etc. Some of us again left the group and walked around on our own . While we were looking at Hera’s Altar, where they light the Olympic flame, there was the loudest clap of thunder we have heard. I guess Zeus was letting us know he was there. It was quite surreal. We went back into Olympia for lunch and left for Delphi about 3p.m. We stopped at a bakery along the way after crossing the World’s longest suspension bridge (the toll was 56.90 euros for a bus and 11.90 euros for a car!)
It was a beautiful coastal and mountain drive to Delphi and we got there about 7.15. The views were amazing and every member of the tour group was so disappointed with the hotel as we were shoved out the back and no-one got to see the view from their rooms. So much for Insight priority! This hotel was concrete and ugly but the food was O.K. At 9.30 we wandered into town to see the Greek service and then joined the procession through the town with candles. It was a lovely special treat we got through being there on Easter Saturday. We went to bed around 10.30. It had been a very interesting day.

Day five. We left at 8.30 after a good breakfast. We drove through Delphi to the Temple of Athena. We drove to the Delphi Museum which was really interesting. We then walked to Delphi where we visited the whole site. The Temple of Apollo (the centre of the universe) was really interesting. Once again those who stayed with the guide only got to the Temple of Zeus and missed the amphitheatre. She also told us the stadium at the top was not worth the climb. She said if you’ve seen the one at Olympia don’t bother. Four of us went there anyway and it was fantastic. The marble seats etc. were still intact and it was much better preserved than Olympia. I’d recommend it. I’m nearly sixty and not that fit. Take your time and you’ll do it easily. The amphitheatre was also very well preserved. I felt sorry for those who had listened to the guide’s advice as she really sold them short at this site.
We had lunch in a seaside fish tavern at Itea. It was a bit overpriced and not that good. It was suggested by the guide. We then drove to Kalambaka. The roads were windy and wet and we saw three accidents that afternoon. We saw sheep, goats and shepherds and over three million olive trees. We felt very Greek that day. Our driver, Costas, handled the coach beautifully that day and for the whole tour. We always felt safe in his hands. We had a lovely dinner and then walked into town which was lit up for Easter and was quite pretty. The hotel had given each room the traditional pastry and eggs gift. A nice touch. There were a few fireworks going off to celebrate Easter that night.

Day six. We spent the morning at the monasteries of Meteora, visiting two of them. Words cannot describe them. The place is unique and not to be missed. I defy anyone to not be awestruck at the ingenuity of the ancient priests and nuns who built them. It was one of the highlights of the trip. We spent the rest of the day in the bus driving back to Athens. We had photo stops at Thermopylae and Marathon. It is a shame you cannot even cross the road at Thermopylae. It was a real disappointment for one man on our tour as this was what he most wanted to see in Greece and he was very disappointed. We got caught up in Athens Easter traffic so didn’t get back to the hotel until 5.45. At 6.30 a group of us skipped the optional dinner and went to a café up the road from the hotel. We had five courses and included drinks for 22 euros a head (and saved 80 euros on the optional dinner!) We said goodbye to our tour guide. I have to be honest and say she was disappointing.

Day seven. We left the hotel at 8.30 and drove to Pireus to catch our cruise ship. We met our guide Dmitri who eased us through embarkation with his expert knowledge of procedures. Once settled into our cabin we had a meeting on board the ship (Aquamarine). Our cruise began with a lifeboat drill. We all paid attention as the Aquamarine’s sister ship sank at Santorini a couple of year before! We walked around the ship to get oriented before lunch.
We found the Aquamarine to be fine. The crew were very attentive. The ship is about 37 years old and certainly not up to the modern standards of cruising such as in the Caribbean. But you are not paying those prices either. It was quiet, stable, quick and small enough to get around easily. The food was great and varied each meal. We put on a few pounds! The cabins had single beds, large windows and good hot showers. We didn’t spend a lot of time in the cabin anyway. Our cabin steward Lucien was great and looked after us very well, as did Mahomed in the dining room. We sailed to Mykonos were we disembarked by tender in the late afternoon. Dmitri took us around, gave us some concise information on Greek and island customs, pointed out some things to do and left us to it. So much better than our other guide. We spent time wandering on Mykonos for a couple of hours, photographing the windmills etc. It was a glorious day and everything had been whitewashed for Easter so it was picture postcard perfect. We didn’t really want to leave and the sunset was glorious. We had to pinch ourselves to see it was real. What an introduction to the Greek Islands. We got back on board about 7.30. The dinner was great and we went to bed about 9.30.

Day eight. We had a 5.45 wake-up this morning! We left the boat at 7.30 in Kusadasi, Turkey. We passed through immigration by walking out. No security checks at all. We boarded the bus to Ephesus. This town is the most wonderful remains of a huge Roman town where St. Paul lived and preached (letter to the Ephesians) for three years and was imprisoned. It is also where St. John lived, died and is buried. There is also the house of the Virgin Mary and her resting place is believed to be there as well. It was a must do for the believers on the tour. The theatre was in good condition and once held 25,000 people. It was another place where you wished you had more time to look around. You just knew you weren’t seeing it all due to the time constraints of the tour. We went back to the ship and sailed at 11.30 for Patmos. On this leg of the trip we passed through the Straits of Samos where we had Europe on one side of the boat and Asia on the other. We did the whole Titanic thing at the front of the boat. Silly tourists! We docked in Patmos about 3p.m and went for a walk in town. It is where the 96 year old and blind St. John received his visions for the Book of Revelations. His cave is now a church. We skipped the optional and went for a walk in town along the seafront. It was a glorious day. We went to some little churches and found where St. John the theologian baptized people.
Back on board at 7p.m. we dressed in blue and white for the Greek Night. We had a free cocktail party provided by Insight and watched the show put on by the crew. The ship sailed all night and we arrived in Rhodes at 7a.m. We took the optional tour to Lindos and it was well worth it. We climbed to the Acropolis and visited the well preserved Crusader fort. A highlight was the pebble footpaths. Once again the Insight early start proved invaluable as the crowds as we were coming down were almost scary. We called into a family pottery which was one tourist trap we are glad Insight took us to. The pottery and design is unique and we purchased several pieces for gifts and for ourselves. We got back to Rhodes about 12 noon and walked through the Old Town built by the Crusaders. It is World Heritage and rightly so. We had lunch back on the ship then went into town again for the afternoon. We left Rhodes about 5.30 and had a cocktail party with the captain at 6.15 followed by the Captain’s Dinner. It was a fun night with the crew parading Bombe Alaska. We went to see the Broadway Show on board. We went to bed around 10.45.

Day nine. The ship had already docked in Crete when we awoke and we hadn’t heard or felt a thing. We had flat seas for the whole cruise. The day was warm and sunny (24 degrees). We docked out of town and caught the shuttle bus to the port gate. We still had a twenty minute walk into town. It was May Day so a public holiday and very little was open. We went with a group and found the Australian/New Zealand War Memorial and the Aussies paid their respects there. We walked back to the ship and found a long queue for security checks. Only one gate was open due to the public holiday. The ship left late as it took so long. The ship made good time and we arrived in Santorini about 3p.m. We disembarked by tender caught a bus to Oia village where we walked to see the famous blue domed churches. The only building which hadn’t received a coat of paint for Easter was the dome of the smaller church! We walked to the lookout at the end for wonderful views and had the best cup of coffee we’ve ever had in a terrace café overlooking the churches. Just magic! We went back to the main village and caught the cable car down to the wharf. Some of our group rode the donkeys down!

Day ten. We woke at five and were already docked at Pireus in Athens. We got the hotel at 8.30 and they had all our rooms ready by 9.00. We caught the hotel shuttle into Syntagma Square then the metro to the Archeological Museum. Here we saw all the treasures from the sites we had visited over the past ten days. In our opinion this is a must see attraction in Athens. (another must see attraction is the changing of the guard just up from Syntagma Square. None of our guides mentioned this on the whole trip which I felt was a bad oversight on their behalf. Fortunately we stayed on for a couple of days and saw it ourselves. On Sunday at 11 they have two full platoons of soldiers plus a band. Get there early!)
That night we had our farewell dinner. Our guide pulled out, we had six people from another tour so we spent the night being polite to people we had just met instead of partying with our friends. It put a dampener on the evening. And we didn’t get to see the city lights. We’d have been better doing our own thing at a local restaurant.
We said our goodbyes that night and the next morning.

If you are staying pre or post tour in Athens we really enjoyed walking around Plaka at night, eating there at the many restaurants. We also enjoyed the Benaki Museum, the national Gardens with its many nooks and crannies and the Church of St. George (up the funicular railway). We fell in love with Athens by staying on and doing our own thing. The metro is cheap and easy to get around and runs to the airport for 10 euros for two, much cheaper than taxis or shuttles. Buses are a bit harder to work out but the locals are helpful. Try to avoid the taxis!

John, A very good tour tale on Greece and thank you for putting this tale together. After doing tales on Jordan and Egypt I was hoping you'd do this Grecian bit. You hit the nail on the head with the description of the TD. She certainly knew her Greek Mythology and what she may have lacked in her Greek History knowledge she made up by somewhat over-explaining the sites - getting away from her at every opportunity was the smart move. After Egypt the Grecian ruins were a bit of a disappointment but standing on the start line in Olympia will be remembered for the rest of my life.

I was probably the one you mentioned about being diappointed in not being able to stand near the monument at Thermopylae. I thought the excuse given that it was a 180 Euro fine to cross the road just a bit far fetched.

I was not as enamoured of the Aquamarine as you were but I agree we didn't spend that much time in our cabins anyway. I'm glad we went to Greece because it has so much to offer the tourist but we found out the hard way that we're not really "bus people" and eventhough Insight gave us a value for money holiday it is very unlikely that we will do another bus trip around parts of Europe.. River Cruising in Europe is next on our wish list - after the Lotto win.

Rod

John/Sue.....what a great report. Thanks for posting it. There are not that many comprehensive reports for this tour. My wife and I have just finalized our arrangements for the same tour next April 20th to May 2nd.

What was the temperature like? Cool mornings and evenings? Jackets and/or sweaters needed?

We did the Splendours of Egypt tour last January and took many precautions to avoid 'tut tummy'. Could you drink the water in Greece and Turkey without concern? Was there any foods that you should have avoided? Did anyone suffer 'greece gut' or 'turkey trots'?

For our Nile cruise we were on the M/S Giselle We found the accommodation quite sufficient and had no complaints. Some contributors to this board have commented negatively about the Aquamarine accommodations for their Grecian Dream tour. Can you compare the two for me?

I had also read about the requirement for a visa when entering Turkey. Did you have to get visa at Kusadasi?

That's all the questions I have for now. Thaks again for your report.

Great report. We leave tomorrow for same vacation. Could you tell me if the ship provided hair dryers?

To Budd, you get hairdryers from reception on board the ship. They didn't even like us to charge phones etc.with our own stuff. Don't know why.

Hi Dave JJ, You will have a ball. I wore shorts most of the time in Greece once we hit the ship. The land based section varied. I'd take layers, a light jacket would suffice. We lived in Winnipeg for a year so anything above minus 40 degrees is warm for us now!.. We haven't done other cruises. People who had just come from Egypt were critical of the Aquamarine in comparison to their Nile cruise ships but we found it fine. Just read what I wrote in my report. The water was fine in most parts of Greece, your TD will inform you of any problems. We suffered no problems at all with food in Greece, just took the normal traveller's precautions. Greece has been a civilized country for thousands of years. When you get on the ship you hand over your passports to the Bursar for the whole cruise. They handle any thing like that so you are hassle free. The only real security was on Crete which surprised us as we were still in Greece. No other islands had any sort of checks. You are picture ID'd on and off the ship each time. If you don't like your cabin etc.don't stress as you are only ever there to sleep and on islands all day. The dining room was fine, white tablecloth service etc. The bars were friendly. My advice is don't compare different experiences just enjoy where you are and what you are doing. You will make friends from the trip ( we got two e-mails today from our trip several weeks ago) and have fun on board. I'd do the whole trip again like a shot! Have fun.

We took "Glories of Greece" in early May and this is the mainland section of the Greek tours so we experienced much the same eg a delightful guide who could fill an encyclopaedia with her knowledge but with absolutely no organisational sense.
We stood outside the entrance to Delphi for 15 minutes. Knowing once we were inside she would talk nonstop I asked if there was anything she could tell us while we were waiting...a big NO in response- 'better at each important point'.
She did not dissuade us from climbing to the stadium and because some of us started for the top she made the climb too.
Earlier at Mycenae she talked for so long (just past the Lion Gate) that we took off for the top.
Again many in the group did not see as much as we did. There are signs along the way and I feel anyone truly interested in the history will have done some research, be clutching a guidebook or review some notes later.
Our welcome drink and talk was taken by Anna who also led us on our 1st full day [Acropolis, Hadrian's Arch etc]. She was not the Greek guide for the rest of the trip though. At the meeting she offered us only 2 options....2 dinners....one on the 2nd night with dancing and music and then the final night to the Psiri area (a 10 course dinner preceded by a walk to see Pan's cave, some mosaics and a view of the Acropolis from the other side)
After the meeting I asked about the Cape Sounion option that was not being offered to us so she then arranged for us to do this with others from another hotel. It was the coach trip (37 euro each) only and did not include the seafood dinner. Back at the hotel we walked to Lazarus for dinner (54 euro for 2 courses + wine) and recommended by Anna.
We also noticed the way the guides take the group to a particular restaurant, shop or tourist trap.eg the Tshirt shop after Olympia, King Menelaus Tavern after Delphi, a jewellery shop down from the Plaka, the fish tavern at Itea and the shop with honey treats- I did buy their liqueur and recommend it for anyone who likes cinnamon as much as I do....sweet cinnamon liqueur (17 euro)- my husband wouldn't touch it but I relished every drop.
We also swam in all the hotel pools but advise you to check their opening times. At Kalambaka we did pay 10 euro each to swim in the heated pool as it was quite bitter when we finally had time for a swim.
We are in our 60s but have never found any of the climbs/steps too much.. Nothing compared with climbing the steep side of the Great Wall (!)
Australians will be pleased to see so many eucalypts grown in Greece. Kurrajongs were also used as street trees in places. The wildflowers were also wonderful possibly after the fires last year and a little rain since.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Bellbird,

Hi Bellbird, Sounds like the same guide we had. Quite a few of our group were irreverent Aussies so we learnt to do our own thing, often in a group of ten or so and felt that between us we gained a lot more than if we'd stayed with the guide. It was also harder for us as we had just done the Italian Escapade where the guide was just superb.

Thank you John/Sue for your response. I am not overly concerned about the boat accommodations as you say....the room is really for sleeping and shlepping. You lived in Winnipeg for a year? Voluntarily? We Canadians are usually 'banished' to Winnipeg? If it's not the cold of the winter then it's the swarms of mosquitoes in the summer. Notwithstanding, I go to Winnipeg every summer to visit my wife's family and have so far survivied. LOL

Had to pop this in...

my best friend (who was born there) calls it "Winterpeg"