Monthly Archive for May, 2005

The Last Post…

Published
by
zim
on May 18, 2005
in Travel
. 11 Comments

Well our journey which began what feels like a lifetime ago on March 21st is about to come to an end. This afternoon we catch a plane back to Toronto. We’re looking forward to seeing many of you in person, getting to sleep in our own bed, etc., but we’re also going to miss exploring new cities, seeing new sights and learning how to say “Can I have a beer” in another language.

Our last stop was back in London where it all began. We spent Monday in the British Museum which we had skipped our first time through and yesterday we hopped our last train for a while to Canterbury.

The British Musuem is much too big to see in one day however we got a good taste of it with a focus on Greek and Roman antiquities as we thought they’d resonant with us after our travels in Italy and Greece. Before we got into the museum however we encountered these great African sculptures made from decomissioned weapons…
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Of course once we entered the museum our first stop was the Rosetta Stone probably it’s most famous treasure…
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From there we wondered through the antiquities galleries paying particular attention to the frieze’s and statues from the Parthenon in Athens that were ‘acquired’ by Lord Elgin. The Greeks say they were ’stolen’ as Elgin bought them from the Ottoman’s (who ruled Greece at the time and had for 400 years or so, but weren’t of course Greek) and want them back…

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The museum is bursting at the seams with other great Egyptian, Babylonian, Greek and Roman treasure’s which I’m going to have to let speak for themselves if we don’t want to miss our plane…

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George and I tried to figure out a way to heist this one of Bacchus as we thought it belonged in a bar rather than a museum…
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We spent yesterday in Canterbury, setting for the Canterbury Tales and seat of the Archbishop of Canterbury.
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The catherdral house’s the grave of the only King Henry I think we missed at Westminster, Henry IV.henryiv

The place is most famous of course as the site where Thomas Becket was murdered on the orders of Henry II.beckettsite

The most interesting thing to me however were these two towers at the western end. One was built in 1832 to replace a 1070 original, the other was built in 1434. Can you tell the difference? I couldn’t. The one on the left is the new one.canterburytowers

Beyond the Cathedral the town has lot’s of well preserved medieval buildings including the earliest Dominican monastery in England, and a hotel that Henry II gave to Thomas’ widow as penance after he had him whacked.blackfriarscanterbury2millpondnorman castlenorman castle2westgate

Back in London we grabbed a final pint at George’s favourite pub in Nottinghill…IMG 6473

Well, that’s it. We’re back to the ‘real world’ Thursday. Thanks for all of your comments and e-mails they really helped us feel that we were connected with everyone back home. Hope you enjoyed seeing the sights with us.

Until we rack up a few more frequent flyer miles and can come back….

Cheers,

Mark & Ali

The Rest of Santorini

Published
by
zim
on May 16, 2005
in Travel
. 4 Comments

While the wedding was definately the highlight of our trip to Santorini we did get a few other things acomplished as I mentioned in the previous post;

We’ve been in Santorini since Saturday and everything has been perfect so far; we�ve been sailing around the caldera (the volcano), to a 60th birthday party in an authentic Greek taverna complete with belly dancer and baglamas music, swum out to an island church and watched the sunset from the most perfect patio on the planet.

Let’s start with sailing around the caldera on a 41 foot catamaran. Ted and his wife Deena as well as their ‘trainee’ crew (Deena’s pregnant so they’re going to have to go shoreside for a bit) took us sailing around the island, showing us not only the beaches that you can reach by land but also a few that are only accessible by boat as well as the Indian rock and the ‘hot’ springs. I put hot in quotes as they were really luke warm springs at best (the water was about 16c in the caldera generally and might have gotten up to 17 or 18 in the spring). However the views from the sea were to die for, the lunch was extraordinary (take it from someone who has tried to cook on a Force 10 BBQ and a 2 burner galley stove at sea that these folks worked miracles with prawns and other fresh seafood aboard ship) and the crew was always ready with a cold drink and an insightful explanation about what we were seeing.
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I’d highly recommend these folks (http://www.santorinisailing.com) thecrew 01 to anyone who is lucky enough to find themselves in Santorini.

On the cruise we were also lucky enough to have great company, particularly Steve who was celebrating his 60th birthday and joined us along with his friend Ruthie on our swim to the hotsprings. Later that day Steve called to invite us to his birthday bash at Santorini Mu. Santorini Mu is an authentic Greek Taverna complete with baglamas (a kind of greek ukalele) music by Michaledes and as a treat for Steve’s birthday the island’s top belly dancer. We had a great evening with Steve, his wife Jeanne; their friends Ruthie and Dov and of course Alex. Alex is the owner of the towns best jewlery shop (Oro) (and we hear a pretty good hotel as well) who had arranged the party and polished off a bottle of wine with us while cleaning Ali’s ring before escorting us to the party. Alex is on the left and Steve on the right in the first shot below.alexandstevebelly1belly2steveandgangserenade

We also spent alot of time exploring the great shops and galleries in Oia and of course took a swim out to the island church from Oia’s own beach.

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We also spent alot of time on the fabulous patio of Pelicanos which had great beer and better views…
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On our next to last day we borrowed Tony’s Peugeot (cabriolet no less) and headed for the black sand beach on the other side of the island.beach1beach2beachgeorge

I’ve mentioned the view right?
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Well the only thing that surpassed the views was the service, great food and great wine we got everytime we turned around from the Sea Captain’s House and their restaurant’s Ambrosia and Ambrosia & Nectar. Tony, Antonio, Simona and Lilly; all of you were a key part of making this one of the best weeks Ali and I have ever had.

When we woke up yesterday back in London the first thing Ali said to me, still half asleep was “Where’s Simona?”, wondering how she was going to make it through the day without breakfast served with a smile at “our place”.
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Cheers,

Mark & Ali

P.S. Happy (belated) Birthday to Amanda and Happy (a little early) Birthday to Joanne…

P.P.S Even our exit from Oia was ‘post card’ perfect. Our bags were taken to the cab by this four legged porter…
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We’re Hitched…

Published
by
zim
on May 12, 2005
in Travel
. 33 Comments

We’ve been in Santorini since Saturday and everything has been perfect so far; we’ve been sailing around the caldera (the volcano), to a 60th birthday party in an authentic Greek taverna complete with belly dancer and baglamas music, swum out to an island church and watched the sunset from the most perfect patio on the planet. However we’re NOT going to update you on these today as our mothers would kill us if we didn’t get right to the big event of our trip. Our wedding…

We were married yesterday evening on a terrace overlooking the sea. I’m sure we’ll have a chance to share more pictures, video, etc., with all of you but for now here’s a taste compliments of our friend Antonio who snapped these impromptu shots. I only hope the ‘official’ photos turn out half as well. As I’m sure the pictures will attest the day was perfect, the bride was gorgeous and everything went exactly as we had hoped.

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Thanks for all of your kind wishes on the phone, in e-mail and on the site. Look forward to seeing you all and sharing with you more of our special day.

Yamas (Greek ‘Cheers’),

Mark & Ali

Athens and Delphi, Greece

Published
by
zim
on May 8, 2005
in Travel
. 14 Comments

After a fantastic week in Athens with a day trip to Delphi we’ve arrived in the breath taking island of Santorini/Thira. While our outstanding hotel here (The Sea Captain’s House in Oia) has wireless access on the deck this is the view so this is going to be a shorter entry than Athens deserves and there probably won’t be many (if any) updates this week.

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Anyway, on to Athens where the views were also inspiring. The city is dominated by the Arcopolis which you can catch glimpses of from anywhere in town. Spotting the Parthenon while wandering the streets of the city is great fun and never failed to make us stop for a moment and contemplate the history and majesty of the place.IMG 5641IMG 5700IMG 5709IMG 5855

Of course the architecture is equally impressive close up.IMG 5505IMG 5525IMG 5529IMG 5548IMG 5554IMG 5566IMG 5569

While the Acropolis is definately the highlight, there is history around every corner. Here are just a few of a couple hundred shots we took as we wandered the city.IMG 5466IMG 5467IMG 5495IMG 5499IMG 5557IMG 5621

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We took a side trip to Delphi the day before yesterday and the rugged beauty of the place combined with the well preserved architecture are a must see… Though George was disappointed that the Oracle waffled when he asked about a lady monkey in his future.
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While the art and architecture are great what really sets Greece apart for me has been the people. Everywhere we’ve been the people have been helpful and friendly but the Greeks are in a class of their own. Just two examples to illustrate the point.

First after discovering that my current flip flops were rather blister inducing I set out to buy new sandals. We bought them from this fellow who’s father and fathers’ father were all sandal makers (his father is also a renowned greek poet). They adjusted them to fit my lopsided feet, added a strap and told us tales of the famous and everyday people who’ve come in to buy sandles there since the 1920’s.IMG 5733

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The second example is Panos Plegas, a Greek ex-pat now living in Sweden who we met at the airport while wating for our flight to Santorini. Panos gave us lots of advice on what to see in Greece and when he left to catch his flight gave us a bottle of his family’s wine.

All in all we’ve had a fantastic experience in Greece so far and given the start we’re off to on Santorini we expect things to only get better…

Cheers,

Mark & Ali

P.S. Happy Mother’s day to all the Mom’s out there, particularly of course PEI Mom and Momma Betsie. And of course George adds Momma Nancy.

P.P.S. Happy Birthday wishes to Michelle and Kelli.

Naples, Pompeii and Capri…

Published
by
zim
on May 2, 2005
in Travel
. 12 Comments

We used the frenetic town of Naples as our base camp for a quick taste of the more southern side of Italy. This place moves fast, everyone is moving and you can’t help but get caught up in the energy of the town. And the things that move quickest are the scooters of which there are at least two for every adult citizen.

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Our first morning we got the Circumvesuviana train for Pompeii. Pompeii as you probably know was destroyed when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD, but this was actually it’s second bit of bad luck, it had been partially destroyed by an earthquake 16 years earlier and the citizens were just finishing rebuilding when the Vesuvius dumped ash on them. The site was discovered in 1594 but excavation didn’t start until 1748 and continues today. I like to think that the first place to be dug out was this ancient tavern..
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Of course they’ve uncovered lots of other buildings including this bakery…

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.. a few temples,

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and this remarkably intact theatre…

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Vesuvius looms over the town and considering that until it erupted in 1944 it had a huge smoke plume you’ve got to question the sanity of the people who founded the town.

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George however was not afraid…

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After a few hours in Pompeii we caught a bus half way up Vesuvius. There used to be a chairlift and they began construction of a funicular however the bright lights at Greenpeace protested it so now instead of an electric funicular they have dozens of diesel tour buses go up the mountain every day and then people hike the last 1.5 km up the volcano. We didn’t have a lot of time to get to the top, take in the view and get down so it was a good thing that we’ve been using the Cathedral Stairmaster lately.

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While there may not be a big plume of smoke anymore the volcano is definitely not extinct.

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The next day we set off for Capri; the government run ferries didn’t look much better than these so we took a hydrofoil which got us there in about 45 minutes.

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The view of Naples from the boat was great…

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But didn’t hold a candle to the view approaching Capri from the sea…

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The town was gorgeous on land as well.

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After a quick drink we headed for the beach where I got right to it.
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Ali was a little more tentative…

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but soon was right at home (except of course for shouting ‘Don’t take my picture’).caprialisea

Mid-afternoon we left the beach and headed up the mountain to see the other side of the island.

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The views were great but I’m sure nothing compared to the view this fellow had off his port side.

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After a great day we headed back for Naples. We spent our last day in Naples wandering around the shops and just soaking it in before getting a train to Rome and our plane to Athens. We were both sad to leave Italy as we enjoyed every minute of it. We hope to be back soon to explore further…

Cheers,

Mark & Ali

P.S. Sara, I’m glad the girls enjoyed the lobster and that the seasons off to a good start. Take pity on us poor landlocked ‘upper’ Canadians and save a few; pretty please?