WELCOME TO MY GREECE (AND LONDON) TRIP
This travelogue details the sights that I saw during my stay in Greece from February 5 to February 13, 2001. It will also detail my quick stop in London on February 14, 2001.
Long time readers will notice this trip was different from my previous trips. First off, I didn’t wait a year to let my fear of flying subside before I jumped on a plane. Second, it was the furthest distance I’ve ever traveled. Also, it was the first long distance trip that I had taken without the companionship of my long time travel partner, Tom Marihart. Finally, it was the first trip to someplace where I didn’t have an understanding of the language.
So, what would cause me to make such a dramatic departure from my travel routine? Only something life changing like getting a new travel partner through marriage would make me deviate from my established routine. That’s exactly what happened. Dianne and I exchanged our vows on February 3, 2001. In order to relax after the hustle and bustle of wedding preparations/ceremony, we headed off to a place where we could REALLY get away from everyone and everything. Why Greece? Well, we both wanted to go to Europe for the honeymoon. When we looked over the countries that were options, we found that neither of us had been to Greece. That made the decision easy. Once we had decided on Greece, I told her “If we’re going to visit the Parthenon, we should see the best pieces of it in the British Museum in London.” That led to the stopover in London on Valentine’s Day. It also allowed us to indulge in a romantic evening at the theatre. But, I’m getting ahead of myself.
Despite my brother’s protests that I would get a lot more hits on my web site if I put sexual details in this travelogue, you won’t find any scandalous information about the honeymoon. Instead, you’ll only find some basic information and impressions about the places we visited. I think that potential tourists will find this travelogue particularly useful because it deals with an off-season trip to Greece. To be honest, I thought off-season was a great time to go. The weather was great (about 70 degrees Fahrenheit most of the time) and the crowds were minimal. I also found that the shop keepers were willing to make great deals, which I attributed to the lack of customers.
I again relied on Lonely Planet to be my guidebook. I used the 6th edition of the Greece guide, the 2nd edition of the Greek Island guide, and the 5th edition of the Great Britain guide (which I’m proud of because my name is in it as a contributor). I thought the Greece and Great Britain guides were excellent, but I could’ve done without the Greek Island guide. There’s very little information in it that isn’t also in the Greece Guide. I also recommend the Libitz language tapes for a crash course in Greek.
In my never-ending attempt to find the perfect format, I’ve gone back to the diary style that I used for the 1998 and 1999 travelogues. You can click on each day to see my thoughts on what happened, or click on a specific site to see my thoughts about that attraction. Each of the site pages is linked to another web page that will give you more detail about the specific venue. What’s new with this site is what I call the Fast Facts page. This page is for anyone who just wants to get the basic information about the attraction/hotel/restaurant, without having to read my pretentious pontifications.
I hope that you find this travelogue useful for planning a trip to Greece. For those of you wondering if another trip is on the horizon, there are actually two trips on the horizon. And yes, I will be writing about those as well. In the meantime, your comments on this travelogue are greatly appreciated.
| February 4 | Depart San Francisco |
| February 5 | Arrive Athens |
| February 6 | Acropolis Ancient Agora National Garden/Zappion Garden |
| February 7 | Roman Stadium Sounion |
| February 8 | Hydra |
| February 9 | Hydra |
| February 10 | Hydra |
| February 11 | Hydra |
| February 12 | Hydra |
| February 13 | Athens |
| February 14 | British Museum |
| February 15 | Arrive San Francisco |
| Fast Facts |
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All pictures (unless otherwise noted) and text are copyright Michael Lima. You can contact
me at mikvs@ix.netcom.com.
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All pictures (unless otherwise noted) and text are copyright Michael Lima. You can contact me at mikvs@ix.netcom.com.
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