Day 16

Beautiful Santorini -Wednesday 14th July
Put Santorini on your MUST see list. It is truly stunning! The massive volcanic caldera topped with the villgages makes for breath taking scenery.
As you can see, we hired a quad motorbike to zip around the countryside on. Debbie sat on the back and kept sreaming, 'Stay on the right side of the road!" On the main roads it felt a little precarious - but we survived. Making left hand turns at intersections is fun!

More mazes of narrow 'uppety downity' lanes with great shops throughout Fira (capital). The laneways continue forever around the edge of the cliffs.

We have bown out our budget with fine dining in amazing cliff-edge restaurants. How good does my giant bean and spinach lunch look? And the view!!!!
And yes, some donkeys walked past as we were eating!!

And for tea it was grilled sardines and stuffed calamari at the restaurant across the road from the beach. Yum!
















Perissa beach has black sand.

Day 15

Paros - Santorini Tuesday 13th July

Couldn't wait to go for a swim first thing (well...alright it was 10.00am). Crystal clear water. just the right temperature. Walked through the white maze of alleys in the old section of town - Debbie had no idea where she was leading us so it's just as well I am a walking, human GPS!
Back on a ferry - this time to Santoini where we plan to stay put for a few days.

A funny thing happened on the ferry. It went like this:
A rather rotund and sweaty young waiter places a cardboard container of Coke on the bar
A teenage girl turns and knocks the Coke all over the floor
"Ehh Ehh!! Signorina!!!" he complains, waving his arms.
He eventually saunters off and arrives back in a few minutes with a mop.
One 'mop' was not enough and there are now several bocks of ice across the floor.
In a bad mood, he returns to complete the job and decides NO-ONE is going to walk on his clean floor.
He blocks several people and when one bloke barges through, he makes a fence with his mop bewteen himself and the bar.
Some passengers curse as he makes them go right around the other side of the ship.
One mother with children has had enough and gives him a blast. "My daughter is only two years old!" she yells.
The stroppy waiter stands fast. "No no!" he insists
After a few more minutes the tension increases.
Pleased with himself that he has had some sort of victory he says, "OK," and lets them pass.

Santorini is a spectavcular sight as we approach the port. Huge cliff run as far as the eye can see in each direction. Brilliant white villages stand out like snow caps clinging to the cliff tops. I couldn't imagine a less appropriate place for a port! A mini-bus takes us zig-zagging up the precarious road.
Our hotel is across the road from a lovely beach with black sand.

Day 14

**You might want to look back as far as Day 11 as I have good internet connection here at the hotel in Santorini. I just added a whole new set of photos.

Day 14 - Monday 12th July
It's time to escape the chaotic traffic of Athens and relax to the Greek islands. I have heard so much about them. Caught the local train to the port of Pireaus where we decided to walk to the ferry terminal. Luckily a taxi pulled up and the driver insisted we go with him as we were cutting it fine - strangely enough!

The ferry cut its way through the deep water and made its way around the many islands that popped up here and there.
Decided to stay the night at Paros and then head to Santorini the next day. Away from the port, Paros was a pleasant surprise - laid back atmophere, warm, tranquil. Our 40 Euro a night hotel was a beauty - a charming family run hotel, immaculately clean, complete with good air-conditioning, free breaky..AND only a one min ute walk to the beach!! (loving this internet hotel booking).

Had a romantic dinner only a few metres from the water. All this makes me realize that Australia has become a v ery expensive place by comparison.

Day 13

Athens - Sunday 11th July
Loving this hot weather....32 degrees again! So it's ice-cream, gelatis and, my favourite at the moment, Cafe Zero (frozen espresso - yum!) We ate these as we strolled through the Monastiraki markets. Debbie immediately found some jewllery (thanks for the phone advice Grace!) I bought a one Euro rubber splattable tomato - it's amazing. you throw it on the ground and it completely 'splats'. Then it slowly reforms its original shape!! James and Owen will be impressed - Elise won't!













The Acropolis lived up to its reputation! Wow! The Parthenon really is majestic as it towers over Athens. How on Earth did they get all those amssive marble chunks up there and then put up those huge columns?

In the heat of the afternoon, we decided to take a taxi most of the way up to the St Georgios church which is one of those bleached white Greek buildings delicately 'plopped' on top of Lycabettus Hill. And yes...we did have an iced coffee in the cafe at the top Mandy and Sutts!! We resisted the temptation to take the funicular cable car and walked all the way back down and back to our hotel.
To end the day, we sat with a small crowd in the street outside our hotel and watched the World Cup final until midnight. Balmy night, full glass of ouzo, Margharita pizza and soccer...feeling very relaxed thanks very much!

Day 12

This is one of my favourite photos so far. These three brothers squished in opposite us, discussed who was sitting where and immediately assumed the 'dozing' position. How nice is that?

Athens to Greece - Sunday 11th July
Well.....as expected....it was a LONG night for Debbie! Not much sleep for her in the airseats I'm afraid. There were constant interruptions and lots of snoring choruses - got a feeling I might have added to this here and there. To top it off, at 4.30am the place lit up and announcements were blurted out in several languages that we had arrived in Igoumenitsa, our first Greek stop. Like a zombie, I fought my way through the frenzied mob and trudged around the deck to take some photos -they came out quite nicely!
Fortunately most of the passengers disembarked here so we could flop across the seats and get a solid few hour's sleep. Debbie is now constantly barking, "If we ever get a ##### ferry agin, we are getting there early to book a ##### cabin!!!"
"Fine!" I said. "Just leave it in my capable hands!!" .... no response!
At Patras, we exchanged the calm seas for 'free' Eurail bus and train travel to arrive at our Athens cheap hotel. Went for a good night walk to the Acropolis area - lots of activity and lively street restaurants.

Day 11

Bari - ferry to Athens - Saturday 10th July
Visited the Bari castle (Castello Svevo) and ticked off most of the 'castle requirements' - moat, turrets, dungeon - Debbie had to be the damsel in distress! The castle had been restored beautifully to its former glory.

Booked our 'Superfast Ferry' tickets and sailed off to Greece at sunset. Guess what? - we were a bit late in booking and missed out on a cabin. Debbie was less than enthusiastic about the prospect of sitting up in 1st class 'airseats' all night. Anyway, we perched ourselves on the rear deck with some Greek wine and were thoroughly entertained as we watched over the intricate loading of 50 semi-trailers below.
Bari took on that classic Mediterranean hue as it shrank into the distance, bathed in the deep orange final offering of the sun. Bed time now - off to our 'free', 1st class, Eurail Global Pass, airseats!!! Can't wait.

Day 10

Bari Thursday 9th July
Departed Naples by train at 8.30 am and arrived in Bari at around 1.00pm. After crossing a small mountain range, we passed through some rural wheat growing growing regions and wine producing districts. Bari is a pretty port on the west coast of Italy and has a quaint old section of the city surrounded by our first experience of a modern Italian city. We spent the rest of the day walking both sections and soaking up the less frenetic pace of life.

Debbie hard at work on the train.