Athens

Yesterday we flew from Santorini to Athens and arrived in Athens in the afternoon. It was a nice partly cloudy day around 70F. So after checking in to our hotel near the Temple of Zeus we walked tothe Acropolis. It is really amazing seeing the Parthenon built high on the hill. We toured the parthenon and took in the view of the city all around us. From there we walked to the Ancient Agora and then down the market streets of Monastriraki and back towards the hotel. We stopped on the way to the hotel and ate at a little place that had traditional greek music. The diner was delicious and it was very entertaining.

Today we are going to see the temple of Zues and wander the city some more. Tomorrow we fly out in the morning local time to JFK airport in NYC and then to MSP getting in around 8:30 tomorrow night.

Fira

A church in Fira next to our hotel.

Oia

Sue enjoying the sun in Oia, Santorini.

Santorini

We arrived in Santorini, Greece on Monday evening it is off season here and some shops and hotels are still closed. After one night in Kamari we decided to switch hotels and stay in Fira, which overlooks the caldera. The city is amazing hanging right on the top edge of the cliffs with the bright blue water below. The last couple of days there have been large cruise ships coming in bringing a lot of people to the little towns.

Yesterday we rented a Smart car and drove all of the island. It was a red and black Smart car with 2 seats. The car was a lot of fun to drive and surprising good pick up even on the hills. We drove to Santos Wine and did a wine tasting that overlooks the caldera. The wines were great! There specialties are white wines and Vin Santo.

Topkapi Palace

Blue Mosque

Vacation

We had a great stay in Istanbul. I would have posted more but the hotel keyboard didn't work the best and I kept getting confused by the i with out a dot above it in the Turkish language and the normal i. Sometimes I wasn't able to log in to websites. We went to many of the site in Istanbul, like the Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque, the Grand Bazar, the Spice Market, we took a ferry acorss the Bosphorus to the Asian side and we did a cooking class. While in Turkey we were quite busy.

We were surprised to learn that tulips are orgininally from Turkey and there are tulips planted everywhere and they all were in blossom. They are so colorful and very beautiful.

On Monday we flew to Athens and then on to Sanotorini. It is early in the tourist season so not everything is open, but it is easy to walk around and the weather has been pleaseant. We are staying in a hotel in Fira overlooking the caldera, about 750 feet up from the sea a top of the cliff. We will be here until Sunday and then we will be heading back to Athens for a couple days before coming home. We won't think about that yet. For today we are going to go to Oia for the day and relax. We hope to post more soon!

Turkey - Greece

We flew out wıth no ıssues and arrıved ın Istanbul yeterday afternoon. After gettıng sıtuated ın our hotel we walked to the Grand Bazzar, whıch was packed wıth people. It was an amazıng place fılled wıth beautıful scarves and jewelryö trınkets and belly dancıng outfıts. We had a wonderful dınner close to the hotel complete wıth rakı and grılled local fısh. Then we sat close by,on some huge colored pıllows and smoked from a shısha pıpe (Apple wood chıps) and some,
local tea. We fınıshed our day wıth a swım ın the warm sea fılled pool and a sauna. Nıce Dıgs.