2025 Balkan Travels - Greece Part One

Travel Day:

The view from our Athens hotel.

It is a long flight from Omaha to Athens, Greece.  We arrived late morning and took a taxi to our hotel.  The hotel was a few blocks from the acropolis, a near ideal location.  It was located near the acropolis, the acropolis museum, and a shopping area.  We were too early to check in so we left our bags at the hotel and went walking around the area.  We avoided the acropolis and its Museum since we would be visiting them the next day.  We checked out a small Orthodox church, some souvenir shops, and we found a cafe where we ordered some gyros for lunch.

We returned to our hotel and we'd only killed an hour so we had some drinks at the bar and, literally, fell asleep on the lobby chairs waiting for our room to be ready.  We got in a couple hours earlier than expected and we finished our naps in our room.  We finished the day with bar food.  

The view from our hotel balcony, as you can see, was pretty magnificent.

Athens City Tour:

The next day we'd booked a half day tour of the acropolis and Athens.  We met our guide after breakfast and we went to the Acropolis to see the Parthenon.  Our guide was knowledgeable but had a bit of 'college student' feel to him.  He gave us a nice tour of the amphitheater, Parthenon, and other government and religious buildings built on the acropolis.  I have to say, while the Parthenon was impressive, it didn't quite meet my expectations, though I think it may have been the crane and scaffolding, part of a renovation, that knocked it down a notch in my book.

The Parthenon on top of the Acropolis.

We next got in a van and we had a driving tour of Athens passing important buildings and historical monuments.  The tour ended at a viewpoint of the city.  Athens is a nice enough city, but compared to a few others we have visited, it is kind of middle of the road.  I was expecting the city to have an older feel, like Rome, but it didn't.

The Caryatids, female sculpted pillars, are part of the Erechtheion temple.

Our guide dropped us not far from the Acropolis museum.  We ate lunch at the museum before walking through the exhibits.  I wish we'd had a guide besides the audio guide.  It was ok but we are not museum people and the audio guides were a bit too wordy for me.

Delphi Tour:

The second full day in Greece was a tour of the Delphi Oracle temple.  We had a new guide and she was awesome.  She was obviously a history nerd.  She knew her names, places, and dates backward and forward.  Her one quirk was her extremely dirty glasses ... I couldn't tell how she could see through the smudges.

A lion attacking a gladiator at the Delphi Museum.

The drive to Delphi is about two hours with a snack, drink, and toilet break. Our guide pointed out historical places along the way telling stories and mythology connected to each.  We arrived at Delphi and we started with the museum.  Despite the Wife and I not being museum people, we have found when you have a guide it makes all the difference.  This museum was small but very interesting with the help of our guide.

After the museum we did a walking tour up a path that took us through the structures where the female oracles, high/drunk on natural gases that seeped up from the ground would give cryptic predictions that were 'interpreted' by male priests.  The one thing this place needed is a coin operated Oracle that could spit out people's fortunes.  It would be a big money maker, for sure.  The walking tour ended at the highest point at the hippodrome.

The town of Arachova.

We tried to stop at Arachova, a bustling ski resort of a town, for lunch but it was packed.  One place we tried to get in had angus steaks from Omaha on the menu.  Here we were thousands of miles away in Greece and we had meat from home.  We chuckled about that.  We ended up eating in a nice place out of the town away from the crowds.  We both dozed a bit on the way back to our hotel.

Corinth Tour:

On our third day, our Delphi guide became our Corinth guide.  The weather, which had cooperated for the past few days, was a bit drizzly today, but it didn't slow us down at all.  The drive to Corinth is short, about an hour.  On the way, we visited the Corinth canal.  The canal was dug to bypass the 430 mile (700 km) trip around the peloponnesian peninsula.  The idea started in the seventh century BC but wasn't actually completed until 1893.  Before its completion, ships were often carried overland to shorten the journey.

The Corinth canal.  No boats were going through it when we visited it.

We next went to the ruins in Corinth.  Our guide expertly explained the history and the importance of Corinth in ancient history.  She walked us through the ruins and the museum, again giving expert explanations of all the structures and exhibits.

The Corinth ruins.

One thing that was funny was, both the Wife and I were wondering about 'rich Corinthian leather', a selling point for car interiors back in the '70s.  We were both afraid to ask our guide so I googled it.  Turns out 'rich Corinthian leather' was actually manufactured in New Jersey and was a creation of an ad agency.  We both got a laugh at that and were thankful that we didn't ask our guide.

We stopped at a local street food place on the way back to get a quick and portable lunch on the way back to Athens.  We enjoyed Souvlaki in a pita wrap.  Very yummy.

Back in Athens, we went walking around the pedestrian street near the acropolis and completed our souvenir shopping for Athens.

The first four days in and near Athens were pretty good.  I know some of this post seems to make it feel like I didn't like it, but everywhere you go there is always a mix of good and bad experiences and, in Athens' case, the good outweighed the bad.

The Next day we would be going to leave Greece and fly to our next destination, Tirana, Albania.

Pictures can be found in my 2025-10 Greece Google Photos album.

Weekly Ephemera #159

• We were going to have a visit of the Niece's family but sick kids changed those plans so, for Saturday I managed to get back to my routine.  I'm looking forward to the Niece's family to reschedule when everyone is feeling better.
• We've spent the week catching up with "Survivor" and "The Amazing Race"
• My blood pressure has been a little bit high since I got back from our travels so I decided to restart my walking.  I walked twice this week for a total of 13 miles (21 km).  The walks felt pretty good so I look forward to ramping up the distance again.
• The first of the travel posts should come out tomorrow or Tuesday.

Weekly Ephemera #158

We've been traveling for the last three weeks.  We got home on Thursday night and both of us are a bit out of sync with the world around us.  I'm guessing it will take a few days for our sleep/wake cycles to return to normal.

Because of this, not much happened at home this week.  I did bring in the patio furniture and spread winterizer on the lawn in preparation for winter, but both things nearly wiped me out for the whole day.

Hopefully there will be more to write about next weekend.

P.S.  I will write about our travels over the next few weeks.  The trip was great and we saw some cool stuff.

Weekly Ephemera #156

• This week's highlights were visits from family and friends.  On Tuesday the MoH and BM dropped by on the way to their vacation.  We spent the evening digesting the superb steak dinner the Wife prepared while engaging in spirited conversation.  It is fair to say that none of the world's problems were solved.  Our guests treated us to breakfast the next day before they traveled on.
  
  Today, the Wife's best friend since high school is visiting.  Craziness will ensue.
• The HVAC guy came by this week and checked out our furnace.  Except for a dirty temperature sensor, everything is in good order.  We are now ready for the winter, though the weather for the next ten days or so is more summer-like than fall-like.
• This week I will be turning off our sprinkler system.  They will be blowing out the system in a week or so while we are traveling.  Potted plants and patio furniture will be brought in and the deck will be power washed.  Everything will be ready for winter when we leave.
• I did not walk this week and I will not walk next week.  I'm taking a break from walking until we return from our travels.
• I haven't really watched anything good on television.  But, I did watch some "Alfred Hitchcock Presents".  It's some easy background noise and it's fun seeing some of the old actors when they were young and new.  The writing is a bit hit and miss but my favorite part is Hitchcock introducing commercial and station identification breaks.  It is obvious he is not fond of the breaks interrupting his storytelling.  (For those who do not know, Station identification breaks allowed stations to let you know what station you were watching.  You don't see them much today because of the invention of the station's logo bug in the corner of the screen.)
• We are both getting ready for our trip.  We will be leaving on Thursday.  I hope the tropical storms off the coast of Georgia are gone by then, since our flight to Athens is through Atlanta.

Our Next Adventure: Greece, Albania, Macedonia, And Malta

A week from today, we are leaving the country on our next adventure.  We will be visiting Greece, Albania, Macedonia, and Malta.  Here is a brief overview of what we will be doing:

• We start our travels in Athens where we will be taking three day-tours of Athens, Delphi, and Corinth.
• Our travels continue as we fly to Tirana, Albania, to join a small group tour that visits several cities in Albania with side trips to northern Greece (including Meteora) and Macedonia.
• Lastly, we will fly to Malta.  We will be taking a private four-day tour of the island nation.

We will be doing all of this over twenty-two days.  We will be immersed in Greek, Roman, Byzantine, and Ottoman history and architecture.  There will be castles, churches, and monasteries built in beautiful locations.  There are boat rides on rivers, lakes, and seas.  There will be amazing views.

I will document the trip when I return and I hope to have some good pictures to post, not to mention several new magnets for our collection.

Has It Happened Yet?

Has the Rapture happened yet?

Happy Autumn!

Today summer comes to an end in the northern hemisphere and Autumn begins.  It's been a hot summer here in the middle of America and I'm looking forward to some cooler temperatures.

Happy Fall Everyone!

Weekly Ephemera #155

• Forgot to mention last week that I got my Covid and Flu shots.  Take that, RFK jr!
• The Wife and I went to see "The Long Walk".  It is an interesting movie based on a Stephen King novel (writing as Richard Bachman).  It was good and felt ... relevant to our times.
• As for TV, I watched season thirteen of "Futurama" and I soaked in cheesy horror anthologies.
• I had a tough time walking this week.  After two 30 miles (48 km) plus weeks, my body just didn't want to walk.  I forced myself to walk twice, but they were shorter than what I have been doing.  I ended up walking a total of 16.6 miles (26.7 km).  I can already feel that next week won't be much different.

Music: Rilo Kiley W/ Dean Johnson At The Astro

On Wednesday night I went to see the Rilo Kiley reunion tour.  I've seen them before back in October 2007 when they were promoting their "Under the Black Light" album.  I liked that concert, but I was not as fond of the album.  I'd also seen lead singer Jenny Lewis solo a couple of times: first in 2006 at a fundraising show and again at the showdown in 2014.

The warm-up act: Dean Johnson.

The warm-up act was Dean Johnson.  I'd never heard of him before.  He was promoting his second album.  His music doesn't quite fit in any genre though it did have an edge of country and a dash of weirdness.  For example, one of the songs was about forgetting his ex-girlfriend after getting electroshock therapy.  I can't say I liked it and I can't say it was bad either.  It was just some middle of the road quirky music.

Rilo Kiley and a rather minimalist stage lighting.

Rilo Kiley was fun.  Since they weren't promoting new music, and were just having fun playing their greatest hits, I enjoyed the show more.  I knew most of the songs and was pleasantly surprised hearing some older songs I'd missed the first time around.  I had a good time.

The only part of all this that I didn't like was the fact there were no seats.  The venue was the outdoor amphitheater and only VIPs got to sit.  I ended up standing for two hours and forty minutes. It wasn't really that bad, but I am an old man – I was definitely the oldest man in the audience.  It could have been worse.  Rain was in the forecast but we had only a short period of mist.  It did start pouring a half hour after I got home so I dodged a bullet.

You can see a few blurry photos  I took in my 2025-09-17 Rilo Kiley w/ Dean Johnson, The Astro, La Vista, NE Google Photos album.

The Wife's Camino 2025 - Magnet Edition

We purchased eleven magnets during the second part of the Wife's Camino.  Some were from places we already had magnets for but they all caught our eye.  Here are a few of the best:

"Soy Peregrino" = I am a pilgrim.

Galicia, Celtic land.

The end of the Camino, Fisterra.

Who doesn't like a witch on a broomstick?

You can see all seven hundred and eighty six of our travel magnets in my 2006-2025 Travel Magnets Google Photos album.