Picture Post

Here we go...our last few days in photos:

Killing time in Athens, we made our way to the ORIGINAL olympic stadium...built in ancient times, fell to ruin, excavated, and reused for the first modern games in 1896...still used today for the end of the Athens Marathon. (Which of course begins in Marathon, 26.2 miles away), and was used in the 2004 Olympics for the archery competition. Can hold 50,000 peeps.

Look, Jill Gidlund's favorite little creature...scavenging at our table during our last Greek meal.

spycam on the job once again: sleeping vendor on Athenian street...

and we're off...Big Mama and Big Backpack, supporting each other while waiting for the metro to take us to the airport.

Ah, this London weather is SO NICE. No more stickiness, lovely breezes, and it stopped raining when we got here. :)
For reals, we're in London now...
Here comes the publicity caravan for the Tour de France prologue stage...lots of free but useless stuff gets thrown at the spectators.
These folks made a real effort...baguette waving, garlic holding, the stripes, etc.
Lo was the most successful catcher of us all. Of course, we gave everything to Stasia and Kayla, since we're grown ups and don't need silly tchotchkes.
We took a break from hanging out in the park watching the Tour and walked through the tres riche neighborhood of Mayfair. Here's what the average street looked like. I felt right at home. :)
Our little lunch group. We were super excited because we found a little grocery store that was just marking down their sandwiches for quick sale. Sometimes food tastes more delicious when it's real cheap! Especially in London where everything is twice as expensive...

Shout out to the Jensens!
So that's George Hincapie, or at least the best photo I could get of him. (They were whizzing by super fast!) He went on to win 3rd place yesterday. But the guy who won was truly amazing...fastest speeds ever recorded in the tour prologue.
This was the crush of people trying to cross over the tour route at one of only a few crossing points in Hyde Park. It was crazy packed, but still fairly orderly...very British.

Look, it's Lance! (or at least, Madame Tussaud's version of him). There was a bike next to him you could climb on and take a picture, and it was so cheesy, but I was actually gonna go for it...utnil I found out it cost 5 pounds. That's 10 dollars too much. :(
Here I am at Princess Diana's memorial fountain. You are allowed to: put your hands or feet in, sit along the edge. You are not allowed to: walk in the fountain, which was a big circular shape. The granite is from the princess' native Cornwall, and the shape emulates her big arms of love encircling the whole world, just as she was in life. (I made up that last bit. :)
Recognize those girls crowded into the tube train?

Happy Day in Hyde Park

Hello everyone....quick post today...no pics as we can't upload them here at our hotel...we'll try to figure something out tomorrow.

We're safely and finally in London after what turned out to be a long day of travel yesterday...we are stuffed into a great but teensy room (maybe 8 x 6?) at the Cherry Court Hotel right near Victoria Station. Today we met up with the Hansen family, which was great fun, and then spent the day in Hyde Park watching the Tour de France riders whiz by during the prologue time trial, along with what felt like the rest of London's population. Huge crowds, but quite well managed, of course, we're not in Greece anymore after all. :) (Yesterday, boarding our Olympic Airlines flight, they simply said to get on the plane, no organization at all, and massive crowding promptly ensued).

Anyway, today was great fun, tomorrow morning Lo and I are planning to head out to Wimbledon to at least soak up the atmosphere a bit in the morning, since Centre Court tickets are £87. Yikes!

Cheers,
E

Lasts

Hey all,

We're in Athens again this morning, and are off to London later today for our last few days before we head home. We are busy doing "lasts", mostly having to do with eating: Last gyros (last night - so good), last spanikopita breakfast, last Greek salad, last yogurt and honey. Here are a few pictures from our last motorbike ride on Naxos before we left that lovely island:

We jokingly called this "The Portal" the whole time...it's and old temple to Apollo that is the iconic symbol of the island.

Greek swim lessons. Right below that old temple, near some marble steps, in the Aegean Sea. Pretty different from the YMCA...

On the bikes, ready to head along the coastal road to the other tip of the island...

...and finally, after and 1.5 hour ride, we got there. (we sort of didn't know it was going to take that long, and Lo's gas was on empty for several kilometers, but all was well in the end)

Not sure if you can see clearly in the photo, but these were cheerfully painted beehives...honey is one of the island big exports. Yum.

A Greek bee, brought to you courtesy of spy cam.

dessert on our las tnight on Naxos. This place called Waffle House lets you build your own crazy concoction. We had Mocha and Cream Cookie gelato with chocolate sauce and broken biscuits, all over a fresh, crispy waffle. Lo was real excited.

And, finally, good old Big Mama and I, relaxing by the pool while waiting for our ride to the ferry. She's been great this trip, I haven't even had to expand her yet, but after all our Athens shopping yesterday I think it will be time...

Motoring About

So here we are! The bike I wiped out on yesterday is actually the one Lo is on...it's a little more tricky to start, so we've switched. It seems not the worse for wear, though, unlike me. Injury report: (and thanks to Dr. Jood, wish I'd known that about hydrogen peroxide yesterday!) Scrapes are already starting to heal, though they hurt all the time, and aches and pains are effectively gone, hooray.

This morning we began with our usual spani and, special for today, the closest thing we could get to a latte, which was more like a frappucino:

This is the little terrace of our place, not sure if we've posted a picture of it since our little movie won't upload. In any case, after breakfast we consulted our map of the island, and to our dismay, we found this:








We should have known! For you see, the road we were on yesterday was this one:




So had we consulted the map...well who knows. We might have tried it anyway, actually. Anyway, I'm glad to be feeling better and back up on the bike, as you can see in this casual picture:







Shopping for gifts was next on the agenda, aided by this helpful town map:










Finally it was time to head for the interior of the island. This little jaunt was made entirely possible by the motorbikes...and it was beautiful, as promised by guidebook and motorbike renter man both. At first, it seemed a little desolate and dry. Then, as I looked around I started to notice more things....things like the absolute silence (broken by our motorbikes :(, but also often by the screeching of cicadas, which can be a VERY loud noise. The hillsides are terraced and full of crumbling stone walls and olive trees. We saw the occasional goat or donkey, the occasional village, even the occasional marble quarry. See if you can find them all in these photos:


And after a while, the countryside didn't even seem so brown...I started noticing the gray-green of the olive leaves, the bright greens of figs, these purple flowers along the road side, and even the red in the rocks as we whizzed by. When we rolled back into our pension, we both agreed that it was a great ride.

We leave you for today on a sweet note: our dessert last night was yogurt and honey. The honey was amazing, and the yogurt...well, let's just say that it's definitely not low fat. Yum.

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way Home from the Beach...

(note: for the purposes of this post, Lo's comments will be in parentheses throughout)

So, today was another lovely day on Naxos.

We woke up, headed into "town" for our morning spanakopita from the best bakery on the island. (and followed it with a chocolate-filled doughnut, still warm!)

Then, we embarked on our newly-hatched plan to rent motorbikes to get around the island for the next few days. I must admit, I was nervous. My two worst fears: having the guy at the rental place tell me I had no idea what I was doing and I couldn't rent after all, and secondly, somehow dumping the bike and skidding across the pavement. (I was just thinking, "I have to exude the fact that I know what I'm doing, even though I don't really remember how to do this).

We filled out all the paperwork, were pleased as punch with the price - 18 euro for three days - and Lo got on her bike and put putted away down the street. I got on. I promptly moved my hand the wrong way to give it gas, and the guy sighed and said, "You don't know what you're doing at all. Please, please, if you're not comfortable, come back and rent a 4 wheeler". I assured him I would be just fine, and quickly headed away. (Meanwhile, I've turned right at the police station and am waiting, wondering if already something really bad has happened).

I found Lo at the Po-Po corner as we were instructed to go to head out toward the beaches, and we were soon on the open road. Ah, so nice. Wind in our faces, passing poor folks who were walking all the way there, and at the end of the ride, this:

Aggia Anna beach

(SpyCam also accompanied us on the journey, and literally caught someone with their pants down!)
(Now honestly...why is this person concerned about tan lines there? Give me a break.)

So there we were, two happy girls on the beach, reading our books, dipping occasionally into the surprisingly frigid sea....
...and then we decided to pack up and head to explore a castle that was listed on our map, what with our new transportation and all. Now, our map from the rental place had THICK red lines and THIN red lines. I assumed that this meant real big roads and just regular ones. However, it became clear that thin red line = dirt road. I headed out ahead with the map, undaunted, with Lo in my rear view mirror. The road was fine...just dusty. (Real dusty behind someone else, and she was haulin') Then the road became very potholed. Then it got better. Then we passed a few more beautiful beaches. But I was thinking about that castle. Then the road got really really sandy. I tried to find a good spot....I slipped to the left, then I slipped to the right...then I got that feeling you get when you know you can no longer avoid disaster. I fell, the bike skidded, I skidded along with it...and then all was quiet. (It was real scary to watch).

But then I popped up, aware that my right side had several very stinging parts, Lo asked if I was OK, I said don't get too close, I don't want to bleed on you. (I asked if she wanted water to clean up. She said "Let's just go back home". I said OK. She popped back on and led the way.)

I was determined not to cry. I didn't either, until I got into the shower at our room, the stinging water hit the stinging parts....and then later when Lo helpfully put hydrogen peroxide on them, since that's all we had. Well anyway, here's the picture:
And now it's much later, and I do feel better, though achy and a bit like I was in a car crash. Which Lo reminded me I sort of was. But it could have been much worse. (Of course it could have been better too). But Lo brought me some guaze, and ointment, and ice cream, which helped lots. So did this:
So all is (mostly) well. We even used the bikes again later that day, and in the proper style, with helmets on our heads, not like the Greeks with helmets slung casually on their elbows. Tomorrow, no more dirt roads, mom, I promise.

Of Cats and Bougainvillea

We have settled into our new digs here on Naxos island quite well. We even took a little video:

Our pension, Pension Irene II, is named after Irene, our very own Greek ya ya (g'ma) who presses figs upon us and shows us by demonstration how we can sit out on our balcony and have coffee if we like. We are surrounded there by several Scandinavian travels, a few Brits, and some French...no other Americans in sight.

Today we rolled into downtown about 11 for breakfast at what Lonely Planet promised to be the best bakery on the island...and it was. The best spanakopita we've had so far. (Note to self: must add dill when I make it at home just like all the Greeks do and not be lazy when I can't find fresh dill easily at the grocery store). We ate overlooking the harbor, this was our view:

Then we strolled slowly through town; the Venetians were in control here in the Aegean once upon a time, and had a sort of walled city within a city up at the top of town. Here are some photos from the stroll: On our way home, we happened upon a DVD store and bought two more videos...cheap entertainment for the evenings since we tend not to go out and hit the night club circuit. We have now added Batman Begins and School of Rock to our growing collection. We've stopped to blog on the way to dinner...haven't decided yet whether to do our usual takeout gyros or actually sit down at a restaurant....and I must say I'm not looking forward to days when where to eat dinner is not my biggest decision of the day...ah, vacation. <>

Bonus Blog: Answering Reader's FAQ

Hey there everyone!

We are on the sunny-but-not-swelteringly hot isle of Naxos, also in the Aegean. We've decided to set up camp here for four or five more days, and are enjoying the settled feeling that gives. Pictures and regular travel news to come...but first, since several of you have asked, here's a little update on our travel style/experience so far.

Overall: Great! From my (erin's) point of view, this vacation has been much less scheduled than any of my others, though I've realized as we jaunt about that Greece just doesn't lend itself to the style of travel that I've done in the past. (For example, there would have been no way to schedule this whole island part from the states....there are no authoritative ferry schedules on the internet, and most places we've stayed don't have websites, etc.)

Yes, there was a moment at the Reed's house before we left when we realized that one of us never travels with sleeping bags and sheets and the other always does...but I think we've found pretty cheap places that still provide us with all the essentials, so that's been good. Plus also, Loretta has a huge appreciation for air con., so she's been very happy that all our places have had that. (Of course, in Thessaloniki it barely worked, in keeping with our entire experience there...)

Lo watches bemusedly as I "settle" whenever we arrive at our room. (Gretchen and Deanna, I'm sure you remember that routine). I like to feel at home. She is always the first one packed and ready to go when it's time to leave, and patiently waits while I finish fussing with whatever I'm doing to be ready. She also has ideas that I would never have about what to do next (for example, we abandoned our entire itinerary up in Thessaloniki about going to an island up near there, took the fast train back to Athens, and started from scratch - all her idea), but I think it's safe to say that I've been pretty game and flexible as our plans change. I just asked her if this was true and she agreed, phew.

All of the comings and goings and flying by the seat of our pants have still made for a very relaxing vacation so far. I just wish I was winning more at cribbage. :)