Iraklion, Heraklion, Iraklio... Who knows!!!!

How many names can one place have??? Iraklion, Heraklion, Iraklio are all names given to the Capital city of the island of Crete, Greece. As we were making travel plans we were doing internet searches for hotels and things to do and the name kept changing. We never quite figured out why, but we did at least figure out what to search for.

I am a guest team member for Amy Watson this month and I've had so much fun using her templates & kit. I finished the following two pages from our afternoon at the Venetian Fortress in Iraklion.









































Credits for Venetian Fortress:
Jumpstarts #7 template by Amy Watson

http://digibydesign.com/cart/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=236&zenid=e462b7aca982c0f3c4396eaf53a9c60c

Perfectly Poppies kit by Amy Watson


http://digibydesign.com/cart/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=396&zenid=e462b7aca982c0f3c4396eaf53a9c60c
Photos by Matt & Angela

Kiting... and Greece...

We had great weather today. It started out rather cloudy and overcast, but the winds came up this afternoon. Matt was excited as he got to sail his new 10 meter EH kite which he prefers because it is a faster kite. I got some great photos of him jumping and also some good photos of some friends kiting. I want to do a great layout of a sequence of jumps that I caught this afternoon (hopefully tomorrow).

I also managed to finish a scrapbook page of our last day in Athens (June 18) before we headed out to Crete. I had forgotten just how busy we were during those days until I realized that it took me 3 double page layouts (or 6 pages) just to finish the day.

Because of this layout with the very large photo of the Acropolis, I am only going to show both pages together because it looks a little strange to see one page at a time.

{click to enlarge image}
Credits:
Based on a sketch by Page Maps
All papers, embelishments, alphabets (recolored) are from thedailyscrap.com's "Ides of March" kit
(I had originally bought this kit to do all the Athens photos, but I lost track of it and just found it)
Photos are from Matt & Angela

Journaling reads:

We made the trip back to Omonia Square to have chicken pitas at the Neon. We rested until about 6:00pm and then set out for Filopappous Hill with wine and cheese for a sunset shot of the Acropolis. After dinner at Stifros we boarded the metro back to our hotel. We enjoyed the view of the Acropolis from the rooftop of the restaurant.

Theater of Dionysis & Temple of Zeus - Athens, Greece

I finished another layout last night from our trip this last summer in Greece. I have almost finished all the layouts from our first couple of days in Athens. Its been tons of fun reliving all the wonderful places that we saw. The history is just incredible there.

We visited the Acropolis in the morning and then after a short break in the shade we walked to the base of the hill that the Acropolis stands on and visited the Theater of Dionysis. A short walk through the Plaka district of Athens stands the Temple of Zeus that was so amazing.

Here are both pages together from our afternoon on June 18.

{Click on image to enlarge}

Credits:
Based on a sketch by Becky Fleck
Papers & embellishments by Peppermint Creative "Twinkle Toes" kit
Vellum journal paper by Atomic Cupcake "Have & Hold" kit
Font: Trajan Pro
Photographs by Angela & Matt Shetzer

{Click on image to enlarge}

{Click on image to enlarge}

The journaling reads:
After a quick break and some water, we set out for the Theater of Dionysus. We walked around the perimeter of the Plaka area on our way to the Temple of Zeus. This amazing structure consists of only a few remaining columns but the size and details were amazing.

From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_of_Olympian_Zeus_%28Athens%29

The Temple of Olympian Zeus was began in the 6th century BC, but it was not completed until the reign of the Emperor Hadrian in the 2nd century AD. In the Hellenistic and Roman periods it was the largest temple in Greece.

The temple was built of marble from Mt Pentelicon. It consisted of 104 Corinthian columns, each 17 meters high, (about)2.6 meters in diameter, weighed (about) 802,363 pounds, of which 48 stood in triple rows under the pediments and 56 in double rows at the sides. Only 15 of these columns remain standing today. A 16th column was blown down during a gale in 1852 and is still lying where it fell.

Acropolis - June 18, 2007

We are still watching Tropical Depression Ingrid and she is looking like she might get a bit closer to us than we originally thought but we are not worried as she continues to stay weak.

Today we had lots of rain showers, thunder and lightening and managed to get thoroughly soaked on our walk home from dinner. It was a good thing we still had our bathing suits on under our clothes. Matt didn't get to kite today so no new pictures of him out. We went down to the beach for about half an hour before the rain and nasty clouds drove us in.

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Here is our trip to visit the fantastic Acropolis in Athens. We were amazed at the amount of reconstruction that was going on. As you can see in the picture of the Parthenon, there were cranes, scaffolding and workers everywhere.

Here are the two pages combined:

Credits:
Papers, Alphabet, Tag & Staples by Atomic Cupcake (Guy Thing Kit)
Arrows from an unknown designer
Based on a sketch by Suzanne Powell
Fonts are Hobo Std & Comic Sans
Photos by Angela & Matt Shetzer

Here is the first page in a bit more detail:


Here is page two in more detail:


Journaling on Page 2 reads:

Our second full day in Athens started with pastries and coffee at the corner bakery about 8:00am. We set out for the Acropolis hoping to beat the heat. We hopped on the red line metro and went 3 stops to the Acropolis. We left the metro and started up the beautiful grey cobblestone road. Matt found the place to check all of our backpacks as we started the climb into the area. We were amazed at the amount of reconstruction on the Parthenon and the Erechtheum as every structure was covered in scaffolding. We walked around the perimeter and looked in wonder at the wonderful structures.

The Parthenon is a temple of the Greek goddess Athena built in the 5th century BC on the Acropolis of Athens. On September 28, 1687, an Ottoman ammunition dump inside the building was ignited by Venetian bombardment. The resulting explosion severely damaged the Parthenon and its sculptures.

The Erechtheum, an ancient Greek temple on the north side of the Acropolis was built between 421 BC and 407 BC. On the north side, there is another large porch with columns, and on the south, the famous "porch of the maidens", with six draped female figures (caryatids) as supporting columns.

The Ladders!!!

I think most everyone knows that our hike through Switzerland in early August included some very challenging routes. Perhaps the most challenging (mentally that is) was the day that we left Cabane Des Dix perched high among the glaciers and hiked to the small town of Arolla.

The day started out by spending over an hour crossing the glacier (which from above looked to be just some small piles of rocks). It was very nerve racking as the rocks shifted in the glacial ice under our feet. We were cautious to stay on the marked path to be sure that we didn't run across any crevasses that could be dangerous. After crossing the glacier, we climbed up the rocky, steep Pas de Chevres and were met with the 70 foot section of iron ladders mounted into the vertical rock face. Needless to day, I (Angela) was about to hyperventilate at this point.

Here are a coouple of photos that Matt of me while I climbed up the laddders (and I do mean ladders plural as you had to cross from one ladder to another about 10 feet away from the top). That is me with the light blue fleece on.




Here is a link to the gallery where I've posted all the photos from the ladders. There are pictures of me and also of some friends that were climbing right in front of us.

http://picasaweb.google.com/ARShetzer/HauteRoutePhotos

Boy was I glad when that morning was over!!

Catching up... & a new scrapbook page from this summer in Athens

Its been a quiet day here today with very little wind so very little beach time and lots of time to scrap. We're not sure if Tropical Depression Ingrid is messing up our wind pattern or not.

I wanted to share a couple photos that I took of Matt's new birthday present (Yes, I know its about a month late!). He got a new 10 meter kite for his birthday to let him sail on windier days. His old kites weren't quite enough to let him sail at all times.

Here he is checking it out in the middle of our apartment.

And... Yes, it folds up to be very compact:
Here are a couple more photos from the past week that I haven't gotten posted yet:

Matt enjoying the beach and waiting for the wind:


Matt & Damien playing with their "inflatable pool toys" on a very light wind day yesterday:


I've finished another layout from our first full day in Athens. I should have another layout to do and that will finish up our first full day there. Boy, I'm never going to get done at this rate.

Here are the two pages joined together:

Credits:
Based on a double page sketch by Chris Greiser
Papers, flowers, brads from Traci Sims' kit "Be Free"
Photos by Angela & Matt Shetzer
Fonts: Arial, Century Gothic & Engravers MT

Here is the first page:

Here is the second page:

The journaling reads:

We then headed to the flea market at Monastiriki where we wandered around and stumbled upon the Ancient Agora site. After a great traditional Greek lunch of assorted Greek foods, we set out for the Agora. We visited the Temple of Hephaistos and the Stoa of Attalos. We were trying to figure out what the impressive structure high on the hill was and finally we determined it was the Acropolis.

“The Agora was the heart of ancient Athens, the focus of political, commercial, administrative and social activity, the religious and cultural centre, and the seat of justice. The site was occupied without interruption in all periods of the city's history. It was used as a residential and burial area as early as the Late Neolithic period (3000 B.C.). Early in the 6th century, in the time of Solon, the Agora became a public area.” From: http://odysseus.culture.gr

Just another beautiful day in the Caribean...

With Matt in school for the last five days, I've had lots of time to scrap and finally have started on our trip from this summer.

The first two pages are a double layout that will serve as the overview for the trip with a couple of highlight pictures from each country. We've been asked several times on our itinerary and here it is:
June 15 - July 24 in Greece (June 15 to July 4, we were joined by Kim to tour around the mainland and the islands)
July 24 - July 30 in England where Matt showed me around all the sites
July 30 - August 14 in Switzerland for the Haute Route hike
August 14 - August 26 in Egypt with the rest of the Shetzer clan for a family reunion

It looks a little strange in the middle because of joining two separate pages into this one file, but I think you get the gist!!

Remember to click on it to enlarge in another window so you can read the journaling.

Credits:
Based on double page sketch by Connie Petertonjes
All papers and embellishments by CottageArts.net (most from Autumn Breeze Kit)

End of our summer holiday...

Well, we are packing up and preparing to leave Cairo on Sunday morning (Saturday evening in the US). We'll fly to NY and then on the Denver late on Sunday night (over 24 hours of traveling). We'll have a very hectic 48 hours as we prepare to go to Dominican on Tuesday evening.

We promise to do lots more pictures once we get to Dominican and we have some time.

Just wanted to share another photo from the pyramids at Giza of the Shetzer family.
Just the father and son's pyramids are pictured here.

August 15 - Cairo, Egypt

We arrived late in the evening (August 14) from Geneva, Switzerland and were met by our tour company as soon as the plane landed. We drove over an hour from the airport to our hotel (Le Meridien in Giza) and marveled at how horrible the Cairo traffic was. We would later learn that although there are some traffic signals in Cairo, they are not used and there are no rules of the road. Also about 95% of all cars driven do not have insurance.

We started out the next day by visiting the old town of Memphis and its open air museum. The city of Memphis was the capital of Egypt and was founded around 3100 BC. This is a photo of us in front of the sphinx weighing in about 80 tons.

We then made our way to the Step Pyramid of Saqqara. This is the pyramid of Djoser built around 2600 BC. Until this time, all royal tombs had been built underground using one flat layer of mud brick. This structure represented six layers of stone instead of mud brick and starts to form the pyramid shape that we are familiar with.

Our last stop of the day was to the ancient burial grounds of Giza on the west bank of the Nile across from Cairo. These three pyramids were constructed between 2686 - 2181 BC for three kings.

From left to right:
The Great Pyramid for King Khufu
The Pyramid of Khafre (son of Khufu) - It is actually shorter than his fathers although it doesn't appear so
The Pyramid of Menkaure (the grandson of Khufu)

Here is a close up of the second pyramid (and yes, the camel patrols around it). If you notice the top of this pyramid seems to be very smooth in comparison to the rest of the pyramid. This is the way the pyramids were all built, however later on, the covering of the pyramids was striped and it was used to line aquaducts for the ancient cities.

And last but not least is the Guardian of the Giza plateau, the Sphinx. This huge statue was supposedly used to scare away would be grave robbers from the tombs of the kings behind in the pyramids. Needless to say, it didn't work.

We've made it to England

Sorry for not posting sooner, but we have been in England for a couple of days (along with the rain). England is having its the wettest summer in recent history but we are enjoying getting out of the heat wave that plagued Greece. Its a wonderful change to see green and clouds.

Pat and Ian have made us feel at home in their lovely home just outside of London. We've already toured Windsor castle (the queen's weekend residence) and we braved the weather for a day trip into London to visit Westminster Abbey yesterday.

Tomorrow we are heading into London and will stay the night there to tour London on Friday and Saturday. We'll return to their home on Saturday evening for a couple more nights before heading out to Switzerland for our hike on Monday.

I'll try to post some more pictures soon.

A couple of general observations & travel habits...

I wanted to take a break from all the wonderful photos of showing you the history here in Greece to talk a little about the country itself and some strange travel habits that have developed.

You will note that the picture below is of some ancient 6th century BC ruins (Epidavros to be exact), but that is not why we took this picture. See those little white fluffy things in the sky (otherwise known as clouds)???? This picture was taken by us in amazement as those two little fluffy things were the first clouds that we have seen in Greece since we arrived (over a month ago). Imagine a country that not only has not received a drop of rain in over a month, but also has had the sun beating down on it without the benefit of cloud cover. While we haven't quite figured out if this is normal or not, we don't think it is because of all the fires around Athens (there are fires burning there again today).



This next picture has to have all credit going to Katelyn for a terrific idea!!!

As many of you know, Katelyn likes to have "raggie" around. Well, Auntie "G" has very quickly adopted this practice while in Greece as shown by the picture below. It is amazing the uses that "raggie" has had while here. Its a great swimsuit cover up, guard against the hot sun & the pesky sunburn (which as you now know, never stops shinning), its a warm wrap at night, etc, etc.. Matt has asked her to stop sleeping with it, but we'll see how that goes. And yes, I do have clothes on underneath, we decided that "raggie" needed to be worn a bit differently for pictures as it looks like I'm ready for the toga party. Needless to say, "raggie" must go everywhere!!!

This picture was at a medieval castle in Nafplio, I am standing outside the prison door. Boy it sucked to be a prisoner in those days.

July 10 - Delos Island, Greece

We took a daytrip from Paros to the islands of Delos and Mykonos. We really enjoyed Delos and wished we could have spent an entire day there instead of going on to Mykonos (advice for future travelers). Delos is a very small rocky dry uninhabited island just off the coast of Mykonos. It is said to be the birthplace of the Gods Apollo and his sister, Artemis.

Here are a couple of links for more info on this fabulous World Heritage Site:

http://www.greeka.com/cyclades/mykonos/mykonos-delos.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delos

Here are a couple of our favorite photos from our couple of hours there.

Yes, this is a picture of what you think it is (or at least a part of it). The Greeks were very much into worshiping fertility. Notice the shape of the head and body of the bird on the left side of the base of the monument. Yep... It is what you think it is also. The tour guide confirmed this as he told us the birds name was Di__Head.... I'll let you fill in the blanks.

As many of you might know, Angela loves the floor mosaics. Its amazing that these can survive intact from 200 - 300 BC.

This mosaic and column structure was from one of the mansions of the time.

This is the famous house of dolphins mosaic (only a close up of one corner, it was amazing!).
This is another excerpt from a mosaic.


This is the famous lions all lined up in a perpetual roar alongside the sacred way of town.
One of the many surviving temples. Its amazing to think these structures have been standing on this island for thousands of years.

And last but not least, Angela navigating once again!!!

July 4 to July 11 - Paros island, Greece

Here are a couple of photos from our relaxing week in Paros. We spent a lot of time hanging out and exploring so we don't have as many pictures from this island as we do the others.

We took the bus up to the Northern Coast of the island to a small harbour town called Naoussa. It was a quaint harbor town full of the typical greek island architecture of whitewashed houses with blue doors & window shades.

This photo was also in the same harbor. It was a really windy day with lots of waves crashing over the sea wall. We were unable to visit the sinking 14th century castle shown in this picture, as Angela was having no part of walking on that wall with waves crashing everywhere.

A couple of days later we rented a 4 wheel ATV and went cruising around the western side of the island. On our way back to our hotel, we stopped at a place called Butterfly Valley. It was amazing to see all of these beautiful butterflies in this area. Click on the Butterfly Valley link above for more information.



And Yes, Matt does look pretty proud of himself here. Have I mentioned that it is windy on Paros??? Well, lets just say that a powdered sugar donut and wind do not always mix well.... Or, I guess I should add that if your goal is to soak your spouse in powdered sugar, then Matt should get an A+. Note the powdered sugar EVERYWHERE!!!!

Boy... Its been 10 days since we've last posted... Sorry!!!

Well, we've had a very busy last week and a half.

The last time we checked in, we had just arrived in the island of Paros in the Cycladic chain of the Greece islands. We spent a week in Paros enjoying the laid back island and the beaches. While there we rented a 4 wheeler ATV a couple of days to explore kite beach for Matt and to check out Golden Beach on the east side of the island. We also braved the bus (so much better this time) to check out the Northern port city of Noussau.

We had wanted to visit the island of Delos earlier in our trip but had not been able to put it together. We were finally able to visit this wonderful archealogical site and the island of Mykonos with it. While Mykonos was not exactly our type of island (a bit too touristy), we loved Delos and would recommend that anyone visiting Greece must visit this archealogical sanctuary. We spent 2 1/2 hours and wished we had the whole day as the ancient trading city was wonderful. The island itself is just off the coast of Mykonos (and very windy), with no lodging, towns or anything else on this small island.

On Wednesday, July 11, we left the islands to head back to mainland Greece to start our tour of the Pelopenesse. The ferry was the busiest that we had seen and very hot so it was a long 4+ hours back. Angela was quite glad to have traveled well on it and not to be sick. We rented a car from Thrifty and they met at the port of Pireaus with it. We then had to negotiate our way out to the Pelopenesse peninsula. It was a wild ride with traffic going everywhere. We discovered that red roads were OK, that dark purple roads were fantastic (equivalent of our interstates), and it was easy to get lost even with a map that had both Greek and English on it. Overall, we made it to our first stop of Ancient Corinth. We decided not to prebook anything on this trip so we found a rooms to let (and not that is not Rooms & Toilet as Angela first thought)!!!

We had an early dinner and set out to explore the ruins of Ancient Corinth the next morning. We also visited the Acro Corinth, or the castle up on the hill. It had wonderful walls set high above the town. There were very few people and the sites were wonderful. Afterwards, we set out to explore the Corinth Channel built for shipping. It was amazing as it was built in the 1800's and sad that it is now obsolete due to the size of today's mega ships. We then set out to view the theater at Epidavros. It was built in the 1200's and is still in use today. We then set out for our stopping place for the night in Nafplio (Yes, we don't know how to pronounce it either).

We explored Nafplio and then set out to explore the Palamida which was the castle on the hill. It was actually a collection of 4 castles that could be defended against each other if needed. It was amazingly intact and a great walk. We then drove north to visit the 2500 BC ruins of Mycenae. There were mostly foundations left so it was a little hard to get the entire picture of the town, but the hilltop setting and the size of the sight were impressive. We then hopped in the car to make the 4 hour drive down to the SouthEast coast to the medival walled city of Momenvasia. It was wonderful once we finally got there. There were a number of U-turns as we later discovered that part of the road we wanted was gone due to road construction. We spent the next two nights in Momenvasia exploring the old town (both upper and lower town) and the new town.

Today, the 15th, we headed out for the long drive across the Pelopenesse to Ancient Olympia. We made the 4.5 drive with no Uturns and only got mildly lost in one city!!! Not too bad of a day. We have discovered that even though the map may show a bolded red road, there is no guarantee that you will not meet a very large bus on a one lane bridge that causes you to backup and get out of his way!! Overall, the drive was pretty smooth although the mountain passes were very narrow and steeply dropping off on one side. Its not exactly our idea of THE major road that crosses from East to West, its more like our back country roads in Colorado.

We are planning to be here another night at least so we can explore the site and museum tomorrow. From there we'll head north and see where we end up. The only requirement is that we are back in Athens on the 23rd for our flight to London to visit Pat & Ian. We are really looking forward to London.

I'll get some photos ready hopefully tonight or tomorrow and share them with you.

We have really enjoyed our time here in Greece although we think the week that we have left is just about right.

Later -
Angela & Matt

July 5 update from Paros Island - Greece

Hope everyone had a great 4^th of July.

Just a quick note now that we have internet again. Internet is becoming far less available so please bear with us as our postings will get a little less often.

We’ve just finished 4 nights on the beautiful island of Santorini in the Cyclades Island area. It was a 2 hour ferry ride from Naxos island.

Santorini is a very unique island in that it was shaped by volcanic eruption and the middle is now a huge caldera filled with ocean. We stayed in Oia (pronounced E-Ah) on the northern coast of the island. It was perched very high on the red lava cliffs and the white town buildings cascaded down the hillside.

Oia is known for its beautiful sunsets across the caldera of the island. Here is one from June 30.

We enjoyed relaxing in the town and then Matt and I rented a 4 wheeler to explore the island. We set out for the 3^rd-4^th century BC ruins of Ancient Thira. We had a great time climbing to the top of the mountain that commanded a wonderful view of the ocean and island.

Angela on the ATV

Matt had a great time photographing the village in the morning before the crowds came. Here is a shot from our last morning on the island, July 4. And yes, Angela has enjoyed all of the cats roaming all of the islands.

Kim headed back home yesterday, so now it is just Matt and I exploring. We are now in the island of Paros in the capital, Paroikia. We took a 3 hour ferry from Santorini to here. We have a wonderful beachfront hotel with a wonderful view of the sea out of our balcony. Today is a catch up day as we do laundry and explore the town a bit.

We are planning on exploring the island tomorrow via 4 wheeler. There are several towns and beaches that we want to explore, including the kite boarding beach for Matt. We will be here for 5 nights and then we aren’t sure where we are headed. We know that we want to explore the Pelopenesse peninsula on the mainland and will spend about a week there, but not sure what we will do the other week.

June 28 - Naxos Island - Beach & Relaxation

We started out today by taking a taxi down to the Plaka beach area about 15 minutes south of Naxos town. We had a nice relaxing day enjoying the swim and the beach umbrella's. We braved the bus back to Naxos town and it wasn't as bad as the Aegina bus.

After a rest at our hotel in the afternoon, Matt and I set out to take some sunset shots at the Temple of Apollo near the port. We weren't the only ones with that idea as it became rather busy around sunset and we struggled to get photos without other people in them. Needless to say, it was quite beautiful and easy to see why it was so popular.


We did manage to get some good photos of the marvelous orange sunset. The door to the temple provided a perfect frame for the sunset.