Samaria Gorge - June 20, 2007

Here are a couple of pages that I did from pictures of our Samaria Gorge hike in Crete (Greece).

Here is a bit more information on this beautiful gorge: (From http://www.west-crete.com/samaria-gorge.htm)

The gorge of Samaria is not 18 km long (the 18 km refers to the distance between the settlement of Omalos on the northern side of the plateau and the village of Agia Roumeli) but is 16 km long, starting at an altitude of 1250m and taking you all the way down to the shores of the Libyan sea in Agia Roumeli. The walk through the National Park of Samaria is 13 km but you will have to walk the extra 3 km to Agia Roumeli from the exit of the National Park making it 16 km.

The very narrow passage near the end of the gorge is often called the "Iron Gates". None of the former inhabitants of Samaria know why the place suddenly got this name. They were always known by the locals as "Portes" which means "doors" or "gates", but certainly no "Iron" anywhere!

Samaria is said to be the longest gorge in Europe. I am not sure about this. As far as I know the "gorges du Verdon" in South France are a little over 20 km in length. Similarly, the gorge of Tripiti which runs west of the gorge of Samaria is about as long, but almost nobody knows it.

The gorge of Samaria is situated in the National park of Samaria, in the White Mountains in West Crete.
The park is supervised by the Department of Forestry and the gorge is generally open only from the beginning of May to the end of October. In winter, high water makes the gorge dangerous and impassable. It will also be closed on rainy days (too dangerous because of rock falls)

You have to pay an entrance fee of Euro 5.00 to enter the park (free to children under 15, half price to students).

So what do you get for your 5 Euro? The path is maintained and is substantially better than "normal" paths in Crete. There are guards along the way (in radio contact with each other) who will help you in case of trouble or injury. There is also a doctor stationed in the abandoned village of Samaria. There are well-maintained springs on the way so that you do not have to carry much water. There are toilets in several places and plenty of rubbish bins. You find surprisingly little litter, considering the amount of people passing through every day.

You also get a set of rules, aimed at protecting the park and making the experience safe and pleasant for everyone.

The gorge is open only during the day time and if you want to start walking in the afternoon you will only be allowed in up to a certain point. The guards want to make sure that everybody who walks in also gets out before nightfall. This is the reason why they ask you to present your ticket on the way out as it (supposedly) enables them to know if there is anyone still in the park at night.

Credits for Samaria Gorge:
Template by Di Hickman for November {http://dihickman.blogspot.com}
All papers, ribbons, brads & alphabet from thedailyscrap's Ides of March kit
Green vellum by Digi Debz's Aubrey kit
Font: Book Antiqua with Satin effects
Photos by Angela, Matt & Kim

Knosses Palace - June 22, 2007

I recently was lucky enough to become a creative team member for Kara Jones at KJoi Studios. She is a fantastic designer and I just had to use her kit "Coral Flower" to scrap some more photos of our trip this summer.

Here is a preview of the fabulous kit, available here:



All of Kara's designs can be seen here: http://kjoistudios.com/shop/index.php?main_page=index&manufacturers_id=1

These two layouts are from the couple of days that we spent in the Heraklion (the capital city of Crete) Greece. For those up on their mythology "The place of the myth of the Labrinth, an elaborate mazelike structure constructed for King Minos of Crete and designed by the legendary artificer Daedalius to hold the Minotaur, a creature that was half man and half bull and was eventually killed by the Athenian hero, Thesus."

Credits for Knossos Palace:
All papers, ribbons, button, flowers, staples, tape & tags by Kara Jones' "Coral Flower" kit at KJoi Studios {http://kjoistudios.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=19}
Double page template by Chris Greiser {http://sketchmeifyoucan.blogspot.com/}
Photos by Angela & Matt
Font: Kristen ITC & Goudy Stout (for title)

Journaling Reads:
The place of the myth of the Labrinth, an elaborate mazelike structure constructed for King Minos of Crete and designed by the legendary artificer Daedalius to hold the Minotaur, a creature that was half man and half bull and was eventually killed by the Athenian hero, Thesus.

Rain, Rain... Go away

Darn it, I missed a post yesterday... So much for my record of consecutive postings... As I'm sure you can guess, no change in weather yesterday. We did have a great dinner with friends last night at LAX (Can't beat the 2 for 1 pizza & mojito specials).

Well, its still raining here... and we are still inside!! Here is what our weather looks like now, yucky and rainy with more on the way.

I took advantage of our time inside and completed a couple more scrapbook pages from our trip this summer. I killed two birds with one stone and also completed my first template challenge at www.makeitscrappy.com.

Here is page one from our last day in Chania on the Greek island Crete. This beautiful harbor town is on the Northwest coast of Crete.

Credits:
Template by Tracy Drane for makeitscrappy.com template challenge (oct 14);
Papers; ribbons; alphabet; & brads from "Ides of March" collaborative kit from thedailyscrap.com;
Photo by Matt;
Font: Stencil STD;

Journaling reads:;
June 21; 2007 - Despite being heavily bombed during World War II Chania's Old Town is considered the most beautiful urban district on Crete; especially the crumbling Venetian harbour.; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chania

Here is the second page from the same day. The photos are showing the narrow cobbled streets, the lighthouse at the mouth of the harbor and a very cool old door.

Credits:
Template by Tracy Drane for makeitscrappy.com template challenge (oct 14)
Papers, flowers, buttons, & alphabet from "Ides of March" collaborative kit from thedailyscrap.com
Photo by MPS & ARS
Font: Stencil STD

Journaling reads:
We met for breakfast at 9:00am at the hotel and then set out for the harbor area in Chania. We walked along the boardwalk and stopped for coffee & ice cream at one of the many sidewalk cafés. We explored the Venetian area with its narrow cobblestoned streets and cute shops. After lunch we got into the car for the drive back to Iraklion. Matt drove as Kim and Angela attempted to navigate. So are on this trip, we had been very surprised and happy to see both Greek and English signage everywhere (including the road signs). Our luck ran out in Iraklion where all the street signs were in Greek only and our maps were only in English. We had instructions from the hotel that we tried to follow, however, we were unsure of what the phrase “go above the bridge” meant so we didn’t take the bridge (i.e. overpass) and ended up circling the old town for quite some time before we finally found our way back to the original road. We then took the overpass and found the hotel easily. Now parking was another matter, we had found the hotel, but typical of Europe, there was NO parking anywhere around it and of course no large parking lot. Angela got out of the car and ran inside the Galaxy hotel to see where we should park. A fantastic hotel assistant came out and directed Matt to park on a corner and he would move the car later. We decided NO more driving until we left for the airport.

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.

*************************************************************************************

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.

Another scrapbook page from Athens, Greece

I finished up another couple of pages late last night that should finish up our first full day in Athens. We finished up this hot, busy day by climbing up Filopappou Hill to view the Acropolis. I think we all agreed that this was probably our favorite spot in Athens. Very quiet and fantastic views!!

This is the combination of the two pages.

Credits:
Based on a sketch by Becky Fleck
Papers and all embellishments by cottagearts.net (Fall Flutter kit)
Alphabet by cottagearts.net (Chip Square)
Photos by Angela & Matt Shetzer
Font: Georgia


Here is page 1 in more detail

Here is page 2 in more detail.

Journaling reads:
The day was very hot so we decided to go back to the hotel for a rest about 2:30 in the afternoon. After naps and showers we set out for the Acropolis area of the metro. We walked around the base and then up the Filopappous hill for a wonderful 360 degree view of Athens (boy was the city a huge maze of white concrete buildings) and the Acropolis.
On our way down we stopped at the Café Dyonasis for coffee & beer. We sat on the wonderful terrace and watched the Acropolis glow with the setting sun. We set out for the Gazi area to find the restaurant Mamacas that Kim had heard of. We figured out what metro stop we thought was closest but weren’t too sure where to go when we came out of the metro. We started to look at a map as Matt noticed that the restaurant was immediately across the street from the metro stop. We had a long relaxing dinner outside on the terrace and started towards home about 12:15am to find the subway closed. A very nice Greek man and his son directed us back to Omonia Square (about a 30 min walk). We were amazed at the traffic and people out at that time.

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

Syntagma Square - Athens, Greece

Well, I'm finally getting into the swing of things and really figuring out my new organizing program (ACDSee) for scrapbooking and its working nicely. I'm finally able to scan the 100's of gig's of digital scrapbooking kits that I have and find the perfect one to use on a layout.

I've started on our trip this past summer since everything is still really fresh and I can remember it all (or at least most with the help of my journal).

This layout is another double page layout (they look so much better when printed in the books when the pages coordinate with each other). Here is what it looks like when joined together:

Credits:

Based on a 2 page sketch by Connie Petertonjes
Papers, alphabet and elements from Traci Sim's Firewater kit (http://www.your-digital-dream.com)
Font is Kartika
Photos by Angela & Matt Shetzer

Here is the first page in a bit more detail: And here is page 2 in a bit more detail.
Since its a bit small, here is what the journaling says on page 1:

We started out our first day in Athens with great pastries and coffee. Our first stop was to visit the changing of the guards at Syntagma Square in front of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. It was quite confusing as police officers were yelling and blowing their whistles to move the crowd in multiple directions. They could not seem to make up their minds. We watched the parade and the replacing of the soldiers.

Here is more information from http://greece-travel.suite101.com:

In Greece, every male devotes two years to military service. The Evzones, those chosen for Ceremonial duty, represent the best of the best. To be chosen, they must stand over six feet tall and have the ability to remain motionless for extended periods of time. While on duty the soldiers stand with back straight, head held high for hours. Although they can call their superior for help by banging the butt of their rifle sharply on the ground, even that motion is barely noticeable. As the sound cracks across the Square, a superior officer appears to straighten a tassel or scratch a nose. The Evzones are so good that barely an eyelash flickers when a small child posing for a photo reaches up for the guard’s hand. Since the Ceremony is for the public, the Evzones dress in traditional Greek uniforms worn by mountain fighters in the War of Independence. This consists of a kilt, a shirt with flowing sleeves, a form fitting vest, wool leggings with tasselled garters and hobnail shoes with pompoms on the toes. A fez sporting a long tassel on one side tops off the outfit.

If you are interested in downloading any of these layouts, I've created a separate album on picasa where I will be uploading each finished page. http://picasaweb.google.com/ARShetzer/2007EuropeScrapbookPages

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.