This was a perfect month for a look in my life. Mostly because it was super exciting. My wife and I took our first trip alone probably since our honeymoon and that was 30 years ago next month. We decided to celebrate a little early and headed to Venice in late April for a cruise down the Adriatic and into the Aegean with visits to Croatia, Montenegro, and Albania; along with a few stops in Greece, too. We ended the trip in Athens for a few days to rest before heading home.
The month started with a landing in Corfu. From there we took a hydroplane 30 minutes across to Albania. There we visited the ancient city of Burint.
Our penultimate stop was in Nafplion where we took a bus to Corinth where Paul wrote his letters to the Corinthians. There is a nice, small museum and the ruins of the agora and the court where Paul stood trial is right around it. This is the Temple of Apollo.
The cruise ended in Athens. We arrived on Orthodox Easter Sunday. While we missed most of the parties, the lambs were roasting on the pits for the Easter feasts, and we were able to peek inside some of the churches. All the official sites were closed for the holiday.
One night at dinner, we noticed a crowd on a hill next to the Acropolis and wondered what was going on. The next night, we saw a crowd again so decided to check it out. Turns out the crowd was there to watch the sunset. It was lovely.
We ran into this issue last time we were in Athens around this same time of year and thought I'd avoided it by being a week later; on May 1st they strike. It's a national holiday. Well, it turns out they didn't want to mess up Easter, so they pushed it back until after. So on Tuesday, we were also stuck with all the government run sites closed. We made the best of it and wandered around town. I downloaded a Rick Steeves walking tour that showed us some spots we might have missed. We found that the Panathenaic Stadium, the old Olympic stadium, is privately owned and was open. But mostly we strolled through the Athens National Gardens.
Here's a bonus selfie of us and the Parthenon.
It was a great trip. It was great to get back home. We've been inundated with rain though. May set a new record for wettest month. I can't wait until we can get away again. With over 600 photos from our two weeks, it was tough to pick out just a handful. The whole album is on my Flickr page. For more glimpses into the lives of random folks :) take a look at PJ's blog. Join in and show us what you got!
5 comments:
Spectacular photos, Mike! Wonderful to see you and your wife enjoying yourselves.
Sorry about the Greeks. There's always something with that government.
Love the photos for this month's theme. One of these years, I'll watch the sunset or rise from the Acropolis.
What a fabulous trip! I'm sure the photos don't do it justice. Congrats on getting away with just the two of you for a special time together
https://peripheralperceptions.wordpress.com/2024/05/30/may-photo-challenge-a-look-into-my-life/
Early happy 30th anniversary! The photos of your trip are simply beautiful. Questions - what did you think of cruising? how many passengers on the ship? would you consider another cruise to celebrate your 35th? Our first expedition cruise was to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary, also a little early. Next month, we're cruising in Greenland, a slightly early celebration of our 35 years together. Oh - did you find any geocaches in Greece?
This was our second cruise with Seabourn and my fourth cruise ever. Seabourn runs between 400-600 passengers so quite intimate. They have recently add two expedition ships that are a little smaller but do zodiac and kayak tours. We're going to look into those. We will definitely do another Seabourn. I'm considering an Eclipse Cruise for 2026 so I've been keeping my eyes open on those. I did an Earthcache in Croatia and found a micro in Montenegro. I didn't have any time in Albania.
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