More pics from Santorini

Santorini is amazingly beautiful and demanded lots of time spent behind the camera... here are some more pics of this gorgeous island.

Just a few steps outside our hotel lobby

Mostly no cars on these cliffs - there are a few roads, but not many actually inside the towns.

This is one of the ways to get up to the town from the sea- via donkey. Talk about "beast of burden"... I'm amazed PETA hasn't shut this down.

That's a swizzle stick in front of a setting sun... fun ways to entertain oneself!

Early Tuesday morning, waiting for our ride to the port to begin our wild crazy ride to Mykonos

See that white stuff on the top of the mountain?  That's one of the towns of Santorini - somewhere in that mass of white buildings is our hotel. This pic was taken from the port, 950 feet lower than the town.

Lemons to lemonade - Welcome to Santorini

When we got to the port of Heraklion yesterday, we learned our ferry service to Mykonos had been truncated, and they would only be taking us as far as Santorini.  About 30 minutes after I wrote about how calm the seas were (4 or 5 days ago), a strong northerly wind kicked up over the Aegean, and we got to enjoy some serious big surf.  Those same winds created havoc with the ferry operators, and without a whole lot of notice, they started canceling service left and right.

So, this isn't such bad news, as it turns out.  We originally wanted to come to Santorini, but the ferry schedules were funky and it wasn't all that easy to do, so we bagged it.  I believe that all the gods conspired to even the score for all the accumulated credits we've accrued over the years for canceled flights and messed up travel, and they paid us back with a night in Santorini.  Here are some pics of our afternoon and evening in Santorini.

Various views of Santorini from in and around our hotel

Our hotel

Santorini at night - utterly enchanting. The city is built on top of the remnants of a volcano rim that blew apart thousands of years ago - the eruption was huge, and is believed to have caused the collapse of the Minoan civilization.

Some tired guys

Such a life, this eating, drinking and sightseeing... we went back into Chania last night and had some more authentic Greek cuisine, this time in restaurant that was (many years ago) a Turkish bath.  You can see where our table is placed - its' right in the middle of what used to be the communal tub.  

A rare group picture

Like in the video below, we've done this ALOT over the last several days. The Greek wines are without fail delicious, well balanced, as good as any back home... and CHEAP!!!  5 or 6 Euros for a delicious bottle of local wine?  You can't beat it.

Falassarna Beach, or How we spent our summer vacation

They certainly do beaches right here - they have umbrellas and palapas and other shade structures (critically important for some of us, especially as the solstice approaches - even with the most careful application of sunblock, this sun burns right through). They serve excellent food and beverage (my favorite?  Slushies made with vodka!) and play more-or-less pleasant music, although we have yet to hear anybody playing authentic greek tunes - it's mostly Euro-house music.

Our home for the day - the sea is incredibly blue (and pretty damn cold!). Most of the sea surrounding Crete is very calm and features nearly glass-like surfaces, but we had some nice 4' surf here. It makes sense there would be some wave action here - next stop heading west is Tunisia.

Here's a map of the west end of Crete, with a red star showing where the beach is (click on the map to make it bigger).  We are staying in Chania, near the middle of the map.  Took about an hour's drive through some really beautiful countryside. Olive groves for days - and the little towns were charming beyond description.

Jeff didn't burn!  SPF 50, full shade and careful timing regarding how much time in the water saved him.

And then the day took a completely different turn, as we were totally charmed by Missa - the Beach Bar's new puppy.  10 weeks old, a complete sweetie pie (as George described her), full of energy and friendly as could be. The girl LOVES her greek food - and got plenty of it from her new American friends. It was difficult to say goodbye to this little love - but she bounded off to joyfully seek out her new best friends as we departed.

Gorging Ourselves in Crete

Jeff here again.

When we first started planning this trip, Mark told me about a 12 mile hike that one of his co-workers had recommended. Laughing, I shook my head and said, "have fun!" As we continued to do our research, however, I kept reading how the Samarian Gorge was one of the "must do singular experiences of Crete." With a slight bit of trepidation (I've twisted both of my ankles too many times to count), I agreed.

Julia, our amazing property manager at the villa, looked into bus schedules, and at 7:45am on Wednesday morning, Mark and I were on a bus heading to the Gorge. We felt better seeing the other hikers with us: some in tennis shoes, some older than us, some heavier than us, all of us excited. Throughout our journey, we interacted with various Brits, Germans, Russians, and even a few Americans. I'm sure there were Greeks there as well. Hundreds of people hiked the Gorge that day with us.

After 5 hours of hiking over rocks, rickety wood bridges, and a few short actual paths, we emerged from the Gorge victorious. While we waited for the ferry that would take us to our return bus, we drank what was one of the best beers we had ever drank, chugged a bottle of water, and ate a delicious gyro.

The pics that follow really do not do the Gorge justice. It is breath-takingly beautiful.

A sign less than a kilometer into the hike. Nothing like positive reinforcement to start off a 13km hike. 

Mark "representing" with Cretan gang symbols. 

We came across a clearing where literally thousand of small stone sculptures adorned the ground, as well as fallen tree trunks. 

The Gorge is celebrating it's 50th anniversary as a national park. These are the remnants of the settlement of Samaria, who were relocated when it became a national park. 

A siting of the elusive kri-kri, an endangered Cretan wild goat. Be afraid. Be very afraid!

Believe it or not, we are not holding each other up from sore limbs (Mark has a bad knee to go with my bad ankles) or exhaustion.

A view from the "slowest...ferry...EVER!" of the tiny port town of Loutro. 

Next stop, our villa home and an amazing meal cooked by a local chef!

Deep Thoughts by Jeff Fanselow*

*Note: None of these thoughts are particularly deep or as "quippy" as the ones by Jack Handley. They are, however, random thoughts by Jeff Fanselow about our experiences thus far in Greece.

• The people who said 2 days in Athens was enough are wrong! The people are as amazing as the sites and history. 

• The Greeks like to eat..ALOT! (especially Cretans)  We are definitely NOT going hungry. 
• U2's "Where the Streets Have No Name" could have been written about this place. Street signs are not readily available. When they are, you hear the Americans in us saying either, "what letter is that?" or "how the heck do you pronounce it?" Occasionally we'll add an "eh?" to the end of the statement so we can say we're from Canada, if necessary. 
• When people ask where we're from, we say, "San Francisco". Lots of smiles ensue. 
• Vacation is HIGHLY under-rated. We work way too hard and need to slow down. I guarantee all of our blood pressure levels have reduced significantly. :-)
• As such, I have yet to even check my work email (sorry Per and thanks for holding down the fort!)

The pic above is the band Thith practicing for their upcoming world tour. They play Slim's in San Francisco on August 3rd (yes, that's a shameless plug!)

• Raki (the Greek equivalent to grappa) starts off hard, warms your tummy, and then goes down smooth. It's also cheaper than crack! We bought a 1.5 litre bottle that a grocer had made for 5 euros. At a few of the restaurants, they bring it to your table when they bring you dessert, without you asking. They do NOT charge you for it. So while I don't know what the price of crack is, I do know that no one has ever brought free crack to my table at a restaurant before. (thank God!)
• Everyone should spend at least an hour a day (preferably more) in an outdoor pool in the sunshine - cocktails are optional though highly recommended!

• Sunsets are important!
• So are great friends to travel with - love yinz Mark, George, Jim, and John!

Details about the Samarian Gorge to follow within the next day or so. Stay tuned!

Thursday AM - Chania

Dinner last night was memorable, if for no other reason than we got to see how Cretans really do in fact eat ALOT... a WHOLE lot.  An ridiculous lot.  There were six of us, and there was easily enough food  prepared to serve somewhere between 18-24 people.  But it was a sumptuous feast, well deserved after a long, hot hike for Jeff and Mark (the rest of us also had a very difficult day too, lounging at the beach under umbrellas, getting served frosty drinks and food, and even getting a 30 minute massage for about 15 Euros... the good life indeed). The sea was warm and amazingly shallow - 100 yards out and we were still in waist deep water that was amazingly clean and clear...clearer than Hawaii.

 Sunrise in Chania

Our intrepid hikers.  Jeff promises to post to the blog with details and pictures of their hike. They left the house at 7:20 AM and got back a little after 8:00, just in time for dinner.

The start of our chef's dinner. She dressed the table with lavender, lemon verbena and mint. All the herbs here are very pungent - much more so than America, probably due to the poor soils they grow in.

The menu included Greek olives served with feta, a Greek version of a caprese salad (their tomatoes here are amazing - like home-grown garden tomatoes from the backyard), another savory salad that included watermelon and cucumber, stuffed calimari (huge animals, probably 2-3 feet, not the little ones like we get at home, so their was plenty of space to stuff deliciousness into the squid), shrimp linguine, a Greek version of panna cotta, and a cakey-coconuty desert made with mastic, topped with a candle to celebrate Jim's birthday (a few days early, but considering Jim's the guy who invented "birthday seasons", we figured, why not?)

The Chef

Jeff has promised a post detailing the adventure in the Sumerian Gorge - stay tuned...!