Last time we wrote to you we were on our way to Athens. Yes, that was a long time ago, and we do apologize for the delay--again! Only a few more weeks of travelling left, so this may end up being one of the last posts! Greece and London below--enjoy!
Greece; May 2 to 8
We took a quick flight from Rome to Athens on the 2nd of May. Originally the plan was to take a train down to the coast of Italy, where we would catch a ferry and start our "Greek Island Hopping" portion of our trip, since we do hear so much about this type of travel. Well, for your information, Island Hopping in Greece, especially outside of peak tourist season of July/August, is not as simply as it sounds!! We were essentially unable to navigate our way by boat from Italy down to Crete (where we had another flight booked back to London), so we ended up doing the cheater version of travel and jumping on a plane from Italy.
We arrived into Athens later in the day, so essentially didn't accomplish much other than taking a nice walk around the harbour, enjoying our first (of many!!) gyros on a patio and managed to meet up with Ang's cousin Susannah, who decided to come for round two of Majoros travels. The very next morning we caught the early ferry from Pireaus (just outside of Athens) down to Santorini. We spent three days on Santorini and really really enjoyed ourselves. Most importantly we got some hot weather! The temperature has been between 10 and 18 degrees for most of the time we have traveled in Europe. It was nice to finally sit in the hot sun by the pool we assumed we would have been doing for a lot of our time in Europe during Spring.
After a seven hour ferry ride, we arrived at the island of Santorini. Santorini is a small island, built by lots of volcanic activity over the years. The views are amazing from essentially anywhere on the island--blue blue water as far as the eye can see! We rented a car and toured around, stopping at both the black and red beaches, and visited a wine museum showcasing the wine industry on Santorini. We enjoyed many a beautiful sunset from the balcony of our hotel,and sampled some of the best greek food we have ever eaten before. We took a boat trip out to climb atop the volcano just off the coat of Santorini. At the small island beside the volcano, there was a "hot spring" we could go swimming in after we went to the volcano. It was more of a mildly warm spring as the water was not very hot. It was different than the previous hot springs we visited as tourists had to swing 15 meters from the boat to the hot spring on the side of the island. This was fun and only a few tourists had to be fished out while swimming back to the boat, so it worked out for the best. The volcano is technically still active (reminded us a lot of the geothermal areas of New Zealand!) and it was neat to see how the island has been shaped by these different eruptions. Our final event on Santorini involved a 12km walk along the ridge of the island, from the main town (where we were staying) down to a little fishing village, renowned for their sunsets. We enjoyed some delicious seafood right at the port, and this was a great way to top off our time on this island.
Our island hopping adventure took us from Santorini to Crete, one of the biggest Greek islands. We stayed in two separate towns on Crete, and got to cover a lot of this beautiful island. Our first day, we took the bus out to a local archaeology site called Knossos. This was apparently the home of King Minos and where the stories of the Minotar originated from. This is apparently the location of the first people in Europe, and they have done a good job of reconstructing some of the sections and with the help of our tour guide, we were able to piece together what historians believe to have gone on in this area. We took a bus essentially all the way across the island, to the town of Chania. This is a picturesque little port town, and we really enjoyed soaking in the sunshine as well as the culture. Our final Greek day was spent where all Greek days should be spent--on the beach! We enjoyed the sun and then took a late flight out to London, for our second (but not final!) stop in London.
London, England; May 8 to May 14
You may be asking yourselves, why did they end up back in London again?? Well, we had two good reasons (three if you count Susannah and Patrick!!), so read on to find out why!!
We arrived late late late from Crete, but had to be up in early early in the morning, because we were going to meet THE QUEEN!! Yes, you read this right! Susannah might have the worlds greatest job. She works as a clerk in the House of Lords for the UK Parliament, and was able to get us tickets into her building for the opening of parliament. Every year or so, they have a fancy gathering to open parliament, and the big feature of this is that the Queen comes and reads a speech about what will be accomplished in the next term. We weren't sure how big of a deal this would be, but when we could barely walk out of the subway station without having our tickets and passport out to prove we were allowed through the barricade, we knew this was going to be cool. There were women wearing fascinators, men in white wigs and of course soldiers in big black British hats! This was likely the coolest thing we have done on our trip thus far, and we have to send a major thanks to Susannah for arranging all of this!! Anyways, I'll leave the rest of this story to the pictures.
We then had two days to tour London, seeing the sites. We did lots of walking, including some Rick Steves tours, as well as hitting up the Tower of London and the British Museum. Aunt Maureen was in London for one afternoon, so we made a second trip to Parliament and enjoyed a drink on the terrace overlooking the Thames. We were able to meet up for drinks and dinner with some of the girls we met on our cruise in Australia who live in London, so that was a special treat! Our Friday night was an extra special addition to our time in London--we got tickets to the Wizard of Oz! This was an amazing show, and its always fun to take in the theater in London.
Now Saturday was our second reason for returning to London--we got tickets to the Rugby 7s tournament at Twickenham in London. Steve originally thought this would be fun because of the rugby, but when we got to London we learned that this is actually a huge day of partying. The theme this year was 70's disco, and boy did they ever do this well! There is no Halloween in England (well, not celebrated by adults anyways) and apparently this is just a shame--cause the costumes at the rugby were intense! It was if we were at a costume party for fifty thousand people and a rugby tournament was going on in the middle. Although Canada didn't play at this event (there are about 12 different rugby 7's events making up the whole tournament, and for some reason Canada didn't participate in this event) we had a great day enjoying the sport as well as the atmosphere. People in Britain are also allowed to drink beer on the street! Everyone had beers in their hand as they walked to the stadium. No brown bags needed here. We will post these pics shortly--they are on another camera and we have to upload them!!
More adventures to follow--we just spent three days in Krakow, Poland and are enjoying our first day in Prague right now! We also have run into another holiday weekend in Europe. The Czech Beer fest in Prague! One Alex Street has made the bold claim that the Czech make the best beer in Europe so we should be in for a treat.
Greece; May 2 to 8
We took a quick flight from Rome to Athens on the 2nd of May. Originally the plan was to take a train down to the coast of Italy, where we would catch a ferry and start our "Greek Island Hopping" portion of our trip, since we do hear so much about this type of travel. Well, for your information, Island Hopping in Greece, especially outside of peak tourist season of July/August, is not as simply as it sounds!! We were essentially unable to navigate our way by boat from Italy down to Crete (where we had another flight booked back to London), so we ended up doing the cheater version of travel and jumping on a plane from Italy.
We arrived into Athens later in the day, so essentially didn't accomplish much other than taking a nice walk around the harbour, enjoying our first (of many!!) gyros on a patio and managed to meet up with Ang's cousin Susannah, who decided to come for round two of Majoros travels. The very next morning we caught the early ferry from Pireaus (just outside of Athens) down to Santorini. We spent three days on Santorini and really really enjoyed ourselves. Most importantly we got some hot weather! The temperature has been between 10 and 18 degrees for most of the time we have traveled in Europe. It was nice to finally sit in the hot sun by the pool we assumed we would have been doing for a lot of our time in Europe during Spring.
After a seven hour ferry ride, we arrived at the island of Santorini. Santorini is a small island, built by lots of volcanic activity over the years. The views are amazing from essentially anywhere on the island--blue blue water as far as the eye can see! We rented a car and toured around, stopping at both the black and red beaches, and visited a wine museum showcasing the wine industry on Santorini. We enjoyed many a beautiful sunset from the balcony of our hotel,and sampled some of the best greek food we have ever eaten before. We took a boat trip out to climb atop the volcano just off the coat of Santorini. At the small island beside the volcano, there was a "hot spring" we could go swimming in after we went to the volcano. It was more of a mildly warm spring as the water was not very hot. It was different than the previous hot springs we visited as tourists had to swing 15 meters from the boat to the hot spring on the side of the island. This was fun and only a few tourists had to be fished out while swimming back to the boat, so it worked out for the best. The volcano is technically still active (reminded us a lot of the geothermal areas of New Zealand!) and it was neat to see how the island has been shaped by these different eruptions. Our final event on Santorini involved a 12km walk along the ridge of the island, from the main town (where we were staying) down to a little fishing village, renowned for their sunsets. We enjoyed some delicious seafood right at the port, and this was a great way to top off our time on this island.
 |
| View from the ferry as we are coming into port. You can see that Santorini is an island, with steep cliff faces all around. The white dots on top are the houses/towns. Santorini is a popular spot with tourists, so lots of cruise ships dotted the harbour. |
 |
| This is again from the ferry, but a close-up on the main town, Fira. You can see the long road up --switch backs the whole way! There are about four or five main towns on the island of Santorini, where the buildings are all packed in like sardines, but other than that the island is quite sparse. |
 |
| Picture of the path for people to walk down to the red beach. The colours were just stunning on the beach--with the blue of the water against the red of the sand. |
 |
| Sunset over the caldera, taken off of the balcony of our hotel. |
 |
| Picture from on the volcano. You can see the two different colours of ground--a lighter brown in front, and then the blacker colour at the back. The different colours represent different eruptions that helped form the island. There were about three major eruptions that make up this volcano. In the background your can see Santorini off in the distance. |
 |
| The pool at our resort--lots of good times had here! The blue in the background is the sky, but also the ocean in the distance--you just see the blue water leading into the blue sky! |
 |
| View from just outside of the town of Fira, on our walk to Oia on the edge of Santorini. You can see how the island wraps around in a crescent shape. We started at the middle of the crescent, and walked to the north west end of it. |
 |
| Its hard to capture how beautiful this walk was, but you are literally walking along the top of the cliff edge, and following the curve of the island down to the bottom. |
 |
| This is the fishing village in Oia where we enjoyed one of our many delicious seafood meals! |
 |
| Lobster spaghetti--delicious!! |
Our island hopping adventure took us from Santorini to Crete, one of the biggest Greek islands. We stayed in two separate towns on Crete, and got to cover a lot of this beautiful island. Our first day, we took the bus out to a local archaeology site called Knossos. This was apparently the home of King Minos and where the stories of the Minotar originated from. This is apparently the location of the first people in Europe, and they have done a good job of reconstructing some of the sections and with the help of our tour guide, we were able to piece together what historians believe to have gone on in this area. We took a bus essentially all the way across the island, to the town of Chania. This is a picturesque little port town, and we really enjoyed soaking in the sunshine as well as the culture. Our final Greek day was spent where all Greek days should be spent--on the beach! We enjoyed the sun and then took a late flight out to London, for our second (but not final!) stop in London.
 |
| Picture from Knossos. Lots of ruins, but some of the parts have been reconstructed by archaeologists to give you a better feel of how things may have been over three thousand years ago! Unfortunately, there was no one dressed in a minator suit for tourists to pose with to take cheezy pictures. |
 |
| Posing with the ruins! |
 |
| Chania harbour. Now, look very carefully in the distance. Yes, those are mountains, and yes, there is snow on them!! Never thought we would see snow in Greece. Apparently it is quite cold in winter (well around 10oC) and in the mountains you get snow. But they looked at us like we had two heads when we asked about skiing! |
 |
| Beautiful waterfront path in the Chania harbour, leading down to the lighthouse. |
 |
| This was a little alley we found in Chania. It had such a nice feel to it--and lots of stray cats and dogs to keep us company! |
London, England; May 8 to May 14
You may be asking yourselves, why did they end up back in London again?? Well, we had two good reasons (three if you count Susannah and Patrick!!), so read on to find out why!!
We arrived late late late from Crete, but had to be up in early early in the morning, because we were going to meet THE QUEEN!! Yes, you read this right! Susannah might have the worlds greatest job. She works as a clerk in the House of Lords for the UK Parliament, and was able to get us tickets into her building for the opening of parliament. Every year or so, they have a fancy gathering to open parliament, and the big feature of this is that the Queen comes and reads a speech about what will be accomplished in the next term. We weren't sure how big of a deal this would be, but when we could barely walk out of the subway station without having our tickets and passport out to prove we were allowed through the barricade, we knew this was going to be cool. There were women wearing fascinators, men in white wigs and of course soldiers in big black British hats! This was likely the coolest thing we have done on our trip thus far, and we have to send a major thanks to Susannah for arranging all of this!! Anyways, I'll leave the rest of this story to the pictures.
 |
| This is the view from Susannahs balcony at work (well, her friends balcony--Susannahs office is actually kinda back in a corner, but it would be used as the Queens safety room if something should happen!! Cool huh!). This is before the festivities began. You may recognize Westminster Abbey across the street (where the royal wedding took place!) and we are within a courtyard of parliament. |
 |
| This is the British soliders walking in, wearing formal dress. You can see the barricades on the side of the road, and people stuck outside (could only be so lucky to have a cousin to get you on the inside!!) |
 |
| The marching band coming in. They entertained us while we waited, playing everything from swing music to the Indiana Jones soundtrack! |
 |
| First carriage--carried the crown!! So very sparkly! We got to sneak a peak of the Queen while she was walking into Parliament, and this is seriously bling! |
 |
| The maces used in the ceremony-- apparently not as important as the crown as they arrived in a fancy car rather than a carriage! |
 |
| The horses came before the Queen. It was impressive to see the Queen's cavalry arrive and even more fun to see some of the horses get unsettled and not want to stay in formation. The pageantry of the event was fantastic. |
 |
| Bess and Phil coming in their carriage! |
 |
| Proud Canadians watching our Queen from the balcony! |
 |
| We watched the festivities from the balcony as the Queen and her entourage arrived for the ceremony. When she was inside giving her speech, we entered into the courtyard where the carriages and some of the cavalry were waiting for her until she finished her speech. This is a courtyard that housed the carriage and then entire procession. We were able to walk around, pose with the horses and speak with some of the staff. This is us next to the carriage that carried the crown. We were a few feet away from the Queen's carriage when they had to go out to collect the Queen again, so no pics of that one! Security was good enough to get some pictures, but we did not want to push our luck and try to get pictures with all of the carriages. |
 |
| The ladies in waiting--Princess Anne. It was great to see the Queen, but the entire entourage that goes with her is just crazy! |
 |
| This is Susannah showing us where she works. She is acting out what happens when there is a vote in Parliament--she takes down this board and writes down all the names of the Lords who either agree or disagree with the vote (different hallways for assent and dissent) We have a ton of neat pictures from inside the House of Lords, but since we likely weren't supposed to be taking pictures here (actually at one point we were told to put the camera away!) we decided not to post them. So you'll have to look at all our pics when we get home to get the full feel of our day with Royalty!! |
We then had two days to tour London, seeing the sites. We did lots of walking, including some Rick Steves tours, as well as hitting up the Tower of London and the British Museum. Aunt Maureen was in London for one afternoon, so we made a second trip to Parliament and enjoyed a drink on the terrace overlooking the Thames. We were able to meet up for drinks and dinner with some of the girls we met on our cruise in Australia who live in London, so that was a special treat! Our Friday night was an extra special addition to our time in London--we got tickets to the Wizard of Oz! This was an amazing show, and its always fun to take in the theater in London.
 |
| Quintessential London--double decker bus in front of Parliament! |
 |
| Susannah and Ang enjoying a drink on the House of Lords terrace. Note--we are sitting on a peers only bench! |
Now Saturday was our second reason for returning to London--we got tickets to the Rugby 7s tournament at Twickenham in London. Steve originally thought this would be fun because of the rugby, but when we got to London we learned that this is actually a huge day of partying. The theme this year was 70's disco, and boy did they ever do this well! There is no Halloween in England (well, not celebrated by adults anyways) and apparently this is just a shame--cause the costumes at the rugby were intense! It was if we were at a costume party for fifty thousand people and a rugby tournament was going on in the middle. Although Canada didn't play at this event (there are about 12 different rugby 7's events making up the whole tournament, and for some reason Canada didn't participate in this event) we had a great day enjoying the sport as well as the atmosphere. People in Britain are also allowed to drink beer on the street! Everyone had beers in their hand as they walked to the stadium. No brown bags needed here. We will post these pics shortly--they are on another camera and we have to upload them!!
More adventures to follow--we just spent three days in Krakow, Poland and are enjoying our first day in Prague right now! We also have run into another holiday weekend in Europe. The Czech Beer fest in Prague! One Alex Street has made the bold claim that the Czech make the best beer in Europe so we should be in for a treat.
No comments:
Post a Comment