Category Archives: Mid-life travel

January 22, 2013 · 9:32 pm

Mykonos here we come

26th June 2012

Acropolis at night

After our big day on the buses yesterday we headed back to the hotel worn out but happy, had quick showers and bolted to the top floor for a wine, nibbles and to watch the gorgeous sunset and the Acropolis come to life after dark. We honestly wouldn’t want to end our little visit to Athens any other way.We had an early start with a taxi ride to the port to catch the high-speed hydrofoil to Mykonos. The hydrofoils are huge and a real eye-opener if you’ve never been on them before. Our allocated seats were even in business class! We sat opposite a young couple from Brazil who were quite lovely so the (I think) 4 hour trip passed quickly. Sarah had the richest chocolate donut type pastry I’ve ever seen and then wondered why she didn’t feel well!!

Mykonos port

Arriving at Mykonos was a tad worrisome – the port area looked rather barren and deserted. As we met our driver who should come along too but the Brazilians and it turned out they’re staying at the Myconian K also. I couldn’t believe how much luggage the girl had, it was encouraging that ours weren’t the biggest or heaviest.We had a laugh about some of the vehicles there to collect their guests. Clambering into the back of tiny little 3 wheeler utes would be bad enough but I suspect that having twits like us taking photos and laughing would be even worse. Oh well, that’s the luck of the draw isn’t it?

Novel way to arrive at your hotel – Mykonos

Some of the buildings on the way were picture perfect and then we arrived at the hotel – it was just like another dream come true – all blue and white and gorgeous. It’s really just like the travel brochures and postcards and I love it.Our room wasn’t quite ready so we adjourned to the bar for a drink then headed to the day spa to organize a couple of pampering sessions and generally just took it easy. Poor Sarah wasn’t feeling too well all day but she did venture to the restaurant with me for dinner, hopefully she’ll be back to her normal self in the morning. We’re only here for a few days so I’d say we’ll be rather busy!!

Apologies!!

Sorry – I’ve been missing for the past couple of weeks. I’ve been at the McGregor Summer School held at the University of Southern Qld in Toowoomba attending art classes using pen and ink with watercolour and mixed media.

I’m sure my class had the privilege of being taught by the best tutor there, Cees Sliedrecht. Of course having never attended art classes before I have nothing to compare them with but I do know Cees (pronounced “case”) never stopped either demonstrating for the entire class or speaking with and helping us individually. As a complete beginner I was thoroughly entranced by his ability and teaching style and came home having completed 7 paintings with another couple in progress.

Not only did we have some great Australian performing, visual and creative artists as tutors, those of us staying on campus also had the opportunity to meet and mix with like-minded people once class was over each day. I met some truly lovely people, had a wonderful couple of weeks and can entirely understand why they keep returning year after year.

I would love to leave my children and grandchildren something personal showing them the scenes and places that have brought me joy on my travels. Now I’ll have to find time to practice so they’ll know what it is I was looking at or they’ll be shaking their heads at me again!!!!!

Anyhow, I’ll be back soon to continue the story of our adventures in Greece!

5 Comments

Filed under Australia, Mid-life travel, Travel

Tagged as Arts, Toowoomba

January 7, 2013 · 10:53 pm

All aboard the bus around Athens

25th June 2012

View from dining room, Astor Hotel, Athens

I thought the view from the rooftop of La Palma in Stressa was impressive but this morning I found another view just as jaw dropping. The dining room is on the top floor of the hotel and when the lift doors opened I’m afraid some very “ocker” language slipped out – the view was astounding. The Acropolis was just there in front of us – well, actually it was probably a few kilometres distant but it took my breath away. I couldn’t stop looking at it and marveling that today I was going to see another of those places I’ve been reading and dreaming about for years and years.

We had a huge day around Athens on the hop on hop off buses. First stop was the Acropolis for a few hours – I was just so happy to be there. I feel inadequate that I don’t have the words to express how I feel when visiting places like this but to walk in the footsteps of the ancient Greeks and to see and touch the stones they carved thousands of years ago is truly a dream come true for me. Sharing it with Sarah is a nice change because even though I’ve been with a tour most of the last month I’ve usually taken in the big sights on my own. We took miles of photos, probably none that haven’t been captured millions of times before but we had a great time. A few people also took pity on us trying to take “selfies” – we must look like a pair of dills at times because we usually laugh hilariously at our results. I have to tell you the freshly made lemonade at the kiosk outside the site was most welcome after wandering around out in the sun and is easily as good as the Italian version at Pompeii.

Great spot for lunch in Athens

We made good use of the buses, visited more of the ancient sites and found a lovely little shady street full of cafe’s and shops for a yummy lunch and window shopping. After lunch we boarded the bus again and took in the sights down around the port then late in the afternoon made our way back to the markets we’d seen earlier in the day. By the time we got there most of them had packed up so we sat and had a wine and more food because of course we had to keep up our energy.

Markets in Athens

Then just because it was meant to be we found a few market stalls still trading as we made our way back to catch the bus. Sarah bought a couple of cute old ornaments and I bought a few old postcards and photographs of Athens. They are little treasures, one was posted to Paris on 13/4/36 while another shows the Parthenon and is dated 28/12/52 – not worth much really but great reminders of a fantastic day.

Erechteion Temple, Acropolis, Athens

So many sad buildings, Athens

Athens – gorgeous buildings left to die

Now that’s a view – Acropolis, Athens

Let me loose in here – Athens book stall

Dusk on the Acropolis Athens

Athens – a city of contrasts

Think it’s seen better days – Athens

Taking bike safety seriously in Athens

Athens is massive!

Acropolis at night, Athens

On the Acropolis, Athens

View from the Acropolis, Athens

Beautiful parts of Athens

Faded beauty in Athens

6 Comments

Filed under Greece, Mid-life travel, Travel

Tagged as Acropolis, athens, female, Parthenon, travel

January 6, 2013 · 1:33 pm

Athens

24th June 2012

Due to my new-found love of a glass on wine at just about any time of the day or night we had a nice cold glass of white in the bar before heading out for a quick walk. We spent most of the time catching up on each other’s news but took quite a few photos as well. We are staying pretty much in the heart of the city, quite close to Syntagma Square and the Parliament.
We saw some really sad sights this arvo, lots of abandoned and graffitied buildings as well as quite a few beggars. I’m not sure if it’s worse here than other parts of the city but it certainly feels quite depressed. There wasn’t much in the way of restaurants open so we resorted to a Pizza Hut for an early dinner with a carafe of sangria. Sarah enjoyed the sangria but it wasn’t really my cup of tea although you never know if you don’t try do you?
Don’t quite know why but it took a bit of work to find our way back to the hotel – probably talking too much and not looking where we were going. Between Sarah’s phone and our somewhat dodgy sense of direction we found our way back to familiar territory. Another lesson learned though – we should always have a map of some sort! Sarah was astounded that it was still light at nine at night, that’s us Queenslanders for you, no idea what daylight saving is like at all.