gazlington

Penultimate breakfast. Lets see what our mates can do with the toast. Ah, oh. One sided toast again. I ring the Minister responsible for the services sector of the Greek economy and run the scenario past him. He actually has never heard of toast and asks whether it is an industrial chemical. I explain its bread related and send him a youtube video of a toaster in action. He says he’ll get back to me. Nothing. Anyway, a cruisey vibe for our final day in Santorini. We talk with the older representative from our Melbourne office. All ok. Check the suitcases and check our finances. All good. We head up to concierge to book a taxi for tomorrow morning to the airport. Still a bit windy here at the moment. We catch the shuttle into Fira for our final walk around. First off its a visit to our little coffee spot. Throw in a bit of lunch. The girl who has served us each time, upon learning that it is caputnik for our trip, says we should come back next year for 3 months. I don’t even try to explain the impossibility of that scenario beyond tattslotto. We pick up a few more Santorini keepsakes. I opt for a Red Donkey T Shirt to go with my Red Donkey beers just purchased. Sue sorts out an interesting T Shirt for someone at our Melbourne office. The shopping scene has been a pleasant surprise. We bump into some donkeys at the top of the shopping centre. I snap Sue with one of the little guys. I give the donkey guy 5 euro for the privilege of setting up a photo opportunity. My decision. A feeling of guilt. I suspect its pretty tough for some of the people on the island. Back to the shuttle pick up point. This transport convenience been soooooo good. By bye to Bobbly the driver of the shuttle bus. Back at our room its time to pack up some bits and pieces. Oh no, my BBC mug has been broken. Damn it. What a special day that was in London. I try and order a replacement online. We order in our dinner. What a trip. Final blog entry. Some snaps below of our the different rooms that we had at each of our different stops. All very comfortable, some smaller than others.

Dubai

London

Paris

Nice

Monteriggioni
(Tuscany)

Venice

Santorini

Posted in music and travel

Capt Vlad

cruisers galore
around here

Volcanic rock
coastlines

Looking forward to breakfast with the structural toast problem solved. And????? Oh no, the one sided toast problem again. How can you get something right and then get get something wrong? This is what the Greek Economic Planners need to get their collective heads around. Imagine if Barak Obama shook someone’s hand properly, and then someone else’s hand like a limp fish. Wouldn’t make sense. A conversation with a young English couple revealed rising toast related anxieties as well.

10am. Time for  bit of a sail around Santorini. Great day for it. Up to reception to wait for our transfer to the port. Into the vehicle, and off to the port. We speak to a couple of American girls from NYC and Boston on the way.  A few questions about Australia. Yeah, its a pretty funky place with funky people and dysfunctional governments. When we get to the port, its a sea of activity. The American girls take off to another yacht, we head to a yacht called the Atlantis. You mean I’ll be sailing on a yacht called Atlantis, over part of the mysterious Atlantis? How good is this? Captain Vladamir from Belgrade introduces himself, along with his two able assistants from Croatia, Bilianna and Tammy. A good looking Catamaran bobs around in the water.

Lets see what this baby can do on the high seas. And we’re off. The plan is to cruise around the Santorini coastline stopping off for 15 min swim at the Red beach before pushing around the coastline, past the lighthouse and into the Caldera (the volcano). Yes, the volcano is under water. After a swim in the Aegean, we literally float onto the Caldera. We are over a volcano crater that was created 5000 years ago. The Tsunami that resulted from this epic event wiped out the civilisation that was on Santorini as well as the Minoans (?) as far away as Crete. Wow. We have another swim in waters that have a sulphur base and are volcanically warmed up, and then its time for lunch. As we are having lunch the boat music starts playing White Room by Cream. In actual fact, when we were in London on the Rock’n’ Roll Tour, we actually saw the building containing the White Room. A utopian moment. We chat to an American couple from the mid west. Gee they hate Obama. They don’t feel secure. The woman works as a lawyer specialising in litigation. How unusual, (not). Litigation is like a blood sport in the USA. After lunch its up with the anchor and up with the sails. We’re gonna sail back. Yeah, man. Great decision to do this little 4-5 hour cruise. A great way to see the island, from the water. Back to the port we say our goodbyes to people that we will never see again. This always seems to weird me out a little, although I do have the details of 2 couples that we could visit overseas at some point in the future.

Back at headquarters, we opt for a quick swim. We then head back to or spot and check out BBC. We order in  our dinner, and watch Obama’s statement about ISIS and Iraq. Mess. Last day tomorrow. As cruisey as possible.

Posted in music and travel

Toast both sides. A red letter day for Europe. At this rate, Greece will advance economically.

A pretty relaxed start to the day. We do feel permanently in kickback made. I’m so laid back I’m nearly stopped. We take a phone call from our Melb office. All seems good with the exception of a possibility of a pet revolution. A bit of animal behaviour recalibration required upon our return. A bit of a challenge.

What do we do today? I’d really like to see the prehistoric ruins at Akrotiri. 10 mins down the road. Sue is not fussed. I head up to concierge and organise a taxi to take me down to Akrotiri. While I’m at it I book a 4- 5 hour sailing adventure for Thursday, starting at the red beach, and taking us around the island of Santorini and to a volcano with hot springs. Great stuff. Never been in a volcano. This whole area is a massive volcanic scene man. Volcanic traces and reminders everywhere. Even the retailers are selling volcanic rock up in Fira. I bet I can get a volcanic drink somewhere! Back to our room. Lunch in our digs.

Taxi arrives and I’m off to Akrotiri. No talkie talkie with the taxi driver. No worries I’ll talk to myself as I walk around the ruins. Effectively the ruins and the resultant excavations are housed or covered in an elaborate framework. It wasn’t always like this. Not long back the place was falling apart. As a result, all of the Frescoes from the walls were relocated to major museums in places like Athens. I’m disappointed by this. I consider a tour of the ruins from a funky female character passing herself off as a tour person. How much for a tour/ explanation of all of this? 60 euros. Um, no thanks. She looks more like an entrant in the  Eurovision Song Contest. In I go. What a strange concept. Do the excavations and then cover it all up and keep excavating in the same spot. Finding it hard to make sense of all of this. A lot of rooms. A lot of corridors. And yes, check out those massive storage vessels. Hard to believe this was all happening in the 4th millennium BC. And of course there is the lost city of Atlantis angle on all of this. Apparently for quite some time scientists felt that that Atlantis was under water in this area. Contemporary thinking about Atlantis has scientists looking above ground in and around the prehistoric ruins of places like Akrotiri where I was today. Whilst waiting for the taxi I walk down to the end of the road to view the beach. No sand man. A young boy spruiks boat trips to the various beaches. Black beach, Red beach and White beach. Mmm.

Back at our hotel I opt for a swim and a beer before dinner, as well as a bit more research on Akrotiri. Pretty amazing. Was I at the remains of Atlantis today?

Akrotiri ruins 1

storage containers
Akrotiri

Akrotiri beach 2

beach scene Akrotiri

http://www.santorini.com/archaeology/akrotiri.htm

Fresco example

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Great sleep. We get an early call from our Melbourne office. Seems the pesky insurance issue needs to be addressed. I try and call from our room, but to no avail. I’ll tend to it after breakfast. Fingers crossed on the toast front. A bit cool in the morning shade on our little balcony. On with the white gowns. Breakfast arrives. Oh no! Toast but only on one side. We were assured this was all going to be addressed, but alas, no. After breakfast I head to concierge to get them to dial our Australian number. Success. All sorted. Don’t worry about the cost of the 10 min call say the people in concierge. Nice gesture.

Back to our room and its time to check some emails and do a bit of research on Santorini. Apparently, there is a site not too far from here, called Akrotiri, where there is literally a lost civilisation underground. It is currently a live “dig” excavation wise and some people, including our Art Historian friend in the Rome airport, have indicated that this civilisation (the remains of which were discovered in 1866) could be the lost city of Atlantis. At the very least it is described as the Pompei of Greece. A lot of artefacts at this site, including coloured frescoes, have retained their bright colours because they have been preserved in lava. At any rate, the civilisation disappeared really quickly. Must check this out.

We catch the shuttle into Fira. First item on the agenda is lunch. We head to a place we were at yesterday and sit outside and eat and people gaze. The whole ATV/ quad bike thing is fascinating. We are literally sitting next to an ATV rental spot. Can’t get over the size of these young greek guys. Massive. Someone’s not happy. Next we head for our daily after lunch coffee stop. Our waitress says she loves the island but can’t stand the people. Interesting.

Lets go retail. Sue is on the lookout for a gold chain. We head into a shop and strike an interesting character. After an Australian/ Greek  discount of significant proportions (?) we walk out with a chain and an attached understated pendant etched with the Greek symbol of the key to eternal life. I like it and so does Sue. We drift on to another shop to look for a ring, but baulk at 6900 euro. Up the hill at the top of town to checkout the cable car. Wow what a view. We notice that the donkeys are still being used to make this same journey up and down the hill here. Technology doesn’t win out, but its pretty hot on the cliffs for these donkeys. Back to the hotel bus shuttle point. Time for a swim at our hotel. Drinks by the pool. Kickback. Aren’t we kicked back already? Clean up  and change for dinner.

Catch the shuttle back to Fira. Nothing happening. A staff member from our resort notices our plight. He offers to ride his motorbike down the road to where our shuttle is now and check out the scene. He rides back indicating that the driver of the shuttle will do a special trip for us. Wouldn’t think this would happen in Australia. On to the shuttle, back into Fira. As we get off the shuttle, Bobby the driver says check out a restaurant called Naoussa run by his mate Kostas. We head straight to Naoussa and have a great meal. Another coffee at another spot. On to the shuttle and Day 2 here fini. Bobby is happy that we headed to his mate’s restaurant. No kickbacks we are assured. A lot of trust here on the island. The people all help each other. This is particularly important with Greece having a debt situation of 130 percent of GDP. Quite a division here in Greece between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat.

bustling Fira

donkey work

effortless great
view

Posted in music and travel

Our day starts particularly early as we touch down at Santorini airport. Not much sleep. As I write this we haven’t slept for 36 hours. First world problem I know, but we don’t want to lose the day through tiredness. Apparently sleep deprivation is used extensively by the military for interrogative purposes. I can really understand that. We pick a taxi and ask how much to get us to our resort. Answer, 1 million Euro. I said to the guy that was very funny. In the end, 20 Euro should do it. We get to our venue, Petit Palace, and are both completely blown away by the view. The most extraordinary views I have seen. After loading our stuff in we sleep for a couple of hours, and then have a late breakfast. Yes there is toast, but only done on the one side. What is going on? Austerity measures? We decide to take advantage of the hotel shuttle into Fira and spend an afternoon walking very slowly around a funky little metropolis. As we navigate our way around the place we go through a few laneways spotted with what would appear to be donkey shit. Could donkeys still be cutting it in Fira? We keep walking. Great shops, great placement of the shops on  the top of  cliffs. Spectacular. Time for a coffee. I decide to buy some glass products from a local artisan. Good pick ups. Can’t get over the number of ATVs flying around the town, Vespas and motorbikes as well. No helmuts or leathers in regard to the riders of the Vespas and motorbikes. Wonder what the accident rate is? I buy some of the local beer and we make our way to the hotel shuttle pick up point. Back to our cliff top digs, and then into the resort pool. Towels provided. We dine at the resort restaurant and are the only customers in the the place. Apparently everyone was there at lunchtime. A nice sunset. Another day in Santorini. Wow.

view from our restaurant
tonight.

vehicle of choice
on Santorini.

interesting shop front

Posted in music and travel

Start

On the morning of our departure we are served our breakfast by our another new older Italian woman. No cold milk for the cereal. No toastah policy applies. We do a final pack and check the weight of our main luggage using a device given to Sue by her good friend Gail. Clearly under the Aegean Airline limit of 23kg for each of us. We have to be out of our hotel by 10, so we have around three and a half hours to do a final cruise around Roma before zipping off. We stowe our luggage in our hotel in an little area set aside for this purpose, complete with bathroom. Very thoughtful. The retail therapy dynamic kicks in again and I submit to my desire to pick up yet another pair of desert boots. Shop shut. Are you kidding? Next trip. Nothing like a pair of of European desert boots man. Another coffee? Why not? I think those two words sum up our day to day trip mantra. Indeed, why not dude? Back to our hotel and before we know it we are on our way  to Fiumicino Airport. We suss out the airport and settle in for a bit of a wait, consistent with our “get to the airport early” approach of this trip. Great bookshop. Might pick up that copy of Classic Rock. A mega edition. Oh no, its in Italian. We grab a coffee and kick back.

Middle

Time to go down to the boarding gate area. Through customs and (as it transpired) into a travel black hole. As I indicated on FB on someone else’s post, with travel it appears you’ve got to literally expect the unexpected. Really expect the unexpected. We are scheduled to fly to Athens at 5:40pm, but it ain’t happening on the board. We are stuck in terminal 3. In comes a massive thunderstorm. Apparently our plane has landed but at another airport. It was circling our airport for a while. We are encouraged to use our boarding passes to get some food. Not alot on the menu that I feel like at the moment. The thunderstorm appears to be clearing. But hey, what about our connection to Santorini? We are not going to make it. The island doesn’t know what is going on with its most valued VIPs? The hours pass by. The departure screens don’t have any info on our flight. Aegean Airline staff cannot answer any questions or provide any information. I strike up a conversation with an older man called Francis who actually lives on  the Greek Island of Poros (appropriate name for a Greek Island given the battering they have received by the GFC). Francis is Scottish, has lived in Canada for a long time, and now calls Greece his home. He now works as an Art Historian and has just come off a cruise with his partner Pamela, an artist/ author, where they were both employed freelance to talk about their respective areas. Francis puts the whole contemporary Greek Economic Tragedy into perspective, whilst partner Pam shows us some of her art work, and indicates how she got to be living now on a Greek Island with a former Art Historian Professor. Apparently she stopped by the Greek Isles on her way to Heathrow. She was stranded for 3 days transport wise and never went to Heathrow. A really interesting couple. Pamela has just self published a piece of fiction called Greekscapes. Not bad at 66. We get to know some other people, as we all wait for the departure info.

pamela rogers book

http://www.pamelajanerogers.com

End

Finally at about 10pm we get the update. We will go to Athens at 10:50pm. On to a bus and on to the plane. I talk to a woman sitting next to me from Melbourne. Just taken the package at Vic Roads. Just been around Europe on a similar path to ourselves. Its her time she says. Finally we are airborne. Off we go to Athens. We get to Athens at about 1:30am and immediately get new boarding passes. We opt for a 5:15am  flight to Santorini, knock back a hotel stay for the early hours and check in our luggage. More waiting time. At 4:45 we board our flight and whammo we are going to Santorini. As we come into Santorini the sun rises and we get a great look at the  housing, the colours and the distinctive light. Touch down. Big day.

our plane just landed

view 1

Posted in music and travel

After yesterday’s historical expeditions we  have a slow start and and move off, after our supplied breakfast. Our current breakfasts are being brought to us by a very cheerful young Italian woman who doesn’t speak a word of English. We decide to check out a Medici site not too far from us. The Medici family were the commerce hotshots in Florence between the 13th and 15th centuries. I’m intrigued. In order to get to the place, we have to go up the so called Spanish Steps not too far from where we are based. These steps were built between 1723 and 1725, in effect linking a Spanish embassy below to the church at the top of the stairs. At the top of the stairs is another roadway leading to the Medici villa. Once we get to the villa we suss out that the villa  has been owned by the French for a long time and is being used at the moment for some obscure educational purposes. Expedition cancelled. We take some beautiful shots from the top of the Spanish stairs and then come back down the stairs and see a lost Roman soldier. Lets get a pic. We ask how much. Strange reaction. Another costumed dude appears, grabs our iphone and starts setting up for some pics. We have lost control and are are ushered into position for photos. At the end of this little charade, the hand goes out for cash. We clearly pay too much for the privilege of some quirky shots with a lost Roman soldier. Not happy. Rip off two for the trip. And we were going so well. We opt for an early brunch, and then flick into shopping mode before making our way down to the Piazza Del Popolo, the people’s square. A lot of activity here, including young families, street performers and so forth. For many centuries this square was a place of public execution, the last one being conducted in 1826. Ummm, rightoe. We wind our way back to HQ, kick back for a few hours, and then its out to dinner, again………I’m going to miss this. A pretty cruisey last day in Roma, with the exception of our little Roman soldier. Off to Santorini.

Piazza Del Popolo

Piazza Del Popolo 2

a lost Roman soldier

Spanish Steps

Villa Medici

Posted in music and travel

Breakfast delivered to our room, but no toastah. Ah well. After calling our Melbourne office representative about a car insurance matter, we then call representative number 2 for a brief update. All good. We decide to nosh down. Love our accommodation. Quiet, secure, discreet but very comfortable except for a lack of either CNN or BBC. Anyway, let it goah. We kit ourselves out and head out whilst the weather is good, to a Hop On Hop Off  Tour. Tour office around the corner, 35 Euros each. Two tickets please. As we get on to the top level of our double decker bus we start chatting to some Californian dudes just finishing off a bottle of red. Pretty hot up here in the sun. 34 in Rome today. They seem to be winging it around Italy for 3 weeks. A lot of Californians over here. I suppose its only a 6-8 hour flight to the USA from here.

Cannot believe the scale of the older buildings and the ornate detail embedded into them. Extraordinary. As if our minds were not blown enough, we then hit the Colosseum area, which as it turns out was sort of a Roman Capitol Hill/ central district. We quickly suss out an authentic walking tour and join a little group ready to start. We jump the queues and zip into one of the most incredible things I have ever seen, the Colosseum. We are able get a fix on how the place operated: the animals used by the gladiators and where they were housed; where the mortuary was for those christians and others that were slaughtered; where the politicians and emperors entered the stadium, and where the aforementioned used to sit; the games that the punters used to play in between the entertainment, etc. Wow!

At this point we exited the Colosseum and moved up to nearby higher ground to get a panoramic view of a massive number of historic sites. Too many names, too many sites to remember. We’re gasping for air its that hot. I do remember as I said before the mention of the words Capitol Hill.

A bit of further research required on my part. Perhaps the lasting impression for me will be of seeing such a huge volume of sites that were once an integral part of a highly evolved Roman Empire. It really was the most incredible thing to see.

Back on to the hop on hop off bus, and we make our way to the Vatican. We walk up close to where the Pope delivers his weekly Wednesday address, observe the Vatican guards and take some pics. There’s the balcony. Seats out. All pretty organised. Of course the whole of the Vatican thing is behind a wall. They have their own systems, their own way of paying taxation and so forth. The line for the Sistine Chapel would have to been on its way to half a kilometre long, so we make an exit to the hop on hop off stop and cruise back to HQ, stopping off on the way for an iced coffee and a cappucino and some retail therapy. I pick up some new Italian desert boots. Lucky me. Out to dinner we go. Cannot get over the begging, and the attempt to flog you stuff (eg water, umbrellas) at the major tourism spots. Mindah Blowingah!

little artefacts
belonging to
the Colosseum
punters

colosseum 1

colosseum 2

Capitol Hill

Vatican Balcony

Posted in music and travel

The challenge for this morning was to get back to Florence from Monteriggioni in the Merc. On the way to breakfast we chat with a whirlwind of an Italian lady who has been heavily involved in the Winnebago Conference. Turns out that she is actually coordinating the Conference on behalf of Fiat and that she is 30 percent up on budget for this year. Nice one. Wish we could measure the effectiveness of service based industries as easily as this.

After our supplied breakfast we head up to reception and settle our bill. Then its time to bring the vehicle  around, throw in the luggage and hit the road. Before we actually put the foot on the accelerator, we fire up the sat nav. This really has to work if we are going to get back to Florence. We drive out of our rural setting, cover the car in dust and start tuning into Miss Sat Nav. On to the motorway and then……….zippo. Turn the unit off, fire it up again, off we go, and then zippo. We are connected to the charger, whats the deal as Jerry Seinfeld would say? We finally work out that its the battery, man. The rental dudes either forgot to charge up the battery properly, or the battery itself is faulty and operating at such a low level that Miss Sat Nav can’t speak. As we get to to the outskirts of Florence, we manage to get the unit going again. We only need 5-10 mins out of the thing and it actually hangs in there. As we scoot through the narrow one way streets and head into the Avis garage we both give a huge sign of relief. Time to sort out the money owing. We’ve put a small scratch on the hub cap. No liability. I indicate that I’m not paying for the sat nav. Its written off the bill. We square up a small amount of money and head for a coffee zone. Done.

We walk our luggage up to the Florence station. We’re early, but that’s cool. Train to Roma. As we are putting our luggage on the train (always a bit of a bunfight) another young female passenger seems to be helping, until I realise that this person is not  a passenger. And the hand goes out. I give her a couple of Euros, smile to myself and we take our seats. We get up to 240kph. The countryside is spinning by. I read Duff McKagan’s (Guns ‘n’ Roses) account of life in the early 1990s and develop a new found respect for the guy. From the prospect of death to Mountain Biking to Martial Arts to business courses to a new family. Pretty impressive. At the Rome station we navigate our way to the exit, wave away more help from randoms and hail a taxi. Sue makes sure that we get off the train first before others board, with a hearty “excuse me”! 10 Euros later we are at our hotel. The way to go. We dump our stuff and start walking. We are right in the heart of Rome. Our travel agent has been brilliant in putting us into really nice secure and  very comfortable central locations. We grab a meal at one of the many bistros, buy a few things from the supermarket and head back to HQ. No CNN. No BBC. Whaaaat? We find an English version of  Law and Order, SVU. Another big city. Tuscany to Florence to Rome. In one day.

armani junior

classic view up one lane

piazza
mignanelli

Posted in music and travel