9. Mainland Greece,
Crete, and Santorini
(18 days, 20 days including
Athens) 8.29 or 8.31 to 1.17.
2340 euros or 2600 euros plus $180.
2340 euros or 2600 euros plus $180.
If you
want to include Athens, you should arrive on 29 August.
If you don't want Athens, you should arrive on 31 August.
If you don't want Athens, you should arrive on 31 August.
8.29 Arrive Athens. We'll meet at the hotel at 7 pm to go out to dinner.
8.30 Today we'll go to the Akropolis and Agora. After lunch in the Plaka (the Old Town and tourist section of Athens), there's free time to visit other museums, watch the Changing of the Guard, go shopping, take a nap, or whatever.
8.31 This morning we'll go to the National Archaeological Museum. It takes 4 hours to see everything; my favorites are the three "Prehistoric" rooms (Neolithic, Cycladic, and Mycenean).
4000-year-old critter a Cycladic Picasso
Once again the afternoon is free (for other museums, etc.), and we'll meet at the hotel to go out for dinner at 7 pm.
9.1 Today we'll take the catamaran to Santorini (about 4.5 hours). We'll stay on the beach at Kamari, a nice village which is the closest thing on Santorini to a real Greek island.
9.2 Today we'll visit either Akrotiri (if it's open) or ancient Thira. Then we'll go to Fira, the main town of the island (it's ultra-touristy, but there are nice views between the gold shops). Finally we'll go to Oia, once an artists' colony but now another shopping mall (with spectacular views). You can see the famous sunset, if you wish; everyone else in the world will be there.
9.3 Today is free to do whatever you want until we take the afternoon catamaran to Iraklion in Crete.
9.4 We'll take a walk around Iraklion, ending with the Minoan Museum. Then we'll go out to Knossos to see the so-called Palace of Minos, supposedly the residence of the Minoan kings (if the Minoans had kings; we don't know, but they probably did, since everyone else in the Early and Middle Bronze Age had kings). Knossos is the Disneyland of Greek archaeology; 75% of what you see is the imaginary creation of Arthur Evans, the original excavator.
9.5 Today we'll go to Malia, an relatively unrestored Minoan palace. Then we'll drive to Drosia, a village in the foothills of Mt Ida, for a Cretan banquet, In the evening we'll go to the ferry for the overnight trip to Athens.
9.6 We'll visit Eleusis, site of the Eleusinian Mysteries, then stop at the Corinth Canal for lunch.
Eleusis: Greater Propylaiae
Corinth was completely destroyed by the Romans in 146 BC and rebuilt by Julius Caesar a century later. We'll end up at Nafplion, a delightful seaside town, where we'll spend two nights. After the War of Independence Nafplion was the first capital of Greece, from 1828 to 1834, and it remains one of the most attractive cities in Greece. The architecture is unmistakably Venetian, there is even a marble piazza (Syntagma Square), and a striking castle, the Bourzi Palace (built in 1471) stands on an island in the bay. Above Nafplion are the fortifications of Its Kale (Three Castles) and, higher still, the fortress of Palamidi.
9.7 We'll go to Argos to see the ancient theater, largest in Greece. Then we'll visit Mycenae, the most famous Bronze Age site in Greece. We'll spend the night in Laggadia, a village high in the mountains of Arcadia.
9.8 We'll drive through the spectacular villages of Arcadia (Dimitsana, Stemnitsa, Karytena, and Andritsena) on our way to the temple of Apollo Epikourios, the most significant Greek temple after the Parthenon.
Apollo Epikourios at Vassai
Then we'll drive down to Olympia, where we'll visit the Museum (in my opinion, the best in Greece) and the beautiful site. It’s not difficult to see why the ancients chose Olympia for the Games and the sanctuary of Zeus; it is now, and certainly was, one of the most beautiful places in Greece. The confluence of seven rivers and sufficient rainfall provide a green and shady setting that is reminiscent of northern Italy. Highlights of the site include the stadium, the temple of Zeus, the fountain-house of Herodes Atticus, and the workshop where Pheidias, sculptor of the Parthenon, also made the statue of Zeus which was one of the Seven Wonders of the World.
the Hermes of Praxiteles
the Helmet of Miltiades
Olympia was the site of the Olympic Games, most important of the four quadrennial panhellenic contests of ancient Greece (the others were the Isthmian, Nemean, and Pythian [at Delfi]). In myth Herakles is the founder of the Games. At the first Games he was the only contestant, which was acceptable for the running and throwing events but extremely boring in the case of boxing and wrestling, so boring, in fact, that his father Zeus, who was present as a spectator, entered the wrestling match against Herakles and grappled him to a draw. Other versions say that the Games were founded by another person with the same name, Herakles the Daktyl, who was only as big as a finger. or by Pelops to commemorate his victory over Oinomaos, the king of Elis.
Workshop of Pheidias, Olympia
Gallery
of Bronzes, Olympia Museum
9.9 We'll drive north to Patras, then across the Rio-Antirio
bridge
to northern Greece. 
Then we'll drive east to Delfi, where we'll go to the museum and the spectacular site.
9.10 After a stop at Dodoni, site of the Oracle of Zeus, we'll go up into the Pindos Mountains to Metsovo.
Dodoni: Theater
9.11 Metsovo is a beautiful village of about 5,000; its residents are all Greeks, but they're ethnic Vlachs and speak a Romance langiage called Vlachika. It's also the wealthiest town per capita in the EU. We'll visit the Tositsas Museum, mansion of the Barons Tositsas and now an ethnographic museum.
Meteora Agia Triada
Then north to Vergina, where an amazing museum has recently been built enclosing the Macedonian royal tombs, including that of Philip II, father of Alexander the Great, in their original setting. From Vergina it's a short drive to Thessaloniki, second-largest city of Greece.
9.13 We'll visit some of the Byzantine chuches (for example, St. Dimitrios and Agia Sofia) and the Old Town. We'll also have dinner with my friends, the family of Petros Dokalis.
9.14 We'll drive past Mt Olympos and through the Vale of Tempe to Mt Pelion, one of the most beautiful areas of Greece. Here we'll take a walk through Makrinitsa, a unique mountain village, and we'll stay in Hania.
9.15 Pelion is incredible: great forests, apple orchards, towns where the only business is growing flowers, beautiful beaches, and villages like Tsaggarada, consisting of a number of squares each with a church and a gigantic plane tree (the biggest is 70 feet in circumference and well over a thousand years old).
We'll end up at Volos, a large and pleasant port city and a miniature Thessaloniki. Volos is famous for its seaside ouzeris, restaurants that serve every variety of seafood snacks with the anise-flavored drinks ouzo and tsiporo.
9.16 We'll go to the Athanassakis Museum, famous for its Neolithic exhibits. Then we'll drive to Athens.
9.17 Departure.