-
Legends, Myths & Mountains: This Is Delphi
“Welcome to Delphi”, says the taxi driver as we enter the small town, “the centre of the world”. The reason for that comment will become clear, but as we look out of the car window at the unbelievable scenery which has been unfolding for miles, we feel more like we’re on the edge of the world than in its centre. The modern town of Delphi lies just a few hundred yards from the ancient civilisation of the same name, perched precipitously on the steep slopes of Mount Parnassus and looking across the spectacularly deep valley of the dry River Pleistos to the Gulf of Corinth. One first stroll around its…
-
Into The Mountains: From Thessaloniki To Delphi
There is something very special about moving on when travelling. One of our travel maxims has always been: move on while you still love a place. For us, that mix of emotions of being sad to leave somewhere clashing with the excitement of heading to a new place, somehow encapsulates the very essence of travel. It’s an exhilarating feeling. But before we leave, Friday July 23rd marks our last full day in Thessaloniki and just like the previous four days the afternoon temperatures hit 37/38 degrees, but the ever present sea breeze just takes off the edge and keeps even the hottest time of day pleasant. For our last day…
-
Cafes And Culture: Five Days In Thessaloniki
How typically Greek it is of our host to thoughtfully provide stocks of decent coffee and proper filters for an apartment where the coffee machine is broken and doesn’t work. You have to love the Greeks! Our other quirk here is a shower which, when placed in its holder, slowly drops down so as to shower the back wall instead of your body. Thus, to get my head in the water, it’s necessary to hold the shower head in its holder with one hand whilst approaching the water face up. I can’t help but think that I must be the spitting image of a naked Liam Gallagher coming to the…
-
And So To Greece…..Minus One Backpack
Blue sea beneath the aeroplane changes to tarmac and painted lines as the end of the runway arrives and our excitement grows, we are almost there. But within what seems a few inches of hitting the ground, and just as we anticipate the bump of landing, the engines roar, the plane accelerates and we climb steeply back into the skies from being so close to landing. Something has obviously gone wrong and the passengers fall strangely silent. We are soon advised that the landing was aborted at the last second due to a tailwind stronger than the permitted maximum (17 knots as opposed to 10) and we are off for…
-
The 2021 Obstacle Course Of Travel
Well, as far as we know, we are now on the verge of heading out to Greece, in fact our flight to Thessaloniki is tomorrow morning, Monday 19th. We say “as far as we know” because arrangements for travel are just not as straightforward as they used to be. Let us say first though that Greece is, at the moment, one of the easier destinations, with no quarantine on arrival and no requirement for a negative test as long as you’re fully vaccinated, but there are still a number of hurdles to overcome. First, our original intention of booking only one-way flights was scuppered by the new post Brexit rules…
-
Cleared For Take Off….?
It’s beginning to look like we’ve got lucky. We do seem to get lucky quite often, but this one is making us smile. If you read our post the other day, you will know that we booked flights a couple of weeks ago with the intention of getting away for the rest of the summer, but with travel restrictions of all kinds still prevalent there were some decisions to make in terms of destination. It soon became clear that Greece currently has the least amount of restrictions on visitors entering from the UK, comprising just proof of double vaccine and a passenger locator form, so we went with our instinct…
-
Photographic Memories #22
As every traveller knows, when you look back through old travel photos, many of them trigger wonderful memories. With lockdown incomplete and travel still on hold for a while, we currently have no new adventures to blog; we do though have many such memories… Photo #22: Folegandros We all have a liking for photographs of old buildings, dilapidated walls, tumbledown doors and the like, and pretty much all travellers have a growing collection of such shots. This one captures something slightly different for, as you can see, the building is for the most part well maintained, but has a down at heel section which oozes considerably more character than the…
-
Photographic Memories #7
As every traveller knows, when you look back through old travel photos, many of them trigger wonderful memories. With no current prospect of travel even domestically let alone worldwide, we will have no new adventures to blog, but we do have many such memories….. Photo #7: Morning Light We liked this photo enough to make it the backdrop on our blogsite homepage, mostly for the way it captures the shadows cast across the water by the early morning light. Taken as we walked to our favoured breakfast spot as the town rubbed its eyes, this shot could be almost anywhere yet it comes as a surprise to most to learn…
-
Photographic Memories #2
As every traveller knows, when you look back through old travel photos, many of them trigger wonderful memories. With no current prospect of travel even domestically let alone worldwide, we will have no new adventures to blog, but we do have many such memories….. Photo #2: Skies Over Volos This is another photograph which for us captures a memory of a special moment. After splitting our time between the mainland of Greece and a handful of the Sporades islands, we were now heading back on board the ferry from Skopolos to the mainland port of Volos. In the final stretches of the Aegean, a few miles from port, we moved…
-
Ending This Journey: A Weekend In Athens
Finishing off our tour of the Cyclades with a weekend in the wonderful city of Athens
