...Greece Photos...

Sunday 10th September 2006 – Tammay and I took a 11:50 flight from Heathrow to Athens and then a 20:20 flight on to Santorini. We finally landed at 21:05 and were given a "limousine transfer" to The Majestic Hotel in Fira, where we would be spending the next four nights. Our transfer ended up being no more that a mini-cab ride! After arriving at the hotel quite late we fell asleep watching Pearl Harbour.

Fira

Monday 11th – We took in the views, taking the short walk along the costal road from our hotel into Fira.

Fira

We walked on to Firastefania where we had lunch at Remvi. We ended up ordering far too much food but managed to eat a surprising amount!

Fira

Our hotel

We walked back to the hotel and spent time by the pool reading.

Fira

In the afternoon we walked back into Fira and had a coffee while watching the sun set.

Fira

We had dinner at Sphinx restaurant.

Ia

Tuesday 12th – We took a taxi to Ia and walked around the old town.

Ia

We had lunch at Papagalos Restaurant (which was excellent) and headed back to the hotel.

Ia

Fira

In the afternoon we took the cable car down to Fira's Old Port to pick up a sunset cruise.

Fira

Unfortunately our hotel gave us the wrong times and we arrived at the port just in time to see our boat heading out of the port.

Fira

Luckily we found another cruise that was about to leave and managed to get on board.

Fira

We sailed around the caldera and took a walk to the top of the volcano.

Fira

We decided to pass up the chance of swimming in the hot springs!

Fira

We had a buffet on the boat and watched the sunset.

Fira

We headed back to our hotel, had a huge ice-cream each and ended up watching The Legend of Bagger Vance in our room.

Fira

Wednesday 13th – We spent the morning sat by the hotel pool.

Fira

We went back into Fira and walked around the old town.

Fira

Tammay decided not to buy an expensive "Modolvo" watch that one of the local jewellers was trying to shift.

Fira

We had lunch at Nikolas – a very popular place that had had a massive queue outside the night before. We had another large ice-cream and took a taxi back to Ia.

Ia

We spent the afternoon walking around the town, taking photos and finally watching the sunset. We decided to go back to Papagalos Restaurant (Tammay has wanted to go to 1800 but unfortunately they did not have a table available).

Ia

Sunset in Ia

Sunset from Ia

After a mad taxi ride back to the hotel we packed and watched 21 Grams.

Our Hotel

The Hotel Pool

Our Room

Athens

Thursday 14th – We got up really early to catch a 07:25 flight back to Athens. Every part of the journey seemed to involve a queue. Firstly we had to wait ages at the hotel for the taxi, then at the airport we had to queue to get into the building, queue to check-in and queue at the gate... all quite tedious! We arrived in Athens and picked up a very chatty taxi driver to our hotel. After checking in at the Residence Georgio we had breakfast at a local cafe and went back to our room for a shower and a rest. We walked into town passed about 101 different DIY stores (plus a Starbucks where we would become regular customers). We walked through the market and on to Hadrian's Library.

The Roman Forum

We had lunch next to the Roman Forum.

The Roman Forum

We looked around the Roman Forum with its Tower of the Winds.

The Roman Forum

We walked around Plaka and back to the hotel passed a totally useless tourist information office and the Parliament Building. We spent some time relaxing by the pool on the roof of the hotel. We asked the hotel reception for a local restaurant recommendation only to be told there were none! We ended up eating at McDonalds.

The Ancient Agora

Friday 15th – We had breakfast at the hotel and went into town to see the Ancient Agora.

The Ancient Agora

We walked around the site, museum and took some photos of the columns.

The Ancient Agora

We had lunch at Dhioskouri.

Athens

We then made the walk up to the Acropolis and onto the viewing platform.

Athens

We tried to get into the Acropolis however they didn't allow any back-packs onto the site so we decided to return the following day.

Athens

We walked down via the Theatre of Herodes Atticus (closed to the public) and the Theatre of Dionysos. We also went via Hadrian's Arch back to the hotel. We relaxed by the pool on the roof of the hotel, watching the sun go down and waiting for the Acropolis to light up.

The Acropolis

A view of The Acropolis from our hotel's rooftop patio.

Sunset over Athens

From our hotel's rooftop patio.

Sunset over Athens

The Acropolis at Night

As seen from our hotel. We had a really nice dinner on the roof garden at Brachera.

Athens

Saturday 16th – We spent the morning reading by the pool, watching the useless staff struggle with the sun umbrellas. We went back to the Acropolis (without back-packs) having lunch outside a cafe near the metro station (stopping in at shop to buy Tammay a new ring).

The Acropolis

We spent about three hours walking around on the Acropolis looking at the different buildings.

The Acropolis

The Temple of Olympian Zeus

A view of The Temple of Olympian Zeus from The Acropolis.

The Acropolis

Athens by Night

We descended, walking around the Acropolis into Plaka, having dinner at Eat. We took a few night photos.

Athens by Night

The Acropolis by Night

The Acropolis

Sunday 17th – We once again had breakfast a the hotel... The restaurant was very busy and they seemed to run out of everything! Although we didn't mind when they forgot to charge us! We spent an hour by the pool and as we were getting ready to check out we got a call from reception telling us that the next guests had already arrived. We picked up another Starbucks (they conned me into putting a brownie into the mocha which made it one of the most expensive coffees I'd ever had!) and took the metro into Acropoli (at 80c the metro was a real bargain).

The Acropolis

The Temple of Olympian Zeus

We walked around the temple of Olympian Zeus and had a late lunch in the grounds of the Zappio (National Gardens) – where we had the worst service ever!

The Temple of Olympian Zeus

We headed back to the hotel, showered and changed in the spa and took a taxi back to the airport (using the same guy that drove us into the city however I'm sure we ended up paying over the odds for). We had a 20:35 flight back to Heathrow, finally landing at 22:25.