Last Leg: Iceland and beyond

We left Venice, via train to Verona, then on to Munich. This was a beautiful day and beautiful ride through northern Italy, Brenner pass into Austria and Innsbruck then to Munich. We had a nice dining car, complete with tablecloths and enjoyed goulash soup.

You can really see the transition from the Italian countryside to the tidy Swiss type villages as you head north.

 Snow already has a good start on the Alps and soon we will be in cold temps. 

We spent 1 night in Munich, room 58, right next to room 57, which apparently was not a good room. In the morning, we managed to walk to the central plaza, Marienplatz, to see the big clock tower and hung around for the 11:00am "showing" of the clock, like a giant cuckoo clock. It runs for about 10-15 min and is pretty cool, knights jousting, men dancing, such an old clock

So, now on to Frankfurt, nothing new here, except we fly out on IcelandAir for our final days in Reykjavik.

Iceland, 10 years since we've been here and it has changed. Not the landscape or it's features, but the tourist at the sites. We drove our little Chevy Spark, room for 4 people and 1 suitcase, to the waterfalls that we first visited. They are still the same but in 2008, the government gave out lots of money to develop tourism. Now there are bus loads of people at the sites, eateries, hotels, shops. We practically had the whole place to ourselves years ago. The day was overcast, cold and snow in the distant. We weren't that prepared, clothes wise for the big change, so got outfitted with a scarf, sweatshirt and socks at a local general store. It would work for 2 days. The falls were still beautiful and the hills covered with snow. Also stopped by the geyser area , a mini Yellowstone. Strokkur, the geyser name is still going strong, spouting about every 2-3 min. FYI, the word geyser comes from the Icelandic language.

Woke up the last day with a skiff of snow on the ground and Shirley was not amused about the snow. This is departure day, not till late, so we went to the Blue Lagoon, giant, outdoor natural seawater hot spring. Same as last time, just very crowded and twice the price.  A swim up bar has been added, $10 for a glass of beer or wine! The prices in Iceland are still very high, but not as high as before. It cost us $48 USD for about 12 gals of gas, $60 for some beer and food at a nearby pub.

 Then to the airport.
That proved interesting. It appears the only place people deplane and board at the same gate is in the U.S. Here, most of the waiting is in a central area, no seats at the gate. First the flight was delayed 30 min, then we all stood in line for at least another 30 while they fixed an entertainment unit. And just like the Italian airports, no jetways were used and everyone when thru the gate, regardless of seat assignment. Pretty snarly on the plane finding your seat. Icelandair has joined the world airline business at cutting services. We did have pillows and blankets, no charge for the toilets, a little roomier seats, but no food for an 8 hour flight, unless you bought from their menu. They did have specials on wine and beer so we used up the last of our Krona or Euros. And had goodies in our bags, loaded up at the duty free store.

All in all it was a fun, interesting, relatively problem free trip. I think the highlight was Greece.  We were getting a little road weary and ready to come home. We've had our travel fix for a little while, not sure where to next.

Strokkur

Venice

For leaving Athens, we had a transfer from the flat to the airport. After the arrival and seeing the transit system and distance, we opted to pay for the ride for personal transfer. The owner of the flat took us along the coast road and older neighborhoods, but more spread out than the central city. It was a nice drive and we had a small discussion of the Greek "crises". At the airports, we found it quiet, modern and somewhat efficient. We were gearing up for the flight on Aegean airlines. It is new to us and we didn't no what to expect.
SURPRISE! It was not a crowded flight, only 2 hour flight, 1 screaming baby behind us, and HOT FOOD served to everyone. Bowled us over. I don't know if it is Italian airports or not, but passengers don't deplane or load from the same gate. Each time we have been bused to the airplane, or off the plane to the terminal, even if it is just around the corner. Strange and not very effecient


We caught the water taxi, a few minutes walk from the airport down to the docks, across the lagoon to our designated stop. Boats were everywhere, some speeding, lots of wakes and our slow boat was passed quite a bit. Someone met us and led the way to the apartment, along canal banks, over bridges and down side streets. This place was very charming, old beams, some old bricks showing but newly remodeled and very nice. It still had some large closets and built in kitchen cupboards, very old world style. We enjoyed the place very much.

So after our first shock of the day, breakfast, we did our usual walking around, 1st day to the Rialto bridge and neighborhoods. The bridge is in scaffolding for repair, so not much to see. Plenty of people crossing tho. The main street is chock full of shopping, all with the same stuff, plenty of cafes and people. Lots of cruise ships in, at least 5 the first day. Some of the route is in small alleyways, over small and large bridges, all very quaint and pretty much what you see in pictures. There are several gondola stops and large boats for the Grand Canal. We opted not to take either, the gondola was 80 euros for 30 min and up to 4 people in the boat. They are pretty decked out and nice to look at. The Grand canal boats are the main transportation from beginning to end if you don't want to walk. But a 1 way trip is 7.50, no matter where you get on. There are some spectacular buildings along the way and large churches. But we saw many of these from the walks too. Along the side streets we would come across squares, churches, fountains and small cafes. Charming.

Day 2, we walked to St. Marks square, via some back roads and spent a little time in the square and down on the waters edge. It was very busy, crowded and over the top. The church is quite ornate, and very large. You can tour inside the basilica, but like at the Vatican and St. Peters Basilica, a long line to go inside. Hours of standing in the square and shoulder to shoulder inside. So we thought we would just have a sit and coffee. Oops, there's that location thing and you pay a pretty price for the setting. Up to 12 euro for a cup of coffee! We had a soda and take away sandwich and stood against the wall. Anyway, it was nice to see it and the Venetians didn't waste their money on plain stuff. This picture of the large church on the water is across the square and quite an impressive sight.

Some things we noticed on the walking and wondered about was how buildings cope with the water and tides, those on the canals. Not everyone has waterfront, where does the sewage go or how is it handled, where does the water come from. Everyday you can put out a bag of trash at the door and street guys come an take it away. The streets were very clean, no trash except a little in the canals, mail is delivered and deliveries are all made by hand on a large hand truck. There are no cars or scooter, not even bikes on the island. Even an ambulance ride is by water. We did find it very interesting, but also very expensive. Most meals ran about 23 euros and 2 in particular were breakfast of 3 muffins or croissants and 3 coffees, and a lunch of 3 tapas type appetizers and 3 glasses of wine. Most beers rans about 7.00. Gone were the days of pizza or pasta for about 6.00e, in Greece. Wine was cheap tho.

Check this out

I can't resist looking in bakeries or patisseries. From the street, one patisserie has huge glob of meringue and Bill and Shirley drooled over them until we finally bought one for them to share. You can see how big it is and neither one wanted to finish it!

Yumm or yuck

Athens Day 2

Today we decided to tackle the big hill behind our flat. Actually, since there is a monument up there and roads, we wanted to check  it out, take some bread, cheese, meat and wine and have a picnic. It's called Filopapos hill, and the monument is to a Roman general. There are some other ruins up there but the best is the view. We are higher than Mars hill and have an outstanding view of the Acropolis. We now see the Parthenon that we missed yesterday. Holy smokes is it HUGE. And like most of the other ruins, covered in scaffolding. So the story is when the Venetians ruled the area in the 1600s, they launched a mortar attack in 1687 from this hill to the Parthenon and destroyed a good portion of it.
The Parthenon is 490 feet above sea level, completed 2500 year ago. It is the largest Doric temple in Greece, 228 ft long, 101 ft wide and 46 columns in all. There are/were many statues and carvings and reliefs in it and it served as a temple to Athena and as the treasury of Athens (safeguarding city funds). It is constructed of white marble from a quarry 16 miles away and probably has more than 100,000 tons of it, was constructed in about 10 years and would have cost over a billion dollars (by todays dollars) Even from our viewpoint it was impressive. It made the other temples on the hill look small.

Other things we saw on the walk around, streets and sidewalks covered with motorcycle or motorcycle parts and scooters parked everywhere!  Actually, this whole motorcycle/scooter thing is because in a little tiny storefront there is a cycle repair shop.  There was barely any room in the shop to work on a bike much less park them so... they're all parked in the street.   Surely, you probably know what the blue and yellow building is.

As we came down from the hill, we ended up at the base of the Acropolis again and because we didn't have our picnic, we decided to stop for gelato.  Hate to say it but the gelato is even better than Tillamook Ice Cream.