Island Odyssey: Greece2005

What do you do to celebrate a significant anniversary, especially if you were one of three Burnham siblings who married in 1965 and are still happily married? You celebrate together. We did just that at a Club Med in Cancun Mexico for our 25th anniversary and it was so successful we planned a 40th anniversary gathering in the Greek Islands. It seems the Greek Islands are a popular destination for couples getting married, so what better place to celebrate an anniversary.

September 18, 2005 found Ray and me on an overnight flight to Gatwick, England, via Halifax, Nova Scotia, where we picked up the Saint John, New Brunswick contingent, Jack and Jenni Burnham and Carolyn and Lorie Demmings. I researched places to stay in Greece, Jack had found the best airline prices and Carolyn came up with accommodation for overnight in Gatwick. Zoom to Gatwick with a connection the next morning on Easyjet to Athens, Greece was the economical choice and it worked very well. We had four nights in Athens before taking the ferries to the Cycladic Islands, where we stayed one week each on Naxos and Santorini. We had cars to tour the islands and our accommodations, complete with inviting pools, were perfect for out needs.

But back to the highlights of our trip: after an early morning flight to Athens and an easy Metro trip from the airport into the city, we found ourselves at the Economy Hotel being told our reservations had been cancelled and there were no rooms at the Inn. We were not pleased. The problem was the Internet reservation service I had used. Way back in January I had dutifully provided a Credit Card number as guarantee, but that credit card was stolen in Central America. The confirmation we got said the credit card would only be used when we arrived at the hotel so when a new card number was issued, I didn't worry. I should have. The reservation service accessed the defunct credit card five days before we were to arrive and when it was rejected, the reservation was cancelled without notifying me. Here we were, six tired travellers, with no place to go. To their credit, the Economy Hotel manager got on the phone and got us rooms at the Omega Hotel nearby. It wasn't a five star establishment but the location in the central market district was convenient, the beds were comfortable, a good breakfast was included and they had a roof top patio where we had drinks each evening watching the sun set and the Acropolis light up.

We saw nearly all the antiquities in Athens and sampled lots of good Greek food. Greece really is old. At home, anything over 100 years is old, we have seen European antiquities of 500 years but anything not created BC is new in Greece! We joined all the other tourists to visit the Acropolis. It lived up to its booking. We took lots of photos of the Parthenon and the lovely Balcony of the Caryatids with the six ladies holding up the roof. The Odeum of Herodus Atticus was of especial interest as our youngest grandson is named Atticus. This open-air theatre next to the Acropolis was reconstructed in the 19th C and is used for concerts during the August Music Festival.

We wandered through the Ancient Agora, Athens' commercial and civic center market place during the 5th C BC. The Tower of Winds, built in the 1st C BC in the Roman Agora, was a lovely combination sundial and water-powered clock. Cemeteries, with their monuments to fallen heroes and wealthy citizens are interesting to visit. We wandered through the Kerameikos, the 4th C BC cemetery, built just outside the original city walls. The Roman Emperor Hadrian, of the English wall fame, left his mark in Athens. His library, which is partially covered by three churches, remains. Hadrian's Arch, below the Acropolis, leads the way to the ruins of the Temple of Olympian Zeus. The inscription on one side of the Arch reads "This is Athens, the Ancient City of Theseus" . The other side reads "This is the City of Hadrian, not of Theseus" .

My brother-in-law Jack received a GPS for Christmas a few years ago and ever since has been chasing down geo-cache sites. This is a new-tech treasure hunt locating Tupperware boxes or plastic bags full of trinkets left by others who managed to find the hidden cache using GPS co-ordinates. Jack and Jenni downloaded instructions for several caches in Athens and the islands so we helped him find a few in the gardens of the Hill of Pnyx, next to the Acropolis, and in the National Gardens. After crashing through the bushes in the National Garden and still not locating the cache, we left Jack on his own to complete his searches.

Ray and I managed to visit the National Archaeological Museum. Our favourites were the marble and bronze statues. Huge marble Kouros statues, larger than life nude men, stride off into the distance with their arms straight at their sides. A bronze of a small jockey on a horse seems ready to win the race. Zeus (or Poseidon, depending on the current interpretation) throws a thunderbolt (or trident) at an unseen target.