Wed, 06 Sep 2000 18:50:29 GMT
Hello from Greece! 

We travelled the northern Aegean route westerly through Greece, during the August peak tourist season.  Our exposure was limited to the island of Limnos, the Macedonian mainland port town of Kavala, and then a few days in Athens. 

Greece brings up images of pristine beaches, blue waters, and whitewashed churches sitting on cliffs.  Well, that's the way the island of Santorini looks, but it is not typical of Greece. 

We spent about 2 weeks on Limnos, arriving there on a ferries from Turkey (Ayvalik Turkey to Lesvos Greece to Limnos, overnight in Lesvos).  Limnos is a popular tourist stop for Greeks, but few international visitors make it there as it is a bit off the main ferry routes.  We luckily arrived a week before the peak peak season hit, otherwise we would not have found a place to sleep!  It turned out to be a very restful (too restful) stay, highlighted by afternoon naps, late nights by the water dining while the kids played, and multiple hikes to the castle ruins overlooking the town of Myrina where we stayed.  Ky enjoyed drinking nesfrappes (instant coffee, milk, sugar, whipped into a frothy iced beverage). 

From Limnos, we ferry hopped north to Kavala.  We chose this location initially because it had the fine feature of: 
1) Only 5 hour ferry ride from Limnos 
2) Has flights available to Athens late in August 
We came to really like the area for other reasons: 
- easy day trip ferry hop to Thassos, a destination tourist island 
- drive to nearby ski area - it's not Whistler or Colorado since it only has one chair lift:), but it's views are spectacular and it was cool up top. 
- lovely inexpensive "domatia" - rooms in a house for rent.  This is a much more personal way to live than in hotels.  The owner is such a sweet lady who adores the kids. 
- nearby beaches are a fun way to spend a couple of hours nearly every day. 
- great ruins with interesting Biblical history.  The apostle Paul made his first landing in Europe here in Kavala (named Neapoli at the time) and then went on to Phillipi where he converted the first European Christian, a woman named Lydia.  The book of Phillipians was written to the church in this city.  We also saw where Paul was imprisoned for preaching the Gospel.  Rereading Acts and Phillipians while here really brings a whole new light to them.  Ruins are a great place to take kids.  Their imaginations can run free and so can they - since everything is already "ruined", they can't break anything so they love to roam around. 

Kavala is not a place you would seek out as a destination resort (there are none here!), but it is a nice place to see Greeks go about their daily business, practice the language a bit, and see some pretty country. We are finding that resort and beach environments are a bit shallow for long term stay, so we are enjoying staying in medium to larger towns where there are more activities and physical and mental stimulation. 

We've started renting transportation again, with less than stellar results.  In a series of renting cars and motor scooters, we have: 
- had problems pickup up and returning a car 
- Ky crashed a scooter with Jessica on board (scrapes and bruised egos only, thank God) 
- Ky dented a fender on a car while parking 
- Overfilling a car with gas prior to returning (expensive mistake - gas is aboaut US$3.50 per gallon). 

After decades of trouble free, accident free rentals, this was a pretty humbling sequence of events.  We kind of miss the prolific cheap public transport of Asia! 

We staying in the middle of the tourist zone of Athens, called the Plaka.  Athens is hot during the middle of the summer, and we hit some the peak heat.  After seeing the Parthenon, and some ruins, we quickly realized that central Athens is not the most child friendly place, especially when staying in a normal hotel (ie no kitchen, no fridge) and eating out all the time.  So we counted the days until our next flight, back to a place where Bonnie and Ky used to live: Munich. 

Stay tuned for the next update about our brief stay in Germany.  Our basic grasp of the German language, plus our prior experiences in Germany, have given us pretty high expectations of the next leg. 

Heavy on our minds at this point is deciding where to go next, and when to stop this travelling.  Our detailed travel plans have run out, and we are still working on a medium to long range itenerary that works best for our family. 

Best wishes to all! 
Ky, Bonnie, Jessica, and Nathan