It was a lazy morning. Our flight, which we booked for 9:55am had been bumped by the airline to 11:55am due to “COVID”. We surmised the real reason was not enough passengers had signed up for the flight and they were consolidating everyone onto a later flight. I guess the cause was COVID. No one on the island because of it. This had the possibility of crimping our plans a little bit. We were hoping to land in Athens, rent a car and drive to the ancient ruins at Mycenae, tour, then continue the drive to Olympia. From Athens to Mycenae is a 90 minute drive, 2-3 hours to tour Mycenae, then a 2.5 hour drive to Olympia. The delayed flight would have us arriving in Olympia a little later than planned, but not a big deal.
I got up at 6:45am and wrote out on the deck, sitting in the morning sun, enjoying the cool air and the sun’s warmth. Sally asked to be woken at 8:00am, so this gave me some time to put together the events of past days.
At 8:00am I woke Sally. We showered, packed and were out the door about 9:15am, a quick stop in the lobby to drop off the key, then across the street to the bakery.
Sally got a small pastry and soda which she enjoyed at the tables out front while we watched the clock tick down to 10:00am when the bus would leave Thera station, arriving here a few minutes later. We moved the 30 feet to the bus stop. Two busses stopped that were headed to the southern beaches, both ones we had ridden the day before, both with the same drivers and helpers, then the airport bus arrived. 1.20 euro each to the airport. A seven minute ride.
When booking our airline ticket from Santorini to Athens the instructions about baggage were very clear. Only one item could be carried on the plane, not the usual one bag to stow under the seat and one for the overhead compartment. They also dictated that the one bag could not exceed 8Kg, about 17 pounds. We had diligently weighed our packs at home to be sure we kept our weight below that limit so as not to incur the 20 euro charge to stow the bag in the cargo hold. We also knew our packs were a couple inches taller than allowed by most airlines, so we compressed the bag portion of the pack with its straps to make the packs look as dainty as possible. Of course, we had no way to weigh the packs once on the island, so we hoped that we were under as we rode the bus to the airport.
In line at the ticket counter, we noticed the people in front of us each had to put their bags on the scales. Too heavy, tagged, charged and sent down the conveyor belt. Light enough, they carried them away to the gate. The kid in front of us had a small pack on his back and a small rolling suitcase. They weighed his suitcase and determined it too heavy. Then they noticed his pack. They suggested he empty some of the contents of the suitcase to his pack to lighten his suitcase so that he did not have to stow it. What?!? The literature said only one item, but you allow two? That would have made things easier on us.
He stepped to the lobby and began emptying his suitcase. We stepped to the counter. They asked about baggage. We showed them our compressed, demure packs. They just waved us to the gate not even bothering to weigh them. That worked out well.
At the gate we met the kid again, Jonathan from Houston. He was touring Athens for the next few days, then heading home. We helped him understand the metro lines in Athens and had him download Rick Steves audio tours for his visits to the Acropolis, Museum and Ancient Agora sites.
The flight was over before it began. Off the ground, climb to 20,000 ft, cruise of about 2 minutes, descend to Athens and land. The plane, an Airbus 320, had about 30 on board, a tenth its capacity. We were thankful they hadn’t cancelled this one as well.
While renting our car at the Alamo counter we were answering question of the clerk and doing the normal stuff. She (Maria) asked how much luggage we had, trying to judge how big a car to give us. We lifted our packs, she smiled and said, “Oh, traveling light.”. Out of nowhere Sally pops out, “Yes, we travel light and drink heavy.” The clerk three seats down overheard this and shouted out, “I want to travel with you!!”
We walked to the rental lot, went over the car with the attendant and drove off. The car only had 1/8 tank of gas, so we stopped to fill up right out of the airport, then cruised freeways for the next 90 minutes to get to the Mycenae ruins.
Toll roads. Wow. We could have avoided them by having the GPS find routes around them (a setting on the GPS), but we were in a bit of hurry to make up for the delayed flight. Sally had read they were prodigious and I had been paying for items with bills to accumulate change, but we learned I didn’t have pockets deep enough to handle the coinage needed. In the 90 minute drive we were stopped 7 times for tolls, each between 1.80 euro and 3.00 euro.
We finally got on the back roads to the site and the tolls ceased.
At the site, we were one of about 7 cars in the expansive parking lot. 12 euro each to enter the site.
We used the water closet before walking up the hill. I walked in the men’s room. There was a woman sitting inside, reading a book. She had docent tags on and explained it was too windy outside today. Okay. I went into one of the stalls and did my business. We talked politics and crowds when I came out. Coed bathrooms don’t bother me. We are each in our own stall.
We spent about 2 hours walking the grounds, admiring the Lions Gate, the funeral circles, the palaces and other remains of buildings the defenses. About 2000 people visit each day, during normal years. Today, about 20 visited the site, us among them. We toured the museum as well. Amazing the artifacts they found in their excavation of the site.
Back in the car and on towards Olympia, about 3 hours away. I texted our new host to let her know of our progress. We drove down through the town of Mycenae a mile below the site. It was depressing. The year and a half without tourists has really taken a toll on this town. We stopped for something to drink at a little hole in the wall grocery, but I was afraid to buy something to eat as all the packages looked about a year and a half old. I just got a bottle of water.
The drive to Olympia entailed a few more toll booths until we turned west to the coast. The hills we drove through were lush with vegetation and beautiful. Miles and miles of olive orchards. The highway was lined with flowering bushes 10 feet tall. It was beautiful. Once on the coast, we headed north. We pulled off on a side road to drive to the beach. Our question was, why were the Greek islands so popular, yet this coast nearly uninhabited? We found a wonderful, sandy beach and warm water, yet no restaurants, trinket shop, etc. Don’t know.
We mindlessly followed the GPS, twisting through some little towns and driving agricultural roads until we entered Olympia. The GPS brought us to a stop with its, “You are at your destination” statement, but we weren’t. Fotini, our host, had emailed some photos to help us find our way to her place. We switched to them to try to find her place, but failed. Finally, we called her. She wanted to meet us in front of the National Bank, but we didn’t know where that was either. We convinced her to meet us at the BP gas station, as we knew where that was; we were calling from its parking lot. She arrived about 3 minutes later and lead us to the B&B. We had been within 100 yds of it twice, approaching it from two different ways. Oh well.
The apartment is spacious and well decorated.
It was now about 8:30pm. We dropped our stuff in the room and walked the 3 minutes to the downtown area of the quaint and inviting town. Fotini had recommended a friends restaurant, but we had forgotten the card in the room. We wandered the town, about the size of Morton but more compact, didn’t recognize her restaurant and settled on the Aegean for our late meal.
There were four waiters and no customers. We sat outside near the one lane street, under the trees, on this warm night. They told us they had just opened this morning after 8 months of being closed down due to COVID. We had Moussaka and Greek Salad and moaned with delight through the whole meal. Greek food is soooo good. I went inside to pay the bill and got in a conversation with the owner, a thin man in his 60’s. His wife came up from the basement where the kitchen is (I saw a dumb waiter for transferring the food up and down). He said he was really worried about whether they could make it until the tourists came. He also said even a good July and August wouldn’t be enough. They needed a good September and October to make it. I could see the worry and pain in his eyes. We have been rejoicing at having all the sites to ourselves, but this is the other side of that coin. People’s lively hoods are at stake.
We walked back to our apartment and were in bed about 11:00pm. Another amazing day.
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