Forget the Crispy Creme Franchise - Greece is for Me

I have abandoned my retirement dream of growing fat on a Crispy Creme Franchise to decide that I will die in Greece. You can keep your south of France, this is the place. I love it. Perhaps I should go and live on Corfu as the Gerald Durrell books are awfully good.

There is a lot to love. Olive trees that you just can't kill and the land is so mountainness that there is no lawn to mow. But most importantly, there are 17 greek words for 'later'. They range from shortly to when hell freezes over.

Today we drove from Kalambaka to Athens. We stopped to 'view' the battle of Thermopalaye where Leonidas and the 300 mortals allegedly held back 2 million Spartans in a gorge. Problem was, we did not really get to see it as we were so far away the gorge looked like it was Sydney Harbour. No way 300 men could have held 2 million. Not happy was Jane. Friends with the wookies she is. (Yoda reference talk).

After that, we drove to Mount Parnassus to see the Oracle at Delphi for 2 hours. We were very fortunate that there was a cool breeze although the 3 euro sandwich was like one that you had forgotten in your school bag for three days.

The ruins are also full of feral cats and dogs which is odd. They don't seem to bother people but it is strange to open your ham role and have 23 cats at your feet. No seagulls here.

We really enjoyed the Oracle and the muesum. Jane would have liked to walk all the way to the top to see where they competed in the games in winter in the nude. Ouch. Unfortunately, we ran out of time but I had seen enough.

We then drove to Athens past Marathon and the drive was very fast. Many highways were erected during the olympics and Athens is a far better drive for it.

The Hotel was in the shadow of the Acropolis and it was very central. We cooled in the room and then we wandered around the Greek Plaka for a while before settling in a little court yard to enjoy a three course greek meal looking up at the Acropolis on a spectacular night. The meal ended with the owner bringing out a plastic bottle full of some alcohol which he assured us was better than Ouzo. The two shots warmed us all the way down.

Tomorrow we leave from Piraeus for our three day cruise of the Greek Isles.