Category: Tourist attractions

2012 holiday report: Hopping over to Paros

I got this great late afternoon view of Naoussa bay and Piperi beach just by walking a very short distance down the road from Hotel Manos after my arrival on Paros

[This is the latest segment of a report about my 2012 holiday in Greece. Previous reports described my 8-day vacation on Mykonos. You can access those reports by clicking here.]

Tuesday, May 22 2012

Second chance: After eight fun days on Mykonos, I “hopped” over to Paros, the second island destination of my 2012 Greek holiday. Paros actually was supposed to be my third island, after visiting Ios for a few days, but Anna and some of the guests at Hotel Tagoo had persuaded me to drop Ios from my itinerary and spend more time on Mykonos instead. (I’d been having such a good time on Mykonos, they didn’t have any trouble twisting my arm. In fact, I would have stayed on Mykonos the entire time had it not been for the fact I already had bought a non-refundable flight from Paros to Athens.)

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I travelled to Paros on the 14:55 Flyingcat 4, which was almost completely booked for the second year in a row. In 2011, we had waited until we arrived on Mykonos to buy tickets for our ferry trip to Ios (the next stop on the route, after Paros) and, to our chagrin, discovered that economy class was sold out with only two seats remaining in business class (which of course we booked on the spot). This time I made certain I booked my Paros ticket online well in advance. I was glad I did because, once again, economy was sold out and only a handful of seats remained in business class. The SeaJet2, which departed the Mykonos Old Port 10 minutes before us, was nearly full, too. The Flyingcat4 left Mykonos a few minutes behind schedule, but gave us a smooth ride to Paros and arrived at Parikia port nearly on time around 16:00.

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May 4, 2013
Santorini’s superlative scenery, on film

A screen capture from Freedom, a fabulous 5-minute film by Vasili Pasioudis

Simply breathtaking: It has been available for online viewing on Vimeo for the past two years, but today was the first time I saw Freedom, a superb film showing Santorini’s spectacular scenery, and I just have to pass along the link so others can see it, too.

Produced by Aegean Films, the five-minute film by Vasili Pasioudis tries “to show that despite all the modern day craziness in this world, there are still corners of this globe one can run to, to forget about ‘things’.”

Watching the film certainly made me forget about everything else for five minutes — and then made me wish we were going back to Santorini during our upcoming Greek holiday this month.

Below, I have posted three more screen captures of scenes from Vasili’s film, just to tease you with a few examples of the simply breathtaking, gorgeous scenes you’ll see in the film. (Don’t forget to turn up your speakers … the film’s soundtrack features music by Darren Hayes & Daniel Jones of Savage Garden.)

Early morning sunshine on the incredibly picturesque village of Oia

Skaros Rock and Imerovigli village

One of Santorini’s fabled sunsets, viewed from a clifftop café in Fira

May 2, 2013
2012 Greek holiday: Mykonos visit winds down

The view from the hill: A panoramic view of Mykonos Town and its harbourfront and Old Port areas on May 21 2012. Click on the photo to view the image in a larger format.

Monday May 21 2012

Familiar patterns: Things weren’t looking very promising for my final full day on Mykonos. The weird up-and-down weather hit another “down” cycle, bringing overcast skies in the wake of a gorgeous sunny Sunday. Good thing I had not been planning another beach day, because I would have felt pretty bummed out by all the clouds and the threat of light rain. But I didn’t need more beach time and was content just to start walking and see where I would wind up.

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April 27, 2013
Pic of the day: Monumental views in Athens

The grounds around the Temple of Olympian Zeus offer views toward the Parthenon and the Acropolis about 500 meters away in Central Athens

April 15, 2013
Don’t ride the donkeys! Why tourists should avoid taking the mule ‘taxis’ on Santorini

Cruise ships that visit Santorini drop anchor in the sea below the capital town of Fira and tender passengers to shore. From there, visitors reach Fira either by walking approximately 600 steps up the path (left) that zig-zags up the face of the 800-foot cliff …

… by paying several Euros for the 3-minute ride up the cable car lift …

… or by riding a donkey like this one, which we encountered in Firostefani village during one of our three visits to Santorini. The donkey rides, which cost around €5, are a transport option that local mule owners provided for years before the cable car was installed. But animal welfare groups and even some cruise lines strongly urge travellers not to take the donkey “taxis” because the animals toil in poor working conditions and have been subjected to abuse and mistreatment by their handlers.

Ass transit: Now that it’s spring, tens of thousands of people around the world are finalizing their plans for holidays in Greece this summer. Many will be travelling on cruise ships that will visit several Greek Islands, including what is probably the most popular port stop of all — Santorini. Hundreds of those people may be hoping to make their arrival at Santorini even more memorable and “romantic” by taking what they believe will be a “traditional” donkey ride up the long path that links the cruise ship dock with the town of Fira, the island’s capital, which is perched atop the caldera cliffs hundreds of feet above the sea. Here’s a simple word of advice if you’re thinking about doing the same thing: don’t.

Though the donkeys might look “cute,” and the rides might appear to be a harmless and fun tourist attraction, travellers who use the mules as transportation actually contribute to animal abuse, according to animal welfare organizations and frequent visitors to the island who have personally witnessed handlers mistreating their donkeys.

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The abuse takes several forms. The roughly 360 donkeys and mules that work as tourist “taxis” on the island are forced to climb up and back down a pathway with around 600 steep steps, making as many as seven trips a day between 9 o’clock in the morning and sunset. Often, the animals are required to carry tourists who, putting it bluntly, are obese and may weigh considerably more than the donkeys themselves. And the mules must do this exhausting, gruelling work in blazing sunshine and searing summer heat, often with unsatisfactory food, water and rest periods, plus few if any breaks in the shade. To add insult to injury, they may be wearing ill-fitting harnesses that inflict cuts and sores on their bodies, while their owners or handlers may frequently strike them with sticks to make them move or hurry up. In short, they toil under cruel and deplorable working conditions.

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April 12, 2013
A Santorini church on the streets of Toronto

This pillar advertisement for Celebrity Cruises, near the intersection of Yonge & Bloor Streets in Toronto, features one of the most frequently photographed churches on Santorini

There are hundreds of blue domed churches in Greece, but this one in the village of Oia stands out from the rest thanks to its distinctive coral-coloured belltower

Picture perfect church: I think about Greece every day, but a cruise ship advertising campaign in downtown Toronto recently steered my thoughts to Santorini and the three times we’ve been to that particular island.

The “Celebrity’s Europe” poster ads for Celebrity Cruises featured one of the most photographed icons on Santorini — a blue-domed church with a coral-coloured belltower in the incredibly picturesque village of Oia, high above the wine-dark sea. The ads appeared on sidewalk pillars in different parts of downtown Toronto, and caught my attention whenever I went for a walk. The picture of the Oia church made me feel a tad wistful about our previous visits to Santorini, but also got me more excited to plan our next trip to Greece. (No, it won’t be a cruise — and we won’t be going back to Santorini.)

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April 9, 2013
Pic of the day: The Odeon of Herodes Atticus

The city of Athens fans outward from The Odeon of Herodes Atticus theatre, situated on the south side of the Acropolis. Originally built in 161 AD, the venue had a wooden roof and could seat 5,000 people for music concerts. The seating and stage areas were renovated in the 1950s, and the open-air theatre now hosts theatre, music and dance performances for the annual Athens & Epidaurus Festival, which runs between June and September.

March 10, 2013
The Castle of the Knights in Kos Town

The exterior wall of the Castle of the Knights of St John, viewed from the opposite side of palm-tree-lined Finikon street in Kos Town …

… and part of the castle interior, viewed from the elevated walkway that extends along the perimeter of the castle’s tall stone walls. Visible in the distance is the Bodrum area of Turkey.

Seaside stronghold: When I was a little kid, my friends and I used to build makeshift forts and treehouses and compete for control over the territory. “I’m the king of the castle, and you’re a dirty rascal” was a familiar taunt back in those days. It’s too bad our parents never took us to Kos, because we would have had the time of our young lives visiting the Castle of the Knights in Kos Town.

One of the most popular tourist attractions in Kos, the castle was constructed sometime in the 15th Century by the Knights of St. John, who used stones and marble recovered from the ruins of an ancient city that was devastated by an earthquake. It took them more than 120 years to finish building the stronghold, which was the second castle to be built on the site. (The first one was built in the early 1300s and later got completely destroyed). There actually is a castle within a castle — the outer wall was built between 1495 and 1514 to provide extra fortification for the original castle built more than a half century before.

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February 27, 2013