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Pic of the day: The mosque at Chania harbour

June 19, 2013 / admin / 1 Comment

The Turkish mosque Yiali Tzami cuts a distinctive figure at the Venetian harbour in the city of Chania in northwest Crete. The mosque’s great dome is supported by four arches, while six smaller domes accent the top of the square building. There is no minaret — it was demolished in the early 20th Century. According to a post on ExploreCrete.com, “the mosque was a Muslim place of worship until 1923, when the last Muslims left Crete at the exchange of populations between Greece and Turkey.” The building now hosts art exhibitions.

Acropolis Museum celebrates 4th anniversary with concert, extended hours & reduced admission

June 19, 2013 / admin / 0 Comments

The south facade of the superb Acropolis Museum in Athens is seen in this photo by Nikos Daniilidis. Click the image to view it full-size.

Untold stories: Tourists visiting Athens tomorrow (Thursday June 20) are in for a treat if they plan to visit the city’s acclaimed Acropolis Museum.

The museum will be celebrating its fourth birthday with a few gifts for its visitors — longer opening hours (8 a.m. until midnight), a reduced admission fee (only €3 per person), special gallery talks with 3D presentations, and an evening concert by the Athens Municipality Philharmonic Orchestra.

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Summer Sailstice offers fun way to ‘sea’ Greece

June 18, 2013 / admin / 0 Comments

A sailboat glides near steep cliffs that soar above the northwest coast of the Gulf of Milos on Milos island. Click the image to view a full size photo.

Solstice sails: If you happen to be travelling in Greece next Saturday and would like to do some sightseeing from a fresh and fun perspective, rather than take a run-of-the-mill bus tour or guided group walkabout, head for the nearest port or marina to see if you can sign up for a sailing excursions or tag along as a deckhand for a local sailor.

Not only will you get to view spectacular Greek scenery from unique and unrivalled vantage points on the water, but you also will be joining tens of thousands of other people around the world in Summer Sailstice, an annual international event that celebrates the joy of sailing.

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Island sail tour is a must for Milos visitors

June 18, 2013 / admin / 3 Comments

A poster at the Adamas marina advertises the daily Milos tours that J & J Yachting offers on the sailboat Joanna I

Milos must-see / must-do: One of the top tourist activities on Milos in the southwest Cyclades is a day trip that actually takes place off the island — on a sailing yacht or tour boat cruise along the marvellous Milos coastline.

Created by 3 million years of volcanic activity, Milos boasts some of the most impressive landscapes in all the Greek islands, including dozens of breathtaking beaches and a spectacular 139-kilometer-long coastline.

The stunning coastal scenery is best viewed from the sea, of course, and a variety of sailboat tours and day cruises are available from Adamas, the main port town on Milos. Excursions typically depart the Adamas marina between 8 and 10 a.m. in the morning, and return by sunset. Many of the sailboat tours take sightseers past western Milos as far as the dramatic cliffs at Kleftiko, near the island’s southwest tip, while other excursions travel completely around Milos. Some tours offer trips to Antimilos, Kimolos and other nearby islands.

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Our sailboat tour to Sykia and Kleftiko on Milos

June 18, 2013 / admin / 3 Comments

Excursion sailboats anchored off the scenic cliffs at Kleftiko near the southwest tip of Milos. Click the photo to view it full-size.

Stunning scenery: It has been nearly six years since we took a sailboat tour along the scenic western coast of Milos, but my memories of the trip are still so vivid it seems as though it happened only yesterday.

As I described in the preceding post — Island sail tour is a must for Milos visitors — sailboat excursions and boat cruises rate among the top recommended tourist activities on Milos, thanks to the island’s spectacular coastal scenery.

A sailing tour was at the top of our personal “must-do” list when we visited Milos for the first time in mid-September 2007, but we had to wait several days to take one of the popular excursions because high winds forced most boats to remain in port.

It was well worth the wait.

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Pic of the day: A beach view toward Naxos Town

June 17, 2013 / admin / 1 Comment

Naxos Town, as seen from the south end of St. George’s beach on Naxos. We walk to Naxos Town from the Agios Prokopios area at least once each time we visit Naxos, and this is one of our favourite views during the final 20 minutes of our hike. Click on the photo to view it full size.

Athens Gardens Festival underway this weekend

June 14, 2013 / admin / 0 Comments

Palm trees tower above flower displays in the National Garden of Athens. The Athens Gardens Festival is being held here from June 15 to 18.

Culture in the Garden: The National Garden of Athens is one of my favourite must-see attractions in Central Athens — a beautiful, soothing space where I like to escape the hustle and bustle of the busy downtown area during a day of visiting monuments and museums.

I wish I could be in Athens this weekend, because the annual Athens Gardens Festival — underway from June 16 to 18 — would give me a chance to enjoy the 15.5-hectare oasis behind the Greek Parliament building in an entirely new way.

For the next four days, classical music, jazz, urban acoustic music, Greek art music and various European music genres, along with interactive performing arts and visual performances, “will turn the National Garden into a magical place of artistic expression and creativity,” according to the event’s organizers.

The Festival is part of the annual Gardens of Athens program which aims to promote the city’s gardens as “meeting points of art and culture.”

According to the Breathtaking Athens website, the festival is hosted by the Athens Art Network in collaboration with the Municipality of Athens, OPAN (Athens Municipality Cultural, Sports and Youth Organization), the Athens Traders Association, the Directorate of Greenery and Environment and Athens “Technopolis.”

Further details are available in the breathtakingathens.com post about the Festival, while the complete program is presented on this page of the Athens Art Network blog.

Pics of the day: Agios Iakovos church

June 10, 2013 / admin / 1 Comment

A chapel dedicated to Agios Iakovos occupies a lonely location on a hill above Agios Sostis bay on Mykonos. Click on the photo above to view it full-size.

Side view of the chapel from the highway leading to Agios Sostis

Front view of the Agios Iakovos chapel

Inscriptions beside and above one of the chapel’s blue doors