Two years ago, we visited Greece and two of the Greek islands, Crete and Santorini.
If you have ever thought that you might want to go to Greece … you do. We spent the majority of our time in Athens and stayed at the Hotel Hermes, a great boutique hotel in the Plaka area of Athens. Service was great and the buffet breakfast was nice. The rooms are small and it is a challenge to take a shower without getting water all over the floor.
We were in walking distance to the Acropolis and many other historical monuments. The food was great. We even found a vegetarian restaurant.
While you can tour on your own, which we did, I you are interested in history and philosophy, I recommend organized tours. Perhaps just good luck, but every tour guide we had seemed to really enjoy their job and took great pride in their country’s history. A half to visit place is Delphi, about 180 kilometres (112 miles) from Athens. The ruins were discovered by the French and the Delphi museum at the foot of the ruins is well worth a trip to see actual statutes and sculptures.
Many attribute the Holy Roman Empire with the spread of western civilization, but much of what the Romans spreaded and forced upon their conquered was influenced by the Greeks. Atop of the Acropolis you can look down upon Athens and see historic sites for “free speech,” a market place, civil institutions like courts, and other precursors of democratic practices.
While the trip to the Greek Isles was nice, we went during non-peak season, so many tourist activities were not available. While on Crete, we did get to visit the famous Minoan palace at Knossos. I wouldn’t recommend a tour guide and if you do, you may or may not get a good guide, since I think that these guides are volunteers at least during March.
Santorini … beautiful. March is non-peak season too, but we did get to visit the Santorini’s caldera. Worth the trip? Totally!
