Ron and Janelle's Travel BlogEnchanted RockParis - Day 3
Day 3 was a busy day. We took a tour of Versailles, went shopping at Galleries Lafayette, and went to the Louvre.
Paris - Day 2We woke up and took the train to the Louvre... unfortunately it's closed on Tuesdays. So we made the best of it and went to Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tower instead. We also ate some amazing (though in Janelle's case, slightly undercooked by conventional standards) French food. Paris -Day 1
Highlights of the day - the Arc de Triumph, Champs Élysées, a lot of shopping and good food, the Basilique de Coeur, and the Moulin Rouge.
London and Paris
Well, we got delayed because of bad weather in Atlanta, and lost a day of our vacation... but we finally made it to London and powered through a day of sight seeing even though we were beyond exhausted.
We're in Paris now, but I wanted to share some pictures of our day in London. We went all over downtown London, ate fish and chips, had a pint in a pub, and found an awesome - very "off the beaten path" - Indian/Pakistani restaurant. It was also the Champions League cup game with Manchester United vs Barcelona, so there were crazy crowds everywhere. Good people watching. ChicagoGreece - Day 5, SantoriniJanelle and I booked a sailing trip around the islands that left at 3pm. So before that, we didn't ate breakfast, hung out with our new feline friends, and then checked out the church that was around the corner. The sailing trip was AMAZING! We were on a catamaran which left the Akrotiri port, sailed into the caldera and into the volcano area, where we swam in the hot springs. The crew on the catamaran cooked some awesome food on the boat for us, and we had plenty of local wine. We sailed for about 5 hours, and came into to port right at sunset. If you ever go to Santorini, I highly recommend the sailing trip. Greece - Day 4, SantoriniSorry for the delayed post, but we hit a bit of a snag on our last day in Santorini. More on that later. Here are the pictures from day #3 in Greece. We made some friends at breakfast; a family of kittens, a mom and 3 babies. One looked like our cat, George, so we kept referring to him as Greek George. Anyway, after an enormous breakfast, we spend the day exploring Santorini, driving to more beaches and eating more awesome food. The red beach at Akrotiri was definitely the best beach we experienced while we were in Santorini. The water was a little cool (probably somewhere around 68 degrees fahrenheit). We also stopped by a little hut that was sun-drying tomatoes and selling food, wine, etc... The people were really nice, gave us some free samples, and we bought some olives to take home. Anyway, on to the photos.
Greece - Day 3, SantoriniSantorini is about 28 square miles, so getting around the island is done either via bus, or renting a car, motorcycle, scooter, or ATV. We chose the ATV, mainly because that's all you can rent when you only have a Texas drivers license. It cost 50 Euros to rent the 4-wheeler for 2 days, and about 10 Euros for gas that would have lasted more like 4 days. Once we had the 4-wheeler, it was on! Janelle and I drove ALL over the island, from the northern town of Oia, to the red sand beaches and ancient ruins of Akrotiri on the south east tip. It was so much better having the freedom to explore the island versus having to be confined to a tour bus. We hopped around from beach to beach, and got to go a little bit off the beaten path, trying more local food and seeing more authentic sites than your average tourist gets to see. The beaches in Oia were great. Mostly black sand beaches, they were a little rocky, but the water was beautiful and there weren't a ton of people. We then drove to the town of Vourvoulos on the east side of the island, and had lunch at a small family restaurant. Then we hit the beach in Vourvoulos, which was another black sand beach and had a lot of cool cliffs with caves right on the beach. After the beach, we drove back to our hotel in Thira around 5pm. We changed clothes and drove back to Oia for the world famous sunset. The drive from Thira to Oia is breathtaking, if not a little frightening on 4-wheeler; there are huge cliffs with little buffer between you and the ocean, and lots of crazy drivers trying to pass you. We made it fine though, and found an awesome restaurant and wine bar called Ochre in Amoudi bay, at the very tip of Oia. The food was amazing... almost as amazing as the sunset. The pictures really don't capture how incredible it is, you just have to see it for yourself. We bought a few groceries at a local market and drove home. The next day, we woke up, at breakfast, and hit the south side of the island. We will post pictures of that soon. Greece - Day 2, SantoriniWe made it Santorini!! We took the high speed ferry and made it from Athens to the port near Thira in about 4 and a half hours, with one stop on the island of Ios. I have to say, the high speed ferry is an awesome idea. It had nice seats, a little restaurant and bar, and a nice outdoor observation deck. We definitely need some of these in the U.S. Anyway, on to Santorini. The port was a little hectic. The second the ferry door opened there was a mad dash of people, cars, trucks busses, dogs, etc... off of the ferry and onto the dock. Yea, I forgot to mention that this ferry also held cars, vans, trucks, pretty much any vehicle you wanted to take from Athens to whatever island you were going to. The port was definitely chaos, but we found the bus and made our way to Thira. Finding our hotel also proved to be difficult. Since there are so many hotels on the island, especially in Thira, and there a ton of "streets" (if you can call them that) with no names, addresses are useless and no one can really help you. Again, we managed to roll our luggage up the hill and somehow find our destination.
And now, the hotel. This is by far the coolest hotel EVER!! It was an old greek house, built into the side of the mountain, that the owners restored and turned into a really nice hotel. It's basically a cave, with really high ceilings and an awesome bathroom (which is rare in Europe, especially on the Greek isles). The hospitality of the hotel staff has been great. They cook us an amazing breakfast everyday and serve it to us on the patio outside our front door, overlooking the volcano and the Aegean Sea. They have gone out of their way to make sure we're having a great time, including helping to book a lot of our activities for us
We didn't do much on day #1 in Santorini, other than walk around town, eat some great food and do a little bit of shopping. Our hotel is right in the middle of Thira, and even though it's very private and feels secluded, it's right around the corner from the town center, with lots of cool stuff to do.
We've got a LOT more photos over the next few days of our trip, including the black sand and red sand beaches, and the famous sunset in Oia... but this is our honeymoon, so don't expect these pictures in a timely manner.
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