Greece Glorious Greece 2

The third port was Santorini, one of the most beautiful islands in Greece and my favourite. The whole island is covered in black sand as a result of a volcano erupting there centuries ago. The houses and villags are all built on the cliff tops so you have a panoramic view of the sea, steep cliffs and white houses. In fact when i first saw the hills from the ship I mistook the white houses dotting the clifftops for snow and wondered how Greece had snow covered mountains. But as we went towards them I realsied they were white houses. 

The ship does not dock at the harbour, but rather at a little distance away so we had to take a small boat to reach the port. There was nothing at the port itself so we could either take a cable car to reach the village above, or a donkey ride up (no!) or do day trips to other islands. We decided to go to the village of Fiao, a typical Greek village. It was a 45 minutes ferry and bus ride and we reached very hungry to this beautiful greek village at the top  of the  mountain. The view was just amazing and we had a lovely lunch overlooking the sea and the hills. Greece surprisingly had tons of vegetarian food  (unlike Spain and Portugal where I had to really struggle to find anything to eat) so I feasted on Greek salad and Spinach pie. We then walked around the village, the girsl played in park there and we admired the view and resolved to come back and spend a week in Santorini sometime in the future (one day is not enough).

We took the bus to the next village and bought some local wine and sun dried tomatoes there- its all grown on the volcanic soil so the wine actually tastes a bit smoky. We finally decided to walk down to the port as there was a big queue for the cable car and the girls did not want to ride the donkeys. It was a tricky walk down, pretty steep stairs and trying to avoid the donkey poo! and the donkeys!! S was a sport and walked all the way down but A insisted on being carried a lot of the time. To be fair, she was quite unwell and on antibiotics so overall she was a good sport about being out so much.

The next day we docked at Kusadasi in Turkey. We decided to head out only after lunch and only for  a couple of hours as it was getting too hectic for A. We hired a taxi to Ephesus (an ancient city, decently preserved) and walked through the ruins. We managed to visit the site of the Temple of Artemis, one of the seven ancient wonders of the world, but there was only a column standing there and we had to imagine the rest of the temple. Historians write that it was one of the grandest structures built and I wish it had been preserved. This trip we managed to visit three of the seven ancient wonders of the world- the Temple of Artemis (Kusadasi, Turkey), the Temple of Zeus at Olympia (Greece, near Katakalon) and the Colossus of Rhodos (Rhodes, Greece) so it was a pretty educational trip. I wonder how much the girls will remember of it though! We declined buying any carpets or leather goods and it was a bit cold to walk around in the town so we got back to the ship pretty early around 4 pm . The girls enjoyed the kids club in the evening and S admonished me for picking her up too early- they had a pirates theme that night and she wanted to take part in the treasure hunt.

The final destination was Rhodes in Greece. We took the Hop on Hop off bus and went around the small town. The sea was a beautiful azure blue and we were tempted rightly to get off at the beach. It was too cold to go into the water but the girls had fun collecting the stones at the waterfront and we just enjoyed gazing into the blue water. It was a long walk to the site of the ‘missing’ Colossus statue and then back to the ship. The hubby did some hectic shopping in the old town and managed to buy all the three wonders of the ancient world across our various stops. They are gathering dust on top of our bookshelf now.

The girls enjoyed the evening in the swimming pool (running between the pool and the hot tub) and I managed to catch up on my book reading. This trip I’ve managed to read two full books and two half books! Am quite happy about that because in between all this rushing to office, getting up early to get thh girls ready for school, coming back and giving them dinner and putting them to bed, my reading and exercising had nearly stopped. I fiished reading Buddha of Suburbia on this trip (very ok book, doesn’t really go anyweher), read Fahrenheit 451 by Ray  Bradbury (interesting and very topical to today’s environment), read The Expats (lovely spy thriller) and half of Lean In (some good insights, but no real game changer).

The last day was in Athens. We saw the Acropolis musuem (had seen the Acropolis the previous week) and spent the evening in the national park with the girls to make up for all the boring historical stuff they had to see! They had fun feeding spaghetti to the goat, fawning over the rabbits and running around in the playground. We had a typical Greek dinner at a local restaurant and went to bed early to catch the early morning flight back to Zurich.

Lovely restful holiday. Back to the old grind now..

Greece, Glorious Greece 1

So we are on our long awaited cruise holiday to Greece. We started at Athens where we had 5 hours before reporting to our ship so we set out to see the Acropolis. Amazing. To imagine such architecture so many years ago. Our cab driver told us it took 600 years to make all the columns and just an instant for the Turkish empire to bring it down.
We arrived at the cruise at 1 pm. Evening swim in the pool and walk around. The next day was a sailing day so again swim, gym, lunch, Kids club and afternoon siestas.
Monday morning we docked at Corfu. We hired a car and drove to the beaches recommended by the internet/local guide. Corfu is just simply beautiful/ Miles and miles of beach sandy ashores, pebbly shores, rock formation lovely weather the first place we stopped was a pebbly beach with beautiful rock formations. We hung around for half an hour dipping our feet in the water, playing with sand toys and then set off for the next beach. The next beach was Glyfinda -  a lovely sandy beach. We ate at a local Greek tavern overlooking the beach. I had my Greek salad (yummy fresh Feta cheese and olives) and the hubby ahd traditional Mousaka. The girls were not as adventorous and had pizza. We played a little while in the beach and it was too hot so we set out to the next place. We couldnt quite reach our desitnation so we ended up at the Achilles palace (deicated to Achilles, built by the Austrian Queen). A and I snoozed in the car while S and the hubby went inside the palace and saw huge sculpture and paintings based on Achilles.
Then we had to get back to the shop to make the 4 pm deparute. Dinner was formal so we dressed up, droppped the girls at the Kids Club and had a nice formal dinner by ourselves. I managed to squeeze in  a couple of rounds of Blackjack at the casino after which was fun. I even made 10 dollars!

Tuessday we docked at Katakalon. Its a small fishing village but nearby is Olympia village where the ancient Greeks used to have the first Olympic Games thousands of years ago. We hired a car and drove to Olympia (the guided excursions are 10 times the price!!), walked around the ruins, S and the hubby ahd a runnign race in the ancient stadium and S got her gold coin (from the machine) and went to the archaelogiical musuem. After all the walking in teh heat we were starving and hadf a lovely Greek lunch of Gyros at the nearby restaurant/ We reached the ship at 3 pm and crashed out for a along afternoon siesta.
On otehr updates A has been unwell and is not on antibitiotics. Shes quite tired and cant enjyo the fun like swimming and today no Kids club for her as well. But hopefully she gets better soon.
I'm blaoting up liek a pig with all the food and ice cream on offer but have managed to go to the gym twice nad hope to keep that up.
More soon!

Funny conversations and other updates

The other day A turns to me and says, who will take me to school when you die Mama? Such concern i say....the things these kids think about.
I am back to being in a good mood, because yeah next week is holiday time. Last 3 months have been crazy busy, I've been on my feet everyday from 6:15 am till 9:45 pm (when A sleeps) and on the weekends its all the tasks which were not done during the week.
Touchwood, fingers crossed we've got a great nanny who really likes the girls and does an amazing job. Work has been more hectic than i expected and I'm home usually only around 7 pm. Then its dinner and bath time for the girls, then story time and then sleep time. So i dont get to do much with them during the week. Am missing the coffee mornings, chats after pick up from school etc etc but I am happy to be back at work. For S i think its ok. I invested a lot of time making good friends with her friends moms over the last 2 years so she still gets invited to playdates, outings etc even if i cant make it. The nanny and A also get to go along and its nice that the friends mom have been so accomadating. For A really I have not been able to spend any time getting to know her classmates moms, or arranging playdates for her, but luckily she's adjusting well, has made a good friend L and seems to be happy at school. Of course its not 100% as i would want it to be - she hardly eats her lunch and here they dont feed the children at all, they expect them to eat on their own. She's lost some weight and I am a bit worried on that front. For S she only went to school till noon at A's age and she used to come home and have lunch and I wish I would have been able to do that for A as well. But I guess its always a bit of give and take. I needed to go back to work and the children will have to make some adjustments. Would I want to ensure that A is eating well, is sleeping ok and is well looked after? Yes of course. But am I ok with ensuring that she is overall ok , yes I guess for now I am. I just hope I don't miss any vital signs because I am so busy at work.
Next week we are off to Greece for a 1 week holiday. Its the girls vacation time so i took mine as well. We fly to Athens and then we are on a 7 day cruise to the Greek islands, and even touch Turkey one day. I cant wait. Its the Homeric cruise as it touches many of the islands Homer's journey covered. Corfu, Santorini, Rhodes, Katakalon. The ship itself it a luxury cruise ship with kids clubs, swimming pools, tennis spas etc so am super excited. We plan to get off at each of the islands and explore them. we might just end up lounging on the beach, but each of these islands has so much history it would be great just to see it. Santorini has black sand because a huge volcano erupted there a long time ago. In Rhodes you have the remnants of one of the Wonders of the Ancient world. The weather has been crap in Zurich for the last one month and i am itching to see the sun! 28 degrees in Greece. Yippee!

Coming back to our crazy schedule. We've not really been able to relax over the weekends because of my working guilt. One weekend we went to Legoland. The other weekend it was back to back birthday parties for the girls friends. One weekend we went to Munich for the Oktoberfest with some friends- okay that was more for us than for the kids, but it was exhausting to come back from that and still have all the tasks which need to be done over the weekend pending. We've been able to squeeze in some tennis over the weekends also, but my running has taken a big knock. From running 50 mins thrice a week, now i can barely manage 35 mins once in 3 weeks. Everything in its time I say.

Back to googling things to do in Corfu...