Corfu is on the west coast of the Ionian sea (the sea between Italy and Greece), about as far North and West as one can get and still be in Greece.

This is a very historic place and the largest of a number of islands in the area. I have spent the week in Corfu Town, a small historic town, now tourist destination.

This island was settled from the stone age. Corfu was a Greek city over 3300 years ago but of course almost everyone in the region and beyond has occupied the island from time to time, even the British. This was a Venetian city for centuries. Austrian and German royalty built palatial homes here. Prince Phillip was born here.

But Corfu was never occupied by the Ottomans. This was one of the most heavily fortified cities in Europe during the middle ages and these old Venetian fortresses successfully resisted four separate sieges by the Ottomans. The defense of Corfu is credited with halting the Ottoman advance into Europe.

This is tourist ground zero. 33 million tourists visited Greece last year. The old town of Corfu, a UNESCO world heritage site is one of the top destinations. Even now in late November the old town is full of them.
And why not, it is gorgeous. The city has a distinctive architecture of multistoried buildings with arched walkways. Narrow medieval streets with basalt and marble paving.

Some of the notable aspects of Corfu town being thoroughly geared up for tourists: The taxis are all immaculately clean Mercedes Benzes. The old town shops offer designer goods, jewelry and watches. 25 dollar cigars. And on the side streets there are endless little souvenir and trinket and handicraft shops.

The prices of everything in the old town are roughly twice those in Thessaloniki. There are rows of restaurants with handsome menus. In the old town and across from the cruise ship and ferry port. Many many upscale bars. The bars have American prices and are thick with cigarette smoke.

There is a very small but very nice archeological museum, especially interesting illuminating the important 600 to 300BC Greek period. Otherwise history seems to have taken the back seat to tourism. Following a map in the museum I track down a few notable ancient sites. Sadly, they are ruined, padlocked and neglected.

But they do bring me to this silly little picture, my favorite of the week.

Outside of the old town are the areas where real people live. Nice shopping streets selling the goods people need to live. Locals interested in talking with you beyond a potential commercial transaction. This is where your correspondent spends his time. The coffee is just as good and in real, lively cafes.

Simply asking in a nice butcher shop who grills lamb chops leads me to a delightful friendly little restaurant. The fellow selling fish in the market is happy to explain the types of fish he has displayed. He can easily send me to a nearby restaurant that grills his fish.

If I were out for a special evening or say for an evening off a cruise-ship I might want linen table cloths and sparkling glassware, but the food in the places I mentioned are literally half price from the old town restaurants a quarter mile away. And the portions are huge. I often request the doggie takeaway box.   A glass of wine in an old town bar is from 5.50 euros to 9 euros.  A half-liter jug of wine (hey, I read this on the menu) in my fish grill restaurant is 3.50 euros.

My apartment is very nice, but I spend too much time looking out at this little square in the rain.

There was a cold snap in the north of Europe this week, which played out here as wind and intermittent hard rain showers. My plans for renting a car for a day and exploring the island are washed out. Too bad because I read that there are a number of delightful villages on the island. And over 200 miles of marked hiking trails.

The showers are not continuous and so I make it out most days for walks with only a few soakings. And can scoot out between showers for a look around or umbrella out for some recreational eating.

Walking around Corfu city is difficult. The town is very small. There is a nice green 45 minute out and back south of town with views of the city.

The only long walks are to the northwest, following the highway out of the city. This takes you through some interesting suburbs, but the walking is tedious, directly beside traffic.

And so, that is my damp report on visiting Corfu. Thanks for coming along.

Tomorrow I shoot down to Athens.

I have been enjoying visits to Greece these past few winters and so came back this year to spend more time and look around a few cities. For the past week I have been living in Thessaloniki, on the northwest coast of the Aegean Sea.

There is an older post about visiting Thessaloniki here on this site and I invite you to visit it if you are interested.

The white tower. Symbol of the city.

This is Greece’s second largest city with around a million people, but the downtown is quite manageable. It is a pleasant downtown because of the proximity to the sea and I especially like the city having many open spaces, giving it a nice comfortable feel as you walk around.

My apartment was directly north from the white tower.

And it turned out to be very nice, in a real neighborhood near the university and so in a lively area with lots of young people enjoying the small cafes and bars in the area throughout the evening.

This coast was settled in far antiquity and this was a notable bronze age settlement from around 3000 BC. “Modern” Thessaloniki was founded by conquest by the Macedonians in 315BC and named after a half sister of Alexander the great. The Macedonian royal family tombs are in a nearby village.

Later this was a very important Roman town. And after that everyone around the Mediterranean and from the Balkans held it for a while. It is only around a hundred years since the Ottomans lost the city and so it still has a bit of an eastern flavor. Literally in some of the little dishes where the spices can surprise you.

Even after centuries of war, sackings, fires, etc. there are ruins from the ancient times all around the city.

The Archaeological  Museum here has an outstanding exhibit on the Macedonians from their earliest times through their peak from say 700BC until they were conquered by the Romans.  Two surprising things:  how advanced they were for their times and how much the Romans seemed to have adopted from them.

Another thing I really like about Thessaloniki is that you can walk directly out of the city center and out along the harbor  .. for as long as you want.

I found mid-November to be a little late for visiting here. All of the seaside resorts up the coast have closed for the season and I have not encountered many tourists in the city, which is good. But the weather is changing rapidly. It creeps up into the low 60’s during the day but it is “jacket required” chilly in the mornings and evening.
You can still eat outside because the restaurants put out those propane heaters under umbrellas.

You want to be outside because everyone smokes here, everywhere, and so the atmosphere inside those cozy restaurants and cafes can be unpleasant.

There are restaurants everywhere. Food is inexpensive. A great meal with wine for less than 25 dollars. If you can eat sandwiches and pizza and the like, you can eat for practically nothing.  But be warned, here are some photos of restaurants at 7PM. They will not be filling up before 9PM and will be open until after midnight. They eat so late here that I have started to have my one big meal of the day mid-afternoon.

If you get tired of walking along the sea you can climb up hill over the city. Some of the old city walls still stand.

But more interesting to me is the ruins of an old fortress. The stones tell of Greek, Roman, and Medieval construction.

Of course I cannot end this post without talking about food.

The food here is similar to Italian.  The coffee is the same.  Less pasta and pizza. More Giros and pita wraps.  More fried food. More salads.  Hardly any mozzarella but heaps of feta. Street food is everywhere and many many people buy and eat food directly on the street.

Even little markets downtown are beautifully stocked.

There are more than one central city open air markets. Always fascinating to me.

 

The Seafood is great.

 

And there are tempting baked goods everywhere, both savory and sweet.

And that is it for Thessaloniki this year. Thanks for coming along.

Tomorrow I go over to the west coast of Greece on the Ionian Sea to visit the island of Corfu.

Last year when I was in Sicily I rented a car and drove around to towns and some of the historic sites, and posted a number of blogs here.       I invite you to go back to them if you are interested.

This year I elected to just stay a week in Catania and experience life in the city under the gigantic volcano Mount Etna.

Except for a day and a half of rain the weather has been perfect, around 70 degrees every day with loads of sun. The little elephant, the symbol of the city.

And my apartment turned out to be OK and in a good location, right on the main pedestrian street in the town center.

As you recall the town had to be rebuilt after the great Sicilian volcano eruption and earthquake around 1700, and has miles of these Mediterranean Baroque buildings. The entire downtown is a world heritage site.

This is a big city of a million people spreading between the sea and the volcano. But the compact city center makes it feel small. This was a Greek town, then Roman. And then various others held it. Even the Normans (like in 1066) for a hundred years or so. There are a few significant ruins available for the interested to visit.

It has been a good week. This is Italy. The food and wine are great. The coffee fantastic. The tomatoes will make you cry for all that America has lost.

Italy has an attitude.  A joy of life.  A rollicking vitality that always makes it fun to visit. When asked about travelling in Europe I often say: “It is hard not to just keep going back to Italy”.

The markets are well stocked with wonderful things.

Restaurants are everywhere and eating out even in the tourist areas is not too expensive.  But much more costly than how one can eat well out of the shops and markets.

Tip1:  Stay away from the fish restaurants right in and around the historic fish market.  They have morphed into high priced experiences for bus  groups and excursion groups off of the cruise ships.

Tip2: Do all that you can to avoid getting a pool of rotisserie chicken juice in the bottom of your back pack.  They are very hard to clean out.

Catania still has a very large daily open air market.

And there are still many small shops that sell just one thing: produce, fish, meat, bread, hardware, plumbing, tailoring, cosmetics, etc.

If you have a sweet tooth, or two, this is the place for you. Sicily is famous for their sweets. Sweet pastries, cookies, cakes, sweets I cannot name, and of course Gelato.

But Catania would not be the destination I would recommend for the first time visitor to Italy. I would send them to the North which is more prosperous, fashionably old and chic. Catania in comparison is unfortunately dirty and run down.  But for myself, I give them extra credit for being real.

During the hours before dinner it seems that the entire population, of every age, come out to walk the streets in the soft evening air.

The Bellini Park in the city center is good for a quiet walk. But if you are a serious walker you will have to walk the streets, preferably early in the morning when they are still quiet.

Outside of the city center walking is into increasingly ugly and pedestrian unfriendly areas.

So that’s it for Catania.   Thanks for coming along.

Tomorrow I move on to Greece to visit a few cities.

 

I have just spent a quiet week in Split, mainly enjoying the nice weather and getting outdoors.
As you know, Split is in Croatia, east across the Adriatic sea from Italy. They call this the Dalmatian coast and Split is the defacto capital of the area.

I visited here two years ago and posted pictures and comments on this blog site. You may recall that the most significant thing about Split is that the old city is built on the (significant) remains of the palace of the Emperior Diocletian. He moved his capital here over the decades as the western roman empire fell.

Visitors to Split can be mistaken that this is a small town since the old town is small, very walkable, and just around the harbor. Actually Split is a town of more than 300,000 spreading out inland. But the old town, the cruise ships and the tourists are the story of Split.

The extensive area of stone and marble buildings and medieval squares and lanes around the old palace make Split a very interesting place.

The road up to my apartment.

There are plenty of restaurants and shops. It is difficult to get out of the old town and although the food here is high quality, the tourist prices are also very high.

I have been seeking out some lesser places.

But still not suffering from good opportunities for recreational dining.

I am running the experiment this winter of living in apartments in the cities I am visiting, as opposed to hotels. A little more room, a kitchen, a washer and drier. And so far it is nice, but I am finding it gives me much more alone time than the comings and goings of hotel living.

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Marjan Park
One of the big reasons I like Split is that the huge Marian park sits just outside the old town, to the north. Except for the Oceanographic Institute at the tip it is empty and virtually pedestrian only.

There are roads and trails for extended walks.

You can walk along the water.

Or up over the sea or the city.

The last time I was here it was December and too cold. Although the hot wine they served in the streets was a treat. This visit at the end of October hit the weather just right.

But it is changing.  My next report will be from Sicily where it is still hot.

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And, a bonus factoid:

The limestone here in many places is comprised of tilted strata, not too thick,

such that it can be (you guessed it) Split!, and used as a building material.

 

A day trip from Split over to Hvar island is a pretty easy trip. This was a favorite of the Romans who came over for swimming and picnicking.

The ferry leaves from downtown Split and heads straight out of the harbor.

This ferry was pretty nice, a little dated perhaps.
The trip takes about two hours.

I took this trip on a warm fall day and it was a nice ride out through the islands.

My destination was Stari Grad, the oldest recorded settlement in Europe, a Greek colony established around 400 BC.

The Greeks selected the site mainly from two features: the inland of the island contains a large fertile plain excellent for farming. Today this is a World Heritage site showing how ancient Greek agriculture was regulated.
And the island city was established at the end of a long narrow comparatively easily defensible harbor.

It is about a half hour walk from the ferry landing into town.  There is a bus and taxis, but I enjoyed the walk just along the water.

Today there is only a very small town to see.  A fine landing for yachties and day trippers like me.  Fine stone buildings and narrow medieval streets.

And a handful of good restaurants.
Interesting enough for a day.

Oslo and Bergen
These are the two largest cities in Norway. OSLO was founded in 1040 as a trading post mainly for timber exports. They landed here.

And rapidly set up a small town.

The trading post probably peaked around 1300, when a medieval castle was built over the harbor. It was later used as a prison and the headquarters of the Nazis during their occupation of Norway in WWII.

By the 1800s the city had become the capital of Norway (ex Bergen) and notable buildings such as the Palace, the Opera house, etc. were constructed.

The Nobel peace prize is awarded in Oslo. Prizes in other categories are awarded in Sweden.

A little story. When Teddy Roosevelt broke up the American monopolies (Standard oil, US steel, etc.) he broke the DuPont company (which had a monopoly on the manufacture and sale of gunpowder) into three companies: DuPont, Hercules and Atlas. The DuPont company went on the be quite successful while the other two languished. I believe that this was mainly because the DuPont company retained the exclusive license for the manufacture and sale of dynamite which it had obtained from mister Nobel, the inventor.

The downtown is still much the same as the picture above.  Now loaded with tourists.

Today there is a lot of construction activity, with nice new areas along the waterfront.

We travelled by train over to the coast to Bergen.

Bergen is a very nice town with a small compact city center.

But it is completely overrun with tourists. 300+ cruise ships visit Bergen in a year. The city was founded in 1070 as a trading post for fish and timber and was a very important Scandinavian town in the medieval period.

There is a very nice park up over the town center with trails up to overlook the city.

Norway is a very rich country and expensive by US standards. The confluence of decades of oil revenues and high taxes and duties (cars, 100%) have led to high prices. Some examples: Half pint of beer: 10 to 12 dollars. Haircut: 32 dollars. Hamburger: 23 to 31 dollars.

We joined a Hurtigruten cruise at Bergen and travelled up the coast to the far north where Norway, Finland and Russia all meet.

This convinced me that perhaps 98% of all Norwegians live within 300 yards of the sea.

This was a working boat making many stops along the coast.

We had a nice little suite and the food and wine were very good.

The boat stopped at towns big and small and the days were planned with optional tours, lectures, etc.

The towns were quite plain with some old buildings, churches etc. Interesting in the lack of ornateness.

The very best fiord scenery we encountered was on excursions into the fiords especially to old Viking towns.

Along the way we passed the northern tree line, and then the Arctic circle, which designates the area where further north the sun never sets for at least one day a year.

At North Cape we passed into the Arctic ocean.

Cruising is a very interesting life. We have friends who have taken monumental cruises of 90 or 120 days. I am not sure I am ready for that. But we’ll have to see.

Istanbul is a huge city, one of the world’s largest. Entire books have been written about the history of the city. So, I do not expect this little post to add much to the record. Just a few thoughts and photos from my (first) time visiting.

For people who enjoy naming and categorizing, this is the boundary of Europe and Asia. And this bridge across the Bosporus connects the two continents.

 

 

 

 

 

 

For a thousand years this was Constantinople, the eastern capital of the Roman empire. The city did not fall to the Ottomans until the mid 1400’s. And there are still artefacts from the Roman times. Here is a curiosity: this little Egyptian obelisk, moved to Rome, but then sent here by Constantine as part of the decoration of his new city.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But the centuries of Ottoman rule overlaid the city with Arabic culture, most notably the Mosques. Two huge ones occupy the most historic area of the downtown.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are many more in the historic old town.

 

 

 

 

And all over the city. Counting them would be like counting churches in Alabama.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are speakers on the towers of the Mosques, and periodically during the day men with no obvious history of voice training sing out their religious ecstasy to the neighborhood.

The Mosques date from the 16 and 1700’s. Pretty new by the things I have been seeking out on this winter trip. The fancy houses and palaces are mainly from the 1800’s.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Plenty of tourist restaurants are in the lanes of the old town around the historic center.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And further downhill toward the golden horn there is a very large market area.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The city is difficult to walk. Steep erosion valleys running east and west make the city very hilly. Plus the traffic is chaotic and swarming everywhere.

There is so much water around that ferry are constantly moving around. I would have liked to show the surprising numbers, but the light was always against me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

High rises and nice areas occupy the high ground in a number of places. Poor neighborhoods are in the low areas.

 

 

 

 

 

There are a lot of police and security. Lots of pedestrians. Lots of smoking. Very few Americanisms, but here are two familiar ones.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some random photos:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One disappointment visiting here was the number of attempted scams. The women, one with a baby who are so excited to meet you and must show you something on a cell phone but it is hard to pull up and then you are being squeezed between two pickpockets who saddled up. The classic “oh I dropped my shoebrush and you alerted me to that and so now I must give you a free shoeshine”. Plenty of helpful travel guides on offer, plus great shopping experiences, just come with me. Every taxi ride (I know this from walking) was padded by intentional driving off route and into congested areas.

Luckily I never go out for “nightlife”, when the real professional scammers are active.

But what I decided is that I have been on the road too long. These petty things should just be sport. And so, I will return to the USA and Bemidji tomorrow.

Thanks for coming along on this European fall travel. I expect to be on the road again in the spring. See you then.

Lew

Turkey. Land of the Ottomans.

I didn’t know what to expect coming here. But what I found in Izmir, Turkey’s third largest city, was a clean, modern place.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The city sounds like San Francisco when I describe it:  300 days of sunshine a year, stretches for miles in both directions around a large beautiful bay.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Destroyed by disaster (here fire in the 20’s) and rebuilt.

You can walk the bay shore for miles.

 

 

 

 

 

There are a truly incredible number of restaurants here, side by side over acres in the “pedestrian only” area downtown at the bay shore. Squint at some of the nicer areas and you could be in Paris.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is a very clean city. Little vacuum trucks trundle around sweeping and snorkeling. And, virtually no graffiti. I wonder how they control graffiti? Draconian policing? Ban on spray paints? Anyway it really makes a difference compared to cities that are ruined by graffiti, like Athens or Prague.

The symbol of the city is this little clock tower, dating from the early 1800’s.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Otherwise there are really no historic buildings here except for a tiny bit of the old city of Smyrna. Some walls looking more rebuilt roman than anything (huge stones equals Greek. Smaller stones with horizontal layers of tiles are always Roman). And some interesting “basements” with the old springs that Alexander the Great mentioned, still running.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was surprised to never see a burka here. Some head scarves, especially in the older market lanes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

But this is not Cincinnati. Almost no English, especially written. Except for the shoe shine guy, a born-again Christian who told me his whole life story in 6 minutes.

Ephesus

This was probably a Neolithic site and home of various early peoples, but it became Greek from the 11th century BC. And later the Roman capital of Asia Minor. By around 400 AD the city had a population of perhaps 400,000, second only to Rome in the empire. Hadrain, the globe trotting Emperor visited.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

St. Paul lived here for a while. And oral tradition says that St. John came here and brought along Mary (mum of Jesus).

The city fell on hard times. It was sacked by the Goths, the Ottomans.The harbor silted up. Later the Christians tore all the temples down.

The ruins cover a very large area. Mostly Roman, with some Greek preserved. This was a city with wide streets, public baths, extensive water and sewer systems. And a theater that would seat 25,000 people.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I took a week long look-around trip in the Greek Islands. Here is a little graphic to put the trip into perspective.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here the full moon greets me as I arrive in Naxos.

 

 

 

 

 

All of my travel was on the Blue Star Ferries. When the taxi first dropped me alongside one of their ships in the port of Athens, I was amazed. They are huge. 5 or 6 stories high. Very stable. Very clean. And very comfortable with numerous seating options, tables, food, bars, electricity, wi-fi, etc. This is good because the inter-island trips can take many hours.
The ships were built by the Koreans (based partially upon formula discovered by Archimedes). Only getting off is tedious, when you exit through the parking garage and the safety horns are blowing as they lower the gangplanks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I visited Paros, Naxos, and Santorini. Santorini is a spectacular geographical place, the rim of an exploded volcano. It is great for photographers, but is being over-run with tourists, particularly mainland Chinese. I posted a separate blog about Santorini a few days ago.

Your humble correspondent on Santorini:

 

 

 

 

 

Naxos and Paros are quiet by comparison. And thinly populated. The main towns in each are very small.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Each island has only a few small villages.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• There are a lot of vacation homes on Paros. But the islands are surprisingly empty.  If a lot of tourists really come I do not know where they would put them.

 

 

 

 

 

I am travelling in the winter when many hotels and restaurants are closed. Some villages seem deserted.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Paros and Naxos I rented a car and drove around the islands. The roads are OK, except in the villages where they double park leaving only one lane. Outside the towns the roads were essentially empty and a hoot to drive. For a few hours anyway, after 4 or 5 hours they were exhausting. Some unusual road hazards:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are no gas stations outside of the few biggest villages. I ran low (well out) of gas and the only habitation I could find after a long time of near panic was this little village.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And the only person I could find was a fisherman working on his boat. He took me to his nearby home and sold me a 4 liter bottle from his personal supply.

His wife , Maria, spoke perfect English. She asked “What are you doing way out here by yourself in the winter”?  I said:  just looking around, and for me this is a fine spring day. They thought that this was hilarious.

Very nice people. They absolutely refused to let me help or to take any more money than the cost of the gas.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fishing is one of the few “industries” I can see here. Other major ones are mining marble, and renting cars to tourists.  Apparently the marble from Paros is of the highest quality and was the “brand” preferred by Roman sculpture-ers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And so, that brings me to my reluctant conclusion:

The Greek islands are all about the weather.

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As follows is a medley of practically useless information about the Greek Islands.

Water is an issue. There is none on Paros and practically none on Santorini. The growth of tourism is being allowed by large scale desalination plants. Basically these islands are rocks and volcanic ash.  Naxos, an exception, has water and is comparatively green.

 

 

 

 

 

Noxos is known for its self sufficiency. They produce cheese, wine, olive oil, meat, etc. all locally.

They put these iconic little white churches in the strangest places. I missed many great photos of them (like in the cleft of a mountain) because I was on a bus or on a road where I could not stop.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They have the biggest olive trees I have ever seen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Their grape varieties can apparently grow in dust. The vines are not raised on trellises, but pruned into circles. A field of old vines looks like a field of baskets.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The iconic white buildings are build from volcanic stones (what else?), and covered with concrete and/or a (duh:white) plaster.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fish are getting scarce and are now sold by weight rather than per fish. The chops from their local lambs are worth a return trip.

 

I was going to just lump my observations about my short visit to the Greek islands all into one post, but found that I had so much to say about Santorini that I will post my comments here.

 

 

 

 

 

Actually, initial reaction to t. he Greek islands is that it is all about the weather.

But Santorini is an exception. The geography of the island is spectacular. Plus they have Akrotiri, one of the most important ongoing archeological sites in the western world.
From the east the island rises from the sea in a steady, familiar manner.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Medieval Greek villages inhabit the washes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The main road into the biggest town Fira, is quiet and lined with gum trees and leads to a non-descript central square.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are plenty of nice restaurants and tavernas. But it is off season when I am here in November and many hotels and restaurants and shops are closed. The center of Fira is tourist target dead center. Lots of arts and craft galleries and junk souvenir stores and bars. And stupid prices. I learn later that a lot of Asians, including bus-loads of mainland Chinese come here. Which explains the prices.

Anyway, as soon as you head west from the town center, you reach the edge. This is a really startling thing. From thinking you are in a little town, you are hanging on the edge of a cliff.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The city stops so abruptly at the cliff edge that approaching from afar I wondered how these mountains could be high enough to collect snow !!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From the west of town you are looking out over a blown up volcano. It was enormous, and when it blew it was perhaps the biggest explosion within human history. Some say that the event was the genesis of Plato’s story of Atlantis.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Akrotiri.

The time scale of the town being excavated out of the ashes here on Santorini is difficult to comprehend. A Neolithic settlement from 6000 years ago, a settlement from the Minoan civilization centered in Crete. On a clear day you can see Crete from here.
By 4000 years ago having been rebuilt at least twice from volcanic eruptions, the town is a wealthy bronze age era port trading around the Mediterranean. That is about when the island blows up. The city is covered with ash and flooded with mud. The huge explosion brings about the end of the Minoan civilization. The remainder merges with the early Greeks.
I would ask you to look back at those two paragraphs and think about the expanse of time we are talking about. This place is old.
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Anyway: our forefathers, about 4000 years ago:
The city center, from a model.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The excavation. The houses were all two or three stories.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The town had a water distribution system. And bathtubs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And a separate sanitary sewer system. Indoor toilets connected to the latter. If you open the cabinet below your washbasin you can see that the drain pipe has an S shaped bend. The gas trap, keeps odors from coming back up. They had a version built using stones on their toilet drains.

Furniture (plaster injected into a cavity in the ash where the wood hade vacated over the centuries)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Their trading brought goods from all over the region.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The walls of their homes were covered with paintings and designs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And, being a chef, I am enamored with their cooking tools.
They had the ancient method of clay pots that set directly into the fire.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But also a wide range of modern looking bronze tools.

 

 

 

 

 

They had wine, and cups we would recognize today.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Neat little fire dogs to cook skewers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And small ovens for baking flat breads. What an intetesting dedign.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You have probably bailed by now, but the continuity of our lives, with people living recognizable lives so long ago is a special thing to think about for me.