Greece - Part 1

We spent a week and a half on the Greek islands of Crete and Rhodes.  This was the first of two visits to Greece during our trip.  We'll be back again in October with stops in mainland Greece (Athens and Olympia) and more islands (Corfu, Mykonos and Santorini).

Our trip to Crete and Rhodes had two main activites - visits to ancient ruins and visits to beaches.  Here's a little info on both.

The most significant ancient ruins on Crete are palaces built by the Minoans 3,500 years ago.  The Minoans were the first civilization in Europe.  They were 'make money not war' folks who focused on trade and commerce.  They built five sprawling multi-story palaces that served as centres for commerce, government and arts.

Below are photos from two of the five palaces.  Sections of the palaces have been restored - look for stuff that has a smooth surface or bright colors or anything that's light brown as it's made of wood.

Palace of Knossos - a maze of passageways and rooms

Monument to the bull - bulls were sacred to Minoans

Amphitheatre - people watched performances from the steps

Throne room - most is restored but the throne on the right is original

Storage pots - almost six feet tall; bottom (darker) half is original

Palace of Phaistos - a maze like Knossos

On Rhodes, the most significant ancient ruin is the Acropolis of Lindos.  It's a spectacular sight high above the sea and the surrounding area.  At the center of the Acropolis is a temple for the Greek goddess Athena that was built 2,300 years ago.  The perimeter walls and other "fortress" looking pieces on the site were added later by Romans and folks from areas that are now part of Turkey.

The Acropolis high above the town of Lindos

A steep climb

Still climbing and it's real hot

Temple of Athena (note - the columns are restored)

Celebrating at the top of the climb

We didn't count how many beaches there are on Crete and Rhodes but there are lots.  They are all spectacular.  Here are photos from the ones we visited.

Matala Beach on Crete - great restaurants right on the beach

Falasarna Beach on Crete - the beach goes forever

Agathi Beach on Rhodes - perfect warm water and soft sand

Another thing to mention about Crete and Rhodes are the cats.  They're everywhere and Vanessa tried to feed and get photos of every one.  Here are just a few examples.  Vanessa would love to show you the whole collection of cat photos when we get home.

Joining us for dinner

Guarding the Acropolis of Lindos

A few other photos.

You drive fast in Crete - good thing we rented a sportscar!

Lots of agriculture on Crete - grapes, olives, oranges, lemons

"How about feeding us while you're feeding the cats?"

Old town part of Rhodes Town on Rhodes

We'll finish again with a sunset photo.

Sunset on Falasarna Beach on Crete

We're really looking forward to October when we pass through Greece again.

Vanessa and Blake

Hvar, Croatia

Our itinerary includes a few "vacations" from our trip where we'll be taking time to rest and unwind.  Our week-long stay in Hvar was our first vacation.

Hvar is an island off the coast of Croatia in the Adriatic Sea.  It's a very popular vacation spot for Europeans and it's easy to see why - warm sun, beautiful scenery and plenty of restaurants and bars.

There isn't much to blog about as we didn't do much.  We just sat in the sun and then walked to town for dinner when the sun went down.

Here are a few photos.

View from our room

Busy harbour

Narrow streets

Enjoying dinner

Blake holding up the sun

Colourful sky just after sunset

If you're in the neighbourhood, Hvar is definitely worth a visit.

Vanessa and Blake

Budapest, Hungary

When we backpacked in Europe in 1995, every backpacker we met raved about Budapest.  They told us there was lots to see, the people were great and it was cheap (the main concern for backpackers).  We didn't make it to Budapest in 1995 and have had it on our travel list since then.

The city lived up to its reputation.  It doesn't have "wow" stuff like St. Petersburg or Moscow but it has a great mix of history and sightseeing along with a relaxed atmosphere, music and good food.

Before sightseeing, we had some business to take care of - namely getting haircuts and doing laundry.  Here's us celebrating our shorter hair (in Blake's case much shorter) and clean laundry (no new ink stains).

When we got to sightseeing, we started with the Danube River.  It goes through the center of the city and most attractions are close to the river.

The Danube River - lots of glare not smog

Matthias Church

Parliament

The river looks even better at night.

Buda Castle

Liberty Statue - memorial to those who sacrificed for Hungary's freedom

We took a day off from sightseeing and visited the Szechenyi Bath.  It's the largest medicinal bath in Europe and the thermal waters reportedly cure joint aches and muscle inflammation.  It was a nice day but the waters weren't strong enough to overcome our stiffness from five weeks on very firm European hotel beds.

Three outdoor pools

One of the 15 indoor pools

At the end of our Budapest visit, we had been on the road for five weeks.  We were due for a rest and that's what our next stop - Croatia - is for.

Blake and Vanessa

Moscow

We had four days in Moscow which isn't much for a sprawling city with 15 million people and a rich history.  We had a busy four days.

Our first stop was Red Square.  It's surprising to look around the square.  On one side is Vladimir Lenin's tomb - a symbol of the Communism days.  Across the square from Lenin is a luxury department store called GUM - a symbol of the shift to capitalism and a place that must make Lenin cringe when he looks out from his tomb.  On the third side of the square is St. Basil's Cathedral - a symbol of Russia's religious history.

Blake in front of Lenin's tomb

Vanessa inside the GUM department store 

St. Basil's Cathedral

We had our fill of Russian churches by the time we reached Moscow but we did go inside St. Basil's Cathedral.  It's unique - it's not one church but 10 smaller churches linked together.

One of the churches inside the cathedral

It's like a maze when navigating between churches

The Kremlin is a fortress next to Red Square.  Within the Kremlin's walls are several cathedrals, palaces and government offices.  We took in the "guard mounting" ceremony in the Kremlin.  It's a ceremony performed by the Kremlin Regiment - a special unit of the Russian military that guards the Kremlin and high ranking government officials.  The precision in the movement of the men and horses was amazing.

Here's a video from a Russian news website with clips from the ceremony:

http://en.rian.ru/video/20100419/158652188.html

Another cool part of Moscow is their metro (subway).  The metro trains are remarkable - they're very fast (over 40 km/h) and arrive every two minutes.  The metro stations are even more amazing.  There are 182 stations.  The most memorable ones were built in the 1930s, 40s and 50s under the direction of Joseph Stalin who wanted the stations to be bright and ornate as a symbol of the Soviet Union's bright future under Communist rule.

Vanessa reminisces about her years as a Ukrainian dancer

A few more photos from around Moscow.

Statue of Yuri Gagarin - first person in space

Blake strikes a pose to match Lenin

Us with Olympic Stadium in the background

This ends our two week trip to Russia.  It was a country full of surprises.

Vanessa and Blake

Volga - Baltic Waterway

The next leg of our trip was a five day cruise from St. Petersburg to Moscow via the Volga - Baltic Waterway.

The waterway is a 700 mile long system of natural lakes, rivers, artificial reservoirs and canals.  The waterway is full of container ships moving oil and lumber from Russia's interior to the Baltic Sea where their cargo is exported.  The waterway also has lots of ships filled with tourists like us visiting more remote parts of Russia.

Sections of the waterway are separated by locks and our cruise went through seventeen locks.  Being kids from the dry prairies, most things related to water are new and interesting so the locks captured our attention.  Neither of us are engineers so we can't explain how locks work but here's a few photos to illustrate.

Our ship approaching a lock

Our ship in the lock - note the water level

Not much space between the ship and the wall of the lock

Water flows into the lock - note the rising water level

Lock fills with water, the gate opens and the ship moves on

Here are other highlights of our trip on the waterway.

Kizhi Island is home for two churches built entirely of wood.   Wood nails hold everything together.  The church domes are also made of wood - they're aspen which has bleached to a silver colour over time and looks metallic in photos.

In the photo below, the Church of the Intercession is on the right.  It's the smaller of the two churches and has 9 domes.  The Church of the Transfiguration is in the background partially hidden by the tower.  It's the larger of the two churches with 22 domes which you can see better in the second photo.  It's under renovation so ignore the metal scaffolding in the middle of the photo.

Yaroslavl is a city of 600,000 which celebrated its one-thousandth anniversary in 2010.  Like every old city, it has a very impressive church at its center - the Church of Saint Elijah the Prophet.  It also has very nice parks which were developed for the city's birthday.

Interior of the Church of St. Elijah

Uglich was the last stop on the waterway and it was our favourite.  It's a small town that's even older than Yaroslav - it was founded over 1,070 years ago.  Of course, it has nice churches.

Church of St. Dmitry on the Blood

Interior of the Transfiguration Cathedral

The unique part of our Uglich stop was our visit to a Russian woman's home.

Dining room / family room

Kitchen

Garden

Road in front of house

Here's a nice sunset photo to wrap-up our journey down the waterway.

Next up - Moscow.

Blake and Vanessa