Greek Yacht Charter – for the Landlubber in You

No matter where we go sailing we always have to do some land travel in the host country, either before of after the trip.  We want to see it all and there are so many of the sites and important culture of the country that is not along the coasts or not on our cruising intenerary.

In Turkey we spent 3 days in advance in Istanbul and made a site trip to Ephesus, Istanbul and the beautiful Bosporus.   While visiting Croatia we made a side jaunt to Venis, Florence and Marinello, Italy…home of the Ferrari factory.  But this is about Greece: no trip to the land of Odysseus and the gods is complete without a trip to Mt Olympus, Metoria and Santorini.  This just few of the many wonders with it’s fascinating culture and a history that made this country so much fun for sailing but also for land travel.  I highly recommend you read Homer’s Iliad and get yourself a good Jr High School level history book on Greece to refresh your memory of the history this fascinating country and one the human race’s most important cultures.

Driving Through Northern Greece

We flew into Athens and spent one night seeing the Acropolis and the Parthenon and the small district of Athens at the foot of the Acropolis Hill the Plaka.  The next day we flew to Santorini and spent a few days at on of the lovely hillside apartments that wined their way down the side of the volcano and toward the sea but the big highlight of our trip was the drive from Athens to Corfu  Our drive started in Athens and headed west, after a quick stop to see the canal of Corinth (we sailors were totally impressed) we headed off to Mt Olympus, the Oracle of Delphi, Temple of Apollo and home of the Gods.  This was the center of the earth in ancient times and where your cliff notes of Greek history come in handy.  There so many temples to so many gods, and goddess you need your history book at your side.  Who was the sons and daughters of Zeus? Who was Zeus wife and who else did he sleep with that caused that god /son to be cast away because of that union? The temples, treasuries and building are amazingly and in such good shape you can see yourself walking those streets 4000 years ago. The museum is a must see.  Plan a day.

Where to Stay and Eat When Driving Through Greece?

Our typical rooming arrangements in September was to arrive in a small village, go to the local bar, have dinner and ask those folks serving us where we could stay in town.  There are wonderful tavernas and restaurants all along this drive, and if you are stopping at on odd hour for lunch of dinner, just wait.  The proprietors live locally and they will just show up and start cooking for you! There were 4 of us and we never had trouble finding 2 rooms in someone’s home, not once.   This kind travel with these kinds of accommodations is by far the best way to go.  You stay in the villages with the locals, eat at the local restaurant stay in their wonderful homes and see the way your hosts live for $10 per room (this was 1996).

Skiing in Greece?

Do you know that Greece has a multitude of great places to ski? One of the villages we drove though could have been an exact transplant of the Swiss village from the food and architecture to the beautiful mountains.   What a shock to see a ski area in Greece, but the mountains are 4000 ft high, high enough for good skiing.  The latitude is 37 degrees, equivalent to our San Francisco area.  Next was the Grand Canyon of Greece, one of the surprising sites, the Samaria Gorge.  The follow day was in Metoria. Metoria is a must see.  This area houses huge monolith rocks 1300 ft high where enterprising and nervous Byzantine monks built huge and beautiful stone monasteries at the top.  There was no way up and down/in or out of these monasteries except by basket, pully and rope.   These monks were escaping the Ottoman Turks who had taken over and threatened the whole area. Many of these are still functioning monasteries but those have roads and no longer use their pulleys, basket and ropes as the main source of transportation or delivery of goods and supplies.

Our final day was a car ferry trip to pearl of the Ionian, Corfu, where Italy meets Greece (and Britain!).  This week in Greece was a must do, opposite of the slow and intimate pace of a sailing adventure, the drive and side trips we took allowed us to round out our Greek experience a enjoy much of this beautiful and interesting country.