Day 89. Saturday October 30th. Back across the Sinai to Cairo with a visit to Mt Sinai and the Monastery of St Katherine.

Up and out early for a 9 hour drive across the middle of the Sinai plus a two hour stop to visit St Katherine’s Monastery at the foot of Mt. Sinai. The site includes one of the oldest Christian Churches still existing today. The Roman Empress, Helena (Emperor Constantine’s Mum) had the Monastery built next to the site of the burning bush seen by Moses to protect the pilgrims already visiting the site. We see the new bush, believed to be descended from the original, which continues to grow inside the monastery grounds and seemingly without roots. A recommended visit would include sleeping up on Mt Sinai to see the sunrise. Apparently you might have several hundred others for company but- we are told- it is a unique experience.
Under the Suez once more and then on to our hotel for two nights. We are staying at the Movenpick, Giza just outside of Cairo.
It’s my birthday. Tomorrow we visit the three pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx.

Day 88. Friday October 29th. Back to Egypt and we can see four countries from our balcony.

Ferry from Aqaba to Neweiba and then bus to Taba, Egypt. From what we have seen of Jordan we are impressed and would like to come back for a longer visit. The people are friendly and efficient and the country seems well cared for and clean with little litter etc. The roads are well maintained, the cars are newer and there is plenty of road space for them. Unfortunately a sad reflection upon Egypt where, although the people are just as friendly, but, where 50% are illiterate (much skewed toward women), they care much less about their environment. As in Egypt we feel safe in walking around at night. The Guide Book Lonely Planet has a good explanation of why you correctly feel safe in Egypt. It seems that their families and social groups enforce a high moral standard with intolerance for infractions. The tour guide bribes us through the Egyptian customs so we by-pass the unfortunate many that are waiting to be processed by the officials and none of our suitcases are opened. I guess that baksheesh meets the moral standard.
We are in the Movenpick Taba and we can see four countries from our suite’s balcony-Egypt, Israel (we are right at the border here), and, across the gulf, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.

Day 87. Thursday October 28th. Dinner at Ali Baba, Aqaba

Appetizers: Shanklish (Lebanese goat cheese mixed with herbs and chopped vegetables). 2 Jordanian Dollars (JOD-about US$1.4= 1 JOD so about US$3 for the Shanklish); Cheese Fatair (Pastry stuffed with Lebanese goat cheese and parsley), 2 JOD; Arayes (grilled Arabic bread stuffed with minced lamb, parsley and onion), 1.5 JOD.
Entrees: Shish Tauok (boneless chicken grilled on skewers, 4 JOD; Spicy fish of the day, 8.5 JOD.
Local Beer (Petra), 4 JOD.

Day 87. Thursday October 28th. Petra.

Up early and into another bus for a 2½ hour ride to this 200 BC Nabataean ancient city carved out of the multi-coloured sandstone rock. (Indiana Jones film location). It’s massive and we spend five hours walking around it (and declining camel rides) in the hot sun. The Nabataeans were wealthy from the toll fees extracted from the caravans plying the old silk road from the East. Then the Romans arrived and added their own buildings to the city while keeping what they found there. I calculate that the Jordanians get about $600k/day from tourists visiting the site. There are 14 hotels under construction in Petra. It’s best to stay close by in one of them and start the visit around 5.00am and finish by 10.00am or so and before the crowds and the heat of the day arrive but it’s a terrific place to visit.

Day 86. Wednesday October 27th. Wadi Rum and Lawrence of Arabia.

We swim off the hotel beach in the morning and then we are taken by coach for a 2 hour trip into the desert to the protected area of Wadi (“Valley”) Rum. Our guide tells us that he is a Christian and that our bus driver is a Muslim but that, like the other 5% of the Jordanian population that are Christian, he is treated well by the Muslims and that they have good interfaith relationships. 50% of the population (so about 3m) are Palestinian refugees and are more radical and so listen to Al Jazeera.
The Jordanians are proud of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and of their friendly relationships with the West. Like Egypt they recognize Israel and have a 144km border with Israel.
After going through more security check-points staffed with lots of army guys with machine guns, we are dropped off at the entrance to the Wadi Rum Reserve to begin our jeep safari deeper into the desert. Super landscape of wind sculpted sandstone mountains and sand-sand everywhere and as far as you can see and it’s very hot but very dry so you don’t notice sweating, just have to remember to keep drinking water almost continuously. We see the Seven Pillars Mountain that Lawrence used for the title of his book and the visitors’ attention is drawn by the maps and signs in this Reserve to a great many sites here that are associated with him- his house etc. and our guide points to the railway (still in use today) that Lawrence (by teaching the Nomadic Arab Tribes here how to use explosives) blew up.
We get to watch a fantastic desert sunset and then continue in our jeeps to a Bedouin encampment for dinner and entertainment.
The bus takes us back to Aqaba using almost the same route that Lawrence took when (according to his own account at least) he gathered the various tribes together to attack the Turks in Aqaba from the rear-from across the Negev desert, which was considered to be impassable at the time. (The Turks had all their guns pointing out to sea against the expected British attack). I have borrowed Lawrence’s line from David Lean’s great movie, “we are going to Aqaba!” for the last few weeks and Christine has been getting a little bored of that but, now that we are here, we both are again filled with the romance of the story and want to see that movie again as soon as we can. (We have just downloaded Agatha Christie’s “Death on the Nile” for Christine’s Kindle so we can get in the mood for the next week as we boat up and down the Nile.)
Ahmed, our guide, tells us and the rest of the folks on this bus-load of English tourists the Lawrence story the way that Lawrence told it. I later ask him if the Jordanians see it that way and I can see him sizing up my tolerance for his reply before starting his response. He explains to me that they do like Lawrence and regard him as being a friend of the Arabs and helpful to their 1916 revolt against the occupying Turks but that they think he was mainly a translator between the Arabs and the British Army and an advocate of their cause. He says that they also agree that he taught them how to use explosives but they think that the Arab tribes were combining against the Turks anyway and would have done so without Lawrence’s help. Ahmed tells me that Al Jazeera recently aired a documentary downplaying the importance of the 1916 Arab Revolt and showing Lawrence’s own photograph of his naked, and male, Syrian lover. Ahmed adds that Al Jazeera are always trying to draw the Arab world away from the West and tries to increase the distance between the two cultures but that the Jordanian government tries to manage Al Jazeera’s messaging as best they can.

Day 85. Tuesday October 26th. Egypt/Israel/Jordan and Bureaucracy.

It takes us three hours to leave Egypt, enter and then leave Israel, and then enter Jordan. And it costs us. Don’t know the total (there are also taxis across the no-man lands) but the departure tax out of Israel (we were there less than one hour) is about US$30 each. It’s also a quick summary of each country’s ability to process people through the tedium of all of this. Just before we walk through the large Egyptian plate glass exit door it falls off its hinges and crashes to the floor and breaks into thousands of pieces of glass. Entering Israel is a slow shuffle past lots of serious people with guns but lots of efficiency. Then a quick taxi ride across no-mans’ land to the Israeli exit and into Jordan. We ask the Israelis to stamp an entry slip rather than our US passports since and Israeli stamp in our passports will mean that we will probably be refused entry into many Arab countries, such as Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Iran-all of which we hope to visit soon but on another trip. Entry into Jordan is tedious and we look like we are doing a Monty Python leg slapping dance since we have about 50 flies bothering each of us as we wait in the sun. The Aqaba Movenpick Hotel is 5-star and welcome to us and so we unwind using the hotel’s beach and facilities.

Day 86-Aqaba and map of our complete trip

Please keep reviewing older entries as well, I am gradually managing to add some photos to old blog entries.

Day 84. Monday, October 25th. Sand and now jam in the suitcase.

I calculate that this is the 25th bed that we have slept in. There is no time to unpack much less get laundry done and so the suitcase sits gaping on the floor with a mixture of washed and unwashed clothes-all grey. We do the best we can in the hotel sinks but my dream of vagabonding around the world with just three tattered T-Shirts is being challenged now. Our jar of English Blackcurrant Jam has leaked into my suitcase and so now I look as though I have suffered multiple stab wounds as well.
The Egyptians do all manage to keep their white Kaftans (Jalabyas) very white and clean. The Police sit around and don’t seem to do much but are immaculate in their white uniforms and take care not to get them dirty. They are a friendly lot and thank us for visiting their country.
I have bought a Jalabaya, it’s a full length, white Kaftan and, to set it off properly, I have also bought a Yasser Arafat type black and white chequered headscarf. Sharif, teaches us how to wrap it around my head and tie it correctly. Now, where’s that Hookah pipe?

Day 84. Monday, October 25th. Jasmine Hotel, Dahab.

We’ll spend our last day and night here and then head out to Aqaba tomorrow. We are told that we can bus from Dahab to Taba in two hours. Then we’ll walk across the border into into Eilat, Israel. Then another walk across the next border and into Aqaba, Jordan. We’ll spend more time on the Bedouin pillows in the bar and looking across to the Kingdom on the far side of this Gulf today.

Day 83. Sunday October 24th. Dahab, Gulf of Aqaba, Egypt. Camels.

Still seems a romantic location name and so I can’t resist repeating it. We went snorkeling today. A short Jeep ride to “The Blue Hole”. Most are diving and perhaps that is better- this is a famous spot, but the snorkeling is mediocre – we see more plastic than fish. They really need to do something about their litter and we discuss it with them but they don’t see it as a personal problem, more of a Government thing.
A camel walks by with its normal aloof demeanor and somewhat prehistoric and weird appearance. We are told that they place each foot independently (apparently also like the Giraffe) and there is no rhythm to follow when riding them. That’s why all the Arabs and not just Peter O’Tool can be seen bouncing up and down on them. This one is holding up a car behind him and the car driver impatiently honks his horn but the camel just snorts in annoyance and ignores the car. The driver will just have to watch the camel’s bum for the next few minutes. Christine points out that they can close their nostrils (occasionally quite useful in Egypt) and we have a 5 minute competition to see if we can do that as well but we give up.
Another camel goes by with a Bedouin riding him while smoking and talking on his cell phone. (They are true Bedouins here and not Egyptian).
Camels seem amusing and I would like one. Tito, Momo and Timo would like our three daughter’s Facebook addresses and I sense the possibility of a deal.

Day 82. Saturday, October 23rd. Hotel Jasmine, Dahab, Gulf of Aqaba.

Still hanging out at the hotel’s beach bar and relaxing amongst the Bedouin pillows and carpets and listening to Egyptian music and Jack Johnson while we have mint tea and beers and watch others with the Hookah pipes-we may yet try it but it will be the first time I have smoked. I am trying to do a deal with the four young men that run this place (all called Mohammed so they tell us to use their nicknames-Tito, Momo, Timo and, well, I have forgotten) to swop music between our computers. We’ll see if I can get them to play some Ellington and Dylan in the bar. We meet all sorts of people on this trip and we spend two hours chatting about the Yugoslav civil wars with a young couple from Slovania. Another couple, English, have split their time the last 15 years between here and England and they run desert expeditions (overnight and sleep under the stars for one or two weeks at a time). He’s a Fellow of the Royal Geographic Society and she’s a nurse. They are about to trek out with a bunch of English Private School kids for two weeks. E mail: daktarisam@btinternet.com.
Like other nurses we have met she tells us that “you will get sick” and gives us advice on when to take from our stock of Imodium and Cipro. (Not much of either).

Day 81. Friday, October 22nd. Across the Sinai to Dahab and the Gulf of Aqaba.

The book warns us that terrorists struck here 4 years ago and so we look at the barren stretches of desert with trepidation. The short tunnel under Suez is followed by a nine hour bus ride across the Sinai, through Sharme el Sheik to Dahab. We go through 5 security check points but our US passports seem to make them go easy on us, however, many of the Egyptians are questioned closely it seems. We are met by the hotel driver and taken to the hotel and, as normal, there is an issue with our hotel reservation-they have a single room reserved so we negotiate a room next door for 120 E Pounds (about $25/night) but later discover that the shower and sink water is salt water so we go to bed sticky. Before that we walk the waterfront of this old hippie destination and have beers on the carpets and amongst the pillows of a bar overlooking the Gulf of Aqaba and the sun setting on the coast of Saudi Arabia opposite. Dahab is now a diver’s destination since the snorkeling and the diving here is some of the best in the world.

Day 81. Friday, October 22nd. Leaving Cairo.

We catch the 7.30am bus from Cairo to Dahab in the Sinai and say goodbye to Cairo. The brief Michael Palin video that he made when filming Around the World in 80 days for the BBC shows his brief stay at our hotel and his Hookah pipe event in the café opposite.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTruxfmT5Gg

Day 80 Thursday October 21st

Waiting in the Hotel’s bar for our car and driver for the day and the call to prayer has just started behind me. I’m travelling with my personal fly-swot and so pass the time trying to reduce their population.
We are first taken to the Ramses Wissa Wassef Art Museum and Village (outside of Cairo, about an hour’s drive) and it’s great. We see the tips of the pyramids in the distance but will have to wait a week to see them close up. We spend an hour and a half there alone (again the tour buses don’t come here) with one of the Directors (the founder’s daughter) and she explains its history and answers our many questions about Egypt as well.
The art center/village was founded by a successful architect/weaver/potter in 1941. He was asked to help the local children. He chose some local Christian children and particularly girls since they had the hardest time getting an education and he insisted that he be allowed to teach art his way. He had them grow plants to make the dyes, taught them weaving, took them around the countryside and the zoo for inspiration and then told them to make wool and cotton tapestries of whatever occurred to them. He kept any instructions to a minimum and didn’t allow them to draw a design first-he thought that would be too constraining. It’s still going today, the children grew up and became successful artists and many of them remain here and work. We saw them at work weaving and also some doing batik dyeing using wax. Young children are added to the mix as space allows. He built the village by first teaching them how to work with clay and then they made these beautiful domed buildings of clay and straw in old Egyptian traditional styles.
Then our driver met us and we visited Old (Coptic) Cairo and visited the old churches and the Synagogue there. It’s a walled enclave for Christian and Jewish churches and heavily guarded, we have to pass through airport type screening to get in. Yoanna, the director at the art center had already answered our question of “how many Christians are there in Egypt?” by first telling us that it’s a secret, the government will say about 5m but she said that there at least 17m and that relations between Muslims and Christians have deteriorated ever since Sadat announced that he was the Muslim leader of a Muslim country. However, she added that she was optimistic that it would improve “Egyptians are tolerant of one another’s religious beliefs”. Then it’s back to our hotel and beers in the bar so I can write this before dinner somewhere nearby. Tomorrow we will be up at 6.00am to catch the bus under Suez and across the Sinai to Hadad. We have changed our minds about Hurghada and Sharme el Sheik after learning how they have been ruined by catering to package tours.

Day 79 Wednesday October 20th. Cairo, our first Mosque; Souk; and Viagra salad

We walk to see the Nile at sunset and then catch a taxi to Khan Al Kallili souk. A rabbit-warren of men and women hanging out and window-shopping. Most of the stuff (all junk) is for the women and so they at least must get a spending allowance. There are no tourists here, or very few, this is all for the locals. Everything is garish and cheap. So many suitcases on offer that we think they must be planning one mass exodus for the city. Masses and masses of flip-flops, shoes, women and children’s clothing, bedding materials, plastic beads. No one seems to buying anything, at least not compared to the inventory on offer. We wonder how long this cheap stuff is kept at home anyway before it makes its way to the landfill.
We get invited into one of the local mosques (5 E Pounds baksheesh), have to remove our shoes (One E Pound baksheesh to get them back from the shoe-minder) and I ask if I can use their toilet. I am told I have to go barefoot but then fail to understand that I am supposed to use one of several pairs of flip flops conveniently left around. At least there are water taps provided so you can wash your feet. Two E Pounds baksheesh.
At dinner I notice the “Viagra Salad” for 22 E Pounds. Christine won’t let me order it.

Day 78 Tuesday October 19th Egypt! Cairo-LA without the EPA

If we at some points struggled to find the “real” Greece then that is not the problem here in Cairo. We share this place with 20m Egyptians and struggle to find other tourists. This is one chaotic, noisy place that is swarming with people trying to move around. There are no traffic rules except that the guy with the biggest horn wins. They blow their car horns continuously-they seem to love noise, it’s added to by the continuous calls to prayers from competing mosques. (Massive loudspeakers in the Minerets scattered all over town). Our taxi drivers have their Egyptian music going at full volume and then try and chat on their cell phones as well and then offer you a cigarette as they compete for road space. Traffic lights-if they are working-are ignored. Trying to cross the road as a pedestrian is totally frightening, once started you have to keep moving at a constant speed so the cars can judge whether to wizz past in front or behind you. We try and use others as shields and cross with them. I saw a policeman start to write some sort of jay-walking ticket for one man and the man just swore at his silly book of tickets and shoved one Egyptian Pound (about 6 E Pound to one US$) at him and stormed off as the Policeman swore at him.
There are serious looking army guys in full gear with all their guns and bomb shields everywhere as well.
This is one hot, polluted, sweaty city. Imagine LA without smog control and no road rules. At least they don’t chain-smoke like the Greeks.
We join our first ever Tour on October 26th in Aqaba and then visit the sites in Jordan and Egypt with them including two more days in Cairo. Since we know that it will be hard to find today’s Egypt when on the tour and looking at the ancient sites we will use this first week to hang-out with the locals. We do occasionally see the air conditioned tourists buses unloading their guests in the Hilton but we see very few tourists on the street. We are staying at the hotel Windsor, a very run down x British officer’s club. 15’ high ceilings, wood paneled bar/dining room with creaking waiters walking across the old floor boards, whirring ceiling fans and believe it or not a lobby phone switchboard that involves the desk man stuffing knitting needles into holes and connecting in/out calls with rooms and telling the caller to go ahead. To complete the picture we have one of those old elevators that runs up and down the middle of the open staircase well and has those sliding metal concertina doors and an attendant. You have to tip (baksheesh) that guy each ride and everyone else at every turn. Things are cheap here so that helps.
From our room (#25) balcony I can look down on the local café and street action at night. It’s so hot in the day that things don’t get going until about 10.00am and then they stay up past midnight. All the men have black highly polished shoes and that’s because there is a one to one ratio between the men getting their shoes polished and the shoe shine guys doing it. A typical arriving customer for a hookah pipe and coffee will be immediately approached by a shoe-shine man who will ceremoniously take his shoes and place a piece of paper under his customer’s feet.
We go out for a walk, dodging the traffic and the water dripping from overhead air conditioning units. It’s all clothing shops, suits for the men and the most erotic bedroom wear for women. All displayed on life sized mannequins making Victoria (and her secret) look like a Nun. Window space is 50-50 between negligees and the full length face covering black burqa and we see lots of women wearing the latter. Christine and I muse on the savings on cosmetics, clothing and the fact that you don’t have to watch what you eat. I calculate 40 years of marriage x 5 handbags a year = 200 handbags and so we both start to look at burqas and their prices and weigh the advantages.

Day 78 Tuesday October 19th Last day in Greece! The Acropolis and Parthenon

The weather breaks and we are able to climb up the steps to the top of the Acropolis and-there it is-one of the most beautiful buildings in the world. The Parthenon in mostly gone but what is left still inspires tremendously. A great deal of it was stolen by Lord Elgin and is now in the British Museum in London. The Greeks want it back but the British have been arguing that the Greeks have nowhere to keep it and display it safely so now they have built the –New Acropolis Museum. It’s a very cleverly designed museum with the top room displaying all of the many statues, freezes and metopes (relief carvings) that the Greeks still have on an actual size copy of the Parthenon. The ones that the British have are in reproduction plaster cast-pressures on the British Museum now. We fly to Cairo.

Day 77 Monday October 18th Athens and the Archeological Museum

Metro to the museum. We arrive at the opening time but find that they are on strike for 2 hours so we wait that out in the café across the street.
The displays of the finds at Mycenae make our visit to the actual site come alive. The Germans seem to have been pioneers for excavating a great many of the Greek archeological sites and, unlike the British, Turks and many others, didn’t loot the stuff but gave it to the Greek Government for free. Amazing amount of gold artifacts came out of Mycenae. A lot of the other stuff in the museum came from shipwrecks found during the last 200 years. Sadly there must be so much more that has been looted and or destroyed. We spend a long time in the museum but still just scratch the surface of what they have, it’s one of the best museums in the world of course.

Day 76 Sunday, October 17th Athens. Rain, strikes and the Archeological Museum

We drive from the Mani Peninsula up to Mycenae. We walk up through the Lions Gate into this 3500 year old fortified city. I last visited it 45 years ago. Then we drive on to Athens and thankfully are able to drop the car at Hertz and drag our suitcases through the streets the short distance to the Hotel Phaedra. We have a balcony room that looks up to the floodlit Acropolis. We wondered around the Plaka and had dinner but then it started to rain and thunderstorm.

Day 75, Saturday, October 16th. still at Kardamyli Dive Center.

Still have my head cold and so we decide to stay a 3rd night. We went to the nearby village of Stoupa and had lunch and then swam. Now, after two rounds of Ouzo and yet another great sunset we will walk down to Kardamyli for dinner. Christos stayed out late last night and his dog howled until all hours waiting for him. That’s OK we just sleep late. Stoupa has been discovered by the Brits (not in great bus- load numbers-at least at this time of year) and so I had boiled eggs and toast for a late lunch as comfort food for my cold. It’s a great little, unspoilt, inexpensive seaside town and a great place to visit for a week of beach and hiking and Greece in October. I wonder if there are flights to Kalamata from the UK?

Day 74-Friday October 15th. The Greek Next to Me

Still at Kardamyli Dive Center. The Greek next to me..
They are a gruff lot, the guy next to me is shouting and arguing passionately with his mates, sounds like politics. I suspect they are fairly radical in their thinking-Ha! Don’t expect a smile from a Greek, even if you are about to or just have given them money. They just don’t smile a lot to each other either. Despite the heavy onslaught of visitors to Greece they still seem wary and a little shy of outsiders, perhaps especially in the back country where we are trying to spend our time. We passed an old man who was waiting outside his village for a lift to the next town, it’s a common practice here, and he practically beat the truck and its driver with his stick when the driver seemed to refuse to take the old man. A little further on the same truck was stopped and the driver was busily castrating his goats-so I suppose that’s why he didn’t give a lift to the old man from his village.
We stopped and offered another man a lift but he declined since we weren’t going to where he needed to go. He said “Efaristo, efaristo” (thanks!) and touchingly patted his heart (a common sign of thanks).
As is common in Europe cars tend to win over pedestrians. The Greek behind got pretty mad at me for stopping on a right turn to yield to pedestrians in the cross walk-even though they had the green light to cross.
The Greeks don’t have a yield traffic sign and so just use a stop sign instead. You’ll find them, for example, at the entrance to each round-about but you will get that Greek behind you pretty upset if you do stop. Now it’s up to you to figure out which stop sign to stop at.
Mainland Greece is much wealthier than Crete. Have to talk with some mainland Greeks about what they think of Crete.

Day 73-Kardamyli

Day 73. Thursday October 14th. Kardamyli. Kristos’ Dive Center.
We arrive in Kardamili (sometimes Kardamyli) and find it to be a small unspoilt seaside town. We check out the newer and fashionable/chic places along the front (about 70 euros this time of year and we are told about 150 euros/night in season) but leave them and go up into the hills inland about 5 minutes and find this dive center (“rooms to rent”). 40 euros a night and we have a super room with a kitchen and balcony and views across the town below and sunset over the Ionian bay. I have a head cold and anyway this place if terrific so we will stay two nights. Christos offers a third night free if we want it since I have helped him with his web advertising for his new dive center business.
Christos’ girlfriend just brought us some sort of sweet cheese with jam on a pastry base. Fresh coffee and the rain of the past two days has cleared and so we have bright blue skies and the Ionian sea to look at. Off into the hills to explore now for a few hours. We visited Exochori and Kastania, it’s good unspoilt hiking country up here, and then ended up in Stoupa on the coast and we swam off the sandy beach there.

Day 72 Olympia

Day 72. Wednesday October 13th. Hotel Pelops, Olympia, Peloponnese, Greece.
Visited the ancient site of the first Olympic Games and, once again, really enjoyed some of the Greek ruins. Fascinating to see where the original Olympic flame was lit, where it was kept burning and where, today, the flame is lit for each of the modern Olympic Games. You see the winner’s circle where you came to be honored if you won your event. No Gold, silver, bronze-just win or lose and you got a statue with your name and your parent’s names on it. Your home town often gave you free food for life. All athletes were naked so you could check out the competition and you had to arrive one month before so you could be judged suitable. Judges were trained and respected for their impartiality. If you were a lucky judge you could become a urine drinker to taste for athletes that had chewed on forbidden stuff. Athletes who did cheat or did not practice sufficiently or perhaps showed cowardice had their name carved on statues lined up at the entrance. Then the 45,000 attendees who came to watch would spit on the cheaters statues as they entered.

Day 71 Delphi

Day 71. Tuesday, October 12th. Delphi, Greece.
We landed in Pireaus (Athens’ port) at 6.00am but then took 4 hours to get a rental car. I had booked at Budget but they told me that I needed an International Driver’s license. Rick Steve’s and other guidebooks tell you that an American Driver’s License is good for six months---going to e mail Rick. The Budget guy makes handcuff signs and explains to me that is what will happen if the Police stop me. He telephones Hertz for me and they agree to rent me a car (for more money of course) while agreeing that it is illegal.
We drive the four hours to Delphi. (“Delphee”). The Greeks have built a lot of good new roads and bridges. We climb up into the mountains and mist, through winter ski resorts and arrive at the town of Delphi. Christine and I do the usual walk about town checking Hotels and rooms and bouncing on beds and looking at balcony views before choosing room 14, Hotel Pan. Good views all down the valley to the Gulf of Corinth.
Then we visit the ancient ruins of Delphi, home of the Oracle and it is stunning-perched half way up the valley side. Sophocles and others came to visit and seek the wisdom of the old woman there who spoke in riddles. Big gifts let you jump the queue. Alexander the Great asked her if he was going to conquer the world and when she hummed and hawed he grabbed her by the hair and she cried out that he was unstoppable. “I have the answer I want” he said and released her. The new museum that has been built to house all of the statues etc that they have found at the site is wonderful.
An entrepreneur has opened a consulting business in town called Delphi Consulting.
Just down the road from the main site if the Temple of Athena and it’s guarded by an old Greek fellow who maintains a strict discipline for visitors to his site. No litter, no sitting on the ancient stones and no taking pictures of yourself and friends with the ruins and statues. (That’s pretty common in Greece, they don’t mind you taking pictures of the statues but you cannot be in the picture-they think it diminishes the majesty and grace of their history). He won’t tell me his name (“Bill” he calls himself when asked) and won’t let his picture be taken but he tells me that he has been guarding the site since he was a little boy. Then we argue about each other’s age and he tells me that he is the only one left of his 5 brothers and 3 sisters. (This is all done by hand-waving). Then, after we have told him that we are English, he gets all excited and starts to pull us over to a fallen column and points with his stick at some ancient graffiti etched into the column shouting “burron, burron” and, sure enough, there is Lord Byron’s name etched into the column. We have to research this, none of the guide books mention it but we do know that Lord Byron did come here with Shelley (and Shelly’s sister Mary (Frankenstein) as did other romantics to help the Greeks fight the Turks. So it seems at least possible, the graffiti seems about the right age.
Wonderful site, just as I remembered it from when I visited it when I was twenty.
Rainy day today which was OK. Dinner at Vakchos Taverna and great.

Day 70 leaving Crete

Day 70. Monday, October 11th. Leaving Crete.
We visit Knossos near Iraklio. Very large Minoan Palace and the largest archeological site. Re-discovered in the late 1800s the site was bought by a wealthy English Archeologist who then (in just two years) excavated it using his own money. He then, controversially, re-constructed small parts of it as he thought it would have looked. So now you can see the old (or partially new) Doric columns and mosaics as they once would have looked. Impressive, we didn’t get time to visit the archeological museum in Iraklio and that would have helped bring it alive.
We drop the rental car and get on the ferry at 6.00pm (6 decks, swimming pool, small orthodox chapel, restaurant and cafe

Day 70 Crete part two

Crete.
Visit Crete. Come for a week and rent a car and travel the back-roads into the mountains and valleys. It’s beautiful and interesting and, like Malta, has been a cross-roads of cultures and civilisations. We are inspired to go and learn more. You have to visit the Minoan ruins in Knossos and Phaestos and the old Roman Crete capital in Gortis. Ignore both Heraklion and Rethimnon but visit Chania where the mountains come right to the coast above the port and are snow-capped through June. The three Greek islands that we visited were good and (if you don’t have it at home) will provide the sun and sea as well as some fabulous settings and some Greek food. Crete provides some real culture. The mustachioed and swarthy men look as though they will carry a grudge for decades and settle it with a knife and they look somber as they sit around their village cafes. The villages also have the 4’ 6” Greek women dressed in black hobbling along with their walking canes. They mourn and wear black for 5 years here but they had so much tragedy that they ended up wearing black all the time and so they just adopted it as their national colour. The three guys playing and singing in the restaurant last night sang nothing but mournful songs and so we asked our mathematics graduate waiter (9 months in the Greek Army and then he will be allowed to teach) to tell us what the songs were about. 50% the usual forlorn love-songs but 50% the tragedy of Crete history and their fights against the Turks and other invaders (they always lost). We went to visit the Monastery at Arkadiou where, in 1866, the Abbot gathered all of the surrounding villagers and then, rather than surrender to the usual rape and pillage, blew all of them (and the 2,000 Turkish soldiers besieging them) up.
Coffee. Starbucks has arrived! In Chania. Doesn’t look too popular but perhaps they can break the coffee cartel pricing here. Regular coffee in a Crete café is about 3-4 euros. Starbucks here in Crete has it at 2 euros so still about twice the US price but 50-60% of the Greek café price. Starbucks confectionary is also about twice the US sizing (which is too large anyway) with massive wedges of chocolate cake (forget about the US low fat coffee cake) and absolutely huge sugary donuts. A recent European Time Magazine issue had the European obesity rate at 20% and the US at 27% but many more Europeans smoke and so perhaps that helps them keep the weight off. However, you don’t see the morbid obesity that you sometimes see in the US. The Greeks like their sugar though and their honey is on a lot of their food. Greece passed a no smoking inside public places law last September but that was largely ignored but is now being enforced. Not very relevant anyway since almost all restaurants have mainly outdoor seating but it will help in hotels eventually.
Day 70. Monday, October 11th. Ferry to Pireaus. Leave at 9.00pm and should get into Pireaus Port around 5.30am tomorrow. We have booked a rental car and will tour the Peloponnese until Sunday and then stay in Athens for 3 days until we fly to Cairo for our next country hop. We will have spent almost a month in Greece by then.

Day 70 Greek ruminations

Ruminations
Toilets-we have stayed in 18 beds so far and have made a study of toilets and bathrooms. First non US one was at Bristol Bus Station UK after the bus from Heathrow. Some sort of turnstile affair with 50p to get in only to find-no paper, no soap and no attendant. Greek toilets: After 400 years of Roman tutelage in many places the Greeks don’t have a plumbing system that will accept toilet paper, you are supposed to put it into a bucket alongside the toilet-ugh! Come-on. Even in pricier hotels you are usually warned not to drink the hotel water but to buy bottled water. After an early morning cold shower Brian storms to the hotel reception to demand that someone explain to him why he should pay for the room when there is no hot water. After venting he goes back upstairs to find Christine luxuriating under a hot shower. Who would know that you have to let the water run for at least 5 minutes in a recently refurbished hotel? (“Please don’t use too much water, it is a precious resource for us”). Would someone please teach the Europeans how to make a shower that works? We have yet to find two the same. The hot/cold mixer doesn’t work, you fiddle with the thing and get scolding hot (where are the lawyers and their law-suits to fix that?) or freezing cold-then, when you have it just right, the bloody thing just decides to change the temperature on you all by itself. Showers usually share the same space as the toilet and so forget a dry toilet seat and don’t forget to move the toilet paper before you shower. That’s OK., they have less space than Americans but there is nowhere to hang up the shower wand thing and so you have to get wet all over, turn it off (and start to freeze) while you soap and then turn it back on again (except it will now be too hot or too cold). Egyptian, Indian and Cambodian bathrooms loom in our future.
Greek economy. They are poor. They just have agriculture (either serfdom to the large agricultural corporations or a meager, hardscrabble living as an owner/farmer) and the low-wage service economy of tourism. But they are an indolent lot and suffer as well from this socialist economy. All the men are in the cafes playing backgammon and the women are working somewhere. Well, we saw six women (all government workers) processing our museum ticket and entry, when it looked like a part-time job for one person. Meanwhile the roads need repair, the litter needs to be picked up and fences mended. Road signs are unreadable, even if in Roman script they are faded, covered in graffiti or riddled with bullet holes. The EC has pumped some money into worthwhile things such as roads and archaeological excavations but you also see lots of EC funds going into some misguided junior, and distant, bureaucrat’s dream with an EC funded 100 meter long new bike path with (inlaid coloured cobble stones) and no bike path for 100km in either direction of it and no hope of one ever being built. Anyway, the people of Crete don’t ride bicycles, I have yet to see a Greek bicycle. They have one big road here on Crete which is a two lane affair and largely empty. I have seen four American bicyclists with their shrink wrap Italian clothes and expensive bikes. I hope that the EC knows they enjoyed the 100 meter bike path.
Also you have to wonder what the Greeks have added to their architectural heritage this past 500 years or so. While others were building Washington DC, New York, Oxford, London; while whatisname was laying out the street plan and architecture of Paris, Eiffel was doing his tower; and Las Vegas and the Louvre were built-the Greeks built-what? Some Byzantine churches but it seems not much else. The Maltese build their houses with their lovely honey-coloured limestone and add the intricately designed balconies. With similar raw materials the Cretans throw up concrete slab buildings. Then again it’s easy to be confused by what Greece achieved in the past and to mistake its size in the world today. It has the same population as Ohio and what has Ohio built in the last 500 years that will last? Not its tire factories I guess.