Spring is supposedly the best time of the year to visit Greece, as the weather isn't too hot yet, the crowds are bearable, and wildflowers abound. A 2-for-1 offer on Alitalia didn't hurt either. So, along with my friends Randy, Steve, and Mike, we headed for Greece in mid-May for nine days, and here's the story of our trip.

ATHENS

Athens, our gateway to Greece, is where we spent the first day and a half and part of the last day. Busy and crowded, it was quite different from the rest of Greece, and unfortunately less enjoyable as a result. We stayed in the Hotel Attalos, a nice place with great views of the Acropolis, both day (with Randy in the foreground) and night.

The trip up to the Acropolis began on the morning of our first full day there. While the Parthenon was beautiful up close, you could hardly say we were alone, as hordes of other tourists competed for the view. Here I am taking a rest from it all. While the most famous of the sites, the Parthenon is not the only structure at the Acropolis. The Erectheion, next door, has temples devoted to Poseidon and Athena. On the Athena side are the beautiful Caryatids. Here are Mike and Steve along the side of the temple. Peering down from the Acropolis, along its sides one can see two theaters. The 2100-year old Theater of Herotodus Atticus is still used, with refurbished seats of course. The even-older, once-bigger Theater of Dionysos has been largely left to the elements.

Following a long day of trampling around Greece's captial, late in the day we headed for Piraeus, the port suburb of Athens, for our overnight ferry to Crete, aboard the absolutely monstrous Venizelos.

CRETE

Crete could possibly be the most beautiful island I've been on. Rugged and undercrowded, the cities were wonderful and the natural scenery incredible! Our ferry arrived at the capital city of Iraklio, quite early in the morning. So early, in fact, that it turned out to be a blessing that we were evicted from the ferry at 5:45 am, as we were witness to a beautiful sunrise, seen here over the harbor with the 16th century Venetian fortress on the left. Many colorful boats dotted the harbor in front of the city. (Old shipbuilding portal ruins are on the left.)

Iraklio was our gateway to the ruins of Knossos. Knossos, only uncovered in 1900, was constructed around 3500 years ago by Europe's first civilization. Indeed, it was Knossos that helped prove the Minoans' very existence. The ruins were partially restored, in places making it difficult to discern what really was the palace and what was believed to have been the palace three milennia ago.

Several hours later, back through Iraklio we went, and caught a bus to the western town of Hania. Touted the most beautiful city on Crete, it lived up to its billing, especially the Venetian Harbor in the center of town, beautiful day and night. Hania was also the bargainhunters dream, as we got two double bedrooms overlooking the harbor with a balcony (from which these pictures were taken) for only around $13 each!

The highlight of Crete was still to come, as we arose early in the morning to catch a bus into the mountains of west central Crete to the head of the Samaria Gorge. At 19 km, it's said to be the longest gorge in Europe, and after hiking it, I'll believe it. The hike begins at the Xyloskalo, a wooden- handrailed stone staircase which begins at 1200 m above sea level and switchbacks its way down toward the sea, though beautiful forest and mountain scenery. Up here, it was cold and occasionally wet, with even some small hail. After around halfway, past the abandoned village of Samaria, the gorge begins to narrow and deepen, and the vegetation disappears. The sun broke through the clouds and it became quite warm. Here I am amid the boulders, soon before the gorge's narrowest point, only three meters wide. The gorge ends at Agia Roumeli, only accessible by ferry, and so after a well-earned swim in the Sea of Libya, we took a ferry back to meet our bus to Hania, passing by several tranquil coastal villages, including Loutro.

A restful day in Hania ensued, and that evening it was to the nearby port of Sougia for another ferry to take us back to the mainland.

DELPHI AND THE PELOPONNESE

Upon arrival back in Athens, we then embarked upon the second half of the trip, the rental car half. As lone driver, I earned a few grey hairs on these days. Road repair is not a trendy concept in much of rural Greece, and neither are guardrails. Still, we never got considerably lost or endangered.

Our first stop once leaving Athens were the ruins of Delphi, home of the ancient Oracle. This was once considered to be the center of the universe in the ancient world, not surprising considering its incredible location, seen here with the Temple of Apollo in the foreground. You can see all of us in this picture (l. to r.: Mystery Tourist #5, Randy, Steve, Scott, Mike). In a lower section of the ruins was the most intact ruin, three pillars from the once circular Tholos.

An afternoon's driving, a ferry ride, and some more driving took us into the heart of the Peloponnese, to its most famous destination, Ancient Olympia. Before we got in, we were sidetracked by the always-fun sit-on-a-donkey opportunity, and you can see Mike and I gave in. Once inside we spent a couple of hours prowling around the ruins of workshops, temples, and sporting sites. Among the highlights were the pillars that once supported the wrestling school (Palaestra), the priests' houses (Theokolon), and remants of the former gigantic columns of the Temple of Zeus.

A few more hours' driving took us to the Byzantine city of Mystras, near Sparta. The buildings, most of which are 600 to 800 years old, stretch up an entire hillside. Most of what remains are churches, such as Agios Giorgios (St. George), with remnants of altars inside. Farther up the hill is the still-open Convent of the Pantanassa, with a dozen cloistered nuns. At the very top is the Kastro, seen here behind another church in the foreground.

The next day's drive was one of the most spectacular, and dangerous, as we curved through the rugged mountains across the eastern half of the peninsula. No cows were around, but there were many goats to attract us out of our cars. There were also plenty of well-decorated reminders of those who were a bit too distracted by the scenery, or perhaps just careened off one of the guardrail-less roads into the valley below. After several hours, we reached the coast, with wonderful coastal towns around every other bend.

At the end of the coastal drive lay Nafplio, a beautiful Venetial town, and the first capital of modern Greece. The imposing Palamidi fortress (completed by the Venetians in 1714 and seized by the Turks in 1715) towers over the city. Once up there after a long, arduous... cab ride... the views of Nafplio are spectacular. Here are Randy and myself up in the castle, quite mystifying in spots with its Escher-like staircases. The real beauty, however, was the town, with its myriad corridors, plazas, restaurants, old houses and shops. The month of May made the passageways some of the most colorful I've ever seen. We were even treated to a surprise police marching band on the morning we left.

All good trips must come to an end; our last day was spent driving back to Athens and preparing for the return. Our last stop was at Mycenae. The Citadel of Mycenae was home to the most powerful kingdom in Greece from 1600 to 1200 BC. Here you can see me, once again a.k.a. Rudolph, above some of the foundations, most of which stand no more than knee-high. One of the few exceptions to this is the Athens Treasury, hidden in the ground past this interesting passageway.