Consumed by Time Travel

The intention to blog daily on this trip has been good, but I am hoping that I am not making bricks for a road to an unpleasant destination. Days have been long; everything has taken longer to accomplish than planned; and internet access has not been as readily available as I had hoped. But I am going to give you some highlights from the last few days in Greece.

We visited some amazing ancient ruins in Delphi, another fabulous set of ruins built upon the side of a mountain. I made it about half way before I wimped out. There was another theater there; truly theater was a very important part of that ancient civilization. The countryside on the way to Delphi was so picturesque. We wound our ways from the valleys rimmed by green and craggy mountains until we were upon the mountains themselves. The views were breathtaking.

We stopped on the toll highway on the way back to Athens for a snack. There was a busload of older Greeks that came in right after we did. It reminded me of the FUNagers on a field trip, except many of them were smoking their cigarettes, even though the signs said there was no smoking indoors. Smoking is very prevalent in Greece, and it did not bode well for Jason, who was wearing nicotine patches that made his skin break out. By the way, I need to applaud Jason's skills at driving the roads in Greece, particularly in Athens. He was a ROCK STAR and kept us safe and got us to our destinations while remaining calm and focused. We would not have been able to do much of what we did without his expertise.

On Sunday we were determined to get out to one of the Greek islands, looking for a beach to play upon. According to the Lonely Planet guide book, we could find a quiet beach on Andros. So we took a very early 2 hour ferry ride to get there. What the book didn’t tell us is that the great beaches and the best town was on the OTHER side of the island from where we debarked. And we didn’t bring the car because of the cost. So the four Goldt's packed into a tiny taxi (think clown car without the red noses) and Jason rented a scooter to go to the next town, about 3 miles from the port, in search of a beach. Let's just say that the REALLY good beach (I assume this to be true) was an hours drive away, prohibitive by clown car and scooter. At least we could say we went to a Greek island.

We departed Greece on Monday morning, spending a long time at the airport because the rental car had to be returned and Jason's flight was at 7 am (ours wasn't until 1) and there was no way that I was going to drive in that traffic.

London
The other thing I’ve learned about traveling, particularly in foreign countries, is that things you take for granted at home are not so easily found here. For instance – where is the bus stop and the tube depot? I could see the tube info on the map, but the bus info seems to be quite a secret. There is a map on line, but it’s so small you can’t read it! Where is an ATM? So we took a cab in to the city from Heathrow, a very expensive proposition, but the only way we could see at the time. Fortunately London cabs were adequate for our needs and we were able to leave the circus get-ups behind.

I'll try to post later about London. Right now I've got to get ready to go to the Ebenezer Baptist Church for today's Festival of Homiletics session. (Homiletics = art of preaching; you're not the only one who didn't know that, so I thought I'd explain it.)Yesterday was AMAZING, and I can't imagine what today holds.