Feta, Wine, Ouzo & Baklava Galore! And some nice scenery too!

Rhodes

After our ferry arrived from Turkey, we checked into a very cute B&B within the old city walls and then headed out to dinner.  We enjoyed a traditional meal, eating a yummy Greek salad of course, and roast lamb, then walked the historic streets of Rhodes for a while.  Later in the evening, Wes was feeling a bit under the weather and continued to get sick all night and the following day.  After that Christine was sick.  So needless to say our visit to Rhodes was not exactly what we were hoping for.  Luckily for us the owner/operator of the B&B was a wonderful Austrian woman that took care of us like either of our grandmothers would have.  She made us special teas and toast until we were feeling a bit better.  Besides the sickness Rhodes was a great island.

We took a long walk through the moat that surrounds the entire Old Town of Rhodes.  Seeing the city walls and defenses was very cool.  We enjoyed walking the beach in the New Town and walking the old cobble stone streets and alleys of the Old Town.  We spent one day out in Lindos which is about 45 minutes toward the south of the island.  There, we enjoyed a lovely day on the beach and in the most perfect calm and clear water.  After checking out of our hotel we caught the nine hour ferry to Santorini.
 

The moat between the outer and inner walls. 

Lindos Beach

Looking through a defensive position at Rhodes Harbor

Yogurt with fresh pureed strawberries that the innkeeper made for us every morning.  We wanted to bring her home!

One of the hundreds of ancient cobblestone streets near our hotel

Another shot of the moat.  Pretty for a walk today, but a nasty place to be caught in the 1300's!

Santorini

The ferry from Rhodes to Santorini was about nine hours but our boat was the size of a small cruise ship so it was very comfortable.  The seas were quite smooth and the time passed fast.  We arrived very late at night, checked into our hotel, and got some sleep.  When we woke in the morning we walked to look out over the Caldera and were stunned.  Out of all the amazing things we have seen this trip this was towards the top of the list for the most beautiful.  The way the cliff just falls into the piercing blue ocean and the stark white and blue domed buildings is really something everyone should experience.  We strolled the streets and took in the easy Greek lifestyle.  Sitting drinking coffee and enjoying the view is top on their list of things to do (and we like how they think!)

Volcanic Caldera that shapes modern Santorini today.  The rest of the island disappeared into this crater in 1650BC.

Another of the many beautiful Greek Orthodox churches in the area.

Sunset from the edge of the Caldera.

We hiked from Fira, the town we were staying in, to Oia, the town most commonly photographed in Greek tourism.  The four hour hike was incredible and around every turn we stopped to take in the scenery.  Oia was a lovely town, less touristy, and exactly what you picture a small Greek town on the Mediterranean to look like.  We enjoyed a delicious salad with roasted figs, local Assyrtico wine, lemon pie, kataifi (a delicious version of baklava as if it needs to be more delicious), and Wes enjoyed some local ouzo.  We had a great night watching the sunset over the Caldera.  After dinner and tasty drinks, we took the local bus back to Fira instead of hiking again!

Fira is on the middle right edge and Oia is way off in the distance above and left of center.

Cliff side buildings of Fira from the next town over, Firostefani.

The church bells are hand rung all over the island in the afternoons.

 Domes and clock towers like this are everywhere.

Our new favorite salad ingredient..figs!

Before dinner in Oia with Fira behind us.

Sunset after dinner in Oia.

We spent the next few days exploring around the island on an ATV.  We visited some wineries, explored a little town with black sand beaches, the island's lighthouse, a monastery and scenic views at the top of a mountain, and found a bakery we will never forget!  We had the most amazing baklava and various other Greek pastries that we will probably ever eat!!  (we made a special trip out to this bakery the next day for breakfast!)  On our way back to Fira, we dined at a local fresh fish restaurant overlooking the fishing boat harbor.  Santorini was perfect in every way and we hope to be back one day!

Our chariot for a couple days.

Wine tasting at Santo wines on top of the Caldera cliffs.

Our view during an afternoon at Perissa beach.

The Baklava in the foreground has to be some of the best in the world, and everything else is amazing as well!

The carnage after our fish dinner at "To Psaraki!" We were too hungry to get a 'before' shot.

Our adorable table overlooking the fishing harbor and a sunset.

We will never take the sunsets we've experienced for granted. 

Cappuccino and MORE baklava.  Breakfast of champions!

So...take a slab of feta cheese, wrap and fry in phyllo dough, drizzle with honey and sprinkle with sesame seeds on top!

Athens

From Santorini we caught another ferry to Athens.  This ferry was about six hours and bit more bumpy than the last.  So we took some dramamine and enjoyed a nice nap until we arrived.  Our bed and breakfast in Athens was exactly what we needed.  An extremely comfy bed, 2 pillows (each!), and a charm that is hard to find, right in the center of the Plaka district.  In Athens we enjoyed sidewalk cafe dining, the National Archaeological Museum, the Acropolis/Parthenon site, and the Acropolis Museum.  What we learned in Athens is that while we can definitely appreciate culture, history, and visiting old stuff for a little while, we are much more excited to be near beaches or mountains than a hundred museums and archeological sites.  That said we really enjoyed the city of Athens and feel fortunate to have been able to visit but thought overall it was a bit grungy and not our favorite city on the trip.

Ahh, now this is a hotel room a little more our style.

The architecture of the Acropolis Museum was very interesting, the exhibits just a little less so.

The Parthenon!  Very cool!

A bust in the National Archaeological Museum.  He would be less freaky if he had still had eyes!

The Greek National Archaeological Museum.

Next stop Madrid, but via Philadelphia and a Walsh family visit!

Cappadocia, Ephesus, Pamukkale, and Oludeniz!

We absolutely loved every minute of our time in Turkey!  From Istanbul we took a quick flight to Kayseri and a bus to our hotel in Goreme, the center of the Cappadocia region.  Our hotel was made up of cave rooms built into the side of a mountain, as most hotels in this area are.  We arrived after dark so we weren't sure what to expect for a view.  We had taken the suggestion of others to come here and really had no clue what we were in for but boy were we pleasantly surprised!  When we awoke in the morning we felt like we had landed on the moon.  The landscape was out of this world.  Check these pictures out...

The locals call this area "Love Valley" but are too shy to explain why...

 

Our cave room

This was a great spot for chilling out, calling home, blogging, etc.

On our first day in town we booked a guided tour of the area.  We hiked part of the Ilhara Valley to see centuries old cave churches and had lunch along the river, visited an underground city and pigeon valley where messenger pigeons were kept in carved mountainside nests, and explored nooks and crannies of Selime Cathedral.

Messenger pigeon nests

The Ilhara Valley is Turkey's Grand Canyon

Tables at a local restaurant built over the river.  Don't have too much wine with lunch!

A kitchen in a cave complex.  A Tandoori oven is in the floor and a Kebap grill along the wall.

The underground city was NOT for the claustrophobic!

The following morning we woke before sunrise for the most popular activity in Cappadocia....a hot air balloon ride!  It was AWESOME!  We watched sunrise from the hot air balloon (twice, thanks to the skills of a very creative pilot) and were back on the ground before 8am.  We landed and enjoyed a champagne toast then returned to our hotel to go back to bed.  We napped for a while and still managed to get up in time to enjoy breakfast outside overlooking Goreme town.  That afternoon we took a walk to the Open Air Museum and visited more churches and homes carved into caves.  During our time in Goreme we also took a hike in the Rose Valley which reminded us of Sedona, Arizona (one of our favorite places in the states).  We had a great and relaxing trip to Cappadocia and caught a quick flight to Izmir.

Cappadocia is one of the top places in the world for ballooning.

Yes, that is champagne...before 8am.  Who are we to break tradition right?

Looking back into Rose valley near sunset.

Watching a sunset from the rim of Rose valley.

After landing in Izmir, we waited at the baggage belt but the bags never came.  We had made a quick connection in Istanbul and apparently the bags didn't make it to the second flight.  So we continued on to the hotel in Selcuk without luggage and without the smiles we usually have when arriving in a new town.  Luckily our hotel was super helpful and by the next morning they had worked it all out with the airline directly.  We had arranged a tour of Ephesus and by the time we returned our bags were waiting for us in our room.  Apparently we were one of the lucky ones because we were told that often bags can take up to a week to get to you, yikes!

The ancient city of Ephesus was very impressive and you can easily see how incredible the city was among the ruins.  The Romans took their bathing very seriously as there are several entire complexes within the city that are dedicated to baths and associated facilities.  Anyone that has radiant heating in their floors owes the idea to the baths in Ephesus as theirs was supposedly the first.  The Celsus Library is in amazing condition for its age and the amphitheater could host some really great performances even today!  It was really warm and seriously crowded so we had our guide give us the express version to allow us to move on to other sights. (express meaning three hours instead of six!)  We also visited the House of the Virgin Mary, Temple of Artemis, and Basilica of St. John.  We were on a private tour so our guide was able to take us to a small local restaurant for lunch that the larger tours don't visit.  After almost two weeks in Turkey, we were finally able to find a good Gozleme!  The guide also recommended a wonderful place for dinner that had the best stuffed peppers, Adana kebab, and lamachun.  Having our bags delivered and a couple great meals put us back in the right frame of mind for sure.

Wow! Cruise ship crowds!

The Temple of Artemis.  Yup, that's all of it.  They take you here as more of a joke than anything.

The Library of Celsus

Theater where Apostle Paul spoke to the Ephesians before he was imprisoned.  Cool no matter what your belief.

Creators of Gozleme happiness rolling out the dough and baking in a wood oven.

From Selcuk we took a bus to Pamukkale and spent a couple of hours enjoying the travertine pools and cliffs fed by hot springs and the stunning scenery around.  From Pamukkale we caught another bus in the evening to the coastal town of Oludeniz.  The drive was incredible and it reminded us of the scenery in New Zealand.

Pamukkale means "cotton castle" in Turkish.

The Denizli valley below Pamukkale.

Oludeniz was perfect for what we wanted, just a relaxing few days at the beach.  We hung out on the beach, enjoyed strolls along the water, and ate lots of kebabs.  It was the first stone beach either of us had ever been to and we really liked it because you don't get sand in all those places you don't want it!!  (it does make it a little difficult to get comfortable on your beach towel)

Paragliding is huge and until we read about several deaths here, we were thinking about trying it...

Oludeniz Beach

A Turkish shave includes flaming those pesky ear hairs away!

Sunsets around the world never get old.  Oludeniz was certainly no exception.

We loved Turkey and could've spent another month there but we both knew it was time to move on to Greece, so we caught a short ferry to Rhodes!  More to come from Greece soon....OPA!

**We have enjoyed our time in Greece and will fill you in soon but we wanted to tell you all that after Greece we are heading to Spain via Philadelphia!  Haha, yes we are heading home for Memorial Day to repack, plan our upcoming adventures, and catch up with family.**