On Saturday April 2nd Melissa and I took a short flight to Barcelona for a short weekend visit.  Our excuse for the trip was seeing my cousin Michelle and her husband Brian Clark, who just so happened to be on the same continent as us.  They were vacationing in Barcelona from Saturday until Thursday, then coming up … Continue reading A Weekend in Barcelona →

Friday was the Olsons last day together in Greece.  We had already seen all our planned sights in Santorini, so we treated it as a bonus day.  After breakfast Dan and Ann went off on their own to hike a 7 km trail along the cliffs of the caldera that went from Fira to Oia. … Continue reading Greek Vacation – March 18th & 19th Goodbye Greece →

Santorini is the largest of five islands in a cluster created by the same volcano.  It’s crescent shape with abrupt inner side cliffs, up to 980ft tall, forms part of the volcano’s rim, with the remainder of the rim defined by two smaller islands.  The inner area of these islands, around 30 square miles, is called the … Continue reading Greek Vacation – March 17th Santorini Caldera →

Our first full day on Santorini featured ancient ruins, a red sand beach, lots of wine tasting, and one of the most beautiful sunsets in the world.  The busy sight seeing however, began after a relaxed morning.  We passed the time sipping coffee from our balcony as we gazed out over the Aegean sea, and Melissa … Continue reading Greek Vacation – March 16th Akrotiri to Oia →

Tuesday March 15th was our longest travel day of the whole trip. Not only did we travel 230 miles over 4 hours by car, we also had a 50 minute, 135 mile flight over the Aegean Sea to the island of Santorini. Around 10 a.m. we set out from Meteora with me in the driver’s seat.  The route back to … Continue reading Greek Vacation – March 15th From Meteora to Santorini →

Monday was the first day of Eastern Orthodox Christianity’s forty day Great Lent.  In Greece this is a public and religious holiday known as Clean Monday. The faithful turned their thoughts and prayers to the church, and by coincidence we did too.  It just so happened that we chose Monday to visit the grouping of monasteries outside … Continue reading Greek Vacation – March 14th Meteora →

On Sunday we said goodbye to Athens and hello to the open road. This time, instead of renting a small cramped car, we rented a large spacious nine passenger van, and instead of driving south, our road trip took us north.  On the itinerary was a stop at the ruins of Delphi, where the most … Continue reading Greek Vacation – March 13th Delphi & Meteora →