Day 43 - Thursday 3rd June - Greece - Athens

Yeah! Finally completely up-to-date with our blog. Amazing what quick wifi can do!

Slept in big time, but we needed the rest. Had a great breakfast at our hotel before going to a pharmacy to get Tonia's leg looked at. Thankfully all was okay and it was not infected. She was very happy. Got bandages and ointment and returned to our hotel to apply all of this, before leaving to see a special Degas exhibition at a museum nearby. We walked there, but it was closed for siesta lunch, so we went to have lunch ourselves.

At 1pm the museum re-opened so we went to see this exclusive exhibition of all of Degas's sculptures including his most famous "The Little Dancer, Aged Fourteen". It did not disappoint, these sculptures were beautiful. From there we went to the Monastiraki Flea Market for some more shopping. It was all great.

Returned to our hotel to leave what we had bought before going to the nearby Plaka for a coffee and cake. Yum! Then we walked to the new Acropolis Museum filled with artefacts from the many buildings of the Acropolis. Wow these were amazing. Three floors of ancient ruins and sculptures from as early as 500BC. The actual building is built over original ruins with see-through floor areas, all beautifully done.

Returned exhausted to our hotel and had a brief rest before going out to have dinner. We had dinner on a rooftop restaurant. The food was lovely. The views were great but the views from the rooftop of our hotel are a lot better. We left to have coffee at our hotel's rooftop restaurant before returning to our room to pack all of our stuff into our suitcases, all ready for tomorrow when we have to leave.

We've had an excellent time on our European holiday. Every day, every moment has been so special. We've seen and done so much, experiences we'll always remember. It has all been so memorable and no surprise we have heaps of photos to remember our time away! Many thanks to all those who sent us messages along our way. We have enjoyed it all! Now back to reality! As they say in Bulgaria: Nesdravya - good health & good luck!

Georgina, Tonia and Lynda

Day 42 - Wednesday 2nd June - Greece - Mykonos - Athens

After a lovely, fresh breakfast in our hotel we ventured out for one last look at Mykonos with its many whitewashed streets hung with lots of pink bouganvillia. Down to the port and the windmills one more time, before returning to collect our luggage and 'lug' it back to the top of the street where our new taxi stopped in the middle of the street to collect us again to make the 5 minute drive to Mykonos airport.

The plane ride this time was not as bad as going to Santorini as that was just plain scary. Got into Athens unfortunately we had to collect our left luggage. Found a poor unsuspecting taxi driver to collect us and ALL of our luggage. Setted in to our hotel which has a great view of the Acropolis which tempted us to visit it immediately.

Finally found a way to get there after weaving our way through so many alleyways and dead ends we found a way to the Acropolis. Magnificent views and structures, very old and ancient. After admiring of these structures we thought we would explore other monuments BUT....unfortunately while not looking where I was walking and listening to Lynda talking about the Acropolis I (Tonia) took a massive tumble (Lynda - "she hit the ground" "One minute she was there and the next she was gone). It was not good. According to Lynda and George I was extremely brave as the amount of skin scrapped off my knee and the blood oozing down was not good. Thankfully the Acropolis staff were on hand and helped to clean and disinfect the massive wound. All was okay after it was cleaned up. I could still walk. So onward we went with a little pain to Sygtagma Square to see the changing of the guards after passing Hadraig's Arch and the Olympic Temple of Zeus.

The changing of the guards was interesting and then we went in search of the Olympic stadium, finally found it and then walked all the way back to our hotel (eventually found that too). Cleaned my leg again went down to the Plaka area just outside our hotel for dinner, ate out under the stars. Then back to our hotel for a drink on the rooftop with magnificent views of the Acropolis all lit up. Lovely, just lovely!

Tonia

Day 41 - Tuesday 1st June - Greece - Santorini - Mykonos

Woke up to a really misty morning in Santorini. Thought the volcano had erupted again. We didn't really want to leave Santorini because we hadn't taken photos of all the churches there as yet, but I think we took at least 90% of them!!!

After the horrendous bus ride down the very steep cliff to the port we boarded our ferry. We took a motion sickness tablet each table before boarding the fast ferry to Mykonos. All was fine on the ride over to Mykonos. I had a little sleep.

Once in Mykonos after being 'dumped' on the road near our hotel we eventually found our hotel. Straight away we left to explore Mykonos. Found the windmills before having an early dinner. We were served by a "Snape" (Harry Potter) lookalike, who was wearing green instead of black. We returned to our hotel and don't remember the next 2 hours as the motion sickness tablets had taken effect and it put us to sleep (It comatosed us!!!!)

Finally woke up and decided to see the nightlife. Got served by Snape again and then he brought out the black potion - "I've got something special for you" - a drink/potion. Small, black liquid/shot - blahhhh!!! Well you could have shot us it was that potent. It felt like we were drinking cough medicine. We left quickly, trying to avoid Snape and then returned to our hotel for another restful sleep.

Lynda

Day 40 - Monday 31st May - Santorini, Perissa, Oia, Greece

Again another sleep in. Yeah! had a leisurely morning by the pool as it was quite hot. Our views of the ocean and white houses dotting the cliff tops continue to amaze us. The views are simply spectacular!

Had lunch at our apartment before leaving to catch the bus first to Thira and then to Perissa where we went to the black cobbled stoned beach. We dipped our feet into the ocean it was lovely as the day was really hot. We then walked back to the top of the beach area to have iced coffees and a dessert in the open-air cafe. Lovely.

We returned to Thira and then took the bus to Oia as we wanted to see the famous sunset of Oia. We walked along the narrow lanes taking different turns and each one ending in amazing views until finally we stopped for a short while at a low westerly point. This was a lovely view but it had no shade and after a while we got too hot to stay there so we decided to move on to find a spot with some shelter. While walking back to the top we accidentally came across the most ideal spot to sit and watch the sunset. It was at a tiny bar overlooking not only the ocean, but in the near distance a windmill and a church! We took so many photos as the sun slowly set with amazing colours! It was just beautiful to sit back, relax with a drink and take in all the splendor of this sunset. It was hard working out which photos to add to our blog but we've selected a few - there's heaps more! And yes, we have all tanned thanks to the lovely hot weather we've been having lately!

After the sun had set - we were there for about one and a half hours - we wandered back through the narrow lanes with its many shops back to the bus to return to where we were staying. Once back we had a tea and dipped our feet in our pool/spa, blogged some more and then went to bed.

Georgina

Day 39 - Sunday 30th May - Santorini, Greece

Finally a sleep in!!! Called for breakfast and they brought it up to our villa apartment balcony for us to eat it. Very nice. Weather - fantastic and sunny! Views everywhere - sensational! After our late breakfast we decided to walk the 10-15 minutes to get to Thira, or so we thought. It took us about an hour to walk through the cobbled footpath along the bay to reach Thira - whilst taking many photos and shopping along the way. Even met a lady, Alison, orginally from Melbourne, who now lives on this beautiful island with her Greek husband and 4 children.

Finally got to Thira, feet a little sore in my brand new leather thong shoes bought in Imerovigli, but all was well. Had lunch in one of the many open air bar restaurants overlooking the white houses and bay. So beautiful!

After luch we finally got to the main shopping alleys so nice and full of beautiful things (we did control ourselves)! Late afternoon we decided to takle the Local Bus back. So much easier on the feet plus a lot quicker too. Had a bit of a rest and a swim before deciding to go to Oia for the sunset. Got there by the Local Bus again right on sunset but unfrotunately it wa a non-event (I mean the sunset). So instead we looked for the blue churches - found them - shopped around and then back to our hotel. So picturesque even at night. We took sooo many photos!

Tonia