Greetings from Munich, Germany! Hope you are all having a happy and healthy holiday season. We made the quick and easy train trip from Salzburg back to Munich in less than two hours. We are moving to Grobenzell, which is about 20 minutes west of Munich by train. Our Airbnb is the third floor of a typical Bavarian home, quite efficient and spacious. Our hosts are a German couple about our age, very very nice!

Surprise, our oldest daughter Kate asked about six weeks ago if she could join us for Christmas. Sure, we said, so away we go.

First night back, into Munich we go to the world famous Augustiner Brau for dinner. Wonderful, and a bit crazy as its Christmas party time

Ok, I’ve caught a terrible chest and head cold, so I’m going to lay low. Tour guide Cindy is in full go mode with fresh troops, they hop the train to Nuremberg. It’s a short trip, less than two hours

Wonderful city, world famous for its Christmas markets. Ok, next day, back on the train to Neuschwanstein Castle. The rain has returned and the visibility is poor, but still lovely.

Hohenschwangau castle, right next door. Why one castle when you can have two?

Ok, a day in beautiful Munich,

Beer at the Hofbrauhaus, 1,700 seats. I’ll get out of bed for that

Cindy and Kate take the train to Salzburg, wonderful sights

What’s a trip to Salzburg without a stop at Augustiner Brau Kloster Mullen, our favorite

Safe trip home. Then, Christmas Eve day, back into Munich we go, everything closes at 14:00 even the beer halls😳

We stop by Augustiner Keller for a Christmas beer. Even though I’m sick, I won’t miss a beer hall👍😎✔️

It’s great seeing Kate, she’s headed home tomorrow and we have another 8 days. We love Munich

That’s Carolers singing below the Glockenspiel at the Marienplatz 😜

Five days, 60 miles, tour director Cindy was on fire!

Think about this…Cindy and Kate visited all the above places using trains, subways and buses. The Germans have the best mass transit system in the world. It’s safe, clean and always on time. Munich, we love it. Merry Christmas

Quick easy trip from Munich to Salzburg, one hour 45 minutes on the DB train. The weather is beautiful, sunny and highs in the 50’s. We can actually see the mountains Easy bus trip to our Airbnb, a one bedroom apartment, clean with easy check in and bus services. Salzburg has a great bus system, buses everywhere and 8-10 minutes between buses.

Ok, checked in, walking tour, old town

Seven miles later with darkness falling, we make it to our favorite beer hall in the world, Augustiner Bräu Mulln

Ok, remember we visited here in May, it was snowing and freezing rain, not now sunny and almost 60

Ok, the main reason we are here, Christmas markets! The entire town is decorated for Christmas with thousands of beautiful Christmas trees and Christmas shops everywhere, wonderful.

The Christmas booths all sell different stuff, it’s so beautiful

Food booths also😎

The drink here is mulled wine (spiced wine)

The food of Salzburg is Bosna, French bread roll, onions, sausage and curry powder, delicious

Ok, it’s getting late off to Stiegl, the biggest brewery in Austria, delicious

Ok, off on the next day for a walking tour of the Hellbrunn Palace for more Christmas markets and some Sound of music stuff ( Tour Director Cindy loves the Sound of music)

Ok, Tour Director Cindy is in full go mode, we walk the skyline of the city

Last night, one last visit to our favorite beer hall, Augustiner

Ok, I’ll admit it, I wasn’t to keen on Salzburg and the Christmas markets, I was wrong. It’s wonderful and the weather was awesome. Lovely trip

Off on the train to outside of Munich, Gröbenzell. We’re here two and a half weeks for the holidays

Wiedersehen!

Quick trip to the Rhodes airport, €130 later we have checked bags for Munich, man those cheap flights add up fast 😳 Short 50 minute flight to Athens with a four hour layover. Fun people watching in Athens airport.

Two and a half hour flight to Munich, we were hoping to grab our bags and get a quick exit. No such luck. Our bags are delayed 40 minutes. So much for German efficiency😳

Munich has a fantastic regional train, subway, tram and bus system, one of the best in the world. So we buy our pass and hit the S line to Hauptbahnhof (main train/subway/ regional train center. We are staying in the Giesing area of Munich in a “cozy” Airbnb. Clean, basic and close by transportation.

Our location is circled on the map of the subway lines. We love the transit system here, clean, efficient and safe👍

Ok, that night, late arrival for us, 20:00, we check in and hit the local Bavarian restaurant

Everything is decorated for Christmas, beautiful

Ok, bright and early, where are we? Bavaria, Munich, home to some of the best bakery’s in the world ✔️ breakfast?

Then on to the U bahn (underground subway) into the Marienplatz, home of the main tourist center of Munich

The city is decked out for Christmas. Christmas markets in the streets, beautiful! Even the train station is decorated

Ok, dinner at our new favorite German restaurant, Schinken Peter, delicious. (Yes, that’s their menu!)

They have a lovely beer garden out front, but it’s 45 and windy, a little too cold for beer outside at night😳

Ok, next day walking tour. Hard to get good pictures as it’s Sunday, nice weather and almost Christmas, (crowds are crazy) so we stop by at one of our favorite beer gardens, Augustiner Keller, where the beer garden is turned into an outdoor Curling rink for the winter

Yes, it’s cool here, I had to wear jeans😒 Tomorrow, a quick trip to Salzburg on the train for three nights, for Christmas market visiting and maybe our favorite beer hall?!😎

Then back to Munich for 2 1/2 weeks through the New Years. We love Bavaria and Munich!

If it looks like all we do here is eat and drink beer, well that’s true, but we do walk a lot, 27 miles in three days✔️

Wiedersehen from Bavaria 👍😎🍺

After avoiding many storms the last few weeks while touring Greece, Mother Nature finally caught up with us. During the last few days we’ve seen some very violent storms here in Rhodes. It rained like it does in the Great Northwest😳

We did make the best of breaks in the weather and continued to explore this beautiful island. You can tell by our rental car…it’s very muddy from being on the roads of Greece

It’s surprising how many forests are on the island and the size of the trees, considering how long mankind has inhabited Rhodes

Ok, let’s drive around the entire island, 230 kilometers. This is Castle Kastelos

Skala Kamirou

Apolakia

Castle Monolithos

Next day back to Old Town Rodos

It’s surprising how many Christmas displays we see. Homes are decorated with lights, trees and figurines

We talked about our Airbnb here, it’s over 120 years old. Here’s what the homes look like before and after remodeling

Can’t leave Greece without mentioning the wonderful food,

Greek salad is a mainstay of Greek cuisine, tomatoes, cucumber, peppers, red onions, salt, pepper, Greek oregano, feta, olives and olive oil, delicious and nutritious 👍😎

The Feta cheese is so smooth. From the feta they make cheese salad, Xtumntn unbelievably delicious. Tzatziki sauce from fresh Greek yogurt is also delicious

The gyros so wonderful

But you know I had to make pizza, hand made dough, baked in a toaster oven

After five weeks in lovely Greece we are flying to Athens tomorrow, then on to Munich and Salzburg. It’s cold and snowing there😳

A few things about our time here about Greece.

The people were incredibly nice, the scenery wonderful, however, the economy is terrible. Over 70% of jobs are service related and when everything, and I mean everything, closes for the winter that’s tough.

Greek men love to sit in the Tavernas and drink coffee and smoke cigarettes, it’s the main form of Greek male recreation.

There must be over one million feral cats in Greece, (I’m not exaggerating). They are everywhere and they break your heart😳

On to the Deutschland, rested and ready to roll through the rest of Europe ✔️

Auf Wiedersehen

With it being winter here in Greece (70 and sunny) no planes fly from Crete to Rhodes so we opted for a flight from Crete to Athens, Athens to Rhodes. €75 in checked luggage later and two easy flights we are in Rhodes. You are probably like me, when Tour Director Cindy said we are going to Rhodes I said, Rhodes, where is that?

Rhodes is the third largest of the Greek Islands and was part of Turkey until 1947. Did I tell you Turkey and Greece don’t like each other, they don’t!

We are staying in Paradisi, it’s right next to the airport in a lovey Airbnb built in 1895. Our hosts, Hercules and Olga are our wonderful hosts and the house is lovely. Note the stone fireplace

Paradisi is a cute village. We are right next to the Orthodox Church, and Friday was St Nickolas day. Church services all day with beautiful bells and singing

Ok, time for a tour, Lindos

Lindos is an ancient city, dating back over 3000 years to prehistoric man. The city is famous for its Acropolis and beach’s both stunning. Note the caves below the Acropolis where prehistoric man lived

This is what the Acropolis looked like in 100BC

Now, it’s not been restored, still beautiful

The village of Lindos is small and empty as are the beaches this time of year. It’s cold, only 70 degrees and sunny

Ok, next day on to Rodos and the medieval city of Rodos. Built by the Order of Knights of Jerusalem in the 1300’s against the Turks Ottoman Empire, it’s been in many hands over the years, now it’s Greek. Big tourist spot, cruise ships, tour buses, but still quiet in the winter

Fun and simple, Rhodes, they don’t even rent GPS’s. It’s just one major highway circling the island. Hard to get lost. Four more days here, then

a return to Munich and Salzburg for Christmas

The water is as beautiful as they say in the Greek islands, it lovely 👍

Ciao ciao ✔️

Greetings from sunny and warm Crete, Greece. Hoping you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend and start of the Holiday season! It’s funny, they even had Black Friday sales here in Crete! Anything for a sale, right?

Ok, a quick reminder of where we are in Crete. We are in Loutraki, located in the hills above Heraklion in the center of Crete.

Crete is a huge island, it’s over seven hours to drive from East to West. The North side of the island is where the main beaches are and there are literally thousands of hotels, condos and apartments that are empty/closed this time of year, along with thousands of restaurants, bars and mini marts. It’s so strange how everything shuts down in the winter. The weather is beautiful, highs in the upper 60’s. In the US snowbirds would be everywhere, here they’re closed.

The beach’s are wonderful and there are hundreds of them, empty 🧐

After a couple of days of rest👍✔️ we hit the road to explore Crete. First stop, a driving tour up the Pano Arhanes valley, staggering with beauty.

Next day a three hour drive to Chania, a major city in the northwestern part of the island, lovely

A floating souvenir shop in Chania

Next day, a trip to the city close by, Heraklion, the largest city in Greece

Ferry’s are used extensively for transportation

Yes, it’s Christmas season in Crete, a Christmas tree

Poinsettias grow all year in yards 😎

Ok, next day up to the Lasithi Plateau, quite the drive straight up hill 😳

Windmills are used to bring water up the hill, they removed the sails in winter and some are outdated

This is the mythical birthplace of Zeus, the Cave of Zeus and the pathway to it🧐

Rethymno, another lovely empty beach city, great beaches

The economy here is tourism. It’s empty this time of year so the Greeks pick olives.

First the net to catch the olives, which are knocked off the tree by these cool power shakers

Then it’s off to the olive oil press, all within 24 hours of being harvested

Some of the oil is sold commercially, most is for personal use. See the names on the cans?

Wonderful time in Crete. You always have to remember Crete is one of the oldest civilizations in the world. The modern stuff (post AD) is Roman stuff. Fun place, nice to get a little rest. Flying to Athens and then to Rhodes tomorrow for eight days.

Ciao ciao from Crete 👍😎

After a huge rain and thunderstorm on our last night in Athens, we took a quick and easy taxi to the Athens airport for our flight to Crete. The flight, a short 50 minutes. (We could have taken a ferry, but that was 8+ hours from Athens.)

We were surprised at the inexpensive cost to fly to Crete. But, after buying seat assignments, luggage and carry on costs, it wasn’t a cheap flight 😳

Easy flight, no hassles, then an easy pickup of our rental car. The airport is small, Boise size. After a warning about tearing out the underside of our rental car on the rough roads away we go 😳

A little refresher where we are in the world.

Some people say Crete is the mother of all civilization. The Egyptians sailed here in 800 BC or so, and the ancient Greek Mythology started here with the birthplace of Zeus, father to all gods on Crete.

We are staying in a very, very small village in the hills above Heraklion, the major city on Crete. Here’s our location on Crete.

We are in the tiny village of Loutraki, our stone house circled, it’s small👍

Ok, the roads here are unbelievably steep and rough. The stone home we are staying in is spectacular.

The view from our new home.

Ok, we haven’t done much the last several days. We are exhausted from the last eight months of traveling, so we are hanging low and resting. A couple of walks around the Hood,

Of course we adopted the neighborhood cats.

Enjoying the Greek culture, Greek salad.

The adventure is slowly coming to an end with less traveling and longer stays, ten days here🔥😎

It’s great to slow down and get some rest. As I said, we’ve been on the move for eight months. Seven more nights here with lots of sightseeing on the island, then on to Rhodes for eight nights.

Happy Thanksgivings to all. We are bar-b-queuing a chicken here, no turkeys in Greece ✔️

Ciao ciao

Our last night in Tolo we had a huge thunderstorm with huge volumes of rain. We were staying in an isolated area, on gravel roads, and we worried about washed out Roads (we are in Greece). Fortunately, the morning broke clear and the roads were passable👍

Quick two hour trip to the Athens airport to return the car and meet our driver who will transfer us to our hotel in Athens. Everything is quick and easy and we are settled in our room by 14:30.

We are staying in a hotel in downtown Athens, right next to all the sights with 24 hour security👍 Ok, tour director Cindy makes an appearance and says “downtown location right next to everything, I see walking tours for the next three days”. And away we go!

The first afternoon, we walk the sight to put together our game plan. We tour the Temple of Olympian Zeus, walk around the Acropolis and checkout the shopping districts. Fun and busy, but not crazy

We decide to visit the Acropolis Museum first and spent the entire morning there, excellent. It’s built above a neighborhood from 300 BC that has been excavated.✔️

After lunch another walking tour, beautiful city, hilly, but so much history

Ok, now the main event, climbing to the top of the Acropolis. Man, it’s steep and long, and unbelievably beautiful

Theater of Dionysus

Odeon of Herodes Atticus

On the top of the Acropolis, the Propylaea

The majority of the walls on the Acropolis were built in 500 BC and the area has been sacred to the Greeks from the beginnings of mankind.

Views from the top of the Acropolis, staggering.

The showstopper, the Parthenon

The Erechtheion

The Acropolis as a whole survived until the 400’s AD when Christians sacked the Parthenon and it was later a christian church, then a mosque. It was shelled and almost destroyed in the 1600’s and sacked more times than a Safeway checker. The Greeks are slowly trying to rebuild it correctly, but that won’t happen in any of our lifetimes. Still a wonderful place to visit and understand history

Athens itself is a wonderful place, traffic is incredibly busy, the city is reasonably clean and safe, and boy do the Greeks love to eat and party. We enjoyed out two days here very much. The changing of the guards at the tomb of the unknown soldier.

A quick note on the food of Greece. Greeks are great cooks, they love rustic foods, seafood, lamb and our favorites, gyros with tzatziki sauce,

As always, we did our best to help the local economy 😎

Great weather in Athens, mostly sunny and mid 60’s. We are flying to the Greek island of Crete tomorrow for a nice long stay of 10 days. Hopefully, some sunny weather and some swimming 😜

P.S. Tour Director Cindy says we got in 28 miles of walking in two and a half days. 😎

Ciao! Ciao!

A quick and easy two and a half hour drive on the toll highway from Patras to Tolo left us with enough time to stop by the ancient city of Korinthos

After Olympia, it was a little bit of a let down. We’re spoiled now😜

Ok, driving on to Tolo now. It’s only two hours from Athens and a huge destination for Greek summer vacationers. However, it’s only 72 here, that’s cold to Greeks and the town is basically closed. Here’s Tolo on the map.

It’s very nice weather here, (72 degrees with 80% humidity) and they are harvesting oranges, delicious when they’re this fresh

Our Airbnb is absolutely beautiful, a stone home overlooking the bay and ocean✔️

Th

Walking tour of Tolo, it’s 90% closed for the winter, unbelievable how things close here. In the US, snowbirds would flock here, the weather is perfect.

Ok, quick half hour drive to nearby Nafplio, Rick Steves favorite town in Greece. Quite lovely and I’m sure the happening place in spring, summer and fall.

Today a driving tour of the Mani Peninsula, it’s full of hotels, apartments and Tavernas, the majority closed for the winter.

Beautiful place, mainland Greece, mountainous and rocky. We spent the last two weeks driving around the mainland over 1,100 miles. I’m going to provide a few comments here from a 30,000 ft view.

Greeks have their own driving rules, one of which is passing is ok anywhere, city center or one lane roads, solid double white line it doesn’t mater, they will pass. No speed limit is followed. Go as fast as you want where ever. 😳

Parking, wherever, whatever, just turn your flashers on, triple park, sure, sideways , ok. Whatever goes, anytime, anyplace 😳

Church’s, Greeks are Greek Orthodox and the church’s are beautifully maintained everywhere. Greeks go to church every Sunday

Shrines, these are for multiple reasons. Someone died here, someone almost died here and they stop and pray. They have lit candles, religious pictures and pictures of the loved one who passed. There are thousands of them on the roads and city’s. They are everywhere.

All in all, a wonderful time visiting mainland Greece. I’ll bet it’s hot and humid here in the summer. The sea water is still like bath water.

Ok, turning in our rental car tomorrow, staying in a hotel in Athens for three nights and then flying to the Greek isle of Crete for 10 days 😎

Ciao Ciao👍

We drove the easy three and a half hour drive from Parga to Patras Greece without any issues. Nice toll highway until we saw Patras on the horizon with a beautiful suspension bridge spanning Patras Bay.

We drove to the toll booth, €13.50 to cross the worlds longest suspension bridge😳 Not much to say at that point but, thanks 😎

A map of where Patras is located

Patras is Greeces third largest city with 400,000 residents. It’s a seafaring port with lots of ships and ferry traffic

Our Airbnb is a cute little rooftop space, quite Greek, but everything we need with an amazing deck and view

The main reason we stayed in this area was to visit Olympia, home and birthplace to the Olympic Games. We drove about one and a half hours to reach Olympia. We were lucky, the weather was wonderful, low 70’s and no rain. Here’s a model of what Olympia looked like in 200 BC

There are two parts to the Olympia experience, one is the museum and the second the Archaeological site, both wonderful!

First the museum. We are not big museum people, but Olympia’s is excellent. Gargoyles from 300 BC

Nike, ya that one 🧐

A picture of what Zeus’s statue would have looked like. It was moved to Constantinople and destroyed by fire in 400AD

Unbelievable artifacts in many, many rooms. Absolutely extraordinary stuff

Ok, now the archeological site. There are reader plaques telling you what you are looking at as it’s all ruins now. The main thought I kept having is they built this in 400-100 BC when the rest of Europe was living in caves, wearing rotten animal hides, amazing.

One of the highlights was the track, which at one time had a stadium that held 45,000 people, in 300BC, amazing. The entryway, imagine entering to 45,000 screaming people in 300BC

Cindy couldn’t resist a lap

Fantastic place, one of our highlights

Ok, that night a huge storm was again forecast for our area, so we decided to take the morning off and then explore Patras in the afternoon. The largest Greek Orthodox Church in the area St. Andrews, beautiful.

Local lighthouse

A shopping and dining area about 10 blocks long. Greeks love to drink coffee, smoke cigarettes and watch the world walk by. Do they ever work🧐

Ok, one more stop, the oldest winery in Greece, Achaia Clauss, not bad🍷

Ok, off tomorrow to Nafplio, a couple of hours outside of Athens with a couple of historic sights on the way. Visit Olympia, it’s awesome

Ciao! Ciao !