ON THE WAY TO TURKEY

Here we are in the Olive Garden, the rooftop bar of our hotel with the picture postcard view of the Acropolis. We are now about to board the train to Istanbul, where we arrive early tomorrow morning. Christine will continue with news of our exploits:

Athens has been a noisy, chaotic yet vibrant city to visit. The mood has changed from dramatic - street marches that turned violent although not when we saw them go by. A couple of our friends were mildly affected by the dregs of tear gas clean up and a media van was set on fire in a square just down from our hotel.

Yet we have also found everyone helpful and pleasant and the weather has been just superb for walking, climbing many, many steps and stopping for the occasional "cappucino freddo" - the last rather like very strong iced coffee with froth on the top. This is definitely the drink of the moment!

Hope you are all well, happy and not working too hard. Thought of many of you in your respective parishes last Sunday. Hope "Gathering with God" went well at Rye. We went to the local Anglican church here - very C.of E.!!

Message for Ben - can you check our Mastercard balance before you go off to Perth. We cannot access the balance at the moment. Thanks !!

HEALTHY AND HAPPY IN ATHENS

Sorry we haven't been in touch for a while, but our hotel has an exorbitant charge for internet access. We tried to find an internet cafe, but they are a rarity in downtown Athens. We've ended up using the hotel internet, anyhow.

We arrived in Athens, having completed 2,500 km of bus travel. It has been well paced, so we don't feel all that exhausted. The final "rural" set of ruins was in Corinth and was quite spectacular. Our visit to the Acropolis yesterday had us in the company of thousands of others. It would be vile in the summer months. The highlight was a visit to the new Acropolis Museum, a stunning new building built over the excavations of a town at the bottom of the Acropolis hill - lots of glass flooring suspends you over the site. It's a stunning and imaginative achievement.

Must race now and prepare to see what happens with the demonstrations outside.

We probably won't contact you again until Istanbul (unless we find an internet cafe in Athens).

Much love to all.

OUR LIFE IN RUINS

We continue on our way through the ruins of ancient Greece (nothing to do with the current financial situation), with wonderful weather, company and continued excellent commentary from our guide Irini. We found Olympia more interesting than we expected - there is a vast complex of ruins (temples, training complexes etc) besides the famous stadium/arena (which I power-walked on behalf of the Barren Boys). On Tuesday we adjourned to Sparta to explore the nearby ruins and restorations of monastories at Mystras - spectacularly placed on very steep hills (see our red faces above), then crossed the mountains to Tollos, a small resort town on the Aegean. Today has been spent in 13th century BC Mycenaen ruins and the huge ampitheatre at Epidaurus (perfect acoustics - tested to perfection by our friend Trish Ball, who was an opera singer). Tomorrow we head off to Athens via Corinth. May Day should be interesting in Athens, with the planned protests - we'll not poke our noses into them.

GET DUCKED

Thanks for sending us your comments from home (and England - thanks, Chris and Stu) - it's great to feel in touch. Zoe commented that Toby's latest favourite is duck liver pate. Here's a pic for him of where it commences. This is a floating hotel for ducks in the estuary of the village where we had Sunday lunch!

EUREKA - A PHOTO!

I have NO IDEA how I did this, but here we are at Philippi at the spot where Paul baptised Lydia, the first Christian in Europe. I hope I can fluke more photos as we proceed on our travels.

SOUTH TO OLYMPIA

Greetings again. We're in Olympia, having travelled quite a distance from Meteora and the "hanging" monasteries. It was most atmospheric to travel through the clouds to the two monasteries we visited, with snow-capped mountains in the background. Again, I have tried to place a photo on the blog, get so far with the process, then no further. I won't bother again!

Today we spent a wonderful morning in Delphi (after a night in another posh hotel). Our tour guide, Irini, is great - intelligent, witty, concise - she made our museum visit a fascinating experience. We then toured the ruins (which we were last at 38 years ago, but have faded significantly in our memory) - in these dramatic mountains, you can imagine Apollo nearby.

We then headed off down the coast of the Aegean, stopping for lunch in a charming village, where fresh fish and grilled octupus for lunch was mandatory (with a little local white wine - the reds are more dependable here, though). Afternoon tea was at a roadside bakery. The bus tyres were sorely tested when we all re-entered the bus. Must race off to our hotel pool now - it looks most enticing.

TRAVELLING IN THE NORTH

No photos again - the instructions were all in Greek!!

Today has been another fascinating day . We spent the day at a place called Vegina. There are the most extraordinary underground tombs - date back to about 350 BCE and yet were only finally discovered in 1977. The major tomb is that of Philip II of Macedonia who's greatest claim to fame is that he was Alexander the Great's father.

The gold artifacts were just unbelievably beautiful.

We are now at a place called Kalambaka that is jumpin off place for the "Hanging Monasteries of Meteora" We go there tomorrow. Hopefully some photos of this!

Let us k now what's happening - speak soon. C and J