Corinth, Cont'd

 Corinth was the most important city in the days of Saint Paul - we visited the ruins of the ancient city where Paul worked with Aquila and Priscilla.  Saw the ruins of first century shops, the agora where Paul's trial by Gallio took place, the fountain of Peirene, temple of Apollo and the Bema.  Ancient Corinth was one of the largest and most important cities of Greece, with a population of 90,000 in 400 BC.  The Romans demoloished Corinth in 146 BC and built a new city in its place - later it became the capital of Greece!

So after lunch we headed out to the ruins!  

Oh my gosh!!  SO MUCH HISTORY!!  So much to see - we were all on overload!!

It was a long, long day!!  Once again we were all very tired but tonight we were all going out to a restaurant for dinner!  As we walked there, I enjoyed seeing all the little steep streets that had restaurants on them - so cute!!  I'm sure the waiters got a workout doing those steps!

We had 3 choices to choose from for dinner - I had the chicken which was cut into strips with an excellent sauce to dip it in - they brought out salad and bread and potato slices that had been deep fried and the food just kept coming!!  One of the gals ordered a round of ouza, a famous Greek drink, so we all took a taste - oh my - I could hardly swallow it!!  It tasted like black licorice (which I don't like anyway!!)  

All in all a wonderful meal!!  On the walk back to our hotel, we stopped and listened to these guys play - what great Greek music to end the night!

Corinth

 A buffet breakfast on the 7th floor with those awesome views again!!  Lots of strange food and they are not a fan of cooking bacon till it's done - most of it is barely cooked - but plenty to eat and their coffee is STRONG!

Soon we were on the bus headed to the Corinth Canal! The Agean Sea was beautiful as we rode beside it on the bus!!  And the picture below shows the actual Corinth Canal - it connects the gulf of Corinth which is in the Ionian Sea with the Saronic Gulf in the Agean Sea - pretty cool to see it! 

It's amazing that ALL the tour buses stop at the same places - HA - I should have realized that!!  And of course there is ALWAYS something to buy at your coffee/restroom stop!  I snapped a couple of pictures to show some of the food items that are for sale!

I liked the packages of olives but realized they would probably taste the same as what we get in the U.S.!

Then we headed to this huge place where a guy demomstrated how he paints the vases - very interesting and so much to look at!

The intricate  painting on these vases is amazing!  

We walked out later and took a couple of pictures by the huge ones!

Yes, that's our attire for all of our day trips - hats, cross-over bags, sweaters or jackets, name tags and tennis shoes!

It was a jam packed morning and we still have the afternoon.....

Greece Bound

 After lots of planning and a lot of excitement it was FINALLY time to head on our trip to Greece!!  Because Patty and I were both worried about a snowstorm delaying flights this time of year, we opted to fly into Minneapolis (where the tour group was flying out from) the day before and just stay at a hotel that night - that way, no worries!

Patty flew from Omaha to Minn. and I flew from Denver to Minns. - she arrived first and since her plane landed in a different terminal than mine, she had to figure out how to get over to my terminal which was where we were meeting!  She did just fine and met me at baggage claim!

We called the shuttle from Embassy Suites and soon were in our hotel suite for the night - happy hour was up next with drinks and appetizers and later on we headed to the restaurant to split an entree for dinner!  It was a nice relaxing evening!

The next morning we wandered down for breakfast and it was delicious!  I've always enjoyed staying at Embassy Suites since we used to stay there every year for our "Suite Retreat" on scrapbooking!

We headed to the airport about 11:30, even though our plane didn't leave till 4:30 but we were supposed to be there 4 hours early for group check-in - so that worked out perfect for us!  And where did I head as soon as we got there?  CARIBOU COFFEE!!  It was delicious!

We found the rest of the tour group - many from the area, a few from Iowa - all very friendly and easy to get along with!  I was a little concerned as 5 of them walked with canes and were elderly  but it all worked out!  Headed through the ticket agent and got rid of those large suitcases and before we knew it, we were on the plane!!  Since we weren't sitting together (groups usually are alphabetized) we went up to the counter beforehand and asked if we could switch - YES!  So we did get to sit together!

The flight over to Frankfurt was fine - EXCEPT for the fact that I couldn't sleep - NOPE - even took part of a tylenol pm and couldn't sleep - oh well!  Watched a movie and read and were fed a couple of meals - even the dimmed lights didn't seem to help me!

We landed in Frankfurt and had a 3 hour layover there - grabbed some breakfast and just hung out - everybody was looking a little weary by this point but soon we got on the next plane and headed to Athens! Customs was a breeze and we grabbed our suitcases and met our tour guide and tour bus outside - Greece is 9 hours ahead of Colorado - I was running on no sleep but did pretty well considering!  We started to head to our hotel - I was amazed at the narrow and tiny streets the bus went on!

We stayed the next 2 nights at a 5 star hotel - very nice!  But we did find all the showers are kind of strange and if there was a bathtub, it was long and VERY narrow!!  We had asked our tour guide if she would take us somewhere to exchange dollars into euros so a lot of us met her in the lobby a little bit later and we headed on our walk!  She took us through the cute shopping center - our heads were turning fast as we walked through all these shops!!  Take a peek at this LARGE sandal outside a shop!

We did get our money exchanged - walked and walked around this area which is called "Blaka" - I loved all the greenery around and all the side streets that had hills and little cafes up them!

By this time we are all fading FAST!!!  But our tour guide continues to take us past items of interest - all fun to see but boy we were tired!

We walked into this beautiful church on a huge square!  WOW!

We finally started walking back to the hotel - we were all dragging by this time and it seemed to take forever to get back as we walked by such interesting things to see!

Back at the hotel we still had a 4 course meal to get through - the dining area is on the 7th floor and the views were outstanding!!  We just couldn't stop looking out!

Dinner was very formal and very good - I don't remember a lot about it except the main course was pork chops, so tender you could cut them with your fork - excellent!!

That bed felt SO GOOD that night but we were getting a 6:00am wake up call ( which was to be the norm for the ENTIRE time there!!) so headed to bed as soon as we could!

Timberline Lodge/Hood Crest Winery

 And the day continues.....We decided to head up to Timberine Lodge which is up Mt. Hood.  Little did we know we were going to run into snow and ice on the road!!!  It was a beautiful drive but lots of switchbacks and slow going!  It took us much longer than what we expected and it was dang chilly out when we arrived and parked in the slush, ice and snow!

We decided to look quickly inside and then get back down the mountain before it started snowing as the clouds were building up!  The walk up to the lodge was treacherous in our tennis shoes as it hadn't been plowed good at all!  But we all made it up there and it was quite an imposing structure!  Interesting enough, this is the place where "The Shining" exterior was filmed!!

As were walking in, an employee was walking by with an ax and she asked if we wanted a picture with it!!  I guess it's a big deal to take a picture with the ax in reference to "The Shining" - so of course we did!!  Amy came around the back and jumped in the picture too!!  HA!

Then we took a quick tour of the main part of the lodge - impressive!!!  It would be so fun to stay here!

The fireplace was massive!!!  I could just imagine sitting by it with a cup of hot apple cider, reading a book!

We made it back down the mountain with no problem - and then we were off to the winery!

Here's the outside - it was a lovely place and we ordered pizzas to eat there!

Karen and Marilyn shared a flight tasting of wine and I had a glass of excellent sangria!

Grapes on the vine!

Amy was kind enough to take pics of us with our wine!

We enjoyed our time there and also got to hear some live music which we thoroughly enjoyed!

Back home, nobody was hungry for dinner - but Karen and I needed a little something more so we walked up and got dessert to share - berry crisp and oh my it was good!

Then it was time to pack up for our journey home - we left our house at 8:00 as Amy and I flew out first and I was lucky to capture this pic of Mt. Hood from the airplane!

It was a wonderful time with these 3 special friends and I sure hope we can get together again soon!

Apple Orchards

 It was a beautiful morning and we were all so excited that we could actually see Mt. Hood!!  HOORAY!  There was even a pretty sunrise that morning!

I caught the sunrise hitting Mt. Hood - beautiful!!

We all went to breakfast in Mt. Hood (yes, across the bridge) at a place called Bett's - it was amazing!!  A "good ole' place" and my favorite part was there was a menu for Childrens/Seniors!!!  Now that's what every place should have since I don't eat a lot at one setting!!  To be honest, Karen and I actually split a senior meal and it was PLENTY!!!!  Amy decided to order the cinnamon roll - oh my gosh - it was huge and she took most of it to go - NO KIDDING!!

We drove up to a high place to see  Mt. Hood - it was completely clear when we rounded the last turn to get up to the parking lot - by the time we parked and got out, clouds were already covering part of it!  But we hung around a little bit and they soon moved out of the way!

We loved this apple orchard!!  Especially the fall displays and the old trucks!

We were coming up on a small town and since I hadn't had my coffee yet, I quickly looked and sure enough there was a coffee roasters place!!  HOORAY!!!  It was delicious!

We drove by several orchards and it was beautiful out!!  Stopped at this one and couldn't believe all the different types of apples they had - and so reasonable too!

Can you believe how big this particular brand of apple is?

I loved these trees with a picnic table underneath!  Pumpkins everywhere!

And next up - the winery!