Corinth:
After much deliberation, we ended up doing a guided tour to Corinth. We felt like that was the better choice with the kids and having a guide knowledgable in what we're seeing always helps to keep them engaged. Our first stop was the Corinth Canal which was completed in 1893.
The canal is very narrow and most ships can't fit through so it isn't used much anymore!
Our guide took us to several other locations on the water. Everyone was intrigued by this bridge was lowers down into the water to allow ships to pass rather than lifting up like we are used to.
"Before the canal, slaves dragged the ships on this road to avoid having to go way far out of the way. You can still see the grooves on the road." -Cora
We skipped rocks on the gorgeous water. Our day in Corinth was one of the warmest days we experienced on the trip. The high was around 61.
Next, we stopped at the Port of Cenchreae. This was the port where Paul left for his missionary journey to Ephesus. The port is undergoing excavations right now so the kids enjoyed watching the men work. Our guide knew some of them and the workers shared their oranges with our kiddos.
After the port, we headed towards Ancient Corinth. We got stuck behind a herd of sheep!
We stopped at the Hadji Mustafa fountain which was a source of freshwater in Corinth. Because Greece was conquered by so many different groups of people, there are so many different influences ranging from Roman to Ottoman. As each group would come in, they would tear down/rebuild.
We spent a chunk of our morning enjoying the beautiful weather and scenery as we hiked in the Acrocorinth, the acropolis of Ancient Corinth.
Roger and Rowan continued to the top and waved at us from this structure.
We made a stop at the Archaeological Museum of Ancient Corinth but the kids were mostly excited to explore the ruins.... notice Cruz's fake smile. :)
I usually have a favorite photo from a vacation and I think this one is it!
We loved being in the same place that the Apostle Paul was and seeing the area that inspired him to write two of his Epistle letters!
The Bema, where it is said that Paul was tried by Gallio.
We finished off our day with a delicious meal in the little town area. We had gyros, rice, tzaziki, lamb, beef, pita, saganaki, feta cheese and moussaka. We also got to try rizogalo for dessert.
Cruz really enjoys baclava so our guide made a special stop to one of his favorite bakeries on our way back so that Cruzy could get some!
Crete Day 1: Rethymno
On our second beautiful weather day, we headed to the island of Crete. We wanted to see as much as possible in both Chania and Heraklion in our limited time so we decided to stay in a little town in between the two called Rethymno. We are SO glad we did. It was our favorite little town and we would go back in a heartbeat.
Roger always does such a great job driving in new places. He even backed down a tiny, one way street, lined with cars on either side after google maps led us astray! :)
Our first activity in Rethymno was a Segway tour of the town. We tried to find a balance between learning, archeological sites and fun experiences to keep the kids engaged. They were SO excited about this activity.
We all got a short lesson before we went out.
Cora liked the pretty ribbons hanging on this street.
We had four falls/crashes on our little adventure. One crash belonged to Cruz, one huge wipeout right into a puddle went to Roger and the last two were mine. Rowan and Cora were the only two who remained unscathed.
After our tour, our guide let us take these pedal cars around. Rowan drove me and we had so much fun!
The little port in town was so picturesque.
The view from our apartment was AMAZING. It was right by the beach and had a beautiful balcony. Unfortunately it was a tad too chilly to really enjoy it.
Crete Day 2: Heraklion
We went horseback riding on our second day in Crete in a little town called Finikia, right outside of Heraklion. It was low 50's and breezy but everyone made the most of it.
We had a scary moment when Cora's horse got spooked by a duck. It went back on two legs and she got thrown off. Thankfully she was okay and our guide encouraged her to get back on the horse and she ended up having a fun time. At this point, only Rowan hadn't taken a tumble on one of our activities.
The Minoan Palace of Knossos
Church of Agios Titos... we were disappointed that the outside was under construction because it looks beautiful!
The kids were quite excited to see the skull of Titus.
This activity was all Roger. He and the kids had such a fun time getting splashed by the freezing cold water.
When we got back to Rethymno, the boys were cold and decided they wanted to relax in our apartment. Coco and I headed out and walked around the little town, did some shopping and brought back slices of pizza for dinner. This was one of my favorite memories!
Crete Day 3: Chania
Our final day of Crete had a couple of things on the agenda.
First, we needed to take our Covid tests to get back into the US the next day. We ended up bringing the BinaxNow AG Card tests with us. The US allows specific brands of proctored home tests to be used as official tests. You visit a link that they provide you, a live proctor does a televisit with you and watches you take the test. You wait fifteen minutes to let the test process, the proctor comes back on, reads your test result via your camera and they record it. They send you a link with an official result within seconds. I'm not sure it was any quicker or more cost effective than going somewhere in Greece but we liked that we could swab the kids ourselves and that one of us could be doing the Covid tests while the other was cleaning/packing up.
We had Loukoumades for breakfast- basically funnel cakes or donuts. Cora loved the ones covered in Praline Chocolate drizzle. Cruz liked the ones with cinnamon, honey and nuts. Rowan preferred the plain ones covered in sugar.
The second part of our day consisted of driving to and exploring Chania. We basically saw the city by car instead of getting out as originally planned. The temperature was in the 40's and it was windy. We flew back to Athens, spent the night at a hotel near the airport and headed back to Florida the next day.
As always, the kids were champion travelers and super flexible. We landed in Miami around 11:30 on Sunday evening, drove home Monday morning and the kids were at dance and baseball that same afternoon. We had such a wonderful time. Even though we had some chilly days, I think we'd do a Spring visit again in a heartbeat. The fact that crowds and prices were low made up for the fact that we had to deal with a little bit of chilly weather! :)
This trip was cancelled TWICE due to Covid in both 2020 and 2021 and we felt so incredibly blessed to FINALLY be able to take it! :)
