Ron falls victim to a JUMBO of his own

Look – Shopping Ron is back yet again! We almost made it out of Athens but Ron felt he needed this vase. And I won’t rat him out here but I will point out that my total bill at JUMBO was only 9 Euros.

We spent our last afternoon in Athens separately. Ron (apparently…hard to believe) had a great time at the Archaeological Museum. George drove me around separately to some sites I had picked. One was the Technology Museum, which showed ancient technological advances of the Greeks, including this first-ever alarm clock from about 500 BC.

Next, we headed to the meat market. I’ve seen a few of these in various cities and this one was, without a doubt, the most horrifying one I’ve strolled through. Keep in mind that this is not the worst of what I saw.

Finally, George thought I might enjoy a cup of coffee at this weird Disney-themed cafe and he was right! How could Ron pass this all up?

We’re on our own, having left George behind in Athens. It was great to have him along. I’ve never had a guide become so attuned to my unique personality traits! (Ron would supply the word quirks here instead of traits). Yesterday, as we were driving, total silence in the van, George said, out of nowhere, “I do not know what that is.” And he was right! I had spied something inane and useless on the horizon, and was pondering what it was!

Goodbye, George!

We’re headed to Naxos for a few days. Our mainland tour has been spectacular. March is a nice time to be here – and I had my doubts as I’d read that it’s really a bit early in the year to tour. And while perhaps it’s been a little chilly at night, we’ve really benefitted from lack of crowds. Sometimes there are dozens of buses (48 people on each bus) at the monasteries and we never had to deal with more than one or two.

Other things I had read about Greece that proved to be no problem: crazy drivers? Nope, the roads that we traveled were in good shape and the drivers were fine – I was far more nervous as we drove around Sicily. Line at Acropolis? Nothing, but again, this is March. Food costs have been reasonable. Every night we go out to dinner and Ron orders a meal and I have two appetizers and we split a water. Dinner, no matter where we go, seems to be 21 or 22 Euros. Hotel costs are reasonable. In Nafplio, we stayed at one of the highest rated places, Nuevo Leto, in their nicest room, and it was 90 Euros with breakfast ($102 per night). At Delphi, we paid 75 Euros ($85US) at Hotel Nidimos with breakfast.

I’ll leave you with a view of the Nafplio main square in the rain – our only bad weather.