24 Hours in Athens

It's now been a bit over 24 hours since we arrived in Athens. We had a great view of the Acropolis from our hotel room. Tomorrow, we climb up there.





We met the people on the pre-trip tour of Athens before our cruise. Eleven of us on the pre-trip. As we expected, there are some unusual characters. Caren especially liked this couple from Sacramento that looked equipped to venture into the bush on safari.

Caren and I are in our typical California casual wear - shorts, golf shirts, and flip-flops.

John, the New Jersey Taxi Driver

First of all, the international terminal at LAX wasn't as bad as I remembered from a few months ago. There is a lot of construction going on to improve the concourses and add new gates. But, just when I was about to change my mind, we found that the elevator to the Star Alliance lounge was broken. Two flights of stairs later, we made it up there. And then two flights of stairs back down - good exercise.

As expected, our Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt was right on schedule. Our connection to Athens was in an older section of Frankfurt airport - no access to the business class lounge. Aargh!

When we arrived in Athens, our car driver John was waiting for us. He sounded like he was straight out of New Jersey - he was. His family moved back to Greece more than 15 years ago. He asked how the Yankees and (football) Giants were doing. Caren wanted to ask him if his parents owned a diner in Jersey, but I told her that was a stereotype she should drop.

A shower and short nap later, we walked down the street from our hotel to a small, family run restaurant. Mom and Dad were in the kitchen and the two sons handled the tables out front. Tzasiki, zucchini croquettes, moussaka, fresh fried anchovies, and two carafes of wine. The bill came to 30 Euros (US$39). Try matching that in LA.

Now to catch up on our sleep and start touring tomorrow.

On Our Way to Greece and the Dalmatian Coast

Today, we're off on another journey - this time to Greece and the Dalmatian Coast (i.e. the Balkans). The families of many of our friends originally came from Croatia so we have received lots of advice about what to see, what to eat, and especially, what to drink.

This is a Lindblad Expeditions/National Geographic trip like our trip to Egypt and Jordan last year. Not a luxury cruise; more an expedition with lecturers and visits to lots of historical sites. (I hope we visit some "historic" wineries, pastry shops, and restaurants.)

After a few days in Athens, we board our boat (not big enough to be called a ship). 175' long, three masted sailing vessel that holds 44 passengers. Yes, it also has an engine. We're not planning to climb the mast, operate the winches for the sails, and clean the bilge. It looks modern, luxurious, and comfy.

Been reading some travel and history books about Greece, Montenegro, Albania, Bosnia, and Croatia. Looks like we're going to see a LOT of old ruins in Greece. Maybe not as old as some of the stuff we saw in Egypt, but still old.

The Balkan countries seem to have been invaded and ruled by nearly everyone over the years. I think we'll be seeing quite a few old forts, castles, and churches, as well as a lot of beautiful scenery.

Here's a map of our itinerary:

Of course, this means another opportunity to traverse the "third world" international terminal at LAX. What a terrible facility! Seriously, we've traveled to over 50 countries around the world and this rates as the third worst airport terminal I can remember (Delhi's international terminal is the worst, followed closely by Yangon (Rangoon), Burma).

We're flying Lufthansa to Frankfurt, then connecting to Athens. I hope they take good care of our luggage. I'm bringing along a "six pack" of wine to drink at dinner on the boat.

More to follow when we get to Athens.

Recent Readings

Here are some books that we recently finished:

Between the Assassinations by Aravind Adiga. A series of stories about various people living in a fictional city in south India. If you read this book (or his book The White Tiger) and still want to go to India, you are as crazy as we are.

Agent Zigzag by Ben Macintyre. Another book about Nazis and double agents. Caren loves to read this genre of books.

The Rembrandt Affair by Daniel Silva. Another is the series of spy thrillers he's written with a fictional Israeli agent, Gabriel Allon. First book I read on Caren's new Kindle 3.

Caren's Photo Wins

Caren entered this photo in the weekly travel picture contest on MSNBC.com. And she won!! Congratulations.

She took this picture one morning on the streets of Narlai in the state of Rajasthan during our bicycle trip in India in October 2008. She used her Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ7 ultrazoom digital camera.

The woman's son is disabled and she walks him around town every day in a large bowl balanced on her head. She stopped to speak with Caren and explained that the boy enjoys the daily walks. He also has a wheelchair that she uses some of the time.

This was one of the many memorable "up close and personal" experiences we had on our trip to India. Check out the other blog postings and links to the photo albums from the trip.

Exploring Egypt and Jordan (the country)

Tomorrow, we are headed off on another adventurous journey - this time to Egypt and Jordan. We are going on a tour organized by Lindblad Expeditions and National Geographic.

Our first stop is Cairo and we are arriving two days ahead of the start of the tour. So, I've arranged a couple of days of interesting activities before the formal program begins. No......we are not going to sit down with the Palestinians and the Israelis to try hammering out a peace agreement. And no....we are NOT going carpet shopping. (We've done far too much of that in Morocco and India.)

One day, we are going to take a cooking class in a woman's home and learn to make several Egyptian/Middle Eastern recipes. (Get ready for an invitation to dinner at our house and a showing of a DVD of our photos and video - just like watching boring home movies when we were kids.) The next day, I hired a guide to show us around sites in Cairo that our tour isn't going to visit - lots of mosques, churches, and even a synagogue.

This all assumes we arrive in Cairo - I think the chances are pretty good. We've flown the Air France flight from LAX to Paris a couple of times before and it's reliable. The Paris to Cairo leg I'm not too sure about.

If you want a good laugh and see a bit of Cairo ahead of our dinner, check out Anthony Bourdain's show on The Travel Channel. If they broadcast his episode visiting Cairo, it's hilarious. He went the entire trip and refused to visit the pyramids. It's also on The Travel Channel's website and YouTube for viewing.

Check out the map below and the links to the itineraries for our tour to each country.

Trip Itinerary (Egypt)

Trip Itinerary (Jordan)

Our First Wine Has Arrived

Yesterday, our UPS driver delivered a case of the first wine that we produced at Crushpad in San Francisco under the name of Brandywine Wine Cellars. Brandywine is Barry, Laurie, Caren, and me.

2007 Satire Pinot Noir from the Sleepy Hollow Vineyard in the Santa Lucia Highlands of Monterey County.

Throwing fears of bottle shock to the winds, we opened a bottle and tasted it. This is a dark, complex, age-worthy Pinot. Purple/red in color. Nose of earth, tar, black cherry, and oak. Not a hugely fruit-forward wine. Lush palate with an array of berry fruits. Long finish for a Pinot this young. This will definitely improve with age.

Now we need to price it and start to sell it. We have a commercial license and need to build a website so people can place orders. Caren and I have 12 cases of the stuff.

Or we can drink it and give some away to friends.

Challenges with the Granddog

The last two months, our daughter Erin has had a few problems with her dog Colbie.

First, Colbie got hit by a car when she was being walked (and on her leash). Hit and run driver. The dog got bruised and was shook up, but all is well (after Dad picked up the vet bill).

While at the vet hospital, they took an X-ray and found not one, but two items in the dog's stomach. She had swallowed two balls. Time to schedule surgery.

While we were in D.C., Colbie went in for surgery to have the items in her stomach removed. Colbie's surgery was one of FOUR such surgeries the vet performed that day. The vet said that she does an average of six such procedures every week.

Here is a photo of what they pulled from the dog's stomach - a small tennis ball and a deflated, inflatable football dog toy.

Dad picked up the vet bill for this one too.

Obama's Inauguration

Last week, we traveled to Washington, DC to visit Erin and to attend parts of the Presidential Inauguration for Barack Obama. Here is a photo and video show of some of the events. Click on the caption icon in the bottom left to view the captions. On a few slides, you will see a movie icon in the lower left. Click on the icon to see the video run.

It was VERY COLD back East. It reminded me why we live in California.

Out with the Old, In with the New

Today was the day we sold the old wheels and officially went back to being a two car family. Our friend "The Sheriff" bought our old Lexus after we bought a new Beemer a few weeks ago. He has to give up his "company car" in a few months when he retires from LASD. He fell in love with the Lexus so we made him a deal.

Kumquat is sorry to see his "perch" in the garage go.

Chanra's Bicycle Racing Team

Our friend Chanra in Siem Reap, Cambodia, participated in a mountain biking race this past weekend. He finished 16 out of 150 riders. Chanra is the one in the orange jersey holding up the bicycle. That's his wife in some of the photos.

Our friends John and Pauline recently returned from a trip to Vietnam and Cambodia. They met Chanra when they arrived in Siem Reap. Coincidentally, their tour guide rented bicycles for them from Chanra. Little did they know that they helped Chanra (and me) make some money.

Barrel Tasting the Good Stuff

Our friends Margot and JP are over from Australia. They spent the Thanksgiving holiday on the East Coast and then headed to LA before their long flight back to Sydney.

We took them up to Santa Barbara County for a night to do some wine tasting, enjoy the scenery, and sample some good food.

We spent a couple of hours at Tantara Winery outside of Santa Maria. We last visited Tantara about three years ago. This is the winery where we know one of the owners.


We sampled various Pinot Noirs, Syrahs and Chardonnays from the barrels for about two hours. Fortunately, we didn't have to drive back to LA that night.





After the barrel tasting experience, we headed to Solvang to spend the night and had dinner at The Hitching Post in Buellton. This restaurant was made famous in the movie "Sideways" and is famous for their wood grilled dishes. We did NOT order Merlot (the big joke in the movie).

Photos from Our Trip to India

We took a LOT of photos on our recent trip to India. It was very difficult to edit them down to a reasonable number. We finally gave up and created a separate blog with all of the photos.

Click here to go to the new blog or go to the URL

http://indiatrip-october2008.blogspot.com/

You can either click on a link to view the set of photos from each stop on our trip OR click the arrows to view the slideshows.

We are going to pick a TOP 50 set of photos and post them separately.

Urban Cowboys Struggle With India's Sacred Strays

In this morning's NY Times there was an article about the stray cows roaming the streets of New Delhi and the actions being taken to round them up. Indian wranglers? The milk mafia? Only in India.....

Click on the link to read the article.

New Delhi Journal Article

A True India Experience

We did our final shopping spree this morning. We got a taxi from our hotel - not just any taxi, but an Ambassador Classic with a Sikh driver from Punjab state. You can't get more Indian than this.

The Ambassador is the definitive Indian car. It was the first car to be manufactured in India and has been plying the Indian roads since 1948. Its dependability, spaciousness and comfort factor have made it the most preferred car for generations of Indians (not Americans). In major cities all over India, Ambassador taxis are like yellow cabs in New York City. Our driver could fit right in to Manhattan in an instant, including his turban.

It is manufactured by Hindustan Motors in India. The Amby, as it is affectionately called, has been in continuous production since its inception, with very few changes to its bulbous round frame. The current models have been in production since 1957 and are based on the Morris Oxford first made in the U.K.. Because of its long production history, parts are readily available throughout India and every mechanic, driver, and housewife knows how to repair them.

The Amby is truly an India classic.

An extra added feature of our taxi ride was the driver's continual insistence on taking us to his "best" places to shop. You must be firm in saying "no" (if you can even understand his Hindish - accented English). He gets a commission from any purchases you make at these places. He even asked several times if we needed a driver later and if we would like to do more shopping. These guys are aggressive - like a tick under your skin.