Extended Family Vacations: 2010

2010:  April in Greece
Brian, Karen, Andrea, Becca Mary, Tom

2010:  June in Norway
Tom, Andrea, Brian, Becca, Karen, Dustin, Mary

When we started planning a spring break trip in 2010,  Andrea asked to travel to Rome or Greece - for educational purposes (!). We paired it down to one country, Greece, and Andrea was put in charge of the planning. She and Karen decided on the places we would visit and a travel agency was enlisted to arrange the hotels and transportation. We joined them in the middle of a business trip to Europe.

We invited everyone to join us two months later in one of our favorite countries - Norway. Dustin would fly into Oslo after giving a talk in Kenya and travel with us on a "business trip" to Trondheim. The Gilberts would fly into Trondheim and we would all drive back to Oslo after spending a week in the beautiful Norwegian Fjords. 

Greece

Just as our trip was about to begin, the bottom fell out of the Greek economy. Years of excessive spending hidden by misleading accounting led to a massive deficit. In order to secure a loan from the EU, Greece eventually agreed to huge spending cuts and tax hikes that triggered massive demonstrations, but in late March information on the deficit was just beginning to leak out. Our travel agent reported that the budding demonstrations in Greece were not out of the ordinary and should not affect our vacation. So we all went to Greece and luckily, the country was relatively quiet until after the Easter holiday.

We arrived the day before the world-wide Earth Hour. On March 27, 2010, cities, businesses, and iconic landmarks would turn off all non-essential lights for one hour. And we were in a hotel where we could see the Acropolis lights from a rooftop garden!

2010. Acropolis at Night from the rooftop garden of our hotel.

2010. Acropolis lights dim for Earth Hour.

2010. Acropolis lights are out for Earth Hour.

Our first adventure was a day trip by Hydrofoil to Hydra, a small island about 40 miles from Athens.

2010. Andrea and Brian with Hydra Port in the background. Greece.

The streets of Hydra are narrow, with plenty of steep steps. They are walkable because Hydra does not allow vehicles (except garbage trucks). So we shared the streets with the horses, donkeys and mules that do the heavy lifting.

2010. We strolled through the narrow, steep streets of Hydra.

 

2010. A mule delivers a large screen TV.

The next day we took a short, steep walk from our Athens hotel to the Acropolis. On the way back to the hotel we explored central Athens.

2010. Stone Theatre on the road to the Acropolis. Athens, Greece.

2010. Tom, Karen, Becca, Andrea, and Brian at the Acropolis. Athens, Greece.

2010. Karen, Brian, Becca, Andrea at the Temple of Zeus with the Acropolis in the background.

2010. Changing of the guard at the war memorial, Syntagma Square, Athens, Greece.

The following day we rented a large van and crossed the Corinth Canal (which cuts through the Isthmus of Corinth) to the Peloponnese Peninsula.  

2010. Karen and Andrea with our van
on the Road to Epidaurus, Peloponnese Peninsula, Greece 

Corinth Canal, Isthmus of Corinth.

We stopped at the Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus in the Sanctuary of Asclepius. Built in 340 BC, the theatre seats 13,000 people. Stage voices can be heard by everyone without microphones or speakers.

2010. Becca descending stairs after testing the acoustics, Mary center stage, Andy Brian, and Karen seated at the Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus in the Sanctuary of Asclepius, Greece

We then drove to Nafplio, a beautiful old city with two iconic castles and a large central square paved with polished marble. The Bourtzi Fortress is located on an island while the Akronafplia's Castle sits on top of a rock the rises high above the city. We stayed at a hotel just below the towering castle.

2010. The marble plaza of Nafplio with
 Akronafplia's Castle rising in the background

2010. Karen and Becca's
small but charming hotel room.

Once we checked into our hotel, we climbed up the hill to Akronafplia's Castle. It wasn't far from our hotel to the top, but it was steep! Then we went to the square and enjoyed the view of The Bourtzi Fortress from the seaside. 

2010. Akronafplia's Castle, a short but steep climb above our hotel.

2010. Mary, Becca, and Andrea enjoying the view of the Bourtzi Fortress.

The next day we drove to Olympia over high mountain roads, stopping at the picturesque town of Stemnitsa. The plan was to drive east through the beautiful Lousios Gorge, but after driving down to the river we discovered that the road was closed. (We didn't have Google Maps back then...) Backtracking to the high roads, we drove through Dimitsana and on to Olympia.

2010. Stemnitsa, Greece.

2010. Lousios Gorge, Greece.

The ancient Greek athletic festivals were held in Olympia from 776 BCE to 393 CE. When the Olympic games were revived in 1896, the first host country was Greece, with some of the events held in Olympia. We toured the ruins of ancient sites as well as the Archaeological Museum of Olympia.

2010. Olympia, Greece.

2010. Olympia, Greece.

Greece hosted the Olympics again in 2004, and spent a lot of money to prepare the venues. The Rio-Antirrio Bridge was built to replace the ferry across the the Gulf of Corinth connecting the north Peloponnese Peninsula with the mainland. The 2.8 km bridge was opened a week before the Olympics began. We were in Greece just as the full impact of the country's debt was being revealed, and we often heard that the Olympics and the bridge were large contributors to problem. Still, we were impressed that we could drive across one of the longest suspension bridges in the world on our way from Olympia to Delphi.

2010. Crossing the Gulf of Corinth on the Rio-Antirrio Bridge.

2010. Temple of Apollo, Delphi, Greece.

2010. Mary, Andrea, Becca, Brian, Karen, and Tom at the Ancient Theatre of Delphi, Greece/

2010. Tholos of Delphi, part of the Sanctuary of Athena, Delphi, Greece.

Sphinx of the Naxians, Archaeological Museum of Delphi, Greece. 

After spending the morning touring Delphi, we drove north to Kalambaka, our base for touring the Monasteries of Meteora. In the mid 1300's, the lives of monks in Greece were frequently disrupted by political turmoil. They found refuge in the steep Meteora rock formations in central Greece, where they established a couple dozen communities on top of various rock pillars. By limiting access to outsiders, the monks avoided being disrupted by unwanted intruders, including the Ottoman invaders who took over neighboring territory.

The monks used cisterns to collect water and grew crops in the valley below. A system of rope nets and iron cages was used to hoist people and supplies up to the monasteries. It wasn't until the 1920's that bridges and steps were built to provide easy access to the towers. Today six of the monasteries are still active and open to the public. 

2010. Monastery of the Holy Trinity towering over Kalambaka, Greece. Taken from our hotel.

2010. Monastery of the Holy Trinity looking down on the city of Kalambaka. Meteora, Greece.
There is a small cable car in front of the building which can also be seen in the picture below. 

2010. Cable car to the Monastery of the Holy Trinity. Meteora, Greece.
Karen, Becca, Brian, Tom.

2010. Monastery of Great Meteoron. Notice the long climb from the bottom. Meteora, Greece.

Net for lifting goods and people.

2010. Inside the Monastery of Great Meteoron. Meteora.

2010. Monastery of Varlaam. Meteora, Greece.

2010. Hook to raise goods and people to the Varlaam Monastery, Meteora, Greece.

2010. Tom and Mary leaving the Monastery of Varlaam. (Skirts were required for women.) 

Notice the winding stairway in the rocks. Meteora, Greece.

We drove back to Athens the day before Easter. We spent Sunday taking a bus tour of Athens, had Easter dinner at an elegant restaurant, and ended the day at a candlelight Easter celebration outside the Metropolitan Cathedral of Athens. 

2010. Andrea, Karen, Brian, Becca, and Mary at historic Panathenaic Stadium in Athens, Greece.
 Site of the first modern Olympic Games in 1896.

2010. The Acropolis of Athens, Greece.

On Monday we flew home. Within a week, violent demonstrations broke out in Athens triggered by newly disclosed budget deficits that would trigger serious austerity measures and tax increases.

Norway

As usual, the plan for Norway was complex. But it got even more complicated when Dustin's travel to Kenya was interrupted - first by a connection that was too tight in San Francisco. After a night in San Francisco, Dustin's alternate flight stopped in Detroit and then left for Amsterdam. But a couple of hours into the flight, the plane was turned around and sent back to Detroit - because of a volcanic eruption in Iceland!  

Dustin was rebooked to Amsterdam the next day, but that meant he would miss his talk. So he stayed at the airport and was able to fly standby to Amsterdam then transfer to Kenya, arriving just in time to give the talk. He had his computer and camera gear with him, but his luggage took a while; it arrived just before he set out on a safari. 

After the adventure getting to Kenya, flying to Oslo and catching a train to our hotel in Skøyen was easy. We spent the day Dustin arrived exploring the city.

2010. Dustin at the Oslo Opera House on his first day in Oslo, Norway.

2010. A visit to Oslo's Vigeland Sculpture Park. Norway

The next day Dustin joined Mary and Tom as they held a workshop on a train trip to Trondheim, followed by a three day conference once they arrived. With the conference over, we met the Gilberts at the Trondheim airport and rented two cars for a week in the Norwegian fjords. 

At the top of our itineary was Trollstigen (the Troll Path), one of the most picturesque roads in Norway. It was right on our route south from Trondheim, but there was a slight chance that the road would still be closed for the winter season. Fortunately, Trollstigen had opened a week before we arrived. WHEW! 

The first night we stayed in cabins at a campground near the beginning of Trollstigen, about a third of the way to our destination in Flam. The next day our spectacular route included snowy roadside stops, steep hairpin curves, long tunnels, two ferries, and a drive up Mount Dalsnibba for a lookout over Geiranger. 

2010. Becca enjoying a snowy roadside stop. Trollstigen, Norway.

2010. Built in 1939, this is the most famous stretch of Trollstigen. In 2012, a parking lot, restaurant and platform were built at the top for viewing the eleven hairpin curves. In 2024 rockslides closed this section for a year.

2010. Andrea, Becca, Brian, and Karen with the Trolls of Trollstigen, Norway

2010. View of Geiranger from Mount Dalsnibba. We drove up a winding mountain road (lower left) to join a few cars at the top. In 2016 a parking lot, café and viewing platform were built; today tour busses from cruise ships docked in Geiranger bring crowds to this highest lookout in the Fjords.

Flam was our favorite village in the fjords, partly because of its four picturesque cabins on the waterfront. Wouldn't it be great, we imagined, to bring our family to Flam and stay in these cabins? We arrived late and tired, but we were thrilled to settle into two of the cabins that would be ours for a week!

2010. Our cabins on the fjord in Flam, Norway.

2010.  Becca and Karen enjoy a glassy fjord. Norway.

2010. Waterfalls on a boat trip on the Flam-Gudsvagen Fjords. Norway 

2010. Becca, Andrea, Brian, Karen and Dustin. Paraglider takeoff point. Aurlandsvangen. Norway.

2010. Brian and Andrea watch paragliders prepare for takeoff. Aurlandsvangen. Norway.

2010. Dustin photographs a paraglider about to takeoff.  Aurlandsvangen. Norway.

2010. Paraglider above Flam Fjord. Aurlandsvangen. Norway.

2010. Becca, Dustin, Andrea and Karen (hidden) returning from a boat ride, Flam, Norway.

2010. A delightful feature of Flam is the 20 km train ride up a steep mountain to Myrdol. Norway.

2010. Dustin, Brian, Karen, Becca, Andrea, Mary. Walk from Myrdol back to Flam. Norway.

2010. Dustin at Nigardesbreen Glacier. Norway.

2010. On our only rainy day in the fjords, we visited the Borgund Stave Church.

After sunny weather for a week (great luck!) we had a bit of rain the last day. Then we drove to Oslo, returned the cars, and spent the night. That gave us a day to explore the city before taking a train to the airport, where we stayed in a hotel ready for our early morning flights the next day.

2010. Becca enjoys a Vigeland 
 Sculpture, Oslo, Norway

2010. Dustin photographs a Viking ship at
 the Oslo Viking Museum. Norway.

2010. Brian, Mary, Karen, Andrea, Becca, Dustin
reflected in the Oslo Opera House, Norway.

2010. Karen and Becca explore
the folk museum Oslo. Norway.

Moving Dustin 

A couple of weeks after visiting Norway, Tom flew to California to help Dustin move. They stopped in Denver, where they met Annie and visited Rocky Mountain National Park.

2010. Tom helps Dustin move his belongings to Eden Prairie.

2010. Dustin and Annie in Rocky Mountain National Park. Colorado.