Nautical Trip Begins

We are on the ferry to Corfu.

Travel by sea has commenced.

The weather reminds us of the San Juan Islands in Washington State, which is kind of comforting.

We are looking forward to a slower pace of travel.

Horiatiki Salata

We eat these everywhere.  The ubiquitous Horiatiki Salata, aka the Village Salad.

They can vary in form from place to place.  This one was at a fish taverna in Volos in Thessaly.  Quite beautiful.  We don't seem to tire of them and I don't know why.

The little boiled zucchinis are quite beautiful and are unique.  Also, up here there all types of peppers, so instead of the conventional green pepper this has pale green and red peppers.  Not hot peppers.

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Pictures from Klenia at Easter

This is series of photos from Klenia, Greece.

It is the village where my grandfather was born. We spent the most time visiting here in 1964-65 when living in Corinth, Greece.

The two young boys with me in the overlook over the village are Mitsou (the younger, about my age in 1964), and George. They are nephews.

The night flames are the fires to make coals for the roasting the lambs. It is about 3:30 a.m., after church and a post-church dinner.

Tara is pictured with Georgia and Evangelista, her daughter. Georgia and Mimi (my 2nd cousin), live at the house in the village. Evangelista lives in Corinth with her husband, Ari, and the two boys.

On Saturday, Ari showed us how to make kokoretsi, which is basically the lung, heart, live and spleen of the lamb skewered on the spit (after marinating in salt, anise seed, pepper, ground onion and some ground garlic for 5 hours), then the whole thing is wrapped with the cleaned
small intestines. It is quite delicious.

Ari is in the picture with Georgia and me.

The rooster is just a Greek rooster that Tara took a picture of.

Good Friday

As you may know, Easter is more important in the Eastern Orthodox
religion than Christmas.

On Good Friday, we were staying with relative, Freda and George, and
attended the religious service with them.

The service includes this flower laden bier for Christ. After a 2 hour
service, with wonderful chanting and incense, the bier is carried out of
the church and is carried throughout the town. Then everyone walks
under it back into the church.

Berlin Revisited

Technology didn't allow posting of blog entries other than from our cell
phone camera, so we have some photos and entries that didn't get posted
when we were in Northern Europe.

This one is about Berlin. Berlin is a city that had previously existed
in our minds as a black and white city based on post war photos of the
city from the destruction of bombing, spy films from 50s and 60s in
black and white and reading John Le Carre novels.

What a pleasant surprise to arrive in spring with all the flowers
blooming, the grass green and the trees with that early green growth.

Besides the amazing museums, which are quite outstanding, we really
enjoyed spending a day bike riding to the various sites and
neighborhoods.

At the end of the day, at about 5:30 pm, were going through the main
large park (former hunting grounds of the Hapsburgs)and Tara saw a mass
of bikes and stopped to check it out. It was a magically beer garden in
the park and it seemed like all of Berlin was out to enjoy the wonder
spring day.

One place you pick up something to eat. We had a nice 1 inch slice of
lieberkase (veal loaf) with mustard, potato salad and a hot pretzel.
The beer was quite nice as well.

The ancients ate arugala

Noticed that arugala grows wild all over Greece.

This is at Isthmia on the East side of the Corinth Canal where Octavian dragged his boats over land in pursuit of Mark Anthony and Cleopatra. (Later, in about 10 days, we will sail where the Battle of Actium occurred, where Mark Anthony was defeated.)

Noticed arugala showing up in salads in Greece.

Interesting how we make a big deal out of people eating arugala in the states.

Land of the Centaurs

We are now in North Central Greece on Mt. Pelion. Land of the Centaurs.

This is an historically designated village that is to be preserved. No cars, but lots of tourist stuff to buy. Dried herbs from the mountain, glyco (fruits preserved in sugar syrup) and misc stuff. More a Greek tourist spot.

Wonderful food here. Greek sausage baked with peppers and tomatoes is a traditional dish.

This mountain remained independent during Ottoman rule.

Kumquat in Greece

Yes, the light is really brighter in Greece.

Tara eating kumquats. Home grown at Freda and George's. The oranges, lemons, tangerines and kumquats are amazingly sweet.

We arrived yesterday and all the world is headed out of Athens for Easter.

Have not seen Greece so green, since 1964. Flowers are in bloom.

Easter Window

This was at a konditerei in Koln.

 

Easter

One of the fun things about being in Europe is to see how Easter is celebrated.

The photo is of an Easter Market in Vienna. All the wonderful Easter eggs for sale.

In the shops in Vienna and Bologna there are special Easter breads and treats. The chocolate baskets are quite amazing.

We did have delicious roasted milk-fed lamb for lunch in Bologna today. They use fresh rosemary.

Later this week we will head to Greece to experience Orthodox Easter, which is a week later than Catholic Easter this year.

But now we head on a night train to Berlin to participate in the after Easter sales.


 

Frankfurt

After much delay, here is a bit of a post from Frankfurt.

 

We had a wonderful first day in Europe running around with our nephew, Stuart Spurlock.  We biked all over the city, climbed a tower, ate wonderful food, hit the farmers market.

 

A great start.

 

Here is a photo of Tara and Stuart in the old tower.

 

More to come . . .