Greece

Just back from ten days in Greece. Visited Athens, and two islands of Santorini and Mykonos. Luckily we avoided the farce known as the Eurovision song contest, is Armenia in Europe ? Athens was much as I expected, the Acroplis was superb, albeit slightly reduced in sanctified awe by the steel scaffolding and cranes plastered all over the site. Neverthe less you can still grasp the sheer size of the site and imagine the shuddering scale at its grand height. Santorini is a small town clinging to the fractured shattered remains of a huge cataclysmic volcanic eruption ranking two on the scale of eruptions. The remains are called the caldera, and the collapsed crater must be five miles across. There is a baby volcano in the middle slowly rebuilding itself with lava flow upon lava flow, it seems quite sinister that one day in millenia to come the whole frightening saga may repeat itself all over again. Tsunamis rushing across the sea to wash over the north African coast, earthquakes across asia minor and enormous clouds of ash blown around the globe for decades. Mykonos is a fascinating town, twisted streets turn and melt into another right angled tiny streets slowly merging into white walled maze. It has a very warm feeling about the place, the sense of commercialisation is quite obvious, but above each shop local people sit on steps gossiping and passing the time of day. All in all, peaceful and restful place .