Greek Aegean Odyssey

Departing 04-Jun-2010 to 25-Jun-2010

Byron evoked the image of the Isles of Greece in his call for Greek independence, and the hundreds of little islands scattered throughout the Aegean Sea have always attracted visitors of all kinds. In this tour we visit some of the most attractive and interesting, and in the process cover nearly four thousand years of history and different civilisations and cultures as the islands fell under the sway of Greeks, Romans, Venetians and Turks before achieving independence as part of Greece.

The oldest sites are in Santorini and Crete, and our week in the latter island allows us to see not only the Bronze Age ruins of Knossus and Phaistos, but also the Venetian centres of Heraklion and Chania. In Delos we're in the religious centre of the classical Ionian world, while Rhodes gives us the headquarters of the Knights of St John between their forced departure from the Holy Land and their arrival in Malta.

Then there's the scenery. Naxos is regarded as the most beautiful of the islands, while the whitewashed houses and churches and their blue roofs in Mykonos and Santorini are a visual delight, the latter perched spectacularly on the rim of the ancient volcano. Santorini must be approached from the sea to get the best views of the whole town. The mountains of Crete are equally dramatic, with the roads corkscrewing up and down a series of hairpin bends, providing magnificent views of the island, and there's an opportunity to walk a little way into the impressive Samaria gorge. And on every island there are the wildflowers.

So be prepared! Take good walking shoes so you can explore everything and take lots of film for your camera. This is a tour with a reasonable amount of spare time, so you can really soak up the atmosphere.

 

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