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Greece: Athens and the Peloponnese, May 28 - June 7, 2021 Like most everyone, we haven't seen
much in the way of travel or far-away family
during the pandemic. We're fortunate that Emily
is nearby in Berkeley, though she's also spent
time in Togo, West Africa, where her
research is being used for Covid-related
economic aid distribution. Tim is still living
in Zürich and is newly married, or rather
"newly" when the pandemic hit -- he and Clara
continue to plan their much-delayed stateside
celebration. We last saw them a year and a half
ago, on our 2019
winter holiday trip.
So once all of us were vaccinated, Alex and Jennifer cleared their work calendars for Memorial Day week, hoping to pay a visit to Switzerland. As the time approached, Switzerland remained closed to travelers from the USA, even vaccinated ones. So we combed the globe for a country that would let all of us in, wouldn't require anyone to quarantine in either direction, and had the type of outdoor adventures we all enjoy. Greece! Delicious food considered a bonus. Since guidelines kept changing we didn't finalize the trip until a few days before departure, certainly a first for us. We last visited Greece at the launch of our 2007-08 year of travel, exploring Athens and spending the rest of our time in the islands. We again visited Athens -- Clara hadn't been there, and a memorable restaurant from 2007 beckoned. We weren't disappointed by the city, or the restaurant. The ancient sites of Athens are justifiably world famous, though simply being out and about in a foreign country was a pleasure after those endless months at home.  Our
original idea for the remainder of the trip
was to head by car to the northern mountains
and coast, including a possible climb of Mt.
Olympus. But the weather forecast was a bit
dismal for that region, and there was still
snow on Olympus. So we decided instead to
visit the Peloponnese Peninsula. It was a
great choice.
Tim has become quite the travel planner (taking after his mother, perhaps?), so he took charge and picked three villages in different parts of the Peloponnese: Dimitsana, Kyparissi, and Kardamyli. Then he planned fantastic all-day hikes in each one with a few sightseeing stops on the drives between them. At the end of the trip we tried to choose a favorite among the villages, or a favorite hike, but none of us were able to because they were all so different and so great! From the town of Dimitsana
we hiked the first two sections of the
recently established Menalon
trail, which includes Lousios
Gorge -- stunning and interesting,
with churches, monasteries, and ancient
ruins perched on the rims and clinging to
the cliffs.
 Dimitsana itself is a lovely village
tucked in the mountains. There, as well as in
Athens and everywhere else we went, there's no
question we benefited from Greece having just
opened up and tourists only beginning to arrive.
It felt like we were the only foreigners in
places that otherwise might be crawling with
them.
 Dimitsana
Our next town, Kyparissi,
has been called the
most beautiful village in Greece (though
to be fair many Greek towns probably claim that
title). It's also notable as a
favorite vacation spot for George H.W.
Bush and Prince Charles, interesting
company. In any case, the setting was indeed
beautiful, fantastic for hiking, and a haven for
rock climbers, including Tim and Clara.
 Kyparissi
 Our final town, Kardamyli, also had great hiking, and a feature we all agreed was a best of the trip: a modern Airbnb posing as an old stone house among olive trees in an incredible location.  In addition to hiking, rock climbing,
morning runs, and tasty meals every day, we
visited a wine region, and outside of Athens our
favorite ruins by far were Mystras
(overlooking the city of Sparta), another site
that would normally be chock full of tourists
but we had nearly to ourselves.
  Mystras Greece is one of the first countries
in Europe to welcome non-European visitors,
in part because of its tremendous economic
dependence on tourism. So far there's been no
discernible effect on Covid rates, fingers
crossed. The Greeks have endured a series of
strict lockdowns during the pandemic, including
on some occasions 6:00pm curfews and movement
restricted to under a kilometer. The country
opened up on May 14, not that long before our
arrival. So while tourists were relatively
scarce, the Greeks themselves were out and about
in force, making up for lost time. Face
coverings are mandatory including
outdoors, with large fines for non-compliance,
but, well, the Greeks aren't great on compliance and
we were certainly glad for our vaccines. In other
regulations, shops have capacity limits
and dining is outdoors only, which are
taken fairly seriously but neither
affected our trip.
For the Covid protocol-obsessed
or those thinking about international travel:
Covid-related travel requirements were
complicated, inconsistent, and a bit touch and
go. For outbound, we relied on our airline's
website (KLM), which boasts a professional-looking
form that asks for departure, destination,
nationality, and a few other bits of
information, and out pops the requirements for
your trip. For San Francisco to Athens, it
stated in no uncertain terms that with our
vaccines we were good to go. What the automated
system didn't mention is that those requirements
were for the hypothetical case that KLM actually
flew nonstop San Francisco to Athens, which it
doesn't. Transiting in Amsterdam, it turns out,
recently added a Covid testing requirement. We
ended up getting impressively expensive tests in
the San Francisco airport, but at least we were
on our way, and perhaps our insurance will cover
them. For the return, we knew we needed Covid
tests
to reenter the USA, and (we now knew) for
transit in Amsterdam as well. Luckily, the
Athens airport offers same-day test results,
and we'd be arriving in the afternoon to
overnight at the airport hotel before our flight
early the next morning. Mid-trip we decided to
check what exactly "same-day" means;
it turned out to be code for 24 hours! Luckily,
we were able to get truly same-day tests in
the city of Kalamata,
which we happened to be passing through at just
the right timeframe prior to departure. (And
yes, we sampled the olives while we were there.)
Whew, complicated but it all worked out.
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