The Itinerary

Alright, so here is the itinerary. As mentioned, there is a reduced huber in the crew, hence the reduce number of locations on tho tour, and the fact that we are not there for as long as we were on the Italian Wine Tour.

We will head out from home and land in Athens the following day. We are there for 3 nights. So we have about 2 and a half days to take in the sights and plenty of wine. Let us not forget that this tour is the Greek God of Wine tour. Come to think of it any night is a good reason for wine.

Matina & Marko start here in Athens. Karolina & Ron join us on Sunday to head out on the island portion of this grape filled visit.

After our 3 day visit in Athens we will head back to airport to meet up with Karolina & Ron. We will then catch a plane to the island of Santorini. Now The Crew will spend six day on this picturesque 28 km island. I here they have the most amazing sunsets, to sip wine by.

I believe this will be a more relaxing vacation then our last venture to Europe. Not that Italy was not fantastic, but this will be a scaled down on the hustle and bustle side of things.

And yes, there are many vineyards on the island (I wonder how many we can get to in six days?) to satisfy our fetish for the grape.

A little bit of history for the island:

Santorini is essentially what remains after an enormous volcanic explosion that destroyed the earliest settlements on a formerly single island, and created the current geological caldera. A giant central, rectangular lagoon, which measures about 12 by 7 km (7.5 by 4.3 mi), is surrounded by 300 m (980 ft) high, steep cliffs on three sides. The main island slopes downward to the Aegean Sea. On the fourth side, the lagoon is separated from the sea by another much smaller island called Therasia; the lagoon is connected to the sea in two places, in the northwest and southwest. The depth of the caldera, at 400m, makes it possible for all but the largest ships to anchor anywhere in the protected bay; there is also a newly built marina at Vlychada, on the southwestern coast. The island's principal port is Athinias. The capital, Fira, clings to the top of the cliff looking down on the lagoon. The volcanic rocks present from the prior eruptions feature olivine and have a small presence of hornblende.

It is the most active volcanic centre in the South Aegean Volcanic Arc, though what remains today is chiefly a water-filled caldera. The volcanic arc is approximately 500 km (310 mi) long and 20 to 40 km (12 to 25 mi) wide. The region first became volcanically active around 3–4 million years ago, though volcanism on Thera began around 2 million years ago with the extrusion of dacitic lavas from vents around the Akrotiri.

The island is the site of one of the largest volcanic eruptions in recorded history: the Minoan eruption (sometimes called the Thera eruption), which occurred some 3600 years ago at the height of the Minoan civilization. The eruption left a large caldera surrounded by volcanic ash deposits hundreds of metres deep and may have led indirectly to the collapse of the Minoan civilization on the island of Crete, 110 km (68 mi) to the south, through a gigantic tsunami. Another popular theory holds that the Thera eruption is the source of the legend of Atlantis.

Well thats enough for now, back soon with more updates
Marko

DIONYSOS - Greek God of Wine

Well it seems like a good time to start this Blog, our next adventure in the wine tours of the world. The planning has begun and we are off to Greece in about 8 months. It may seem to be a bit early to start celebrating but now is as good a time as any. Actually any time is good to celebrate, copious amounts of wine included.

So, some background on the name of this tour for 2014. Dionysos, Greek God of Wine, seemed like a great place to start. Some history, Dionysos (or Dionysus) was a great Olympian God of Wine, vegetation, pleasure and festivity. He was depicted as either an older bearded God or a pretty effeminate, long-haired youth. Oh well you just have me and the crew.

His attributes included the Thyros, a pine-coned tipped staff (ouch), a drinking cup (always handy), leopard and fruiting vines. He was usually accompanied by a troop os Satyrs and Mainades (female devotes or nymphs) That leaves us with Ron, Carol & Carol.

In the weeks to come as before I will post pictures of the Crew for this tour of 2014. As usual I will include our Greek God of Wine tour names, upcoming travel plans as well as destinations.

Back soon

Marko Baklava