Netherlands and Greece – Canals and Island Hopping

In 2004, I was getting more adventurous and confident about traveling by myself. I decided to take my first solo trip to a country where English was not the first language, but hopefully enough people spoke English. Tapping into my success with REI, I booked a trip to Greece to do some hiking in the Greek Islands. To extend my vacation a bit, I added a few days in Amsterdam before starting the hiking trip.

One of the first lessons I learned is that I shouldn’t book a flight to arrive early on a Sunday morning. I arrived in Amsterdam around 6 am (favorable winds meant that we arrived about an hour early!) and got to the hotel around 8 am. Of course, my room wasn’t ready that early. I left my stuff at the hotel and went for a walk, thinking I could find a coffee shop or something to get some breakfast and relax for a while. Everything was closed! I was in downtown Amsterdam and couldn’t find any place open where I could get some breakfast.

My second lesson was that Amsterdam streets are very confusing with the canals. Since everything was closed, I decided to walk around for a while. I followed a street and felt I knew where I was going. I had a map given to me by the hotel (this is the days before cell phones with maps and GPS), but I got very confused as I tried to follow one street and canal to the next. After wandering around for about an hour, I somehow ended up along the outskirts of the main city center with no idea how to get back. Being tired already after not sleeping well on my flight (and not having breakfast yet), I sat in a park for about 10 minutes to just rest and figure out my plan. I also didn’t have any cash at this point to take a taxi back to the hotel (not that there were any taxis around anyway). Finally, I mapped out my path back to the hotel and started the trek back. It was twisty the entire way, but I finally got back to the hotel around 11 am. Feeling exhausted and a little worried that I’d get lost again, I didn’t want to go for another walk to try to find lunch. Fortunately, I was an elite Marriott member, so the hotel let me hang out in the lounge for a few hours. I read my book and dozed until about 2 pm when the manager found me and I got access to my room. I took the most wonderful nap at that point!

I spent the next few days in and around Amsterdam. One day was touring the city itself (and not get lost!).

Another day, I took a tour to Edam (great cheese!), Zaanse Schans (famous windmills!), Delft (beautiful pottery!), and Madurodam (a miniature park!).

And I took a day trip to Brussels.

After that rough first day, I truly enjoyed my time in Amsterdam. I flew directly from Amsterdam to Athens. It was my first time flying within the EU and the Schengen Area, so I was quite disappointed to land in Athens and not get a stamp on my passport! I was also a bit confused about why I didn’t have to go through immigration. I felt like I was skirting the rules! Regardless, I arrived in Athens without incident and got to the hotel. I planned on one extra day ahead of joining the REI group to visit the big sites in Athens. But, at least I stayed in the same hotel as I would be the following night when I joined the group.

I got to my room and was horrified by the cigarette smell. I returned to the front desk and asked for a non-smoking room. Apparently, that didn’t exist at this hotel. The hotel staff was nice though, and spent a couple of hours airing out my room and spraying air fresher in it every few minutes. I didn’t get rid of the smell completely, but it did help. At least they tried!

While they were dealing with my hotel room, I spent the afternoon walking up to the Parthenon and taking in the views! Based on the hotel’s recommendation, I walked up Filopappou Hill which provided stunning views of the Acropolis. I’m so happy I did that. And then I walked over to the Acropolis to take in detail. It turns out that we were scheduled to visit the Acropolis as part of the REI tour, along with visiting the Olympic Stadium and other parts of Athens. But I’m still happy I could spend some time by myself in Athens to take in the sites at my own pace.

From Athens, we drove to the ferry terminal in Rafina to get on the ferry to the island of Tinos. We spent the next day hiking through small villages with stark white buildings and bright blue doors… just as you would imagine in the Greek islands. We saw people drying grapes on their roofs and enjoying coffee in cafes in the villages. It was such a beautiful and peaceful experience.

The next day, we were supposed to take the ferry from Tinos to Naxos, but the winds were extremely high and the ferry schedule was all messed up. We hiked a bit in the morning while waiting for the winds and ferries to settle, but they didn’t. We ended up waiting around on Tinos an extra few hours and then taking a ferry to Mikonos in the late afternoon. That was a crazy and exciting ferry ride. Growing up around ferries, I’m normally not bothered by a few waves. But wow, the ferry was diving and crashing all over the place! We stayed on Mikonos for a few hours, ate dinner, and finally caught a late ferry from Mikonos to Naxos. Again, a scary and crazy ride. I’m not sure I’d recommend taking the Greek ferries after this. It didn’t help that it was dark at this point so I couldn’t see the waves at all. But, we arrived safe and sound and crashed in our hotel around 1 am.

The next day, we hiked to the top of Mt Zas and around Naxos.

Finally, we headed to Santori for a few days of hiking through this famous island’s villages and cliffs. We hiked from the main town of Fira to the northernmost point of the island Oia. We then had the rest of the day to enjoy the views and cobbled streets of Fira before our final dinner.

I flew home from Greece with a sense of excitement about what else the world had to offer if I keep expanding my horizons!