Thursday 7 May

Another beautiful day - warm, sunny throughout (24 degrees C at 6pm).

Tina is a mess this morning! She leavers her nightie in the bathroom (found after the suitcases have gone) and her travel bag (passport, money etc) in the dining room!! She blames me for throwing her routine out by me having first shower! Why is it that women do things wrong but it is always a bloke's fault??????

Stelios, our driver, takes the bus up the rocks of Meteora. We firstly visit the Monastery of St Stephen - Greek Orthodox nunnery for 31 nuns. Beautiful frescos in the church. Amazing views from so high up.

A few minutes as the bus climbs and then it is hundreds of steps down through lovely, cool woods and then steps up and a bridge to the Monastery of St Barbara - again a nunnery (although a former home to monks) with 16 nuns. It is older and more breathtaking in its location.

And that's just about the end of our Glories of Greece tour. It is a long bus drive from the centre of Greece back to Athens and is done in 3 stages. I feel motion sickness near the end of the first stage. I take pills and Anna has travel sickness gum which numbs my mouth. I move to the front of the bus.

The drive back to Athens is along a magnificent highway - straight and fast. Tolls were 7 Euro for the bus. Once again we went through 6 tunnels in succession (a different set of 6 tunnels the 5th one being 2..7km long).

We did get stuck in a traffic jam at 5pm as we arrived into Athens but Stelios and Anna expected it as we hit evening rush hour.

I have talked about the bus before but forgot to mention that as well as masses of legroom and aisle seats that slide sideways each seat also has a big recline so you can be comfortable when falling asleep.

Some more comments on Insight tours. We have now done a sea and land tour (2 more Insight tours to go). As you have read I am impressed. I know I am a grumpy and critical old bugger but I have no huge criticisms of Insight. Your luggage is taken from the bus to your room; picked up in the morning and put back on the bus. All you do is walk off. Your room key is waiting for you - no registration. Transfers to the airport are all taken care of. They do seat rotation so everybody gets a fair go at front and back seats. This is good but I don't like being in the back half of the bus as I feel ill. In conclusion: a well organised company, excellent buses and drivers, excellent guide, very good hotels. We were well looked after.

We arrive back at the Metropolitan Hotel (room 557) and everything is organised for us to leave tomorrow. We are quickly into our room and with David and Anne go to Lazaros Restaurant for the third time.

I then get David and Ann's photos; pack.

Observation: It has been sunny and sometimes I don't wear my hat. Yet I have not got burnt. In NZ if I don't wear a hat I am a mess after 30 minutes. Why the difference?

Lastly, I know I have not said much about each of the highlights for the last 4 days. but that is because words cannot describe the things we have seen. Here we are seeing the things we have known about since childhood.