Continuation of Blog -- in Tokyo?!

I will come back to this blog sometime to finish it up.

I moved out of Lyon in the middle of September (quite abruptly!) and am now back in Japan, in Tokyo. I hope to continue a record of my time in Tokyo, at the following link:


(link to new blog -- click here)

Please stop by if you have the chance! Thanks.

Day 2: Santorini: Exploring the Old Port, Another Winery, Black-Sand (Pebble?) Beach, and Sunset from the Airport

It's always awkward on the day that you check out of a place. You no longer have your room as a base, and as such you have to pack up your belongings and check out before noon, even if your flight isn't until 20h20 in the evening, as it was in my case. You wonder if you'll have time to make it out to do one sightseeing thing before it's time to check out: that's when I hit on the idea to check out the old port.

There are two port areas in Santorini, one modern port which I presume was built on the same level or with much better access to the roads above. The Old Port, on the other hand, was built long before the ropeway (lifts) existed, meaning that the treacherous roads up from the port to downtown Fira were only navigable by ... donkeys, or some kind of animal similar.

That means that from the touristy narrow paths that make up the shopping area or "bazaar" area in Santorini down to the Old Port is a several-hundred feet drop: that's enough to make your head swim if you simply look down. True enough, you can see the cruise ships arriving to drop off their passengers at the Old Port below. Along the way you can see the donkeys ferrying hardy passengers up and down the corridor.

Fortunately for those who dislike the smell of donkeys and the precariousness of the rides, there now is a ropeway that ferries you up from the Port to the shopping area: no doubt Uncle G and his tour group was fortunate enough to use this to come up and between the ferry area.

After walking through the shops and buying nothing (except for a baseball cap to stop my nose from getting sunburnt), I headed out to Santo Wines, which is run by a agricultural cooperative and which sells its white wines and the vinsanto, the sweet dessert wines, to tourists who make their way up to the winery. It's set on a beautiful location, overlooking the ocean, and very high up, so the wind's extremely strong. Evidently this is a mandatory stop for the tour buses: two consecutive groups of Americans came in while I was there and took group photos; the Chinese tourists who were there, looking glamorous as ever, insisted on the single shots with the city of Fira in the distance.

In the afternoon, with nothing else to do, I opted to see what the fuss was about the Greek beaches, where people sit under umbrellas and sun themselves for who knows how many hours. The beach I visited, Kamari, was a 1/2 hour ride from Fira (1,20 EUR buses rule!) and it was just like any other beach area, including the one in Nice. Except there was no sand, simply dark-colored pebbles which looked like they might've been dumped onto the beach rather than naturally deposited there by a volcanic eruption. So, yes, the beach itself is darkly colored, but it must be difficult to lie on the rocks in the middle of the day, with the rocks heated by the midday sun. (Any of those who remember the hot onsen sand baths in Japan, well, this is much worse: think Sauna rocks.)

The shops facing the beach catered in all ways to the tourists assembled there and (let this be a lesson!) even featured their own fare share of, shall we say, merchandise whose trademarks were of, uh, dubious origin. Even A's favorite brand, with a certain monkey character, was duly represented ...

After returning to Fira I had hoped to see the history museum there but as it was a Monday it was closed. Nearby, though, there was a fantastic Byzantine church with wonderful Byzantine murals on the walls.

A quick meal of "portion-sized" pork gyros kept me full for the rest of the evening (300g of pork, cabbage, tzatziki yogurt, and tomatoes).

I took my flight to Athens at 20h20 from the airport (the Guest House owner was kind enough to drop me off at the airport early), and I checked in without a hitch (just evading the tour group after me). Right about the hour of sunset -- fantastic, though not quite as beautiful as from Ia.

Arriving in Athens at 21h20, I missed the metro to the city center and opted to take the bus, X95, which costs 3,20 EUR and speeds down the Athens expressways at (I swear) 120 miles per hour. We arrived in the city center 45 minutes later (not bad! no traffic!) and then using what I knew from my guidebooks I found my way over to the hotel with a combination of metro and walking. Arriving at night, and passing the National Archaeological Museum guarded by machine-gun toting policeman, was intimidating, but once I was in the hotel I forgot everything and soaked in a wonderful long bathtub ....

Day 1 / Santorini - Ia: the Blue-Domed Churches and the Unforgettable Sunset

Early evening, and I made a wise decision to head up North to Ia to see the sunset. It was only 5h30 in the afternoon and the sunset wasn't going to arrive until 8h30 pm, but still I thought it best to be on a bus heading in that direction ... and my worst fears were confirmed when I arrived at the bus station with droves of people waiting for the Ia bus. Actually, as some people who have been to the island can attest, the bus station is not really a station in the sense of a covered area with bus "islands" where buses dock while waiting for the next group of passengers. No, this is literally a parking lot where six buses squeeze in with perfect precision and like clockwork depart with their full load of passengers.

On the bus I was on, the bus departed full with a 125% load: meaning that passengers were forced to stand in the aisles for the duration of the winding, 30-minute ride. The price, as I mentioned in the last post is right: 1,20 EUR for a single ride, rather than play with fire and taking an unmetered taxi ...

Ia appears to be a recent creation, given that many of the building were destroyed during an earthquake in 1956. Nevertheless, in the reconstruction of the town they've done an excellent job and made it colorful enough to attract attention.

When it came time for the sunset, people gathered on the city's edge, literally hundreds of people congregating on the city walls waiting for the sun to set behind the clouds and a distant mountainous island. I myself had staked out a spot for myself one hour early and occupied myself reading a book (Dad's case to always bring "reading material") until the crucial 10-15 minutes before the sunset.

After that it was sheer pleasure to watch the sky shift from yellows to oranges and reds ... truly an unforgettable sunset. When the last bit of sun disappeared from the horizon, the crowds applauded in admiration. And then it was back by bus to Fira (luckily got a seat back, too, this bus was just as crowded).

Day 1 / (cont.) Santorini / Boutari Winery

The manager at the guest house where I was staying met me at the airport at 7 am and took me back to the hotel, where he told me to rest on the couch in the common room. The San Giorgio Villas, where I stayed, reminded me of the guest houses I had once stayed in in Thailand, sparsely furnished, but functional units with air conditioning, refrigerator, and clean beds. Again, I had given up a reservation on Best Western for this: but more important than comfort was location. And being in Fira, the geographic center of the island, was important, since it gave me access to all other major parts of the island by bus.

I slept for two hours in the common room, then opted to take the local bus down to the Boutari winery, just fifteen minutes south of Fira. The welcome center was staffed by two employees, one person who appeared to be in charge of the winery itself and a Greek-Canadian employee who took me on a private tour of the winery (meaning, basically a trip to see the underground fermentation tanks and the barrels they use to age the wines).

Then to the degustation! Two wine varieties, one aged more than the other, and finally, vinsanto (evidently a wine variety loved by the Venetians (!), who had controlled the Santorini wine trade way back when). Unfortunately without check-in luggage, I was unable to buy a bottle or two, but I promised the guide that I would buy a couple bottles at the airport and would also get in contact with the distributor in Japan.

In the afternoon, I decided to take a nap -- a good idea, seeing as the hottest time of days, and the worst solar radiation, is during these hours. I woke up refreshed and took a packed bus (at 17h30! way ahead of sunset!) from Fira to Ia. In fact it was so crowded that people stood in the aisles the whole way. Amazing! But at 1,20 EUR it was a true bargain, and much, much safer than taking a moped or ATV (all-terrain vehicle) up those dark, unlit roads.

Day 1 / Entering Greece

My flight took me from Lyon to Athens, via Amsterdam. At check-in the first class seat I had reserved was denied for some reason for the short connecting flight to Amsterdam (funny that when I boarded the first class section still had a few seats open -- perhaps it was celebrities or royalty who needed the section blocked off). But the flight from Amsterdam to Athens, all three hours of it was glorious fun. The purser showered attention on the maybe ten of us who were in first class, bringing up meals, extra alcohol, ice cream, water, newspapers, and offering us first dibs at duty free (important because the Droste chocolates they still for 1,00 EUR always run out!).

I arrived in Athens at 00h55 (one hour of time difference) and ... my checked-in bag didn't. When I received my bag one day later, apparently it had been tagged correctly but "left behind" ... not quite sure what that was supposed to mean. In any case, I had fortunately packed one change of clothes in my carry-on (standard practice, as they say), and I was able to ride out the emergency. The mineral water I had packed in that bag was also replaceable. The Swissport agent who handled my lost luggage even offered me an amenity kit with change of clothes, shampoo, cream, razor, etc. They wouldn't give a voucher but it was still a nice gesture. And besides, it was 01h30 in the morning.

Thinking on the bright side, it was just as well that I had something to do, some way to kill time, seeing as I would have to be at check-in for my connection to Santorini at 04h30.

And so I killed time by doing what most people do in airports: sleep on the hard seats. Although I didn't really get any rest, I did try to lie down and camp out in the secured area (luggage zone). At about 4h00 I decided to explore the airport and took a cart through the area and visited the metro (scoped it out so that I would know where to pick it up later on), looked for mail drops, checked out the airport Sofitel from the outside ...

And then check-in! Athens being a 24-hour airport, even at 4h30 in the morning people were lined up for both Olympic Airways and for Aegean (which is what I flew on). I had expected it to be much emptier at that hour, but it was more bustling than London Stansted (not Heathrow but an airport which caters to the low-cost carriers), which I remembered started moving after 6 am in the morning. Even the check-in agents were perky and efficient (Aegean is a young airline but with the bulk of their bookings done on-line they are able to issue tickets and process passsengers quickly and efficiently.) (PS, Dad, yes, I did get mileage on Lufthansa Miles and More, of all things.)

And then I was off! 5h50 to Santorini.

Summer in Lyon

Schools went on vacation in the middle of July and Lyon has become practically desserted of French people (ah, but I jest). Stores have shuttered up until mid-August (they write messages to their customers, closed for "vacances" or "conges") and the hordes of Lyonnais who had walked the boulevards have been replaced by tourists, with more than a fair share of Americans.

Finally, just as I'm possibly about to leave Lyon, I see how beautiful a city Lyon can be: it's gorgeous with its lit-up buildings, its monuments on the hills, and my favorite place, the Theatres Romains (Roman ruins -> now outdoor ampitheatre), where I was fortunate to see four (yes, count them!) outdoor concerts this past year.

I was at a party with some French colleagues just a few days ago, and it seems that they had finally decided to leave for vacation on that weekend (4 August). I imagine that Lyon might as well be completely dead right now, and for that reason, I guess it's a good thing I (impulsively) chose to head on over to Greece for a short trip. More on this later. I'm only in Greece for four full days but I've gone at an incredible pace. It's taken me to one of the islands and to the sprawling megapolis (funny, reminds me of Tokyo) Athens.

Day 2 / Day trip to Toledo

On a colleague's urging, I took a day trip to the walled medieval city of Toledo, literally built up on a hill. I had looked up the transportation options on the Internet, much to the surprise of a Spanish colleague of mine. You can go by superfast RENFE trains from Atocha station to Toledo station, then take a bus, but I opted for the cheaper (and no less fast) option of long-distance bus.

At Callao metro station I bought a Metro ticket for Zone T (one day Abono Turistico), which gives you unlimited bus and metro rides not only inside central madrid but inside the whole region -- which extends (amazingly) to Toledo. 7,90EUR compared to 2 x 4,40 EUR just for a single round trip ticket from Madrid to Toledo.

I used the ticket to get to Mendez Alvaro, a station on the loop line in the Madrid metro network, and connected to the long-distance bus terminal there. It's a huge terminal with a lot of bus companies there and a long, long set of concessions there selling bus tickets, cakes, supplies, and phone cards .. just like the bus terminals in many countries. (FYI: just outside of the terminal is a humongous El Corte Ingles department store and Hypercor supermarket where you can load up on supplies like water and sandwiches for your day trip.)

I presented the ticket at the Continental Auto-bus counter and they gave me a voucher allowing me to ride the bus. Right across the way is a staircase leading down to the buses and the second or third bus after the exit was the one that I wanted. Very comfortable bus, air conditioned and perfect to sleep in. I closed my eyes and one hour later I was in Toledo!

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Toledo is a castle town built on a hill. The streets are narrow so it's easy to get lost, as I found several times during my visit.

However the two main sights of interest for me were not the touristic shops selling all kinds of knives and armor, or the marzipan desserts (shown here in the photo), nor the local products on sale in the small shops (see other photo), but were the paintings of the Greek painter nicknamed "El Greco" by the Spanish patrons who "adopted" him and commissioned him to do portraits of themselves and religious-based paintings.

In one corner of Toledo there is a fantastic museum that used to serve as the home for a well-known sculptor which now serves as the showroom for the El Greco paintings that had been on display in the El Greco museum. The whole complex is fantastic: quiet, and overlooking the riverbed and stone bridge below.

There is also one El Greco masterpiece in a small church not too far from where these other paintings were on display. Measuring several meters in length, it's magnificent spiraling painting similar to his works on display in Madrid. Narrow-faced people lit up by a strange holy luminescence, spiralling up the masterpiece.

For lunch, my first choice of restaurant was completely full. I had gone there at 12h30, only to find that lunch hour began at 13h30. I went back at 14h00 thinking that I could get a table but ha! it was fully booked. I spent another good half-an-hour deciding on a place to eat, and finally ended up at a bar which had a lunch snack special of cold gazpacho andalusia (wonderful stuff: cold tomato soup with garlic and bits of crisp cucumber), a potato omelette served with salsa, and a dessert of very sweet melon. With this, a half-bottle of wine, which nearly killed me later on as I rode home. Having been grossly dehydrated by the day's walk in the hot weather, only after I drank 1/2 a bottle of water did my body recalibrate itself: until then, I felt terribly sluggish.

After my ride back on my day ticket, I journeyed up to Bernabeu stadium, home of Real Madrid and former stomping ground of the LA Galaxy superstar David Beckham. Beyond that, I was just too beat to walk around and called it a day. For dinner: a very simple ham sandwich with fruit and beer (1,90 EUR from Museo del Jamon, a chain of shops specializing in Dad's favorite, raw ham ...)

Madrid: First Impressions / Day 1 (Arrival)

Even though this was the first time in 13 years that I had been back to Madrid, compared to Lyon, I found it extremely clean: clean streets, relatively little graffiti (tolerable level), and well-maintained gardens. I noticed that the Spanish parks and gardens I visited were well taken care of: perhaps pure coincidence, but nevertheless a welcome introduction to the Madrid landscape.

Just the night before coming to Madrid, I had been up late to a concert for Arcade Fire, a Montreal-based rock band that had played in the Roman ampitheatre up on the hills of Fourviere. The concert finished at about 00h30 and by the time I was back in my place and packed up for the next day, it was already 3am. Nevertheless, I slept as much as I could and got myself to the airport in time for takeoff.

The first day (as is always the case when you arrive in a new city) I just walked around the area near the hotel. There was Metro Sol, the so-called Ground Zero of Madrid, from which all the highways count their distances. There was also the Royal Palace of Madrid, which one can only view from the outside. And there was also a modern cathedral adjacent to it which one could visit and marvel at the modern graphics on the ceiling and a magnificent (though almost sacreligiously elegant) altar to the Virign Mary.

The cathedral, incidentally, was built only 14 years ago, and in fact, if you look at older photos of Madrid you find an empty lot adjacent to the Royal Palace.

From the cliff on which these two structures are built you have an incredible view of the sunset and the city below ...

Near Sol were numerous tapas shops selling tapas for 1,20 EUR a piece (tapas meaning small finger foods, single servings), as well as an incredible chain restaurant called Museo del Jamon (Museum of Ham), which specializes in all grades and price levels of Spanish ham and cured meats. Dad would just love this place ...

The page below is in Spanish, but you should be able to figure out the type of place it is from the Carta (menu) ...

http://www.museodeljamon.es/mj.html




Final photo is a night view of Madrid buildings near Sol. Beautiful and bustling even at 11pm at night ... Shops do close at 10 pm, after all.

MADRID 2007 -- by easyjet (low-cost European airline)

This trip to Madrid was the first time I was there since 1993, when I visited there for less than one-day (en route to Lisbon from Paris, a group of travellers and I stopped in Madrid to visit the museums). Since fourteen years had passed, I clearly expected things to have changed (for the better, of course!) and I will touch more on these things in future blog entries.

But for now, I will talk about easyjet.

Since the deregulation of the airline industry in Europe, a number of low-cost carriers have sprung up with the aim of taking on the national legacy carriers (Alitalia, Air France, Iberia, Lufthansa, and so forth) and providing air travel far at the price of a long-distance bus ticket.

My trip from Lyon to Madrid cost me, round trip, about 75 EUR, or about $100. Round-trip. That's as much as a ticket between the islands might cost you (if I'm not mistaken). This included all airport taxes and fuel surcharges, just to give you an idea of how cheap the fare was.

But cheap doesn't have to imply low-quality. Quite the contray, I found easyjet's relatively new aircraft a refreshing alternative to some of the other carriers' older planes (one US airline I often used until recently used DC-10s on its Japan-Hawaii routes, believe it or not!). And the service was cheerful, friendly, and also safety-oriented. I found the flight attendants even more strict than the ones on the legacy carriers: they asked passengers to buckle in and to put their bags completely under the seat in front of them.

easyjet, from what I understand, is especially a stickler on maintenance and safety, because a failure to ensure either would severely reduce its share of customers.

Oddly enough, on both flights that I flew neither was full, and I imagine that the load factor for the return trip was no higher than 60%. I wonder if they can still make money on such low ridership.

One warning: they are strict also in the sense that they require you to check-in no less than 40 minutes before takeoff. In my case, my flight was 7:50 am and I arrived at the airport at 7 am. Running to the check-in desk I arrived from the metro at the counter at 7:05. That gave me enoguh time to catch my breath before checking in ... but if it were any time after that ....

Tout le monde dehors! + Everyone outside during summertime!


Lyon has a fantastic campaign that it's sponsoring, with more than 200 outdoor events planned in the different arrondissements. Of course, there were the fireworks from yesterday's Bastille Day celebrations, but there's a whole lot more.


Tonight there's an outdoor screening and a movie company brought an inflatable stage for people to watch the movie on. Watching it being pumped full of air was really exciting. There will be screenings here and then they will rotate throughout the various arrondissements. I'd never realized that watching movie outdoors (just like in the drive-ins) was such a fixture of the French summer leisure activities but I kind of like it. It gets people out of their houses and gets them mixing with their neighbors and others in their community.

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LINK:

A complete listing of the events during this period of "soifs d'ete" (thirsty for summer) is available at the following home page:

http://www.tlmd.lyon.fr/tlmd/sections/fr

(tlmd = tout le monde dehors -> everyone outside!)

Free Ice Cream Samples in Place Bellecour

These photos actually date back about a week ago, when I was walking down around Place Bellecour, the main plaza (open space) in the middle of Lyon. Apparently one of the ice cream makers was putting out a new light ice cream product flavored with frozen berries and they had a big publicity campaign, with Segway gyroscope two-whellers and free samples galore.

People were lining up just to get a full serving. I mean, who in his right mind would turn such a thing down? Even I didn't.

It taste pretty good. The ice cream was airy and light, and the berries topping was just the right sweetness and sourness. Then again, on a hot summer day, anything cool tastes good!

Bastille Day - 14 July 2007 / Fireworks from the Fourviere Hillside

For a Saturday, most of Lyon was rather quiet. As today marked the official beginning of the long summer vacation, there were few buses running in the street and I spent a lazy day indoors.

At 22h30 I ventured out hoping to catch the fireworks being held up on Fourviere Hills which look out over the Saone river and Lyon, but as I stepped outside I noticed people waiting to watch the fireworks from higher ground. And so I decided to watch the whole thing from the comfort of my sixth floor apartment, which looks out upon Fourviere and the cathedral near where the fireworks where to take place.

Followed was a magnificent, twenty-minute show, with flying-saucer like fireworks, colorful flower patterns, that went on-and-on for 20 minutes. I took video of it and I'm hoping to figure out how to upload the material from YouTube.


P.S. Figured out how to do it. Just click on the video screen below, once, then once again to replay the video. Enjoy!