May 23 - 31, Dan on Greek Islands, Olive cruising the coast of Turkey

While Olive joined 6 other women on a cruise up the coast of Turkey, I spent a week exploring two Greek islands, namely Santorini and Naxos.

Santorini is the island that is most commonly photographed when you see images of white washed buildings, blue capped church roofs and cities set up high on the hillsides in Greece.

Fira, Santorini

One day I hiked about 12 kms around the caldera (volcano) from Fira to Oia, the town in the distance

Looking back at the town of Fira

Oia, Santorini

I spent a day on the beach on Naxos Island, almost nobody there this time of year

Beach huts you could rent for the day

Promenade in Chora, the main city on Naxos Island

Famous gate as part of ruins overlooking Chora

The sun "rolling down the hill" as seen from Naxos Island

Olive - In January my sister-in-law invited me to join her and several other women on a Turkish cruise with a friend who'd recently started a luxury cruise company. Ours was the maiden voyage for the cruise company, and they out did themselves in making us feel welcome. Prior to beginning our cruise we visited a Turkish bath. An experience that's hard to describe - think of being in a board room for the first time with your future partners and your all naked as the day you were born, engaging in polite conversation!! Needless to say we got to know each other very well in a very short time, and boarded the boat extremely clean. Over the next 8 days we engaged in many conversations, enjoyed hikes, visiting ruins, swimming in the sea, shopping, and enjoying wonderfully prepared meals.

 Each day we sailed to several bays and explored the local sites, including Kalkan, Kas, Sunken City Kalekoy, St. Nicholas Church, Myra, Demre, Butterfly Valley, Gemiler Island, Fethiey, and Gocek Islands.

Here's the web site for Arkadaslik Yaching if you'd like to see some amazing pictures of our time there - http://www.arkadaslik-yachting.com/route-1.html.

Sue, the owner, is a woman from Calgary who started this company recently following some life changing experiences. We all thoroughly enjoyed our time together and the care she and her crew took to give us a wonderful experience. One of the highlights of the trip included 6 of us paragliding from the top of a mountain (6,000 feet up). Not something that's usually in my comfort zone but definitely glad I did it!!