Trip to Athens, Greece - Day 6

Our last full day in Athens was on Thursday.  We had one site left on our tickets that we had bought.  We left in the morning after we ate breakfast and took the subway to find the Kerimikos Cemetery and Pottery sites. We didn't realize that it was very close to the ancient Agora site and we ended up getting off at the wrong stop and then walking in the wrong direction (we did a lot of walking on this day!).  When we did find the spot we were on the back end.  We walked all around the site and could see it.  We decided not to go around to the entrance and walk the whole thing again.  The kids (and me a little bit) had done enough walking by that time.

The site, looking through the gates.

After our long walk in the morning we got back on the metro and rode downtown and went to the National Archaeological Museum.  The museum was very large and had a lot of interesting exhibits.  It was like the archaeological version of the Hermitage - too much to see everything and too much to concentrate on for the whole time.  We especially liked the pottery (from the Kerimikos site) and the statues.  There was a large section with Egyptian mummies - those poor Egyptians really had everything taken away from them - and the kids were surprised to see the real mummy and not just the sarcophagus that they had seen in other places (like the Vatican museum).

Satisfied museum customers

Horses - Yulia couldn't resist a statue with a horse! This one was lifted up from a sunk ship.

Reading and learning

Egyptian section

Our favorite style of pottery.  The black relief designs were so amazing.

After we finished with the museum (about two hours worth of browsing) we stopped and got some pastries that we ate right outside the shop and then took the metro home.  We went home and rested for a while and then went out to the first little pita shop that we had gone to on our first day and had our last big meal in Greece.

Pastry shop with everything from savory to sweet treats.

Enjoying our last big Greek meal.

Some baklava treats for the road.

Friday morning we woke up and had breakfast and packed.  At about 10:00 we went out.  While I bought tickets for the trip to the airport, Yulia went and got some pastry treats for our lunch later in the day.  Our trip to the airport was smooth and after waiting for about fifty minutes we were able to check in and wait.  Our trip back to Kazakhstan was smooth.  A brief one hour layover in Istanbul and a late flight (arriving at about 2:30 a.m.) into Astana.

The view from the metro station at the airport. It reminded us of Utah so much!

Reading and waiting for our flight!

We had chosen to go to Greece rather than Hungary because we thought the weather would be better and because our kids had learned quite a bit about ancient Greece in school.  It ended up being a very enjoyable trip and we were very glad that we went.  We loved the food. The people were very nice, and we were impressed with the sites.  Athens isn't like Rome where everything is dense and there is ancient art and sculpture and architecture all over, but the sites that are there and preserved are very impressive.  We took things a little slower than our usual vacations since I was recovering from my surgery, but it was a perfect trip with perfect weather and a perfectly lovely time.

Summer Travel 2017: Day 10 - Schindler's Factory and Krakow

I woke up on Monday morning feeling quite ill - I was congested through my head and chest.  I'd been having some allergies, but this felt more like a cold.  I didn't feel up to going out, so Yulia and the girls went to the Schindler Factory and Ghetto without me while I slept and tried to recuperate some.  It sounds like they had a really good time at the factory - which is a museum about the Ghetto and Polish resistance and is very interactive and child-friendly.  It was also free on Monday, and they got there in time to get some of the few tickets remaining for early in the day, so everything worked out okay in the end.

[Yulia will tell more about the museum in the captions to the photos from that experience]

Portrait of Oscar Schindler

Portraits of people saved by Schindler, on both sides of the wall.

Equipment from Schindler's factory to make cookware.

Beginning of museum: pictures and video of Krakow in 1939.

Looking at slides from 1939

Stations where you could stamp documents

Apartment from the era.

Scenes taking place behind the window.

Polish Resistance

Nazi invasion and occupation.

Replica of Ghetto wall, which resembled tombstones, with actual accounts from Ghetto survivors on the wall.

Schindler's Office 

Big cube with cookware from the factory

The names of all the workers saved by Schindler

Exhibit about Aman Goth, camp director played by Ralph Feinnes in the film.

Closing the Ghetto and putting Jews into camps.

Working camp.

At the end of the tour.

Plaza of empty chairs in commemoration of the victims of the Ghetto

After everyone came home, we went out at about 5:00 p.m. and looked around the old part of the city.  Part of the day was buying Poland souvenirs.  The girls each got a wooden jewelry box, and Yulia got an Amber necklace to put in her own jewelry box at home.  After we were shopped out, I went and showed them Jagiellonian University, where I'd been to a conference two years ago.  After we saw the university, we went and found a Ukrainian restaurant that we had seen the first night when we got turned around.  We found the restaurant and had a nice meal - the portions were much smaller than the night before, but the food was delicious.  You can't go wrong with Eastern European cooking.

Stopping for pastries after the museum.

Part of original defenses of Krakow

Peacock sculpture in a random building.

Scenes from Old Krakow

On the square.

Central square

Souvenir shopping.

A flute-playing goat.  Our flute-playing girls.

University courtyard

University courtyard

                   

Looking down the well.

Part of the original walls.

Ukrainian food!

After we ate, we had room for ice cream, so we got some and sat outside and watched people for awhile while we finished our cones.  We walked home, calling it an evening.  Our time in Krakow had come to an end.  Yulia hadn't been to center Krakow before, and she fell in love.  Krakow is less touristy than Prague, and quite a bit cheaper.  We loved Prague, too, but in Krakow we felt very much at home as well.  

Summer Trip 2017: Day 3 - Tsarskoye Selo and the Amber Room

Another place that we didn't go to when we were on our trip 13 years ago was to the palace at Tsarskoye Selo in Pushkino.  Yulia's friend, Vera, told us that we should really try to go there - especially to see the Amber Room, which had been restored relatively recently.  The trip out to Pushkino was another adventure - we had to take the Metro out to where we caught it from our flight - the Moscow station - which is way out.  Then we needed to take a bus for about 35-40 minutes.  It was an even longer drive than our trip the day before to Peterhoff.

We arrived and bought tickets to see the grounds of the estate.  The land was given to Peter's wife as a gift from him, and it was another summer palace used by the royal family.  We really liked the gardens at this estate - they were simpler, but very beautiful and peaceful and had wide paths and ponds.  The grounds have two connected palaces - the Catherine Palace and the Alexander Palace.

Chapel at Catherine Palace

The palace from the outside

Family photo outside Catherine Palace

The day was beautiful as was the entire estate

The landscaping was meticulous

This was part of a walking gallery that was not restored

Nika sitting on the steps of the walking gallery

View from the gallery

View of the palace from the gallery

The walking gallery

More of the grounds

This small lake was great

Bird Watching

Resting near the lake

These squared off trees were amazing.

Ladies in waiting

Little hermitage at the end of the park

The main attraction is the Amber room, which is located in the Catherine Palace.  It was a room with walls decorated elaborately and completely by amber.  It was considered the 8th wonder of the world, but disappeared during WWII after being taken piece by piece by the Germans.

The room was rebuilt beginning in 1979 with donations from Germany and with many skilled craftsmen working.  It was completed in 2003.  The day on Monday was very warm - and since both the Hermitage and Peterhoff were closed, the whole complex was busy with tourists.  We had to stand in line for two hours to get into the palace, and then buy tickets and take a tour.  The palace system was very inefficient, and was quite frustrating.

Standing in line.  For two hours just to get inside....

Picture of Amber room taken from just outside where photography was still allowed

The palace was set up to show how it would look when in use - rather than simply as a museum, and we enjoyed seeing the fancy lives of the Russian royals. The Amber Room was amazing.  We couldn't take pictures of it, but we enjoyed looking at it.

A dining room set up in Catherine's Palace

Ballroom

Dressed in period costumes

Parlour

Music room.  Furnace in the corner.

Art Gallery with the furnace.

Once we were done, we had to walk back and catch our bus, which we did.  It was hot and another 40-minute ride was in store for us.  We got to the station and decided to eat at the McDonald's there.  We ate and then took the Metro from there home.  Yulia got some food for breakfast since we had to leave the next morning at 5:30 to be on the Metro when it opened at 5:40.

We enjoyed our whirlwind not-quite-three day trip to St. Petersburg.  It was a good start to a summer trip adventure.