Early on Thursday morning, we followed a wide pedestrianized street around the Acropolis to the Agora. (Picture from 2009)

A highlight of the agora is the Hephaisteion, possibly the best-preserved temple in existence.

Next we visited the Kerameikos to see reproductions of beautiful funerary stele, as well as the Pompeion, a structure along the Sacred Way that marked the starting point of the Panathenaic procession. (Photo from 2009)

We took taxis to the National Archaeological Museum, but before going inside, each of us had a restorative beverage of choice: coffee or milkshake. I've already mentioned some of the Mycenaean treasures on display at the museum in previous posts, but here's a favorite object of mine in ivory. The women's flounced skirts are Minoan in style.

This jaw-dropping golden cup, found in a grave at Dendra near Midea, features swirling octopi. We left the museum just as it was closing up at 3:00. In the afternoon, my fellow travelers exhibited their shopping prowess. I was on the look out for a good tea shop, but instead we found the motherload of chocolate shops -- about 5 of them all on Voulis Street.

On the final day, we visited the impressive Acropolis Museum, where you can walk around the frieze panels and metopes all while gazing up to the Parthenon or out across Athens. From the museum, one can only go to the Acropolis, where reconstruction and conservation work never ends. I loved the piles of Ionic capitals.

The Erechtheion remains one of the most creative and engaging architectural masterpieces of all time (at least in my opinion). As our exploration of the Acropolis neared its end, I could sense a kind of giddiness in our group. Unfortunately, I could also sense a cold beginning to creep upon me. I still needed to buy some gifts and I was eager to have a quiet afternoon, so I set off alone.

On a beautiful Friday, everyone was out. I saw a crowd around one man's wares -- he had super cool magnets featuring old movie posters and advertisements. Somehow he got me to buy 4. Gifts mostly taken care of, I turned to satisfy my stomach and on Voulis I found a bakery selling savory pies. I got one for lunch and sat in the public gardens not far away. I wanted to find the Greek Folk Art museum (if only to use their bathroom), but gave up after wandering in the circles around the Plaka. I did, however, find a lovely gourmet food shop, where I got some other goodies for family and friends. I had some time to rest and pack before our final dinner. It had been a good trip. (Photo from 2009)

On the seventh day, we packed up for a night in Pylos near the southwestern tip of the Peloponnese. Our first stop, the Argive Heraion, wasn't far from Nafplion. From this ancient Temple to Hera, we could see Argos. In Herodotus, Solon tells Croesus the story of two young men, Kleobis and Biton, whose lives were well-lived. Their mother was a priestess of the Heraion. One day she needed to get to the temple from Argos, but there was a problem with the oxen, so Kleobis and Biton pulled her cart to the temple. After the priestess prays to the goddess to give her sons the best gift for their devotion, the goddess causes them to die peacefully in their sleep. I always associate this story with Delphi, where the Argives are said to have dedicated statues of the brothers. This morning, however, we were all getting the tingles looking over the plain to Argos thinking of K & B (as one student on the trip affectionately called them) and Herodotus.

The drive from Argos to Sparta, where we stopped next, is about 2 hours. High above the valley of the River Eurotas sits the Menelaion, a hero shrine to Menelaus, who was the King of Sparta during the Trojan War. He was the brother of Agamemon, King of Mycenae, and the husband of the infamous Helen. As beautiful as the Eurotas valley is, I can totally understand why Helen ran off with Paris: Sparta is landlocked, in the middle of nowhere, completely bounded by mountains.

Heres's a better view of the valley with the river running through it. That's modern Sparta at center.

And now a better view of the Taygetos mountains, which the Menelaion faces. If Menelaus wanted to pay old King Nestor a visit, he would have to go through these mountains, which Odysseus' son, Telemachos, crossed on his journey from Pylos to Sparta to learn of his father's whereabouts. What amazes me is that the Spartans dominated their whole corner of the Peloponnese, which means they controlled land and people on either side of two mountain ranges: the Taygetos mountains in the west and the Parnon mountains in the east.

While walking down from the Menelaion, the group found a family -- all three generations -- harvesting olive trees. A tarp collects the olives while the workers use an electronic branch shaker. At the same time, they also prune the trees and use another machine to take the olives off the cut branches. Especially in this area of the Peloponnese, I saw tall columns of smoke billowing up from the olive groves as other harvesters burned their pruned branches. An important note: do NOT eat raw olives off the tree. They are nasty little fruits with a potent, lingering bitterness.

Sparta has a small town feel. It was here that some of the girls on the trip took notice of a strange trend in men's fashion: sweatsuits. A few of us ate lunch at the Ministry Music Hall on Sparta's main street. We sat outside, but to get to the bathroom inside, one had to swim through a smokey sea of Sparta's beautiful people, partying midday on Monday. No matter, the food was really good and we needed sustenance to make it through our epic drive through the Taygetus mountains.

A truly amazing drive it was on a narrow road that crossed under cliffs and switchbacked its way to the top of the snow-capped range and then back down again. Just on the other side is Kalamata (you know, like Kalamata olives), where our driver stopped at this donut place.

As the sky went dark, we arrived at the Hotel Philip in Pylos. I loved my room and the view.

Here's beautiful Pylos in the morning. On the islands in the picture are monuments to the French, Russian, and English Philhellene soliders who died in the 1827 Battle of Navarino during the Greek War of Independence. Navarino was Pylos' Italian name, which stuck from the Venetian occupation.

The day began like usual at a Bronze Age site -- this time at the "Nestor's Palace", famous for its humongous hearth. Some paint, looking something like flames licking the fire, on the hearth still remains. The archives room in Nestor's Palace has been the source of some 600 Linear B tablets, which were baked accidentally in a fire, probably around 1200 BCE. Archaeologists have also found Linear B tablets on Crete. These tablets are usually administrative records, like inventories of livestock.

This picture did not come out well, but I have to include it. The Mycenaeans not only kept warm in style with their fancy frescoed hearth room, they also bathed in style. What a beautiful tub!

In the Pylos museum, we saw this magnificent gold cup. The museum also contained fragments from frescoes which decorated the hearth room and other areas of the palace.

In the afternoon we arrived back in Nafplion with enough time to climb up to the Palimidi, a Venetian fortress with an amazing view of the town.

The ninth day began at Nemea, site of one of the four Panhellenic games and of this 4th-century Temple of Zeus. It was here too that Heracles killed a lion as one of his twelve labors.

At Nestor's Palace, I saw a Bronze Age bathtub, while here at Nemea are washing basins for the athletes. Seeing everyday objects like this always brings the past alive for me.

A short distance from the religious and business complex at Nemea is the stadium.

One of the trip leaders and three of the students ran in a race, but they found it quite difficult to run on clay mud.

Next we stopped in Corinth to see the older (and shorter and stocky) Temple of Apollo from the 6th century BCE. Since the Classical and Roman periods weren't our focus, we moved quickly through the huge site of Corinth. I think it's one of the best sites to give the idea of what an ancient city was like.

Finally, we reached our destination and base for the last two days of the trip: Athens. (Picture from a previous a previous trip in 2009)

By the time we arrived in Nafplion, our base for the next two nights, I was more awake. Plus, there was laundry service for us! We spent midday at the Center for Hellenic Studies building (above), looking on to Philhellene Square. Then we went to the town's awesome archaeological museum with its prehistoric and Mycenaean collections.

I haven't traveled extensively in Greece, but I feel rather certain that no town is as picturesque as Nafplion. A gorgeous coast, boutiques, and gelaterias all contribute to Nafplion's charm.

Strolling along the coast, I was reminded of California's Route 1. I saw some great plants: cacti covering rocky hillsides, wild grasses, pines, shocking flowers.

On Sunday morning, I went for a walk and enjoyed hearing some of the church services as I wandered through Nafplion's narrow alleys.

After breakfast the group assembled for a day exploring the Mycenaeans, their cyclopean walls, and great megara. We began at Tiryns, which is close to Nafplion and therefore to the sea. It may have served as a kind of harbor for Mycenae. At the end of the trip in Athens at the National Archaeological Museum, we saw an amazing gold signet ring from Tiryns depicting lion-headed demons approaching a woman or goddess, while crescent moons fill the sky.

Next we drove further inland and climbed to the acropolis of Midea. From the top I could still see the sea. Though we didn't visit it, Midea's cemetery is called Dendra and it has been the source of some unbelievable archaeological finds, including a suit of Mycenaean armor which is at the Nafplion Archaeological Museum. The National Archaeological Museum in Athens also holds finds from Midea and Dendra, including imported objects like ostrich eggs vessels.

Our third site of the day was the incomparable Mycenae, the center of an empire, located between two foreboding mountains. Ancient roads go from Mycenae to Epidauros, east to the Sardonic Gulf, and west to Corinth. To me, the heart of Mycenae is Grave Circle A. Unusually, the grave circle is inside the fortress walls and its location, adjacent to the fortress cult center, shows its religious significance to the Mycenaeans. The graves date to the 16th century BCE, but the walls enclosing the grave circle date to the 13th century BCE. Again, highlighting the special significance of the graves to the Mycenaeans are the double walls around grave circle. They are made from a special stone that comes only from Perachora, some 60 kilometers away.

Here's another look from the cult center to Grave Circle A.

Unfortunately, robbers long ago looted the treasure in Mycenae's tholos tombs. However, these bee-hive-shaped tombs, constructed without mortar, still stand as architectural marvels. I've been to Mycenae twice and neither visit afforded me the opportunity to visit all the tombs. Maybe next time I'll get to see the progression of their building technique from the earliest tomb, named for Aegisthos, to the masterpiece known as the Treasury of Atreus (pictured above).

That afternoon, we headed back to Nafplion for some quality cafe-sitting and shopping time. At dinner that night, I was happy to eat my first serving of giant beans in Greece.

The third day of the trip was by far my favorite. It began in Gortyn, Crete's Roman capital, with a look at some very old olive trees.

The most important thing to see is the Gortyn law code, the oldest Greek code of law, displayed in the back of the theater.

I liked that just beyond the site, sheep were grazing on the hill.

The Phaistos complex was built and rebuilt many times from 1900-1450BCE due to earthquakes and political instability. Here's a view from the central court looking up to the sacred mountain.

From Phaistos, we drove just a few kilometers to Agia Triada, another key Bronze Age site. Under the covering is Agia Triada's main structure, the Minoan "Royal Villa." Interestingly, however, the villa also features a Mycenaean-style structure, the megaron. Outside of the site, which is bounded by a fence, a hillside covered with olive trees and wildflowers hides a Minoan cemetery, comprised of tholos and chamber tombs. Archaeologists found the well-preserved Agia Triada sarcophagus in one of the chamber tombs.

Another wonderful thing about Agia Triada is the view of the Libyan sea.

One of the rooms in the Minoan villa complex shows the benches around the wall and the slots where wooden pillars would have stood.

After our picnic lunch at Agia Triada, we headed north into the mountains to Zaros, a village nestled at the foot of Mt. Psiloritis. In the strong winds, droplets from the day's early rains began flying about, while a great cloud settled on top of the snowy mountain.

We were staying in a family-owned guesthouse in the village and before we could go to our rooms it was imperative that we do the guest-host dance and experience true xenia hospitality. Some cookies and Cretan tea awaited us by the fire. Cretan herbal tea is a mix of savory herbs; oregano and sage seemed to dominant. Over the course of the evening, I became a big fan of the cure-all tea. We still had a few hours of sunlight, so I asked the proprietor where was a good place to take pictures. She drew me a map and said she would drive me there and I could walk back. At a modern outdoor theater, there was a huge rock with a large hole where I could climb in and get a picture of the whole valley. It was frighteningly windy, but I got my picture.

We had one of the biggest and most delicious dinners in Zaros. It featured great vegetarian fare (a potato frittata; salad of cabbage, beets, avocado, hard boiled egg) and a life changing dessert: a quince jam parfait. The next morning greeted us not only with perfect weather, but also a multitude of different filled pies for breakfast. Pies of all shapes, usually finger food sized, filled with cheese or meat or fruit or nuts, some fried, some baked. Heaven.

Our last day on Crete began with a pilgrimage to the Panagia Myrtidiotissa at Paliani, near Venerato. This nunnery is devoted to Mary, Our Lady of the Myrtles. A massive and ancient myrtle tree occupies a whole corner behind the church. None of my pictures came out because little light makes it through the tree's pendulous branches where worshippers hang votives in shapes representing their prayers (so votives are in the shape of babies or houses, etc).

From Venerato, we had a short drive to the Archaeological Museum in Heraklion. Only a greatest hits gallery is open to the public while the museum goes through renovation and earthquake-proofing. I rarely take pictures in museums, but some things I couldn't resist, like this awesome Minoan pottery. If you've taken a Greek archaeology class, this is the place to go to see your textbook images of Minoan objects come alive.

With about seven hours until dinner, a few of us set out to explore the city. I love its mix of modern and Venetian buildings. At the Historical Museum of Crete, I learned that 2013 will mark Crete's 100th anniversary of joining Greece.

An essential dish to try is loukoumades, little donuts drenched in a honey syrup.

Heraklion has a long pier where residents go to exercise and walk their dogs. It makes for a spectacular sunset walk.

After a restrained dinner at the swanky Hotel Lato, we boarded the Knossos Palace, an overnight "ferry" -- though it's more like a cruise ship. This massive vessel transports cars and trucks from Crete to the mainland. If you don't want to sleep in your room, chair, or sleeping bag in the hallway, you can always swim, drink, and dance the night away. With a 6am disembarkation, a party pooper like myself chose to sleep.

On a January morning, Chania's harbor looked like a ghost town and yet I could sense how beautiful and busy it must be in the summer tourist season. A few locals scuttled to work in the cold. I followed their example and walked as far from the water as possible.

Though occasional waves crashed over Chania's harbor, the jetty and Venetian lighthouse provided a sense of calm inside the walls. Outside, however, the sea was crazed. Its fury scared me and suddenly I understood why the ancient Greeks just didn't sail at all during the winter.

Chania has a small, but excellent archaeological museum. We saw some impressive Minoan seals, pottery, and sarcophagi, as well as linear A and B tablets. The bulls, pictured above at center, are votive offerings to Poseidon.

We all spent some time looking at this amazing Minoan seal ring depicted a man standing on top of Chania's Kastelli Hill. He is holding a staff while building marked with the horns of sacrifice are all around him.

In the afternoon, the group had free time to explore the city. Rain and even hail impeded our wanderlust, but slowly the sky cleared. The waves hadn't settled down though and I certainly wasn't the only one to have gone too close to the water's edge only to be drenched. This was a happy mishap though, and my face tasted like salt for the rest of the night.

The next day, we headed east to central Crete. The road from Chania to Iraklion is stunning with its fertile green hills of orange and olive trees as well as grape vines.

We arrived in Knossos, the political, administrative, and religious center of Minoan civilization. Arthur Evans has irreparably left his mark on this site; here are his concrete horns on consecration.

I think on a future trip I would visit Knossos after having seen Phaistos. Knossos is so big and all the more complex due to the reconstructions. One member of our group pointed out that the elevated walkways prevent you from approaching and interacting with the space in a historically accurate way.

Though I sometimes found the reconstructions confusing, I did like that how showed how colorful and bright Knossos was, both inside and out. Even as a ruin, Knossos still impresses.

The rain and hail caught up with us at the next stop: Phourni, a Minoan cemetery.

Despite the weather, I enjoyed a beautiful walk up the mountain. A friendly dog kept us company and heading in the right direction. Unfortunately, when we finally reached the entrance to the cemetery, it was closed. Still, I'm glad to have gotten this magical picture.

We left the Minoan world for a foray into modern Crete and its capital, Heraklion or Iraklion. This gritty, but lively and -- I 'll even go as far to say -- enchanting city has truly labyrinthine streets with appropriate names (like Ariadne). From my window at the Hotel Lato, I could watch the racuous waves and, even as I tried to fall asleep after a tasty meal, the howling wind kept me from drifting off.