Hello from Athens. We've just done the loop south from Istanbul to Alexandria, and back via Corfu to Athens. I guess many people are impressed with the Cyclades - Mykonos, Santorini - but we weren't especially. Talk about barren, the ground there is so barren you couldn't raise an umbrella on it. (rim shot) Crete, on the other hand, was nicer and had possibilities, we didn't see as much of it as we would have liked but the ruins of the palace at Knossos were impressive.
Alexandria is old, and apparently nobody there believes in maintenance, as everything is rundown. We were told the reason was government rent control. I'd almost buy that reason if it weren't for the fact that the government buildings were also rundown. Rent control isn't an issue for them, I believe.
On the other hand, driving along the coast west of town, there are literally scores of miles of 2 and 3 story condos which exist as shoreline summer places for the Egyptian middle classes (and above, of course). It is impressive that this supposedly poor country has that many middle class members - we must have seen many tens of thousands of units of beach condos. They stretched in an almost unbroken line along the shore from Alexandria west to El Alamein, some 66 miles west. That is a lot of beach condos. Being relatively new, these were in pretty good shape.
If we weren't impressed with Mykonos and Santorini, we were definitely impressed with Corfu - what a beautiful place that is. If I were a European, Corfu is where I'd want my vacation place. We also liked the country where the original Olympics were held, the port is Katakolon or some such. I'd heard Greece is poor and hardscrabble, the part near Katakolon certainly wasn't.
We go to see the Acropolis this afternoon, more later....
