Santorini bus tour : ending with Sunset at Oia

The previous post on this series is here..

First.. our own Sangeetha Kaif walking down the famous steps.. 

oh wait? who is that dude? My god, she is married?

now what is that? She has two grown up kids as well? say what?!

Let's just keep the pretty lady in the pic! 

Sunset in Oia was a hit and miss. The clouds moved in. There was going to be no sun visible. The possibility of a glorious sunset like the one we saw at Poseidon's temple.. was not going to happen. It was going to rain possibly for the night and the next. Still golden hour is golden hour and we got amazing family photos.

We had to stand in a long line to get to this famous photo spot, which happens to be someones backyard on the hills in Oia village. This is their walking path! How or why it became a famous photo spot and when, we don't know! All we know is that Hindi actress Katrina Kaif runs around this place in movies .. other famous actresses might have shot in same location as well.. my wife and MIL have the exact details. 

My promise was to find this location and get pictures in that spot at sunset! Mission accomplished to the best of my ability given I cannot control the clouds. Then messed it all up with some indecisiveness. For some strange reason, picked up a faint orange tinge in the clouds and thought, maybe, maybe the sun will peak out and create magic. The rest of the family was pretty sure that everything was done and dusted. The little one was hungry and I made everyone walk back and forth for no reason for a good 15 minutes. 

To top things off, we had to make a dash to the bus stop below the hill before that dude was going to take off!

We did get a few more photos..

We were all happy one moment and pissed off within 20 minutes. Finally we made it to the bus when it was still bright. There were folks who got off in Oia and were not going back to Fira and that confused our guide and driver. So we lost some time in that but eventually the bus made it back to Fira and dropped off people in different hotels on the way. 

The approach road was jammed! So our driver took a roundabout route and eventually got us in. We were starving. The kids had noticed a restaurant called Convivium.. so we went there to the rooftop to get seated. Somehow the staff there didn't think we were their customer material and were hell bent on sending us out. We did not feel welcome and walked out. Very rare for us to walk out of restaurants after sitting down. 

Eventually we wandered back to the main street in Fira and they got something to go at the McDonalds! I ate fries and made Maggi. That was good enough after a long day! Maggi noodles has become comfort food for me and the little one now!

We were just exhausted after that and crashed. We had one more day in Santorini as a local sightseeing day before flying off.. even planning for it was put off till next morning!

A very short video of our time at Oia.

Sunset at Poseidon's temple

If you have only two days in Athens, make sure one of the evenings is set aside to see the sunset at Poseidon's temple!

It makes you wonder what it would have been like 2000+ years ago when people watched the sunset from a colored intact temple!

The previous post on the Greece trip is here..

After a quick rest in the early afternoon, we made it to our pick up spot in Syntagma square for an all evening trip. We had pre booked the trip on Viator. It was a bus with 20+ people being picked up at various hotels. It was a long drive to the tip of the land to see this temple. 

We stopped by at a lake of sorts which was also an expensive club where folks came to spend an afternoon swimming in this lake. It was a quick rest stop. Then we kept driving to Sounion, where this temple sits on a hill. 

There was some story about divers going into the cave and never returning.. over 100 of them over the years apparently..

There was one more stop, thanks to a pregnant lady on our bus who was sick because of the windy uphill road. We all got to take more pictures while the poor woman was throwing up!

The kids put their feet in water to check the temperature..apparently cold!

Once we were at the stop, there is a short hike to the top.. the sun already starts setting.. so the orange hues are inviting.. 

My recommendation is for folks to not stop and take pictures on the way up once you are at the temple!

There is a long line at the top as you have to buy tickets to get to the site! The line for the credit card counter is long and slow! The people might wait for you, but the sun won't!!! The guide gave us till 20 minutes past sunset to show up down to get back on the bus. 

We did get to see a glorious sunset with all the little islands jutting out in the water. It was amazing. Have never seen a large crowd clap for a sunset! 

Just got goosebumps watching the sunset through the columns. Imagined people watching the same sunset 2000 years ago. How magnificent it would have been with the statues all intact, the roof still intact, the colors on the pillars! What it must have taken them to build this without advanced technology and why would anyone desecrate a temple like that in the name of war? A lot of questions with not so great answers.. but thoroughly enjoyed that evening.

A short video clip..

Then we made a long drive back to the hotel. There is nothing to eat at this place. So you are better off packing some snacks or dinner that you can eat on the bus. We were starving when we got back to our rooms and thankfully, there was Maggi noodles to the rescue! 

The next day was another all day Viator prepaid trip around Athens with a focus on the Acropolis.. 

Golpeando en el mismo Lugar.. snowmobiling into the sunset!

The previous post on this trip is here..

The original plan post seeing Northern lights was to go on a viator tour to Casper glacier to visit a naturally formed ice cave. Even by viator description, it said that this was a moderately difficult trip and only "able bodied adults" were to come for an approximate 3 mile walk on snow and ice to get to the cave. 

After the previous nights experience, San decided that Alaskan standards to rest of US standards are like US system to metric system. An "able Alaskan body" was a 6 foot 2 inch plus, 250 lbs, pure muscle body with a heavy beard  that could fight Commando or Rambo for at least a few minutes and live to tell the tale.. or something close to that.. We did not fit that description..In short, she bailed on me. 

Now for a backstory and the title of the post.

One of my favorite songs during college days was by Franco de Vita, "Golpeando en el mismo lugar", which translates to "you get hit in the same palce again and again". We have a similar saying in Tamil "patta kaal-laye padum" which is "you get hit in the same leg again".

Two weeks prior to this Alaska trip, I hurt my right knee. A knee that already was cracking from a skin issue. After coming back from yoga class, I had the mat towel etc and was trying to go through a narrow gap between the car and the fridge in the garage. License plate holders are strategically placed in cars at exactly knee height. If you bang your knee sideways on the holder, you are guranteed a horrific experience for weeks. After realizing that, promptly iced the knee. While on the couch, my daughter wanted me to do something for her. Given the bandage around the knee, didn't want to fold the extended leg on the couch and in a brilliant move thought I could just step outside of it and get down. Bad ideas come in twos. Promptly banged same knee on the coffee table, just an hour after the first hit. Sometimes a picture is worth a long paragraph.. so here you go..(the gaps have already been fixed in the photos below and credit has been given to the accident causers!)

The next two weeks were spent trying to make every effort to recover, with yoga, ibuprofen, ice, triple pillows under leg, crepe bandages, etc. just so I don't screw up the Alaska experience. 

I really wanted to go through that ice cave! 

San saw the disappointment on my face when she cancelled the ice cave tour. To make up for it, she was checking with Viator if there was some other activity that did not involved walking on ice. There were two options. A dog sled experience where huskies pulled us on the snow for 30 minutes and we got to see the kennels, which was promptly rejected for her fear of dogs. Another trip where we got to ride a snowmobile on a frozen lake and ride into the sunset in the Arctic circle. She agreed to do that and off we went.

It was a 40 minute drive to North Pole, Alaska where we met an amazing dude, Frozen Tony! He ran what appeared to be a one man operation on a weekend as he was our receptionist, trainer, and guide. 

After explaining the operation of the snowmobile and going over the warnings, he started assigning vehicles to the folks in the group. When San shook her head and said "I will be a passenger, don't ask me to drive!" and also said "Can I just drive with you?" .. Tony said "Your husband passed the test! You ride with him!" Then he realized that not all vehicles he had were two seaters. So he gave me his vehicle and said "this is mine and the controls are different but you can do this!" and went over the control differences in his vehicle. San was not exactly sure of my mobiling ability. We had 7 other folks in the group, 4 from New York and 3 from Columbia! 

Fortunately we found some gear that was large for our size but still covered us. Helmets, goggles included. In spite of all this gear, the outside temperature was -5F after 4 in the evening and we were to go see the sunset at 5PM. 

Tony was just amazing. He guided us and made sure we went from simple to complex terrain and gave enough time for everyone in the group to reach the next point before proceeding. After the first 15 minutes, I was gunning it and racing across the snow and ice at 40 mph. Turns out, I am a natural when it comes to flying over the snow on this thing! When you go at 40mph in -5F, the wind against your face makes it a lot more below zero and the water that drips from your nose becomes ice and you look like a mini walrus! San could not hug me as our helmets clash at that speed.. so she had to hold on to the mobile hand grip and hang on for dear life. Apparently she was screaming for me to go slow but I could not hear it, given the helmet and the wind in my face. 

Tony took some great pics of us and even a video clip.

Frozen Tony even had a great Pano shot on my phone which was a pleasant surprise!

There was one tricky place where he had to make us wait and get every snowmobile through a point.. then we all got back on to return. There we got to take some pics by ourselves..

Driving towards a sunset in Alaska is an amazing experience!

A video, thanks to Tony! It was not easy to drive without gloves.. so had to ask for the phone back and keep going! My knuckles were feezing and burning without gloves! 

We got back in one piece and I was clearly very happy and San was happy for me. She said I reminded her of Bond movies. She didn't know that my nickname in high school was Sundar Bond. Was happy to live up to that name after many years.

We had called a Lyft and no one showed. The rest of the group had left as they had their own cars. We had arrived in a taxi. Tony realized our issue and helped call a local North Pole taxi, who is the only guy who comes to pick up folks after sunset. We were talking to him on and off about Alaskan life for 30 minutes while waiting as he was closing shop. We got some hot cocoa during the wait! 

Would strongly recommend this adventure, especially thanks to Frozen Tony of Alaska Wildlife guide! He made this whole thing an evennig to cherish and remember for a long time! 

Finally we got the taxi to take us back towards Fairbanks. We were in for a treat before reaching the hotel..

More in the next post..

Surprise point and Bow falls trail - Banff National Park

The previous post on this series is here..

After dinner, we drove to the surprise point outlook and took a walk. You get a beautiful view of the historic Fairmont Hotel while hearing the roaring sound of the water going between the view point and the hotel.

we had purple skies!

It was us and another asian couple there at the vista point. We were happy to see someone else there as they were! we took photos for each other and off we went to the Bow falls trail. 

This is an amazing trail. Well maintained, just gorgeous attention to detail.. 

then there is the falls.. it is wide and the water flow is something to see! The setting sun (at 10PM) made for interesting hues. By the time we went up the trail and took the photo on the bench (at the top of this post) and got back down, the rest of the folks were gone. We had spent an hour and a half here without realizing it. The walk was not tiring and we were smiling from ear to ear! This place was just beautiful and fresh and inspiring! 

It started getting a little chilly at that point and we decided we had spent good time here. We got back to the hotel and it was still bright out. The sunlight finally went down at 10:30 PM and I could make out the light through the shades even at 11! We had to get some sleep as there was a long full day planned for Saturday. Banff is one hour ahead in time compared to California, so it was still early for us to sleep, but we closed all the blinds (reminded us of Alaska!) and got some shut eye!

This video shows you bow falls and the beautiful trail..

Had I known it was going to be this pretty, would have rushed to the hotel to grab the SLR as well.. after this, had the SLR on me throught the rest of the trip!

If you visit Banff, check sunset timings and dress accordingly to see bow falls at sunset time or golden hour.. just breathtaking!

Not to be missed!

Russian Ridge and Borel Hill sunset

We changed hiking plans for this week to the afternoon.. as it was expected to be a great sunset! 

The hike to Borel hill on a roundabout route through Russian ridge on the ridge trail is a little over 7 miles. It is a moderate hike compared to our other recent hikes! 

Saw the sunset from the Borel hill summit and the skies were just amazing!

Then we made a race to the parking lot. Couldn't feel our fingers on the way down.. I couldn't even click photos on the iPhone as my fingers were numb with the wind. Made it back down just before they close the park gates. 

Here are some photos and panos..

There were no park benches at this summit.. so we used the sign post for our "viewing our future" photo.

We celebrated the summit with some chai !! This hiking group rocks !! 

You get the most amazing views of the bay area from this point! You can also see Black mountain right alongside.. but the view from this point is better in my opinion!

the way up was a interesting.. there was not much shade for the most part.. the sun was on our head the entire time.. we picked a less sunny day for this hike which ended up a good move!

A picture that is typical of the group.. me trailing the rest of the pack by 500 feet or so.. 

Strongly recommend this for an afternoon to evening hike! 

There is another vista point that is not part of this loop at Mindego hill trail.. we skipped that today as there was not enough time.. that will be explored another day.. we did cover the Ancient oaks trail and Charquin trails today.

An evening well spent!