our big trip for autumn 2008 was a 15-day overseas adventure travel (oat) tour of greece. the plan was to start with an additional three-day pre-trip visit to athens, then to make bus trips to meteora and delphi, and finally to cruise on a small ship around several islands, mainly in the cyclades. except it didn't quite work out as planned....

first, we had just made airline reservations to go there when we learned that the pre-trip was cancelled for lack of participation. we decided to go ahead on our own, which worked out well as we got to see much more of athens than we would have otherwise.

the bus visit to meteora's spectacular rock formations and to historic delphi, site of the famous oracle, went fine. we had an exceptionally congenial group, and our guide peggy was extremely knowledgeable about all things greek, especially history and archaeology. 

once we got on our boat, however, the weather created problems. high winds and rough seas in the aegean made it impossible for our small ship to sail to the scheduled islands, so we spent a few days visiting more sheltered places (aegina , poros and methana) near athens while waiting for the weather  to improve. it didn't. to their credit, the tour company and guides did an extraordinary job of rearranging things so we could travel on big ocean-going ferries to visit santorini (which everyone wanted to see) and naxos, where we had a home visit and meal, as well as other activities.

rather than attempt a detailed description of all that we did and saw, we'll just include a few pictures and add that a great time was had by all!