Day 8 and 9

Day 8 - Our last day in Zakynthos dawned the hottest yet and what better to do on a hot day on a Greek island than head to the beach. We found a gem too, just down the road was Porto Zorro beach and it was as we all agreed the best beach we had found in Zak. So we stayed all day, lounging, swimming, sleeping and eating. The girls even found time to have a spa treatment which consisted of digging in the sand till they discovered some clay then slapping it on their bodies...all the Greeks were doing it and they looked great so there must be something in it. Watch this space for photos, if Ruth lets me! After finding the world's least signposted airport (the Greeks like to mess with the tourists with bad/no road signs) we flew off to Athens, leaving AD and Rach to conclude their holiday in peace! Arrived in Athens and you know it wouldn't be an overseas trip if you didn't get ripped off by a cabbie, so we thought we'd try it. 20 euro for a 5 minute cab ride pretty much did it! We wandered down the road for a night view of the Acropolis then hit the sack after midnight...early start tomorrow.

Day 9 - With an international flight out of Athens at 1 we had to get up early to see the sites, it was another scorcher in Athens too and after a half hour walk up a hill we were blowing a bit, however we timed our run perfectly as the Acropolis opened at 8 so our photos pretty much have no tourists in them....well apart from ourselves. There were stunning views of Athens up there and not being much of a history buff I was still pretty impressed by the structures like the Parthenon et al. I didn't realise that the ancient Greeks used so much titanium in their buildings either. Athens did seem overrun by stray dogs too and they just hung out in places like the Acropolis, not a bad kennel I say! Anyways we bid farewell to bins full of poo paper and flew to Venezia via Roma. Venezia looked great from the air and was even better walking around. It is a really tranquil place late at night and the small streets and old buildings are full of character and history. We just wandered the streets for a couple of hours (got a bit lost), spoke as much bad Italian as I could, indulged in a classic Italian meal of beer (Beera Moretto) and pizza, and soaked it all up. This place is pretty sweet. Oh yeah our little hotel the Alloggi Agli Artisti is perfect too, highly recommended. This was a great day for the sights and check this out, we had breakfast in Athens, lunch in Roma and dinner in Venezia, it doesn't get much better than that. Ciao from Venice.