Santorini, Greece

This past week Jennifer and I went to Santorini, Greece. Jennifer flew in from KC in time to meet my friends here last weekend. We went to a beer garden and rode bikes along the river before we left on Monday. Our week in Greece was very relaxing, mostly just laying by the pool with good books and soaking up the sun. There was never even the slightest cloud in the sky the whole time we were there. We could not have asked for better weather or a better time.

My friend Chris surprised his fiance Kerry with tickets to Greece 2 weeks ago completely forgetting that we were going there too. Ironically enough, we were actually on the same flight from Munich on Monday! What are the odds?!?! So we spent a day with them by the pool and took a dinner cruise with them another night and had a great time.


These two pictures are the view of the Aegean Sea from our hotel patio. The island of Santorini is the remains of a volcano. So, the water you see here is really the center of the cone of the volcano and the houses and hotels are built on the very tops of the cone, which are about 1k feet above the water. Although not connected above water, the island in the picture is the other side of the cone. Some people think that the eruption is what caused the disappearance of Atlantis. Who knows, right.

Jennifer and I along the hiking trail into the main town of Fira from our hotel. The town in the background is at the very northwest tip of the island called Oia.

View from the town of Fira, which is about in the middle of the island.

Very typical church. There were countless churches just like this all over the island.

This is looking back to the island of Santorini from the dinner cruise we took with Chris and Kerry.

Jennifer and I ready to head to dinner in front of our hotel.

Kerry and Chris on the cruise.

One of the many delicious Greek salads we had.

View from the cruise up to the town of Oia.

Church in the town of Oia.

Views from Oia.

Sunset from a restaurant in Fira.

Sunsets from the cruise.

Former Yugoslavian Countries

This past week I took a road trip through Slovenia, Croatia, Montenegro, and Bosnia & Herzegovina. The first stop was Lake Bled, Slovenia. I spent two nights there and then drove into the capital city of Ljubljana for a city tour.

Ljubljana, Slovenia



Lake Bled, Slovenia

Next I drove to Dubrovnik, Croatia for three days. This is Neum, Bosnia & Herzegovina. Bosnia & Herzegovina only has a few miles of coastline, but it splits Croatia.

Croatia just north of the Bosnia & Herzegovina border.Dubrovnik, Croatia

The entire old city of Dubrovnik is enclosed by a large wall/fortress that was built in the 1400s.

Courtyard inside the old city. This was next to the pharmacy, which has been operating since 1317 and is thought to be the oldest in Europe.

Inside the old city.

Storm brewing over Dubrovnik.

The old city of Dubrovnik is the piece of land sticking out into the ocean on the right side.

Armored vehicle from the 1991 War for Independence.


This was in a cemetery in the middle of Croatia. I'm not sure what it says other than it is a grave and has 24 names on it, but clearly it is a hammer and sickle with a star on top from the old Yugoslavia days. I couldn't see a date either.

This is an eldery woman putting up hay along the road in northern Croatia.

I took a bus tour of Montenegro one day. The country is very small, but entirely mountainous, so was very pretty. These are two small islands with only churches on them.

Kotor, Montenegro. This was another town enclosed by a wall. The town was established around 150 BC and the wall was built around 500 AD.

Bay of Kotor, Montenegro

Budva Beach, Montenegro. Many VIPs spend their vacations here. There were yachts everywhere. It's hard to tell from this picture, but the entire beach along the whole picture is nice and sandy, so it was also pretty crowded as there aren't that many sandy beaches there.

I'm not 100% sure what this is, but it is a house/building in the old capital city of Cintenje, Montenegro. I took a quick picture as the bus drove by, but you can see bullet holes or mortar fragments have hit just above and to the side of the door. I assume it was from the Kosovo War in 1999.

On the way back to Munich I stopped at the Plitvice Lakes National Park in northern Croatia.

(One of my favorite pictures of the whole trip)