I took a couple of weeks off to go on a vacation. This time I can call it a fitness vacation. A group of family and friends went to the island of Leros, Greece. Leros is an hour long flight from Athens. Leros has a unique history in that it was the second-most bombed location in WWII. The Germans had taken over the island and used the harbors to anchor their warships. The British RAF obliged them with frequent bomb runs. It is also the original site that the movie, “The Guns of Navarone” was based on. The cliffs and some cannon remains can still be seen.
Our first stop after a long 10.5-hour flight from Houston was to Istanbul, Turkey. Someone told me that their airport is one of the largest in the world. When we got off the plan we had to go to another gate to catch a flight to Athens, Greece. We walked for over 30 minutes, including a number of sidewalk escalators to speed things along. Even if we walked a slow 20-minutes-per-mile, it was over a mile to the next gate. The mall section of the airport had more expensive shops and restaurants located in one place than I had ever seen. It was a good stretch for the legs after that long plane ride. Fitness on day one.
On the island of Leros, we stayed in the village of Penteli. Penteli is located between two steep hills, almost mountainous, and built along the steep sides of hills, right on the sea. When you build on the side of a hill you are somewhat limited for space. The limits include building very narrow roads for transportation. Narrow roads do not have room for sidewalks. The roads are shared with cars, motorcycles, lots of scooters, a few bikes, and people. If you are the people part of the road sharing it is mandatory that you walk with your eyes and ears wide open all the time.
