europe

I was sent this book before setting off for Greece (where I spent 3 weeks in Athens and the Peloponnese). I read through it, and it did give me a fairly good understanding of what it was going to be like when I got there. Fortunately, I was not solely dependent on the book for seeing interesting things, as I had several friends to travel with (2 of whom were Greek).

One of the interesting things that I noticed about Greece (being such an ancient country) was that there are various ruins around much of the country, and quite a few in Athens. Many of the locals don't know what specific ruins are, especially when you get far afield from their hometowns. From that perspective, this book does provide a good source of information on what many of the ruins actually are/were.

Also, it has a really good section on how to get around the various sections in Athens, and what items of interest are in each area. I would take note of things that you especially want to see, because you will find that there are statues, objects, ruins and artifacts all over the place, and unless you have some idea of what you are interested in, you can spend days just walking around looking at various objects of very little interest or importance.

As with any foreign country or culture (or even other cities in your own country) you will never get to the really good hole in the wall restaurants and see some of the cooler sites (such as exclusive nightclubs on the coast in Athens) without the help and guidance of a local companion, so don't think for a moment that this book is a replacement for someone who REALLY knows what they are doing.

I am taking along the Eyewitness Travel Guide for "Greece: Athens & The Mainland" on our trip to Greece today because it shows us everything we are not going to see (Hang on, this will make sense). These DK volumes pride themselves on being "The guides that show you what others only tell you," being filled with over 1,000 photographs, illustrations, and maps. There are cutaways and floor plans of all the major sites that we are seeing, just as the Parthenon and the monastery of Varlaam. But in a week in Greece there is only so much you can see and if we not have time to visit everything in Athens and are only visiting two of the monasteries of Meteora, then this DK Eyewitness Travel Guide will show us something of what we are missing. There are sections on Ancient Greece and then Area by Area sections on Athens and Mainland Greece, along with a section on Travellers' Needs and a Surival Guide. So all the basic are covered along with the profuse illustrations.

Of course there are also sections on where to eat, where to stay, and how to get around. I especially liked the pages devoted to various types of local cuisine, which shows you what you would find on the classic Greek menu as well as the different type of dishes you should try in Central Greece versus the Peloponese. You can use this guide to scope out what you will find when you visit places like Mycenae, Olympia, and Delphi, but you might want to use it more as a reminder of what you have seen than spoiling some of the ancient treasures in store for you at these sites. For example, "discovering" the golden mask of Agamemnon or the statue of Hermes by Praxiteles might work better as a complete surprise. Then again, you would hate to miss some of these things. Of course, we compromise: I know what there is to see and my wife gets to be surprised. It works for us.

P.S. Back from Greece and everybody wanted to borrow our guidebook. Several are going to pick it up when they get back home because it serves as a nice reminder of what we saw (and what we did not see).