Program 762: Athens Day Trips; More Greek Islands; Joanna Lumley in Northern Greece

It's a big fat Greek hour to enjoy, on the next Travel with Rick Steves.

Tour guides from Athens recommend easy day trips, an hour or two from the capital, into the historic Greek countryside.

And we'll hear about lesser-known islands in the Aegean and Ionian seas that offer a taste of Greek island life, away from hectic tourist crowds.

Plus, British actress Dame Joanna Lumley shares her favorite highlights from exploring northern Greece for a TV special she filmed there.

• Effie Perperi, tour guide based in Athens
• Apostolos Douras, tour guide from Athens
• British actress and TV presenter Joanna Lumley

• The Rick Steves online site for Greece.
• Rick's audio tour of the Acropolis.
• Effie Perperi can be contacted for private tours in Athens via e-mail or on Instagram.
• You can listen to Effie's conversation with Rick about the Acropolis in Athens on Travel with Rick Steves program #741 from January 2024. She describes her favorite neighborhoods in Athens on program #711 from April 2023.
• Tour guide Apostolos Douras includes photos and information on the places in Greece where he guides on his Wonders of Knowledge website.
• Dame Joanna Lumley is a well-loved actress and activist in Britain, and a member of the Royal Geographic Society. Her four-episode television series "Joanna Lumley's Greek Odyssey" first aired on ITV in 2011.

• George Dalaras, "Nafplio," Me To 'na Podi St' Astra Kai Ta Dyo Stin Kolasi / Cobalt Music-Helladisc
• SON_SOVS_0102_02501_Mataranga_APM
• Yanni, "Dance for Me," Sensuous Chill / Yanniworks-Portrait
• Royal Greek Festival Company, "Roumeli and the Peloponnese (part 1)," Authentic Greek Folk Songs and Dances / Essential Media
• Yiorgos Gerolimatos, "Megiemele," 1000% Epitihies (collection) / BMG Greece
• * Davol, "Another Land," The Best of Silver Wave, vol. 2 (collection) / Silver Wave
• KPM_JM_0055_01901_Corfu_Caper_APM
• KPM_KPM_0735_03001_Moonlight_Over_the_Acropolis_APM
• KAPT_KAPT_0103_01401_Mysterious_Past_APM
• SEL_SEL_6966~2_01001_Violin_Sirtaki_APM
• Parasksévas Grekis, "Zorba's Dance (Horos tou Zorba)," Greece-Grece - Mikis Theodorakis / Mikis Theodorakis (self-released)
• * Anemos, "Miazis Me Fotia," Athens to Andalucia: A Mediterranean Odyssey (collection) / Putumayo
• Glykeria, "Tik Tik Tak," World Playground (collection) / Putumayo
• KAPT_KAPT_0092_0070__Lovely_Day_APM
• MPATH_MPATH_0020_00201_Gentle_Journey_APM
• SON_SOVS_0102_02501_Mataranga_APM
• Divna and the Melodi Choir, "Polyeleos (Ps. 134)," Lumieres du chant byzantin / Jade
• Andreas Koumbaroulis, "Edo Sto Pezodromio," Dance of Heaven's Ghosts (collection) / EMI International
• Yuval Ron Ensemble, "Tseter (Birds)," Tree of Life / (self-released)
• DED_CDGML_6200_03301_Andromeda_APM

* Indicates filler music used during internal breaks on the broadcast

• At 17:59, Rick describes the festive Greek Easter he experienced in Nafplio.
• At 25:00, Apostolos recommends visiting Greece in early June or mid-September, for the best weather and potentially lighter crowds after the school year resumes. At 31:22, he says to avoid the hot, crowded months of July and August.
• In the segment C open, Rick notes that "a few years back" Joanna Lumley filmed her Greek Odyssey series "just as Greece was beginning to plunge into its economic recession."
• Rick and Joanna talk about "the new Acropolis museum" at 45:58, and the controversy over the "Elgin Marbles" being housed at the British Museum in London. Joanna refers to them as the crown jewel of the British Museum, and later describes a Melina Mercouri statue that advocates for their return to Athens.
• In the reset at 49:05 and 56:50, Rick notes that "Joanna Lumley's Greek Odyssey" can be found "on a variety of streaming services" and on YouTube. (It's no longer listed at Acorn TV.)
• At 57:35, Joanna refers to "renewed hostilities" along the Greece–Turkey border in the Evros region of Thrace.