Travelogue… with Bob Nicolaides.

Skeletal remains found in Thessaly field

 

Skeletal material and artifacts ostensibly dating to the Byzantine period were found by a farmer in the greater Kalambaka area, Trikkala district, over the weekend as he was plowing his field. According to the Thessaly prefecture police in Larissa, bones, four bronze bracelets, five earrings and four rings of unknown material were found at a depth of 30-50 cm.

According to an archaeologist of the 19th Ephorate of Byzantine Antiquities, the objects are dated to between the 11th and 12th centuries AD and are considered antiquities. Following an on-site examination, the archaeologist identified a pit grave that contained a ring and two sections of earrings, all made of bronze, along with three fragments of a ceramic vase. The objects will be sent for examination at the Ephorate, while the bones will be sent to the University of Athens Forensic Lab. The Trikkala police are also investigating the find.

Worst tourists of the globe list updated

 

Australian news publication IB Traveler, recently identified the 4 worst tourists in recent history. Here they are:

1. The Colombian Annoying a British Guardsman

Most Annoying Tourists

Stone-faced British Guardsmen are known for not reacting to anything. These trained soldiers, aside from having served in the British military, can keep their cool even in front of giggling tourists. But one guardsman lost his cool as a Colombian tourist started mimicking him. It did not occur to the Colombian that Guardsmen deserve respect.

2. British Tourists Stealing a Penguin

The British are very polite most of the time but three tourists from the UK broke into Sea World Australia and decided to steal a penguin. They stole Dirk, a fairy penguin. According to sources, they also swam with dolphins. Their escapades were posted on Facebook. What happened to Dirk? He was found in a  beach nearby and was returned to Sea World the next day.

3. 15-Year-Old Chinese Who Scratched His Name on a Hieroglyph

Ding Jinhao and his parents went to Egypt to see temples and hieroglyphics including a 3,000-year-old ancient carving. The carving that survived 3,000 years of the elements, earthquakes, and wars took a bit of damage courtesy of Ding Jinhao's idea of scratching his name on it. Written in Chinese, Ding Jinhao etched "Ding Jinhao was here." Ding's mother told a paper in Nanjing, China that she would like to "apologize to the Egyptian people."

4. The Drunk Norwegian in Rome

A drunken Norwegian was on his way back to Oslo when he passed out at the Fiumicino Airport. The 36-year-old tourist reportedly passed out right on the luggage belt and slept for a bit. He did not stir even when he passed through an X-ray scan, according to Thrillist.

 

Restoration of Sparta’s Ancient Theatre 

 

The biggest ancient theatre and a great technological achievement of Sparta, which was designed to fit 17,000 spectators, will be restored according to an announcement. The project will be funded by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, which also paid for the initial study for the restoration work.

Despite its importance in antiquity, the Ancient Theatre of Sparta cannot be viewed currently because of its disrepair. A big part was destroyed by scavengers for the building of Byzantine and post-Byzantine buildings and many of its marbles were removed for the construction of the modern city.

After an initiative by the "DIAZOMA" association and former President Ioannis Varvitsiotis, the Ancient Theatre of Sparta will be restored, now that the study has been completed. The study, conducted by architect Wilhelm Orestides and a multidisciplinary team of architects and archaeologists, antiquities conservators, surveyors and civil engineers, cost 110,000 euros. It started in July 2012, was completed by July 2013 and approved on October 15th 2013 by the Central Arcaeological Council.

The Ancient Theatre of Sparta is located to the north of the modern city and on the south slope of the Acropolis. It was a benchmark for ancient Sparta and was constructed in about 30-20 BC, during the early Roman era.

The theatre stands out for its size, quality and construction using domestic white marble. The slope's diameter measures 141 meters and it  was probably the biggest theatre in Greece. It is often compared with the Dodoni Ancient Theatre, with a slope diameter of 136 meters and Megaloupoli's Theatre with a diameter of 131 meters. The theatre's capacity surpasses the Great Theatre of Epidaurus

 

Five secrets only good travelers know

 

The best travel experiences are always the ones that almost didn't happen. That bar you found around the corner, down the alley and up the lane, or the city you got stuck in because you missed your flight. Well, now you can cultivate a serendipitous experience with these hidden gem-finding tools. Here are five tech tools to help you put the ‘plan’ in your ‘unplanned’ travel moments.

NearMe

Near Me!

NearMe is a mobile app guide to help you get the most out of ending up in an unplanned city. Featuring location services, NearMe can find out where you are, give you a run-down of the bars, events, gigs and restaurants in your vicinity and then help you get there – all with handy map functionality. With global support ticked off, it’s perfect for when you miss your flight and end up in Hong Kong for an extra day. Just add Wi-Fi.

TripGems

Every would-be traveller should have an oft-tripped friends who can drop restaurant recommendations for London at the same time as they give you the best hotel for a New York stay. TripGems takes travel recommendations up a notch by giving you access to a database of the personal recommendations of well-travelled folk the world over. That café that took Anita from Auckland three years to find? You can hit that in a weekend trip and live to tweet to about it!

TravelMate

Here’s one for the domestic traveller. TravelMate is online trip planning tool that helps you get you from start to destination. Want to drive from Sydney to Broome? Add in your details and TravelMate will generate a list of alternate routes and schedules for you. And if you want to take a detour, just update your trip to get an updated itinerary. With New Zealand supported and Asian destinations on their way, it’s never been easier to get off the beaten path.

Tourcaster

There’s nothing quite like a local guide to help you navigate the tourist traps to find the authentic gem in a foreign city. Tourcaster gives you access to the local perspective with a database of podcasts and downloadable audio guides split out by destination and interest. There’s a guide to suit all tastes – everything from a driving tour of Cape Cod, through to a walking tour of Barcelona’s Gothic Quarter.

Pintrip

More of a best ticket gem finder, Pintrip is a Google Chrome extension that takes the pain out of finding the best price for your next overseas trip. Enter a proposed itinerary; your destination and Pintrip will search the web’s best travel aggregator sites for you. Best of all you can set up a travel alert for your departure date and destination and Pintrip will send an email alert when a sale pops up. Safari and Firefox support are on their way.

 On The Heels of Something Big

Kalliope Papakosta with Alexabder's statue

Calliope Limneou Papakosta who conducts the research for The Hellenic Research Institute for Alexandrian Civilization may have something big to report soon, after the ground on which her crew was conducting studies collapsed, a sure sign that something is buried underneath. The ground where Ms Papakosta was conducting studies is located at the park with the falls in the center of the city of Alexandria.  It must be noted that Ms Papapakosta, the head of the Hellenic Research Institute is the one who unearthed such as the Hellenistic period statue of Alexander the Great, dating from the 3^rd century BC, which already is on view at the Alexandria National Museum.

 Roman Tomb Found During Road Works

 A well-preserved and ornately decorated underground Roman tomb, complete with vaults and wall paintings, was found in Corinth during during works to extend the Corinth-Patras national road, archaeologists said. Calling the find an extremely important one, the Central Archaeological Council said it belongs to the same Roman cemetery overlying an Archaic one that had yielded a similar ornately decorated tomb in 2012. The tomb has been initially dated to between the 1st and 2nd centuries AD, but may be earlier.

The monument, 3.30m by 2.63m, was entered from the south through a staircase decorated on either side with two ceramic tiles in deep relief, one showing a quadriga (four-horse chariot), and the other depicting a chariot pulled by dolphins next to a sea creature. Inside, there were vaults over niches where ash urns were placed, and three larnaces (terracotta coffins) containing bones, oil lamps, bronze coins and pottery shards. One of the coffins was painted to depict bed covers. The interior of the tomb also contained very well-preserved wall paintings, depicting garlands, fruit and three figures, two men and a woman. Archaeologist Anna Karapanagiotou, Council member, said that the tomb "may possibly be that of a Roman citizen, possibly an official or Romanized Greek, who had a close relationship to Rome."

The ancient cemetery has yielded other artifacts of importance, such as troughs for offerings between burials, which have so far only been found at the Kerameikos ancient cemetery in Athens. The richness of the finds at the site prompted the Central Archaeological Council to set up a seven-member committee to conduct an on-site inspection, which will also help in the decision to keep the monument in place or remove it.

Egypt tour Operators Back in Business

 

Egypt operators are busy reinstating their full programs after the Foreign and Commonwealth Office decided to lift its ban on Cairo, Great Cairo, Giza and the Giza Pyramids. Philip Breckner at Discover Egypt says it already has customers lined up wanting to go back. "It will take time to rebuild consumer confidence and yet we've already finalized travel arrangements for those who had been impatiently waiting for the FCO advisory to be lifted," he said.







Recently, Breckner met with Tarek Saaad El din, the new Governor of Luxor, who outlined some immediate initiatives, including rebuilding pavements and installing 150 additional security cameras to safeguard artifacts and visitors. Luxor is also looking to attract more investment in tourist infrastructure longer term and is to set up study and research groups with workshops and forum to look at ways of improving it.

Red Sea Holidays will be resuming excursions and multi-centre tours from January 2014, which include Cairo and the Nile. Sales director Jason Hilton said: ""Over the last four weeks we have sent more than 50 agents on resort visits to the Red Sea with a further 40 departing in January, to see for themselves that it's business as usual in this guaranteed winter sun destination. "We have received nothing but positive feedback from visiting agents and have seen a dramatic uplift in sales volumes of late. We are very optimistic about forward sales in the New Year, when we also hope to recommence our Nile Cruise and Cruise & Stay operations."

Back in July Egypt operators had been forced to cancel trips and suspend operations in most parts of Egypt, except for the Red Sea  resorts, after weeks of political protests and violent clashes in Cairo and in other parts of the country.

 

Excavations inThessaloniki yield 104,000 objects

The results of seven years' worth of excavations for a Metro in Greece's largest northern city include over 104,000 artefacts of various materials including glass and silver, according to a lecture by the director of the 9th Ephorate of Byzantine Antiquities of Thessaloniki, Despina Makropoulou, at the city's Archaeological Museum on Monday night.

Makropoulou gave an overview of the finds from four future station locations of the Thessaloniki Metro that include objects dated to Roman and Byzantine times, and she described the unearthed parts of a major Roman roadway, which preserve the grooves of carriage wheels on its much-travelled route.