Summary

Our favorite parts of Greece are the spectacular mountains of Zagoria and northern Greece for great hiking amid crocus and wildflower fields, and romantic Santorini Island (Thira) for eye-popping whitewashed villages perched high above the Aegean Sea on the rim of an active volcano. I was also moved by our pilgrimage to the Acropolis and Parthenon, the awesome and classic symbols of early Democracy. We hiked a total of 170 miles  with day packs and stayed overnight in pleasant pensions and mountain refuges. Robinson Expeditions (this link goes to their page) conveniently moved our luggage each day to the next pension. Carol and I joined a group of friends from Seattle for a rewarding five weeks in Greece, from April 26 to May 30, 2001 (by way of Amsterdam, Netherlands).
     The cliff-top monasteries of Meteora are visually stunning and culturally important, but I recommend avoiding the overwhelming hordes of tourists by visiting in the off season (late fall through early spring). I was fascinated by the history of the island of Crete and loved the aromas when hiking through its wild herb gardens on the sunny southwest coast, but the modern reality of hundreds of tourists on the Samaria Gorge hike dampened my enthusiasm. Crete's relatively remote southwest coast was pretty, but for me the Turquoise Coast of Turkey offers more variety. In fact, if you are looking for a travel bargain that is more exotic, has taller mountains and greater variety than Greece, and also includes important Greek ruins & Christian history, I highly recommend visiting Turkey.
    If you plan a trip to Greece (or "Ellada", as Greeks call their country), I highly recommend reading up on Greek history, culture, and language before going, in order to enrich the sights, which are usually surrounded by familiar modern Western trappings and services. I was well rewarded after studying Greek language tapes for 10 weeks before the trip -- I could read and speak the Greek numbers, signs, and place names and felt a little closer to the culture.
    I love Greek food (closely related to Turkish cuisine due to Ottoman Turk occupation), and the food was uniformly delicious, though sometimes a bit heavy on the olive oil. After 4 weeks, however, the restaurant food grew repetitious (as was also true in Turkey). We yearned to replace the white-bread breakfasts with our favorite whole grain breads, oatmeal, and more fruit. Upon returning to Seattle, I'm always amazed by the huge variety of international foods available in groceries and restaurants. Due to the worldwide diaspora of the Greek people, you can find Greek food in Seattle that tastes as good as in Greece.

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    I recommend carrying the excellent Lonely Planet guidebooks on the trip: 1) Greece by Paul Hellander, 2) Greek Islands, 3) Greek language phrasebook. If you will be hiking on the mainland, try The Mountains of Greece: A Walker's Guide (Cicerone Guide) by Tim Salmon. The DK Eyewitness and similar Insight Guide series are both excellent for dreaming, planning and leaving at home as glossy souvenirs. I enjoyed the historical fiction and romance Voice of the Goddess, by Judith Hand, 2001, which enlivens the Minoan era (or "Keftian" era, since the Egyptians of 1500 BCE called Crete "Keftiu") based upon archeological evidence and the author's imagination. (She also wrote The Amazon and the Warrior, a novel of Troy.)

Athens

Left: The  Propylaia, entry to the  Acropolis, was built in 437-432 BCE, in alignment with the Parthenon.

Below: During our 2001 visit, the awesome Parthenon was being reconstructed for the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. The Parthenon is the largest Doric-column temple ever completed in Greece. It was built 447-431 BCE as a treasury for tribute money moved from Delos Island, and was also dedicated to the worship of Athena, specially designed to contain a huge, 12-meter tall statue of Athina Polias (reproduced below) placed in 432 BCE.  
 

Left: Ionic columns grace this side of the asymmetrical Erechtheion on the Acropolis, Athens.

Below: High above Athens, Caryatids support the roof of the portico on the Erechtheion sanctuary.

The first Olympic Games were declared in 776 BCE (for male athletes only) and ran every four years at Olympia in the Peloponnese Peninsula until 394 CE, when Emperor Theodosius I, a Christian, banned them as pagan. The Games were not reinstituted until 1896. The return of the Olympic Games to Greece in 2004 was a proud and triumphant moment for the people of Athens and Greeks worldwide. About 10 million people live in Greece, and about an equal number of Greeks live in other countries worldwide, scattered by a tumultuous history.