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While staying in Athens, Telluride Inside... and Out visited Corinth. The ancient city was upon a time a nearly impregnable fortress with a reputation for lewd and licentious behavior in the name of the Goddess of Love, Aphrodite. St. Paul must have found the profligates irresistible: he founded a church in Corinth during an 18-month stay.
"Golden" Mycenae was once the most powerful city state in Greece, with the whole of the Peloponnese under its dominion. 
The entrance to Mycenae's acropolis is through the Lion Gate, the oldest example of monumental sculpture in Europe. Inside the walls, excavations have uncovered a palace complex, Grave Circle A with its six royal tombs, courtier's houses, craft areas, sanctuaries, and other important buildings. Off the acropolis lie more finds: Grave Circle B with its 14 royal tombs and the tombs of 12 private homes. On a nearby hill is one of the most memorable edifices of Mycenaen architecture, the Treasure of Atreus, also known as the Beehive Tomb of Agamemnon.
20 October, 2010 /

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Fall has not yet subsided into winter, and if you're still out hiking in Telluride, there's one last trail you should check out: Hawn Mountain. Anyone who has ever tried to walk over a talus slope or a scree field, putting their ankles in jeopardy on the shifting rocks and sometimes ending up on their backsides, will appreciate the sheer genius of the Hawn Mountain trail. Gray Head developer and longime local Steve Catsman designed this and all 16 miles of the Gray Head trails, as well as the Keystone Gorge Trail on the other side of the Telluride Valley. The trail’s switchbacks pass through ferrous rock, sharp pieces of grey and rust-colored granite. But instead of picking your way through the stones, take the stairs—an intricate staircase has been fashioned from the rocks, giving hikers a firm footing over which to pass through the scree field.

The stairway is truly amazing, maybe even as spectacular as the vantage points you reach on the hike. Doug Wolfe and his crew helped construct the rock route, and Wolfe said it took him a good two weeks to stand up without pain after it was completed.

19 October, 2010 /

Noma1 Noma2 Noma3



  

By Lisa Barlow

 

Editor's note: This is the first weekly column from new TIO contributor Lisa Barlow. Barlow is a writer and photographer who divides her time between New York, Telluride and San Pancho, Mexico. An enthusiastic omnivore, she specializes in stories about food. The photos above, from left to right: glazed beetroot and apples; poached eggs and radishes; pork neck and bulrushes, violets and malt.  LB2

It’s easy now to imagine how Babette might have coped at the end of Babette’s Feast when she had revealed herself to be a kick ass French chef, but had run out of money and was destined to remain as a cook and housekeeper for two ascetic spinsters in the remote and unforgiving landscape of Jutland in Denmark. Forget the foie gras and the Veuve Cliquot, all she had to do to look for extraordinary ingredients and inspiration was to open her front door.

19 October, 2010 /

DSC02439 Our experience is that  upon venturing outside the bubble we call Telluride, it takes awhile to find our sea legs. Or in this case, our way around the kitchen.

Greece has it when it comes to food: the Pelopponese is a kind of Eden, growing all kinds of fruits and vegetables, producing amazing wines , cheeses, meats and olive oils too. Crete, where we are headed today,  is another food mecca. So it is no big surprise that Athens is a food town, with a wide range of choices of eateries from down and dirty tavernas to Michelin-starred restaurants. (There's one right next store to our hotel, Eridanus, but we failed to score a reservation.)

18 October, 2010 /

Editor's note: For eight years, Telluride local/mountaineer Ben Clark and a few friends/professional colleagues have made Spring treks to the majestic Himalayas. Follow his adventures on Telluride Inside... and Out, including links to his regular podcasts. If you have missed any of Ben's posts, just type "Ben Clark" into Lijit Search to find them all.

When I broke my ankle on May 1 last spring, I was at 17,600’ on 23,390' Baruntse, also known as my own personal Moby Dick for reasons you can research at www.skithehimalayas.com. Unlike Ahab, I was rescued by a vessel rather than doomed to one. Lifted into the skies, wrapped in bandages, worked over through weeks of PT and now here I am again today, returning to wrestle with ambition and not the ankle. Hopefully stronger, admittedly risk averse and yet still with an appetite for the unknown. The whale is gone though, off my range for a spell. 

17 October, 2010 /

Dateline: Athens, 10/16/2010

IMGP1701 You know you are not in Kansas – Telluride either – when the view outside your window is, yes, a mountain, but not a very big one, and on top of that mountain –  or "Sacred Rock," the name locals gave it – is a cluster of ancient buildings, marble masterpieces dating back to the late fifth century B.C., the Golden Age of Athens.

The temples on the Acropolis, including the Parthenon, are among the most important monuments in the Western world. Yesterday, day #2 in Greece, we made the required pilgrimage. I say "required," not "desired," because the place is on everyone else's bucket list too, and so even now, the tail end of tourist season, there is barely room to turn around. But I am getting ahead of myself.

17 October, 2010 /

IMGP1708 Regular readers of Telluride Inside... and Out will recognize a familiar voice at the helm: Deb Dion has the con while Susan and I are on the road. Thanks for taking control, Deb.

We had a good week in Hackensack, NJ, with Susan's parents, with a few side trips into New York for art, theatre (if you're in New York, don't miss "Little Foxes" at New York Theatre Workshop) and catching up with friends. We had good pass rider karma on Delta Airlines, with seats in Business Class for the 10 hour flight to Athens. That set us up to hit the ground running when we arrived.

Construction and traffic delays related to labor strikes (protesting austerity measures mandated by EU bailouts in Greece) slowed our ride into the city. Our driver, Stevios, had plenty of stories to fill the time. Our first home-away-from-home, the Eridanus Luxury Art Hotel, has proven helpful beyond measure, as well as beautiful. The view of the Acropolis from our patio is also a major benefit.

15 October, 2010 /
[click "Play", Dr. Ptak speaks with Susan about breast cancer and reconstructive surgery] October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. In Telluride, the Ah Haa School for the Arts is celebrating in support, designating the 10th month of the year  to "The Art of Being a Woman." Among the events on the agenda is BRA-vo, a bra invitational: bras gathered from local donations are to be decorated throughout the month, then displayed by stunning models, all men, all jocks, on the runway at the school Thursday, October 21, 7 – 9 p.m. We are LOL just thinking about it. But breast cancer is no laughing matter. Unknown-1 Breast cancer: two words that strike fear in the hearts of women around the world – and with good reason. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, aside from non-melanoma skin cancer, breast cancer is the most common form of cancer in women. Research from the National Cancer Institute reveals that in the U.S. in 2010 alone, over 200,000 women were diagnosed with the disease.
12 October, 2010 /

IMGP1496 I believe I have mentioned before: for me there is no good time to leave Telluride. But things are so busy in Telluride during the Winter and Summer, that if one is to get out of town to visit family, the shoulder season is when it's going to happen.

We were in Telluride long enough to be aware of this even-more-beautiful Autumn, but mostly we have been on the road. We were in Pittsburgh in early September with daughter #2, Kjertsin Klein and husband Greg and grandkids Dylan and Anna. That was a great time. We hadn't been together for a year, so there was a lot of catching up to do, and lots of noticing that the kids had shot up in the meantime.

09 October, 2010 /

Awesome Opals Editor's note:  The astrological signs of October are Libra (September 23 –October 22) and Scorpio (October 23 – November 21). For what's happening in the stars, see Cynthia Zehm's weekly Alacazem. But celestial bodies are not all that shines: the birthstone of the month is opal. To romance the stone, see Telluride Inside... and Out's newest  monthly column, Birthstones, from Dolce.


It is altogether fitting and proper that our birthstone column launches with a riff on opals because Dolce's owner and Telluride local Beau Staley has a personal history with the stone.

In 1989, Beau spent his summer break from college working for Nagalle Designs, a company founded and run by Dolce artist, sculptor James Vilona and once a dominant force in inlaid jewelry manufacturing. Nagalle built its fine reputation on its designs incorporating the coveted Australian opal. Beau wound up taking over Nagalle from James so that James could work full time on his art.  By the time Beau sold Nagalle hinself, he had built a reputation as a power player in the wholesale marketing of this precious stone.

08 October, 2010 /