Trips

Trip 12 - 2001

Editor

• 4 min read
Trip 12 - 2001
Patricia Taylor, Parker Simms, Morgan Banks, Renee Johnson, Mary Baldwin, Rory Kuykendall, Andrew Hagen, Steve O'Mara, & William Taylor in St. Petersburg

Itinerary

  • Russia: St. Petersburg, Moscow
  • Greece: Athens, Mt. Olympus, Nauplion, Nemea, Olympia, Ithica
  • Italy: Elea, Rome, Florence
  • Austria: Vienna, Mauthausen
  • Germany: Eagles Nest
  • Switzerland: Zermatt

Students

  • Mary Baldwin
  • Morgan Banks
  • Andrew Hagen
  • Renee Johnson
  • Rory Kuyendall
  • Steve O'Mara
  • Parker Simms

Trip Leader

  • Mr. Taylor

Trip Assisstent

  • Paul Wilkinson (Vertran Host)

Trip Highlights

  • Paul Wilkinson was at the St. Petersburg airport to move us through customs
  • Arete ’83 veteran was our host in Russia
  • St. Petersburg of blue canals, spectacular palaces, writers, musicians and the ballet
  • A train station and the arrival of Lenin in 1917
  • Angelica tells of the red scarf for Lenin in her youth
  • Moscow, the Kremlin, the churches and Red Square
  • The sober walk in black marble tomb by Lenin
  • The red stair case discovery
  • Drive to “Vatican” of Russian Orthodox church“cover those bare shoulders”
  • Flight to Athens
  • Greek movie actress prefers to talk with Mr. Taylor
  • Rock music invades Arete
  • “1896” Olympic stadium
  • Run along top row leads to glorious sunset behind Parthenon
  • Mary crashes van
  • Stuck in front of the Astor
  • Mice, safe, well planned van stop off highway
  • To Mt. Olympus
  • Ip the sweet little trail toward the crags of Mt. Olympus
  • Rory tells Mr. Taylor of his respect as the older one reaches a rest stop, and Mr. Taylor tells Rory, “……….”
  • Sleeping below the gods and goddess on Mt. Olympus, then the boys climbed high before dawn
  • Nauplion and the illegal swim by Steve and Renee
  • Olympia and the great finish between Parker and Morgan
  • Off to the new island of “Corelli’s Mandolin
  • Long run in heat by Rory, swim by Steve
  • Then early morning crossing to Ithaki and Odysseus
  • A drive high up on the mountain to where some danger lurked
  • Tessa likes danger
  • “Being is where danger is” said the pre-Socratic Greek philosophers
  • By sea to Italy
  • Nasty German youth
  • Slept below ancient ruins of Elea, where Parmenides had a school
  • Parker continues to sleep on roof of van
  • Arete was able to walk to the center of the Coliseum arena in Rome
  • “The Gladiator”
  • A vivid reflection
  • Sunset over Florence
  • Lengthy time, interest, in Freud museum in Vienna
  • The death camp by the Danube
  • The vulgar, festive atmosphere way up in Hitler’s Eagles Nest
  • Morgan, “give me my hat”

Arete 2001 enjoyed wonderful weather in Zermatt and up on the Matterhorn. Gawd, what experiences.

A not so innocent stare at the island in Nauplion by a 2001 lad. This will lead to a fateful swim in 2003.

Tessa reads from familiar book a familiar quote by Kazantzakis for Arete before the Parthenon on the 2001 journey.

Arete '83 veteran, Paul Wilkinson, provided this trip through the canals of St. Petersburg in 2001 on a breautiful day.

Ancient tunnel for the athletes at Nemea, Greece, finds a Arete 2001 student at one end and Mr. Taylor at the other; the "alpha" and "omega" of Arete West.

Rory Kuykendal of Arete 2001, an outstanding high school cross country runner, finishes a 5 mile run through the 4th century B.C. tunnel at Nemea, Greece. Arete provided the lead runners in forming the "New Nemean Games" that now draw thousands of participants every four years. Arete students were the first in 2300 years to race in competition on the Pan-Hellenic track.

Arete 2001 Mr. Taylor's late wife, Patricia Taylor, joined the travel team during their time in Russia. This is the only portion of an Arete trip that she chose to join, incidentally. Why this one? She didn't want to miss seeing Russia. Time was spent in beautiful St. Petersberg and Moscow. While in Red Square, the remains of Lenin were observed. And Jack Nicholson. Just as we walked into the square the actor passed by us.

We climbed well up toward the peaks of Mt. Olympus in Greece, spent the night in a youth hostel. Three of the boys set their alarm clocks for an early morning hour and experienced the sunrise upon the home of the gods and goddesses. They were to take the trail up until climbing equipment would be required. "No further".

Morgan Banks ran the second fastest high school time in the country in the California state finals. This pleased Mr. Taylor because it was his old event in college.

We do get around. Red Square in Moscow is really there. And the military police did not remove this litter from the "square", fortunately.