I felt great relief when we checked in for your flight and had all the right documents. We spent a couple hours in the Sky Club and then off to New York. In New York, we enjoyed the Centurion lounge and then boarded our flight to Athens. Glenn described boarding on Facebook:
We are boarding our flight to Athens. Headed to an aisle and middle seat, 12C and 12D respectively Random strangers who are in seats 12A and 12B ask us a question.
Q: Would you mind switching with our friends who are across the aisle in 12J and 12H ( aisle and window).
A: (Angie and I collectively within two seconds) YES!!
This is equivalent to when the Red Sox traded Babe Ruth to the Yankees for 100K.
Woohoo.
The irony was we paid for Comfort+ seats and the whole back of the plane was empty. Oh well. It was cozy.
Entry into Greece was very easy.
One of our travel rules is to jump right into the time zone of where you land. The best way for us to do that we've found is to take a tour. Having someone lead us around meets the goal of not wasting the first day and we don't have to count on our tired brains to make any decisions.
Today, we tried something new and had a private tour pick us up at the airport. We avoided the annoying will our room be ready? It was great. We headed down the southern tip of Athens to see the Temple of Poisiden and have lunch in one of the seaside resort towns. We had terrific daily Spinach pie and grilled octopus.
Getting to the hotel was an Amazing Race adventure as most of the routes are closed for a big auto race that afternoon. We arrived at Hotel Grande Bretagne and headed to the pool for a little more natural light before heading to bed.
Another favorite thing to do in a new city is a food tour. I think it's a great orientation to a city and a great way to learn about the culture. We took a fantastic one this morning with Dorela from Athens Walks. It was 4 hours. We sampled so much great food. My favorites were the Greek coffee and souvlaki. Dorela actually made us slow down and sip it and chat and it was lovely.
Did you know Greek salad doesn't have lettuce? It's because lettuce and tomatoes aren't harvested in the same season..
We went back to the hotel to rest. Then we went on a great private tour of historic sites in central Athens. I picked the latest tour time hoping for a little sunset glow on the Parthenon. It worked. ❤️
My favorite corner was a little set of narrow alleys. Homes built by workers from the island Anafi brought to Athens to build the Palace. They built their homes to look just like their island.with narrow alleyways and white washed exteriors.
When you enter the Acropolis from the southern entrance, you can see the theaters.
Greek Theater originated from the drunken performances of a Dionysian cult.
Whenever I visit places I thought I knew something about, I am always surprised by how very little I know. I had no idea the Parthenon - a temple to Athena - survived was because it was used as a church dedicated to Mary. Then, it was used as a Mosque. Then, it got bombed because it was used as ammunition warehouse. The Parthenon is actually a bit curved so that the columns appear straight from a distance.
Or at least that's what our tour guide said and I believe him.
After the tour, we met up with Paul for dinner near Plakka at Kitpo . It was a lovely outside setting out of the hustle and bustle. The food was great. I had fried anchoys and sea bream. Glenn had zucchini fritters and veal stew.
We tried a great Greek rose.
