I stayed up way too late on Friday night getting things done on John’s computer – this blog, work stuff, email etc. Typical for me I ended up getting just a couple of hours of sleep before it was time to get up at 0 dark thirty to catch a 7am flight out of Chania to Athens. Glad to drop off that POS car. Interesting in Greece and Italy that the airports are not as automated as ours. Even if you printed your boarding pass ahead of time, you still wait in long lines to check your luggage and get a boarding pass. No automated kiosks. Then you typically take a bus from your gate to the plane. One fantastic change in Greece is much less public smoking, especially in the airport.
One of the best hotel choices I made on this trip was getting a room at the Sofitel Athens airport hotel. It is literally 50 steps from the exit of the airport, closer than car rental at most airports. Jim – this was your five star hotel for the trip. We had to wait about an hour to get into a room but well worth it. King size bed, air conditioning, a real shower (house in Crete had a tub with shower spray and no shower). We took a nap until about 1pm and headed to town via the metro. Easy travel but public transportation is not cheap in Europe any longer. 14 euros round trip for each. Our destination was the old part of Athens.
Our first mission was to find a shop that sells the decorative cross that we put on the koliva during an Orthodox memorial service. It took a while but we found one and they are home with Bill by now.
Since our last trip here the new Acropolis Museum has opened across from the Acropolis. What an amazing museum. It was built to house the treasures from the Acropolis – statues, friezes, pottery. It tells the history of the site and the buildings. During the construction they found new archeological sites and the museum was built with glass floors so visitors can see the sites below them. The museum is all glass and faces the acropolis. In fact the top floor is the same size and orientation of the acropolis with columns and friezes laid out as they were originally.
Finished there late afternoon so we decided to see the acropolis. We climbed up the back entrance taking pictures over the city along the way. Entered late – maybe 6ish thinking that it didn’t close until 8pm. It was not very crowded and fairly clear. But the workers started herding us out at 20 till seven. I gave them a hard time all the way down. But we were able to get some great pictures of the Acropolis from a little hill called Monkey Hill.
Took Rick Steves recommendation on a little rooftop restaurant with a view of the lit up Acropolis. It was a delightful place and a good spot for Bill and I to end our one week trip, celebrating the 28th anniversary of our honeymoon. We really enjoyed our time together. Greece has come a long way in being easier place to travel.
While we were there we heard a band or some sort of parade down below the restaurant. It was a procession with bands and girl scouts followed by priests and a congregation. My guess was that Sept 16th was a saint’s feast day and a local church was celebrating their nameday. I was right – the following day was the nameday for Agias Sophias. On the way out we walked by the church and I went in to take a few pictures. I think the service was over as people were mingling outside and inside parishioners were venerating the icon of St. Sophia.
I am looking forward to my solo adventure in Italy, but wish that Bonnie was coming along.