Last Days in Athens

Athens, Greece November 12-13,2011 Our last two days in Athens have been very laid back and relaxing. As we mentioned in a previous blog, our hotel is located across from the Central Market. We started our day walking through the market. First we passed stalls with delicious looking fruit and vegetables, followed by stalls with fresh fish. Next came the endless stalls of butcher shops. They all had whole or partial carcasses that they were butchering right there. There were some incredible looking cuts of meat on display. From the market we wandered through the wonderful little streets of Athens toward the Parliament Building. We went there to see the changing of the guard at the tomb of the unknown soldier. We have video that hopefully we can get posted. While not nearly as impressive as the changing of the guard at Arlington Cemetery in D.C. it was interesting none the less. If you see the video you will see that the soldiers are wearing interesting uniforms. They have tunics worn with tights. On their feet are clogs with huge black pom poms on the toes of the clogs. You will also note a very goose step like step. It was fun to watch but it is hard to take a ceremony seriously when Lynda is straining to see up the tunics of the soldiers. While we have been walking about we have noticed many little Greek Orthodox Churches everywhere. After leaving the Parliament building we came across one that was open so we popped in. It was a beautiful little church. When we say little we mean 10 people filled it up. Tim would have liked to have taken pictures but he did not want to disturb the people who were praying. We were again exploring the little streets of Plaka. Along the way we passed several shops that specialized in religious garments. Incongruously, across from one of these shops was a store selling fur coats. We eventually found are way back to an art gallery we had visited on Friday and purchased a small statue for our bookshelves in the living room. We also were recommended a restaurant in the area that we went back to in the evening. To get to this restaurant we had to walk up the slope towards the Acropolis. It was after dark when we went so the view of the Acropolis bathed in light was breathtaking and distracted us from the exertion of climbing the hill. The restaurant was gorgeous and the food delicious. About 30 minutes after we arrived a trio of guitar/players/singers started entertaining. We think we heard most of the score from the musical, “Zorba” but again it was in Greek so who knows. The guitar playing was very impressive. Unfortunately, Lynda had to limit her flirting to Tim. Today we took the Metro, Athens’ subway, to the New Acropolis Museum. This museum was full of artifacts, statues, etc. that had been excavated during the archeological dig on the Acropolis. There was also an interesting movie about the history of the Parthenon. After a quick bite to eat, Tim had vine leaves stuffed with rice and ground beef with a lemon sauce on top (Yum! Really), we took a bus, chosen at random, and rode it to the end of the line which happened to be the abandon former international airport for Athens. We then rode the same bus back into town. The bus route took us along the coast of the Mediterranean. It is a cold, blustery day so the views were not as spectacular as they could have been but still it was a fun way to spend the afternoon and we saw parts of Athens we would not have seen otherwise. Not sure what we are doing for dinner tonight. There is a sign in our room offering free delivery to our room of pizza from Dominos Pizza. We assume it is not coming from Ann Arbor. Tomorrow is a very long day. Our flight from Athens leaves at 7:00 a.m. We have a cab scheduled to be here at the hotel at 4:30 a.m. We have a four hour layover in Paris and then fly non-stop from Paris to Detroit, arriving in Detroit at 4:30 p.m. or 11:30 p.m. Athens time. It’s dirty work but somebody’s got to do it. This has been another great trip for us with lots of fantastic memories. We hope you have enjoyed traveling with us.