Athens
June 25th
We flew out
of Newark airport on Emirates Airlines direct to Athens, Greece. It was our first time flying on Emirates Air
Business Class. It was very nice we had
a great meal a few glasses of wine and a bit of sleep…. some breakfast and we
were there….A little over 9hrs. flight….We arrived into Athens new airport…well
it is new since we were last here in 1992….
June 26th
We arrived
into Athens and a driver picked us up and took us to our hotel the Electra
Palace located right near the Plaka. We
had 3 rooms. One room was a suite with a sitting area, bedroom and
bathroom. The girls had a room that was
adjoining to ours and the boys had a separate room a few doors down from ours. It turned out to be a good set up for
us. The Electra Palace was a lovely
hotel. During our first day, there we used the pool which was on the roof and
it had a wonderful view of the Acropolis.
We walked to dinner that night it was about a 20min walk and had dinner
at Papadakis. We had a wonderful dinner
everyone had some type of seafood, it was a pretty location. We walked back to our hotel after dinner and
a few of us went up to the pool on the roof to see how beautiful the lit-up
Acropolis looked at night!!!!
The Acropolis at night
View from our hotel
June 27th
Today was
going to be a full day, we all got a good night’s sleep and were ready to go we
had a full day private tour of most of the main sights in Athens. Our driver George picked us up at 8am and we
set out for the Acropolis. We climbed up Filopappos Hill to The Acropolis. It
is quite an amazing sight…and the views of Athens from the hill were
spectacular!!! When Paul and I were here 25yrs ago the Acropolis museum was
open on the hill however, now they have a new museum and we would be traveling
to see that later in the day…. It was pretty hot, so we made our way down the
hill and back to the van where George took us to our next destinations… We
ended up seeing the changing of the guards at the tomb of the unknown soldier
& Ancient Agora. We then stopped for
a much-needed rest and some lunch. We
ate at a little taverna and had a wonderful lunch of grilled chicken the most
awesome potatoes and again a beautiful Greek salad. We were all getting tired (jet lag was
setting in) but we made one last stop at the new Acropolis museum which was
stunning!!!
That night
it was just Paul, Caleb, Jacob and I going to dinner (the girls were watching
Noah and getting room service). Caleb
picked tonight restaurant the Funky Gourmet.
This was one of those crazy expensive innovative multi coarse experience
restaurants!!! I was a bit skeptical but really enjoyed it…
The kids at the Parthenon
View of Athens
Just a few of the courses we had at the Funky Gourmet....
June 28th
Today we had
a laid-back day…we walked around the Plaka and had lunch…we also went to the
pool and hung out…the pool is small and it was packed especially since it is so
hot!!!!
We had to
take 2 taxis to dinner tonight…The ride to dinner was nice….it took us thru
Athens to what we would call the suburbs…there were actual freestanding houses
with yards and parks…it was nice…We arrived at Eleas Gi Restaurant to quite a
stunning view, it was located up on a hill top in a very green area overlooking
the mountains…. Dinner was wonderful!!! Again, we ordered too much food….and
the waiters brought out dessert on the house and pretty much made us eat
it…Once again full and tired back to the hotel to sleep….
June 29th
Today we had
a half day tour with George about an hour drive down the coast to Sounio and
the Temple of Poseidon. It was a
stunning sight!!! The Temple was in really decent shape and the marble was very
white. After our tour, we drove back to
our hotel did some swimming and walking around the Plaka before dinner. On our last night in Athens we had dinner at
Dionysos Zonar’s. The view of the
Acropolis was nice the dinner was just ok, guess that’s what ends up when you
eat at a touristy place. Today, was
our last day in Athens, tomorrow he catch our flight to Crete.
Here are
some of my take aways from our Athens visit….
I have to
say Athens was the city I was least looking forward to visiting…however, I left
very happy we were able to spend time there…The city was very clean, safe, the
people were friendly and there was very little pollution as that was a problem
I remembered from last time… It was very special to be able to visit some of
the same monuments that Paul and I took 25yrs. ago now with our kids!!!!