We’re moving to Greece

This morning we woke up and got ready for our city tour day. We had breakfast in the hotel, a breakfast buffet and it was marvelous! The food is a million times better than Egypt and the best part of it is that we can have ice again and tap water. I can eat fruits, vegetables that are not cooked, and SALAD!! We ate breakfast and then met out local guide for the tour of the city.

We stopped first at Zeus’s Olympic palace and Hadian’s Arch. It was amazing to see how high the pillars were built and how much in ruins they are today. And they are not as old as the pyramids- the pyramids are in great shape and are bigger….so if we are keeping score: Greece wins on the food, Egypt wins on the architecture. We had a partially cloudy morning but it improved throughout the day- maybe reaching 75 degrees today?? After Zeus’s palace, we drove to the parliament building where the tomb of the unknown soldier was and we got to see the changing of the guards. This was not as elaborate as the program in London at Buckingham Palace- this changing of the guards only involved 5 guards, but was still interesting. Their costumes were a hoot- they had big poofly pom poms on the toes of their shoes- I want a pair! Brad does too..just kidding.

After that we drove to the Acropolis which was the highlight of the morning. The Acropolis had a lot of restoration happening to it so sadly about half of it had scaffolding around it. When we arrived we were informed that the busses can only take you so far and that we were going to hike to the top in phases since there were so many. So there was a warning in advance and I was worried. How bad is it, I wondered. But there was no way I was going to miss this. So were started out with the group and eventually walked ahead of them and made our own way to the top. Along the walk to the top of the mountain, there were many panoramic views that were beautiful- you could see straight through to the sea. Athens is actually a very mountainous area which I guess I never knew or even thought about. We spent about an hour at the top going through all the buildings (actually walking around the roped off areas) and taking a lot of awesome pictures that we can’t wait to share.

After we made out way down the mountain, we stopped for a soda and then met the rest of the group at the bus. Afterwards, we had 2 options: go back to the hotel, or get dropped of in the Plaka which a major shopping and restaurant area where the hotel guide would be to quick show us around. We wanted to explore so we decided to take the second option and find a really great restaurant, sit outside with a glass of wine good greek food and “people watch”. We found a fabulous place right in the heart of everything and I had a traditional greek salad (which had no lettuce which I was not expecting- just veggies, olives and a big block of feta) and Brad had grilled lamb and fried potatoes- the lamb was the best we have ever tried.

We walked around for a bit longer and then waited for the free shuttle bus to pick us up to go back to the hotel. We are back at the hotel now to post this message, take a nap and get ready for out Greek dinner tonight. They are taking us to this special restaurant that will have Greek entertainment, food, desserts, and wine. We are looking forward to this.

Tomorrow we are leaving in the morning for the ship. We will not have access to internet most likely but will still be updating our daily log to post later when we are able. We are on the ship until next Friday and then back in Athens for a couple nights. Tomorrow we will be in Mykonos what I have been looking forward to the most (that and Santorini). Hope you are all well, and you will hear from us in a few days.