Athens, March 2024
Day 1: Chicago to London to Athens
We left Chicago on Monday at 7:30 pm and seven hours later (Tuesday morning) we were in London. Since I didn’t get to Buckingham Palace last time I was here, we took the a 45 minute tube ride to see it. As we were walking up, we just missed seeing King Charles’ motorcade. Though really I was hoping for a glimpse of the Princess of Wales.
Back to LHW with 30 minutes to spare, we were on our way to Athens. After checking into our hotel, starved since we hadn’t eaten all day, we set out for dinner.
We ended up Athena's Cook restaurant and had a delicious cocktail, potato soup, shared a large platter of chicken, pork, kebabs, and pita bread. We were then treated to a hot brownie with ice cream and a local shot of Mastika. Great food, great drinks, great atmosphere.
All in all a great first day. Tomorrow, a tour of the Acropolis and Athens.
Day 2: Acropolis and Sunset Tour
One of my favorite parts of traveling is the food. Breakfast is especially interesting to me because it is always so different than what we see in the US. Instead of the oft seen Continental breakfast common in the US, there are deli meats and cheeses, olives (not for me), cucumber salad, peperoncini, loukaniko (a type of saysage), beans in red sauce, fried tomatoes, and delicious Greek yogurt. I topped mine with honey. I couldn’t help myself but go for seconds. We were also treated to a spectacular view of the city from the rooftop restaurant of our hotel.
After breakfast, we were picked up by Christo for a private tour. He was engaging, knowledgeable, and funny. He took us to the Acropolis (note the capital A to distinguish it as the original) and home to the Parthenon and Temple of Athena Nike. We also went to Zeus’ Temple, Mount Lycabettus, the original Olympic Stadium (too small for modern Olympics), and saw the changing of the Guard. After getting dropped at the hotel, we had a couple of hours before our next tour.
We were then picked up to go to a sunset tour at Cape Sounio and Poseidon’s Temple. The drive south along the coast was stunning but if only the winds had cooperated, it would have been even more spectacular (I.e. hair in face for all photos ).
After heading back, we stopped for dinner - Japanese bento boxes and called it an early night. Needless to say my intermittent fasting has gone by the wayside on this trip.
Tomorrow, we are going on a food tour. We have strict instructions not to eat at least three hours prior to the start.
Day 3: Food Tour
Today we went to Monastiraki Square to meet our tour guide, Tonia. We were asked not to eat for three hours before the tour because of the amount of food we would try and they weren’t kidding.
We ate Greek pretzels, spinach pies, donuts in chocolate and nuts, Greek coffee (AKA Turkish coffee), vegetables in garlic and oil, olives, fried cheese, calamari, zucchini balls, beans in tomato sauce, bread and oil, and Greek salad. We walked through the fish market and saw a couple of great murals. Then we drank Ouzo (similar to Sambuca), Tsipouro (similar to Croatian Rajika), red Communion wine, white wine, and vinegars (yep, they drink vinegar). We capped the tour with lamb gyros and saw someone’s phone get stolen! Everything was delicious. Sadly I don’t have many pictures.
After our tour, we went back to the room and I crashed. While it wasn’t perfect sleep, it was good enough.
Next up: a rail biking excursion along the coast and a night life tour tonight.
Day 4: Railbiking and a night life tour
Today, we went to Megara for rail biking excursion along the coast. We hoped the public bus which the 7.40 euros beat the 100 euro RT taxi. And even though we missed our stop, our personal GPS Cheryl got us where we needed to go.
Sadly our ride was interrupted by imminent rain to ride but not before we were able to get some great pictures.
After taking the bus back, we ate lunch at one of the many restaurants that have so much character.
Later in the evening, we met up with our guide for a small group night life tour. Our guide was just getting started on her own so the small group was just us, but that didn’t diminish the fun or experience. We shared a meat charcuterie board, polished off a bottle of white Greek wine, hit up another place to try local beer and rooster, and finished our night with a spectacular view of the Acropolis, fresh cocktails, and a shot of Martika.
After the tour, we continued our fun and hit up several bars. By then I may have drank too much and don’t remember which ones. Stacey and Cheryl finished their night searching for Greek pretzels.
Next up: a Saturday with no plans.