Athens to St. Pete

Thursday
This is our last full day in Greece and this hotel offers breakfast at 6:30! My father are the first ones there. It’s a good breakfast and I especially enjoy the fresh baked croissants and hot chocolate. Athens has just opened a new Acropolis Museum and they are offering 1 Euro admission. It’s been all over the news and very crowded. It opens at 8 so after breakfast my father and I get directions to the nearest subway and head off.

It takes a while to find the subway and to figure out which line to take which way. We ride one stop and com up right next to the Museum. We have to walk around it to find the way in but then we are walking though the gate. In the walk under our feet are glass panels so you can look at a big archeological dig that is under the Museum! WOW it’s totally cool! You can see all kinds of remains of buildings and walks, even some mosaics.

We slowly walk and look and are in the museum. We have to enter through a metal detector but there is no line so we buy or tickets and are in. It’s a gorgeous museum. I regret that I forgot my camera in the rush to get here. Sorry folks. But there is an article with nice pics in the NY Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/24/arts/design/24abroad.html?scp=1&sq=athens%20museum&st=cse Go check it out. We enjoy the collection and the way it’s displayed. Especially the carvings from the top surround of the Parthenon.

They have steel columns the correspond to those of the Parthenon and the panels are hung in the same order, height and placement as on the Parthenon. Plus there are huge windows you can look out and the see the Acropolis and Parthenon close by. It’s very effective. We both enjoy it. Were the Elgin marbles should be they have installed plaster casts. (Lord Elgin from Britain took them off the Parthenon and back to London in the 1800’s. The greeks want them back!)

The British have been using the excuse that the Greek don’t have a proper museum to protect and display them. Well they certainly do now! We will just have to see what happens. I think they should be returned. What do you think? After we finished in the museum we walked back over the glass panels and enjoyed them even more after seeing the Museum.

Then we walked back around the flank of the Acropolis to our hotel. On the way we wandered up into a very old group of house that are right up on the Acropolis. They streets were just wide enough to walk through and all the houses had pots of flowers and grape vines. It was one of the prettiest places I saw in Greece. I was real glad to have wandered in there. We reached the hotel to find that my brother and his family were gone. So we rested, read and packed some of our stuff. We got hungry and I decided to try and cook some egg noodles we had left over from the boat.

Our room was equipped with one of those wonderful little hot water pots. I boiled water. Tossed in the noodles and turned the pot on and off to keep the heat right and in about 10 minutes Voila! Hot noodles with tuna and dolmades(rice wrapped in grape leaves) It was much tasty than we expected and we ate all of it and then took a nap. We got up at 1:15 and still no Randy Loyd’s. We had just enough time to get to the Athens Art Museum so we headed for the subway again.

Athens has a very clean and quiet subway. We got off at the right stop and emerged but couldn’t see the Museum. We asked a few people and finally a policeman sent us in the right direction. I spotted the big glass sculpture of a running man and knew we were close. There is was an we had an hour before closing. We enjoyed the Museum which was a mixture of lots of different eras of paintings and Sculpture from the renaissance to contemporary. Mostly by Greek painters.

Lots of good work and we hit the end of the collection just as the guard was giving us the closing warning. We were the last people out. We decided to walk back again and soon we found ourselves looking at a collection of old war planes which were outside of the Wartime Museum. We didn’t know it was there but enjoyed looking at the planes. My father was a Navy pilot so he was familiar with most of the them. There was one with a big hand crank next to the engine that was used to hand start the engine. New one on me! Pretty cool.

We walked on looking for the Botanical Gardens. we found them but they were closed to the public and being guarded by Greek soldiers. The Parliament is in there. The guards were in the old uniforms of White tights, skirts and pointed shoes with red pompoms. There were also police with submachine guns. I took a few pics of the Soldiers goose-stepping. It was very impressive. Then we walk on and were about to walk ing the gardens at the other end. They were very cool and green after the crowded big city streets. We popped out at the Plaza with our subway station and walked on to the hotel with a stop for ice cream.

I had black cherry and my father fig. They were small potions and too sweet. Randy and Winfree were back and Martha and Estill expected soon so we rested and I packed that huge bottle into my suitcase. It just fit. I was even able to jam everything else in. Cool! Randy wanted to try a restaurant he found in the local fish wrapper ( Athens version of Creative Loafing) I was able to find the address online and it was close enough to walk.

Soon Martha and Estill were back and everyone was ready so off we went. We had to walk past some pretty churches and my camera battery still had juice so I took pictures of the churches and Mono the restaurant. The bread was different and really good. I order and salmon and spinach risotto. others pasta with pesto, Greek salad and veal and local greens. The food was okay. Not impressive. For the risotto they used basmati rather than aborio rice. It didn’t absorb the juice and creamy. And the pesto was using a different herb from basil.

But we had the place to ourselves and the wine was good. We even had a little sparrow that keep landing on the table begging for bread. We had left over pasta that Martha to eat for breakfast. we paid and wandered out. We walked back by a big church that had a plaza out front the was mostly smooth marble slabs. It was almost a slick as ice. Never happen in the US. Somebody would slip and sue! We walked back and my father and walked around looking for ice cream. We were in the garment district. One street seemed to be all underwear shops.

The fabric stores and back to women’s clothing. We were about to give up when we spotted a taverna and came away with big cups of chocolate ice cream with caramel sauce. Very tasty. So good I almost got run over by a truck that was coming through the pedestrian street. His tire scrapped the bollard I had been sitting on before he honked! We went back to the hotel where I had a bit more Metaxa and finished my packing. Had a nice hot shower and off to bed to write in my log. Chopper was asleep so I had to be quiet. We went to bed fairly early as tomorrow is a long day traveling home.

Friday June 26
We are up at 6 and have breakfast at 6:30. My father and I talk about taking the subway to the Airport. It would be much cheaper than a second taxi, but the desk clerk says the subway to the airport is closed for repairs this summer. Too bad! So we wake up the others and check that we have everything. I take a quick shower, a final room check and we haul or baggage down. I ask the clerk to call us 2 taxis. She does and we wait on the street. i take some pics. SA taxi stops and brother talks to him and starts loading gear the desk clerk says it’s not the ones she called but my brothers loads his family and they are off.

My father and I decide we should wait for the taxis she called. We wait for a while and then see the desk clerk calling from across the street. I go over and she says my brother told her to cancel the taxis! Okay. So I stand in the street and hail the next taxi that doesn’t have a fare. The drive says 30 E to the airport. We jump in and are off. So Goodbye Hotel Caroline and Greece! We had a great time.

40 minutes later we are at the airport and we say goodbye to my father who is flying to Britain to meet up with my step mother and work on an archeology project. I am sad to see him go but looking forward to seeing my little house. I get my tickets and make it through security. I find out that the airport is relay busy because there was a airport workers strike yesterday! Glad we booked for today. I thought they would make a fuss over my bottle but they don’t. I find my gate and an outlet and charge my computer and work on my log. Soon my brother and his family wander in. About and our later we load and take off on time. Just about noon greek time. We are given dinner and they show the Steve Martin Pink Panther 2.

I don’t have headphones but watch anyway. After lunch of chicken. I sleep for a few hours. Then write in my log for a few hours and read for awhile. I am luck this flight. THe seat next to me is empty! No large greek man sharing my seat. Yes! The guy on the other side is not friendly so we hav e no conversation. We reach Philly and get through customs. At agriculture they stop me and take most of the stuff out of my suitcase so they can X-ray my bottle more closely. They finally pass it and I repack my suitcase and am off for the my gate. Randy and crew are already there. I look for an outlet and finally find one across the way from my gate. I share with a teenager from Seattle who is traveling back from Germany with his mother.

The three of us have fun talking about music and the Pacific Northwest. Neither he nor I are able to get on the internet. Too bad as I was ready to up load. I did get some good charge on the laptop. So we are one the plane and taxiing. Then we are stopped and wait for two hours. Gr.. Our 6 pm( US time 7 hours behind Greece) takeoff becomes 8 pm. Finally we are in the air and thump into Tampa at 10:30 pm. A neighbor of Randy’s is there to meet us. We load up our baggage and soon I am opening the door of my home sweet home! A cold beer and a shower and I am off to bed. It’s been and loooong day. What a great trip! Talk to you next time I hit the road.
Travel safe! Allen