Wow - this is what we've come to see!

Friday 30th June 

Farewell to France - until next time.

Returned our car this morning and headed to the airport. One slight issue at the airport - the travel agent had the wrong terminal on the flight documentation. After searching around for our flight information we found we needed to be at terminal 1, not 2. Thankfully there is a train, as they are a long way apart. 

Checking in was interesting. Flight is full so cabin bags need to be checked. I can't understand why ours needed to be checked when they were correct size and weight, but sitting waiting to board a lot of other passengers had their cabin bags - and some of them were BIG. 

The flight was late leaving Paris, only a 3 hour flight. A bit of turbulence over the Alps had the lady next to me crossing herself and muttering a quiet prayer. Must have helped as we landed safely, after one big hop. Not a landing worthy of a clap. 

We were picked up by taxi and taken to our hotel - about 40 minutes from the airport.

Headed to the rooftop snack bar for dinner - and there was the Acropolis. How amazing! Beautiful sight as the night fell and it was lit up. 

Saturday 1st July 

Free day in Athens. We caught the metro into the centre of town and just wandered around. I bought a hat, but we bought nothing else. Athens doesn't strike me as a pretty city. Close streets, close buildings, no real greenery, very hot and no breeze through the buildings to speak of. We could hear lots of different languages as we wandered around, but the predominant one was American. It certainly seems like we have got over the covid travel paralysis - everyone is on the move again.

Busy in the main shopping street.

Cute little chapel.

Waiting at the handbag shop. Come on, Mum, any colour will do!

This chow chow didn't like having his photo taken. 

Inside the orthodox cathedral.

The thing to do - sit around and eat and drink.
It's Saturday, a lot of locals as well as tourists.

This group of buskers were very good. Cheerful greek music.

We were sitting having coffee and Rob was reading on the tourist map a suggested place for lunch; and there it was, at the end of the street we were facing. Ella's. We had a lovely lunch of Greek food. 

Grilled Chicken with roast sweet potato and yoghurt.

Baked fish with potato and seasonings.

It was pretty hot in the city so once we had finished lunch we headed back to the hotel for a siesta. We decided to eat the hotel buffet for dinner as it was sure to have an assortment of Greek dishes on offer. Nothing special, but a taste of a few things.

Our hotel is obviously one used by a lot of tour groups. A large group of american 20-30 year olds on a Topdeck tour came in at dinner time then headed to the roof for the their first taste of ouzo, the view and the pool.

Sunset - we were a bit too late. Maybe tomorrow night.