Our last day in Athens!

Monday, May 17, 2010

Hello!

Wow, it has been such a busy day that I’m only getting to the blog at 9:34 p.m. at night, when I should be getting ready for bed! So, will have to hurry through the recap for once; sorry!

Up about 7 to another lovely, coolish but sunny day. Our first stop today was the funicular that goes up to the top of Lykavitos Hill … what we hadn’t realized, though, is that to even get to the bottom of the funicular, you had to WALK up lots and lots of steps!! It was amazing! It’s in a really lovely residential area, and reminded me of the residential hill in Hong Kong that follows steps! Got to the bottom for one of the first tram rides of the day – and the tram is exactly like the one that goes up the hill in Lyon, France. Not too exciting a ride up, as you’re inside a tunnel and all you can see is down or up but nothing of the view, but then when you step outside, wow – you’re WAY up there – much higher than the Acropolis! We had a good look around the top – there is a restaurant, but it wasn’t open yet – and took a lot of pictures. Then we headed back down in the continuing search for breakfast. Walked around Syndagma Square – very upscale shopping! – and decided to try the Clemente Café. Talk about chocolate – Brenda, you would have LOVED it! R had coffee, I had hot chocolate, R had a croissant, and I had a chocolate croissant, along with fresh orange juice. The chocolate croissant was truly amazing – it was warm with melted milk chocolate in the center. Much better than any pain au chocolat I’ve ever had!! As R said, I was probably on a sugar high the rest of the day!! From Syndagma Square we decided to head to see Hadrian’s Arch and the Temple of Olympian Zeus. Just amazing monuments!

Have to spend a moment here saying how amazing Robert is about taking buses! He really prefers them to underground transportation, and has an uncanny ability to figure out which bus goes where – even when the stations are listed only in Greek! He is absolutely fearless! So, took a combination of bus and metro back to our hotel for a brief rest before heading out for the rest of the day’s program – the remainder of the National Archeological Museum! Arrived there around 1:30 to a real mob scene … must be more cruise ships in town! However, as we had seen about half the museum yesterday, instead we went downstairs to the café for a late lunch. Here we got pieces of pizza – very good, actually! – and then started our viewing on the top floor. To be honest, this enabled us to miss almost all of the crowds, as we were doing everything backwards! Worked really well! From the museum we headed back to the hotel (more buses!) for afternoon nap.

Out again around 7 p.m. for dinner. Got a great recommendation (thank you, Stew!) for dinner in the Plaka area. Took us a bit to find Platinos – it is a bit off the beaten track – and arrived at 7:35, just a few minutes after their official opening time of 7:30; we were the first ones there! R had a tomato, onion and cucumber salad; I had a tomato and onion salad. Then we both had their roasted chicken with potatoes. It was AMAZING! Haven’t had potatoes that good since our roast chicken from the Bastille market in Paris! That, along with water and half a liter of good white wine, and the total bill was less than 30 Euros! Now I call that a really great dinner!

Again, the wind was kicking up quite a bit, so we decided to head back to the hotel – which is where we are now! Tomorrow will be getting everything assembled for our 2 p.m. plane to Istanbul! So! Tomorrow, Turkey?!

Much love,
m
x