It's All Greek to Me

Hi!  While the students were on their 10 day break, Brian took a few days off from work and we went to Greece.  Here is our trip via photo-collages:

Day 1

Wednesday morning we drove to Vienna and then flew 2 hours to Athens.  We took the metro everywhere - which was really clean and efficient, and pretty cool to see the ruins preserved at some of the metro stops (pic lower left).  After checking into our hotel in Omonia Square, we went to The Plaka - one of the oldest neighborhoods in Athens.   

We saw a lot of beautiful ancient churches in The Plaka - and had dinner - and took the metro home from Syntagma Square.  Ellie loved the fountain that changed colors in front of the Hellenic Parliament building.

Day 2

Thankfully everyone slept great in our tight sleeping quarters and woke up smiling - especially this guy!

We metroed to Piraeus - the harbor and took a boat - the flying dolphin to Aegina Island about 40 minutes away on this high-speed boat.  

It was 80 and sunny all day - perfect beach day!  

Ellie went swimming while we ate at a restaurant on the water.

Aegina is on the Saronic Gulf, which almost always has perfect weather because it's sheltered from the wind.  Our day there was definitely perfect!

We visited Coloni, named for the column that remains from the ancient temple of Apollo.

We also visited several churches on the island.

We were back in Athens at 5pm and walked around Ancient Agora (Athens's commercial and civic center).  Here we had our first look at the monuments on the Acropolis.  Ellie particularly liked the park...and didn't really seem to notice the Parthenon behind her :)

We stumbled upon a fantastic restaurant that night near Monastiraki Square overlooking the Ancient Agora.  Enjoyed wine, a meat platter, Greek salad, and roaming cats.  Lots and lots of cats....Ellie's favorite - not so much Brian's.

Day 3

Friday was warm - mid-70s and a bit overcast, which was perfect for being outside visiting all the monuments.  First up was the Theatre of Dionysus.  Brian and I then took turns going up the Acropolis as the other stayed behind with the kids.  No way our stroller was going to make it up to top!

On the way up we saw the very impressive Odeum of Herodes Atticus.

Here's the Parthenon!  

Also at the top: Propylia (the monumental 5th-century-B.C. entryway); Temple of Athena Nike; Erechtheion; Pandroseion; and the Greek flag flying high.

After mom and dad had some individual site-seeing time, it was family train time!  We took "Athens Happy Train," a 60-minute train ride to see all the popular sites.  We got to see Panathenaic Olympic Stadium and Hadrian's Arch.  Ellie got to sing the Wheels on the Bus.  

For lunch we had gyros and souvlaki -- actually we had this for almost every meal -- so delicious and surprisingly cheap at most places!  Then we visited the New Acropolis Museum.  There were a lot of impressive exhibits and artifacts, and you could see the Parthenon out the window and part of the archaeological excavation under the glass floor, but our favorite part was the Acropolis and monuments completely built out of LEGOs!

We then walked to Areopagus Hill, where St. Paul preached to the Athenians (Acts 17: 22 - 34).  Brian and I took turns climbing up to the summit, while the other entertained the kids.  It's so amazing to know that Paul was here -- that we were in the same place talked about the Bible -- where people who had been worshiping so many other gods, yet knew of "an Unknown God" - and when they heard Paul talk about Jesus Christ and the resurrection of the dead they became Christian believers.

After some more park time outside of Ancient Agora, we walked around in the Agora.  I loved this moment of Ellie running to Brian in the Stoa of Attalos (an ancient civic building from the 2nd-century-B.C.)

We visited the museum in the Stoa's ground floor, which has finds from 5,000 years of Athenian history, including a child's potty seat that Ellie loved...know if only she would use the potty herself :)  We also saw the 11th-century church of Ayii Apostoli (Holy Apostles).  In the picture of Ellie above holding the flower, you can Areopagus Hill in the background.

Days 4 & 5 (flight home)

Here's a view of the front of our hotel.  By our last full day Ellie knew how to look at the map and tell "Buddy Francis" where we should go that day :)

We walked to the enormous National Archaeological Museum.  It is apparently one of the 10 most important museums in the world.  After Ellie got done pointing out all of the "naked people," she fell asleep in the double-stroller which gave Brian and me a chance to enjoy the museum.  My biggest surprise though, was how often we were stopped by the museum personnel admiring our stroller.  Apparently they do not sell double-strollers in Europe because people are constantly amazed by how we can have 2 kids in one stroller!

After lunch, of more delicious gyros, we went to the Byzantine and Christian Museum.

We then walked through the huge and beautiful National Garden back to Syntagma Square and metroed back to Monastiraki Square.

We walked down to the Cemetery of Kerameikos, where Pericles gave his famous funeral oration during the Peloponnesian War.  It is also the place where Ellie saw a turtle and built a "house" out of some of the ruins (not sure if she was supposed to have done that, but no one stopped her).

We then booked it back to the metro and went a few stops to find a Roman Catholic Church for Mass.  I didn't think we'd make it - but we did - and once I sat down in the pew during the homily (which was in Greek, of course) I looked up and saw my confirmation saint, St. Barbara staring down at me.  Thank you, St. Barbara!  After Mass, we met two English-speaking women.  One was originally from Washington DC and is married to a Greek man and now lives a few blocks from that church.  She was very nice and encouraged us to visit her our next trip back, she also gave us a recommendation for dinner.  It was our only meal where the restaurant wasn't catering to tourist, aka the menu wasn't in English!  But in the end we were able to successfully order meat and pita, so everything was perfect!  But that Greek language - defintiely not like English or German!  Ellie's favorite part of the evening was getting a Minnie Mouse balloon animal, which sadly could not come with us on the airplane ride the next morning.  But that's okay, the ride itself made up for it.  

We had a fabulous time in Greece!  I asked Ellie what her favorite part was and she said "the boat, the train, and the plane."  Someday maybe she'll look back and be glad she experienced a few other things!