Trip to Athens, Greece - Day 5

  

On Wednesday we decided to visit the other archeological areas that were on our ticket that we had purchased on Monday. We took the subway to Syntagma and started with another walk through the botanical gardens.  Our first stop after walking through the gardens was at the Panathenaic Stadium, which is a restored stadium built on the site of ancient games and which was used during the modern olympics and still used.  It is a stone stadium.  We didn't have tickets inside,  and opted not to pay to walk around inside, but we got a very good look at it and were very impressed.  [We had a lot of fun watching the last season of Amazing Race when they had a task in the stadium.]

Waking through the park (again).

Lexa was taking a lot of pictures with her camera. Here it is outside Zappeio Hall near the gardens.

Looking down from Zappeio Hall on the fountains.

Looking back at the hall.

Yulia matching the lilacs.

Stadium was made entirely out of marble!

Getting more use out of the new selfie stick!

After seeing the stadium we walked to Lykeion, which is a newer site.  We got a bit turned around and did some extra walking, but found the site without too much trouble.  This is the site of Aristotle's school.  It was a gymnasium where they did athletics and learning and was at the site of a stream that ran through Athens at the time.  The site was quiet and was still in the process of renovation, but it had a lot of interesting information.  It was one of my favorite places on the tour.

On the way to Lykeion we passed the National Defense Museum and took some pictures with the equipment that was outside.

Looking at planes.

Lykeion site in the midst of archaeological restoration and study.

Looking and reading.

Lina!

After visiting the Lykeion, we decided we'd take the funicular to the top of Mount Lycabettus.  We had enjoyed riding funiculars in other places.  It was a bit of a hike and a lot of stairs to get to the base of the mountain. The Funicular ride was very inefficient and expensive.  The view from the top of the hill was nice, but the cost of the trip and the amount of time we had to wait to go up and down (one trip each way every hour) wasn't worth it.

Climbing the stairs to the foot of the Lyccobettus Hill.

More climbing!

Church at the top of the hill.

Looking out over Athens.

More view down on Athens. Athens is huge!

Looking out to the sea and Acropolis.

The mountains!

Going down the stairs was easier.

We took subway to Monastiraki square and found a nice little pastry shop there.  We ate our pastries and rested for awhile before walking from there to Syntagma station through an area that had a lot of shops.  We stopped and went inside The Church of Panagia Kapnikarea which is a Greek Orthodox church and one of the oldest churches in Athens and really enjoyed the peacefulness of that experience.

Eating lunch on the square.

The Church of Panagia Kapnikarea or just Kapnikarea was built in the 11th century. It is still working today.

Shopping district.

The weary band of explorers.

Yulia posing next to our favorite pastry place near our apartment.

We rode the metro home to Dafne.  We got the kids settled in and then Yulia and I went on a date. Earlier in the day we received a message from the doctor who did a second colonoscopy and a surgery saying that the biopsy results came negative and I do not have cancer.  We wanted to celebrate! We wandered around until we found a little place to eat. This was the only place where the waiter didn't speak any English, but we managed to order some delicious Greek food anyway.  It was nice to sneak out for a bit of a date in Athens!

Love those Greek salads!

Salads in Greece are fantastic!

Trip to Athens, Greece - Day 4

On Tuesday we decided to go to the sea.  We took the train (as usual) to the last stop at the piers.  The station there was above-ground and quite nice.  Right outside of the station was a lot of construction.  We walked across the street and walked around the pier and looked at all of the Ferry ships and cruise ships that were docked.  We got to see one ship come in and dock and that was quite fun. 

At the station exiting the train.

Walking on the pier.  Looking at the schools of little fish in the harbor.

Looking out at all the ships.  Many were ferries that go out to the islands.

 

A cruise ship (Italian flag)

 

Lina posing more or less willingly.

These were smaller ferries, and we assume much faster than the normal ones.

A ferry parked and unloading cars.

After we had seen the harbor, we got back on the train and rode back a few stops to a stop near some of the Olympic stadiums from the 2004 Athens games.  We went to get on the trolley to go along the coast and out to the beach areas.  We had to wait for awhile for the trolley, but it was a nice day.  This area was much more rundown and the economic difficulties were more visible.  One of the stadiums was shuttered and in disrepair.

We took the Trolley almost all the way to the end of its route.  We got off at a public beach.  The beaches were more rocky than sandy (gravelly) but the kids all kicked off their shoes and waded, threw rocks, and generally had a good time.  We spent about 90 minutes kicking around at the beach and then walked from there over to the city area and found someplace to eat. 

We wanted to have one seafood meal, so we figured the day we were near the beach would be a good day to do it.  We were walking and saw an "all you can eat" fish place.  We probably should have known better, but we went in.  The food was okay, but not great.  The prices were also okay, but not great.  Everybody got enough to eat, though so in that sense it was a success.  We took the tram back to a subway stop and from there home.  On the way home we stopped for pastries (notice that there are only 5 of them.  I am trying to cut back) and went in for the night.  We had been from one end of Athens to the other by Subway and then by trolley.  It was a fun day and a nice change of pace after our long day of walking and seeing sites the day before.

Waiting for the tram (this was the wrong number!)

Riding (getting ready to go)

At the beach!  The light was soft and the day was warm.

Kids, rocks, and water.  That always equals success and fun!

Skipping rocks.

This was a beach club just down the beach from us - a bit fancier than the public beach.

 

Heading toward town for some food.

Night cap pastries for the ladies!

Trip to Athens, Greece - Day 1

For the past few years we've gone somewhere fun for fall break.  Last year (2017) we didn't go anywhere because the Expo caused classes to start late and we didn't have a fall break.  In 2015 we went to Rome and in 2016 we went to Barcelona.  This year we decided to keep the Mediterranean theme and we went to Athens.  Yulia, as usual, found good deals on flights and housing.  

We flew out on Saturday morning (October 6) on the early flight to Turkey on Turkish Airlines.  The flight was pretty good and we had a quick 1 hour layover - just enough time to get to our next flight - in Istanbul.  We flew from there to Athens on a short flight of about an hour.  We landed in Athens and got through customs and picked up our baggage and then we went and got tickets for the metro.  We had a pretty uneventful trip to the Syntagma station (one which we became very familiar with).  At the station we had an adventure.  Something happened when people were getting off the train and there was a fight between an old man and a middle-aged man.  The fight continued through the station and onto the platform we were waiting for our transfer on until the security guards got there and broke it up.  We're not sure what was happening - it was literally all Greek to us - but it was an interesting time in the Subway.  

We took the Subway to the Dafni station and got off.  It took us a few minutes to orient ourselves and find our apartment - about a 4-5 minute walk from the station, but we got there without any problems.  It was only about 11:00, but the apartment owners let us drop off the bags before we came back to officially check in later. We went out and found a nice little place (something about Mami and Papi) that sold fantastic Gyros and salads.  It was our favorite place that we ate the whole time we were in Athens!  We ate and then went back to the apartment where we checked in and rested for a few hours.

In the afternoon we went out and walked around the neighborhood, getting the lay of the land, and then we stopped at the grocery store to pick up supplies for breakfasts for the next few days.  On our way home we stopped at a little pastry place and got treats to eat for a snack that night.  We spent the evening at the apartment.  It got dark quite early and quickly and we were tired after not sleeping much.  I was also recovering from my operation a few days earlier so we were taking things easy.

A few things about Athens.  The hills around the airport and the semi-arid climate reminded us a lot of Utah.  It was familiar and alien at the same time.  People were generally quite friendly and we had no problems getting around.  Knowing Russian and some Greek letters helped.  Knowing English is always an advantage.  The weather was fantastic.  In the mid 60s to high 70s and sunny the entire time we were in Athens.  Things were kind of rundown (it's obvious that things are still tough economically), but Athens is a nice city with good infrastructure - especially transportation. After our delicious dinner and pastries - the pastries were some of the best we've had in any country - we were in love with Greek food.

Tired people on the train from the airport.

Our first lunch.  We ordered 3 salads for 6 people.  We could have ordered 1.  They were all delicious, though!

Another salad.  Official Greek Salad.

Our balcony in our rented 2 bedroom apartment.

View of the Dafni neighborhood where we were staying.

We found this track and playground at the end of the street.  Lots of people playing basketball. I wondered whether the Greek Freak (Gianos Antatokompu) who plays in the NBA had gotten his start on a court like this.

Murals on a building on our walk. 

In the grocery store.  This whole section was just for cheese. More kinds of cheese than we've ever seen before.

Some pastries that we picked up.  Lots of them with honey. All of them delicious.

Our adventures in Athens had just begun!