Athens 2018

No tour of Greece would be complete without a day cruise on the Aegean Sea, visiting the Greek Islands.  We were up at the crack of dawn, awaiting the Viator bus to pick us up at our hotel and transport us to the docks to begin our seaborn adventure.  Our plans were to take a day cruise to visit the islands of Hydra, Portos, and Aegina.  0650 we were on our way.  A beautiful day,  sunshine, gorgeous weather.  We departed the port and headed for Aegina....about a one hour cruise.  Nice ship, great seats, pretty scenery, bumpy ride.  A number of passengers on the ship were not cut out to be sailors and would have probably forfeited their tour fee if they could just get back on dry land.  Emily said once we got to Aegina, she would not get back on the boat.  She had  enough.  Fortunately for all of us, none of us got sick, and once we left Aegina the seas were smooth.  While in Aegina we had a couple of hours to tour this l...

The itinerary for today called for an island tour of 3 Greek Islands starting with Hydra.  This trip was postponed until tomorrow because of today's weather forecast. of wind and rain.  Tomorrow should be sunny and no rain.  We felt like we should expand our knowledge of historical Greece and visit the Acropolis Museum.  We had met a gentleman on the plane coming over and he said he had been to Athens before and all he saw was old buildings, 2,000 to 3,000 years old in various stages of disrepair. He thought we would enjoy it.  I told him that next year we would be celebrating the 200 year anniversary of the state of Alabama.  We are looking forward to that historical event. We took the metro to museum and enjoyed viewing the artifacts and had the opportunity to view a video of the history of the Acropolis.   The greatest and finest sanctuary of ancient Athens, dedicated primarily to its patron, the goddess Athena, dominates the center of the ...

Our little group made it to Athens safely.  Georgio took care of us and Gate 1 put us in a very nice hotel.  The Hotel Stanley.  We met Harry and Amanda for breakfast around 10:15 and then our day started.  We took the Metro to Syntagma Square. (Also called Constituiton Square). We met our tour guide at the National History Museum and began a 2 1/2 hour walking tour of Athens. We visited the Acropolis, the Roman Agora, the PNYX, the Acropolis museum, and Parliament.  The walking tour is a free tour, open to the public, and was informative in nature.  I can say that I truly regret all the day dreams I had in high school when I was in history classes and just was not paying any attention.  I just did not know when I was growing up tn Huxford, and Atmore, Alabama that I would ever be walking through history.  Our guide, Michael, was born in Greece and studied history at the University of South Carolina.  He stayed in the US for 8 years before ...

The best laid plans often go by the wayside when events take over that you have no control over.  This is part II of what has turned into the longest day.  At 3:30 pm the Aegean Airline desk opened up and I was first in line at the counter.  I presented Linda's and my passport, along with our confirmation number to the gate agent for the 4:30 flight to Athens.  Imagine our dismay when the gate agent told us we were not on that flight, that our seats had been cancelled, and the flight was full and there were no seats available.  He directed us to go to the South African Airlines gate, that the young lady there would help us.  So while we were on our way to South African Airlines, Harry, Amanda, Emily and Jake boarded the Aegean flight to Athens. To set the stage here, we went through security in Montgomery to get to Atlanta.  When we got to London and deplaned we had to go through security to get to Terminal 3 to get on the Aegean flight.  When...

Departure day started out with such promise.  Montgomery to Atlanta to Paris to Athens.  I am writing this blog from London.  I just ordered fish and chips.  While in England, do as the British do. The trip started out with bad storms passing through Montgomery and Atlanta.  Our Montgomery connection delayed from 2:00 pm to 3:37 pm.  Our Paris flight was cancelled due to weather.  Delta did give us 10,000 sky miles for our inconvenience and put us on a British Airways  to London.  We finally got out of Atlanta at 9:00 pm.  I sent Georgio, our driver in Greece, a message and told him we would not be in Athens at 2:00 pm, but arriving around 10:20 pm.  Georgio sent me a message back and said "Jeery, no problem, I see you then". British Airways is a good way to travel.  I would use them again. When we got to London we had to leave a secure  area to get to Aegean Air.  Everything was going well up to this point.  ...

Athens awaits us.  This will be a short blog of our trip to Greece because our trip is short.  My college roommate, Terry Carter and his wife Mary, are frequent travelers of the globe.  They use a travel company called Gate 1 on some of their trips.  Gate 1 specializes in escorted tours and independent travel.  The Carters have been very pleased with the services offered by Gate 1, so we decided to try them out.  We think of this trip as a scout.  A short trip, 6 days.  Montgomery to Atlanta to Paris to Athens.  The travelers are Amanda, Harry, Emily, Jake, Linda and myself. While in Athens, we will take a walking tour of ancient Athens, take a boat tour of several Greek Islands and enjoy the Greek cuisine.  This will be our first trip to the Grecian Isles and we plan to revisit in the future.  We are looking forward to the trip and I hope you enjoy it as well. When I started doing these online journals, they were for the bene...