Frankfurt to Athens

We arrived in Athens on time, though not without wishes to drop a couple of children behind us out of the airplane before we even arrived! Everything seems to be going so easily on this trip... baggage was easy, customs was nonexistent (both of us, but especially Jeanette, were disappointed not to get a stamp in our passports in either Frankfort or Greece). We even ran into one of Jeanette's former coworkers in the Athens airport, which was pretty funny.

We retrieved money from an ATM and took a cab ride to the Jason Inn Hotel (45 min from the airport, $12) where we had reservations. The ride was great, taking us from well outside Athens right into the city. We drove through a ton of construction and olive and grape fields. The earth is very dry and mostly farmed. The city was notable for tons of cigarette ads. Tons.

The room at the Jason Inn was, well, Spartan. There was a tiny bed and a tiny bathroom. I had forgotten how much I hate European showers... integrated right into the rest of the bathroom. We went up on the roof and took a look around, which was great because we could see the Acropolis and get our bearings.

We got directions from the guy at the counter and headed out for a bite. We walked around quite a bit in the general direction of the Acropolis and then settled on a cafe with this great view of the Acropolis, plus a look out upon another excavated area. There were kitties all over, too! Cute kitties who looked Abyssinian. We had our first Greek salad and some tasty saganaki cheese.  We also had a whole fish and some squid. We ordered a 'little' bottle of wine. Our waiter was cute, kind of making fun of me. He had me approve of the wine... knowing that I couldn't even read the label, but it was good.

The Acropolis looked cool during dinner. The sun was going down and the colors kept changing, both in the sky and reflected off the rocks. After a while, the lights on the Acropolis came on and lit up the whole area.

After dinner we walked up the city toward the temple. There were a ton of tavernas and little tourist traps along the way. We joined a bunch of other people in climbing up one small marble hill that had a great view of the whole city. The way up was incredibly slippery from years of use and we both had to remove our shoes to navigate our way down.

We decided to stroll a bit more down the other side of the hill where we heard the symphony playing in on e of the old amphitheatres. It was fantastic to walk around on the old marble pavement and to see the ancient buildings.

By then we were beat, so we headed back to the room to cap off a great night.