Missyllany: Greece

Dinner by sunset
AJ, Dominic & Steve
Stefanie, Rachel & Missy

We had a superb spring break in Greece. Everyone was begging and pleading for a do nothing vacation so the deal was one busy day in Athens seeing the sites and the rest relaxing on the island of Santorini.

Our Athens day was busy but certainly not a run, run, run day of site seeing. We took a leisurely pace through our Rick Steve's guided tour with plenty of time for a lovely lunch and an even yummier dinner. And of course frozen yogurt along the way!

We started our day at Parliament for the changing of the guard ceremony. Like in the Rome the elite guards have very interesting uniforms. It's fascinating to see what different cultures interpret as regal or elite.

We walked down Ermou Street, the pedestrian shopping area and even watched a bit of a very loud protest blocking the street. I found a policeman who spoke English and he explained that they were protesting the fact that shops were open on Sunday. We were surprised they were open too because nothing is open on Sundays in Germany! At the end of this street is the sweet little Church of Kapnikarea. The Greek churches we visited were beautiful and most had been decorated by painting images all over the walls, they were incredible paintings and the churches themselves were much less ornate than we expected.

Church of Kapnikarea

Along the way we came to the statue of Archbishop Damaskinos. The great thing about him was that he stood up to the Nazis, a pretty rare occurrence during the occupation of Greece. The way he is holding his fingers supposedly forms the letters ICXC which in Greek are the first and last letters of the name Jesus Christ. It was a stretch for us to see that. I, of course, thought it would be cool to have a picture of the kids in front of the statue making the same gesture. They, of course, did not agree...

Dominic, AJ, Stefanie & Rachel

We detoured off our tour plan to see the Panathenaic Stadium, this is where the first modern day Olympics in 1896 were held.

Missy, Rachel, Dominic, Stefanie & AJ

Then it was break time, everyone was ready for lunch which we enjoyed at a nice outdoor cafe. Then onwards to the Acropolis. While the most famous ruin is the Parthenon the Acropolis is actually made up of several buildings. It's amazing to try to imagine what life was like here. The sheer size of everything is quite overwhelming. It's also hard to believe that something like the Parthenon only took ten years to build!

Odeon of Herodes Atticus

Porch of the Caryatids

The Parthenon
Steve, Rachel, Stefanie, Dominic, AJ & Missy

After the Acropolis we made our way down to the Agora which is where all of the shopping and trading took place. more incredible ruins to walk through. At this point it had been a full day of site-seeing so it was time for some fun. Gelato and shopping! Everyone enjoyed exploring the little shops that fill the streets and watching both the people and the vendors.

Temple of Hephaistos

Then we walked up a hill through a flea market, lots of small entrepreneurs in Athens to a great restaurant overlooking the city, sampling many plates of mezes, which are the Greek tapas. It was a terrific day.

Dinner at Filistro
Dominic, AJ, Steve, Missy, Rachel & Stefanie

The next day we headed to Santorini. It's a beautiful island and we stayed in the town of Oia which is famous for its sunsets. We can confirm, that Oia does indeed have spectacular sunsets.

We spent the next four days relaxing. We read, lounged in the hot tub, explored the town and all of the shops, visited a black sand beach and the local winery. Steve took incredible pictures and we all recharged. It was a lovely way to vacation.