Friday, May 24, 2024

Mark and I had our final breakfast in the buffet, new table this time. We made it to the small airport and waited in the crowded terminal but got onto our flight to Athens no problem.

This time we were staying at the Hermes Hotel in a slightly different area of the Plaka which is very similar to the Plaka Hotel we’d stayed at all those years ago, but was full on our dates. We had good Mexican food for lunch (they even had elote!)  at Mamacita Taqueria and then walked around the City Park.

Next we went to the Plaka Hotel and got permission to go up to their rooftop bar. It’s been upgraded since we were there last but still nice. Starting talking to the people next to us but got dismissed because we were American and then an American couple about our age showed up so we talked for a while. They were on an empty nest cruise and hadn’t traveled much so they were going to get a taste of what they liked to go back to later. I don’t actually think a cruise is that great for that, you never actually really see anything, but better to do a little travel than no travel. I don’t know if it was because of the different area or what but the restaurants seemed much better! We had a good dinner at Tzizkas and Merimikas which means ants and cicadas.

Saturday, May 25, 2025

Our last day in Greece! After the nice hotel buffet, we went to the Athens City Museum. The guy working there was very glad to see us, I don’t think they get many visitors! The museum is in the old palace where King Otto and Queen Amelia lived in the 1800’s. The rooms are nice and they do a good job explaining what life was like and what the King and Queen were like.  Worth it to see if you’re in Athens.

Next up was the Benaki Museum, also worth a visit. This museum has tons of historical clothes as well as one authentic, moved there, historic turkish style room. The Benakis donated their mansion and all the Islamic and Byzantine artifacts to start the museum.  The museum also has this really delicate gold jewelry from 300 BC that I really don’t understand how it survived!

We had a nice dinner at Ergon House. The food was good but our waiter was so serene he never checked on our table once, just glided by unbothered by the people around him. I was able to get a jar of seaweed they put in greek salads though so that was good.

Sunday, May 26th, 2024

After our hotel breakfast we stopped by the nearby bakery to get some pastries in case the food on the plane wasn’t good. Then we took an Uber to the airport and flew first to Munich and then to SFO. In the Munich airport they set up the American flights way way off to the corner away from everything else, but I was able to get my steps in so all was good. It was nice being in Economy Plus except for the loser in front of Mark who not only reclined his seat the whole way but was super fidgety and had this briefcase he wouldn’t let out of his sight. Either he was a tech founder with the next big invention or a drug runner…

We got home about four hours after Charlotte who had also retrieved Sookie so that was a nice greeting!

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