Athens

Athens is the place I was expecting William to love the most because of all of the mythology that he has read.  I thought it was the place I would love the best because it was really the seat of civilization (although that could be said for the Venice-Athens-Rome combo).   It was definitely amazing but it was also exhausting.  Our tour was 8 hours.  I was shocked how spread out everything was, so I was very glad to be on an organized tour.   We definitely could not have done it all on our own with that traffic.   Our first stop (after a 30 minute?  45 minute? drive) was the Acropolis.   More slippery cobblestones to traverse!   We were rewarded with the Parthenon and thousands of our closest friends!  The views from the Acropolis were amazing; I felt like we could see the world from up there!  My dad was amazed at the still ongoing restoration efforts; I think he's going to give us an update on the history and techniques of marble carving at our next get together.

 

 

 

 

 

 After the obligatory souvenir stop, we went to a family style lunch where there flooded our tables with SO. MUCH. FOOD.  And it was all amazing.  I could have just eaten the rustic grilled bread, feta cheese, yogurt sauce, Greek salad and the wine and been done.   But there were also overflowing plates of lamb burgers, lamb chops, grilled chicken, French fries, fried zucchini, and I'm sure more that I am forgetting because I didn't get my camera out.

We all dozed as we drove from there to the seaside to tour Poseidon's Temple.  After reading all of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series together, Poseidon is one of our favorite Greek gods.  The view from the top of the hill was breathtaking.   I would love to go to one of the seaside resorts when I could get in the sea and enjoy the sunshine and warm waters of the Aegean!

So a little picture overload there but I really wanted to remember all of it!   Back on the boat we celebrated my parents' wedding anniversary at dinner.  Pretty sure William and I ate most of the cake!