Tim & Denise Tiner Travels: 2017 Greece - Day Seven

October 20, 2017

Travel day...no sleep last night...for me! I don't get it. I was awake until 1 AM knowing that I had to be up at 5:30 AM to get ready to be on the road to get to the airport. Very frustrating. But unlike the Amalfi departure, I was able to fall asleep at some point. I don't know what is up!

We were all up and on the road to the airport at 6:30 AM to catch a flight to Athens that left at 8:20 AM. We have been nervous about this flight for a while due to the fact it was Ryan Air who loves to ding people for oversized luggage. They make it very clear that it HAS TO MEET their standards. Anyway, the airport was a stone throw away from our BNB. So we were there quickly. Ryan Air had put a bulletin email out saying that getting through security at the Santorini airport is very slow and to get there 2 hours early. We got there 1.5 hours early. It was not too bad getting through security. But this little airport had no room for everyone. It got kind of tight in the waiting area. Once Ryan Air started checking boarding passes, they also made every person put their luggage in their rack. Denise was a nervous wreck. But we both passed with flying colors. Glad I bought a new carry on suit case. I don't think my other bag would have worked. And it would have cost 50 euro ($60) to have them check it. They nickel and dime you.

The flight to Athens was a mere 30 minutes from wheels up to wheels down. Pretty quick. At the Athens airport we hailed a cab. Abraham was our driver. Really nice guy who spoke pretty good English. Once we got into the city, he began to give us a tour as he drove us to our BNB. It was fun to hear him call out places of interest. We also booked him to pick us up at 3:30 AM Monday morning so we can get to the airport by 4:00 AM to catch our flight to Rome. I hope he does not forget!

Our BNB is really nice. It does have on problem. One of the rooms, the bed was broke by the last people who stayed here. The host has it semi-fixed and useable. Scott and Michelle volunteered to take it. I offered to do rock, paper, scissors. But they did not want to compete.

After unloading our stuff and changing into some shorts to walk around, we turned into pioneer children that walked and walked and walked. I think Denise said that we walked around 9 miles according to her measuring device. We first walked a ways to get to a plaza where Rick Steve's walking tour of Athens begins. We took the tour, stopping along the way to get some treats, lunch and so on. It was a nice tour. Once the tour was complete, we then bought some combo ticket that allowed us to see a variety of sites for a bit less. We started with the Agora...the ancient center to Athens. There were a ton of ruins there to see and photo. The Rick Steve's tour took about an hour to see Agora. Once that was completed, we set off to make the steep climb to the Acropolis. We walked about 10 minutes up a gradual hill to the entrance gates only to find them closed. We thought it was open until 10 PM. But we were wrong. It closes at 5:30 PM. So we'll get after it tomorrow.

At that point, I was suggesting that we get a taxi to take us to our BNB. Our feet were so tired. But Scott kept insisting that we were real close to our BNB. I said, no way. I felt like it was on the opposite side of the Acropolis. So Scott pulled it up on a map app and sure enough, we were only .4 Km from the place. It took us a few minutes and we were there. Yahoo!!

At this point, dinner needed to be figured out. Scot was adamant to go back into Plaka, the social area to eat. Denise and I, we were to beat to walk that far again. So we decided to just find something close. While we were sitting there, Scott suggested a couple of eateries close by. One sounded real good. So I put some shoes on and off we went. It was a family run, hole in the wall place. But the guy who served us, showed us all the homemade dishes they were making. We had some really good options. We ate a ton, way too much, for only 19 euros. Pretty reasonable.

On the way to our restaurant, we discovered a really nice bakery. And those call our names! So we bought a few things before dinner and returned after. That's what Denise and I do when traveling. We love the little bakeries.

Our night is done...I've showered, doing my blog and soon I'll be sleeping deeply catching up on what I never got last night!

Pictures....

Waiting in the airport...

Our ride off of Santorini. Ryan Air is such a nickel and dime airline. Pretty amazing.

Some photos while on our Rick Steve's Athens audio tour.

They stand guard at a tomb of the unknown soldier like we do.

Lots of Greek Orthodox churches around....it is the home of this church.

Athens has lots of commercialism in the downtown area. But the streets are really narrow in many places. Fun to watch cars and motorcycles zoom in and out. You have to be careful walking.