We had breakfast at the hotel we were at for just one night. I had booked a family room, but they actually gave us two whole hotel rooms with connecting doors, so Norah got her whole own hotel room. Breakfast was good there, too. Better than American continental… but still just some random items-but plenty.
There was a view of the Acropolis from the breakfast room.
We gathered our things and walked down the block to the Enterprise rental car spot and spent 40 minutes to get the keys to the car. While we were waiting we got to watch a guy on a motorcycle wreck on the corner…luckily he was OK.
After getting the keys, we were off on our way. I had to drive out of Athens, of course 🙂
This is our rental. Small 4 door hybrid with what feels like a lawn mower engine, but it gets great fuel mileage! Norah was super pumped about her crank windows in the back seat. haha
The drive north was a couple of hours of towns and mountains and it was a pretty drive with little towns and sites along the way.
Our first destination was the Holy Monastery of Hosios Loukas. A world heritage site from the 11th century on the side of Mt. Helicon.
We went under the church to the burial crypt where there are amazing frescos- the best preserved of the Byzantine era in Greece.
Inside the main church- the first in Greece with the square cross and dome design- there are amazing mosaics – very much like the ones in St. Mark’s in Venice. Wikipedia says these are from the “Macedonian Renaissance” but when I try to wiki that term, it just shows photos of the Hosios Loukas monastery. lol
The monastery site was built where a hermit called St. Lukas lived in the late 900s. His bones are still in the second church on the site on display.
The monastery was very prosperous because it was said that the body of St Lukas leached perfumed oil that could heal and people would travel to the site and sleep under and around the tomb for healing. (Sounds like a scam to me… some monk was running a scam for sure lol)
After the monastery, we were back on the road north to try to reach the ancient site of Delphi before it closed at 3:30pm.
We arrived around 2:30 with last entry to the ruins at 2:50 and last entry to the museum at 3:10… so we had to hustle. No big deal…just hiking up a mountain in twenty minutes. ha
The site of Delphi was considered the center of the ancient world and was where the great Oracle of Delphi, a priestess, offered wisdom and advised on all major decisions for kings and leaders as well as normal everyday people who travelled there.
The first major site on the way up to the other sites was the Agora. This would have been right outside the sanctuary walls and where travelers could have purchased statues or offerings to the gods to leave at the site.
Next up the pathway we came to the Athenian Treasury. Built to commemorate the victory at the Battle of Marathon in 390BC over the Persian invasion. (This is also where the term Marathon comes from for a race. The legend is that a soldier ran the full distance from Marathon to Athens after the battle – uttered the Greek word for “We won” and promptly collapsed and died. So now we run a marathon in his honor.
Looking out from Mt. Parnassus at the surrounding area. If you look closely, you can see the Temple of Athena and the gymnasium below- but those sites are currently closed due to a rock fall.This is the site where a 30 foot tall Sphinx of Naxos stood. It was a grandiose offering to the Oracle in 560BC from the people of the island of Naxos. A giant winged sphinx with the head of a woman carved from Naxian marble. An inscription on the base says that the people of Naxos were honored with “promanteia” or the privilege of priority at receiving an Oracle if they were to visit Delphi. (the Sphinx itself is below in photos from the museum)In the Temple of Apollo is where the Oracle would have been. She would have been in a closed off space with- as legend has it – a deep fissure was formed in the base of the temple. This was where Apollo slay the python and cast him into the depths… and the Oracle would inhale the vapors from this fissure and would give advice and foresight. Two theories exist on if the vapors truly were hydrocarbons from the Earth. (This is a volcanic area and certain vapors like ethane would cause extreme visions and hallucinations) – or if access was restricted because they were burning cannabis, oleander or other herbs to induce hallucinations and expanded reality.On up the hill was the ancient theatre.
From here, Norah and I had to wave Kegan on up the hill to see the rest. We were huffing and puffing and he still had some steam. So he headed on up to the last site to see the Stadium that hosted the famous Pythian games every 4 years. He photographed it for us 🙂
The stadium could seat 6500 spectators. The Pythian games were second only to the Olympic games in importance. The Sphinx of Naxos I wrote about above. The silver bull that was discovered – a hammered and forged silver and gold bull as an offering that was given at the site. Only pieces of the metal have been recovered- it would have been a wood core, covered in a malleable material like clay and then hammered silver and gold covering the entire sculpture creating an illusion of a solid metal bull. One of the most famous and oldest ancient bronze sculptures that survives today. The Charioteer from 470 BC. It is one piece of a much larger sculpture with horses which were all likely melted down throughout history, but this piece survived because it was found under a rockfall in the 1800s. Selfies after the musuem. We climbed, we saw, we made it just in time. ha
It was back on the road towards our hotel. We decided to stop for snacks a couple hours in at a grocery store in what was likely the last big town before we headed up into the mountains again for the night.
We found one spot still open for dinner. It was very good!We sat right in front of the wood fire and it was so cozy on a cold mountain night just above freezing by 1 degree. I had the lamb and rice.Kegan had the Casserde Beef in a clay pot. We noticed the local shop was selling these clay pots, so it must be a specialty of this area.Panna cotta with honey for dessert. Our hotel room for the evening was the Evora Suites. It was a beautifully remodeled or newly built building with a jacuzzi tub and balcony overlooking the mountains.
I typed up the blog while Norah enjoyed the jacuzzi, we cracked open a bottle of “house wine” George the taxi driver bought us as a gift from a side of the road stand. It was good for $5 wine! But I promptly fell asleep and slept until 8:30am! ha We knew we would sleep in because breakfast was only served 9am-11am here and we had a fairly slow day planned.
View from our balcony in the morning when we could actually enjoy the mountains around. The breakfast spread was very nice! Especially considering we may have been the only guests for the night! ha
Back on the road for more driving – almost ALL driving- to see more of the mountainous northern Greek areas. Lots of landscape photos today.
Lots of tunnels through the mountains. A couple of them were 3 kms long!We stumbled on this amazing stone bridge over the Portaikos river at Pyli, built in the 1500s during the Ottoman era and until the 1930s its was the only connection between the plains and the Pindus moutain villages. We spotted these giant mountain rocks in the distance and were like, whoa…what is THAT? Turns out it was Meteora- a famous site we were supposed to visit tomorrow… but since we took a different road towards our hotel, we ended up right through here… and since the Ioannina sites we were SUPPOSED to see today close at 3:30 and we were likely going to arrive to town around 3pm, we decided to detour into Meteora today and see the Ioannina sites tomorrow morning.The caves in Meteora have been inhabited for 50,000 years. There are caves with proof of Neanderthal to human transitions as well as Ice age to iron age transitions.
Monks were living in the caverns as early as 800AD, but when the invading Turks attacks increased, the monks were looking for more protection. They created homes on top of rocks with ladders that could be removed to give themselves more protection. Eventually stone steps were added after a couple hundred years that today make the monasteries more accessible. There were 24 monasteries here at one time- only 6 remain today, most from the 1300s to 1500s.
After driving the roads up in the rocks, we visited the Natural History and Mushroom museum in the town…because who has ever heard of a mushroom museum? lol It was literally just like 4 dioramas of taxidermy and fake mushrooms for the mushroom museum. lol but it was fun. We got some mushroom chocolate in the gift shop. We tried both on the drive. We didn’t like either of them. ha The milk chocolate one with the Amanita Caesarea mushrooms tasted like oranges… and the black truffle one was STRONG of truffle. Maybe with a very dry glass of wine… but we’ll never know because they went into the trash can. ha We arrived at our hotel around 5pm – pretty early! It was very nice…. A welcome bottle of Tsipouro – an unaged brandy from Greece, similar to grappa in that its a strong liquor made from the leftover grape skins from wine making. Straight battery acid, not going to lie. ha The restaurant on site was listed online as the best restaurants in the town… so we ate there.It had a lovely panoramic view over Lake Pamvotida.Oh great… another courtesy shot of Tsipouro. Actually- this one was much smoother and better than the quality of the one in the room. Night and day difference but still nothing I would ever seek out or purchase. Norah decided to dip her finger in it and try it. This was the face that resulted from that. hahaha They brought her a shot, too! We told her to shoot it, but she wasn’t having it. My starter was the Mutton Saganaki- amazing. Kegan got the wild mushroom platter. Norah’s main was Trahanoto – a smoky pork risotto with fetaI had the Beef medallions with vegetables. The demi-glaze was made with black truffle and it was so tender. Excellent meal. Kegan’s came out as an event! ha On a three tier platter, the Tsingeli was served so that the waiter could pull the meat chunks off the skewer onto the plate. His came with a feta dip, a roasted red pepper version of the feta salad and as Kegan put it “everything au gratin potatoes hope they grow up to be”. lolWe were so full but the desserts looked to amazing..so we ordered them anyway… Kegan’s was a lemon pie.Norah spotted Tiramisu before we ordered…so there was no getting out of that even if we didn’t want anything.I got the Millefeuille Politia – their signature dessert and also happens to be my favorite dessert! I was very disappointed in myself that I had to leave half on the plate. The exterior of the hotel restaurant.Little old abandoned church behind our hotel room.
Next post will be our final day in Greece and travel home. Hopefully it will be a short, sweet uneventful wrap up. 🙂
Today was our prebooked tour with George the taxi driver that I saw recommended on a Facebook group for Athens travel and he did not disappoint. He arrived to our hotel at 8am on the dot and we packed our suitcases into the car and were on our way for the day. He said his goal was to make all our friends jealous with our beautiful photos. ha I told him I would need friends first. George didn’t really understand my English sarcasm…but we managed ha
The road signs are very similar to American signs…and most of the Greek signage had an English version, too. George says its because 30% of the economy is tourism so they love tourists. ha
After an hour in the car or so, the first stop we made was at the Corinth Canal. An engineering marvel that took 2500 years to actually achieve. This narrow straight of land is all that separates the Ionian Sea from the Aegean Sea and would save ships from having to sail all around the Peloponnese peninsula.
Rulers from 600 BC forward have had plans to dig a canal here…including 4 Roman emperors. Nero actually started the work but then had to stop to fight off an invasion and then was killed… so work stopped. It wasn’t until 1890 that this canal was actually created and ships could pass through it, saving 430 miles of sailing.
The older ruler to think about digging the canal was named Periander and after he consulted the Oracle of Delphi and it was recommended that if Apollo wanted the seas to connect, he would have designed them that way… he tried to resolve the problem by building the famous Diolkos. The Diolkos was a special road paved with slabs of limestone covered in wood from which ships greased with fat were pulled over land by oxen and slaves. Ships were loaded on special vehicles and were carried/pushed over dry land through Diolkos while the goods had been offloaded from the ships and were transported by pack animals. This idea was very successful because the ships of the era were much smaller dimensions than today. George took us by this ancient road to see what remains.
There is also a modern submersible bridge. Usually the bridges open up for ships to pass through. This one submerges under the water at a depth of 40 feet to allow passing ships. He said many years ago that locals would wait for the bridge to resurface after a ship passed and collect the fish that were stuck in the bridge. Smart fishing!The site of Ancient Corinth was closed for today but we could still peek in at the ruins through the fence where you can see the columns of the Temple of Apollo. Corinth was the wealthiest city in ancient Greece with fertile soil and its strategic position on the peninsula. The Diolkos helped that, too. If you are Christian- it is said that the Apostle Paul visited Corinth around 50AD and created the first church of Corinth where he met Priscilla and Aquila who became two of the Seventy Disciples. His letter to the Corinthians (1st and 2nd Corinthians) are a major part of the New Testament.A view from the ruins up towards the acropolis of Corinth – or the Acrocorinth – the impenetrable fortress that protected the land route into the Peloponnese peninsula. From here the military could monitor all activity by land and by sea.There were a LOT of steps in the pouring rain to get up here… but worth it. The rocks were so slippery from the rain, we didn’t go all the way to the top… since it was all in ruins anyway, we made it through the gates and could see all around (what wasn’t obscured by fog anyway)
Back in the car for our next stop in wine country.
The winery we had made reservations for a tour and tasting was outside the town of Nemea which has this huge rock outcropping with houses way up the side back in the mountain.
We chose the Bairaktaris winery on the recommendation of George and were given a tour.
They use all of their own vines for their wines and most of them are the Agiorgitiko variety as a base.They had one variety called Terra Opus that they aged in these clay pots- called amphora like the ancients would have stored wine. We selected the 4 wine tasting- then added on 2 red premium tasting. So, we tasted a white, a rose, 2 reds – then 2 premium reds, including the Terra Opus from the clay amphora. Overall, my favorite was a $14 bottle vs the $60 bottle lol Norah read all of the tasting notes and decided that she wanted to taste the last wine of the tasting- the 3/.13 dessert wine. She liked the smell, but quickly on just a tad sip was not a fan. The host asked “does she drink?” when we sat down- she was totally going to give her a full tasting, too! ha
Having the equivalent of 3 full glasses of wine at noon made the cold rain better. ha We then continued on to the ancient site of Mycanae.
The Mycanaens were the pre-Greeks – at this site and flourishing as early as 1600 BC.
The first site we visited was the Citadel which is fortified by the Cyclopean walls and the main entrance being the Lion’s Gate
3000 year old gate. Inside (which I apparently didn’t photograph because it was raining and I was less than thrilled to be cold and soaking wet) was a circular grave where they pulled tons of gold and other options from burials. The famous Mask of Agamemnon that I photographed on Day 2 at the National Archeologic Museum was found here at this site. There was a small museum on site showcasing some items that have been excavated from the site.
We took a quick drive over the to the Treasury of Atrius or the Tomb of Agamemnon – a beehive domed tomb from 1300 BC.
After this visit, it was lunch time – George dropped us off at a recommended restaurant in Nafplio called Bounos.
We had fish soupOctopusSteamed mussels (and pan-fried shrimp and fired calamari that I forgot to photo)Complementary panna cotta with chocolate, caramel and strawberry topping for dessert.
Afterwards, we were supposed to spend an hour walking around the town and seeing the sites, but it was still pouring rain, so we told George we were ready to head on back to Athens. He suggested he knew a spot were we could be out of the rain and get a great family photo – so we drove up to Palamidi fortress – a fortress built by the Venetians during their occupation in the 1600s- above the town to George’s secret photo spot.
George selfie!
George informed us that there was a taxi strike for today, people kept calling him to ask for rides and he had to say no. Thankfully, he did not cancel our trip since we had pre-booked.
We checked into a new hotel on the other side of Athens and said goodbye to George, but Norah wanted dinner… and looking there wasn’t much super close and walkable that looked good… but there was a sushi restaurant with a full 5 stars on Google… so we gave it a shot….and it was good!
Complimentary profiteroles after food.
Tomorrow morning we’ll rent our car and head out of the city to tour the north of Greece!
To start Day 3, we were supposed to do our Acropolis and Ancient Agora tour…but I got a message that the Agora would be closed for Sunday so I could either move it to a different day, do half of the tour…and cancel and refund. So, we moved it to Monday- but that meant that we would be doing the museum before the site and some smaller sites before the big ones…but we decided that was OK.
So, we had our hotel breakfast and headed out towards Lycabettus Hill in an Uber. Our Uber had to drop us off a half mile from the entrance due to a race we were crossing. Which meant I had to walk up hill AND pay for the Uber 🙂
Mount Lycabettus or Lycabettus Hill is a limestone hill that is 1000 ft above sea level and is the highest point in Athens. The name literally means “the hill walked by wolves” and the legend is that there were wolves who lived here.
There is a funicular railway that climbs the hill from the Kolonaki railway station at the base. We obviously paid to ride that up vs hiking the hill… but after learning it was 40 euro for 3 of us to ride it both ways, we thought about it lol Little pricey.
It wasnt a great weather day, a little rainy and a LOT windy… but just gotta get on with the tourist stuff when you can. ha You can literally see everything in Athens from this point. Up top there is a restaurant (which I learned later is apparently fine dining and very good- but it was like 10am…so no fine dining for us) and an old church..and an open air theater that a lot of big musicians have played at including Ray Charles, Bob Dylan, Black Sabbath and others
The Acropolis in the distance on the rocky plateau.The Panathenaic Stadium that we were headed to next from one viewWe made our way back down the funicular (which only runs every 30 minutes) and headed to the Stadium – called the Kallimarmaro or “beautiful marble” in Greek – it is the only stadium in the world built entirely out of white marble.The original site is from 330BC was used for the Panathenian Games, but then it was renovated in 140BC giving it its marble stands and horseshoe shape. After the fall of Rome- most of the marble was looted, but a wealthy entrepreneur funded it’s full restoration in 1890. This construction holds 50,000 people was the site of the first modern Olympic games in 1896. It is still the Olympic flame handover site for Athens and its the finish line of the Athens Marathon. Next we walked through a bit of the National Gardens of Athens towards the Zappeion – a building that was built to house fencing in the first Olympics and the exhibition hall and now is a multi-use building. They were having some sort of kid event with salsa dancing and performers on stilts and music as we walked through. Interesting banner for Popcorn in greek on the cart. Back through the gardens we found more interesting spots. We popped out of the gardens at the Hellenic Parliament at Syntagma Square’s Tomb of the Unknown Solider for the changing of the guard ceremony. Once weekly at 11am on Sundays there is a whole parade and music and a big show of it… but hourly there is a small ceremony. We arrived at 12pm. Missed it by an hour!The Evzones soldiers in traditional uniform including fustanella (skirt/kilt) and tsarouhia (pompom shoes) performing precise, slow-motion movements to switch out the guarding of the tomb. After the ceremony, we popped back into the gardens to walk the rest of the sitesBronze statue of Alexander the Great as a teenager- that actually was just placed here in 2019. We walked past Hadrian’s Arch or Hadrian’s Gate- which was the city gate between the ancient road and the sites of the Temple of Olympian Zeus. It was built by the citizens of Athens to honor the arrival of the Roman emperor Hadrian in 132AD. Hadrian was bestowed Athenian citizenship in 112AD during a visit, so the inscriptions on the arch welcome him as an Athenian, not as an emperor. He really loved Greece and Athens and favored them with gifts and money during his reign as emperor.Since this was the state of the Temple of Olympian Zeus, we decided that paying to go in and walk around didn’t make much sense… so we just looked around the grounds through the fence. The name “Olympian Zeus” just means the god Zeus of Mount Olympus. Construction began in 700 BC but didnt complete until Hadrian’s time some 600 years later. At its height it included 104 colossal columns and was the largest temple in Greece. It only stood in its full glory for about a hundred years before it was pillaged during a Germanic invasion. Then after the fall of Rome, the stone was quarried from here for other projects, leaving only 16 of the pillars Aristotle wrote about this site in his “Politics” that it was hubris to build on such a scale. saying that these sort of “great works” was just tyranny engaging the populace for great works of the state and left them no time, energy or means to rebel.
It was time for some lunch, so we walked into the Plaka neighborhood at the base of the acropolis hill.
Tried to see the inside of the church and walked into the middle of service… decided not to. ha
We ate at a restaurant called Lyra we found nearby and it was amazing.
I wanted a cappucino and a coke. Coke apparently comes with lemon here. haKegan decided red wine was sounding best for him.Sheep meatballsPita with a chunky salsa type dipCrispy potatoesGrilled octopus with a hummus spreadGrilled lamp chops, served with more potatoes. I’m pretty sure Kegan ate the equivalent of like 3 whole potatoes cleaning up the extras when Norah and I were done. ha
We had sufficiently wasted enough time to allow for our Acropolis Museum 3pm entrance, so we headed that way. It was just in time, too becuase it started raining on us right as we got to the museum.
Overall, the museum was a bit underwhelming. It is cool that they have taken the original statues and stone carvings and housed them inside for preservation and created replicas at the Acropolis outdoors… and I know these are like ANCIENT and massive and all of that… but like, everything is so worn down its hard to even see what they were, so its just like walking through floors of melted wax figures that I’m sure are important…and worth seeing.. but I don’t know… I didn’t get much out of it. Everyone says you can’t miss this museum…I say you can 🙂
After the Acropolis museum, we were 11k steps in for the day and it was time for our afternoon siesta in the hotel room where I take my two hour nap and Norah gets her screen time in. ha
We booked another escape room for the evening, this time a 2 hour one. (Turns out after talking with the guy, there are no 1 hour escape rooms left in Athens, all 2-4 hours) We booked Death in Space at Escapepolis.
They had a very friendly and attention-loving dog named Liza. She was a sweet old girl. We escaped in a little of half the time…so an easy room. Cool space ship type controls and electronics and screens, no puzzle locks or anything… but the music was SO loud during the entire thing we were all drained when it was over. I told the guy it was too loud and he was like, why didn’t you say something?? and I was like I did, like 5 times! – turns out I don’t think our game master monitoring us spoke English well (understandable!) so he didn’t hear me and the main guy who worked the front checked the controls and a water bottle had fallen and knocked a dial for the sound over way higher than it should have been. So between screaming music, a big chunky arm strap computer on my arm and the heat of the room, we were an overstimulated mess after an hour. haha But, all good- a fun room and concept.
We grabbed a quick takeaway box from the grill at the hotel (much more managable portions this time) and called it a night.
Day 4 started with breakfast at the hotel again- I finally remembered to take a photo of the spread.
We had to get up earlier than we like to get across Athens to our meeting point for a 9am starting tour. We got our headsets and checked in and headed to the Acropolis site.
While waiting on some in the group to use the bathroom, a cat nearby decided to make friends with this guy and crawled right into his lap for a cuddle. This is definitely how you get a cat. ha The Theatre of Dionysus on the south slope of the acropolis hill – the original theater, the oldest theater, where the works of Sophocles, Aristophanes and Euripides were all performed. Me, looking up at how high we’re going to be climbing in the next 30 minutes lol It didn’t end up being bad at all. The climb up was broken up into sites along the way that made it feel really reasonable to walk through.Philopappos Monument in the distance from the base of the Acropolis. It is a 2nd century Roman mausoleum for a roman senator.The famous Temple of Athena- or Parthenon- up close. Built in Doric style of Pentelic marble with 8 columns on the short sides and 17 on the long sides. Built in the 400s BC to celebrate the Greek victory over the Persians in the Greco-Persian Wars. The Erechteion – on the north side of the acropolisThe Porch of the Maidens with the Caryatid statues View of the west end of the Parthenon. If you look at the top- you can see them placing one of the stones as part of restoration activities. Restoration activities seem to be taking much longer than the original construction, which took about 15 years total, including the decorating, sculptures, and finish work after the 9-10 years required to build the main structure.An overlook from the Acropolis down over the Agora – with the temple of Hephaestus that we would visit next on the second part of our tour.View down over the greek theatre that we passed on our way up. On the way out, we thought the underside of the Temple of Nike was pretty cool- how the ceiling was coffered like you still see today in some homes. The Temple of Hephaestus – the god of workers – was used throughout history and then later as a church from the 7th century through the 1800s- so it remains in really good shape comparatively. Maybe the first public free water access point. Greece built an acqueduct from the mountains and made it free for the people. The Stoa of Athens- originally from 150BC, rebuilt to house the Agora museum in the 1950s. Its what the temple construction would have looked like when it was new to the people of ancient Athens with its long covered portico.
It rained on us pretty significantly during our Agora tour…so we looked around the museum after and then waited out the rain for 15 minutes or so before heading out to find some lunch.
After planning to go to a Greek restaurant we skipped another night, we Ubered there only to find it was now an Indian restaurant. ha So we searched again and found a charcuterie restaurant in between us and the hotel so we trekked it a few blocks there.
The shop is called Miran and is a 3rd generation family meat market with a few tables in the back. Their menu had about 3 items on it – the meat platter, the eggs and meat and the pizza bread and meat. ha We selected the platter and Norah wanted the bread boat with cheese and meat. The waiter said “no, you want the eggs and meat” and talked us into it lol The complementary Halva at the end was great with cinnamon dusted over the outside. They are known for this meat that was on the platter- no idea what it is called. But it was like a rare cured beef with some sort of Indian type spices. (Edit: Kegan here- I, unknown to Erin, did the research on this place while she was typing. They are famous for their pastourma, a rare beef coated with Turkish spices and seen on the poster above, and their soujouk, the ground salami-like meat. Both of the recipes and techniques for these meats were from the founder of the place- Miran Kourounlian. Website is mirandeli.com if you want to ogle their meat…)
We continued our walk back to the hotel through a more working class normal neighborhood
A little corner grocery with salted fish outsideA shop that sold only eggs. Just big pallets of eggs only. haWe stopped in to this Loukomades bakery that has been serving traditional Loukomades since 1912. Literally- they have water…and Loukomades, which are crispy fried dough balls soaked in honey and topped with sesame and cinnamon. Norah learned about these in 4th grade from a VR game called Lost Recipes where you make the lost recipes from different ancient cultures, and has been wanting to try them ever since. She said the 5 year wait was worth it- they were heaven.
The rest of Day 4 was very boring- we got back to the hotel around 4pm and we all slept for 4.5 hours after all of that walking today! ha So, here I sit at midnight typing the blog up… packing up suitcases after showering (apparently you have to shower and wash your hair on Monday Feb 16th this year because washing your hair on Tues Feb 17th on Chinese Lunar New Year will wash all of your good fortune for 2026 away! be aware!) If you were born in 1954, 1966, 1978, 1990, 2002, 2014 or 2026 – wear red this year to maximize YOUR year of the horse. 🙂
Tomorrow we check out of this hotel and have a full day tour outside of Athens to Ancient Corinth, a winery, Mycenae and other stops… see ya after!
This year’s Mardi Gras break trip is to Greece! We will be spending 9 days total- 7 days in Greece, 2 traveling.
We started out Thursday evening after Norah got out of school and I was done with work- on a flight out of New Orleans direct to London. This was exciting because every time we fly international, we usually have to make the 5 hour drive to Houston but being able to fly right out of NOLA was *chef’s kiss*.
After the 8 hour flight to London we had a couple hours in Heathrow – Norah got a burger but nothing else to really write about.. then we got on our Athens flight- another 3.5 hours and by this point we were all sleepy-eyed. Most of this flight was just us sleeping.
By the time we got to Athens, it was 6:30pm local time. It took about 40 minutes to get through passport control… but our taxi was there waiting for us. Drove us the 45 minutes from the airport to our hotel on the north side of Athens- the Brown Acropol.
I was a little apprehensive because we were watching a YouTube guide to Athens and the guys was like “don’t book a hotel north of xxx street” and when I checked the map, we were two blocks north of “that” street. ha I had read a hundred reviews or so of the hotel prior to booking and the reviews seemed good and no one talked about it being a bad area. So we decided we’d show up and if we didn’t like it, we’d just get an Uber somewhere else. It was just fine….
On arrival at the desk, the guy asked if we would like a complimentary Prosecco while we check in- we said sure. And out came 3 glasses of prosecco. One for Kegan, one for me… and one handed to Norah. hahaha I 100% told her she could drink it if she wanted. She was served champagne, she could drink champagne. lol Miss Rule Follower waited until we got into the hotel room, then tried a sip and promptly handed it to me. haha Our room is basically a big 2 bed apartment with 2 bathrooms, a kitchenette and an entry room. There is a little record player in each room with a library of vinyls in the lobby you can swap out. The room has two balconies- one off of each of the bedroomsNorah enjoyed the disco ball in the hall and dances to the music every time we leave. Since it was already late, we just crossed the street to a little restaurant with good Google reviews and were not disappointed. The guy talked us into ordering way more food than we planned to because he said he would make “for 1 person size” lol he did NOT in fact make “for 1 person size” the meals were big. and cheap. Each plate was $12 or under.Greek lamb kebab for meGrilled pork skewers for NorahMeat sampler for Kegan – chicken souvlaki, pork souvlaki, grilled sausages of some sort. It was all excellent. We all ate off of each other’s plates until we were miserable and thirsty from all of the salt. ha
After dinner, it was back to the room around 11pm and time for bed. I was out about 5 seconds after my head hit the pillow.
For Day 2, which is really our first day in Greece, we started with hotel breakfast on the roof with a view of the Acropolis. It had a good spread for a hotel buffet breakfast – rasher bacon, eggs, sausages, norwegian specialties like pickled herring, anchovies and smoked salmon, cold cuts and cheese. Greek specialty pastries and breads as well as juices and coffee – and it was included with the room price, so it was fine with us.
Our first stop after breakfast was the National Archeological Museum.
It was a large museum with TONS of ancient pottery and small pieces. Here were some of my favorite items:
The Jockey of Artemision. It’s from approx 140 BC and cast in bronze. Found in a shipwreck, which explains why it survives since almost all bronze was melted down over the years for weapons and war. Gold death masks from MycenaeMore Mycenean Gold Mycanean death mask of Agamemnon – we’ll be visiting his tomb where this was discovered on Day 5Bronze sword with stone and gold inlaid handle.The Antikythera Mechanism – the world’s first “computer” – discovered in a shipwreck after 2000 years under water in 1901.. with mechanical dials that could track multiple celestial events and calendars. This technology wouldn’t be seen again for 1500 years after the age of this piece. Norah’s favorite- the derpy short horse. Preserved frescos from Santorini from the Ankrotiri site. Rock crystal and bronze poppy pods The bronze Artemision ZeusNorah isn’t a huge museum person… but she usually sits patiently on whatever bench she can find until we’ve seen what we want.
After leaving the museum, we walked through the city to some other sites. I love all of the orange trees lining the streets.
Sculpture in Klafthmonos squareKegan told me to pose so I could be a part of the pictures today.Panagia Kapnikarea church – an 11th century Byzantine church amazingly still standing in the middle of a modern square
Next Norah decided that a gelato shop we passed looked good so we stopped…and this was a great decision. Maybe the best ice cream I have ever had… a chain called Kayak Pure Magic Ice Cream. I recommend you look it up in Athens.
After a late lunch we had a two hour rest in the hotel and then headed out to catch an Uber to our evening activity- a 3 hour escape room at Paradox Project.
With no spoilers- the basic idea is that our uncle had invited us over to the mansion, but when we arrived, we found that he had been kidnapped and we have to find clues to help him and find his hidden jewel. Once we found our way through most rooms, we learn that he actually faked the kidnapping and we are being framed with a fake jewel while he escapes with the real one… and we have to solve more puzzles before the police arrive.
We escaped and completed all puzzles. Our game master said she was very impressed with us. We were a great team and did better than almost all teams. We didn’t tell her we’ve now done over 100 escape rooms. ha
We didn’t want a whole sit down meal at 11pm, but we wanted something…so we stopped by a little turkish food stall right outside the escape room venue.
I forgot to take photos until we were halfway through eating… but we got a couple pizza boat things with egg and bacon, and pepporoni, a sausage filled phyllo dough rope thing ( on the right above) and a pig in a blanket hot dog thing. They were all greasy but good, and total was $15 for everything plus drinks.
In Italy and apparently in Greece this sell this Bitter Lemon drink… it is a lightly carbonated lemonade with bitters and I love it. So excited to have these this week.
Hello again! Norah is officially done with 7th grade and it’s Memorial Day weekend, so it gave us a great week to plan our summer trip before the camps and all other summer activities start.
We left New Orleans Friday evening after work headed to New York City.
Nice view of the causeway bridge over Lake Pontchartrain on our way out.
Arriving to JFK airport was pretty lackluster, a huge walk to the air train, riding that out to a pickup point, waiting 30 minutes for a hotel shuttle… but we were staying right at the airport at the Marriott JFK.
We ordered some Halal food via Uber Eats to the hotel as it was 11pm. It was great! Lamb gyro, chicken schwarma, rice and a spicy sauce.
Saturday started with storing our luggage at the hotel and heading out to explore Brooklyn. Breakfast wasn’t anything to write home about but it made a little girl very happy. Lol White Castle! Norah loves White Castle- always has since she was a toddler. We always have to buy the frozen burgers when we travel or live where there were no restaurants… and I have to say the burgers with real egg on them- I’m pretty happy with them as well.
After breakfast we hit the metro to Botanic Garden to go to the Brooklyn Museum.
Only to arrive and go-WAIT- we’ve already been here. Haha so…. change of plans – back on the subway to the New York Transit Museum!
It is fittingly located inside a metro station undergroundDid you know the New York Transit Authority had a marching band?? ha
Under the museum, another level down were all the historic metro subway cars! This was the super cool part.
A still operational control board at the office in the station of the museum.
After the transit museum, we caught the subway back out to Queens to visit the Louis Armstrong house museum.
They have set up a museum and center housing a few items of his across the street from the actual house which is preserved basically how the Armstrong’s left it.
This original photo of King Oliver’s band (before Louis joined them) was special to me… because I literally have a print of this in my living room that Kegan bought for me for Christmas one year. A 6 page handwritten letter Louis wrote as a love note to his neighborhood in Corona, Queens. As a dirt-poor kid who was in a orphanage and then traveling for music and shows his whole life and having 3 marriages end… this house was his first and only “home” he really ever had.
There were no photos allowed inside the house… which always irks me… but I complied… The front sitting room had amazing collected items from around the world, the upstairs den had tons of tapes and records and recordings and had a painting on the wall that Tony Bennett painted of Louis Armstrong. There was a very Las Vegas Liberacci bathroom of all mirrors… and then a World’s Fair inspired futuristic kitchen with teal slick lacquered doors, curved cabinets, a built-in blender in the counter and hidden storage in the backsplash.
After the tour, we headed to Jackson Heights to my favorite Nepalese restaurant for dumplings.
Norah’s Coke can invited her to have a Coke with Dude (the name of her cat she was already missing) ha
After dinner it was time to go back to grab our luggage from the luggage from storage and head to the airport for our overnight flight to London. We had upgrades to Premium cabin on Virgin Air, so we got bigger leather seats, better meals, and champagne at takeoff. Norah got orange juice to toast. ha
The flight was uneventful, arriving at Heathrow early. We took the London Underground to our hotel in Shepherd’s Bush, on the west side of London.
We took a 2 hour nap to try to get enough energy to go be tourists, then we set out, headed to 221b Baker Street.
We wasted $60 on tickets to the Sherlock Holmes museum… which was really just a kitschy little “tour” of Sherlock Holmes’ real apartment and items from his “life”. It was done so strangely I actually had to ask Kegan “He wasn’t ACTUALLY a real person, right???”
After Sherlock’s house, we got some terrible coffee and then headed downtown to see some other sights.
Big BenSt James ParkPrincess Diana Memorial WalkOutside Buckingham PalaceNorah outside of Buckingham.The Queen Victoria MemorialA very old arcade of shops that looked very photogenic. Picadilly CircusChinatown area just north of Picadilly
For dinner, we dipped into the Seven Dials market full of food stalls to have a seat at the rotating cheese counter called Pick & Cheese. We ate so. much. cheese. ha It was fantastic. Each cheese was paired with a sauce or a side, like kimchi, a brownie, a caramel, a tomato chutney… they were all great.
Maybe one of the worst photos captured of me in the background… but gotta stick it in here for Norah. She was a big fan of the cheesecake. Cornish Kern with a Brown Sugar BiscuitSt Ella goat cheese in a French crottin style with a Rose turkish delight. Lucky Marcel with a Apricot Jam Gorwydd Caerphilly with Picalilli – a savory mustard chutneyPerl Las Welsh blue cheese with a chocolate and hazelnut brownieYogurt, Lemon and Honey Cheesecake
After dinner, we headed across to the East end of London to play our scheduled escape room at Escape Plan near Spitalfields. We arrived about an hour early… so we went upstairs in the same venue which was a movie theater with a bar and we got pints of cider and Norah tried a new soda she had never heard of called Vimto. Turns out Vimto is very popular in the UK and has been around forever- it contains the juice of grapes, raspberries, black currants and black carrots flavored with herbs and spices. She was a big fan.
We booked the room “Pushed for Time” which had us going through time in our time machine- we had to travel back to 1920’s France and then the 1800’s Oxford to recover items to stop the murder of the time machine designer. It was a fantastic room! We had so much fun. The time machine (where our photo is below) had to have a code keyed in that then started a time travel sequence that required us to select day vs night, the type of music we wanted and our destination…then proceeded to take us on a 2 minute dance party while it “transported” us to a different time. We very much enjoyed ourselves. ha
We were all so tired at this point, we had to take turns falling asleep on the tube for the 45 minute ride back to our hotel. ha
We grabbed takeway right next to our hotel from a turkish restaurant.
Lamb chops and kebab… good stuff.
After a good sleep, we were up Monday morning, heading to Paddington station to catch the Great Western Rail train to Oxford for the day. It was a bank holiday in UK, so not too many people out and about around 8am.
An Ox statue right outside the Oxford train station. Waiting on the museums to open at 10am, we swung by the Castle grounds. The castle was built by the Normans when they arrived in Britain in 1071-1073. It still functioned as the local jail until 1996. The Castle Motte
We lucked out and the Story Museum which is normally closed on Mondays was actually open on bank holiday Mondays! So we queued up to go in as they opened.
After the cutesy little story museum, we headed to the Ashmolean Museum, which is Oxford University’s museum of art and archeology- founded in 1683.
We were all starving by the time we finished that museum and Norah asked for Shake Shack which was just down the street. I was a bit disappointed that we were eating something we can get at home… but we did. $75 for Shake Shack! haha I’m still upset about this. ha
Our last stop was the Oxford Natural History museum which has been open since 1860. The neo-gothic building housing the majority of the exhibits was amazing. The absolute derpiest Beaver I have ever seen. haha I have no idea of his story… but it has to be good. haha The largest Crinoid cluster specimen we had ever seen.A full flower specimen of Crinoid. I have NEVER seen one intact like this! This was collected by the scientist Lamark. As in “Lamarkian theory of evolution” predating Darwin… Kegan was like “these were like THE SCIENTISTS that discovered everything! These are THE SPECIMENS they were using!” He was nerding out a bit. haha They also had specimens from Linnaeus, a Swedish scientist from the 1700s who is considered the father of modern taxonomy. Kegan found it mind-blowing to be looking a samples collected by the people who quite literally wrote the books that you study. A Gigantoproductus – a GIANT brachiopod. You can find these around Indiana, but only like an inch at most… this was massive. Cast footprints of a MegalosaurusHertford Bridge, known as the Bridge of Sighs, because of its similar look to the Venice Bridge of Sighs we also recently saw! It joins two buildings of Hertford College. This is the Sheldonian Theatre which is a city theater but also where the graduation ceremonies of Oxford University are held. We also tried to visit the Bodleian Library, the UK’s second largest library with over 11 million works, established in 1602. They do architectural tours daily, but they were all sold out by the time I realized we would have time to do one… oh well.
Oxford was very sparse in the morning… but by the late afternoon it was a madhouse of people… we decided to go ahead and head back since we could take any train. We had reserved seats on the 6pm train but the lady told us we could take any seat that wasn’t reserved on an earlier train… so we headed out for the 4pm train. It was SO PACKED by the time it arrived late that we had to stand in the space between the cars with 20 of our closest friends for an HOUR back to London. By the time we realized what was going on, it was too late to abort and wait for another later train. ha Oh well, we survived. But my feet were not happy about two full days of walking and literally heading back early because we were all tired from walking and standing all day. Not a fun extra hour. ha
We took a couple hour nap again before heading out to our escape room for the night and dinner.
We booked the official BBC TV Sherlock escape room… but we had a bit of a struggle finding out how to get in…
Turns out, it was through this fake Optician’s office. ha Only reason we thought it COULD be the room was because what optician is open at 8pm?? ha so we gave it a shot and the lady inside asked why we were buzzing her… we said “to play an escape game?”… she said “why would you ring the optician’s to play a game?” and really had us for a sec until we figured out we had to tell her were there for an eye exam as a cover for the covert Sherlock operation we were going to be a part of…
Of course we were successful! We got out in 45 minutes- the handler told us our gamemaster called out to her to be sure to tell us we were “brilliant”. lol There was an issue with a bike pump we were supposed to be using to get a machine to work so she gave us our photos for free. I think they were pretty fun. lol
We walked a couple blocks to a posh-looking Pakistani restaurant and I think it was my favorite meal in London. It was a small place called Little Lahore.
We had pappadam to start, a mixed grill of meats and a butter lamb with naan bread as well as some cocktails and mocktails. We left very happy and ready for bed and ready to pack up and head to Ireland.
Tuesday morning, we had to get up super early at 5:30am to take the tube to Liverpool Station to catch the Greater Anglia Stansted express to Stansted Airport. We made it through Priority security quickly so we sat down for some proper breakfast.
The flight was quick, just a little over an hour into Shannon airport outside of Limerick. The rental counter guy made sure we had actually driven on the other side of the road before. Apaprently this is a common enough problem with American tourists that they feel the need to check. lol
We headed out for our 2.5 hour drive down to the Dingle peninsula where we booked a house for 4 nights.
Driving through Blennerville with a glimpse of their windmill. Elphin- the town we lived in- was one of the only other towns in the country with a working windmill tower that had not been destroyed. We stopped off at Minard Castle as our first stop on the peninsula. It is my happy spot in Ireland. It’s just so gorgeous and wild. I love it.
We stopped at the grocery to get a few items before heading to the house.
We looked like a group of unsupervised children in the grocery buying every crisp and sweet we ever liked in Ireland for the week! ha
We wanted to find something with decent food, not a chipper, but not fancy that we would have to change clothes… and decided on a place called Ashe’s Restaurant in Dingle town. They had Guinness and Bulmers on tap…so I was happy.
Crab claws in a garlic butter saucePrawn risottoLocal John Dory fish specialView from the top of Connor Pass driving back across to our house.
Wednesday started later, I slept like 12 hours. Ha it was glorious. Woke up to this rooster outside our door giving us the wake up call.
I’ve had worse views while drinking my coffee.
We went out and about driving in the morning, heading north, first to Galway for lunch at maybe my favorite restaurant in Ireland, Moran’s Oyster Cottage.
They added a new outdoor seating garden for folks without reservations (and that was us!) so we sat outside in a sauna of a tent since it was such a sunshiny day in Ireland! I swore I wasn’t going to complain about being too hot in Ireland from the sun lol but after shedding sweatshirts and drinking a cool draught cider and STILL boiling, I had to start complaining a little by the end. ha
A dozen local Gigas oystersA 7th generation family recipe seafood chowder with brown breadFish and chips, of course, for NorahKegan and I both had our own Seafood platter with salad, smoked salmon, shrimp with marie rose sauce and 2 crab claws and crab meat.
After, we were off to County Roscommon to see a few folks from where we lived. Our first stop was to see our friend Anne-Marie and her kids. Henry went to school with Norah and that’s how we met them… and Henry’s younger sister Anna-Martha who was only about 3 years old the last time we saw her, she’s grown a bit! ha It was like we just left there yesterday, they played and talked and ran around the farm. It was great.
The famous St Patrick’s Parade in Elphin that Norah was in the paper for. ha Henry dug it out to show Norah in case she didnt remember! ha Anne-Marie’s wild Irish Roses in the hedge that smelled absolutely wonderful! Had to photograph them. When we lived there I made elderflower syrup from elderflower blooms in these same hedgerows.. and Anne-Marie remembered that! ha
After seeing Anne-Marie, Michael and the kids, we headed across town to see Sean and Michelle and their boys. Sean helped us finish out our house when we remodeled it and the whole family are just super good people. It was great to catch up with them for a couple hours.
At 10pm, we still had to make the 4 hour drive back to Dingle… and we made it! barely. ha Kegan was a champ at driving that far, that late.
Thursday we slept late, fried up a full Irish breakfast and then we just went around exploring a bit of Ireland, driving through small towns we had never been to before, checking real estate prices for homes we’ll never buy lol
Kanturk Castle- 1580s Irish chieftain’s fortified house
We made our way to Adare town to eat at a restaurant Kegan has been following on Instagram for around 8 years. They have multiple Michelin awards, Best of Ireland awards- the chef and owner, Wade Murphy is featured on TV a lot in Ireland… and he was very excited to finally get to eat here at 1826 Adare.
Monkfish scampi for a starterI had the Chicken Liver Mousse with a sourdough and bacon jamRump of Lamb with broccolini, peas, broad beans, crisp croquette and salsa verde for me.Short ribs on celeriac puree with pearl onion bacon onion horseradish sauce for KeganPan roasted cod fillet with potatoes and beurre blanc sauce for Norah. She was the first one done. Ate every bite. Side of broccolini with crispy onionsFor dessert I had a tasting flight of ports- a ruby, a tawny and a vintageClassic creme brulee with blood orange sorbetMilk chocolate Cremeaux with dark chocolate brownie, hazelnut crunch and a coffee ice cream
Overall the food was amazing, the first courses were going wonderfully then a large group of 15 drunk old rich American businessmen came in and were the loudest most obnoxious group complaining about their wives, their country club golf membership cost per year, watching porn on VR headsets, getting their wives breast implants and just being all around grade A jerks…. Kegan was fuming mad that they were ruining his experience… so by the end, he was definitely ready to go… he said if he ever had a restaurant, he’d go broke before he let entitled assholes ruin an entire restaurant’s evening. But, that’s why American’s have the reputation they have around the world for being loud, brash and obnoxious- those types of guys are our ambassadors to the world.
Two hours back home after the restaurant and still light outside at 10:30pm. Love Ireland in the summer!
Friday was our no plans day of just jetting around and seeing what we could find.
Forgot to photograph my “99” before I started eating it… Ireland has .99 cones in almost all their petrol stations – but now they cost 2-3 euro. lol Still amazing and what our Dairy Queen ice cream used to taste like 20 years ago.
We found a great view over the Kenmare Bay on our way to the Ardgroom Stone Circle on the Beare Peninsula.
Love these little ladders for helping the hikers and tourists see the sights without disrupting the sheep fences.
Next we headed over the Healy Pass on along the south of Ireland… and my goodness. This is the point I decided I wasn’t ever going home. ha Norah said it was so pretty it looked like AI and there was no way this was a real place.
We ate lunch in Bantry at a little pub. Nothing great, but a dry cider on draft and seafood chowder.
We passed through the little town of Dunmanway one day before their famous Star Wars festival weekend. So the town was all decorated up,. We saw a mandolorian, then yoda, then baby yoda, then Han Solo… and we were like, what the heck is going on??? haha looked it up and we were just one day early!
We ended up back in Dingle town, grabbed an order of Monkfish and chips and smoked cod and chips because I had a list of 3 things to get in Ireland- real batch bread, a cider on draft and smoked fish and chips. ha Couldn’t find the right bread, had PLENTY of draft cider, so this was #3 for the last night.
We all shared the fish and chips, packed up our bags and cleaned up the house… and we were out Saturday morning, headed back for our 2 hour drive to Shannon airport. We flew RyanAir to London Gatwick, took the Gatwick Express train to Victoria station in London, where we booked the Doubletree Hilton at the station to make it easy to head to Heathrow airport Sunday morning.
We grabbed Turkish food at a takeaway close to the hotel, I had another draft cider from the bar and I wrote up this summary while Kegan and Norah “existed” in the hotel room. (As “existing” is what Norah said she wanted to do when I asked what she wanted to do around London Saturday evening) haha
Sunday was an uneventful flight on Virgin Air back to JFK, a terrible Lyft ride at 20-30 under the speed limit through Brooklyn, Staten Island and New Jersey to Newark airport, then a United flight back to New Orleans (delayed 20 minutes) to get us back home just after midnight. The cats were thrilled we were back home and life was now back to normal.
No more trips or adventures planned for the rest of the year at this time as I have multiple work golive events between July and November… but we’ll see what last minute trouble I can find to get us into.
