Beautiful Athens

 My travel buddy and I had added two days in Greece to our vacation and so we made our way from Rome to Athens.  Navigating the Rome airport was an experience but we made our flight to Athens with time to spare.  I was surprised that we didn't have to go through Customs when we arrived in Athens, then realized that Italy and Greece are both EU countries, so it's like going from state to state in the US.  As part of our package, we were met at the Athens airport by a driver who whisked us away to the Stanley Hotel, not a very Greek sounding hotel name but far and away the nicest hotel we stayed in on the whole trip. It was in Athens that we both tested positive for COVID.  We didn't announce the fact to anyone but wore masks and did our best to keep our distance from people.  We discovered to our delight that the ninth floor restaurant (Cloud 9) had excellent food, a lunch menu available until 6:30pm, and a view of the Parthenon.  It was an indoor/outdoor restaurant with sliding glass panels to open the whole area when the weather was good.  We ate all three of our suppers in that restaurant, always seated at the same small table with that amazing view of the Parthenon. We ate at 6:00pm when it was never crowded.  We weren't sophisticated enough to eat with the evening crowd.  On the first afternoon we took a bus ride around the city on a double decker bus.  We sat in the very front seats on the top level and it was a lot like an amusement park ride.  Athens drivers, like those in Rome, are fearless. Driving a bus, truck, car (of any size) or motorcycle, it makes no difference.  Constantly switching lanes and passing with scant inches to spare is expected.  I have now added Rome and Athens to my list of cities I will never drive in; ride yes, drive no.  In case you're curious, Chicago, Boston and San Francisco are also on my list.

We did walk around some on the second day. in search of gelato, among other things, and discovered this lovely old building across from our hotel, in the early stages of restoration.  I especially like the railings.

A view of the traffic circle that we saw from the balcony of our hotel room. There were six streets feeding into this round-about, no traffic signs at all, and no apparent system.  Vehicles just merged in whenever they saw the slightest gap.  We heard lots of sirens but never actually saw an accident.

The view of the Parthenon, high on its hill, as seen from our restaurant table.  Like Rome, Athens is a city of layers, from the ancient to the ultra modern. Very exciting.

A view I liked from our bus ride.  I would like to go back to Greece sometime when I am feeling well and have lots more time to spend there.