The Panathenaic Stadium

As I mentioned earlier, we used a travel agent to help us book the airfare, airport transfers, hotels and a tour while in Athens.  She priced packages through a couple of companies, and ended up booking through Avanti Destinations. We were pleased with this, since we had successfully used Avanti for our London package in 2012.

Avanti contracts with Conceptours in Athens. We were scheduled to meet at 9:30am for our walking city tour of Athens, but when we had arrived at our hotel the night before, we had a note waiting for us saying we would be picked up from the hotel lobby at 8:15am.  That was it.  No explanation. No phone number.  So we thought maybe they were starting the tour early.  Why else would they move our start time up 1 hour and 15 minutes?

Well, I guess we're gonna get adjusted to the new time zone in a quick way!  We were up Monday morning, June 10 at 7am, giving us just enough time to shower, (re)pack, check out and check our luggage with the bellman, and grab a quick pastry and piece of toast from the fabulous breakfast buffet that was included with our hotel rate.  We were sad to miss that, but little did we know, we had many fabulous breakfasts ahead of us!

A tour hostess met us, with a few other families, in the lobby and walked us a few blocks down the street and around the corner to...

a bus!

Yep, they had "upgraded" our walking tour to a nice, air-conditioned bus tour.  Now, walking would have been fine with either of us, but we weren't complaining about the swanky bus accommodations. And by the end of the tour, we realized how wonderful it was to have that bus!

Our tour guide was Acimenia (my best guess at the spelling), and our driver was Serafin.  We giggled a little about how Acimenia (and the tour itself) reminded us of the movie My Life in Ruins, which we had bought and watched before our trip. (Cute movie starring Nia Vardalos, by the way.  I recommend watching it, but once is enough.)

Our first stop was the Panathenaic Stadium.  This is  the stadium constructed to host the first modern Olympics in 1896. 

 
The stadium was built on the site of an ancient stadium that was used for the Panathenaic Games (thus, the name).  Those games were hosted every four years, dating back to 566 B.C. (That's B.C., Y'all!  As in two thousand five hundred seventy-nine years ago!!) Sometimes it is hard to believe that we were standing in a place with such a long - and grand - history.

Those Panathenaic Games, were similar to the modern Oympics, except that they were not all about athletics.  While they included several sports, they also included a religious festival, cultural events, and competitions in literature and the arts.  These Games lasted until the third century A.D.

At one time, the stadium seated 80,000 spectators. The current structure can seat 45,000.  Maybe they just chopped it off at the front there?  Or maybe the risers went even higher than they do today?  Nobody told us, so that will have to remain one of the mysteries of Ancient Greece.

The obvious question is: how was this stadium used in the 2004 Athens Olympics?  Well, here's your answer: it was used for the archery competition and the finish line for the marathon.  We were told that currently, it serves as the start/finish line for many annual races, including marathons.

As with most locations in Athens, we could see the Acropolis from the front of the Panathenaic Stadium.

 "Hats...hats...get your American-style baseball caps, screenprinted with 'Athens' here..."

Add a little zoom...

Oh! There's a shot of our tour bus!  Looks cool and comfortable, doesn't it?

Our little camera has a decent zoom on it. And clearly we were fascinated by the Acropolis.

 I'd really love to go there some day...



 

An American in Athens (Well, TWO Americans in Athens - Maybe More!)

Our hotel for the first night was the Electra Palace Hotel, located in the Plaka area of Athens. The Plaka is the central, tourist-y area of Athens.  This hotel is one of the nicest in the Plaka, rated at 5 stars on Trip Advisor, and ranked #12 of 289 in Athens on that same site.

Here's a map showing the location of the hotel in relation to the Acropolis and other Athens landmarks:

The hotel is at point "A".  To the West, you can see the Acropolis.  To the South, the Temple of Zeus, and to the far Southeast, the Olympic Stadium.  We will visit these tomorrow.

The hotel was lovely, with an American-style king bed, a balcony (overlooking a courtyard - nothing to write home about), and a large bathroom and closet.  Our room was right next to the elevator - very convenient.  There were also beautiful marble stairs next to the elevators, which we preferred when we weren't toting luggage.

We unpacked and freshened up quickly, then visited the front desk staff (they didn't have a concierge, at least not that we saw) for help with a few items: dinner recommendation, a place to buy toothpaste (which we had forgotten), a place to buy a cell phone, and they helped us break our large bill Euros into more manageable ones.

A side note about money in Greece.  We all know about Greece's economic troubles.  We have also heard about how, in March of this year, the government of Cyprus seized up to 40% of money held in private bank accounts in their country.  Because Cyprus is geographically so close to Greece, and Greece is experiencing similar economic troubles, business owners in Greece are a bit leery about the banks.  And it is currently taking 60+ days to collect customer credit card charges from the banks.  For this reason, we found that most tavernas, shops, and restaurants would not take any credit cards, even if they advertised that they did. They were pretty blunt about saying "we don't trust the banks."  It was not a huge hassle for us, as we took our budgeted amount for food, groceries and souvenirs in cash, but it's good to know if you plan to travel to Greece any time in the near future.

We were hungry!  It was after 8:30pm by this time, so we ventured in the general direction in which the wonderful staff at the hotel had directed us. Many of the roads in Athens do not have names.  So the directions go something like this: go out of the hotel.  Take a right.  Then walk "a good bit" and pass two streets then take another right.  Walk "a little more" and look for "some steps on the left".  Go up the stairs and find ____ _____ (a bunch of Greek words that we didn't understand or know now to spell, using either the Greek or the English alphabet!). So yeah, you could say we just winged it, and looked for "some steps on the left".

If you scroll back up to my map above, and pretend you're walking West from the hotel, you'll see that there is soon a "Y" in the road.  Our wonderful desk staff (and yes, they were wonderful - on par with Four Seasons or Ritz) had left that part out.  The Y.  So we had no idea what to do and just took a risk.

The walk was lovely.  The weather was nice and the sights were uniquely Athenian.  It was exhilarating to both of us being in ATHENS of all places! So we held hands and enjoyed the walk.

Eventually, we found "the steps on the left".  It must have been the right place, because, although there were plenty of steps in the Plaka, and in fact, plenty  of "steps on the left", we found the steps with lots of tavernas on either side of them.  It was really beautiful.  Here is a daylight photo from the next day, as I don't have one from that evening:

I couldn't even count the number of tavernas and cafes on either side, and they went wayyyy up a hill there.  Many of them had both tables and pillows (where you could sit directly on the steps) outside, and most of them had inside areas also, but they were not air-conditioned.

Something else we learned on the trip.  In Greece, there are three main types of eateries, and it helps to know what to expect at each one:
- Cafes are basically coffee shops.  You can get coffee, tea, water, juice and soft drinks.  Food offerings are typically pastries and club sandwiches.
- Tavernas are classic Greek diners.  They are usually owner-operated and serve classic Greek fare (Greek salad - AKA "Country salad", calimari, fresh fish with head-on, shrimp dishes, some pasta, etc.)
- Restaurants are much like American restaurants, with full menus and a large variety.  

Also, for what it's worth, don't bother asking for hummus. I guess I'm an idiot, because I thought I was going to eat a lot of hummus in Greece.  We asked at our first couple of tavernas, and got "the look".  I am not sure what "the look" is, but it means "we don't have hummus lady, are you nuts?"  That's ok, because it didn't take me long to discover that spicy cheese dip with warm pita wedges is wayyy  better than hummus.

So, we looked for the name of the taverna our hotel staff had directed us to, but we couldn't read the Greek alphabet and couldn't tell if anything looked anything like what we were looking for.  So naturally, we did what (apparently) every American in Athens does, and walked to the last taverna at the very top of the steps.  We were escorted to the roof and told to sit where we want to.  We picked a nice table along the front side of the roof garden, overlooking "the steps on the left", which were now no longer on the left, but I digress.  We chose to both sit on one side of the table.  I'll show you why.

This was our view of the roof garden taverna:

Neat, huh?  But that's not why we sat where we did.

This was why:

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you: The Acropolis!!  We were amazed that we were having dinner just below it.

I also took a picture of the city of Athens from the rooftop, but it's not as impressive as the Acropolis side.

You can tell the sun was still setting.  My camera wasn't set for night shots, and it is not as foggy as it appears here.  Athens really sprawls out very widely.  It is a huge city.

I mentioned before that apparently every American in Athens chooses this restaurant.  It was not crowded, but we did notice that the people at every table around us spoke English with American accents.  I had fun playing a little "guess where they're from" game in my head.  The table to our right was four businessmen who I had pegged for either Californian or mid-Atlantic.  Turns out they were from Seattle, Oregon and central Florida. 

The couple to our right was a little easier.  We pegged them as being from Jersey, which they were.  We did the American thing and took pictures of them together under the Acropolis. Told a few stories, had a few laughs, and then asked the waiter to cork up our wine bottle to take with us.

We took our wine back to our room, knowing that the rest of the trip was by bus and boat, so we could save this wine and drink it later.

(P.S. I don't think we ever finished it.)

And it's off to sleep after a long two days of travel and a nice meal with a beautiful view.  Our first night couldn't have been better!

The Road to Athens (In The Air)

When planning our trip, we first selected our flotilla route (Saronic), length (14-day) and dates (June 10-24, to coincide with Chris's business associates' - and now our friends' - chosen holiday dates). Next, we had to determine how to get from Austin to Athens.  I researched flights and narrowed it down to either British Airways/American or Air France/United, in order to get the most efficient and cost-effective routes.

As with a cruise, we wanted to get to Athens a day earlier than our flotilla departure, just in case there were any delays that could cause us to miss our Sailing Holidays coach on Monday the 10th.  (As it turned out, this was a good idea, since our flight to Athens on the 9th was delayed a couple of hours.)

We left Austin on Saturday the 8th at 2:30pm, flying American to Dallas.  There, we met our transatlantic chariot.

Our first ever flight on a 747!

I worked with a travel agent and was able to use our American Express points to upgrade us to Business Class for the voyage.  Business Class includes the following:

- First Class on US domestic flights
- Access to airport business lounges prior to flights
- Priority boarding
- For the transatlantic flight, fully reclining (180 degrees) seats, with a pillow and quilt
- Champagne before departure, 4-course in-flight meal, a second meal (breakfast or tea, depending on time of day), unlimited cocktails in lounges and in flight, and a "kitchen cafe" while in flight where we could help ourselves to fruits, small sandwiches, ice cream, etc. (transatlantic flight)
- Unlimited movies from a selection of over 100, television, and noise-canceling headphones (transatlantic)
- Amenities kit (toothbrush and toothpaste, cleansers, toners and moisturizers, and "flight socks") (transatlantic)
- Complimentary 15-minute back massage or facial at Heathrow upon arrival

Our seats for the transatlantic faced each other with a little divider screen between us, which we left in the "down" position.

Oh, to be honest, these weren't our seats.  They were the ones in front of ours, since we had already settled into our seats when I decided to snap a photo.  But ours looked just like these! (Imagine that!) It was a pretty cool set-up. And as comfortable as I suppose you can get on an airplane.

We left Dallas at 6:45pm and arrived Heathrow at around 9am local time.  There, we visited the "Galleries" lounge and used our amenities kits to freshen up and grabbed a bite to eat.  Then we had a full lunch at a pub in the airport.

Our flight to Athens was delayed about 90 minutes, finally departing around 2pm and arriving Athens close to 7pm (we lost 2 hours on that leg).

Our travel agent had put together a package that provided all of our airport transfers (we needed 4 for the trip), our hotels for the nights before and after the flotilla, and a tour of Athens.

Our driver, George, met us at the airport and loaded us into his taxi.  On the way to our hotel, he gave us some good tourist information, and talked about the economy in Greece in general, as well as how they LOVE American tourists for a variety of reasons.  We are helping their economy, we tip (even though we aren't supposed to - our culture is accustomed to it and it's a hard habit to break), and Americans are enchanted by Greek culture, architecture, and food.

The drive was about 30 minutes, and George pointed out several prominent landmarks along the way.  In what seemed like no time, he was dropping us off at our first night's hotel.

Next, did the jet lag get to us?  How was the hotel? And most important, did we see the Parthenon?

   

Our Boat for the Flotilla

When we booked our flotilla trip, we had to select our boat.  We had selected the Beneteau 311 (smallest boat for that flotilla), but there were none available, so we were assigned a Beneteau 331.

The boat is 33 feet, 11 inches long.  Will sleep 6, but was quite comfortable for the two of us.  You could probably add another two and do fine, but it would be tight with 6.

Our boat was named Konitsa, which is a town in northern Greece, near the Albanian border. Here we are on Day 2, getting ready for our first on-water voyage.

Chris demonstrating the plank, used almost daily for the Mediterranean-style mooring (stern-to). (This photo was taken in Poros.)

 
Sailing Holidays has a nice introduction and description of the boat here. Wait.  Maybe I'm supposed to be referring to it as a "yacht".  I am not very good with all of my sailing terminology.

Here is a video of a Beneteau 331 that is offered for sale. It gives a good idea of the layout of the boat. 

And a diagram of the "floorplan".

 We had two fresh water tanks, and two showers (one in the head and the other on the back of the boat). We used these sometimes to bathe, but more often than not, we showered at tavernas and hotels on land.

You are warned against drinking ANY water in Greece, and bottled water is very inexpensive (1 liter for 50c Euro, for example).  So we kept a stock of bottled water to stay hydrated and to brush our teeth.

As with all boats with a "head", there was a holding tank.  We were instructed that nothing goes into the toilet that didn't go through our bodies.  This is also applicable on land throughout Greece (at least all of the places we visited, including Athens).  It took a little adjusting to, but we made it just fine!

We were supplied with two sets of linens, two beach towels, dish towels, and cleaning supplies.  Keep in mind that in Europe, they don't use what we Americans refer to as "wash cloths" (and the British refer to as "flannels"), so we had to improvise there, in order to maintain the comforts of home, if you know what I mean...

On the boat were also: 6 cockpit cushions, a set of binoculars, all the nautical navigation charts and tools we would need for the trip, a radio/CD player, a VHF radio, all the necessary safety equipment (harnesses, PFDs, fire extinguishers, a fire blanket, first aid kit, tool kit, etc.), extra containers of fuel and fresh water, and an inflatable dinghy.  For an extra 85 Euro, we rented an outboard for our dinghy for the two weeks, and it came in quite handy.

All in all, we felt like the boat was well-equipped, and it was VERY clean - felt almost like brand new!

2-Week Greek Sailing Flotilla

To celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary (which was May 16), my husband planned for us to join a 2-week sailing flotilla in Greece. Specifically, the Saronic and Argolic Gulfs.

Our flotilla operator is a British company called Sailing Holidays. They offer 1- and 2-week flotillas during the summer, and the one we joined was the 2-week Saronic.

No sailing experience is required, however the Ionic routes are considered best for beginners.  We took a 2-day (classroom and on-water) beginner's sailing certification class in March of this year through the ASA, locally here on Lake Travis in Austin.  We have both been around boats all of our lives, and own a motorboat, so we know the basics.  We were relatively unfamiliar with actual sailing, but we did just fine.

The flotilla consisted of a lead boat and 11 other boats.  The lead boat had a crew of:
Harry - Skipper, from New Zealand (Kiwi)
Bobby - Engineer, from New Zealand also
Kate - Hostie (Hostess), from Australia

Each morning, we met for a briefing either on land or via VHF radio at 9:30am.  It was then that we were told how the weather and winds were expected to be, as well as where our next stop would be.  There are many stops on this route, and you never know where you'll go until the day of.  As the sailing saying goes, "we'll go where the wind takes us."  (Exciting, huh?)

As it turned out, this was our final itinerary:

Black is via coach (bus). Blue is sailing, or boating under motor power in our boat. Pink is via ferry.

6/8 - Fly to Athens
6/9 - dinner in Athens
6/10 - Athens bus tour, meet coach for flotilla, to Epidavros
6/11 - Epidavros to Vathi
6/12 - Vathi to Nea Epidavros
6/13 - Nea Epidavros to Angistri
6/14 - Angistri to Poros
6/15 - Stayed in Poros, day trip to Hydra
6/16 - Poros to Russian Bay
6/17 - Russian Bay to Ermioni
6/18 - Ermioni to Porto Kheli
6/19 - Stayed in Porto Kheli, day trip to Spetsai
6/20 - Porto Kheli to Koilahdia
6/21 - Koilahdia to Astrous
6/22 - "free sail" (we chose our destination without the flotilla) Astrous to Tiros
6/23 - Tiros to Navplion
6/24 - coach from Navplion to Athens, afternoon and evening in Athens
6/25 - fly home through Heathrow

In my next blog entry, I'll post some information about the boat.

Leaving the Ship :(

Sunday morning was departure (from the ship) day. We had opted for the luggage valet service, which was about $20 per person, I think. We put our luggage out the night before, and the next time we saw it was in Austin Sunday afternoon! For people like us who have a long time between leaving the ship and our flight departure, this is a nice service, as we did not have to "lug" our luggage around during the day.


We were allowed to leave the ship any time before 10am, at our leisure. We planned to get up, have a decent breakfast, then leave the ship right at 10, to maximize our experience. But we woke up and were ready to go by 8:30, and with not much to do onboard, we decided to go ahead and leave.


On our way down our hallway toward the stairs and elevators, we noticed many of the stateroom doors were open, in various states of uncleaned, being cleaned, or completely clean and readied for the next cruise. We took a peek inside (well, we actually took full tours of) a Junior Suite and a Grand Suite. Since the room stewards nearby didn't mind us taking a look, we decided to detour to Deck 17 for a peek at the Crown Loft Suites.


This turned out to be no problem. When we stepped off the elevator, we were greeted by someone cleaning the elevator lobby and we asked if we could take a look. She said "sure". Then we found an open suite and asked the steward, just for good measure, and he pleasantly said "take your time, and let me know if you have any questions".


I wish I had had my camera ready to take photos, but unfortunately, it was packed away in my backpack, and we were moving pretty quickly. Also, the room was a little messy as he was cleaning.


If you aren't part of a cabin crawl, I recommend doing this on your last day. We decided not to tour all of the other categories, but I'm pretty sure we could have seem most, if not all of them. It was fun to walk through and dream of being upgraded one day.


Our impression of the rooms we saw?
JS - We have stayed in a JS on Liberty OTS. It was just as we expected, and we would opt to stay in a JS again, if the budget could carry it.
GS - Super nice. This would be a really nice splurge. We think that if we could get a Suite Guarantee or a GS guarantee, we might grab it one day and hope for one of these.
Crown Loft - at the risk of sounding negative, we pretty much decided we would not want to stay in one of these. A couple of reasons:
1 - too far above the water - 17 decks! or at least 13 decks. We really enjoyed our Deck 8 balcony and being closer to the ocean.
2 - risk that we may be assigned a Sports Deck view. We really would prefer the privacy and serenity of an ocean view.
3 - (and probably most important) - When staying in a CL, we would be sleeping in a bed, upstairs, toward the back of the stateroom (toward the hallway) and away from the window. This means you can't just roll out of bed and to the window, or out to the balcony, to get your morning ocean fix. I know - whine, whine, whine.


Anyway, after our little tour, we left the ship and caught a cab to Las Olas (you can ask the cab driver to take you to Cheesecake Factory). This is an upscale area with lots of shops and some cafes sprinkled in. We walked a little, but it was still early on a Sunday morning and not much was open. There were a couple of open cafes and coffee shops, but not exactly what we were looking for. We wanted more local flair, and a smaller budget.


So we looked at our iPhone maps and decided to hike it toward the beach. It's a straight shot, only about a mile and a half, so we thought that would be easy peasy. Well, we didn't consider that we were carrying backpacks with last night's clothes, all of our toiletries, and our computers and peripherals (a little heavy). And it was sprinkling. So we got a little wet. It wasn't bad, but we wouldn't do it again.


Along the beachfront, we found a place which advertised the "best burgers in Ft Lauderdale" and stopped there. (I can't find it on the map, but I want to say it was Bikini Beach or something like that, next door to Greek Express.) They were serving breakfast and I got a decent french toast and whatever Chris got was also decent. 


We enjoyed a long brunch at an outside table, then wandered south, stopped by the South Beach Park to take in the view for a bit, and eventually picked up a cab from the Sheraton to the airport. 


I'm hoping this post does help some planners with ideas about disembarkation day.


At the airport and on the flight home, we reviewed our photos, checked in on Cruise Critic, and reminisced about what we consider to be our best cruise experience ever. We are hoping to return to an Oasis class ship in the not-too-distant future.


To all those planning Allure and Oasis cruises, I wish you an amazing time. And I wish I could stow away! Cheers!