Early in the morning, we woke up, had a quick breakfast in the lounge, and went to the gate. Passed security and customs with almost no wait, and took the flight back home.
Boeing 747 at Athens Airport
BTW, I asked at the gate for a print out of the tickets. It's actually not easy to go around with just the 'electronic' tickets. Also, I realize that we would have been left outside if we didn't have carry on bags and had to check them in (we would have had to wait until the departure desk opened at 6am!)
There are still too many interesting and amazing places in this country, left for a future trip...
We woke up early in the morning, as the tour departed at 8am. I ended up contracting a tour for this Meteora trip, as they had a great 2 day package including transportation, hotel, and meals. After looking several days, I ended up finding a website with lots of tours for Greece, good prices in US dollar.
The whole morning was dedicated to Meteora, what an amazing place. We visited a couple of monasteries. Originally, there were about 26, but only 6-7 remain. Initially, I thought that visiting only two was too little, but this seems to be enough.
Meteora
Meteora
Great Meteoro
Great Meteoro
The first monastery to visit is Megalo Meteoro, the biggest and oldest one.... just try to figure out how the built all these monasteries, by using ropes to lift the construction materials. The first constructions started around 1400, but there was neither road, step, bridge to this place until 1800s. In old times, up to 300 monks used to leave here. Currently, only about 20-30 monks can be found.
The second monastery visited is St. Stephen, for nuns only
After the visits, the tour stopped for lunch and later drove 5 hours back to Athens (with a couple of small breaks on the way).
They dropped us at Syntagma square, where we took the Metro to the airport. Since the flight departed at 8:15am and we would have to be there at 6:15am for an international flight, it looked better to try to sleep at an airport business lounge, rather than staying at an hotel for a few hours. By the time we got there (after 9pm), the airline had closed and we didn't have a way of checking in to go through security into the lounge! Fortunately, free wi-fi is available at the airport , but just for 60 minutes, and we could go through security by showing the boarding pass on the laptop screen. I would recommend making online check in and printing the boarding pass before hand. It took me a while to get the whole thing done.
Last year, I signed to a promotion from Priority Pass which gives world wide Lounge access. The plan was to spend the (few hours left from the) night in the lounge, avoiding paying one day of hotel and having to wake up at 4am, and find transportation to get into the airport. Priority Pass charged $54 for two people (this is going to be billed to the credit card associated to the account, no payment is due when entering the lounge).
Only two lounges, both from Olimpic Airlines but serving other companies as well, are open 24 hours: Aristotle Onassis Lounge and Melina Merkouri Lounge. Aristotle Onassis Lounge is closer to British Airways, which was going to take us back home. This lounge doesn't have shower, offers drinks and snacks (cookies, sandwich). But at this point, we mainly wanted to sleep on the Sofa (they are small, but can put two together in a row).
Lots of stuff done during this day. We started very early and walked from the hotel to the Acropolis (easy walk, about 45 minutes stopping at every opportunity we had to watch something along the way).
The Acroplis only has one way in. The entrance fee is €12 and gives you access to 4 or 5 historic sites.
Parthenon at night
Parthenon
View of Athens from Acropolis
The ticket also includes a map of the area with nearby places to visit. Take your time at the Parthenon visit. It's simply breathtaking.
Entrance to Parthenon
Entrance to Parthenon
Parthenon
Erechtheum - Acropolis
Erechtheum - Acropolis
Erechtheum - Acropolis
After the Parthenon, we visited the roman and greek theaters on its side.
This is a new museum, that was started on the 70s, and recently completed. It's built on top of an old excavated town. Parts of the museum floor is transparent and it lets watch the old town, including building and streets. It's a must see.
The temple of Zeus is a short walk from Acropolis. Before getting there, we stopped for a lunch (€3 a sandwich).
Hadrian's Gate
Temple of Zeus
Temple of Zeus
This temple took hundreds of years to complete, and only a fraction of it remains. But at some point, it was bigger than the Parthenon itself!
Remember, that those interesting sites close at 3pm. Start your day early!
The rest of the day, we spent the time around the Plaka area.
Church in Plaka
Plaka
Plaka
Plaka
Plaka
Tango from Argentina in Athens
At 6pm, we stopped to watch the change of ward again:
Some other views of Plaka:
On the flea market, I spotted some guys bidding on a three shell game (scam considered by many). I got to film a few seconds, before one of them got pissed of and asked me to turn of the recording:
There are lots of old and small nice churches in Athens. Several of them from Bizzantine times, in Plaka:
At night, we had dinner at a nice restaurant with live music and view to the Acropolis.
By going a few blocks away from the main square in Plaka, we found not only lower price (just a couple of Euro, not much) but also the great view!
My phone did a bad job recording the next movie, it looks pretty dark.. but at least we can still hear some of the music and see some lights from the Acropolis.
After an excellent day of sleep at the Sofitel, we recovered from the long trip and jet lag, and were ready to start visiting Athens. The Metro station is a 10 minute walk from the Sofitel (go up on the bridge across the street). If unsure, ask the hotel concierge. TIP: they gave us a very nice map of Athens.
We took the blue line, and after probably 40', it got us into the heart of Athens: Syntagma square. The cost of the ticket is €8 per person. All the signs are in Greek and English.
My first impressions of Athens' Metro: modern, very clean, people aren't noisy inside the train, safe.
We'll stay at the Best Western Amazon Hotel, a block away from Syntagma square.
Hotel Best Western Amazon - Athens
Small Elevator from Hotel Best Western Amazon - Athens
Window view of Acropolis from Best Western Amazon (zoom)
Some highlights of the hotel:
Very close, waling distance, to the famous Plaka (Πλάκα) district, and to the Acropolis.
Small rooms but comfortable (still bigger than rooms in Japan)
Clean
Free WiFi available (ask for password at desk)
Safe-box inside the room (it should fit a 14'' laptop)
TV, air conditioner
View to the Parthenon ! Our room is on the 5th floor. I think that lower floor rooms don't have this view, but I asked for Parthenon view when I reserved it.
Non Smoking room (also, just in case, I asked for non smoking room when I reserved it)
Very good attention from service desk
Breakfast included, from 7:30am to 10:30am
While looking for the hotel, we started walking towards the government palace (behind the square), and happened to reach it at the time of change of ward. The solder's dresses are kind of of funny...
At night, we went for a walk on Plaka (Πλάκα) . It's a beautiful area, with lots of people, coffee places, and restaurants. A dinner of giro (pretty big), beer, coffee for two , seating on the sidewalk, costs about €29 for two. Not cheap, but not bad either. It was worth of it.
.jpg "Parthenon at night")
.jpg "Parthenon")
.JPG "Erechtheum - Acropolis")
.JPG "Erechtheum - Acropolis")
.JPG "Erechtheum - Acropolis")
.jpg "Acropolis Museum")
.jpg "Acropolis Museum")
.jpg "Acropolis Museum")
.jpg "Acropolis Museum")
.jpg "Hadrian's Gate")
.jpg "Temple of Zeus")
.jpg "Temple of Zeus")
.jpg "Church in Plaka")
.jpg "Plaka")
.jpg "Plaka")
.jpg "Plaka")
.jpg "Plaka")
.jpg "Tango from Argentina in many places Athens")
.JPG "Hotel Best Western Amazon - Athens")
.JPG "Small Elevator from Hotel Best Western Amazon - Athens")
