One of the only unfortunate parts of our Greece vacation was the logistics of getting from one place to the next. If we were millionaires, we could have saved a lot of time and inconvenience by flying straight to Thessaloniki, driving (or better yet helicoptering!) to Leptokarya, then catching the train down to Athens. Instead, we ended up doing quite a bit of backtracking. We flew from Athens to Thessaloniki, rented a car, drove to Leptokarya, then drove back to Thessaloniki (past the bus station) to drop off the rental car by the airport, then had to catch a cab back to the train station and catch the train from Thessaloniki (going back past Leptokarya) to Athens. All in all, it added several hours to our travel time but saved several hundred dollars. Worth it. Barely.
My Man volunteered to do the rental car exchange, dropping the kids and me off at the train station to avoid the extra backtracking. Inadvertently, he also dropped off all his money, which meant he was stranded at the rental car office with no way back to the train station, even though the bus fare was the equivalent of less than a dollar! And we had no cell service so he was completely on his own. Fortunately, he still had his debit card and was able to find an ATM and get back to us in plenty of time to catch our train.
We'd opted to take the train to Athens rather than fly, not only to save the money, but also because the kids had never traveled by train before (unless you count our trip to NYC a few years ago, which for some reason, they don't). It was a fun trip. We got a huge discount for being a "large family" (at least three kids) and upgraded to first class for a few extra bucks, which meant that we had a compartment with six seats all to ourselves . . . until an unfortunate sixth person arrived about half-way through the trip. I'm not sure he thought his upgrade was worth it, being stuck in a compartment with our crazy group. He put on his headphones and feigned sleep the whole way. But we will never forget the gum incident of 2017 (I can't bring myself to publish it to the world--you'll have to ask Young Man for the dirty details).
My favorite part of the train ride was standing in the caboose and watching Greece fall away behind us outside the windows. It was beautiful. We chugged past ruins and villages, through mountains and along the ocean. I only wished I'd prepared better food to bring along, since the restaurant car didn't have any gluten free options and six hours is quite a long ride without any real food. Luckily we did have a few granola bars and apples. And gum. . .
We arrived in Athens around 3, caught the metro to within a block of our apartment, and walked in. It was a beautiful apartment just blocks from the Acropolis (almost next door to the Acropolis Museum and metro stop), with a grocery store and bakery downstairs. It was definitely our best-ever
AirBnB experience! In fact, after a quick shopping trip to stock up on groceries and then making and cleaning up dinner, it was still early enough that we decided to hit the Acropolis that night. It was a fantastic decision, since (as we saw the next morning), it was much less crowded and cooler than if we'd waited until morning, plus it left more time for exploring the next day.
The Acropolis ruins are really fantastic, but there is restoration work going on that mars the experience just a little. At first, I thought we'd timed our trip badly, but turns out there has been ongoing restoration work and scaffolding on the Parthenon since 1983! Even so, the experience was incredible and some strategic angling allowed some good photos. Even better was just being there, soaking in the views, contemplating the history, the beauty, the experience.
Before we even got up to the Parthenon though, we walked through several ruins of temples and theaters and were wowed by the Theater of Herodes Atticus, built in AD 160. It's huge!
Then we climbed the stairs to the top of the acropolis to see the Parthenon and other ruins atop the hill. The views of Athens were stunning. The beauty of the ancient buildings was powerful (as was the wind!). The whole experience was surreal.
I couldn't believe I was actually there, in the city of mythology and philosophy and ancient texts, seeing it all with my own eyes, imagining how it might have looked when it was alive, not ruins.
We left just as the Acropolis was closing and headed to a nearby hill for sunset. The path was lined with wildflowers and we had the place practically to ourselves.
The views were even better than they'd been from the Acropolis (because now we were actually looking at it!). The only problem was the wind made pictures difficult for those of us with long hair.
The kids had fun goofing of, running around, and posing for pictures. It was a nice way to end a day that had been mostly travel, and the perfect introduction to Athens.
The next day we headed to the Agora, and I was enchanted. I love how
one website describes the space:
Strolling through the ruins of the Agora one can't escape the unbearable weight of history that hovers about the place, and yet, the form of the landscape reflects none of the splendor of magnificent buildings that once adorned the landscape. The lacy arguments of ancient Greek philosophers who strolled the ground leading their pupils scattered in the winds throughout the globe, and the ruined stones speak of fiery orations only in a silent sort of way. Despite the magnificent rock of the Acropolis that commands the landscape of the Agora from above, and the majestic presence of the Temple of Hephestus that balances the Parthenon across the plateau, the Agora remains a shy, humble and tranquil place.
Of all the historical ruins we visited in Greece, the Agora was one of my favorites. The Temple of Hephestus (built in 450 BC) still stands impressively on the hill, with several well-preserved friezes along the tops, the museum is wonderful, and the grounds are beautiful.
The quiet sunshine of the morning, the relative emptiness of the place, and the abundance of wildflowers all contributed to its charm.
One of my favorite parts, though, was listening to Funny Guy explain the myths and stories behind each of the characters we encountered (at the Agora and throughout our whole trip). I would read a brief description about a ruin or statue, and we would all look to Funny Guy who would say, "Want to know more about so-and-so?" and launch into a colorful story about how that particular Greek historical figure made history.
It was even better in the museum where we paused at each statue so that he could regale us with stories, breathing life into the headless, armless relics, each centuries (some even thousands of years) old but still alive in the imagination of our 9-year-old. Simply amazing.
Funny Guy kept the trip interesting in other ways as well, making it his personal mission to photo bomb as many pictures as possible. After we'd wandered through the Agora for a couple hours, we headed out to climb Mars Hill, site of Paul's Biblical confrontation with the people of Athens.
The steep climb was rewarded with more incredible views of the Parthenon atop the Acropolis. And we could see the throngs of people already filling the place, reminding us how wise we'd been to visit the evening before!
Although it was already way past lunchtime, we decided to take the long way home so we could stop by the Temple of Zeus (stopping along the way for some delicious gelato of course).
The Temple of Zeus is (rightly) ginormous and that's with only 15 of the original 104 columns left standing!
It's history is fascinating--construction began and stopped and started again multiple times over hundreds of years as the area was conquered. It was finally finished by the (reputedly cruel) Emperor Hadrian in 131 AD, who had a giant ivory and gold statue of himself erected next to the similarly giant and ornate statue of Zeus inside. He also had this arch erected, to remind the people that he, and not the Greek gods of mythology, was now in charge:
But not anymore. Fully quenched of our historical thirst for a time, Funny Guy declared the sight-seeing over for the day (little did he know what was still in store . . . ).
We relaxed in some ancient arm chairs (surprisingly comfortable, though they could use some cushions!) in the beautiful park nearby until hunger overcame exhaustion and we were able to walk the rest of the way home for lunch.
Although we were out of time for sightseeing in Athens, our trip was still far from over. In a few hours, we were scheduled to pick up our rental car so that we could head out to the Temple of Poseidon for sunset that evening, then head out for our adventures in the Peloponnese early the next morning. But that will have to wait for another blog post.
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