My Big Fat Greece Trip 2024

  Odysseys sent Sakis to the airport to pick up the three of us since we were later than expected. They arranged a private driver to take us to the hotel where we met Gemma, our tour guide. The drive to the hotel was very scenic; there are mountains everywhere. We are staying in the center of the city near Parliament.  There is a changing of the guard every hour, 24 hours a day  the guard can only move his eyes when he is on post.  We were very tired after traveling and decided to rest, clean up, and have dinner in the hotel.  We ate in the hotel restaurant and had a fish ball soup served with herb butter and a variety of bread, breadsticks, and rusks. It was delicious.   We went tour rooms and caught up on some much needed sleep. Accommodations:  NJV Athens Plaza Hotel.  It will be an early night for us. 

This morning, we get acquainted with one of the world’s “cradles of Western civilization” on a city tour. A highlight is the  Acropolis  (“high city”), the crowning hill of Athens that is visible from almost anywhere in the city.   Of the ancient buildings that once stood atop the Acropolis - and still do today - the most famous and beautiful is the  Parthenon , the largest Doric temple still standing Greece.   Built between 447 and 438 BCE to honor the goddess Athena for rescuing Athens during the Persian Wars, the Parthenon is considered the greatest Doric temple ever built after first serving as a Greek temple, it later became a Christian church then a Muslim mosque.  We will visit the highly regarded  Acropolis Museum  which houses and chronologically displays excavations dating from 6 BCE and stroll the historic lower Plaka district and Hadrian Street. After our sightseeing this morning, we are free to enjoy lunch on our own and to explore mo...

Today we traveled to the heart of the Greek mainland to Delphi, site of the Oracle that predicted, among other things, the fate of Oedipus.  According to Greek mythology, the Oracle prophesied that Oedipus would kill his father then marry his mother. Despite his father’s attempt to kill the young boy, Oedipus grew up to do just as the oracle predicted.  In the end, his mother hanged herself and Oedipus blinded himself — the quintessential Greek tragedy that still resonates today. Beautifully situated on the slopes Mt. Parnassus, the ancient site overlooks the Gulf of Corinth.  Delphi was regarded by the ancients as the center of the earth; legend has it that when Zeus released two eagles at opposite ends of the earth, they met here. Delphi overflows with spectacular ruins, including the Sanctuary of Apollo; the Sacred way; a road once lined with treasuries and statues; a magnificently preserved 4th century BCE theater still in use today; the reconstructed Athenian Treasur...