After that Viator tour of the Acropolis followed by a late lunch and a nap, the family informed me that we were going to a very nice place for dinner.. it was a 30 minute walk from our Airbnb towards the old city square. They were all nicely dressed too. I had not recevied the memo! My options in that place were going to be limited. So I coaxed San to go with me to Babaji, the Desi place that had been closed earlier at lunch time.. by saying "you will get good Chai there!". Once in the place, I decided to order a Tandoori roti, dal, rice and yogurt.. and gobbled it up as fast as I could.. the rest of the family was not pleased..but a man with allergies has to take care of himself in such situations! Definitely recommend this place.. Everything I ate was just mouth watering!
We walked to the place (Taverna Klimataria), only to find that it was fully booked for a party. There was live music going on inside as well.
The kids were really disappointed. We decided to quickly find an alternate place to eat. Vegetarian food was not easy to find. However as we walked past the old square there were a few middle eastern guys waving us into a restaurant saying "you vegetarian? we have vegetarian!". Guess we were not the first desis with that hangry look walking past the place!
The food options were limited but we made the most of it! Once something is in the tummy, the family spirits were higher. The food was actually good and we walked around, had some Gelato (Buffalo milk ice cream!) with other snacks, visited an old small Church in the middle of the square and finally walked back to the Airbnb.
A very short video clip! The market and restaurants and walkways are lit beautifully and the old buildings give this a very nice vibe!
Then there was the bitter realization for the kids.. (had saved the screen to remind myself of their protest and yelling)
Promises were made that this would be the last time ever that an alarm was being set for such ungodly hours (their words, not ours). At the time of writing this blog, that promise is already known to be broken on our most recent trip as we had to catch yet another first flight out..
We were on the first flight out to Santorini the next morning.. it was goodbye to Athens!
Day 2 morning was spent on a city bus tour (which ended up being a repeat for San and me of what we saw on the hop on hop off bus tour the previous day). We have learned to love these Viator tours of cities. The guides are decent, we can leave stuff in the bus as it is safe, we get to meet other folks for the day and have them take your pictures as you take theirs..and also learn about their experiences in the same city if they had reached a day or two earlier. A lot less stress for me as I don't have to drive!
The exception compared to previous day, was we got down to take pictures at a few spots like the stadium where they had the Olympics.
Then we spent the rest of the morning at the Acropolis museum followed by a walk to the top of the Acropolis itself from the museum.
You end up walking on thick glass floors where you can see two or three layers of excavated sites below. In Athens, anywhere you dig, you will find history! This is one amazing place if you love history!
There is a fantastic view of the theater as we walk up. As a FOB grad student, got introduced to Yanni.. folks used to tell me I look like him when there was the long hair phase. Had all his records and had watched him perform live at the Acropolis! walking past this brought back memories of listening to Yanni in Philadelphia!
Here is a tip if you are visiting Athens even in September. Take an umbrella. There is not much vegetation in this place. Only Olive trees grow here and while they may be few hundred years old, they are 8 feet tall, tops, for the most part! Not much in terms of shade, unless you hide behind the statues and pillars here and there!
It is still pretty hot in Athens in September. Take your water bottles with you!
The walk up to the acropolis was crazy. We estimated at least 5000+ people on the steps and another 5000 at the top! Apparently we went off season and usually the wait to go up is 2 hours! We made it in 35 minutes.
Walking under the majestic gate of the Acropolis was an experience in itself. All those traders that had docked below would have had to walk up the same steps. They must have just been floored by that entrance gate! You have to see it to believe it!
The Acropolis is just magnificent. The scale of it on top of that hill is just amazing. Couldn't help but feel a similarity between the Greeks and Indians when it came to their pride of history, their array of damaged and vandalized monuments by invaders or war, their best stuff all in the British museum!
Given the crowd, taking photos was challenging! We did get a great view of the entire city from the vista point.
Here is photo vs reality.
Greek tour guides take their jobs very seriously. Maybe they are all teachers doing a part time gig was the joke as we walked around. They have pages of notes, then they quiz you after explaining things, and even ask some folks in the group "Now, did you understand that?". Some of the kids in the group were like "if we wanted to be in school, we wouldn't have come on this vacation now, would we?". Enjoyed the history lesson as an adult.
On the way down we stopped at a park looking place with a statue of a famous greek singer. That place was nice and cool and it was a welcome break before our bus ride back to Syntagma square.
A video highlights reel..
Then we had to find lunch. Every place was booked solid with a waiting line to be seated. Stomach acid does not bode well for 50% of the family, so we all scattered and finally found a place to eat! The dry heat had gotten to us all. So after that lunch we decided to take a nap back in the rooom and venture out late evening!
After a quick rest in the early afternoon, we made it to our pick up spot in Syntagma square for an all evening trip. We had pre booked the trip on Viator. It was a bus with 20+ people being picked up at various hotels. It was a long drive to the tip of the land to see this temple.
We stopped by at a lake of sorts which was also an expensive club where folks came to spend an afternoon swimming in this lake. It was a quick rest stop. Then we kept driving to Sounion, where this temple sits on a hill.
There was some story about divers going into the cave and never returning.. over 100 of them over the years apparently..
There was one more stop, thanks to a pregnant lady on our bus who was sick because of the windy uphill road. We all got to take more pictures while the poor woman was throwing up!
The kids put their feet in water to check the temperature..apparently cold!
Once we were at the stop, there is a short hike to the top.. the sun already starts setting.. so the orange hues are inviting..
My recommendation is for folks to not stop and take pictures on the way up once you are at the temple!
There is a long line at the top as you have to buy tickets to get to the site! The line for the credit card counter is long and slow! The people might wait for you, but the sun won't!!! The guide gave us till 20 minutes past sunset to show up down to get back on the bus.
We did get to see a glorious sunset with all the little islands jutting out in the water. It was amazing. Have never seen a large crowd clap for a sunset!
Just got goosebumps watching the sunset through the columns. Imagined people watching the same sunset 2000 years ago. How magnificent it would have been with the statues all intact, the roof still intact, the colors on the pillars! What it must have taken them to build this without advanced technology and why would anyone desecrate a temple like that in the name of war? A lot of questions with not so great answers.. but thoroughly enjoyed that evening.
A short video clip..
Then we made a long drive back to the hotel. There is nothing to eat at this place. So you are better off packing some snacks or dinner that you can eat on the bus. We were starving when we got back to our rooms and thankfully, there was Maggi noodles to the rescue!
The next day was another all day Viator prepaid trip around Athens with a focus on the Acropolis..
The kids are now both in college. We wanted a family trip before they went off, given new schedules.
So we took two days off post the labor day long weekend and decided to visit Greece. It was a quick trip with tickets on Turkish airlines. San has taken a liking to Turkish airlines after her previous India trip on this airline.. My guess is all those hours of watching Turkish soap operas has had an influence as well. In any case, we flew in and out of SFO to Athens with a stop at Istanbul. Both sets of flights were nice! We actually got vegetarian food pre booked. That helped!
It was a quick trip given the travel time. Two days in Athens, Two days in Santorini and that was it.
Needless to say, there are two opposing points of view in our house. As a child I wanted to see the world but given how we grew up, had to wait for a long time to start traveling. Going to Pallavaram from Mylapore was a vacation trip. Given our kids are growing up way better off, want them to see the world for real, instead of in National Geographic magazine. So we push for all these trips. The kids on the other hand just want to say put in their bedrooms. Sleeping in their "own beds" is something they cherish. Guess college beds are of low quality? The usual feedback is "leave us alone! we just want to relax and rest at home".
We can be persuasive to say the least. So off we went and packed the trip with non stop activities which invovled a lot of walking on a daily basis to see things on all four days.
Never got to blog about this trip before given the hectic work schedule that followed right after coming back. Blogging took a break. Given we have already finished our next internaltional trip this week, time to capture what little remains in my memory of that trip in photos, words and videos!
Given the time difference, we pretty much lose a day for traveling in. Once we landed in Athens and got out of the airport, it was almost 8PM. San had done her research and found that a taxi to Syntagma square (where our Air BnB was) would take an hour and the public bus system would take us there for 6 euros a ticket right from the airport. So we walked to the bus stop and took this bus 95, if I remember it right. It took 55 minutes to get to the square. From there we walked with our four carry ons and backpacks (we mandated one carry on per person so there is no waiting at airports, we can all fit in one Uber if necessary.. these are new travel policies that have been implemented and they work for us now!)
We had a nice apartment one block behind the square which had an amazing view of the Acropolis with the night lighting! We pretty much went to bed after the long journey.
The next morning, we were treated to amazing views from our window!
The girls had booked a "cooking class". I had only vaguely heard about this in passing. So it was a shock to me that the first thing they wanted to attend a full morning class. We were to drop them at 9 AM and pick them up at 1:30 in the afternoon. The place was called "The greek kitchen". We had breakfast in the square on the way at an amazing place called Zoubourlou. The food and service was amazing. Sadly the kids had to rush off to class and San and me packed the rest of the breakfast to go! Strongly recommend this place for an early breakfast. The pancakes they made for me and the hot cocoa were amazing! The family loved the vegetarian pies!
Then the kids walked off to find their place. We tried to use maps to find them so we could get our phone back. Turned out they were already on a walk to the market place with the Chef's to buy the items for the cooking.
We saw a large group of budding chefs including ours and quietly grabbed our phones from them. That is when we realized that the two of us had time to kill by ourselves. My recommendation was to go on a hop on hop off bus tour and we took it. It starts at Syntagma square and has 15 stops on the way. Takes 2 hours and is 20 Euros a person. We sat on the top deck and enjoyed views of all the city sights.
Got myself a new Athens cap! It was already too hot early in the morning!
We did not get off the bus at all. We were going to see some of these places the next day in detail. The headphones they give on the bus didn't have enough volume to understand anything that was being said. So we just watched and took pictures.
At the end of the trip we decided to stop in the old market square in Monastiraki. We also found a pizza and pasta place and had a nice lunch!
Once the kids had finished their cooking and eating what they cooked (we were not invited, so they got some leftovers packed for San to taste.. it was interesting to see stuff wrapped in grape leaves!). All four of us then went shopping in the square for a short time.
the place is called the Agora flea market.. we loved walking through the shops!
There was a custom T-shirt shop that caught my interest and I got shirt with the Pythogras theorem on it!
Then it got pretty hot for early September! So we came back to the hotel and got an hours rest before our evening program.
A video compilation for the first part of day 1..
The good news is that we were all still smiling as we hit the elevator back to the apartment!
Our next action was an all evening to late night tour to the temple of Poseidon. That post follows..
This is the last post on the Europe trip. The previous post on the series is here..
The last day (day 13) of the Europe trip was spent on two things. Most of the day was an Evans and Evans trip to Hogwarts.. let's just call it that. It was actually the Warner Brothers studios shooting location for all the Harry Potter movies over 10 years that is now a Studio tour.
As usual we had to go from Kings cross station to Victoria, then board the bus which took us to the studio in a little over an hour and we were handed tickets and told that we had a little over 4 hours to come back to the bus. We will be back in Victoria Station area at 5:15-5:30 PM.
We also had tickets for the London Eye that evening. We wanted to see the views of London as the sun set so I could get some pictures with the daylight and some with the buildings lighting up.
First it was almost our last day and this would be almost the last time leaving the Kings Cross station. The kids were eyeing Lola's hand crafted cup cakes two days straight.. so today was their day!
Then we were off..
Full disclosure. I had not read a single Harry Potter book to date. Have only watched the movies as they came out in theaters. Missed the Order of the Phoenix in theaters and caught bits and pieces of it at a later date in someones house but that was it. Was and still am a big fan of the whole series of movies. Who can resist magic?
Don't think there is a picture of me and San being happier in this trip!
We had four hours to spend at the place and we walked through every room, exhibit and hallway and when we came out of the place it was exactly 4 hours. This included a 20 minute break to have lunch before going into the studio.
The kids were given little Hogwart's passports and they had to find the 7 secret Horcruxes in the place.. so they were busy searching for those in the various rooms..
Then there was the butterbeer, which can give kids a brain freeze, has unknown health effects on muggles and gives dads wallets a cold..
The whole experience was amazing.. our 4 hours is condensed into the video below..
The skies were brilliant and my hopes for great pictures from the London eye were already high..
We reached the Victoria station, walked towards the London Eye and realized that the entire area was a circus. Apparently there was a large protest for DJT's visit to London and the wife and kids had heard about it through social media and our tour guide from the previous day's trip.
The whole place was crawling with people who had signs in their hands.
It had become hot and a little on the "about to rain" side and I removed my jacket to avoid going into one of those dangerous "avalanche sweats" as I call it. Was also proudly wearing my 60 day Challenge Bikram Yoga San Jose T-shirt to announce to the folks on the street that I was American.
Given the generic anti-American sentiment on the streets that day, was thinking if I should buy one of those London T-shirts.. then we realized no one cared.. The London protesters were an interesting bunch.
We got some great views of the city from the London Eye after we saw a 4D show at the basement that was part of the ticket.
A video of the London Eye experience ..
Got two pano shots from the London eye..
One from either side as our little carriage made it up and down over 40 minutes.
Slide shows of pictures from Hogwart's and the London Eye
When we came out it was about to rain, the streets were extremely crowded with protesters and we wanted to find dinner.
San's classmate had recommended a Chat place which had 8 branches in London and was very popular, but based on the 1 hour 20 minute wait time (there were 100+ folks standing in line knowing the wait time) we decided to take his second recommendation. A place called Shapur's in Strand area.
We went to Shapur's and had a nice dinner..
We walked to the train station from there past the Royal Opera house which was beautiful..
Then it started raining and we realized (were actually told by someone) that this is the "typical" London weather and we were really fortunate to miss it over our three day trip.
Apparently that is what London looks on an average day.. "like Seattle" is what we all said at the same time and walked down the steps to the train station.
The next morning we were going to take one last train ride on the Europe trip to Gatwick airport and it was going to be back in the US..
We thoroughly enjoyed this 14 day trip. It took a lot of planning from San and the kids and San pretty much arranged every little thing. I was happy to be on package tours so I could also play tourist and enjoy the sights with the lens or my eyes.
It was also a blessing to be able to meet San's Sister and her family during this trip, not to mention two of her classmates and one of our family friends.
We would definitely recommend the tours we took and the Air B&B's we used in various locations.
I also loved writing about this trip.. even though it has taken two full months to finish writing about a two week trip.
Saturday, December 30, 2023 at 9:41AM ;)
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