Athens Day 1

Today we flew from Berlin to Athens. We needed two Ubers as there wasn't a larger enough one available. Mom, Diane and Mike climbed into a Corolla with an ouchie on the side....few minutes later Dad and I got into our mar-free car. We had a nice, leisurely ride to the airport but couldn't locate the others upon arrival in the terminal. Life360 showed them many miles away! Turns out they were headed to the first hotel we stayed at! They had quite the ride making up time to get back to the airport. The line to check in was very long and SLOW.....we were getting to the worried to make our flight mode.....Thankfully the wheelchair guy knew the shortcuts and got us to our gate with a few minutes to spare. On the flight we had the option of a meat or savory pie.

Arrival went well until baggage claim when Mike's bag didn't come out. Our wheelchair attendant took them to lost and found and their bag was on a different baggage carousel.

Janet and David were to arrive 30 minutes after us; however, their plane was delayed. We had transportation arranged in advance so they had already taken care of another driver for the late pickup. We had a nice drive to the apartment with our driver Demetrius, AKA Niko, AKA Jim to his American friends but he doesn't know why they call him Jim.

Basil met us at the apartment and gave us a tour. It's 4 bedroom, 4 bath with a large terrace. There's also a rooftop terrace. We have a good view of the Pantheon and it's beautiful lit up at night.

Janet and David arrived and after we hugged it out we went to dinner down the street. Basil had recommended getting their meat platter to share and their grilled vegetables. We also ordered feta cheese in olive oil. It was very good but was way more food than we could eat! Diane, Mike and I shared some white wine - it was very good.

While we were seated at the table a gentleman from Stockholm came over to talk to us. He sounded like Gru from Despicable Me! He really liked mom and even said if she wasn't married he'd marry her! Mom responded with who said I'd marry you! LOL. We had quite the noisy, fun conversation! After dinner our waiter brought us over complimentary drinks in heavy shot glasses....think of the kind you would see in an old western movie. It contained Masticha...a sweet, digestive liquor.

On the walk back to the apartment we stopped at a bakery and bought a variety of things for breakfast. We also stopped off at a pharmacy for distilled water and a grocery store for some supplies. Mom and I rode an elevator in the store that looked like we were entering a freezer!

Back at the apartment we played pitch and 99 on the terrace until we couldn't keep our eyes open any longer!

Pam arrives late tomorrow to complete our group.Read more