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Greece March 2018
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  • Mark Holmes

Greece March 2018

Une aventure ouverte par Mark En savoir plus
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  • Mark HolmesGreece March 2018Voyageur
    The Gang! Incredible meal

    Eat with

    11 mars 2018, Grèce ⋅ ☀️ 68 °F

    So Demetrius from Gate 1 picked us up about 9 this morning to go to the police station. We rode the metro since he doesn’t own a car. Got to the station. Took about 10 minutes to process a report with the police. Afterwards we took the metro to the Plaka area at the bottom of the Acropolis (Figured without a passport, credit cards or cash, they couldn't do much more harm to me on the metro!) Browsed some shops and then called the American Embassy number to set up an appt for Monday. They came back and said 8:30. Hopefully they might get me out of there by 10 so I can join the afternoon walking tour. Janet will go with the group to the Acropolis because she cannot enter the embassy with me. Fortunately she has some cash because the Embassy will only take a credit card in my name (and I don't have one now!)

    We then called Michail who had volunteered his friend to come pick us up wherever we were. He showed up in 30 minutes to pick us up from Hadrian's Arch near the Plaka area and took us across town to Michaels apt where we were greeted by two very friendly guys. Turned out to be his friends and Janet and I. We sat down and proceeded for the next 4 hrs to be dazzled by food and conversation. Just a fabulous, fabulous experience with 3 local guys. They even had some wrapped up art prints they gave us as going away gifts. Who does this?? Great people, that’s for sure. EatWith is definitely making me want to do this wherever I go - for the money, an absolute gift.    En savoir plus

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  • Mark HolmesGreece March 2018Voyageur

    Athens - breakfast -police

    11 mars 2018, Grèce ⋅ ⛅ 52 °F

    7:40 am Didn’t sleep very well after the mess with the passport. Going to get some breakfast and then the Gate1 tour director is going to be nice enough to take us down to police station to file a report. Did manage to run off various passport forms in the lobby of the hotel last night. Will take them to Embassy Monday at 9 and say a small prayer that works. Need some passport photos too - supposedly they have someone there from 9-11 that takes them. In the future I’ll carry an extra set and the blank forms with me just in case. Going to miss the morning Acropolis tour on Monday am Think we can do that on our own the very last day , since we added a post day.

    After the police, were scheduled to do our EatWith.com at noon today. Not the best of timing now; but we’re going to forge ahead anyway. More to follow    En savoir plus

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  • Mark HolmesGreece March 2018Voyageur

    Dinner at Alexander the Great

    10 mars 2018, Grèce ⋅ 🌙 54 °F

    Exhausted but still going. Great little restaurant ( https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g… ). Very friendly people. We had the mixed barbecue grill - pork, chicken (not really our barbecue - more in the meaning of grilled and seasoned), French fries, salad - a whole lotta food, plus a 1/2 liter of red wine. Was about 33 Euros.

    On the way to our hotel after getting off the bus at Syntagma Square and switching to the metro, I had my passport , credit cards, and cash picked - out of my front pocket!! On a very crowded metro. Was suspicious of one guy. But kept touching my pocket to make sure it as there - still not good enough. Was being pushed very hard from both sides - suspect a woman to the left of me got it when I moved my hand away from my pocket for a moment. Never felt a thing. We hadn’t even made it to the hotel yet! This is going to be a huge hassle. Gotta go to the police station in the morning. Gate1 Emergency Contact guy is being nice and taking me to the police station in the morning Going to mess up our Monday morning visit to the Acropolis We might be able to do it on Saturday since we are staying an extra day

    The trick will be Monday morning at the American Embassy getting everything done quickly. Good luck with that!    En savoir plus

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  • Mark HolmesGreece March 2018Voyageur

    Athens airport

    10 mars 2018, Grèce ⋅ ☀️ 64 °F

    As we approach Athens, I'm struck by how mountainous it is. Never really had that picture in my mind, but then I should have reminded myself of some of the books I've read on WWII and fighting in Greece.

    Landed! Waiting on the 95 bus to take us downtown. 6 euros each. Super customer service young lady at airport info kiosk. 40 minute ride to central square downtown. Passing lots of olive groves on the way in. Bus has the hardest seats and bouncy as heck but good trip, nonetheless.    En savoir plus

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  • Mark HolmesGreece March 2018Voyageur
    Leberkäse Breze with pickle

    Munich airport

    10 mars 2018, Allemagne ⋅ ⛅ 50 °F

    Headed for Gate G, then discovered train wasn’t running and we were going to have to take a bus to G but right before we did that, my Apple Watch buzzed and popped up an alert saying our Gate had changed to K09. Good thing I had my watch on! Didn’t feel it buzz my phone . Up one escalator and a short walk and we were at K. Flight has been shoved back 1/2 hr to 1210

    Went and bought a Leberkäse Breze to munch on with some coffee. Gonna be about 6 more hrs before we can crash for a few hrs before our dinner reservation

    WiFi likes us in this airport. We’ve been here so many times we don’t have to register any more.    En savoir plus

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  • Mark HolmesGreece March 2018Voyageur
    Looked like long line but started moving quicklyA very fsmiliar lcation. Seems we're always flying LufthansaTake off from Charlotte

    Day one Flight to MUC-ATH

    10 mars 2018, États Unis ⋅ 🌙 36 °F

    Crazy heavy traffic on way to airport down I-77. Waze GPS said the same time regardless of whether we went 77 or 52 so I chose 77. Total bottleneck around Huntersville for no apparent reason other than people rubbernecking at the construction going on I guess. Then suddenly the lanes opened wide and zoom! Makes no sense. Waze does a good job of estimated arrival time based on what it knows about delays. Was only a few minutes off.

    Made it to airport around 4:10. Freaked us out for a moment when it said Parking Lot 1,2,4 were all closed. No idea what happened to Lot 3. Never saw it. We kept driving and suddenly saw a Parking Lot North that had a spot. Parked the van and the bus was sitting there waiting for us. 20 minutes later we were in the terminal. The line looked long going Thru TSA but like I-77 suddenly started moving quickly. We had TSA pre-check although never saw the sign for it didn’t have to take my iPad out or take my jacket or shoes off. Just threw our bags on the conveyer and walked thru the metal detector - done and in the terminal st 4:50 pm with boarding at 6. .

    Boarded on time. Plane took off about 6:55, 20 minutes later than scheduled. Watched the movie “Wonder”- such a good movie. Put it on your list for sure. Barbecue chicken, green beans, dressing, salad with Italian dressing, roll, slice of cheese, dinner roll, blueberry oat bar, 2 glasses of wine. Bailey’s , coffee - doing well! Midnight as I pound this out.

    -45 degrees outside - was going to step out for some fresh air - that changed my mind. 36000’ - moon is out. 8.5 hr flight to München (none of that Munich stuff!) No screaming babies!

    3/10 - touchdown at 3:15 a.m Winston- Salem time 0918 German time. Just bumped into a guy from Romania that I sold foreign currency to just a day ago at AAA!!    En savoir plus

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  • Mark HolmesGreece March 2018Voyageur

    Pre-Trip prepping for our Gate1 trip

    17 février 2018, États Unis ⋅ ☁️ 43 °F

    2/17/18 - So our Greece trip is approaching in a few weeks (March 9th). Part Independent, part guided. Booked our seats on Lufthansa ($11 each) for the MUC-ATH/ ATH - MUC legs, which Gate 1 (our tour supplier) doesn’t include. Total trip cost with air for both of us is around $2800 which was a bargain - we’ll see if that holds true by the time we get back! It was a 2 day Flash Sale that was hard to pass up.

    Studied Rick Steves book on Greece to learn the easiest way to get from the airport to our hotel (Stanley Hotel) in downtown Athens. Looks like the express bus to Syntagma Square and then a short metro trip from there. http://www.visitgreece.gr/en/travelling_in_gree… Seems easy enough. 5 Euros for the bus. Hard to beat that. About a 40 minute ride to get downtown. We should arrive around check-in time. Enough time to stroll around , get some good Greek food for dinner and then crash. Next morning we have the entire day until in the evening when we meet with the Tour Director and have dinner with the rest of the group.

    Downloaded about 10 podcasts from Rick’s app Audio Europe (Greece) to get acquainted before leaving. VisitACity is another app with 1,3,5,7 day tours of Athens which should be helpful. Also checking out some free walking tours which always seem to be good.

    Checked out lunch/dinner opportunities with Traditional Greek meal https://www.eatwith.com/events/26455 for Athens. Requested a lunch with Michial on Sunday afternoon. Waiting on a confirmation. Had tried this EatWith experience in Madrid and had a great time. (He wrote back and we’re confirmed!).

    Since we return on a 6am flight which means we'll probably have to leave our hotel about 2:00am, I checked out Uber services. Looks like it should be about 29 euros, which is considerably cheaper than regular taxi service which would run about 70 euros after midnight. Plus I have a $10 credit from other Uber trips, so that sounds good. it's always interesting experience waiting on an Uber driver in the middle of the night in a foreign country. :)

    Temps are looking good so far as you can see from the weather temp photo here

    Using this app to remember what to take - Packing Pro by Quinn Genzel https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/packing-pro/id3…

    3/9 - last minute charging of all devices, toiletries ,etc. Looking at blog from Madrid trip, can most likely leave home between 1:30 -2pm and have plenty of time. Blew through TSA last time This time we both have TDA pre- Check indicated on our boarding passes. No big suitcases to check. Should be quick. But a new passport wallet at AAA to carry a few cards and my passport and some cash. Fits in front pocket nicely. Will see how that works. So far, so good

    Made a reservation at what appears to be a really good restaurant just a block from our hotel on the first night we get there. Should be at the hotel by 5 - reservation at 7. Thank you TripAdvisor! https://goo.gl/khPXxy    En savoir plus

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    Début du voyage
    10 mars 2018