Last day in Athens

It's been quite nice to have almost two full days in Athens just to do our own thing. Yesterday for me was a mixture of walking around some historic sites, doing a bit more shopping, and cooling off in the hotel pool. Last night we had our last dinner as a whole group at a really nice rooftop restaurant with a view across to the Acropolis.

This morning we said goodbye to some of the group, who were flying to other destinations in Europe to visit family, or join other tours. There are ten of us left who will be flying on to Dubai later tonight and then from there either to Auckland or Christchurch tomorrow.

A few of us went to a service at the Anglican Church here this morning. While out walking yesterday, I had happened upon their Spring Bazaar, which was like a little piece of utter Englishness in the midst of Athens - a raffle table, scones and jam, English breakfast tea for sale, union Jacks festooning the church fence and British accents all around.

Some of our group had been on an open top double decker bus tour of the city yesterday,. I hadn't been planning to do so, but Carol kindly gave me her ticket to use today, as it was valid for 24 hours, and that proved a restful and pleasant way to pass an hour or so for this now rather 'walked-out' kiwi. You could get off an on at several different stops along the way if you wanted to explore more, but I had already been on foot to most of the places I wanted to, so I just enjoyed the higher vantage point and stayed on board the whole route.

Just a few hours till we head to the airport to begin the homeward journey. The long range weather forecast tells me to expect 9 degrees in Christchurch on Tuesday, so I will begin to prepare myself...

Thanks so much, patient readers, for following the journey. I hope I haven't wearied you with too much detail. I realised early on that I was going to need to post something every day, or not at all, because every day was full and different and it would have been too difficult to gather up the highlights of several days retrospectively. So this has been a really helpful mechanism for me to ensure that the key treasures didn't get swamped and lost forever.Baca lagi