October 31 - November 1, 2008

Washington D.C. to Athens, Greece

Helen picked me up at my house, and we drove to the Dulles Airport. After checking in, we met Russ at gate C2 for our flight to Munich, Germany.













The flight to Munich, Germany was uneventful, but I was in the "party" row. I had a stoic man and Larry next to me. Next to Larry was Brenda and her 21-month old daughter, Alara. Across the aisle were seated Malte and his father. Larry was from Queens in NYC and was flying to Sarajevo to meet his sister and spend 10 days with her. Brenda and Alara were flying to Turkey to meet up with her husband and visit with relatives before returning home in France. Malte was in the 8th grade, from northern Germany, and returning home from his first US visit. Did not get any sleep with a very active 21 month old, but I did get to read her the same story over and over. She was so much fun and I enjoyed playing with her. Our own personal entertainment, as Larry would put it.

After going through customs in Munich, Germany, we caught a flight to Athens, Greece and met up with Didi in the Eleftherios Venizelos Airport. We walked to the Metro station and bought tickets. After validating them we hopped onto the train and headed into the city to find our hotel. We were loaded down with bags and sat down and occupied a few seats.



















As the train got fuller, Didi was directed to move over and sit on top of her bag - by a very assertive woman.



On the way out of the Monastiraki metro station going up the elevator, we were over run by a group of guys. Not thinking anything of it we moved to the side. One of them tried to talk to me, but I guess I did not respond as he wanted and he immediately moved up to talk to Helen. He asked her a question I could not hear. We then exited the Metro and walked toward the hotel. Didi and I turned around and noticed Russ and Helen were not behind us. After waiting for a bit, they showed up, and Helen stated that she thought she had just been pick pocketed. Missing were her Euros and passport. We then proceed to the Hotel Attalos, checked in, and went through everything to verify that they had just not been misplaced. Nope! Definitely gone. So a new adventure began to replace the passport.

We called the US Embassy and were told to call back tomorrow but that we should report it. We went back to the Metro station to report it. The Metro cop gave us the shoulder shrug and said we could talk to the station master. The station master said we should go to the cops. We then walked to the police station. There Helen was sent to the 6th floor and spent over an hour filing the report. With the report finally in hand we decided to find food instead of heading to the embassy since it was after 5:30pm.

We had a beautiful walk thorough Athens at dusk toward the Acropolis as we meandered toward Sholarhio. A restaurant that brings out tapas to choose from in traditional Greek family style. We picked fava beans, french fries, green "salad", calamari, cod with cold mashed potatoes, tsatski, spicy feta cheese, tomato and feta salad, sausage, and stuffed grape leaves. Our meal also included french bread and a cinnamon raisin pudding-like dessert. The food was great, the dessert oddly textured but did not taste bad.



After dinner we walked it off by enjoying the mild evening. Once back at the hotel we headed up to the roof top of the hotel to view the Acropolis at night. It was a gorgeous evening and the view was spectacular.