Lorraine gets comfortable in our luxury Hotel in Athens, the Grande Bretagne
The bathroom in the Grande Bretagne Hotel
Another view of the room
The Hotel Grande Bretagne
The TV cameras set up in readiness for the arrival of Athina...
The lobby of the Grande Bretagne Hotel, Athens
Parliament House in Athens
One of the "lovely boys" guarding the Parliament
The guards do their famous "goose step" as they get ready to...
Such balance! And such height!
Dot in the foyer of the Grande Bretagne Hotel, waiting to be...
Lots of building going on in Athens to try and get new...
The new tram line - hopeful of being finished before the Olympics...
Olympic Rings sculpture already covered in graffiti!
The Temple of Poseidon, at Cape Sounion
Dot at the Temple of Poseidon
View of Cape Sounion
This is the Acropolis in Athens, looking up to the Parthenon
Another view of the Parthenon
View of Athens from the Acropolis at night
Directions at the Underground to get from Syntagma to Akropoli
The modern Greek underground train system
The modern underground station of Akropoli
Some kind of competition going on at the Railway Station!
Downtown Athens at night
Store set up in Athens specifically for the Olympic Games
We found this great Stir Fry place in Athens
The help-yourself stir fry bar - all you can fit in the...
This morning after a very early start, we left Heraklion and flew back to Athens, arriving there around 10.00 am. This time instead of the expensive transfer (US $39) we decided on catching a local bus at the very realistic price of 2.90 Euros. We only had to walk about 50 metres to our Hotel, the very luxurious 5 star Hotel Grande Bretagne, situated at Constitution Square. This is Athens' finest hotel and us with our jeans and sneakers on, especially with the TV cameras set up outside.
We got a little time to look around prior to being picked up for our afternoon Cape Sounion tour. This tour went down South of Athens, around the coast and was very beautiful. At the bottom is the temple of Poseidon, the Greek God of the Sea. A very windy spot but lovely.
We got a look at a lot of the Greek summer houses down the coast and also passed a couple of caravan parks, very interesting places they were.
Arriving back in Athens around 7.00 pm, I decided since we hadn't seen the Acropolis, to get on the Metro which was only one stop away, at .70 euro each way. The Acropolis was all lit up and looked lovely, they have got scaffolding up at the Parthenon so it is ready for the Olympic Games in August, but you could still get decent photographs. Arriving back at the Hotel I was met by all manner of Paparrazi - cameras, tv microphones etc. Alas they weren't there for me - Athina Roussel (Onassis) was there to attend a glittering ball that night!
We went out for dinner and managed to find a little place where you could make your own stir-fry, all you could fit in a bowl for 8 euro. A bargain and very tasty.