Sad to leave Naxos behind but time to move on to our next destination: Athens. As noted in the arrival post, the Naxos airport is one of the smallest commercial airports I’ve ever seen.
This room is about half of the interior waiting area, taken from the front door, with the check in counter to the right of me.
And the entire airside area beyond the security checkpoint. Basically just a hallway to the exit with some benches on the sides.
A nearly new ATR72-600 would take us back for the short hop today. Windows were still pretty dirty though.
Goodbye, Naxos!
We left our luggage in storage at the Athens airport except for our backpacks and one carry on roller suitcase. It made it a lot easier to get to our hotel on the metro.
And especially up this hill from the metro station, which was much steeper than it looks in the photo. I was dripping in sweat by the time we got to the hotel, and it was only about 30 degrees out. It wouldn’t be fun at all taking full size luggage up this hill.
We headed over to a delicious Italian meal at the Michelin starred Ovio, walking up the very pleasant Makrigianni Street on the way.
This was a cool car park – about half of the lot was shaded by a giant overhanging tree branch!
Our hotel at the top of the built up portion of the hill in Koukaki had some great 270 degree views. Especially from the pool.
The streets around the area were primarily residential with a few main commercial streets; it was a very peaceful area.
Up and down that steep hill several times a day gave us a good workout.
Closer to sunset, Ellie grudgingly trudged up the beautiful wide pedestrian street Dionysiou Areopagitou below the Acropolis into the lowering sun.
The first part of our ascent up Philopappos Hill was on nice marble and stone steps.
Here’s what we came up for. We’d walked just below the Odeon of Herodes Atticus, the lowest ruin in the center of the picture.
On the top of the hill is the Philopappos Monument, construction arranged and dedicated to Prince Philopappos by his sister in the year 116 AD.
It was a very nice place to watch the sunset and although busy, not crowded at all.
Ellie was hungry and really just wanted to get down for dinner instead of hanging around.
We went to a very neighborhoody restaurant down the street from our hotel; most of the dining area was situated in a garden with big trees and it was hard to tell that you were in the city at all.
I had this dish that wasn’t on the menu, one of the daily specials that was just verbalized by the server and I don’t remember what it was called. It was like a Greek perogy and very good.
Ellie had home made burger patties and fries.
The view from the pool was almost better at night with the Acropolis lit up.
We visited the Ancient Agora of Athens the next morning, but we weren’t early enough to beat the heat. It was hot in the sun.
The Temple of Hephaestus was a highlight.
As was the Stoa of Attalos – rebuilt as a museum.
One of the metro lines ran in an open cut beside the Ancient Agora – most of the trains were completely covered in graffiti.
The Church of the Holy Apostles dates to the 10th century.
There were so many interesting artifacts and ruins around that if it weren’t so hot, I could have spent several hours looking around.
Again in the evening, we set out later to climb another hill before sunset – this time the Acropolis itself. We entered through a lesser used gate giving us a different vantage point than the main entrance on the west end.
Our first landmark was the Theatre of Dionysus Eleuthereus which you’d miss if you came through the main entrance. In its original form, this theatre would have held around 15000 people.
Further up the hill is Odeon of Herodes Atticus, which has been restored.
Further up yet is Propylaea, the main entrance to the Acropolis, dating to 432 BC.
The Parthenon is continuously under renovation and restoration, but the scaffolding doesn’t detract from the amazing piece of history that it represents.
And the view from up here is pretty good!
Down below we could see the Temple of Olympian Zeus, which we did not visit up close.
A pretty amazing place to be but especially late in the day with the lighting.
Stray cats abound even up here.
Nice patterns in the marble on the sidewalk below as we exit the Acropolis.
What a lovely evening. It would have been nice to stay for longer for actual sunset, but we didn’t need a hungry, grumpy Ellie again.
Although she did have time to pet one of the stray cats lounging on the sidewalk.
We had a delicious pizza and calamari at one of the patios along Makrigianni Street.
After dark, the area was super lively. We did a bit of souvenir shopping after dinner.
Early in the morning, I hiked up Philopappos Hill again to catch sunrise. There were a handful of other people up there on one of the outcrops, and it certainly was worth it to get up a bit early.
That was about it for our stay in Athens. As we departed the airport after collecting our (thankfully) stored luggage, we spotted something very exciting for Ellie – a Jet2 plane. Nothing beats a jet2holiday!
Goodbye, Greece. What a great trip – we’ll definitely be back!
En route to our stop in Paris, we passed over the western end of the Alps and had views of some of the glaciers and alpine lakes, but the highest peaks were shrouded in cloud.
We were fortunate enough to be able to upgrade to La Premiere for the flight from Paris to New York – one of the most exclusive commercial air travel experiences, complete with direct car transfer between flights and the exquisite lounge in Charles De Gaulle airport, which serves a menu created by a multiple Michelin starred chef.
I flew in La Premiere once before in 2022 from Paris to Los Angeles, where the singer Halsey was my aislemate. I’d rather fly with Ellie, though 🙂
Passing south of Cornwall, England in the middle of the dinner service – farewell for another year to Europe.
We still had most of a day in New York the following morning, so we took advantage of a gorgeous day to take in a few classics. Top of the Rock to start.
And lunch in Brooklyn at Ellie’s favorite place.
Finishing off with a walk across the Brooklyn Bridge, picking up a replacement Brooklyn hat along the way. The one that we’d picked up in May got lost in Greece somewhere…
Another trip is in the books!
Ellie's Adventures 