Last Day in Athens

Our trip to Athens is winding down now, we've had a great time seeing all the ruins, eating tons of great food, walking everywhere and spending time together as a family.  We've seen most of what we wanted to see but there were a few things left so we headed out in the morning to visit them.

The first place we visited was the Ancient Agora. The Agora was the heart of ancient Athens, the focus of political, commercial, administrative, and social activity, the religious and cultural center and the seat of justice. One of the things that you would notice around Athens was that there are a large amount of dogs that just wander around. They were in Syntagma Square, at the Parthenon and we even saw some sleeping on the side of the road. These dogs would mostly be pretty quiet and just be sleeping but once in a while, one would start barking at something or other. As we walked into the Ancient Agora, there were probably 5 or 6 dogs there and we think that one of them didn't belong because the others just started barking him. This kind of scared the girls a little and we walked quickly away and the lone dog sort of followed right behind us.

Mark snapped a picture of the dogs.

The Stoa of Attalos was the first place that we visited.  It has been reconstructed by the American School of Classical Studies in Athens.  Much of the original architecture was used when doing this.  It houses a museum with lots of artifacts found on the site.  The kids enjoyed wandering around all of the columns - I think Lizzie and Rachel counted them and if I remember correctly they counted about 47 in each row (we could be wrong but there were a lot of them).

The Stoa of Attalos in the background.

We wandered around the ruins a little bit and walked up to the Temple of Hephaestus.  This temple is the most well preserved of all of the temples in Athens.  When you are visiting the Acropolis, you can see this temple and it looks so nice among all the trees and green of Athens!

The Temple of Hephaestus is in the background.

There were some very nice views of the Acropolis and the Parthenon from this area also.

Once we were done at the Ancient Agora, we got back on the metro and headed over towards Plaka to see the Tower of the Winds.  We were walking past a lot of the restaurants and again, the owners were all out there welcoming you into their restaurant with some bargain or another.  One man had just hopped off his motorcycle and asked if all the kids were ours, we responded that they were and he came over to chat with us.  He spoke very good English and was nice and friendly with the kids.  He owned the last restaurant on the street of course and invited us back after our sightseeing.  Then he pointed us in the right direction.
 
We found the Tower of the Winds and outside of the area, there was an old lady selling tablecloths which she claimed were hand stitched.  These street vendors are very savvy and want you to touch their product so they can stay with you and keep selling.  She offered a price, we said we weren't interested and continued walking...there will be more to this story a little later.
 
The Tower of the Winds is an octogonal clocktower which has sundials, a water clock and a wind vane.  There is also a beautiful old church on the grounds.
 

 

Another view of the Acropolis with the old church in the foreground.

We hadn't eaten lunch yet and the kids decided that they wanted to go the restaurant of the nice man that spoke such good English, so we headed back towards Plaka to eat.  On the way out, the old lady with the tableclothes spotted us again and continued to try to sell us one.  They were pretty but, honestly, if you know me at all, you probably know that I couldn't tell the difference between handstitched and one that had been done on machine.  We really didn't want to carry it around with us either.  She though wouldn't take no for an answer (for a long time) and kept lowering her price.  I think she started at 50 EUR and by the time we were half way to the restaurant, she was down to 15 EUR.  We felt pretty bad not buying one but we just really didn't need/want it. 

We had a wonderful lunch at the restaurant that was only marred by the fact that Lizzie lost the necklace from the Barbie doll that she was carrying around.  She and I backtracked a little bit and never found it but we didn't want to go back so far that the lady selling the tableclothes would see us.  After lunch, we hopped back on the metro again to head to the Acropolis Musem.  This museum was huge and we enjoyed it but not quite as much as the museum in Delphi.  Maybe the difference was having a tour guide.  Also, we were not allowed to take any pictures in the museum.  The coolest thing about this museum was that they are still doing active excavations in the area - they have glass in the main floor of the building and outside that when you walk over them you can see the archeological digging going on.  There were people down there working when we were at the museum - so that was pretty cool.

You can see below the floor the archeological dig.

A view from inside the museum of the Acropolis -

we cheated and took this picture.

We were all pretty tired at this point so we headed back to the apartment.  I had promised Megan that I  would take her to do a little shopping so she and I went back out to a street with a lot of shops.  We were looking for some short boots that she could wear here but mostly everything was high and very warm - not the best for Saudi Arabia.  Whe ended up buying a cute sweater that she could wear to school - it gets chilly in the buildings with the air conditioning.  We had decided to pick up some pizza for the family at this place that we had passed a couple times so Megan and I went over and with a little difficulty because no one spoke English, got a couple different kinds of pizza.  We also stopped at the grocery to pick up a couple things and then back home to eat.

Mark really wanted to go back to Mars Hill which is the place that Paul preached to the Athenians in Act 17 regarding their Unknown God and also wanted to get some night shots of the Acropolis.  Most of us were pretty tired so just Mark and Spencer headed out to do that.  I stayed home and started packing :-)

Night view of the Acropolis

Night view of Athens and the Temple of Hephaestus

And so our trip to Athens is almost done.  We truly enjoyed our time in this city so full of history!

Tour to Delphi

I've been a little neglectful in finishing up the posts to our trip because real life has started again.  The kids are back to school and I am back to work in full force.  I do like having our routine back though....but it's Thursday morning (our Saturday) so I thought I would get another blog entry in this morning. 

On Monday (Dec 27, 2010) we had scheduled a tour through Key Tours in Athens to take a day trip to the town of Delphi (pronounced Del-phee).  Mark and I have agreed that this was our favorite day on our trip.  We were picked up in front of The President Hotel close to our apartment by the tour company at 7:30 am - we were a couple minutes late and I think if we had been any later, we might have missed the pickup.  But we caught him and were on our way.  We got to their offices and waited with some other families for the tour to start. We met the head of the theatre department from University of Texas - Austin and his wife who is a professor there also.  Another family that was there waiting was from the states waiting also - the 20ish something girl had a best friend who was studying in the theatre department there - it's funny what a small world it is sometimes.

We got on the bus about 8:30 and started out on our tour to Delphi. We drove through Athens and our tour guide shared information about some of the things that we saw on our way out of the city. Once we were out of the city, the lanscape changed dramatically - it was very hilly and very green. The trip to Delphi took about 2 1/2 hours and took us on small mountain roads (in a big bus).  Dephi is located on on the south-western slope of a large mountain in Greece called Mount Parnassas.  We drove through a village called Arahova where many people stay because of the two ski resorts that are fairly close by.  We didn't see any snow but I guess about 20 minutes further up in the mountain, they get snow and these resorts are very popular for skiiers in the area.  Driving through Arahova was interesting as you wonder how these drivers can get a bus so big through these tiny little streets - you feel like you could reach out and touch all of the buildings.

Approaching Mount Parnassus

Village of Arahova

Driving through Arahova

Delphi was the site of the Delphic oracle, the most important oracle in the classical Greek world, and a major site for the worship of the god Apollo after he slew the Python, a deity who lived there and protected the navel of the earth.  You can find more information, if your interested, here.  People would travel from all over the world to get advice from the oracle - and the oracle was always correct.  This was mostly because the answers came in ways that could be interpreted correctly with any outcome.  Our tour guide told us of the leader of a great country that wanted to attack another country close by and wanted to make sure that he would win this batter.  He asked the oracle and the oracle answered that if he attacked the country a great kingdom would fall.  The leader felt that this meant that he would win the battle so he attacked the nearby country.  He lost and the great kingdom that fell, was his own. 

Delphi was also the sight of the Pythian Games held every 4 years and were a precursor to the current Olympic games.  There were musical and poetic competitions along with athletic competitions.  The winner of the games would receive a laurel wreath to wear on their head.

The first place that we visited in Delphi was the Delphi Archeological Museum.  The museum houses artifacts that were found in the area.   The rule in the museum for pictures was no flash and you couldn't take pictures of people standing next to the statues - which we found kind of interesting.

Rachel outside the musem

The Charioteer

Once we were done visiting the museum, we walked out to visit the Temple of Apollo.  Of course, there was some uphill walking involved (this is Greece of course).  Our tour guide was really good and it was interesting to see how many people "joined" our tour along the way up the path to the Temple.

A treasury where offerings to Apollo were left. 

This was usually part of what was won in a battle.

That is our tour guide in the picture.

An olive tree

The family in front of the Temple of Apollo

The kids in front of the stadium.

These next two pictures were taken further up on the path.  Mark and Spencer continued on up the path to see another stadium, the rest of the kids and I stayed down.  We ended up chatting with a women on the tour with us from Alaska.  

Can you see me in the orange sweater?

Headed back down the hill.

A Treasury.

This picture is one of my favorites taken at Delphi. 

It is the Gulf of Corinth in the

distance with a little village right at its shores. 

The flat land is covered with olive trees.

When we were done with our tour, we headed into the village of Delphi for lunch.  We enjoyed a nice meal at a local restaurant that was served family style.  We got to sample all sorts of different foods - yum!  As we ate, the weather got cloudier and colder.  We were very happy that the weather had cooperated while we were sightseeing.

The restaurant we at in Delphi.



We made a short 20 minute stop in Arahova on the way back.  It would have been nice to be able to explore the town a little longer but it was not to be.  We bought some cheese that the town was famous for and some candy for the trip home.  We never actually got to eat the cheese as you had to fry it up to eat it and we forgot to do that the next morning.  We didn't think that it would make the trip back to Saudi Arabia very well so it was a little disappointing that we never got to try it. 

Walking through the streets of Arahova -

it was getting pretty chilly out now

Alex got to try on a cool hat!

We chatted with the people sitting near us on the way home.  There was a dad and his son from Lebanon and another family from Orlando, FL.  We made it back to Athens tired and hungry after the rest of the trip back.  The bus dropped us off at Syntagma Square, we hopped on the metro and headed home.  I said that we ate at TGI Friday's in my last blog but I think I mixed up the nights.  This means I should be better about getting blogs written sooner as I am getting older and my memory is going!  So I think it was tonight that we ate at Friday's and last night we ate at this little open air restaurant that had the absolute best gyros!!!  Mmmmm....I'm hungry now just thinking about them.  So either way, we headed back to the apartment where our heads all hit the pillow very quickly.   One last picture was snapped on the way back from the metro to the apartment.  I just like it because it's kind of Christmasy even though there's no snow.

Thanks for reading!!!

The Day After Christmas - Athens

Today was a little bit of an uneventful day as we didn't do anything extraordinarily exciting.  We hung out at the apartment most of the morning but since all of the major attractions were closed (the 25th and 26th were both National Holidays), we couldn't do any "major" sightseeing.  We decided to take the Hop On - Hop Off bus tour around Athens.  It was basically a big red bus that drove around Athens, you could get off and back on at any stop on the route.  The bus left from Syntagma Square so we hopped on the metro to get there and found the bus.  It was an open air bus on the top which is where we sat to get the best view.

Waiting for our tour to start.

Traffic and people near Syntagma Square

Santa was in the Square for all the kids to visit.

We ended up just riding the bus all the way around and not getting off anywhere.  It was nice not to have to walk for a while!  One of the most intersesting things about this bus tour was how this big huge tour bus got around on the teeny little streets of Athens.  We had to be careful sitting on top not to get poked in the eye with a tree branch or maybe have an orange fall on our heads from the trees close to the roads.



Here are a bunch of pictures of what we saw while we were on the tour.

The Temple of Zeus

 The entrance to the Temple of Zeus but I can't remember

the name of the arch.

The Acropolis and Parthenon

The Parliment Building - they have the changing of the guards

like London.

The Olympic Stadium - sight of the first modern day Olympics

sometime in the 1800s.

The University of Athens where you can shop and

protest all at the same time.

We returned to Syntagma Square where to the chagrin of some of my children we decided to walk down the street with all the vendors and see what we could see.  The most interesting thing was the guy dressed up like Posiden.  If someone tried to take his picture but did not put any money in his little gold jug, he would hit the jug with his staff, point at the person trying to take the picture and turn around so his face could not be seen.  it was pretty amusing.  None of the kids wanted to have their picture taken so Mark put some money in the jar and has his picture taken with this guy.

Everyone was pretty tired by this point so we hopped back on the metro and we decided to have dinner at TGI Fridays.  It was very loud and the service was not really extremely fast but we needed to eat so it served its purpose.  Mark, Spencer, Alex and Megan headed home but I had promised Lizzie that we would stop at the grocery store (it was like a Walmart) so that she could buy a Barbie with her Christmas money.  You can't get "real" Barbie's in Saudi Arabia.  They have a similar doll called Fulla - some of them have western style dress or you can buy with her own abaya and head covering.  But Lizzie really wanted a new Barbie and Rachel decided she would get one too.  We got that and a couple other things at the market and walked home.

I think we just all went to bed then - so like I said, it wasn't a totally eventful day but we did want to make sure we got a good night's rest.  We needed to get up early and head out on our adventure to Delphi the next day.  More to come soon......



Christmas Day 2010

It just really didn't seem like Christmas this year - the weather being so warm, not a lot of Christmas decorations around the house, no Christmas music at every turn and not being home with our family.  I had a very hard time shopping since it's a pain getting into Jeddah to shop.  Mark and I went in one evening and I got a driver to go in another day and that was all the Christmas shopping I did this year.  But Christmas did come and even though it was different, it was a nice day - a day to spend with family and to remember the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ.  Mark and I were talking about how at this time last year, we had no idea what changes would happen to our family in 2010.  We had hardship and trials and many blessings and we are grateful for the wonderful family and friends that are in our lives that have supported us through all the decisions and changes that we've gone through this last year.

So, it's Christmas Day in Athens and the kids are looking forward to opening the presents that we did bring them.  I only brought small things that we could easily fit in our suitcases.  Both Megan and Spencer got Swatch watches - they have Swatch stores in every mall and I have fond memories of these watches from middle school :-)  I actually got a new Swatch also - although it's a bit fancier than the plastic type style.  All of the kids got a game for their Nintendo DS.  Here are a few pictures from Christmas morning.

A notebook for French class

Cooking Mama for the DS

Just being patient...

We enjoyed the very yummy pastries that we bought at the bakery the night before and basically just hung around the apartment all morning playing games and being together.  It was very low key, but very nice.  We decided to head out to Likavittus Hill - most of the major attractions were closed on the 25th and 26th, but the hill was open.   Likavittus Hill is the tallest point in Athens and affords a wonderful view of the whole city.

So we figured out which metro station we needed to get to and headed out early in the afternoon.  We knew there was a "funicular" that would take you to the top of the hill, but what we did not realize was that you pretty much walked half way up the hill before you got to this.  I have to tell you, that I don't think I have ever walked more stairs at one time.  An interesting side note about this trip (for me at least) was that even though we ate tons of good Greek food, I lost 7 pounds when we were on vacation because of all the walking we did.  I LOVE that kind of vacation!!!  So now I just have to keep it up now that we're back.

Rachel and Lizzie on the stairs up to Lykavittus Hill

A view down one of the city streets that we walked up.

So we walked and walked and walked until we reached the entrance to the "funicular" which is basically a little tram that takes you up the rest of the hill.  We rode up and snapped a bunch more pictures.

A gorgeous view of the Acropolis and the Parthenon

with the Mediterranean Sea in the background

The amazing city of Athens

The Temple of Zeus

We met another American family from Kalamazoo while we were enjoying the view and chatted with them for a while.  Then it was time to head down the funicular again (I still don't know why that is what it is called).  We got over there, put our tickets in and then realized that there wasn't enough room for all 7 of us to head down.  So we went back up to the top and this guy came out (the operator) and pretty much yelled at us for making the tram late.  I think his words were something like - "Now we're behind schedule and it's all your fault.".  Ha - Merry Christmas to the funicular operator!  So we waited for the funicular to return, hopped on and headed back down the hill.

Waiting to get on the funicular.

The tracks down the hill.

Smart Cars were everywhere in Athens -

notice how this one is parked

(backed into a spot where you would

normally parallel park)

We headed back to the metro station (the walk down the hill was much more pleasant) and back over to Plaka to find some Christmas dinner.  We ended up at a restaurant that we had passed the day before where he told Rachel that she looked like a movie star.  He was a nice older man that when he found out that we had triplets, told us he was a twin.  It was always very fun talking to all the people that we met!  We had a really enjoyable Christmas dinner - Rachel and Alex had pizza, I had some really good roast beef and Mark and the rest of the kids had a turkey dinner. 

After dinner, we headed home to talk to our families via Skype and wish them a Merry Christmas.  We hope eveyone had a wonderful holiday!