Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Last Athens Post - Day #2

After all the pictures I took on the first day we were in Athens, the second day kind of pales in comparison! We managed to drag the children out of bed and down to breakfast in the morning. There is a 2 hour time difference between England and Greece but my philosophy is to just ignore it and operate on local time - especially for very short trips! The shuttle was running and we really enjoyed riding to the center of the city and not having to use up our waning energy just getting there! We walked over to the New Acropolis Museum to see the artifacts from the Acropolis. No cameras are allowed inside so my pictures are all of the exterior but you can imagine what's inside - statues and vases mostly!
I believe this is the name of the museum
the outside of the museum - you can see the Acropolis reflected in the upper left corner!
For all my Chi O's - Athena's owl!
The museum is built on stilts over open dig sites - it is really cool!
the floors are clear so you can see the ruins - even inside the museum - Aidan said he felt like he was falling - Emmy refused to walk on them initially but she got over it!
After the museum we walked over to the Hard Rock Cafe (very 80's I know) and had lunch. You know you can always get chicken fingers and fries! After a good lunch for everyone we headed out to the National Gardens which was really just an overgrown park. There was a good sized playground and the kids had a great time running around, climbing, swinging and playing with the local children. I think it was the highlight of the trip for them - sadly!
After the playground we caught the shuttle back to the hotel and took a little rest. Brendan found a great little (tiny) restaurant 2 blocks from the hotel - thanks Google! We were the only ones there and the owner gave us wonderful service. The food was delicious - I had braised lamb shanks. After dinner we walked back to the hotel and put the kids to bed.
In the morning we took the bus to the airport, purchased our last minute souvenirs and flew home. We were delayed an hour but the kids did great. We flew on Easy Jet and they have free for all boarding which is great for us because we only bought 4 seats but Emmy and Brendan sat together with a seat between them and I sat with Aoife and Aidan. Who is going to want to make us move over and sit with kids? So we got 6 seats!! Each of the kids took a little nap sometime during the 3 1/2 hour flight. I couldn't have asked for an easier trip!!! Up next - Ireland and France in April!

2 comments:

Matthew, Eve, Noah, Noelle, and Brooke said...

awesome! Those dig site are incredible and I love the glass floors - that would be a little scary at first! Aidan is so sweet hugging Emmy and I love the shot of all five of you at the table!!

Rains Family said...

Aidan and Emmy look adorable together! Glad you guys had an awesome and easy trip. Can't wait to see pictures of France & Ireland!! Happy belated St. Patty's day!!