Our last day in Athens!

Sunday night’s dinner –

We had walked and climbed so much yesterday, that even though I had a spreadsheet with restaurant recommendations, neither one of us wanted to go too far away from the hotel for dinner.  So, we decided to head toward the metro and see what we could find.

R's beef and potatoes

My chicken and potatoes

We both tried the lemon pudding with strawberries

As we were looking over one restaurant, an employee came out to encourage us in.  I asked if they allowed smoking, and he assured me most earnestly that of course, they did.  He was very surprised to find that, in that case, we would go elsewhere.   

Around the corner, we found a very cute bistro named:  (I’m going to let R put that in, as he knows the Greek). The restaurant is called Athena but the signage uses several unusual forms of the Greek alphabet.  The letter θ was printed as something more like a lower case delta, which (it appears) is something like an Italic form.  We asked the man there about the smoking issue, and he suggested we take one of the two tables inside near the bar, which left the outside tables (nicely enclosed and heated) for everyone else.  So we did.

And a very nice meal we had!  Robert ordered the steak with baby potatoes, and I had the chicken fillet with baby potatoes, and both were wonderful!  For dessert, we both got something like a very light lemon-flavored pudding in a small jar with a layer of what I think was granola and topped by excellent marinated strawberries.  All washed down with a half-carafe of a very light house wine.  So nice to be able to just go around the corner to get good food!

Beautiful Cycladic figure

Another Clycladic figure

Cycladic and actually carved out of stone

So…up on Monday morning, and ready to get moving!  More museums and things to see!

m

xxx

But first – LAUNDRY!!!  Yes, Friends, it’s that time yet again.

Thanks to the internet, I was able to find “Athens Launderette” which is actually very close to our hotel.  They open at 8 am and stay open to midnight, so I figured we would head there right after breakfast and see what we could do.  Well…we now have officially clean clothes!  Yippee!!

Unusual Cycladic figurine, lying down

Coffee anyone?

Largest Cycladic figure

At Robert’s request, I am taking a break here to say that once again, we have found how critical computers are in making travel arrangements.  For the second time on this trip (the first being in Delphoi) we received word that the hotel we had booked would not be available and was cancelling the reservation that we had made through Booking.com.  Bummer!  I always put a lot of time and effort into finding our places to stay, and having to change at the last minute is not something I want to do lightly. I’m not sure what’s going on, but I’m thinking that if ours is the only booking (which is possible) the hotel may just not want to bother.  But for whatever reason, at least when I have a computer, I am able to look around, possibly make some modifications, and feel comfortable about our plans going forward.  So … now back to the really important issue – CLEAN CLOTHES!  

It was only about a five minute walk from the hotel, and there it was, as promised, between the Sports Bar and the Sea Food Restaurant – and all apparently run by the same people! 

Cycladic covered dish with horses

Besides the laundry, which was small but sufficient and clean, they have luggage storage and a hostel somewhere close by.  We were the only folks there, but the guy running the Sports Bar was very helpful in providing change and laundry detergent.  We had one full load, and were finished in about an hour and a half, with really dry clothes!  

Today was supposed to be rainy and colder, and, while it definitely is quite a bit colder, so far we’ve been so lucky to only have a few drops of rain here and there. 

R and his Greek beer

And my soup

With fresh OJ!

Definitely money saving, as our hotel charges something like 5€ per polo shirt, and 3€ per pair of socks!  Got the entire load done for 9€.  Now, I think we’re just going to have to have some laundry done one more time to get home; we’ll see!

We got all our clean and dry clothes back to the hotel, and dropped everything off.  Additionally, I grabbed my ear muffs and my warm gloves, as it is really cold (low 40’s), and then back out and heading for the metro to take us to the Cycladic Museum.  This museum turns out to be just a couple of blocks from yesterday’s Benaki Museum.  This time, though, we overshot both museums and walked back, as opposed to yesterday’s journey through Syntagma Square.  

And the operative word here is:  Wow!  We thought the Benaki was an excellent private museum, and it is – but the Cycladic just blew us away!  Just like the Benaki, it was started based on a private collection that had been donated to the Greek state.  In this case, however, a small four floor museum was added for the collection, connecting a lovely mansion with temporary exhibition space and meeting rooms and offices.  The first floor featured the collection of Cycladic artifacts – collected (obviously) from the Cyclades islands, which are off the coast of Greece and includes Thira (Santorini) among others.  

The second floor featured ancient artifacts from the Greek mainland.  Floor three contained the collection of Cypriot artifacts, from the island of Cypress, and floor four pulled many of the artifacts together into a story of life for the “average” citizen in the earliest times.  Everything was extremely well done, and the English explanations were flawless, which was nice to see.  

Beautiful vase from Cypress

Unusual shape, also from Cypress

Around noonish (after we had finished floors 1 and 2) we went back down to the ground floor, where they had a very nice, small restaurant.  There we both ordered their pumpkin soup, which was wonderful and tasted SO good on this cold day!  It came with a variety of breads, which we both enjoyed.  R had a glass of Greek beer to wash down his soup [Bad choice.  Beer doesn’t really go with anything except, perhaps, pizza.  Should have had wine. – R], and I had a large glass of freshly squeezed orange juice.  Then back to floor three and the rest of the museum.

From the Cycladic, we wanted to head to the ancient agora, which our friend Stew had written about this morning.  We couldn’t remember if we had been there before.  However, first, our bus ride!

Robert really, really likes taking buses, and ever since we arrived here has been trying to find one to get on.  So, after we left the Cycladic Museum, we just happened to pass a bus stop – and he couldn’t help himself … we got on.  Unfortunately, while we missed the Syntagma Square stop, the bus turned the corner and just kept going and going!  I don’t think I’ve ever been on a bus that has gone that long without stopping at an official “stop!”  LET US OFF!! 

Part of what was found when building the metro station!

Finally, when we were somewhere down by the National Library, the bus driver consented to pull over.  Fortunately, we were now by yet another metro station, so we were able to make it back to Monastiraki and pop out upstairs almost in front of Hadrian’s Library, which I remembered from our last visit. 

So … back to the ancient Agora of Athens, the Stoa of Attalos and the Agora Museum. 

Stoa of Attalos

And a little gelato ...

And, the answer to the question, “Have we been there before?”, is, yes, we certainly have!  (Although we got to it from a different direction, basically heading there from the top of the Acopolis.  Walked around a bit, but as it was approaching 3 pm we were just about, as Robert put it, “Athens-ed out.”

Back to the metro, with a brief stop for some amazing Stracciatella gelato at a place nearby, and then back to the hotel for a rest.  We’re eating “in” at the hotel tonight, as we had such an enjoyable experience the first night we were here … and besides, then we can just be lazy and still have the best view in Athens!

More later!

m

xxx