Greece!

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My first time posting here. So it is an experiment!
This trip was a few months in the making, and I want to use this site to document some of the lesser known trip ideas we chose to follow. For one, we are renting a car. Yes, we are driving in Greece! For another, we are not doing the islands. Greece is too big to do it all. So this trip, we are doing the Peloponnese and the mainland. Next greek trip I want to cruise the islands.
I also found it was difficult to find information about various roads, villages, towns, etc. So I want to fill some of what I perceived as gaps in this info.

It was a rough flight. I was checking my bag, when I was informed of a problem with my connecting flight in Paris. Seems there was a time change, or something, and I would have no more than 15 minutes to get to my connecting flight. YIKES!
But, a wonderful guy named Joe, at Delta, found a way for me to get here at my original time. And I did. At 4:35 pm, Athens time, we touched down!
And another happy thought goes to the folks at CDG in Paris, for getting me through to that connection with kindness and lovely smiles.
I did sleep on the various flights, I think I did at least. But I was a bit loopy when I got here. I found the metro, very easily, and the stops are clearly announced in Greek and English. I hopped off the metro at Monastiraki, and promptly went the wrong way! My hotel is just a few short blocks from the station, but I wondered my way up trough Monastiraki square, the Parthenon visible through the old buildings. It is amazing how much has survived the years!
I passed a church, set lower than current street level (fascinating to me how old streets were covered over), and through the Plaka, passing many interesting stores.
I have mixed feelings about the dogs of Greece. For those who have not heard (I had not know before researching this trip), dogs are everywhere. There were 7 in the square alone tonight. These dogs don't belong to anyone. But they are friendly, and quite well fed. As Christina and I sat down to dinner, we watched a little old man walk up to one of the dogs and put down something that for all the world looked like a doughnut. The dog sniffed it, looked at the man, and sat down. It was still sitting there when we left. Guess it did not meet the "treat" muster!
Another dog was laying in the middle of the square, and rolled over for a belly rub from one of the passer-by. I guess the passed by too fast, without enough rub, because he stayed that way, waiting for someone to continue with the rubs.
The people I have met here so far are all so nice, very friendly, and speak english beautifully. Thank god. I feel guilty, because I do not speak anything BUT english... sigh. Our waiter at dinner had to tell me several times how to say "thank you". He was laughing very hard at me before dinner was done. I did explain that my total inability to retain info at the moment is really due to the jet lag, not any idiocy on my part! Really! He actually wrote out, phonetically, how to say thank you and you are welcome.

We were both worn out, and fell asleep at about 9 or 9:30pm, and we both woke up at 3am! Ugh! So here I am, writing about my first hours in Athens, waiting for the sun to come up and we can start our day.

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Photos

The view from our balcony
I hate to say, I am not terribly impressed with the view. It is billed as a view of the Acropolis, but to see it, you have to go to the corner of the balcony and peer around another building. But as you can see, we can see it, so I won't grouse too much!