Blogs from Greece, Europe - page 496

So, here I find myself in another of the world's great ancient cities, Athens, Greece. I apologise in advance...the spelling in this is terrible. Anyway, I arrived on Boxing Day and of course, as I much expected, all of the tourist sites were closed. However, most shops and tavernas were open, so I ate and shopped all day! Well, first I walked all around the city centre (thanks Lonely Planet for the guided walking tour map). I found my way from Syntagma Sqaure all the way to the Acropolis. In Syntagma Square, there was a festival happening...I initially thought it was just for Boxing Day, but it has continued the rest of this week so far. It must go on until New Year's. There is a merry-go-round for the kids, and a little village set up ... read more

Its bucketing down with rain here and we have till wait untill 7 tonight for a plane to Germany, so i have created a gallery with our latest photos from Rome. Amanda has run off with the camera so i cant add the Athens ones just yet. The gallery can be found near the top of the page. We will update again from Berlin, when we arrive.... read more

The Athens Classic Marathon follows the course of the original marathon. From the town of Marathon, runners follow a 42K (26 miles) course all the way into Athens’ Panathaneic Stadium (the marble stadium that housed the first modern Olympics in 1938). In addition to the full marathon, organizers offer a 10K race for those whose “age or physical condition prevents them from completing the full marathon” (a quote from the official website… I suppose I fall in the latter category). When I signed up a few months ago for the 10K race, I had little faith that I would be able to complete the 6.2 mile course, and, when I arrived at the race on Sunday morning, I was still doubting my ability to run 6 miles. I had barely adhered to my training schedule, and ... read more

Well, I spent almost two weeks in Greece. I know that some relatives must be getting impatient to know what I've been up to, so here is my belated report. Athens is a big city, not unlike other European capitals. About half of Greece's population of 10-11 million live there, I'm told. I had been bracing myself for the place to be filthy and smelly, since Athens has for some time held the distinction of being Europe's most polluted city. With the Olympics though, maybe the city cleaned up a bit, and I didn't think it was too bad. One thing that was different than other cities I've visited was the dogs. Everywhere there were strays wandering about, lying on sidewalks, and following around anyone with food. I visited the Acropolis, the Agora, and a few ... read more

So this past weekend was lots of fun! We decided to take an overnight train to Thessaloniki late Thursday night and then were ready for a full day on Monday! While Thessaloniki is still Greece's second largest city, I got the feeling it was much less cosmopolitan than Athens. We referenced our Greece guidebooks and made sure we went around to see as many sites as possible, visiting museuems, churches, interacting with Greek people, and just walking around! We decided to go to Thessaloniki to get a taste for northern Greece, since much of our free weekends thus far have been spent on beautiful Greek islands! Oh- and good news! I've unloading my pictures from my camera thanks to help from HP customer service. So tomorrow I can start showing what Greece looks like! More to ... read more