The night was a rough one for sleep, not that I ever sleep well on planes. I'm always amazed that my husband K sleeps so well on them. Granted, he wears earplugs and a face mask (a KN95 this time). I try to keep earphones in and have music playing to relax me, even if I don't sleep.
At 1:55 a.m. EDT or 8:55 a.m. Athens time, they brought around the morning snack. I was bugged that the granola had both coconut and cashews, two things I do not eat. I know I'm not the only one in the world, who does not eat nuts!
Twenty-three minutes later, we landed. As soon as we had WiFi from the airport, I texted our daughter J to see if she had landed yet. It took another ten minutes for the plane to reach the gate. That gave her time to arrive. As we moved through the long roped off lines for the queue for immigration, I got a message from her that she had landed and was headed our way. I watched for her and when our part of the queue got to a turn near her, we let her in line with us. This would be so much easier than searching for her later.
After we all successfully got our passports stamps, it was a short walk to baggage claim. When we arrived, I got a message on my phone that my bag had not made it onto the plane! This is not what you want to hear, when you arrive overseas, or anywhere for that matter. I left them to retrieve the luggage that did make it and I went to find the American Airlines lost luggage desk. When I got there, I overheard someone describing their bag and realized that I was not entirely sure which bag was missing due to the help we'd received in Orlando. So, back I hiked to the carousel.
We soon found out that it was actually my husband's bag that was missing, but that the luggage claim had my name on it, hence the text. (I later saw that American also emailed me.) K and J went back with me to the baggage desk, where we found a surprisingly long line. And here's the thing- these were all people from our flight. This was a desk that handled only AA. Another clerk was there, but she was only there for United. We realized that Holland America had a representative outside waiting to take us to the hotel and debated sending J. But, we did not like the idea of getting separated and ditched that idea.
The two couples in front of us were traveling together and were from Buffalo. In talking to them, we learned that none of their four bags had made it onto the plane. When they finally reached the clerk, they learned (and we easily overheard) that their bags had been put on a later plane to London and would be routed to Athens. This gave me great hope.
When my turn came, it was after 11:15. Before turning over the claim tag to be attached to the lost luggage form, I took a photo of both claim tags. I described the bag- Samsonite, dark blue, on 4 wheels. She looked up the claim number. The bag was still sitting in Philadelphia! She had no idea why mine made it on the plane and not his. She also did not know why it wasn't sent to London with the Buffalo bags. She took all my info from the form and put it into the computer and sent me an email, which did not come to me. It took a bit to figure out why. She assumed it was a gmail account. Then, it took her no little bit of time to get it fixed. For the life of me, I do not understand that. She gave me a torn-off piece of paper with contact numbers that I could use to contact them about the bag. I was going to avoid spending that money as much as possible. I told her the hotel and that we were to sail the next day. I gave her the line and the name of the ship.
I was not finished with all of this until 11:45. What a great way to start a trip. We found restrooms and then went out to find Holland America. This involves going through Customs, which is just walking out. No one is ever there in Europe to question you. Outside there was quite the mob of people with signs looking for travelers. J finally spotted the HAL guy, who was not too pleased that it had taken so long. He was not even conciliatory about the lost bag. He just called our driver.
Our driver, Jones, showed up at noon, and we headed off on quite the hike to the car. We were surprised that it was a car, but maybe people who showed up earlier had a bus. He was an Aussie, who had lived here quite a while. He took the time to tell us things about what we were passing. Greece has 4.9 million people and over 660,000 of them live in Athens. The city seemed crowded with lots of people out and about, especially going shopping.
The drive to the Grand Hyatt Athens took fifty-five minutes. The last few involved some convoluted driving to get us to the correct side of the hotel. We thanked Jones and got out hoping that the room would be ready. Actually, I mainly hoped there was a room, since that was the last thing arranged on Thursday.
There was a room and, contrary to what AAA had been told, the three of us were indeed sharing a room. We were fine with that, since it was only one night. We could not totally check in, because the room was not ready. They were willing to hold our bags so that we could go out.
I looked around for a Holland America desk. There was a covered table with a small sign and a lady sitting behind it. She was indeed from HAL and had our papers telling us when we would be leaving for the ship. So, she was happy to check us off her list. She recommended getting to the lobby early, in case the bus came early. She also encouraged us to sign up for an excursion she was trying to get together for the next day before departure, but we knew that we did not want to get up early to do anything before heading for the ship.
I asked her about getting to the Acropolis Museum and she pulled out a map to show us. She also recommended the Plaka area for shops and food and we had had that on our list of things to do. She also told us to go to the concierge to order a cab, because walking to the museum was too far. We also got directions from her to the hotel restroom. These were needed because the hotel was setting up for an event and we had to go through the preparations to go to what turned out to be nice facilities.
Even though the museum is pretty much straight down the street from the hotel, once again the ride seemed convoluted. We were dropped pretty close to the sign for the museum and the ride cost us all of 5 euros, which seemed a good deal.
None of us had eaten a thing since the morning snack on our planes. It was now 1:40. So, when we got out of the taxi and saw a restaurant on the other side of the street, we were interested. Then, I saw the name of the restaurant- God's Restaurant- and realized that it was the one that had been recommended to me by the woman at water aerobics whose husband used to own a Greek restaurant. Who better to take a recommendation from?
When we went over and looked interested, we were quickly shown to a table, just as we'd experienced in Italy on previous trips. There's often a guy out front trying to entice customers. We were more comfortable sitting outside due to Covid, but it was rather warm. (Have I mentioned yet that indoors, everyone we've seen was wearing a mask? It was required in Greece.)
As we'd read before coming, everyone seems to speak English. Thus, it was no surprise that the menu was in English. Having had Greek food before, we recognized the names of dishes. I was rather disappointed to find that spanakopita was not on the menu. My friend raves about that dish. She had said to order the Greek salad. It was 9 euros and when it came, I saw that it was definitely meant in for the table. It was huge. Unlike some Greek salads at home, this one had no lettuce, just lots of red and green peppers, onions, big blocks of feta, and tomatoes. Oh, and oregano was sprinkled on top. It was excellent. A bowl of great breads was also delivered to our table, along with a small bowl of Greek yogurt rather than butter.
There was so much food! And it was all good. As a bonus, the restaurant gifted us with a tasty treat made of Greek yogurt and honey. Even J, who really dislikes yogurt, liked this.
When we finally left at 3:06, I noticed a pharmacy next door. It was closing, but I managed to find deodorant for K. He had a toothbrush and toothpaste in his carry-on.
It was now 3:10 and time to head for the Acropolis Museum. Of course, there was a bit of a hill to climb to get up there. But, at the corner, we had a really nice view of the Parthenon atop the Acropolis.
Anyway, just beyond the grand stairs that lead down to the museum was this terrific poster.
Of course, it shouldn't be too surprising considering how close it is to the hill. It was built to house all the artifacts found on the hill and its slopes from the Bronze Age to Byzantine times. The museum is over ruins of the city from Roman and early Byzantine times. Really great that they did not destroy those ruins to build this museum.
By the time we'd looked around outside a bit, it was 3:25 pm and we needed to go inside. We each paid 20 euros and J and I started looking at exhibits, while K checked his backpack. They had some nice models of the Acropolis in various time periods, so that you could see additions and subtractions of buildings on the hill and some of the surrounding area.
From the entry floor, you head upstairs via a sloped ramp. This ramp is meant to evoke climbing the hill. Along the wide ramp are cases displaying treasures. There were even some under glass in the floor. It would have taken way too much time to read all the signs and take in all that was there. So, we just slowly walked up, crossing to either side to look at the display cases.
When we finally reached the top floor it was amazing. In the center, the display was set up to the size of the Parthenon, complete with 48 pillars marking its footprint. Here were displayed what they called the "Parthenon marbles"- take that British Museum. Every piece that was off in the British Museum, in Munich, or whatever was noted as such and a model was inserted. The marbles that would have been up on the pediment were displayed in front of the ends of the footprint, not that they were complete. They did have sketches, however. The surviving metopes are displayed on the columns, but lower than they would have been on the Parthenon, so that you can appreciate them. Behind the columns, is the frieze which would have been on the rectangular Parthenon, but is lower for you to be able to see this artwork that encircled the building. This was an amazing thing to see and really gave you an appreciation of how magnificent this place must have been back in the day.
There were staircases between the floors, but we used the elevators to save my knees. We now took one to the ground floor. K went to retrieve his backpack, while J and I went to the shop. This had some very fancy things that hardly deserve the term "souvenir". They did have a few pins that the bookshop had not had. So, I got these, before we left at 7:04, which was four minutes past the official closing time.
We looked at more of the dig as we headed to the right out of the door. This took us down some steps to a level that was as wide as a small street and continued past some old buildings. A few more steps took us down to the street we'd started our adventure on and we headed off for Plaka.
Inside, we picked up our keys and luggage and headed for the rooftop bar and pool. Here we had the view that I had seen online,when I'd researched the hotel. It was a fabulous view of the Parthenon atop the Acropolis, although a bit farther away than in the online photos. Still, it was gorgeous.
We then went down to the room. The hallway had carpeting with a definite Greek flair. The room itself actually had a handicapped bath, which was rather nice. The only thing was that it was set up with three separate beds rather than a double and a single. But, it was only for one night.
At 10:37, I decided to go on my American Airlines app to see if there was an update on the missing bag. I really didn't want to pay to call the Athens airport. On the app, Virginia came to the chat and asked for the incident number. Very quickly, she came back and typed that the bag was in the Athens airport Baggage Service Office and that the office would arrange delivery. I expressed amazement and asked how this could be true, since the tracker showed it was still in Philly. She didn't know why. She asked me to confirm my address and contact number. I gave her my cell and the Grand Hyatt, plus when we were to head to the ship and the name of the ship. She asked what address to put on it. I indicated that I wasn't sure and suggested the ship, since the agent at the airport said they would get it to the ship. She understood and put the hotel under Special Instructions. I wrote that it would be great if it could get to us tonight. I made sure that the incident report she could see described the bag, because the one I could see did not. She sent a followup request to the Athens airport. We said good-bye around 11:05 pm and I went to bed hopeful.
Oh, and the phone says I walked 7,759 steps for a total of 2.7 miles. Of course, it gave me no credit for the stairs to get into and out of the museum.
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