to Paris

The end of our travels to Greece. Having thought so much about it, about how to do this right, about balancing the musts and the wants, I now get the luxury of looking back without penalty. What did I learn from traveling there with my granddaughter, at an age where she was getting to be older and wiser and me, well just older? She said yesterday -- Gaga, I'm getting to be more flexible even as you are getting older and less flexible in what you can do. We are a perfect match! 

Not letting my grandkids down is so important to me right now. Have I kept on opening doors for her? For them all, given all that I cannot do anymore?

Those deeper questions come back to me on the airplane. But earlier in the morning, I'm still focused on Greece.

Our last good morning, again to a Mediterranean blue sea...

(our ride up to breakfast with a million Snowdrops...)

Yes, our final Greek breakfast, though with a buffet type meal, you'll find little on her plate that you could actually call "Greek." Maybe the kumquats, probably from Corfu?

Breakfast buffets are a ubiquitous feature of larger hotels. They save time, save staff, save everything but the food. They encourage nibbling and tasting and not finishing. I should have insisted on only one pastry, but Snowdrop so wanted to try both and in the end finished neither. At least we didn't also order off the warm menu. Tempting omelets, pancakes, French toast. All included! I hold firm and say no thanks.

I have come to understand that expensive hotels excel at waste. It's not their fault -- customers demand it. It's luxurious to wrap yourself in a thick bathrobe, to have a fresh towel waiting for you outside the pool, out on the chair, under your feet when you step out at night. So many towels! I remember lesser places with thinner towels and signs reminding us to reuse them. I used to think -- oh, it's wet, but it's so thin that it will dry by tomorrow. Maybe. Here, I'm of course participating in the parade of towels. You cant avoid it. 

One pleasant surprise is how nice the people at the Astir Palace are to kids. To me as well, but I dont much care about that. I can live with rude. But grownups who are friendly to children teach them to be polite right back. I like that!

Again Snowdrop and I wind up walking along the shore. And again, the sea looks so blue!!

Windy, too! My Greek sea maiden...

(She insists on using my camera on me, taking a million pictures that all look pretty much the same...)

("Can you take a picture of me holding the water from here?")

And just before noon are airport ride is here, same guy as before, chatty, explaining this, explaining that, even as Snowdrop and I are always such quiet passengers!

Our Air France flight leaves on time, but it's a longer trip -- nearly four hours to get us to Paris. There is a bit of a shuffle about arrival gates and another shuffle about our ride back to Paris, so that in the end, we are at the hotel after 7. When initially booking flights, we were targeting a 3 pm hotel arrival, which would have avoided rush hour traffic. As it were, the stop and go ride was terribly long and Snowdrop, who is normally a good car passenger, nearly did not make it without feeling totally done in by it all. 

Still, as soon as we came into our room at my beloved  Baume Hotel, the dizzying pace and the tedium of a long trip faded and Snowdrop's bounce was there again. 

And because the hotel is so special and the people here are so nice, I found in the room a bouquet of flowers and, too, Snowdrop's favorite chocolate covered marshmallow bears. Very quickly all calm was restored.

The Baume always delivers. They're just so good at giving their best.

Paris is an hour behind Greece and so it is early but also late by the time we set out to dinner. I dont try hard here with Snowdrop. I take her to a place she knows and likes, where she orders a dish she knows and likes (steak frites). 

(Les Editeurs)

At first, it doesn't ring bells, but the minute we enter, she points to a table and says -- last year, we sat here! (Indeed we did.) And, before, with Sparrow, you and I sat here! (Yes, that's right.) Well, this time, we sit here:

The steaks in France always seem to be just a tad tougher than our own, but they are delicious and the fries for her a heaven sent!

A big exhale and a big smile, on her face, on mine.

[I should note that Snowdrop fell sick on the night we arrived by the Aegean sea, spiking a fever that worried me, except that this is not the first time she has spiked fevers in Europe. It's probably the lack of sleep coupled with exposure to god knows what along the way. And the excitement. Everything rolled into one ball of excess. The restful day, thankfully, cured her.] 

So, early bedtime is in order! And yet we linger. It's just so great to luxuriate without concern about what's next. And without (that much) garbage on the streets! (That strike seems to be almost over.) And with two days before us that, while rainy, will surely be memorable.

With so much love...

lazy day Athens

Snowdrop slept for twelve hours straight and woke up the better for it. Still, I'm not pushing it today. And though it is a brilliant day with a deep blue sea and a bluejay sky, it is really cold for Greece at the end of March (a high of 57F or 13C, with gusty winds that form white caps on the usually gentle sea bay).

Good morning, blustery Greece!

(we go up for breakfast: waiting for an elevator)

Breakfast? With a pretty view of the waters and, too, of a cat that parades back and forth outside. I note to Snowdrop that if Ed was here, he'd open the door and let the cat in (this is why you cant take the guy anywhere!).

My plan was to take walks here, but Snowdrop needs the rest more than she needs the walks, so we spend a lovely morning in our room reading, hanging out and enjoying the views. I mean, it would be a waste to stay at a beautiful room by the sea and not suck up every minute out of our time here, right? (Too, I need to do more kid laundry: the little wooden tray suspended over the bathtub makes for a perfect drying rack!)

Alright, feeling a tad guilty, I take her for a stroll just to the sea and back.

She tells me she has never seen water this blue!

We look wistfully at the pool. We're wearing jackets. Swimming here is looking to be a very remote possibility.

But! There is an indoor pool and I tell you, never was I more happy to offer her that. True, you could say we did not have to travel to Greece to swim indoors. Wisconsin Dells is a 40 minute drive north of Madison and there you can swim and slide and drink all the chlorinated water you want 365 days a year. But, here we are, on a cold day, a little tired, still a little wistful of all that could be on a warmer day, and so I say let's go and have an indoor swim!

(our biggest walk today: along the corridor leading to the pool!)

She meets another girl there, just a tad older. From Colorado. Here on spring break. They play a little but eventually Snowdrop is by herself in the pool (which at its deepest goes up to her nose, if she stands on tippy toes) and honestly, social as she is, in pools, she likes her own games.

This pool offers some jets and sprays and when I think she's had enough (her lips are starting to quiver -- the water is not that warm), she switches to the big hot pool with even more jets and she occupies herself switching them on and off.

Two hours of water fun! (Followed by a minute in a sauna, just because she had never tried one before this trip, not being herself of a Finnish family.)

Lunch? Again, we stay "on campus." I know, I know. Seize those last hours in Greece! 

We prefer to take things calmly today. Pasta for her, asparagus for me.

In the afternoon, we are, predictably, in our room. It never moved beyond 57F (13C) and the winds continue to whip up the sea waters. Still, Snowdrop hears voices of children outside. Looking out, she notices two kids, actually swimming in the cool-ish pool waters. Well, if they can do it, so can she!

(brave)

(braver)

(braver still)

She doesn't last (and neither do the two others), but she is pleased as anything that at least she gave herself that chance to test the waters. And as long as we are testing waters, I encourage her to dip her toe into the Aegean Sea. We find a shell, we shiver a little, and now it really is time for hot shower (third one today!) to cap our water adventures in Greece.

In the evening, I follow the hotel's suggestion and we cab over (all of five minutes) to Labros Restaurant, just a tad further down the shoreline. It's Greek seafood and there isn't much for her to get excited about, nonetheless, we go there because I feel we have to do something authentically Greek today.

(she is caught up in a new book and I do allow her to read before food is served... I sit back and watch the last rays throw light on her young face..

Yes, I let her order her security dish: pasta. But, she has to try the other stuff too. And she does and I marvel at how much easier it is to get her to go along with this requirement now. Grilled this, fried that. She protests none of it.

As I look out at the hills and mountains beyond the bay, I speculate out loud about how it would be to actually live here, as a Greek, with the sea and land being your daily friend or foe. With history nipping at your everyday. With your dependence on the influx of tourists, always the tourists, who bring with them the good, the bad, the annoying.

I can only hope that we were not among the annoying here, in this beautiful country. 

Tomorrow afternoon, we fly to Paris.

With love...

greater Athens

Few visitors to Greece stick with just Athens on their travels here. Indeed, I read somewhere that the islands are a far more popular destination overall, the Athenian Acropolis and antiquities notwithstanding. And so I was tempted to swing south with Snowdrop as well. Not by boat (too long), but perhaps by taking one of those quick flights that puts you on any one of the islands that are so much the beauty spots of the Aegean Sea.

On the other hand, just coming to Greece keeps you on board airplanes long enough. Then, too, there's the off off season: we are still in it and everything beachy is pretty much shut down at least until April and more likely until May. The waters are too cool, the pools stand empty, the donkeys are at their farms, the windmills are resting idle.

But staying in Athens for our full five day Greek visit is not the greatest idea on the planet. We've had a splendid set of days here. Yes, there are the museums, yes, any number of visitor spots left to explore, but even before we came here, I hesitated about sticking to the original plan of just staying put in Athens, with all its chaos and clutter. (You can tell I'm not really a city person these days.) Too much.

So in the last weeks before coming here I shuffled things around and booked us two nights by the sea. 

Athens is itself technically by the sea. You can sea that body of water from the top of any hill. But the city grew away from it, developing as it did around that monument to the deities, the Acropolis. And the interesting part of the shoreline (from a visitor's perspective) stretches further south, calling itself the Athenian Riviera, though we know how silly that designation can be -- witness the Neapolitan Riviera!

Our day today then is divided into two parts -- a morning in Athens and after, we take a quick (40 minute) car trip to a place by the sea, a slip of land that juts out into the waters right from Astir Beach. (The hotel is indeed called the Astir Palace and it is one of the very few that do a business year round.)

The morning begins with a check on things as viewed from the balcony. There is still some sunshine, but the temps will drop today by ten degrees and then another ten tomorrow as a cold front sweeps through the region. Unfortunate perhaps, given our seaside plans, but not really a tragic weather report. I mean, no floods, no snowstorm! And still, plenty of sunshine for most of our days here.

(she is up, but she is still sleepy!)

Breakfast upstairs, but inside.

Back in the room, I finish packing (that's the downside of moving around, especially if you're with a child and keeping it to two small carryons, where half of the stuff is clean and the other half now -- not so much) and now we are ready to set out.

But where to?

We could go to the Archeological Museums (Snowdrop likes museums quite a bit). Or the Museum of Cycladic Art. Or we could visit the Olympic Stadium. Or we could simply go to the park. We weigh all this over breakfast and finally settle on the park. One needs a balance in life!

The park is a splendid oasis of green and of relative quiet, but it's not large. There was a promise of a mini zoo and Snowdrop loves animals, but we had to stay content here with turtles...

... with a few goats, with ducks and geese. Oh, and roosters. In other words, we saw it all in five minutes and still had time. I suggest  we walk over to the Panathenaic Stadium and as always, she is enthusiastic.

(along the way: the ubiquitous Greek guards...

(and the ubiquitous orange trees...)

Several things to note about the stadium: it was first built in 566 BCE, and rebuilt in 144 CE, made then entirely of marble. 

The first modern Olympics were held here in 1896. And you too can have your moment of glory by running the course of the Olympians!

And standing on the winners' medal podium. (We raced: she came in first, I took the silver.)

(Walking back, past the many fountains of Syntagma Square...)

And now it's time for lunch. I'd picked a place in the Plaka, but it appears to be closed. Snowdrop meekly suggests an alternative: we're close to last night's dinner place, right? Can't we just go there?

We can, and it is wonderful: she meekly asks for lamb chops once again, along with a dish of pasta. I add a plate of wilted Greek greens.

True, it is getting to be quite cool and the wind is significant. Nonetheless, it's a lovely place to end our Athenian adventure. Oh, with baklava for dessert (Snowdrop is not 100 percent convinced that it can be the most awesome pastry on the planet.)

We walk back at a leisurely pace, pausing at souvenir shops for stupid things that will probably be pushed to the back of the shelf back home (a small stuffed kitty? really?), and pausing too for her last ice cream cone at Le Greche.

And then we catch our ride to the coast.

A room with a different sort of view now:

It rains a tiny bit, but the clouds never seem threatening and though the air remains cool, we know that there will be sunshine soon.

We walk the grounds of our hotel. 

In many ways, it's not the place for us. Yes, I have in my life spent more on a room (though not very often!), but only because here, we are paying rockbottom prices. You could go up to ten times our amount in the more spacious rooms or villas with private pools not visible to the casual passerby. In other words, it's not the kind of place I'd normally pick for a Greek getaway. But at the same time, everyone is extremely nice to Snowdrop and the physical facilities (namely the pools!) are just incredibly beautiful. In nicer weather, kids would have a ball just splashing in the water. 

What's uncomfortable is knowing that the client base here is likely not the farmette crowd that raises six chickens, feeds stray cats, and cleans their own toilet. (Just one toilet.) And a leaking shower that still hasn't been fixed. And one who, once checked into the room, takes out a child's dirty laundry, hand washes it in the sink and hangs it over the lovely little bathtub to dry. 

No matter. We love the colors of the Aegean!

And in the evening, since Snowdrop is about to collapse from the excesses of travel, we eat at the informal Italian restaurant at the hotel. She orders pasta, I order a chunk of fish and the sunset behind the scant clouds is magnificent.

Tomorrow the cold snap will continue. We wont do much. The girl needs to recover. Our last day in Greece will be very very laidback.

And as I listen to the wind outside and I look up at the sky soon to be filled with stars, I think about another granddaughter, an older sister, a girl that has grown to be such a smart, talented, and loving person -- Primrose, who turns five on this day. I was traveling when she was born, I'm traveling now. Some things never change... Happy happy birthday little one!

With so much love...

Athenian treasures

Ultimately, visitors come to this city to view the incredible, masterful architecture of the Acropolis. This is our day for it.

It is also the last day of splendid warmth -- temps are in the low 70sF (up to maybe 23, or 24C). Perfect weather for us! I'd say it's luck, but Athens in spring is frequently this pleasant. Fact is, when Ed and I were here last, it was January and a little cool, but still beautiful. So, weather in Greece rocks in three of the four seasons. (Summer is miserable. Never try to climb up the Acropolis hill in July or August!)

(good morning! --  from our balcony...)

(sunrise, reflected on the Acropolis...)

We eat breakfast again upstairs, and this time outside. 

Yes, the view is to die for, but honestly, even without it, the delicate breeze, the sparrows flitting in and out, the tulips on the tables -- it's all beautiful and reminds me that we are coming upon the season of farmette breakfasts on the porch. How good is that!

At 10 o'clock we have a meetup with my chosen helper for exploring the older sights and history of the city. I dont remember how I found these people (the group calls itself Alternative Athens), but they offer a mythology tour, with a guide for you and your family who will spend some time stoking your interest in Greek history and mythology. Could you imagine a more perfect match for Snowdrop, who loves these great myths that guided daily life here more than 2700 years ago?

Our guide, Maria, is perfect. She has been leading walking tours through ancient Athens for some half dozen years. Before that, she was an archeologist. Her knowledge of history is, unsurprisingly, incredible.

SAs we leave our hotel, she starts us off with an introduction to the twelve Gods of Greek mythology. Snowdrop isn't shy about answering questions -- she knows these stories inside out and after a few minutes of this Maria has to ask -- wait, how old are you anyway? 

I have to say, the four hour walk today, which focused on the Temple of Zeus, the Acropolis and the Agora, was stamina wise challenging. Lots of territory, many hills, lots of history. I thought, after the third hour,  that perhaps it was heading to be too much for Snowdrop, but in fact, she never complained and toward the end, when I proposed cutting it a little shorter, she insisted on doing the full run, all the way to the top of the last hill where the Temple of Hephaestus stands tall and beautiful.

Snowdrop also loves to be my pinpoint person for photos, which is grand for me, not only because she's my travel companion and granddaughter, but, too, because it adds perspective to all that I put up here, on Ocean. 

It's hard to describe this fantastic walk that we took through an Athens of (more or less) 600 B.C.E. Maria is like the good friend you want to have on an Athenian odyssey. She speaks with a passion and she knows her stuff. My head is swimming with thoughts and historical detail. I'm sure Snowdrop's is too. We are humbled, grateful, excited, tired, and so very full of Greece! 

Let me post some photos. I think they give the flavor to this magnificent day.

(In the garden of the Temple of Zeus)

(the Temple, with such an incredible history!)

From here, we make our way to the Acropolis. It's a bit of a hike (but a good one, in that we see a slice of Athenian life...)

...and certainly quite the climb.

(up the scraggy hill, where the poppies grow...)

(from higher elevations, the views are tremendous!)

(Up, to the Temple of Athena Nike...)

(Up past theaters and musical venues of Ancient Greece...)

(Until finally we come to the Acropolis proper... and here, she is enthralled! So close, so enormous, so beautiful!)

[Me, I'm on the phone with the credit card company... Weird charges are popping up despite the fact that I put a block on it. Time to just tear up that card number.]

Once on the Acropolis plateau, we take our time discovering the beauty of the place.

(the Erechtheion, dedicated to Athena...)

And of course, the most magnificent of them all -- the Parthenon, shot here by Snowdrop who wants to include me in the photo gallery.

(Snowdrop makes friends by the Parthenon with an Acropolis cat.)

And now we descend, passing wildflowers, feeling maybe a little hungry.

Maria hands us some sesame sticks to muck on. I was sure Snowdrop would turn them down. She does not.

One final sight: the ancient Agora: the place where everyone "hung out" and bought their goods and opined on all things important and generally moved this baby democracy forward.

At one end, we have the Temple of Hephaestus.

Maria asks if we are too tired to get up close and personal to it. Snowdrop wants to push on. And we do.

And where there's a hill, there's a view.

(Our joint photo of the day, taken by Maria...)

(And here's Maria, explaining something to Snowdrop, who was very dusty after this adventure!)

[Maria also explained how she named her son after the dad's father, as traditionally done in Greece, which started the ball rolling for Snowdrop: what would she, her brothers, and her cousins be named were we to follow the same rules?]

At the other end of the Agora is the Stoa of Atticus -- call it a shopping mall of Athens long ago.

(flowers -- always a welcome sign of the warm season ahead of us)

After reading a beautiful excerpt about all that Ancient Greece has taught us about democracy, about life, Maria leaves us here and we slowly make our way back in the direction of our hotel.

(Snowdrop pauses to study the map of mythology Maria had given her)

We stop for lunch at one of the many, many restaurants that line the Agora. Perhaps it wasn't the best choice: it stood out in that it looked modern and I thought perhaps it would have a novel twist on some of Greek favorites, but in the end Snowdrop ordered pancakes and I ordered shakshuka, which I suppose is geographically close to Greece, maybe. It's all fine, and the outdoor seating is lovely, and the view onto the Agora is fabulous, but if we were looking for something very Greek, this was not it.

And now we rest, right?

Wrong. Snowdrop wants another hour at the pool and so I reserved our time for late this afternoon. Of course, I must swim with her.

Back upstairs, she's with her tablet, I pack a little and work a tiny bit on photos. I need to get to bed before midnight today!  

And now we are off to dinner. Just seven minutes away, down one street, up another, twist over the stairs, and you are there, at Psaras.

It turns out to be one of my favorite meals in Athens. All along, I'd been worried about introducing Snowdrop to Greek food, but lately, I found a stress free way to do this, one that works well for both of us: if there is pasta on the menu, I order it for her. But for me, I pick two appetizers and one main that I think she might like. And the deal is that she tries them all. Tonight I picked grilled veggies and fried calamari for the first course. She ate my pepper with relish and loved, absolutely loved the ever so delicately fried calamari. 

Then came her pasta and my Greek lamb chops. They were exquisite and out of the five (they are thin here), she left me with only one and that's because I insisted.

It was a glorious finale to our Athens adventure.

We ended the evening at our usual ice cream place. Chocolate for the girl...

Fig for me. Because, you know, it's Greece, and there are figs here...

With so much love...