Riemer Family Adventures: Awe-Inspiring Athens

For my birthday in November Marty gave me the gift of 4 tickets to Athens for the upcoming MLK Jr. weekend. We have decided these American holidays are key to our easy and cheap long weekend trips because Marty and the kids have these days off but the rest of Germany/Europe do not so we can find cheap airfare. And at 45 Euro per person, round trip to Athens, it really doesn't get much cheaper than that! We would be hard pressed to find similarly priced tickets for an Amtrak train ride to Portland for the weekend.

So on Friday before the holiday we picked the kids up from school and headed directly to the sbahn which took us to the airport. We arrived in Athens with no trouble - other than they were in the middle of a transit strike so we had to take a cab where normally we would take public transport but whatever.

Walking to breakfast just after the rainstorm

We all fall into bed excited for what the next couple of days would bring. And it poured and poured rain and then there was thunder the likes of which I had never heard. So loud!!

The Acropolis atop the hill.
Everything was SO green

And the wind was blowing and I thought "oh, great! In trying to escape some of the Berlin cold we end up in even worse weather." We all sleep decently but I fear we are going to be spending the rest of the weekend in our airbnb as the entire weekend was forecast to be wet and rainy.
We wake up to rain but by the time we muster the energy to get up and ready the rain had stopped and a mix of sunshine appeared. It is nice when you have low expectations for weather. I feared rain all weekend - which thankfully did not come - so the cool temperatures didn't bug me. It was upper 50's and nearly 20 degrees warmer than Berlin. So not balmy but better than where we had come from.

We walked to a breakfast spot right near our place - which happened to be right at the foot of the acropolis. Strangely, in Greece there were no Yelp reviews. I don't know if I've ever been somewhere in recent years where Yelp wasn't used. But Trip Advisor was and any and all restaurants with a positive Trip Advisor reviews prominently posted them in their windows.
After breakfast (Benjamin had a gyro for breakfast because while in Rome... or Athens) we walk toward our walking tour. I had found the "free walking tour" through Trip Advisor before leaving Berlin and booked us a spot. It is run but passionate historians and archaeologists who guide you through the streets of Athens and share their amazing wisdom and knowledge all because they love it. It is run solely on tips! Our guide, George was a amazing so we tipped pretty handsomely.
We somehow got spun around and were running out of time to make it.

George, our tour guide, explaining
how the outnumbered Athenian army
won against the huge Persian Army at
the battle of Marathon.

In the end we had to hail a cab but just barely get to the tour in time before it started leaving the meet up spot.
We learned so much through our tour. The kids, Benjamin in particular, was dragging his feet as we were walking toward the tour but once it started he perked right up and was always the one closest to the guide awaiting more information. Benjamin and Josie, but mostly Benjamin has really been into reading the Percy Jackson book series.

Marty read to him the first series and then lately he has been reading them to himself and is already on the 3rd book in the second series.

Taking it ALL in

He also has been reading any book he can get his hands on about the Greek Gods and Greek Mythology. He was in Heaven and knew every single answer (and then some) to any question about the Greek Gods while on this tour. He impressed the guide and the rest of the adults. Several of them pulled me aside and asked "how does he know so much about the Greek Gods!?" Haha. He goes all in when he is into something.
We learned about the history of Western Democracy and how important the Greeks were in education and academia. We learned about Nike and that this means Victory and is pronounced "Nicka" not how we pronounce it when we buy a pair of shoes. We learned about the battle of Marathon and how a guy ran back to Athens to tell them the Athenian army had won and the distance between Marathon and Athens is the distance of the modern day marathon race (42.195 Km or 26.219 miles)

also learned that the modern day marathon was named after the this battle.
We passed the tomb of the unknown soldier and saw the changing of the guard. I have never ever seen such an elaborate dance/production for a changing of a guard. They did

synchronized moves and individual moves. Quick moves and slow motion moves.
We walked to the site of the modern day Olympic stadium and

then back toward the acropolis. The kids kept up with every step and every piece of information. Seriously, they both really impressed me with their stamina both physically and mentally.
We ate dinner at a delicious gyro/kebab place. Seriously, the best food we have eaten probably since arriving in Europe. The Greek salad was more feta cheese than vegetables!!
We headed back to our Airbnb and talked about what we wanted to see the next day. One downside to just going for a weekend is you don't have that much time to see everything. But I guess it is better to see just a few things than no things??

Olympic Stadium

We talk about either spending the day at the acropolis and Temple of Zeus and going back to the Olympic stadium because our walking tour guide told us that the locals go to the top and run around the backside of the stadium. You get a good work out and an amazing view. Or we also talked about taking a bus 90 minutes each way to the Temple of Poseidon which is down right on the coast of the Aegean sea.