Greece Trip Days #7-8

On October 7 we had the morning free; I think most people slept in after the constant activities of the previous week. We had a group tour of the National Archaeological Museum in Athens scheduled for 1:00 p.m. A tour bus came to pick up the group at 12:30, but my family walked the distance from the hotel so we could see more of the city. There were several pedestrian-only streets in the neighborhoods near our hotel, and we were able to walk about half the distance to the museum without fear of the getting run over by Greek drivers, who are just as zealous as Italian drivers.

We had a good museum tour that lasted about an hour. There were a number of artifacts discovered at places our group had already visited, and I think the students got more out of the experience with that in mind. The group got back on the tour bus for a trip back to the hotel afterwards and a free afternoon, but my family once again walked back the entire distance stopping to eat lunch in a Goody's (in Greece, Goody's sells hamburgers, not clothing) and to buy some supplies in a supermarket. After returning to the hotel and resting a while we ventured out once more into the Plaka and found a little tram-like train which gave 40-minute tours around the Acropolis and old city. It was only 10 euros for the whole family, and the kids really liked it. When the ride was over, we made our way back to the hotel and turned in for the evening.

The next morning (Wednesday), we had a group excursion to Cape Sounion, the site of a dramatically-situated temple to Poseidon. There wasn't much academic value to be derived from this visit, but the setting is beautiful, and I did speak to the students for a few minutes about Poseidon's role in Greek mythology and Greek religion in general. We spent a little over an hour there (it took us almost two hours to get there) and then went back toward Athens, stopping in Glyfada for lunch. The attraction of Glyfada is its beach and (to me) that it was the site of the semester in Greece I spent in 1994. I was able to go back to the hotel where my group stayed and take pictures and enjoy many memories. We boarded the bus again at 3:00 p.m. and got back to our hotel about an hour later. Once more, the evening was free.

I haven't caught up the account of our group's travels, but we leave the hotel again tomorrow for another free-travel period. I hope to update the blog again before we leave, but if I'm unable to, it may be Monday before I can get back to it.