Arrival in Athens

Athens
Saturday, April 11, 2026

Arrived in Athens last night. We left Denver at 6:00 pm on Thursday April 9. Arrived in Athens about 8:00pm local time on Friday April 10. It didn't take 24 hours to get here, but it sure felt like it did. We flew British Airways the whole journey, changing planes at London Heathrow. The flight was mostly uneventful (best kind).

Ted Montoya had arranged for ground transportation from the airport to our hotel. The driver was very friendly, and explained about the sites were were passing as we drove into the city. He reminded us that this is Easter weekend for the Greek Orthodox Church.

When we arrived at our hotel, we were greeted with this view.

After checking into the hotel, we walked to get a bite to eat. It was about 9:00pm, which is prime dining hour in Athens. We realized when we arrived that our hotel was only a few steps from the Metro station for the Acropolis. I had known it was nearby, but I hadn't realized just how close it was.

For dinner, Mary had Mousaka and I had a pork Gyro. We went back to our room, and fell sound asleep until 10:00 the next morning (which is only 1:00 a.m. at home in Colorado).

We found a nice little restaurant that was recommended by the hotel. While we were eating, we saw people parading nearby with crosses and candles, and we realized that the Eastern Orthodox Church celebrates Easter this weekend (we had celebrated it last weekend). These people were doing some sort of procession related to good Friday.

After checking into the ship and unpacking, we went back to Athens in an attempt to go to church. However, after the Uber had dropped us off, we learned that in Athens, Roman Catholics celebrate Easter according to the Eastern Orthodox calendar. That is, they are celebrating Easter this week, and that means that the Mass times are unusual. We walked around a bit and wandered past the Greek Parliament building. There were two guards out front in very traditional Greek uniforms.