At 7:15am we met up with our guide Natalia and quickly made our way to the Acropolis to beat the heat and the crowds. We spent four hours with her walking through the site and the museum which was built only a few years ago.

The Acropolis was much larger than I expected and it’s truly breathtaking to envision it in its former state.

After all that time touring we were hungry, of course! Miss M had a Nutella crepe and smoothie but the rest of us held out for a storefront the guide told us about just a block away: Pan Dora. We had some delicious pies for brunch: mushroom for me, chicken for Damian, spinach and cheese for Paul. Absolutely delicious!

After resting a bit, we walked ten minutes towards Parliament to see the changing of the guards.

Then, more shopping before returning to the hotel for naps (for some of us.) Paul couldn’t sit still so he continued on by foot to The Panhellenic Stadium, the site of the first modern Olympic games in 1896. It’s the only all marble stadium in the world (we think) and inside are all the torches from all the past games.

D and I met Paul at Loukamades for a late afternoon snack: a “classic”box of loukamades with cream ice cream, honey, cinnamon and almonds. And an order of “Grandpas Special” which was loukamades with kaimaki ice cream, bugatsa cream filling, powdered icing sugar and cinnamon.

We then walked around some more, popping into different stores, and made our way to Ergon House, a fishmonger/hotel/store all rolled into one. It’s like a very tiny Eataly. Paul and I enjoyed aperol spritzes and D had a Kinder bueno cheesecake with chocolate and blackberry filling.

We went to O Geros tou Moria tavern for dinner. It’s in a touristy area but they have live music and occasionally a trio of dancers performed. Forgot to take food pics, but we ordered zucchini fritters, stuffed grape leaves, a cheese stuffed patty of meat, chicken souvlaki and mussels. It was our first day in almost three weeks without a Greek salad.

At one point, the dancers were pulling people up from the tables so they grabbed D and had him dancing with another girl who was traveling with a large group. At another point the musicians played an Armenian song we knew but with Greek words, but when they saw us singing along in Armenian they switched languages for the second and third verse.

After dinner we walked back to Loukamades for more desserts: hot loukamades swimming in honey and cinnamon, and loukamades with Snickers ice cream, chocolate praline, Kinder bueno & hazelnuts.