by Pete Barba (Warning – dad jokes ahead)

Athens – what can I say, it’s no good…everything is in ruins. 🤣

After a brief flight from Vienna to Athens, we met my Dad and Patti (Nana and Pa) at the airport for our two weeks together.  First a week in Athens to homeschool and learn Greek history, then a week sailing the Saronic Gulf and island hopping off the coast!

The amount of history in and around Athens can’t be overstated.  This is the area of marathons, Pythagoras (the triangle theory guy), The Olympics, Corinth (like the book in the Bible), Homer (not Simpson, rather The Odyssey), and Hercules (Man?  Myth?  Disney character?).  We may think that our Gold Country or American Revolution history is old, but it pales in comparison to 3000+ years of civilization.  Greece gave us modern math (geometry), democracy and huge advances in art, architecture, and medicine.  When you explore Athens, you feel that you are stepping back in time, walking the same paths that have been traced by many great thinkers before us.  As you climb up the steps of the Acropolis, you can imagine that you are walking on the very same marble that has been tread upon by Homer, Napoleon, Julius Caesar, Alexander the Great, Hippocrates, and so many others.  (Note:  I don’t know if all of them visited Athens, but Greece has been conquered many times by many empires, and no doubt many have sought inspiration from Greece’s awe-inducing temples.)

Our first day in Athens was filled with a walking tour of the old city by local guide Maria.  She was wonderful and knowledgeable.  She showed us all her favorite places and shared stories from Athenian history.  For those of you who want to explore new places, I highly recommend hiring a local guide for your first day in a new city, it helps give you a great overview and makes you feel comfortable in your new surroundings.  It’s like having a good friend show you around their favorite haunts.  I do recommend that you book a tour that is private and focuses more on hidden gems or locals’ favorites.  You can do most big tourist locations, like museums or historical sites, on your own.  I think it’s better to use your local guide to give you an overview of the city including favorite restaurants for locals, best places to shop, safe neighborhoods, etc.  We use toursbylocals.com, where we found Maria, but have also heard good things about getyourguide.com.

The next few days were filled with our own explorations of the Acropolis Museum and the Acropolis.  For those who like etymology, Acro-polis = Acro (high/tall, as in acromegaly) + polis (city, as in metropolis).  In general, I dislike museums, especially history museums, but the Acropolis museum is special.  It is built above the ancient ruins of an old neighborhood in Athens, so it floats above history.  The ground floor is an active archeological site, where you can see the foundations of homes, public bathrooms and streets from 2000+ years ago.  The main floor of the museum is filled with statues discovered in and around the Acropolis.  The top floor of the museum is a recreation of the Parthenon where original and replica pieces from Athena’s temple are arranged just as they were 2500 years ago.  Like most ruins, the Parthenon has been plundered by various conquerers through history, so many of the artifacts are outside the country.  The museum has done a phenomenal job replicating or recreating the artifacts that have been permanently borrowed or lost to time.  

The following day, we explored the real Acropolis in the evening.  Words can’t describe the feeling you get when you climb 2,500 year old marble steps and view a perfectly engineered temple that predates everything you have experienced before.   It still is a sight to behold even though much of the Parthenon lies in ruins from wars, pillaging, the influences of Christianity and Islam (it was made into a church and mosque at different points in history).  Many columns still stand touching the sky and reflecting the setting sun.  Graceful feminine marble statues still gaze across the city.  Facades still stand strong as if trying to support a roof that collapsed a millennium ago.  As the sun slowly set, the magical evening light bathed the marble in a warm glow.  My heart was filled with an ethereal blend of power, history, and joy that only ancient ruins and a sunset can blend together.  

Later on in the week, with Pa (my dad) expertly driving, we explored the Peloponnese Peninsula.  If the Athenian Acropolis isn’t old enough, we walked through the ruins of Mycenae, a city that predates the Acropolis by a 1,000 years.  This fortress had a wall, well, temples and burial sites.  The main block supporting the wall above the entrance to an underground treasury weighed 120 tones, yet was cut, moved and placed without any of the technology, math or engineering we take for granted.  Similarly, the Ancient Theater in nearby Epidavros still has perfect acoustics.  It makes one wonder how much knowledge we have lost due to the passage of time.

Throughout the week, I did one of my favorite things: a morning run in a faraway land.  There is nothing quite like experiencing a city before the chaos of the day begins.  With no crowds of tourists, horns blaring, smelly cars polluting, or shop keepers peddling their wares the city offers a far more intimate experience.  The smell of jasmine fills the air, the morning light gleams off the ancient columns, the cats feast on food left by locals, and the quiet stillness lingers for one last moment before the day begins.  There is nothing quite like it and if you have the energy to do so, I highly recommend a morning run/walk no matter where you are in the world.  

Finally, a trip to Greece would wouldn’t be complete without the food.  From $3 gyros (street food is my favorite), to a romantic dinner for Kate and I, the food was spectacular, fresh and light.  We all decided to get some Greek recipes, tips, and tricks by taking a cooking class.  The Greek Kitchen was an entertaining and educational evening, and we highly recommend it.  We chopped, laughed, and tasted while we sipped wine with new friends.  By the end we shared a wonderful feast of dolmades, tzatziki, spanakopita, and imam baidi.

Since we stayed at an AirBnb, we also ate quite a bit at home, making grocery shopping a fun adventure.  Most places I have shopped for groceries have at least had a Germanic or Latin based language, so interpreting labels was relatively easy.  Greek has very few words familiar to my language knowledge, and even the alphabet is different.  Through the help of friendly locals, google translate, plus some trial and error, we ate like kings.  Pa’s daily trips to the bakery didn’t hurt either!

Fat and happy, with a history filled week in Athens behind us, we started our next adventure: sailing in the Saronic Gulf……

Thanks for reading to the end!  Next up: Sailing in Greece! Don’t forget to check out our past stories and subscribe for future articles as well.  Find us on Facebook and Instagram for bonus content!  As always, if you are planning a trip to any location we visit we are happy to provide more details and opinions, so feel free to contact us.