Europe 2010
The challenges of traveling when you’re older
Part 8
Athens and Marathon Beach, Greece
Tom is 70; his partner Greta is 68. This part of their 30-day Europe trip includes nine days in Greece—three in Athens and six in
Marathon Beach, which is located approximately 40 minutes east of the Athens Airport.
When planning a trip overseas, travelers generally understand that things don’t always work out as planned. As seniors, this is
especially true, there will be situations beyond their control and they simply have to roll with the flow and enjoy the experience.
After a ten-day cruise through the Greek Islands, the ship docked at the Rome Port by about 6 a.m. Since we had an 11 a.m. flight
from Rome to Athens, the ship scheduled us to be among the first group to disembark. I was a little concerned about making that flight,
more concerned than any other travel connection on the entire 30-day trip.
The night before, we were required to put all of our luggage—except for the small bags we were carrying--in the passageway by
11 p.m.
We were up at 5:15 a.m. Grabbed a quick breakfast before leaving the ship. On the pier, there was a big tent-like building where
passengers retrieved luggage. From there, you hop on the bus (we had prepaid on the ship to transfer to the Rome Airport-FCO) for a
ride to the airport of about 50 minutes. The Eurodam staff did a nice job with such an enormous task, offloading luggage for about
1,500 people.
We were checked in at the airport by 8:30 a.m. and at the departure gate by 9 am, two hours before the departure. In Athens, the
driver we hired to pick us up at the airport was holding up a “Tom and Greta” sign. Spiros is his name, a father of two children, 10
and 8. He dropped us off at the apartment we rented on the website VRBO.com, where the owner, Natalie, an American—married to a
Greek man--was waiting for us in her cute one bedroom, unit, which is only 200 yards from the Acropolis Metro stop. The apartment
was perfect. Link to Natalie’s vrbo listing:
www.vrbo.com/166821.
 Natalie, like others in Greece, was very irate over the Greek financial crisis. All of the people in Greece who spoke about the debt
crisis pointed fingers at Greek politicians who have stolen billions of euros.
That first afternoon, we walked to an ancient theatre in a far corner of the Acropolis area. While strolling through the neighborhoods
around our apartment, we found an authentic Greek place for dinner and enjoyed a Greek salad with feta cheese and rich tomatoes. The Musaka in Greece is to die for and the red wine was delightful. We were in the land of olive oil.
The next morning, we walked to the Acropolis. It was a warm day, in the high 70s. We took ice trays from the
refrigerator to keep us cool; the hike up to the top is grueling. I bought an Asian shade umbrella for Greta to keep the sun from beating down on her.
Oh my, the Parthenon and other ruins up there must be
the number one man-made wonder of the world.
We took lots of pictures. One hears multiple languages being spoken. We marveled from the top of the views of Athens in every direction.
After walking down, we enjoyed another Greek meal at an outdoor café—boiled greens (spinach) and mousaka pork.
Then, to the temple of Zeus the Olympian, another wonder. Took this photo of the Acropolis from Zeus.
Followed by a visit to the Olympic stadium, where the modern Olympic Games began in 1896. For three euros each, we had headsets with
taped
 messages in English explain the history. The stadium is the only all-marble arena in the world, and seats 68,000. There are two
extra wide marble seats at mid-stadium where the king and queen sat during the Olympics. Greta is seated in one of them in this photo.
We strolled home, and stopped, of course, for a gelato. Athens had really impressed us. What is happening financially is tragic for
this wonderful country.
At night, while having a Greek dinner, just across from the Acropolis Metro stop, we chatted with a couple from Nova Scotia at the
next table. Behind us, the Acropolis was lighted at night—a truly mystical site.
 The next morning, it was time to leave Athens and transfer to the timeshare we had rented in Marathon Beach. We hired Spiros the
driver to pick us up at 10 a.m., to take us to some more remote sites on the way to Marathon.
First stop: Mt Lycabellus, the highest spot, by far, in Athens. Spiros took us to the base of the cable car that takes you up (you
can walk, but believe me, that would have been a challenge we didn’t want that early in the morning).
 From there, we asked Spiros to take us to the temple of Poseidon (442 BC), the god of the sea. One of the adventures of traveling is
when things don’t always work out as planned. May 1 was Labor Day in Greece so the roads to the beaches were packed with cars.
Took us three hours to get there, and because it was a holiday, it was closed, you could not walk to it. I took this photo of it. We made a restroom stop and decided to head to Marathon Beach.
Marathon Beach
Then, with the traffic still terrible, it took another three hours to get to our place in Marathon Beach, the Golden Coast Holiday
Club, a big resort that was a former Club Med and still is during the summer months. We had spent about six hours in the taxi. Our poor
driver was mumbling in Greek most of the way. To his credit, Spiros felt so bad about the long trip and the traffic, he gave was a big
break on the price, even though everybody there is trying to eke out a living. If you need a driver in Athens, we recommend him (spirit@hotmail.com).
The Golden Coast Holiday Club is quite isolated. It’s beautiful and very clean, and fronts on the Mediterranean Sea. When we planned
the trip, we thought we’d be able to take public transportation to get around the area, but it just wasn’t a convenient location to use
public transportation.
There were no markets or restaurants open. The resort restaurant didn’t open until 8:30 that night. We were starved and famished. The
timeshare staff suggested we walk along the beach for a half hour to the town of Nea Makri, which is a booming little resort town. A
staff member also said the Internet at the resort didn’t work well. He recommended a place in Nea Makri called the FloCafe that had free
Wi-Fi with a strong signal.
 Nea Makri was teeming with Greeks on holiday and celebrating Saturday night. We found a seafood restaurant on the water and enjoyed a
meal there. We also checked out the Flocafe, a part of a chain of restaurants in Greece.
Back at our resort, a mini market opened for a couple of hours at night. We bought six eggs, instant coffee, and some turkey hot dogs, that’s it.
The next morning I walked to the café, did Wi-Fi, had an expresso, and rather enjoyed the experience. But getting to the Flocafe and back took an hour and a half. On the way back, it dawned on me that in order to enjoy our stay in Marathon Beach, we would need to rent a car. I stopped at the front desk of our timeshare; they put me in touch with Sophia Chalkidou, who owns Best rent a car in Nea Makri (www.bestcarrental.gr).
If you are renting a car in Greece, and you can get relatively close to Nea Makri, rent it from Sophia—she will save you big bucks, and she and Lisa, her assistant, are very accommodating. We paid 40 euros per day. When we had checked on rental cars before our trip, the cost per day was double that at the Athens Airport and the downtown locations.
Sophia , a pleasant Greek woman who speaks fluent English, delivered the car--an itty, bitty red car with a six-speed transmission--to the resort in an hour. Wow, how our life had changed now that we had a car. The first thing we did was head for a market and stock up with bottled water and food for three days. I was a happy dude.
That afternoon, we drove to the site of the original Olympic marathon from 2,500 years ago, started when the Greeks defeated the invading Persian army in the 400 BC timeframe, in a battle considered by many historians to have changed the world. We found the column that stands alone in a field in the Marathon area that is called the trophy signifying the victory in that battle . A runner ran from the site 26 miles to Athens to tell of the victory and then died on the spot. Being a former runner, I ran on the track while Greta took a video of me running and goofing off.
On one of the days in Marathon Beach, our little car enabled us to visit Delphi, the second most important archeological site in Greece, after the Acropolis. That was a seven-hour roundtrip where we learned about the countryside of Greece. Gas, by the way, is the equivalent of about $7.00 per gallon. Getting there was a challenge, Greek roads are poorly marked. Delphi ruins are located at nearly 3,000 feet elevation and were in existence nearly 2,500 years ago. One marvels at how all of that marble got hauled there.
Port of Rufina
 Greece is a country of olive oil, rich red tomatoes, fresh chunks of Feta cheese, and coffee so strong it gives you the shakes after
a
few sips. It’s also home to fresh seafood. With the car, we drove to the Port of Rufina, maybe a half hour away. Thinking that Pireaus,
the huge port in Athens, was the only significant port in Greece, we were surprised at the boat and ferry activity in Rufina.
We choose a seafood restaurant located smack dab between two seafood markets. I mean, like five feet away on either side. What
atmosphere. A group of Greek men were gabbing just behind us during the
entire meal.
It was fun watching the boats in the harbor being provisioned. Here is an ice truck delivering blocks of ice to a fishing boat that
was going out to sea that night
On the day we dined in Rufina, riots were taking place in Athens (tragically, three bank workers were killed when rioters tossed a
fire bomb inside the building). The airport was closed. And here we
 were two days away from flying to Istanbul. During dinner, we wondered if the riots would affect us on Friday when we scheduled to fly on the Greek airline, Olympic, to Istanbul.
Yes, the unexpected came up on this leg of our trip: six hours in a taxi, having to rent a car, riots in the streets, closed airport,
and a few other minor glitches. But, these two older dudes adjusted and got around Greece pretty well on our own. No tour buses for us
on this part of the trip.
The Greek people are loving and caring, they treasure family and life, but they are very angry at their government for the dire
financial condition in which the country finds itself. It seems every Greek person we talked to brought up the topic without us asking.
Wages and pensions are being drastically reduced. The average monthly wage in Greece is around $700.
Before returning the rental car, I managed to back into a tree with the car. Sophia said that I had only scratched the paint, and she
was beyond fair in the settlement, again in spite of the economic conditions in Greece, something that would never happen with a big
rental car company.
We loved Greece and hope that in a couple of years this wonderful country will be back on her feet.
To access Tom's ebook, "Italy: 23 Days by Train" follow this link:
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/9907
| 
