Day 16 - June 28th – Athens Free Day
Today starts a new chapter in our ‘Missions, Monasteries & Monks’ pilgrimage. The ‘Footsteps of St Paul’ tour officially concluded last evening. It was good to wake up this morning knowing we didn’t have to pack and board a bus (although we loved the whole experience).
I was up very early to use the Hotel computer to load my photos for the blog, and to anticipate a very late, quiet breakfast with Julie. Some of our friends had already left for the airport, but for those who remained, most were departing very shortly after breakfast. We gathered for one final time for reflection and prayers together before all saying our final goodbyes.
Julie and I then lingered over a very sumptuous breakfast (Charles and Gemma, I hope you are reading this!), and headed out late morning for our final walk around the city of Athens. The weather had cooled to be quite pleasant. We headed up past Hadrian’s Arch to the beautiful National Garden, a very large park covering many acres in the middle of Athens, which is adjacent to the grand National parliament building. The park is very dense with massive trees, and a myriad of walkways in circular shapes takes you on a journey of discovery of this magnificent treasure.
We heard the strains of a marching band, and assumed it was the changing of the Presidential Guard, so we rushed through the Gardens to the sound of the band. It was fantastic. Here was a procession of the Presidential Guard – there must have been about one hundred, marching in three companies behind a brass band playing delightfully. The Guards were all dressed in centuries old presentation dress with heavy wooden clogs, marching in their very unique style with high leg kicks on every stride. Without exception, they were all at least 6ft 4inches tall, and very sinister looking with their drawn bayonets on the end of their rifles. It was simply spectacular.
We then went to the front of the Parliamentary Palace and watched the two Guards on duty to their routine of marching and guarding for the tourists. It too was mesmerizing and very spectacular.
Time was getting away. We headed into the very old part of Athens nearby, at the foot of the great acropolis with its very narrow cobbled lanes absolutely full with tiny boutique shops. It was a mass of people – obviously the thing to do in Athens on a Sunday. Julie went shopping while I spent time in the Internet café to sort out finally my photos for recent blogs.
We retreated for a while to our cool Hotel room, showered and at 6pm walked to the Panathenaic Stadium to rendezvous with our Australian friends Andrew and Sarah, who were taking us to dinner for our final night in Greece. Andrew is a cyclist from Canberra who also served in PNG during our time there, and Sarah is on staff at the Australian High Commission in Athens. They are wonderful people and we really enjoyed and appreciated their friendship and kindness to us. The dinner was superb and it was sad to finally say our goodbyes. Andrew kindly walked us back through the darkened streets of Athens to ensure we found our way ‘home’.
This brings to a close our time in Greece, a country we have come to love very much, and indeed the people of Greece. The country is very unsettled at present owing to the current financial and economic uncertainties. As I write, the banks have been closed for this week, and ATM’s have a limit of 60 Euro on withdrawals.
Tomorrow begins a new adventure – we fly to Istanbul for a few days before moving on to Romania.
Until then…
KRA
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