Walking around Athens: Greece's Capital with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Walking around Athens: Greece’s Capital with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

My husband Laurent and I took an afternoon flight to Athens from Paris and arrived at night in Athens.

We slept in and walked to the Acropolis through the Plaka quarter, which was full of restaurants serving Greek omelets with feta cheese and pan-baked potatoes.  I knew where I would be eating after climbing the Acropolis.

There were no crosswalks in Athens.  Walking can be hazardous downtown.  The air was polluted, too.  I knew why people were worried about the Parthenon being eaten down by pollution and being turned black like many of the monuments were in Rome (Italy).

Once we arrived at the foot of the Acropolis Hill, we climbed it to see the temples that governed life in ancient Greece.

At the top, we visited the Parthenon devoted to the Goddess Athena, who was worshiped for weaving and wisdom.  The Erectheon Temple with its caryiatids (columns in the form of women) was more beautiful than the Parthenon I thought.

I wanted to go inside these places and let the magic of their perfect proportions work on me.  However, most of the buildings were closed off to tourists.

After our visit to the Acropolis, we set out to purchase our plane ticket to Heraklion, the capital of the island of Crete where we were going to spend a two-week vacation.  With our tickets in hand, we went to the Plaka for breakfast. 

(I still want to build a shrine to the Agora Restaurant in Hyde Park, Chicago for keeping me healthy and strong on 3-egg, Greek omelets with feta cheese and pan-baked potatoes with a ton of café au lait and grapefruit juice when I was in college at the University of Chicago.)

At the airport the next day, we were the only non-German tourists in the terminal.

“Did we book a flight to Heraklion or Berlin?” I asked Laurent.

Laurent smiled at me as we got our affairs ready to board the plane.  It took about half an hour to fly from Athens to Crete.

Our travel agent was waiting for us at the airport.  She drove us to the rental car agency and helped us fill out our paperwork.

We checked in to our hotel and went to eat downtown.  I ate moussaka (a lamb casserole with béchamel and cheese sauce on top) and pastitio (macaroni with tomato sauce and béchamel sauce topping), I drank a Greek iced coffee with thick, real cream and no sugar.

We watched the sun go down and thought we had a pretty nice first day on the island of Crete.

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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