Phew-we made it. After an action packed 5 days we’ve arrived in Athens and even caught up on some sleep. Before we left Melanie spent last weekend with the grandkids in Scarsdale driving down with Josh and Gabby. I played daily rehearsals and performances Friday-Wed culminating with a very well received SRO performance ar Longview. 
Our trip across the Atlantic was wonderful and we both even got a decent amount of sleep on the plane!
As David said, the flight from Newark to Paris was easy. I only embarrassed myself once. They gave us choices for the main dish for dinner. They put the tray in front of me and it had cheeses and an appetizer and salad. I said to the flight attendant, where is my main course . She said very politely this is just the first course. Who knew they serve dinner in courses on a plane.
We left Ithaca at 9 AM yesterday. Got into Athens at 7 PM the next day. After dinner on the flight I slept for at least 4 hours. On the second flight I slept for at least 3 hours.
I’m being reminded over and over that while I can do the same thing I used to be able to do it takes the stuffing out of me. In Athens the man from our cruise asked where my flight originated from. Athens I answered. He just shook his head. Then I asked a porter which carousel had my luggage. He asked what the name of the airline I came on. I couldn’t answer that either. I just walked away. Seemed like my best bet.
So our first flight was late and upon arrival in Paris it was clear we wouldn’t make our connection. Fortunately, we had called Viking ahead of time to warn of this possibility and they had made arrangements for a “just in case” scenario. But those arrangements weren’t apparently clear in our own minds so we got the joy of exploring the Charles deGaul airport including two trips in and out of security. I believe the place was designed in a Lego competition for kindergartners.
We were saved when a wonderful agent in the Air France lounge figured out that our “safety flight” was actually on another airline, called them and got us what we needed. She assured us several times that we had enough time to go upstairs and shower and still make it to the next terminal. Several times she mentioned take a shower! Was hard not to say “ that’s ok we always look like this.’’ (Actually we looked better than usual as we both had just had haircuts).
We thanked her, enjoyed the hospitality of the lounge and went on our way sans shower. Must say we were delighted with her willingness to not just blow us off but took the time to resolve our confusion.
It so happened that this was also the day of the annual release of Piron Beaujolais Nouveau. We, of course were delighted to taste test and review both the original and Nouveau versions.
But we did get 6000 steps in the airport After dark we arrived safely in Athens and were whisked off to our hotel where after a quick bite slept soundly.
Only to wake up bright eyed and bushy tailed and rarin to go. Here is the first of what I suspect will be several good food pictures. 
Weather here is in the high 60s. I looked at the weather before I packed but somehow living in Ithaca, I could not fathom what the high 60s would be like. Hence, I packed all sweaters. Looks like there is shopping in my future.
This morning we had the most amazing walking tour of what’s called the Agora. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Agora_of_Athens
This was the common meeting place in ancient Greece - a place where citizens (meaning adult males) would gather to discuss the issues of the day and gossip and listen to orators, philosophers, politicians and blowhards. Among the sites we saw was a water clock which was used to time the speakers so they didn’t drone on and on. Different types of speakers had different time limits. I think I was told the politicians had to stop when the six minute drop of water fell.
There’s just too much history in this place for us to try to transcribe and share everything we’ve seen and learned. So we won’t even try, but I hope you enjoy the pictures and the occasional babbling discourse.
Just imagine though coming for coffee.and going for a stroll with politicians like Pericles and Demosthenes, philosophers like Socrates and Plato, playwrights such as Sophocles and Euripides, and …..
The above lions are from a restoration but with one flaw. The open Lion mouths are to direct rain runoff from the roof. But they forgot to put in the tongue which would have shot the water far enough out to avoid walkers below. Oops. Apparently, Rockefeller money was the big funder for opening and restoring this site. Seems it was found because when they started digging for the subway, they ran into this huge buried relic. I forget how many houses had been built over the thousand or so years were there but the Rockefellers paid the money to relocate the people as well as funding American university to do the excavation.
And of course, how can any discussion of city avoid the topic of sewers?
And to fill those to you need the poop
And one last artifact is a water cooled wine jug. Pour wine into the inner section and pour cool water into the outer section to keep your Vino chilled
Our guide Katarina talked about religion by participation. You could have religion with an unknown God. You practiced your religion through participation in sports, through drama through music through an activity. There was discussion of the importance of participation in public life. Whoever didn’t participate was actually called an “idiot” from the Greek word “idiotes” meaning private person meaning one that didn’t participate in public affairs.
This is the temple of Theseus and is one of the best preserved temples of the period preserved primarily because it got converted into a church. The Christians cut out most of the decorations, but left the battle of the Centaurs because they identified them as the devil and so it was a virtuous struggle. There was much discussion of Athens as the birthplace of democracy and democracy being a mixture of different layers of the population and also of the importance of public service.
The last photo we will leave you with from our tour was a lottery machine for choosing juries.
Each citizen had a token, and if you were called for jury duty, you stuck your token into one of the slots. There was a funnel with a tube on the side of the machine down which colored balls were rolled. Each row of the jury pool was represented by a color and if your color came out your row was the jury. The theory being this would randomize the jury as well as make it more difficult to pre-bribe the jurors.
We’re off now to find dinner. Hope all are well.
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