Outtakes

Every trip has crazy things that happen along the way that make you laugh, stress you out, and/or otherwise just make you shake your head.  I don't want to forget some of these things so I'm just going to list them here so it'll jog my memory when things start to fade....

1.  Overnight flight to Paris and the young French girl behind Ted asked the stewardess to tell him not to recline his seat.  When that didn't happen she proceeded to consistently kick/push on it for the two hours when everyone was trying to sleep.

2.  Uber no-show - our first morning in Paris and we had tickets to the top of the Eiffel tower and our Uber guy didn't show up.  Taxis weren't easy to come by either.

3.  The hop on, hop off Seine River boat that we hopped off of, but then later realized it wasn't coming back our direction as it had stopped for the night.  We ended up finding a taxi to take us home at an agreed price, but once he got us to our street he proceeded to complain that it wasn't nearly enough payment!  

4. Lake Como ferry ticket office - when we wanted to purchase tickets to ride the ferry around to all the stops the guy didn't like it, told us we didn't have time to do that and it was only 2pm.  He eventually slammed the ticket window down on us!

5.  Venice vaparetto - extremely crowded waiting area, when it was time to board and everybody rushed onto the boat Ted was the last one to attempt to get on and the guy said 'No, you wait for the next boat!'.   Shirley, Ken and I got off the boat then and waited for the next one with him, although there was clearly enough room on the boat for about ten more.

6.  GPS on iPhones - does not work well in narrow streets with tall stone buildings.

7.  Roundabouts on Tuscan roads are very numerous and the voice on the GPS giving directions became very annoying as it was non-stop - 'At the next exit take the third right turn', and on and on and on.  Pretty funny when a wild boar dashed out onto the road though!

8.  Coke for 8 Euros in Florence became the 'too much' benchmark for judging prices on restaurant menus, thankfully most were considerably less than that.

9.  Ted's bartender friend Atla kept him well stocked in food and drink watching US Open tennis late at night in the lounge.

10.  The car rental return in La Spezia that was closed and had no parking spots for returns and was in a sketchy area, then we had to catch a bus from there to the train station to Cinque Terre.

10.  Monterosso al Mare - Checking out ahead of time a place to enjoy a sea-view dinner on our last night there we encountered some of the most rude restaurant staff, but it turned out for the best as we ended up at a great little family place belonging to a winery we'd been at.

11.  Seeing about fifteen people seated on pillows on a tall stairwell who were staring down into a restaurant full of people watching everyone eat.  We then realized that they were people waiting a turn to eat at the restaurant, it was very weird and I wish I would've gotten a picture of that sight.  They looked like vultures!

That's about all that comes to mind but there's probably more!

Athens - Our Final Day

Our final day in Athens began with us packing up and storing our luggage, and then we went for our last walkabout.  The wide walkway is beautiful and it leads around the base of the Acropolis to the Ancient Agora - the central area where people originally settled.  
It was a commercial, political, religious, and cultural hub where the greatest Greeks such as Plato, Socrates, Demosthenes, theorized, spoke out and debated. 

Acropolis above the Agora

The Stoa of Attalos

This is a replica of the main commerce area called the Stoa of Attalos which was built around 140 BC;  the Agora Museum is now housed inside along the back area of it.

Early barbecues!

This was used to time people making speeches; water was poured into the top bowl and there's a small hole in the bottom of it at the front.  When it all drains into the bottom bowl your time's up!

Church of the Holy Apostles

Original artwork on the ceiling is beautiful

This church was my favourite thing in the Agora area, it was tucked away in a far corner.  

Once we finished our last walk through we went for lunch, picked up our luggage and then met our driver who took us to the airport.  Then it was on to London to overnight, then back home the following morning - we've seen so many things and have had a great time, the trip of a lifetime!