Athens

The first couple days of our Greek adventure were spent in Athens. It was pretty warm, but there was always a nice breeze. I enjoyed the warm weather even with carrying Audrey around in the baby carrier. We all had colds to start off the trip, so we tried to take it somewhat easy in Athens. We were still able to see quite a bit though and we enjoyed our time there. Our first stop was the National Archaeological Museum of Athens. You never know when it comes to museums how it will go over with the little ones, but Rachel quite enjoyed tromping around the museum and Audrey was a happy camper in the stroller. The next day Rachel kept on talking about going back to see the statues. :) We weren't able to use the flash on the camera in the museum, so unfortunately some of the pictures are a bit blurry, but here's a few photos we took:

We stayed right near Syntagma Square, so that afternoon we made a stop at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and then we headed to the National Garden. After Rachel's great job in the museum we figured she deserved a chance to play at a park and get some wiggle time. Rachel really liked checking out the animals at the gardens (see video below). Once again, Audrey was a doll in the stroller.

We then went in search of somewhere to eat and came across a really cool bell tower: We went to the Plaka area and cafes just lined the streets. So, all the managers of the cafes were out trying to get people to come eat at their particular cafe. It was quite interesting. Another thing about Greece, they must have a law against robbing people blind. You know how bottles of water can be quite expensive (considering how much the water and the bottle actually cost)? Well, you can buy a bottle of water in Greece for 30-70 cents. The most expensive, 70 cents, was at the airport. Not bad! I wish all the places we traveled to had the same policy about water. After dinner we all enjoyed ice cream - we probably spent more money on ice cream during this trip than anything else! :) As we were making our way back to the hotel that evening we came across the Ancient Agora. We just viewed it through the fence and took a few photos, since we were ready to head to bed.

We got back to our hotel and let the girls chill for awhile before bathtime. Here's a cute picture of Audrey chilling with her daddy:

The next morning we headed to the Acropolis. And as you can see, Rachel was so cooperative and gave such wonderful smiles when we actually asked someone to take a picture of all of us together! :)

After the Acropolis we headed to an ancient town that had the Temple of Hephaistos, which is the best preserved ancient Greek temple. The construction of this temple started in 449 BC. It was so amazing to see so many things from thousands of years ago.We then headed back to the hotel for some much needed chill time and hopefully nap time, but the girls weren't cooperative in the nap department. Instead, they thought it was pretty cool to hang out in just their shirts! Well, Audrey had to have a change of pants and Rachel wanted to join in.
That night we went to a great restaurant. It was so good, that we went back to it a week later on Father's Day. After dinner, we headed back to the hotel and ended the day with a few games of UNO. The next morning we were getting up at 5 AM to catch our ferry to Naxos. We enjoyed our few days in Athens and kept ourselves pretty busy.