Greece trip December 2005

Below you can find our many pictures from our recent trip to Greece, Athens and Dad's hometown Larisa. We really enjoyed our trip (Dad's first Christmas back home since 1983!) and the home cooking...Understandably, our New Year Resolutions are to lose the weight we gained while there:-)

The pictures follow a chronological order.

Starting out at the Detroit Metro Airport on December 10 and hanging out at the Worldclub in the main terminal:






Our Northwest flight to Amsterdam was excellent. Dad made sure we flew on the new Airbus 330 plane with their individual entertainment systems with tons of movies and games. Kostas likes to play the games and Dad loves playing the trivia game against other passengers (and beating them). And plenty of cartoon movies for Sophia too.

Hanging out at the #25 KLM lounge/club in Amsterdam with its very modern decor/style

Kostas: Oh man, I knew I should have slept on the plane instead of playing those games

Amsterdam airport, heading to the gate for our flight to Athens

Kostas can't keep his eyes open, game overload on the first flight!


We flew on KLM to Athens. Mom and the kids slept the whole way and Dad was stuck in a middle seat between a large man and a lady who snored...Oh well, it was only a three hour flight but felt as long as our eight hour flight from Detroit to Amsterdam.

Got a taxi from Athens to the Hilton hotel. We drove on the new highway into Athens that was built for the Olympics, magnificent! We again stayed at the Hilton on award stay (using points). Room per night tends to average between $350-$500 (it was $1200 during the Olympics!) and it is the best use of Hilton points in this great hotel! What makes it really great is staying on an executive floor (10th or 11th floor) and getting access to the lounge on the 11th floor. We again managed to do that even though both mom and dad have been downgraded to the Silver VIP status (from Gold VIP). Needless to say we were ecstatic.

Catching up on some sleep

The lounge: full breakfast and free drinks and some amazing food (appetizers and snacks) throughout the day. And always plenty to read (USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Herald Tribune, Time, Newsweek, Greek papers, etc.)

Our view of the Acropolis (even numbered rooms only) from our room

Kostas took this shot from our room balcony

Hilton is a few minutes walk to a subway stop called "Evangelismos". Only one stop away is the main cental subway station "Syntagma". We said hi to Santa Claus there

Walking in Plaka

Street band jamming on Christmas tunes

In Syntagma square, in the background is the Greek Government's Parliament Building



Lots of birds in front of the Unknown Soldier Tomb

You make a move they fly, Kostas had a ball







The Guards on their way to do the Changing of the Guard





Hanging out at the main Park in Athens





yeah, looks like an ostrich



This is the Panathinaikon Stadium, built of marble, site of the first Olympic Games in 1896 (and site where the European Champions Greek national teams were greeted-Soccer in 2004 and basketball in 2005)



Lycavitos hill at the back, the highest point of Athens







Dad took the chance to go see his hometown's Larisa soccer team play in Athens against Olympiakos (one of the perpetual superpowers in Greek soccer). Dad remembered how he visited this place back in the early 80s to see those two teams play. But, instead of that old stadium, in its place they have built an amazing facility (yes, with plenty of suites). Larisa is back in the First Division after nine long years playing in some lowly fields in the Second and Third Division. Olympiakos has two players, the Brazilian Rivaldo and Ivory Coast's Toure whose salaries alone cover the annual budget of the whole Larisa team pretty much:-)
Oh well we lost 4-0.



1,000 fans from Larisa made a spectacular showing...Notice the riot police protecting them...it is different there:-)

Larisa on the left with the sweet moroon colors

After two nights at the Hilton we took the train to Larisa. On the last night in Athens there was a bomb in front of a government building that Dad and Kostas walked past it four hours earlier!

Hanging out out at the family home. Needless to say the grandparents were thrilled with the grandkids

Sophia practicing on Karaoke at the Carrfour (French Walmart) department store

We took a trip to the grandparents summer place in Agiokambos.
Sophia managed to grab some oranges from the garden



Dad took Kostas to a soccer game between Larisa and Ionikos, 0-0 and freezing cold.

Dad's Uncle family's dog:Leon (Lion)



Christmas decorations in the Larisa Central Square



Larisa Post Square



Eating again back home

Grandpa is a Michigan State fan:-)

The two Sophias





Uncle chasing Sophia downstairs in the gas station

Knet internet cafe where Dad made a daily stop, sometimes with Kostas to play runescape

Downtown Larisa

Kostas with cousin Giorgos and (Dad's) Uncle



We too k Sophia one day to an indoor play space and let her demolish it:-)

This is the main street leading from the family home to downtown. Amazing how the traffic has grown!!

Sophia with her godfather Alexi

This is Kosta's god mother




Kids dancing in the main square



Riding the public bus No. 4

Some sites in Larisa

shopping capital of Greece, amazing growth in this town!

They have been VERY slowly working on the ancient theater that was discovered downtown years ago



Main square





Kiddie train ride

Bus stop for No. 4 bus at the main square

Hanging out before the grandmother feeds us again

Kostas hitting the bottle:-)

whazzzup?


We left Larisa for Athens on December 26 with the train again.

This time at the Hilton we had to sacrifice the Acropolis view to keep the accesss lonunge, which was perfectly fine by us.

Met with Socrates, Dad's former roomate at Eastern Michigan University, and his wife Elpida at the Hilton. Nice to see him again!

Lots of TV channel choices, including CCTV, an English speaking CNN like channel from Beijing, China! Oh, we found about 16 Chinese clothing stores in Larisa, owned and managed by Greek speaking chinese immigrants!!! We even found two Chinese restaurants in Larisa. That is just mind boggling!

Hilton lobby


We took a subway ride to see the Olympic stadium complex


We met this lady from china who works in Paris for GE Medical Systems who was visiting the place at the same time.











Yes this is the pool in which Michael Phelps got his 7 or 8 golds

bike racing stadium









on the superb subway (it must be the best in the world, no kidding!)

Atiiki square in Athens











Syntagma square



This pathway is the little park where the Evangelismos subway stop is and it's just a few minutes walk to the Hilton

Acropolis in the background at night

Plaka at night

Our KLM flight to Amsterdam was at 5.40 am so we woke up at 2.30 am!
Waiting to check in

Made a stop to check out the Goldair lounge in the Athens airport. Not too impressive

At the gate

Oh yes we slept....Dad got an aisle seat with noone in the middle!

Amsterdam airport



At the KLM #52 lounge, very busy

Dad with KLM and Northwest planes at the back, he will be Worldperks Platinum Elite after this flight!

Waiting to get into the plane

Kostas relaxing and waiting for the pilot to take off and get the entertainment system up and going!

Sophia " I love Lion King"

Back in Detroit waiting for Simon to pick us up



The following pictures were taken from a one use Kodak camera we got just in case our digital camera had a problem.

Syntagma Square Athens



Kostas with his cousins Katerina, Vlassis, Apostolis in the 6th Elementary School (Dad's former Elementary school...wow!)

In front of the school with Katerina and Apostolis....Dad went in and out of that same door many many times!

Leon has some tongue!

We visited god mother's house in the small village Sotiritsa





Nice view of the beach in Agiokambos

Made a stop in Agiokambos to eat Dad's favorite childhood food, fried squid (kalamaria). This is the view from the restaurant



It will not be Greece without some goats-)

Dad's new wheels after he totaled his 1973 Mercedes Benz (yes, not a typo, 1973, it was time!)

Kostas and Katerina at grandpa's garden in agiokambos

Olympic stadium complex, Bike Racing



warm up pool





















This is the train station in Larisa when we were leaving for Athens

The lobby of the train station

Kostas and Sophia seniors

Grandpa took Kostas to the village a couple of times. He showed him the place where he grows his birds, it aint the Hilton:-)