July 2, 2012: Arrival in Athens

July 2, 2012: Arrival in Athens: After a 17 hour flight, we arrived in Athens in the morning. We grabbed our luggage and proceeded to the bus stop to take a bus to Syntagma Square. Since our hotel was "a five minute walk" from Syntagma Square, I asked for directions when we arrived there. One man directed me a couple blocks where I was to turn down Nikodimou Street. We easily found this street but as we turned down it, the street abruptly ended before the address of our hotel. We attempted to go around the block when I asked another person for directions. This time we were told to proceed in a direction I felt was not correct, but the person was adamant that the Electra Hotel was in the direction she pointed to. We attempted to follow her directions and when I asked another person a few minutes later, we were told to retrace our steps from the direction we had just come from. Finally, after a few more inquiries, we arrived at our hotel, the five star Electra Palace Hotel. (It turns out that there are two hotels called "Electra", one the Electra Hotel and the other the Electra Palace Hotel.) At any rate, it was good to reach our hotel and get out of the blazing heat toting three heavy suitcases.

The Electra Palace Hotel was quite an exquisitely appointed hotel and the hotel personnel quickly made us feel at home. 

Background: Before continuing with our check in story, you may wonder how we arrived at a five star hotel when we typically frequent cheaper accommodations. Well, the answer is that the rest of the choir had arranged a travel package through a travel agency in La Canada, and when I saw the prices that they were going to charge for airfare and hotel accommodations at this hotel, I decided that I could do better myself (I saved $1500 doing it myself!). So, I ended up making reservations for the hotel on-line via a supposedly "secure" website several months before. A day after I had made my reservation, I received a phone call from my credit card company asking me if I had made reservations for an exclusive trip through France. I responded "no" and the credit card company immediately cancelled my card and reissued another to me (also denying the fraudulent charge). Of course I was a bit reluctant to provide my credit card information on-line with the hotel when they contacted me telling me that the credit card number I had provided them didn't work. I informed them of the problem I had encountered with the fraudulent charge, and eventually I resolved the reservation before leaving the US.

Now, back to my check in story -- When I identified myself to the check in personnel, I reminded them of the fraudulent charge I had encountered when making a reservation with their hotel. The clerk assessed my story, pondered, and immediately responded "How else do you think I could purchase my new TV and shoes that I bought with your credit card?" Despite his humor, I could see that the hotel staff took my story seriously (especially when there were other people checking in at the same time we were) and we were immediately bumped into a nicer room, one with a view of the Acropolis through our window. We were also issued two complimentary drinks and when we returned to our room later that evening, we found a basket of fruit and a bottle of wine "compliments of the hotel" sitting on our desk. Needless to say, we had excellent accommodations for our first two nights in Greece! Below are pictures of the hotel:

Electra Palace Hotel Lobby

Electra Palace Hotel

Here's a picture of the view from our hotel window:

View of Acropolis from our hotel window

We organized ourselves a bit and decided to explore the city. After consulting with the people at the desk, we had a quick lunch. There were several cafes on the streets near the hotel:

Later we decided to go to the Archaeological Museum which required taking a tram from Syntagma Square. Here are pictures on the way to the museum.

Parliament Building at Syntagma Square

view of church on hill

University

The Archaeological Museum contained a large collection of statues, pottery, jewelry of ancient Greece and Egypt. Note that all the male statues are completely nude whereas the Greek statues of women are clothed.

Archaeological Museum

Archaeological Museum

golden hair piece

Egyptian mummy

On our return trip to Syntagma Square, we accidentally stayed on the tram a bit too long, so we got off several stops too late. Fortunately there was a subway station at the stop we disembarked from the tram and one subway stop took us back to where we needed to be. Not bad -- we had already "mastered" the excellent transportation system of Athens our first day!


We later went out for dinner and since the day was long, we retired a bit early, ready to begin another day of sightseeing before the rest of the choir arrived at the hotel the next day. Here's the view of the Acropolis from our hotel window at night: