Location - Sounion - Aegeon Hotel

“Okay mom, can you please promise me that my name isn’t going to be a big deal this trip? I mean, can you please not mention it all the time, to everyone, everywhere we go, and make it an excuse for us being here? It’s embarrassing!”

She said this in the airport after we saw the first sign with Athens spelled “Athina.” And I understood. Teenage self-consciousness is a formidable taskmaster.

But after a quick trip to the underwhelming Lavrio — a could-be cute port town that has obviously suffered from the recent economic troubles — we stopped in at the Temple to Athena.

This is a much overlooked sideshow to the main Sounion site. It is bit down the hill and so sadly unattended that it currently remains unguarded. It is the remains of a few rather small structures, and not much is left of the temple beyond its foundation stones. The view from this spot, however, is almost as stunning as that from Poseidon’s grand mansion further up the hill.

At the base of the site, I made Athena (reluctantly) pose at the small sign. I think she only let me because the place was deserted; we had it totally to ourselves for the duration of our stay.

When we got up top, I watched Athena carefully read and absorb the informational placard until she able to inform us about the significance of every pile of rubble. Then she went and stood inside the temple’s rectangle of stones. I think there is something quite special about being able to be inside the space rather than on the edge behind ropes; it helps one feel the majesty of even so humble a site.

There is one stone in the very centre that is indicated as the pedestal for the statue of Athena. I asked my Athena to stand on it for a picture and was surprised when she willingly did so. She even corrected me on which direction she should be facing. She was then contemplative and quiet as she explored every inch of the space, even kneeling to touch some of the smallest of pieces of marble. She didn’t even mind when we joked that she’d really let her seaside summer home go and mentioned how we hoped to find her city centre penthouse in better shape. It was delightful to see her own her own name despite her professed desire to remain incognito. I think she may have left with a tiny piece of marble. I know this is against the rules, but I couldn’t bring myself to stop her.

After another afternoon of swimming in the Aegean, we returned to Uncle Poseidon’s fancy house in order to get that sunset experience for which the place is famous. The colours were magnificent, but it was quite windy, and the jet lag was hitting Triumph hard by that point.

Nevertheless, it was a lovely day on which to end our time on the southern tip of Attica.

Location - Sounion - Aegeon Hotel

The reason we came to Sounion first was because we knew we’d be jet lagged and didn’t want to try to tackle Athens right away. Ironically, none of us felt much jet lag.

After the hotel breakfast buffet (consisting mostly of omelettes, weird Greek baked goods, and various cheeses), we headed out to the hotel’s beach chairs. Most of the beach is controlled by the hotel, but a small strip on either end is public, so a number of locals and a bus load of Russians shared the Aegean (if not the chairs) with us. The bay was a moving gallery of gorgeous yachts and bobbing heads. We swam a bit, read a bit, dozed a bit, and lunched at one of the two nearby outdoor restaurants overlooking the sea. At lunch, we introduced the kids to saganaki, that most heavenly of salty, cheesy appetizers. They declared that we must always order it. Always. They were emphatic.

Around 7:30, we made our way to the Temple of Poseidon; it is a monument that is supposed to be viewed at sunset. It is a magnificent spectacle, and the kids were suitably moved by their first (of many) ancient sites. It was lovely to watch them have that moment when the academic understanding of a monument’s importance shifts to a personal sense of profundity. They snapped their own photos and started sentences with phrases like “Just think about how long / how many / how much …” That, right there, is why people should come to Greece.

There weren’t too many people at the site, but there were a lot clouds (and even a few raindrops), so we didn’t get the full sunset experience. However, we remained mountaintop for a drink. The restaurant is on the opposite side of the temple from our hotel, so we wanted to see that side lit up, which happens about 45 minutes after sunset. While we were there, an American woman, whom we had earlier seen guiding a tour, came up and asked us if we would like some information about the temple. Turns out she is a retired classics professor from Columbia who came with a group (also in the restaurant) of rather disinterested Columbia MBA students (she was appalled by their lack of interest in Greek history and mythology and how they all just wanted to get to the beaches of Santorini). We told her we knew quite a bit already but would love to hear what she had to say; she lectured brilliantly for at least 20 minutes. We did know a lot of it, but not all, and she was delighted by our knowledge and our enthusiasm.

We ate a late dinner at the other of the nearby restaurants. A miscommunication resulted in our receiving two (rather than one) saganaki, which wouldn’t have been a problem except that we had also ordered a grilled feta dish, and stuffed peppers that contained cheese, and a greek salad, which had a slab of feta on it that was, without exaggeration, 5 inches long, 3 inches wide, and one inch thick!

We knew it was time to leave when one of the waiters pushed her motorcycle through the dining area. We went for a quick stroll down the beach and around the hotel grounds, then off to bed with sea salt on our skin, a sea god on our mind, and cheese salt in our blood.

Location: Aegean Hotel - Sounion.

luggage in a land rover

luggage in a fiat

As I sit in this deck chair under a canvas awning, with the the Aegean sea in front of of me, the Temple to Poseidon above me, and a warm breeze cooling me, it all seems well worth it. 24 hours ago, however, we were all less sure.

We flew out of Victoria around 11 and had an uneventful flight to Toronto. There we were informed that our connection to Munich was an hour delayed. This was a problem: our layover in Munich was only about 75 minutes long. The whole Toronto airport seemed off its game. Downed computers, changing gates, absentee airport staff, flyers with unassigned seats… The plane finally left about two hours behind schedule. Once aboard, David and Triumph managed to sleep a wee bit, but the coughing kid prevented Athena and Kristine from doing so.

As anticipated, we arrived in Munich just as our flight to Athens was leaving without us. The airline put us on the next available flight, but it was a three and a half hours later. David took the opportunity to have a stein of German beer. None of us have ever been to Germany before; it looks lovely from the sky and the airport was profoundly clean and orderly. We even saw someone dusting the raised Lufthansa logo on the wall behind the book-in counter.

Once we got to Athens, the fun really started (insert ironic tone here). The car rental company have given away our mid-sized sedan “because we had not called to tell them we would be late.” They tried to give us a Fiat instead, but we could only fit three of our four intentionally not-huge suitcases, let alone the carry-on items. After kicking up a stink, we were offered a slightly larger car. Same problem. And then we were told the company had no bigger cars. None. We had to cancel our booking and throw ourselves at the mercy of the competition. This all took many long lines, many treks back and forth between airport and car park, and much paperwork. We landed at 6 pm; we finally drove away from the airport at 9:30! By this time it was dark, we had 1/8 tank of gas, we had been travelling for almost 24 hours, and we had to find Sounion (45 minutes away on windy country roads). I’m so grateful the kids are grown; they were amazingly patient about all the muddles.

Never before has any hotel (see link above) seemed so much like an oasis. We changed our clothes and hurried to catch the last kitchen call at the restaurant. It was 11 pm. We sat on the terrace and ate under the lit- up temple. The food was fantastic, the waiter was charming, the air off the sea was heavenly. Then we fell into bed grateful to see the end of this first part of our journey.

I am re-setting up this WordPress system up for sharing photos and experiences of Greece that my family will have starting June 29th.

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