A Free Day in Athens/Headed Home

 It was luxury to sleep in, even though we didn't sleep in much!  But just the THOUGHT of it made it special!

Our last breakfast was eaten as tomorrow morning would be VERY early and the hotel was giving us sack lunches for breakfast to eat on the bus on the way to the airport!

These were the back stairs that you could climb to get up to the 7th floor to eat!

After breakfast we headed to the Parliament Building to watch the changing of the guard - we arrived at the perfect time so had a front view of it!

The guards would do a procedure with their legs and arms - very interesting to watch!

Check out those shoes!!

It was a really cool ceremony and I'm so glad we got to see it!  It is done every hour on the hour day and night!

We walked to the shopping area and first on the list was coffee and pastry at a sidewalk cafe - LOVED IT!

We shopped in a few of the little shops and found EVERYTHING we had wanted to purchase!  Lunch was again at an outdoor cafe - we loved our glasses of sangria and shared a gyro with fries!

We went to our hotel room for a while in the afternoon and then ventured back out late afternoon - stopped at a crepe place and had a banana crepe with chocolate and whip cream - delicious!

And then it was pack up the suitcase again for our long journey home!  The next morning was an early one and I snapped this photo as we got to the airport in Athens!

Patty took this picture since I was on the opposite side of the bus - it's called "The Runner" and is made out of glass sheets!!  Beautiful!

We travelled from Athens to Zurich, Switzerland - from Zurich to Chicago - and Chicago to Minneapolis!  WHAT A LONG LONG DAY IT WAS!  But the plane rides were fine except for the fact that I couldn't sleep!  We arrived in Minneapolis at 9:30 at night - said goodbye to all the friends we had made and had our hotel pick us up!

Unfortunately, I woke up about 2:15am, very sick!  Vomiting and diarrhea every 15 minutes till dawn was absolutely miserable!!  Patty packed up and went downstairs to wait for her shuttle since she left a couple hours before I did - I felt so bad that I didn't know if I could make my plane or not!  But I decided I needed to get home so slowly got packed up, on the shuttle and to the airport - only got sick once more there and althought I felt horrible, didn't get sick on the plane to Denver!

Jessi and Gary were out of town so Evan picked me up and took me to my car at their house and I drove home - how I don't know as I felt pretty tough!!  But I just wanted to be home in my bed!!

Besides getting sick at the very end, it was one fantastic trip of a lifetime!!  I'm so glad I joined Patty on this trip and we both have so many great memories!

I had to take a picture of the cute sacks you get which you purchase an item - no cost either - just cute bags to remind you of Greece!!

My 4 new Greece ornaments are now hanging on my "Travel Tree Christmas Tree" and I'll be reminded of this trip every year when I hang them!