athens - Passports Overloaded

Glacier County, Montana (Glacier National Park)

September 7, 2020 – September 9, 2020

9/7/20 – Driving to lake McDonald West Glacier Park we stopped in the store that had dinosaur eggs that were found by the store owners wife Marion https://www.nps.gov/articles/mesozoic-egg-mountain-dawson-2014.htm

We finally arrived at our hotel and after settling in we decided to go and check out the park of course on the way to Glacier National Park there was an unexpected blizzard so a big part of the park was closed.

9/8/20 – Today we woke up and decided to hike the rocky point trail and it was well worth it because the landscape views were amazing.

After lunch and a nap, we hiked the sacred dancing cascades for a short while it was late in the day. Right after the hike we drove to town and had dinner at glacier highland restaurant.

9/9/20 – Today we woke up early and packed up our stuff and headed to Trail of the Cedars and Avalanche Lake Trail of the Cedars was beautiful. If you don’t have enough time to hike the Avalanche Lake Trail the waterfalls in Trail of the Cedars is a spectacular sight.

Hotel Grande Bretagne – Athens, Greece

August 10th – 13th, 2005, November 3, 2011, & July 12, 2018

Hotel Grande Bretagne

The room is messy but at the time I had no idea I would need these pictures.

Hotels We’ve Stayed In :-)

These are some of the fabulous Hotels we were lucky enough spend time in.

**If you would like to skip to any particular area please click on the links below.

Amsterdam, Netherlands – Amstel Hotel – April 8-12, 2013

Andasibe, Madagascar – Vakona Forest Lodge – June 15th – 16th, 2016

Anguilla, Caribbean – Belmond Cap Juluca – April 23, 2017

Asheville, North Carolina – Omni Grove Park Inn – October 23, 2020

Athens, Greece– Hotel Grand Bretagne – August 10th – 13th, 2005,
November 3, 2011,
July 12, 2018

Atlanta, GA – Waldorf Astoria – November 2, 2019 – November 5, 2019

Austin, Texas – Four Seasons – May 17, 2021 – May 18, 2021

Baltimore, Maryland – Four Seasons – October 14, 2020 – October 15, 2020

Bangkok, Thailand – Mandarin Oriental – March 30th & 31st, 2014

Bora Bora, French Polynesia – Four Seasons – January 21, 2015

Boston, MA – XV Beacon – October 11, 2019

Big Island, Hawaii – Hilton Hotel – February 28 – March 2, 2017

Charleston, South Carolina – Belmond Charleston Place – October 26, 2020

Charlottesville, Virginia – Albermarle Estate at Trump Winery – October 15, 2020

Chicago, IL – Peninsula Hotel – August 30, 2017 – September 1, 2017
Trump Hotel – March 21, 2019 – March 23, 2019

Cape Neddick, Maine – Cliff House – August 2, 2020 – August 5, 2020

Cincinnati, Ohio – Netherland Plaza Hotel – April 28, 2019

Cong, County Mayo, Ireland – Ashford Castle – August 2023

Dallas, Texas – The Joule – May 15, 2021 – May 17, 2021

D.C. – District of Columbia – Trump International Hotel– June 8, 2021

Des Moines, Iowa – Embassy Suites – August 23rd – 24th, 2017

Doonbeg, Ireland – Trump International Doonbeg – August 2023

Dubai, UAE – Raffles – November 22, 2011
Medinat Jumeirah – September 2, 2019 – September 4, 2019
Burj Khalifa-Armani-September 4, 2019-September 6, 2019
Burj Al Arab – September 7, 2019

Eze, France– La Chevre D’Or – May 27, 2019 – May 29, 2019

Florence, Italy– Four Seasons – February 2011

Grand Anse Mahe, Seychelles – Hilton Northolme – June 18th – 22nd, 2016

Grand Rapids, Michigan – Amway Grand Rapids Hotel – April 26, 2019

Honolulu, Hawaii – Ritz Carlton Residences – June 14, 2022 – June 18, 2022

Hot Springs, Virginia – Omni Homestead – October 17, 2020 – Oct 19, 2020

Huntington, NY – Oheka Castle – September 2018

Jerusalem, Israel – Waldorf Astoria – July 15, 2018

Johannesburg, South Africa – Intercontinental – September 20, 2019

Kahuku, Hawaii – Turtle Bay Resort – June 18, 2022 – June 20, 2022

Ko ‘Olina – Hawaii – Disney Aulani – September 13, 2018 – Sept. 20, 2018
September 14th – 21st, 2013
September 7th – 14th, 2014 September 23rd – October 1st, 2016 February 23rd – February 28th, 2017

Kruger National Park/South Africa – April 2009

Limerick, Ireland – Adare Manor – August 2023

Livingstone, Zambia – Royal Chundu – June 7th – 13th, 2016

Maui, Hawaii – Westin Hotel – March 3rd – 7th, 2017

Milwaukee, Wisconsin – Hilton Hotel – August 28, 2017

Montauk, New York – Gurney’s Star Island – October 9, 2020 – Oct 10, 2020

Monte Carlo, Monaco – Hotel De Paris – May 23, 2019 – May 27, 2019

Nairobi, Kenya – Giraffe Manor – September 8, 2019
Angama Mara – September 9, 2019 – September 13, 2019
Salas Camp – September 13, 2019 – September 16, 2019

Nashville, Tennessee – Hermitage Hotel – May 24, 2017 – May 25, 2017

New Orleans, LA – Ritz Carlton – October 28, 2019 – October 31, 2019

Newport, RI – Castle Hill – October 9, 2019
The Chanler @ Cliff Walk – October 10, 2019

Orlando, Florida – Ritz Carlton – August 25, 2022 – August 27, 2022

Oceania Cruises Suites – Owners Suite 1 & 2, Oceania Suite, Vista & Penthouse Suite

Palm Beach, Florida – The Breakers – September 22, 2013, October 25, 2015
Mar-A-Lago – Members since 2021

Papeete, French Polynesia – January 24, 2015

Park City, Utah – St. Regis – September 27, 2016 – September 28, 2016

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – Ritz Carlton – August 8, 2019 – Aug. 10, 2019

Rome, Italy – Westin Excelsior Hotel – February 7th – 20th, 2011
Ritz Carlton -August 18th – 21st, 2012
Waldorf Astoria Rome Cavalieri – August 23, 2018
Waldorf Astoria Rome Cavalieri – June 2, 2019 – June 4, 2019

San Diego, Califonia – The US Grant – September 20, 2022 – September 23, 2022

Sedona, AZ – Enchantment Hotel – September 27- 29, 2010

St. George, Utah – The Inn at Entrada – August 27, 2013 – August 29, 2013

Venice, Italy – Luna Baglioni & 2nd time – February 3rd – 5th, 2011 & October 14, 2022

Waikiki, Hawaii – Trump International Hotel – June 20, 2022

Walland, Tennessee – Blackberry Mountain – Oct. 21, 2020 – Oct. 23, 2020

White Sulphur Springs, Virginia – The Greenbrier – Oct. 18, 2020

Zakynthos, Greece –Le Sante Blu – July 7, 2018 – July 11, 2018

Zambia, Africa – Royal Chundu – September 17, 2019 – September 20, 2019

Athens, Greece 2018

July 12, 2018

The first thing John and I always do while in Athens is walk through Plaka. We always stay at Hotel Grand Bretagne which is in the heart of the city. After grabbing a bite to eat we decided to burn off what we ate and walked to the old Panathenaic Olympic stadium and we also visited the Temple of Hephaestus, Stoa of Attalos, Zappeion and lastly the Temple of Olympian Zeus. The next day we woke up and got a transfer to the port to board the ship.

July 22, 2018 – Second time visiting Athens

Today we took a taxi to Syntagma Square with our friend Samantha and saw the official changing of the guards with the band after that we walked to Plaka which is my favorite place to visit while in Athens. We decided to have lunch and then took a taxi back to the ship.

If you would like to see the food we ate while we were in Athens click this link.

A church we saw on the way to Patra, Greece.

This is a great store. Everything sold there is made from Olive Wood.

Athens, Greece (2005)

August 10th – 13th, 2005

This trip was my mom, and we visited Athens, Greece we decided to walk around the Acropolis of Athens and take pictures. I wish the pictures were better, but that was a long time ago my camera is much better now. The only problem is that there are a lot of people visiting currently, so it’s impossible to get pictures without crowds of people.

I had a great time with my mom in Greece we went to visit the rest of our family in Kalo Nero, Messinia but unfortunately, I don’t have any pictures we will have to go back so that we can have some pictures of my aunts, uncles and all my cousins.

Changing of the guards at the Acropolis of Athens

Athens, Greece (2011)

November 3, 2011

Excitement is traveling to the Motherland!

Flying to Greece to visit my godmother, Roula, and godbrother, Basili. It is exciting; I haven’t seen them since September 2000 I was looking forward to a great reunion.

Maria – with My God Brother Vasili & My God Mother Roula

John has heard so many stories about them but has never met them. Unfortunately, my lovely Godfather Evangelos passed away a few years ago he was an unbelievable person. He was Greek but was born in Egypt, and he spoke nine different languages. He had so many great stories enough to last a lifetime.

We flew into Athens two days before we were supposed to board the cruise ship for our 18-day voyage. Our itinerary was from Athens, Greece to Dubai, UAE. This was the first time I was going to be on a cruise which made me nervous and excited. I wasn’t sure how I would do with the rocking of the boat at night so wish me luck. The next day we had a private tour of the city. I had seen all the monuments already, but I thought it would have been a good idea to hire a guide to explain things better especially dates and facts.

The first place we visited was the Acropolis sitting high above the city. You can’t miss this archeological site. It is truly spectacular to see it in person. I just can’t imagine how difficult it must have been to erect these structures. We primarily spent most of the time at the Acropolis and at the museum there is so much to see. I have posted some pictures of the main monuments that we saw at the Acropolis such as The Parthenon, Temple of Hephaestus, the Erechtheion, the Odeon of Herodes Atticus & the Theatre of Dionysus.

When I was younger, you were able to walk up to the Parthenon and touch it, but over the years people were destroying the structures with graffiti, so they have all of the monuments roped off.

We also had a chance to visit Syntagma Square it was right by our hotel when we first arrived in Athens it was at night, so John didn’t get a chance to see the soldiers guarding the building, so we made sure he saw that. After the tour, we decided to meet my godmother and godbrother for dinner at one of the local restaurants that Roula loved.

The one disappointing thing was that we were staying at Hotel Bretagne and that is right next to the Parliament building, and at night there was a lot of protesting going on. The people were breaking off marble from the surrounding buildings and throwing them at the presidents home.

We board our ship in the morning and cruising the mediterranean sea to our first port which in Cyprus. Follow us on our journey next stop is Limassol, Cyprus.

Alphabetic Links of Where We’ve Been