August 29, 2024
Tag: athens
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/m
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
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, 2020Â
Athens, Greece– Hotel Grand Bretagne – August 10th – 13th, 2005,
                                           November 3, 2011,
                                           July 12, 2018
Atlanta, GA – Waldorf Astoria – November 2, 2019 – November 5, 2019Â
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, 2019Â
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, 2020Â
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, 2019Â
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 Â
              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, 2020Â
Huntington, NY – Oheka Castle – September 2018Â
Jerusalem, Israel – Waldorf Astoria – July 15, 2018
Johannesburg, South Africa – Intercontinental – September 20, 2019Â
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 2023Â
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, 2019Â
                  Angama Mara – September 9, 2019 – September 13, 2019 Â
                  Salas Camp – September 13, 2019 – September 16, 2019 Â
Nashville, Tennessee – Hermitage Hotel – May 24, 2017 – May 25, 2017
New Orleans, LA – Ritz Carlton – October 28, 2019 – October 31, 2019Â
Newport, RI – Castle Hill – October 9, 2019Â
               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 2021Â
Papeete, French Polynesia – January 24, 2015
Park City, Utah – St. Regis – September 27, 2016 – September 28, 2016
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania –Â 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 &Â 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, 2020Â
Zakynthos, Greece –Le Sante Blu – July 7, 2018 – July 11, 2018
Zambia, Africa – Royal Chundu – September 17, 2019 – September 20, 2019Â
Athens, Greece 2018
July 12, 2018Â
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.
Follow us on our journey the next destination is Heraklion, Crete – Greece.
If you would like to see the food we ate while we were in Athens click this link.
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.
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.
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. Â 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. Â
