Notes from Abroad: Our Last Day

On our way to our Air Bnb the very first night we landed in Athens, we passed the National Gallery of Greece, and I knew that we had to make a visit.  We decided to leave it for the last day, as we weren't sure about the heat and wanted avoid sweating before our evening flight.  In the morning, we breakfasted and dragged our suitcases to storage before we walked to the National Gallery, taking a cool route through the shady National Gardens.

We all meandered through the light-filled galleries, and each of us found our favorite pieces.  Little M's was this painting, which Ashley had just posted to her blog.  I very much liked the paintings by Konstantinos Parthenis, whose career spanned the turn of the century to the 1960s.  Nikolaos Gyzis' luminous Behold the Bridegroom Arriving was another painting that captured my attention.

After our morning at the National Gallery, we stopped for a quick bite and suitcase pick-up, and then caught the metro to the airport.  As always happens in Athens, we ran into several friends at the gate for our flight.  Little M was able to catch up with a friend from Greek School, and we chatted with a fellow wedding guest who we'd not had a chance to talk to over the music at the reception.  

While we highly recommend this airline and direct flights, Little M and I did not travel well on the way home.  She and I barely made it through customs on our feet, and we weren't in any shape to hold a conversation with the friend who came to pick us up.  I've never been motion sick before, and have new respect for my two relatives who suffer from it regularly. But we made it!

And that's it--our three week sojourn in a series of highlight blog posts.  My trip journal and ticket stubs and paper memorabilia are going to turn into a handmade book.  I'm stuck on the size right now, but as soon as I make up my mind, I'll get to work.  

We're back to the regular swing of things.  The past two weeks have been eclipsed by Patriarch Bartholomew's visit and our parish's feast day and celebration at the end of this week.  Life is full and good.

I hope all is well with you, friends!  

Back to my regular posts about knitting and home and reading and the extraordinary ordinariness of our life...