Orchestrated Manouveres

 

Alarm set with most of our manoeuvres planned for the beginning and the end of the day.  Needed a run and found a little loop near the temple of Zeus and Hadrians Arc. Spytty on a Sunday morning it was not.  Ridiculously dry heat to run in and the last mile I went around the Royal Botanic Gardens for a nose.  Got me up to around 4.5 miles which was more than enough.

Suitably satisfied with that post run glow, Chrissi and I got back to our hotel with plenty of time to avail ourselves of the sumptuous breakfast.  Lots of water, juice, and fruit took centre stage, then eggs and carbohydrates for further sustenance, with a flurry of sugary stuff ... because we'd earned it.

With so much achieved yesterday and this being a holiday after all we could rest and recover poolside with books and digital stuff, retreating to our room for air conditioning as needed. You don't half appreciate it, the heat out here needs managing for sure, clearly creating scare stories at home too, before, during and no doubt after our trip.  

We ventured out in the midday sun which of course is foolish but planned a shady walk over a minimal distance. Aimed for the changing of the guards at the Parliament building and as they emerged to do their ballet style dance in their massive shoes, we snuck out of nearby bushes that had been keeping us cooler. The clogs by the way, and the clacking, dates back to a Bavarian King from the 19th Century, King Otto, who wanted them to remind him of his horses back home. Royalty eh?!!

We took an even slower pace back and stopped off for some food in the very touristy centre of Plaka.  First place we came to almost, not a great choice in terms of service, but the lamb kebab was fine. We didn't hang around there but found another bar and ice cream parlour to really break up our short afternoon walk!

With a busy travelling day tomorrow, we needed to get our ducks in a row and pack and plan so used the early evening to do that, as well as a final drink of both gin and the view above our hotel across to the Acropolis. Even chance to continue with a bit of reading. A Victoria Coren poker book reminding me of a few tips and tricks in one of my other interests.

It was then back to the Acropolis, and the outdoor amphitheatre or Odeon (not quite Pearl and Dean) to watch a Brass Philharmonic at sunset. Interesting to note that women not broken the 'brass ceiling' yet, it was all the boys back in my day too, and the 16 piece all male outfit kept that sad tradition going. A mixture of usual classical music that did take me back a bit to my days in the West Glam Youth Orchestra, but the stuff that really took me back was the finale of a John Williams medley with Star Wars to the fore.  Under the lights in Athens, almost worth missing the football for!

As it turned out we got back for the final 20 minutes of the football.. and the winning English goal literally as I type!