Athens
We landed at Athens Airport with a small delay and waited (and kept waiting) for our transfer. Turned out our travel agency had simply forgotten to book it. So: taxi it was.
After about an hour navigating Athens traffic, we arrived at our hotel in the city center, where we were greeted warmly enough to quickly forget the bumpy start. On the hotel’s recommendation, we walked to Onos Taverna in the Plaka neighborhood. The streets were full and the terraces packed. The vacation feeling kicked in immediately. We ordered a mix of Greek classics – moussaka, souvlaki, and a Greek take on carbonara. Everything was great. A fine first evening.
The next morning, after a decent hotel breakfast (the coffee was warm and brown, which is about all you could say for it), we walked over to the Acropolis Museum. It’s a modern building filled with ancient treasures, and the audio tour added enough extra context to make it genuinely interesting. We had lunch at the museum restaurant, with a view of the Acropolis itself, and Juliet scored her first souvenirs in the shop.
Nike Fixing her Sandal
That afternoon, we climbed up to the Acropolis. It’s a bit of a climb, but some cloud cover made it manageable. The view from the top is remarkable, Athens stretching out endlessly in every direction. We walked around the Parthenon, the great fifth century BC temple dedicated to the goddess Athena, and past the Erechtheion with its famous caryatid columns, six sculpted female figures standing in for pillars.
At one point Juul struck a pose for a photo and a guard appeared: “Only serious pictures!” Apparently the Greeks take their monuments seriously. Fair enough.
Temple of Athena
We ended up back at Onos Taverna that evening, this time for mezze, small dishes that you share. Tzatziki, aubergine, meatballs, sausage and souvlaki with fries. It was great.
On day three we went on a bike tour through the city, which started early and warm, with a few hills in the route we had to tackle. The guide wove in history as we rode past the Acropolis again, then continued to the Presidential Mansion for the changing of the Evzone guards. The soldiers are dressed in traditional white skirts and pompom shoes, performing a ceremony of precise, deliberate movements. Worth seeing in person.
From there we cycled to the Panathenaic Stadium, built entirely of marble and the site of the first modern Olympics in 1896.
The presidential guards
We also passed the Arch of Hadrian and the Temple of Zeus, stopped for Greek yogurt with walnuts and honey (delicious!), and wandered on foot through Anafiotika, a tiny pocket of white-washed houses and narrow alleys that looks more like a Cycladic island than the center of a capital city. Very charming.
Temple of Hephaestus
After returning the bikes we had lunch at Stuco Thiseio, a good coffee spot with solid sandwiches, before making our way back across the city.
Monastiraki Square
Agistri
An early 6AM alarm on day four. The ferry to Agistri left from Piraeus, and we’d half-expected gridlock through Athens. Instead, the taxi ride was easy and we arrived at the port with time to spare.
The crossing took about an hour. Our hotel, Oasis Scala Beach Hotel, was right by the harbor on Agistri, and at check-in we were offered an upgrade: the booked maisonette or two separate rooms, one with a sea view. We took the sea view.
Paralia Mariza
The island was quiet, maybe because it was a Monday, maybe low season, probably both. We had lunch at the hotel, not spectacular but the staff were genuinely warm about it, then spent the afternoon on the beach doing very little. In the evening, most of the village was still closed. We did find some Greek cats. Otherwise: quiet.
Dinner at Apagio, the restaurant next to our hotel, made up for it. Gemista (tomatoes and peppers stuffed with rice), souvlaki, and pastitsio, the Greek answer to lasagne with bechamel, were all excellent. Just when we thought we were done, the waiter appeared with three plates of mosaiko, a kind of chocolate cake with biscuit pieces. And then a complimentary ouzo each, which we politely declined.
Aponisos
The next day we hired e-bikes and rode south to Mariza for a swim. The water was beautifully clear and extremely cold. Then we continued to the west coast at Aponisos for lunch. The afternoon was beach and pool time. Officially twenty degrees, but out of the wind it felt closer to thirty.
That evening at the hotel restaurant we had bruschetta, seafood risotto, sea bass, and chicken with fries. The resident cat came around asking for fish and got some. The waiter put ouzo on the table again. This time we tried it. Surprisingly good!
A cute little Subaru Libero van
Day six was deliberately empty. Same breakfast as before (still fine), then straight to the beach. Lunch at Sunrise Beach House was tacos, bao buns, and another club sandwich, all a little lukewarm but decent enough. Then pool, book, occasional swim, nothing more.
Dinner was at the local snack bar, where we ordered far too much gyros, chicken skewers, and kebab, and ate all of it anyway.
Aegina
On the last morning on Agistri, we had breakfast one more time with a sea view, packed our bags, and took the boat to Aegina, the larger island next door. From the port there we took a taxi to Perdika, a small fishing village on the south of the island.
Our hotel, Angelina Boutique Escape, had a nice pool and a studio that looked freshly finished, because, it turned out, it more or less was. No mirror in the bathroom. Some lights still missing. And both the shower and toilet had no door. That was apparently by design, but also a bit weird.
Perdika is a small, quiet place, and Aegina as a whole is known for its pistachio nuts, which turned up in shops, desserts, and menus in every possible form. For dinner our hotel pointed us toward Nontas Fish Restaurant, which turned out to be a good recommendation. We had fried anchovies and prawns in tomato sauce, delicious!
The next day was grey and chilly, so no pool for us. We took a walk to a coastal restaurant that turned out to be closed, stumbled onto a nearly empty five-star resort where we had a drink with a nice view, and then spent a quiet afternoon back at the hotel. A second dinner near the harbor was less successful than Nontas had been. The cats were nicer than the food.
Temple of Aphaia
On the final full day, the sun came back. We arranged a taxi to the Temple of Aphaia, a well-preserved temple from around 500 BC dedicated to the goddess Aphaia, sitting on a hill with sweeping views over the island and toward the mainland.
Our driver, Christos, offered to wait and take us on to the Monastery and Church of Agios (Saint) Nektarios (one of the most important pilgrimage sites in Greece) and then drop us in Aegina town. So what started as a taxi ride became a sort of private tour.
The church was partly under scaffolding for maintenance, which hid the mosaic ceiling, but the architecture of the complex was still impressive.
Church of Agios Nektarios
In Aegina town we walked the harbor, had lunch (yes, the club sandwich was on the menu), visited the Temple of Apollo (not much left of it, but a nice spot) and picked up the last few souvenirs.
Christos happened to drive past just as we were heading back, saw us, stopped, and gave us a lift to Perdika.
A good selection of souvenirs
That evening we ate at Nontas again, this time watching the sun go down over the water and turn the sky pink and purple. A good way to end the day.
The next morning, Christos took us back to the port where we boarded the ferry to Piraeus. From there we walked to the metro and about an hour later we were at the airport, ready to go home.
