My Travel Blog for past, present and future countries and cities visited.
Balkans - Ep 15 - Athens
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The final full day of the tour started with breakfast at 07:00am and we departed the hotel just after 08:00am making our way back to Athens. After driving for several hours we made a lunch stop on the way back stopping at the beach town of Kamena Vourla. We would have well over an hour here as it was a late Easter weekend in Greece, before the final leg of the journey.
Kamena Vourla, Greece
The final drive together took us 2 hours and we said goodbye to the excellent driver for the final time. We had a couple of hours free time in the city or around the hotel before our farewell dinner which was scheduled for 19:00pm. I made plans to briefly explore Athens first thing in the morning however some things are closed due to Easter Sunday been 1 week later in Greece.
It was the last morning before flying home so I went to breakfast early at 07:00am to make the most of the city. Unfortunately the Acropolis was closed on Easter Sunday so I walked around it and took some long distance shots.
Acropolis of Athens.
I then made my way to the site of the first ever Olympics in 1896 at the Panathenaic Stadium. I spent nearly an hour here taking photos and videos from various angles before moving on. Finally mid morning I walked half way up Mount Lycabettus. After getting a good wide shot of the city I made my way back to the hotel.
I am now just a couple of weeks away from travelling to North America for the first time. I will be flying to New York and heading in a anti-clockwise direction through Canada, before coming back into the USA. In total I will pass through over 10 cities in the North East region of North America over a 2 week period as a group, before exploring New York on my own on the final day. Tour Map. The outbound flight from the UK I managed to get one of the extra leg room seats, but on the return flight I was unable to as they were already taken. So hopefully I can get some sleep on the way back to make it go a little bit faster. As always while I am away I will be taking plenty of footage to create YouTube videos when I get home. I have already created the templates for the video thumbnails to save time, but I still need to find some music, which always seems to be one of the hardest parts about creating them. Another one of the challenges I am likely to face on this particular tour...
I left home southbound to Kings Cross once again on the train, ready for another trip. Upon arrival into London I had a McDonald's which is right next to the station, and made my way across London on the Piccadilly line. I would be staying at Heathrow Terminal 5 just off site at Heathrow Lodge where I have a flight at 07:15am the following morning. You can book accommodation for a hotel here: https://www.booking.com/s/11_6/7d62e267 Terminal 5 at Heathrow Airport. Waking up early I took the free 423 bus back to Heathrow Airport and proceeded to the British Airways bag drop to offload my suitcase. The security line was minimal at 05:30am as I passed through with ease. My flight started to board just after 07:00am and the flight departed on time. 3 hours and 45 minutes later, and after a couple of time zone changes I landed in Athens, Greece. I had a transfer waiting for me in the arrivals lobby and the driver took me to the hotel. I was able to check-in to my room and later ...
I waited in the lobby to meet half of the group, and we joined the other half already on the coach making 17 of us in total. We made the very short trip from our hotel around the corner to start the day at Tiananmen Square. Tiananmen Square Within the first 10 minutes I had already had my first photo taken because of my height. The square is one of the biggest squares in the world and is perhaps most famous for the 1989 protests. On the square you will find Monument to the People's Heroes, the Great Hall of the People, the National Museum of China, and the Mausoleum of Mao Zedong. We slowly walked around the square making our way across the road via the underpass to the Forbidden City. Forbidden City The sheer size of this place is amazing, there are around 980 buildings to explore you could spend all day here if you wanted to. We were guided through some of the most important buildings as we learned more about them through local knowledge. In total I think we spen...
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