Weekly Photo Challenge: Up

Living in Scotland makes it much easier 
for us to pop over to other European countries 

for a long weekend.

So convenient, that I hesitate to mention one tiny inconvenience;

the short list of those cities with direct flights from Aberdeen.

Most of the time, we fly to Amsterdam, London, Paris or Frankfurt 

and then on to our final destination, 

if it is not one of those fabulous cities.

Our flight to Greece provided the perfect photos for this weeks photo challenge as we flew over the geometric French countryside...

and the snow capped Alps...

before heading south.

Since we were going to be in Athens for only one night, our time needed to be spent wisely seeing as much as possible in the little time we had.

A friend who lived in Athens a few years ago
 still had the name of a driver she had used many times before.
 As it turns out Fotis (Fo-tee) is quite a popular guy.
We were picked up from the airport,
and taken to the amazing...
Fresh Hotel...
where our room offered views of Athens from...

as an added luxury.
 Mr. and Mrs. Smith have great taste in hotels 
and offer little 'extras' when you book through them...

like, maybe, a welcome drink on the roof under an olive tree.

It just so happened that Thursday was International Monuments Day, 

offering free admission to all museums and monuments.

We had just enough time to catch the Acropolis Museum...

before visiting the Olympic stadium...

and driving to the top of Mount Lycabettus, the highest point in Athens...

 to catch the setting sun.

Once to the top of the limestone hill, 
the whitewashed Chapel of St. George cloaked in purple,  

overlooked the city below.

Ren Man asked Fotis to take us to an authentic Greek restaurant with no English on the menu.
And did he deliver.
He's just that kind of guy.

Not a word of English being spoken by staff or customers,
amazing food for an amazing price,
and an impressive few hours in one of the world's oldest cities.

Have a wonderful Wednesday.