Finding a place to stay in Athens

This morning I spent several frustrating hours reading critique after critique on potential Hotels in Athens, Greece. We have to stay one night in Athens before boarding the ship for our scheduled cruise throughout the Greek Islands and Turkey. Man, what a pain. To read the critiques, most of the available hotels are hot, possessing of tiny rooms, less than clean, and good for not much more than having a roof over your head at night. The surrounding streets are filled with pickpockets, drug users, and denizens of every description. The showers are purported to be dismally small, the elevators equally tiny, and the breakfasts boring and not so fresh. About all most of them can boast is a close proximity to the old part of Athens and the night life. And, most importantly for a blog-writing fanatic such as myself, the wireless internet, if it exists at all, is usually charged for. Finally, I stumbled across the "Lotus Hotel," which is slightly removed from the city center, in a nicer neighborhood, and of fairly new construction. Further, the internet is reported as "free." So, being totally worn out from the search, I booked the Lotus and shall hope for the best. After all, it's only one night and I suppose anything will probably do fine. The cost is going to be about $120.00, is above my budget somewhat, but will have to be okay this time.

Making progress on lodging

Yesterday I lined up some of our lodging in Rome. For our last day in Italy before catching the flight home, I selected the terribly expensive Hilton located right next to the airport. I decided that it would be better to turn in the car the day before and then be able to leisurely walk to our Hotel for the night, then, just as leisurely, walk to the flight the next day. We'd have time for breakfast and, since our flight isn't until 10:00, we have plenty of time to walk across the courtyard to the terminal and check in before our flight. For our first and second nights in Italy after the Athens cruise is over, I selected the Colle degli Ulivi (Olive Tree Hill) B&B near Rome. After our experience with the hustle and bustle and lack of parking in Rome in 2006, I wanted something outside the city where we could easily park and ride public transportation into the city. We'll only be there a day before we head for southern Italy, Calabria, and the sun-washed island of Sicily where so many of Concetta's ancestors and relatives came from. This morning I received confirmation from Colle degli Ulivi so we're on for that one. They even have wireless internet, or so they say.

Coaxing Information from the cruise company

After repeated emails I finally learned the needed information on what happens on the final day of the cruise. Chris emailed to say that we would have to be off the boat by about 8:00 a.m., though we would probably be given breakfast. Therefore, it seems obvious that we should schedule our flight from Athens to Rome in mid to late morning. That way, after our two hour flight to Rome, we'd have time to pick up the rental car and drive to wherever we have decided to stay for our first night Italy.