Author: Athensguide

As a Chicagoan transplanted to Athens, I often miss the bike routes and paths of the Windy City, where even our mayor has been rumored to bike to City Hall on brisk autumn mornings. Envious of the images of the bicycle racers speeding in front of Syntagma Square during the 2004 Olympic Games, I always assumed my chance to pedal my way through history was gone when I gave up training for the Tour de France (a training period which lasted about 45 minutes!) Imagine my excitement this morning when Basil appeared with a flyer announcing “Bike Around Athens” – a 7.2 km ride through downtown, starting near Omonia Square, Plateai Kotsia, across from City Hall, to be exact, passing through Syntagma Square (and thus helping me fulfill my fantasy of pedaling past the Evzones!) and circling around the National Gardens past the Old Olympic Stadium. He’s signing us up right now, having located rental bikes from Vasili at Acropolis Bikes (www.acropolisbikes.gr). The bike route is posted on the ONA website, www.ona.gr and here http://www.ona.gr/images/stories/Podilatikos_Gyros/xartis%20podhlatikoy%20gyroy.jpg Share...

How does a little girl from Skokie, Illinois find herself in historical Athens, leading curious explorers through the winding streets of Plaka, down “pezodromos” to hidden ouzeries for tempting mezedhes and homemade barrel wine? The journey  began more than twenty years ago, and regardless of whether the wanderlust comes from the spiritual and culture DNA flowing through my veins, or the alignment of the stars on that cold mid-December day this Sagitterian came into the world, I never seem to tire of exploring my adopted homeland of Greece. Here you’ll join me as I explore Athens: be it the back streets of Psirri and Gazi, or through the National Gardens and Zappeio where a family of turtles makes their home, or down wide, treelined Imittou Street in Pagrati, which pulses with Athenian life 24 hours a day.  And while Athens has stolen my heart, the rest of Greece vies for my curiousity and wanderlust. My two guys (that’d be the Greek God, Vasilis and our Greek dog, Scruffy) and I can often be found settling in for a long weekend in some charming mountain village, or a quaint fishing port on a nearby island, or learning how Greek vitners are producing wines that rival some of Napa Valley’s finests productions, or celebrating a panayeri in Epirus or sharing in the festivities as a family of Cretan sheepherders come together to sheer their 1500...