First morning breakfast I wondered why pedestrians walking past the hotel kept crossing themselves. Turns out there is a chapel across the street from the hotel. Tonight there was something going on as Ieft for dinner. I didn’t wait to see what it was. Monday vespers? Tuesday matins? With the Orthodox, it is hard to tell.

My cardiologist says, “Mediterranean diet.” Greece is Mediterranean, right doctor?  So shrimp and spaghetti at an upscale restaurant. Messy eating because the shrimp was still in the shell. But still good eating. The bread came with a suspicious looking substance which turned out to be an olive paste. Tasty. I only ate about half the spaghetti, so had room for heart healthy dessert.

So here’s the Chocolate island. Hard chocolate disks interspersed with chocolate ice cream on white chocolate and pistachio nuts. And red wine. Can’t get more heart healthy. Actually my blood pressure is about where it needs to be.

In Athens you are never more than about six feet above history. Right behind my table there was a window which looks into an ancient cistern.

I am convinced that Athens taxi drivers don’t know much about Athens. Coming from the airport to the hotel, I gave the driver the name of the hotel and the street address. When we got to the district, Syntagma, I had to show him on an Athens map where it was. Today the plan was to check in to the bus tour I’ll take beginning tomorrow and then take a cab to the ancient agora and Stoa Museum. The driver went on a wild goose chase, stopped somewhere no near were the agora and said ‘here?’ I said, ‘no.’ So I haul out a map and showed him. More random driving and he drops me off in the maze of streets near the agora but there is no clue how to get there. This may not be on a scale with the Acropolis and Parthenon, but it is a major historical site in the shadow of the Acropolis. I wandered around a bit, totally lost and unable to figure out exactly where I was. I eventually came across a taxi to take me back to the hotel. He did figure that out without my guiding him. He also offered me visits for massage, casinos, women and boys.