Our flight from Amsterdam to Athens was 3 hours over some beautiful country.

We took the metro into the city center.  Even in the station there are ruins!

Our hotel is very close to Monastiraki Square, within walking distance is the Acropolis. And our room,  on the 5th floor, is pretty basic,  but  has a great view!

We have 3 nights here,  too relax a bit, get over jet lag, and do a bit of sightseeing of things we missed on previous visits!  We did a little walk around our neighborhood, near the Monastiraki square, before bed.   Tomorrow we will explore farther.

Monday we had a quick lunch with our great grand Zuriah, and her daddy,  Trey, at her school.

Then Trey took us to the airport for our overnight flight to Athens via Amsterdam

Love the layflat seats and the food.

Dinner and breakfast

All served on darling delft dishes. And as a little souvenir, you get a small delft house.

Only 30 minutes thru passport conto but that have us time to relax in the lounge before our next flight to Athens.  We had a short break in the Amsterdam KLM lounge

New year celebration at Wu Chow with Rebecca and Joel

We will let this adventure unfold in sections,  since it is again a multi destination trip.   For now,  we are up early,  flying from our home airport to Austin for Chinese New Year celebration with daughter Rebecca and her husband Joel!  Stay tuned for pics! 

Sedona is beautiful in the bright sun.   We’ve had great weather and the views are stunning with the blue skies.

We stopped at the Chapel of the Holy Cross for the view of the Chapel and the valley

Lunch with cousin Laura in Jerome, but we forget to take pictures!  It was good to catch up tho.  Sunday we head home with a stop at Indio just to make it a shorter drive.   We’ve had a great week off sightseeing with Kath

We left the Grand Canyon village area heading east to our next stop.   The views along the canyon are not as spectacular as the rim altitude decreases,  but still amazing.   Along the way we saw more elk and deer!

A couple of the stops along this route are out on a point with spectacular 270°  views of the canyon around you!  the last point is the Desert tower. 

Inside,  there are these black mirrors use to view the canyon sites.   They were supposed to sharpen the colors,  but on our bright day, they were already sharp

We made 1 stop in the Navajo nation at an overlook.   There were very few stands open this time of year,  just 1 woman here with beaded merchandise,  but we didn’t stop to buy,  just for 1 last goodbye look at the canyon.

Our best stop is Sedona and we are lucky to have a great view from our timeshare!  We are sightseeing here Saturday

We are enjoying the historic lodge for dinner tonight and visiting the Hopi House Native arts while we wait.  Here’s a sample of the beautiful crafts

The historic El Tovar

We planned one grand dinner and it was delicious

We have had a stunningly clear,  but crisp 33° day at the south rim of the Grand Canyon today.   We drove the rim road toward the west,  to Hermits Rest,  stopping for spectacular scenery along the way.

The trail leads down to Phantom Ranch.   Emmett has done this trek with George.  The red line on this map,  down to the bottom of the canyon.

Driving west there are 5-6 stops with amazing views that change at every stop

The rim road follows the canyon rim trail, so you can walk / hike this route for the views but we chose the drive!

Every stop,  a different angle,  but just as amazing

We packed a lunch and had our picnic at the end of the road,  at Hermit’s Rest

On our drive back we stopped for a few elk!  We saw 1 deer too

And of course more spectacular views

Early in the morning another animal shadow appeared!

Spectacular day!

We had a busy. beautiful day today.   We stopped at Hoover Dam after leaving Las Vegas

Then on to the Grand Canyon.  We arrived just before sunset to see this amazing view.

Kathy came home with us for a few days of California sun.  Emmett cooked up a great tapas / pinxos dinner,  remembering our Spanish trip this last year

Since Kathy hasn’t visited there, we planned a week road trip to see the sights of Nevada and Arizona

Across the desert

What happens in Vegas,  stays in Vegas!

We even caught a show!  All Motown