Finally- a long nights sleep. (We never expect our vacations to be restful- just a feast for our minds.) After breakfast we took off for the Historic Museum, a medium-sized museum with wonderful exhibits that laid out chapters of Greek history wed never really studied before. We kept encountering a group of lively middle school students who kept walking by and shouting, hello so wed say hello back. Lots of paintings and artifacts from sad stories of battles with the Turks.

From there we went back to our hotel and retrieved our bags, having checked out earlier. We had reservations at the Hilton for the last 2 nights. We decided to walk there, and it was longer than it looked on the map. (The map doesnt have a mileage scale.) It took almost an hour but we got there after passing the Senate building and the embassies of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Albania, Portugal and one practically covered by palm trees with no signs and lot s of soldiers out front. There were Israeli flags all over; apparently there are some big VIPs in town because we had to pass through a metal detector to get into the hotel. (This neighborhood also includes the Hotel Grand Bretagne, where an attempt was made to blow up Winston Churchill when he was here in WW II.) I told Ron I was going to e-mail my mother and tell her he had made me drag our stuff through miles of streets to the hotel. He replied that shed tell me I should have gotten him a taxi.

We were directed to the Executive Check-in floor, next to the lounge with complimentary continental breakfast, free drinks and munchies in the evening and a view of the Parthenon. THIS is why we hoard Hilton points and try to keep Elite status. The bill for this stay will amount to whatever I spend for Internet access. The room is large and sleekly modern- no Parthenon view but we can see some big mountain or other outside our balcony. A king-size bed, after being issued twin beds in the Hotel Attalos and the Patmos ferry. Ice dispensers on every floor. There was a complimentary bottle of wine in the room and a nice note from the hotel manager. Yes, this will do till we have to go home! We actually like the neighborhood of the Attalos better, but its a quick Metro ride away.

I fought with the hotel wireless system and lost (tried every spot in my room but the bathtub and couldn't get a signal). They refunded the cost of my wireless access cards (E 4.20 for a session that expires after 30 minutes or when you disconnect- whichever comes first) and I'm on the E23 per 24 hour broadband. I'll hit my company up for some of this- I've been very good about accessing my e-mail.

Happy Valentine's Day!