FINAL THOUGHTS ....

I'm not sure what I had expected from the Athens experience, but the city deserves its ranking as one of the world's most historically, politically, artistically and societally significant places. In the U.S., something is "old" if it has been around for three hundred years. That's "contemporary" by Athenian standards.

The city's landmarks and museums present a history of not only Greek culture, but the one which has shaped all the Western world. That concept underlined every day's activities for me.

In order to catch a 2:30 plane from Frankfurt back to Chicago, I had to leave Athens at 6am on Wednesday morning. I caught the 3:20am airport express bus from the Sygtagma Square station and the ride was quite the opposite from the incoming trip which was abbreviated due to the military blocking off streets to keep protestors away from government buildings.

But, the Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt was an uneventful three hours. The Frankfurt airport is one of Europe's largest and most confusing; I had only carry-on luggage, so that potential problem was avoided. However, switching to the international terminal involved going through security three times. American Airlines has a minimal presence there and is relegated to a single gate that's at least halfway to Berlin.

Interestingly, the adjacent gate was being used for a flight to Jeddha and the waiting area was filled with pilgrims to Mecca. In the Frankfurt airport, passengers are checked INTO the gate waiting area just as we go onto the boarding ramps at O'Hare. So, once you're in the waiting area, you're IN the waiting area. Apparently, it's customary for pilgrims to dress in white; unfortunately, that entailed needing to go back outside the waiting area to change clothes. The enhanced security forces twice forced everyone back outside the gate area to recheck in because so many people had been going in/out to change clothes. Picture the mayhem!

Finally, we boarded busses to be taken out to the tarmac where our plane awaited. Actually, it was blissfully peaceful to be away from the terminal building for the eight-hour flight home. Home to my quiet little place.