Changing Guards and Changing Countries

This morning we had a quiet start and walked down to the Athens Cathedral of St Dionysius for Mass in Greek! One of things we noticed was how few Greeks there were and how many Filipinos were present. The Filipinos are revitalising the Church in many places throughout the world though they have a hard job ahead of them in Greece! The singing was the job of one person, the prayers of the faithful were read by the priest and another priest helped with Holy Communion... so much for the role of the laity.

After that we walked around the neo-classical area of Athens and through the Flea Market which was great. Leona was really keen for us to go to the the Changing of the Guards and dragged Steve there... thank goodness... it was spectacular. It was earlier that we had thought so just as well we went early to get a spot. It was finished by 11 am when we thought it was starting. The photos will explain it I am sure.

Now keep in step...

For those with a shoe fetish... if only they were purple

Tomb of the unknown soldier

So tell me, where did you buy your shoes?

At Stuart's suggestion we wandered around the Plaka, a beautiful neighbourhood below the Acropolis. Afterwards we had a little lunch and then off to the airport to get our flight to Rome. Steve managed to find a good place for plane spotting near the gate but then he got a bit concerned when a Swissair aircraft pulled into OUR gate. A check on the monitors showed our gate had changed... a mad dash through, for the second time, through the most thorough aviation security either of us had experienced, to get to our new gate at the end of the terminal.

At Rome's Fiumicino Airport nothing had changed since Steve was studying there - an hour to get our bags!