I was excited to join another photography focused tour and this time to Greece. Husband and wife, Brian and Me Ra, are professional photographers who organize trips that focus on photography. I’ve been on several trips with them, including my 1st trip with them to Thailand.

And the bonus of traveling with Brian and Me Ra is that I have made so many good friends as my travel companions, including Sue, who I’ve probably traveled with more than anyone outside my immediate family.

I arrived in Athens at 9 am Saturday morning and hit the ground running. I always find that it’s better to power through jet lag with coffee, walking, and sunshine. We met up with some others in our group and had lunch at our hotel which had an amazing view of the Acropolis.

After lunch a bunch of us walked to the tallest point in Athens, Lycabettus Hill, and took a funicular (tram) to the top. From there we had a view over all of Athens out to the islands. (Just a reminder that if you click on most pictures, you can see it larger.)

There was a restaurant about halfway down the hill with an amazing sunset view and we were able to make a sunset reservation for a party of 16. Woot woot!

The next day we had a tour guide who walked us through a bunch of neighborhoods in Athens as we made our way towards the Acropolis. Anafiotika was the last neighborhood we walked through and is in the shadow of the Acropolis. It was quiet and old with lots of cool little alleys and stairs (and cats).

Here is a view of Lycabettus Hill, where we had dinner the previous night, from Anafiotika.

Then it was on to the Acropolis which is the hill that the temples are built on. We arrived just before sunset so the light was beautiful. We were lucky to catch the guards coming in to change the flag.

One of my favorite images from the trip of the Parthenon.

This area was so very, very crowded but we just started working our way into this spot.

(Rick & Karen are married and Rick and Ray are brothers. Ray is married to Niki. And Cherie is Karen’s cousin so there were 5 in their group. And they are the best family! This trip has the most men of any of their previous trips.)

And that’s a wrap for Athens. On to the island of Milos!