Let’s catch up

Let me go back to the bus rides on Christmas Day. They had one of those headphone deals where you  plug in and here the cultural blurb, then they play music until the next historical point. The songs were twice as loud as the blurb so I constantly had to adjust the sound. And they only played two different songs the entire time, one of which was Never on Sunday. And I was wearing shirt, shirt, sweatshirt, sweater, jacket, scarf, hat, gloves and two pairs of socks. (and, yes, pants.) it was so cold.
Yesterday after breakfast, I went immediately to the funicular go go up the highest mountain in Athens. You already had to walk up a bunch of steps until halfway up the mountain even to get into the thing. But the view was lovely so it was worth it. And there was no rain yesterday but it certainLy was cold. I walked back down and took the subway back towards the center, where I sat in front of parliament until I saw the entire changing of the guard. On that day the guys wore white tutus. This whole ceremony is very elaborate. When they do their synchronized marching steps, it’s all I. Slow motion. It’s almost like a goosestep, then with a backward kick. Picture Trigger, the wonder horse, counting by pawing in the dirt. That’s pretty much what it looked like. Then I spent the afternoon walking through the bazaar. Man, some places were even selling wooden dildoes as souvenirs. Real classy stuff!
I walked back to the hotel and took a break, then went to the restaurant just down the street for dinner. I ordered the grilled calamari. I had a piece as big as my whole forearm. It was delicious. I accompanied that with stuffed grape leaves and a big glass of orange juice. It was a wonderful meal.
So, I went back to the hotel and packed up and got ready to leave tomorrow before getting a not very restful night of sleep.
This morning after breakfast, Colleen, the tour operator, and her assistant Ianni camexand picked me up. We drove out to the Korinth Canal and started the tour there. We had a hell of a time getting the GPS to work correctly. And she was constantly complaining that it wasn’t giving verbal cues. Later to realized she hadn’t programmed the day’s ride in correctly. Then , the written cue sheets didn’t always match the GPS. Oh well, she says, I’ll have to fix those. How about you do it before I START my ride? Except for today and the last day, I’ll be riding alon and depending on the navigation aids. Her emails were confusing, her cue sheets are confusing and her verbal explanations are confusing. Then she got into a couple of arguments with Ianni. I do t need to hear all this.
The ride is very hilly. I got off and pushed a couple of times. So she’s concerned that I won’t ride well enough to finish the trip. Geez, I’ve already arranged to be transported part way on some of the days. I’m Not out to kill myself. But I told her I wasn’t a fast rider. Then we finally arrived at the ancient site I was supposed to visit and it was CLOSED for lack of personnel. Lovely.  So we rode on To the