Arrival in Greece

June 25th

We arrived yesterday having braced ourselves for street protesters because of the recent additional cutbacks inflicted on the Greeks. That has not been the case. Besides some organized protest groups that have quietly set up camp in central Syntagma Square, things are very calm here. We heard, but can’t confirm, that the protesters have somehow agreed to cease demonstrating during the Games. Very civilized.

It’s hot outside and things are pretty spread out, which is tough on my parents. They’re not alone, though. We’ve talked to lots of family members who are concerned about how they’ll get to the Opening Ceremony at the Athens stadium tonight. There seems not to be a plan to shuttle folks, and the walk in the deep heat is about a half hour for able bodies like ours.

At the press conference we learned who would perform tonight. Tim Shriver introduced several celebs but names most of you will likely recognize are Stevie Wonder (see photo) and Vanessa Williams, who will co-host.

The ceremonies will be looong. They don’t begin until 8:30pm and, if all goes according to a really strict schedule, won’t end until after midnight with the lighting of the Olympic flame. So with the excuse of conserving my energy, I’ll sign off but not before showing you a photo from our hotel. Some old building they call the Acropolis.

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 25th, 2011 at 3:29 pm and is filed under FOW Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.