Giving thanks

For Thanksgiving, keeping with tradition, my parents and I went on a hike...up to the top of the highest hill in Athens

 (All the way up there!)

 It was a beautiful day...

 And had a beautiful view...

(figure I might as well throw in this picture of the view from my parents' hotel room...there it is again! Can't go anywhere without that darn Acropolis poppin up)

For Thanksgiving dinner we resisted the 48-euro "traditional American Thanksgiving dinner" being served at one of the hotels in Syntagma and instead had a splurge meal at my parents' hotel in the rooftop restaurant with a view of the Acropolis--and a real view, not like the ones advertised by every single restaurant in Plaka.

The food was nouveau Greek. It was interesting to see Greek "fine dining"--Greek dishes re-imagined and plated with fancy sauce decorations on rectangular slate plates

 Amuse-bouche and Acropolis

 Delicious, fresh mixed salad--and Acropolis again

 Moussaka (the smokiest and richest moussaka I've ever had)

(breaded and fried chicken--stuffed with bechamel perhaps?--and mashed potatoes with caper berries)

Great food, the best company, and a killer view--I don't think I could have dreamed up a better Thanksgiving here

and I am very thankful.