Elle Takes Europe 2026 - Day 12: Cheers
Our last big flight for the next eight days is upon us. We had to wake up at 6 AM and be out of the hotel at 7 AM to take our car to the Zurich airport. Fortunately, it's a short 20-minute drive, and we got to use the family lanes and were through security in minutes. From there we went and grabbed breakfast which was a combination of three places a breakfast restaurant, Burger King, and Starbucks. Jenn had a hot chocolate and a muffin; I had a cappuccino and a cheeseburger; and Elle had eggs, some of my burger, and a little muffin. That took up most of our time and by 9 AM we had played in the kids a’ area, watched a little Madagascar on a kids TV, and boarded the plane.
The 2.5-hour flight from Zurich to our next destination, Athens, Greece, was mostly smooth sailing. It started out a little rocky. Elle was very deficient in sleep (going to bed late and waking up early) and seemed not to relish being on a plane again. We pulled out all the stops, including food, sticker books, coloring books, reading books, and even the iPad. Each only held her attention for a few minutes. It wasn’t until she looked back at a little girl in the row behind us (likely 4-5 years old) who played with her for at least the last hour of the flight. They were having two different conversations, trading food, and laughing and giggling. At one point, Elle got a piece of food from this girl (who we think is from or lives in Athens) and tried to “cheers” her. The girl was confused, so we did cheers with her. The little girl (whose name we never caught) was a godsend and made the flight so much easier.
When we landed, we made our way to baggage claim, grabbed our bags, and were off to find our driver, whom we booked through the hotel. It took about 30 minutes to get from the airport to the hotel, and we ended up checking into the Academias Hotel, Autograph Collection. The staff couldn’t have been friendlier to Elle or us, and we got a beautiful (albeit small) executive room. Fortunately, the room was ready, as was the crib, and a few minutes after snacks and water, we put Elle to sleep.
After Elle’s nap, we grabbed a taxi (took us a few tries) to Strofi for our evening dinner. I had emailed them a few months ago, and the only time they could get us in was 5 PM. Not ideal coming off a flight, but we were ready to make it work. The restaurant is known for having some of the best views in the city, specifically of the Acropolis, and great food to go along with it. When we arrived, and for the majority of our dinner, we were the only ones on this beautiful rooftop. The views were breathtaking. We started with a bottle of white Greek wine (the name escapes me) and some pita bread with tzatziki. Elle loved the pita bread, but when she tried the tzatziki, she almost had a heart attack. We sort of lost her on and off for the rest of the dinner. For the first time on this trip, she didn’t enjoy their delicious homemade pasta and refused to try the meatball appetizer or our main dishes of lamb chops and sea bream. She had a few minor meltdowns during dinner, we had a big bottle of wine, and an empty dining room. Jenn is like a zen master when these situations happen and knows exactly how to calm Elle down, meanwhile, I panic.
We left dinner stuffed and feeling good with the wine, but knew we had to get Elle more food. Fortunately, there was a McDonald's within an 8-minute walk of the restaurant. We let Elle lead the way, and we slowly but surely made our way down the hill to McDonald’s. When we arrived, I ordered her a kid chicken nugget Happy Meal and a cheeseburger. I had a quick work call (that came with exciting news, more on that later), and Jenn did her best to get Elle to eat and drink as much as possible. She did OK, but not great, so we took it to go, grabbed a taxi, and went back to our hotel. We both did our best to coax her to eat more when we got back, and I even grabbed her some cranberry juice at a nearby grocery store. As it got later, we started unpacking and getting Elle ready for bed. It wasn’t our most successful day of the trip, but we’re so happy to be back in Athens and excited for the next 8 days in Greece.
