How appropriate that my fall trip narrative aligns perfectly this week with Veteran’s Day. One of the main reasons my family chose the Holland America cruise itinerary which we did was because it included a port call to Athens, Greece. For nine months we anticipated our visit there, but it was nearly spoiled when we learned, the evening before our arrival, that a general transportation strike had been called.

In a blog three years ago, I told the story of my father-in-law, Nicholas Vanikiotis, who, as a 19-year-old soldier, volunteered to join the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) — the precursor of today’s CIA — and its Greek/U.S. Operational Group. Because the battle records of this group were not released by the CIA until 1988, few are aware that Americans fought in Greece in World War II. However, in May of 2005, a statue depicting an American soldier and honoring those troops was dedicated in the Hellenic Army ALSOS Park near the Ministry of Defense in Athens. On its marble base is a plaque listing the names of those 224 Americans. We wanted to see the monument with our daughters and take rubbings and photos so that we could share them with my mother-in-law and other family members back home. (Dad passed away 10 years ago this past spring.)

Our plan had been to take the Athens metro from the port in Piraeus to the monument and then spend the afternoon visiting the Acropolis before making our way back to the ship. News of the strike threw everything into disarray. No taxis, no private cars, no buses, no metro. A few frantic hours saw us contacting the ship’s shore excursion personnel (only the tour buses with scheduled excursions would be operating, which didn’t help us), my sister in Holland America’s home office in Seattle, and a family friend in Athens, all in an effort to find some way to get to our special stop.

Happily, by the time our ship docked the next morning, we had our solution. Our Greek friend’s cousin had a connection who was able to find our six-member group a minivan and driver for a very reasonable price for the day. We merely needed to stroll a few blocks away from the cruise port terminal (to avoid rousing the ire of transportation workers there) to meet Mr. Costas at (good omen, here) St. Nicholas Church.

Our visit to the memorial was very special and pretty emotional, too. We were so thankful to have had good people who didn’t even know us willing to help us make that pilgrimmage as a family to honor our father and grandfather and his fellow soldiers.

— Patty Vanikiotis, associate editor/copy editor