Thunder and lightning hit Athens last evening as the President, Mrs McAleese, arrived on the first State visit by an Irish head of State. The fact that it hadn't rained in the city for 60 days led to quips about the Irish bringing their weather.
Skids and flash floods delayed the presidential schedule. The legendary Athens traffic, now much worse, caused the motorcade from the airport to the presidential palace to be altered at the last minute.
The Irish and Greek flags, which went up on the lampposts over the weekend, covered only part of the route. The Government jet carrying the President and Dr Martin McAleese was met as it entered Greek airspace by an F16 fighter jet of the Greek Air Force and escorted until it began its descent into the new Eletherios Venizelos Airport and touched down at 5 p.m.
Mrs McAleese was met on the tarmac by a guard-of-honour and by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen, and Mrs Mary Cowen, and the Irish Ambassador to Athens, Mr Pádraic Craddock, as well as officials from the Greek Foreign Ministry.
The downpour caused the cancellation of the outdoor ceremony at the presidential palace.
Instead, she and her party were greeted indoors by the President of Greece, Mr Constantinos Stephanopoulos. The Foustanela - ceremonial guards who are chosen for their height and build - wore their traditional white pleated kilts and lined the walls and the staircase of the palace. Later the two Presidents had private talks in the palace.
At the State dinner last night, Mrs McAleese spoke of how EU enlargement would consume much of the Greek Presidency of the EU which starts in January.
Ireland looked forward to working and co-operating closely with the Greek Presidency in these crucial months. The new opportunities that widening of the Union would bring for all would be phenomenal, she said.
Mrs McAleese said relations between the Greek and Irish peoples could be traced back for centuries.
Ptolmey mapped the names of rivers, towns, clans and islands in Ireland, indicating commercial links and contacts between Celtic and Greek societies in the classical period. There were also cultural links spanning centuries in which |Irish writers in particular seemed to be inspired by Greece and Greek mythology.