2015-05 Athens

Sunday, May 10^th, 2015

We toured Athens today using the Hop On, Hop Off bus to take us around.  We caught our bus right outside the hotel, so it was very convenient.

We got off at Plaka and walked up towards the Acropolis.  Since we hadn’t eaten yet, stopped to get a quick bite, which included a ham and cheese roll that was slit open the middle and a chocolate croissant.

We then walked to the base of the Acropolis, got our tickets and headed up to the top.  There are many stops along the way to see the ruins in various stages of completeness or repair.  The size of the hill, the theaters along the way and the Parthenon at the top are staggering.  It was nice to be able to walk around and get very near all the monuments.  Areas were roped off and people respected that.  There were employees who would remind people not to do things if they happened to do something they weren’t supposed to.  

The view from the Acropolis was also spectacular and gave us a good feel for the size of the city and the local landscape.  There are a lot more trees in Athens than we had seen on Mykonos or Santorini.

After visiting the site, we went to the museum of the Acropolis.  It is built over an archaeological dig area and provides shelter to the dig site and allows people to see into the dig site through the use of glass panels on the floor.  There were many great artifacts and historical information in the museum.  It is incredible how they built the giant buildings from large chunks of marble and other materials without the modern construction equipment.

 


We headed down the street and went to the temple of Olympian Zeus, and saw more large columns and headers built from stone.  Again the size of the structures was incredible.

We then hopped back on bus and toured the north side of Athens by bus before getting off at Monastiraki, a large shopping district full of small shops selling clothing, souvenirs, local food and about anything you could want.  There is even a flea market/second hand area.  We picked up an olive wood backgammon game and an olive wood spatula to take back to help remember out trip by.

We headed up to grab a bite to eat and went to place one of my friends from the neighborhood in  Burnsville where we grew up had recommended (he had been in Athens a couple of weeks before).  It was a little off the beaten path, which was nice, and yet very busy in the late afternoon.  Everything from groups just enjoying a fancy coffee to sitting down for dinner.  It stretched in 3 directions along the road from its door.

After dinner we wandered around exploring the streets of Athens before heading back to the hotel for another good night of sleep.

Monday, May 11^th, 2015

More touring of Athens.  The hop on, hop off bus tours were good for 2 days, so we hopped back on and went down to Plaka for breakfast.  Ray had an omelet, which is much like a thin quiche, LeAnn had Greek yogurt, nuts and honey, and we both had chocolate filled crescent rolls.

We then walked over to the Olympic Stadium, which is an ancient stadium site and was rebuilt for the first modern Olympic Games in 1896.  It has been used in each of the 3 Olympic Games held in Athens.  The stadium is much more long and narrow than modern stadiums, and the turns on the track are complete semicircles, not quarter turns like today’s tracks.  No football field would fit inside of this track.

The whole stadium is open for tours.  You can get an audio device for a walking tour, or you could just explore on your own.  We took the audio tour and did some of our own wondering.  You can go out on the track, climb the stands (over 100 steps to the top), or just walk along the pedestrian area.  Running and just being on the same track used by Olympic athletes was very awe-inspiring.  A podium is set up on the north end for pictures and celebrating victories.  Very much worth the visit

We went across the street the National Garden and walked through there enjoying the shade and all the different vegetation.  There was a pond that was enclosed and had hundreds of turtles in it, most of them sunning themselves on the rocks





After the National Garden, we went to the National Archaeological Museum.  It was filled with historical findings from all over Greece, including some of the original wall art from Akrotiri.  Items ranged from tiny ½” carvings to massive 15’ sculptures.  There was a large area that showcased some of the gold items which have been found, and they are all in such good shape, they look like they were made very recently.

We headed back to the Plaka area and wandered through the shops, around the base of the Acropolis, stopping to climb on one of the large rock outcroppings, this one being named Areios Pagos. We found a very nice place for our last dinner in Athens called Daphne’s. It was tucked back off the street and you walked through the alleyway with tables and chairs for another restaurant to get to Daphne’s.


We waited to dark and then look for a good location to take some night time photos of the Parthenon. It is nicely lit up at night, and is visible from a lot of locations.


Having walked so much, we decided to take a cab home. This was our first and only really bad experience. The cabby took the hotel card and knew where it was, headed out, chatted us up about his upcoming trip to the states, told us there were 14,000 cabs in Athens, dropped us at the corner our hotel was on (rather than at the hotel entrance), and showed us the meter read 2015 (€20.15), which was high for a 10 minute cab ride. Figuring it out later, he never started the meter and then showed us the year set in his meter for the total due rather than a true Euro value. Dropping us at the corner kept us from being able to question the fare with the help of the hotel staff. Checking later, the fare should have been around €5. A sad experience, but not enough to forget all the wonderful memories of the trip.

Tuesday, May 12^th, 2015

Time to head out and leave Greece behind after a wonderful 10 days exploring Mykonos, Santorini, and Athens.  Our driver picked us up as scheduled at the hotel and we got to the airport in plenty of time.  The first 15 minutes of driving through Athens was slow and gave us some new views of the time.  One of the things that stood out about Athens was the amount of graffiti throughout the city.  Every pull down door and so many walls were filled with various forms of graffiti.  Even some of the kiosk shops were filled with graffiti.  

Our plane was only half full, so we got lots of room to spread out.  Ray had a whole center row of 4 seats to himself, making either a nice working space, or a lay flat bed.  

Good fun and great memories of our 25^th anniversary.