Our flight landed at around 8.30am. We had both managed to get a fair amount of sleep on the 11 hour flight. After making our way through the airport we found bus X96 which took us to our accommodation.
We dropped our bags, freshened up and had a great breakfast of cucumber and tomato salad, olives, feta and Greek yogurt, what a treat!
We then caught the bus (040) into the centre of Athens, which dropped us at Syntagma Square where we saw the parliament building. On the way we saw some ancient ruins and a spectacular archway. We made our way down a long pedestrian street to Monastiraki Square where we caught our first glimpse of the famous ancient Greek Acropolis high up on the hill.
We walked in the general direction of the Acropolis and along the way saw the Library of Hadrian and the Roman Agora. We then followed a path up Areopagus Hill for our fist proper sight of the Acropolis and also amazing views over the whole of Athens.
We walked around the slopes of the Acropolis and saw the Parthenon. In the Acropolis museum we saw videos of how they had taken statues from the Acropolis to renovate and preserve in the museum. It was interesting to watch these enormous stone statues being manouvered by machines, knowing that when they were originally carved no such machinery existed.
We continued our walk around the slopes of the Acropolis walking through pretty, narrow alleyways full of cats, quaint little houses and churches and eventually made our way to the Plaka District.
We wandered through the narrow streets in search of an ATM and food! Since July 2019 each ATM in Greece charges a usage fee of upto 3 Euros for foreign cards. A nice little money maker considering how many tourists visit Greece! Having found an ATM we decided to try something traditionally Greek to eat, a gyros and souvalaki. This is meat and salad in a pitta but the pitta is nothing like the ones at home. It is soft and fresh and they cover the contents in a delicious Tzsatziki sauce. It was very satisfying!
By now it was getting dark and we were tired after our long journey so headed back to our accommodation for some sleep.
 |