A short walk to Lidl to buy some Mediterranean style breakfast.; cheese, bread,fruit and Greek yoghurt. On return to our accommodation we enjoyed our meal on the balcony overlooking Athens. A very beautiful scene.
Following breakfast we took a relaxing walk to the nearby park and cultural centre. From here a huge set of binoculars allowed a close up view of the Acropolis. Whilst we were enjoying the view from the top of the cultural centre, we were in for a surprise ...
The building started to shake, people in the cafe started to move from the balcony to be away from the edge. They seemed to be in a hurry, a mild state of panic. The building stopped shaking after approximately 20 seconds and people slowly returned to what they were doing before. We stood rather confused. We could see the lift shaking inside it's channel so assumed it had been travelling fast and hit the top too hard causing vibrations. There was no other logical explanation OR was there ...
We asked the local people what had happened and their answer was rather worrying.
THAT WAS AN EARTHQUAKE - 5.3!
We were a little stunned but everyone else seemed back to normal so continued to explore. We felt other tremors as we looked around but the building seemed to flex and respond well.
We sat inside and ate our lunch next to a piano. Different people came and played some beautiful tunes whilst we sat enjoying an incredible panorama of the ocean on one side and of Athens on the other.
Wwt couldn't take the lift back down as it was now out of bounds due to the earthquake, so we walked. We looked around the National library next which was very shiny and new. When we eventually got back to our accommodation we ate a lot before finishing off some Japanese tea we had been given in Bali.
At 9pm we headed back to the cultural centre for a free concert. It was a mixture of traditional jazz mixed with a series of electric modern sounds. It didn't last long so we went one floor higher to the lighthouse for a night view over Athens. Here we listened to some phenomenon piano players in the luxury lounge.
A fantastic evening and as we left we watched the musical fountains dancing. A cool breeze accompanied us for our walk back to our accommodation.
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