15th September - Athens by day and night

 We had a late start to the morning and didn’t get out till after 9am. We headed to Syntagma (Constitution) Square to watch the changing of the guard.


After the changing of the guard we started the Rick Steves walking tour of Athens audio guide. While we were listening we realised that the 11am changing of the guard was the big one with a marching band and many guards so we decided to stay and watch.



Next we passed by the cathedral and we saw a small procession to a park with a statue. According to our guide the cathedral is  for the Greek Orthodox church the equivalent to the Vatican for Catholics.




We made it to the Arch of Hadrian and the Temple of Olympian Zeus. I had booked our tickets through Expedia before we left home and had downloaded them onto my phone so we were able to just walk straight in to the site after having the ticket scanned. There are only 15 of the original 104 columns still standing and one lying down that fell over in the 1800’s.




I bought some bling from a vendor outside the temple
Next we walked up to Anafiotika which is a small neighbourhood at the base of the Acropolis built like the villages in the Cyclades. It had wonderful views over Athens and Lycabettus hill in the distance.
We enjoyed a Gyros for lunch as I was able to find a place that did corn pitta. After lunch we headed off to see the Roman Forum, and the Library of Hadrian.
Roman Forum

Roman Forum

Roman Forum

Hadrian’s Library

Hadrian’s Library

In the evening we went out to the Odeon of Herodes Atticus to watch Dionne Warwick perform. We wouldn’t necessarily have chosen to see her but it was the only thing on at the Odeon while we were in Athens. She put on a wonderful performance, she still has a great voice for an 83 year old lady. We were glad we went.




In bed at midnight. Early start planned for next day.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

7th October - Sarandë, Albania

Image
 We overnighted in Corfu and when we woke and set out for our walk on the promenade deck we found a P&O ship docking next to us and MSC Explora I behind us with a Virgin ship next to it. After breakfast as the ship head off to Sarandë we called Chris, Bernie and Percy to have a chat. We showed Percy the model of the ship which kept him interested until he wanted to make us a coffee (an rock) and hot chocolate (a stick). Once we docked in Sarandë we set off for our excursion that took us to an old ruined castle, a ruined monastery and a stop at a restaurant to have local cheese and snacks with wine or beer and watch some traditional Albanian singing and dancing. Two of the 700,000 bunkers built throughout Albania during the Hoxhaist era (Dictatorship) View from the top of the castle View in other direction from castle Happy tourists on the bus Icons on the screen with murals on the wall behind the screen Church of St Nickolas - Mesopotamia in the grounds of the mostly destroyed ...
Read more

2nd October - Zadar, Croatia

Image
 We woke up in Zadar and went up to the top deck to take a look at the port. We met Veronica and Steven in the Lido for breakfast and then walked off the ship catch a shuttle bus into the city.  Sea organ The shuttle bus dropped us off just near the sea organ which was playing a loud tune as the water was quite choppy. Next we walk towards the forum which is the main square that has some Roman ruins. The huge church on the edge of the forum called Saint Donatus has many fallen columns and marble slabs in  foundations. We made it inside before the lady was there to collect the €3.50 fee. It is in quite a state of disrepair. We wondered around the streets and stopped in at the shop to purchase a Croatian flag. We also stopped at a little cafe bar and bought coffee and hot chocolate. We tried to find the Spinx which was the site of a grave but stumbled upon one of the city gates instead. We split up with Steven here and Veronica David and I decided to walk around the city wa...
Read more